Home is where the...wait, where the hell am I?

I think it's time for me to write on the topic of homesickness. Complicated topic, that seems to be effecting a lot of my good friends here, thus making me think about the issue. Such as, the any number of reasons that puts this, I would say, unwanted side effect of traveling into motion. There are the obvious ones, missing friends and family or even, your shitty 1995 Oldsmobile cutlass supreme...But I can honestly say that I am not very homesick. Yes, of course I have a list of things I miss and my friends, family and car are on that list, but I have no doubt that I can finish my time here in a comfortable, sound state of mind. And I have to be quite honest, I'm actually very surprised by this.

Okay world, I have to tell you a very big secret, some of you may have known this, but majority of you probably don't know this. Aside from the main reasons for studying abroad: learning Spanish better, traveling and immersing myself in a different culture other than my own, I did it because I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think I was the type of person who could study abroad, and I wanted to prove myself wrong. Needless to say I was scared shitless. Just for a bit. It was a little rough the first week or so, especially with my rocky welcoming into this country, but it passed quickly. I guess I sort of had reverse homesickness. I felt it more at the very beginning when I was trying to get used to my new life here, but I am comfortable here now and am a bit nervous for when my life turns upside down again when I return home. Studying abroad in a country where they speak a different language is whole different cup of tea. Literally everything is different. I can see how that would be disconcerting for a lot of people, but I find it invigorating, a challenge I'm very happy that I took on. 

Title: Dysfunctional Family (Segovia) 

After my wonderful friends visited me in March I felt a bit homesick when they left, naturally since they are a reminder of home and a reminder of how much I miss them. It was tough saying goodbye, but I realized it wasn't goodbye, it was see you later.

So my dear friends here in Spain who are feeling the pangs of homesickness, let's be each others inspiration. We have done something great just by being here, let's finish strong and come out even stronger. We are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, let's take the utmost advantage of that. Let's have fun and do what we came here to do. At least for me, that was to grow and learn. Sí se pueden mis amigos. Yes we can my friends.   

Where did all the motivation go

I cannot believe that I have surpassed the half way mark on my mad white journey here in Spain. I have less than two months here in Spain and there is still so much I want to do, but sadly, with little money to do it with. I have relearned the meaning of a poor college student here, and I have also relearned the meaning of 'bring just the valuables.' I remember last spring break, I traveled with the biggest suitcase I owned plus a carry on for just one week. Drastic change from this spring break; just one little backpack, the same backpack I use for school here, for over a week.

But back to the meaning of why I'm writing this blog in the first place. I have realized that I have this lack of motivation here that I don't have in the States. I mean, I have a motivation to learn, to travel and experience new things. Obviously, everyone gets that feeling sometimes where they don't want to go to class, they're tired and would rather be doing other things. But I really think the root cause of this feeling of lack of motivation comes from this university here. Oh, Universidad Europea de Madrid, how I hate you. I perpetually never want to go to class, I loath the idea of going and it literally makes me angry. Back at home, yes there are times I don't feel like going to class, but nothing like this. In Oswego, I'm always doing something with school whether it's class (things that I'm actually interested in), clubs and organizations, meetings, work and going/helping out with programs; I'm always busy. Here I just don't have that. I'm not interested in any of my classes, and they only serve to help me learn the language better. The material is excruciatingly boring and difficult to sit through, and classes here are 2 hours long which makes it that much worse. I think it's also because I'm not taking any Psychology classes which is obviously an issue for me. Good thing that will change next semester. I was literally excited to make my schedule for fall, that's how bad it is! I'm hoping this will pass, or change, or something. I've been working out again because that usually helps, and I want a hot bod for summer, but it hasn't really so far. Maybe it's this whole laid back culture where there are no to-go cups that's sucking up my motivation. Although, I am a procrastinator at heart, and work better under pressure. Who knows.

I'm also readying this super depressing book for one of my classes called, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." The book itself isn't well written. Two journalists,Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are the authors and it reads too much like a really long news article. Either way, the stories of the women they tell and of the horrific conditions for women in developing countries is unbelievably heart wrenching, and makes me feel like utter shit for sitting here reading about it rather than doing something about it. The book focuses on three main uplifting topics (sarcasm), Sex trafficking/rape, maternal mortality and bride burning (and other extreme domestic  violence issues). Of course, to really drive the point home, they tell of specific women's horror stories in places like Ethiopia, Africa and India.

Where did all the motivation go to help these people?

Muh-llorca

This past weekend, a group of friends and I went to the beautiful island of Palma, Mallorca off the coast of Spain. I would later realized I cannot pronounce Mallorca for the life of me, pronouncing it: My-llorca. Maybe it's those wretched Amsterdam "a's" I can't seem to shake. Damn you upstate New York! You make me sound funny.

Anyways, I was envisioning some fun in the hot sun, swimming in the ocean and maybe even getting a nice tan. Although there was sun, it was not very hot, and unfortunately we were hit with some rain. However, less rain than we expected which was a plus, since upon looking up the weather for our trip the forecast read rain for the whole weekend. In the end it only rained for a short bit on Friday and on Sunday. Even though I didn't come back with a tan and it was too cold to swim, we all had an amazing time.

After being a bit delaying, the nine of us including myself, were greeted by the interesting mix of signs in the airport. We would later discover these types of signs would not only be in the airport because Mallorca has a huge population of Germans and English speaking peoples. It was a bit of a shock to see signs with Spanish, Catalan, German and English all in one. My host mom mentioned there are a lot of Germans, but I didn't know they would make up a large part of the population. Not only have I never experienced such a predominant mix of people, I have never been to and island before. Overall, I decided that although it was incredibly beautiful, and the water was clearest I've ever seen, I could never actually live on and island. It almost didn't feel real the whole time I was there, like it wasn't real life. I could definitely vacation on an island, but not live there permanently. Also, eventually I think I would feel trapped, surrounded by water and only being able to use a plane as a means of transportation to get anywhere else (duh, but you catch my drift). Hmm feeling trapped and semi-claustrophobic...I wonder where that stems from. Really though, I'll have to do some thinking about that.

 
Yay! I've been trying to add pictures to my blog, but this is the first time it's worked :) So now if anyone actually does read this thing you don't have to just read my shitty writing, you can look at pictures as well!
This is the view from the top of La Almudaina (the royal palace), on our first day. Que bonita!

This is the train we took to the other side of the island on the second day to a town called Soller. It's been running since 1912, and you can tell not only by the way it looks but by it's speed. Even though we were only going roughly 30 miles per hour, we got to Soller in a little under an hour, just to give you an idea about the train and how small the island is, and Mallorca is the largest island among the Balearic Islands. Inside I felt like I was on the set of Harry Potter and on my way to Hogwarts. We lucked out and the weather was beautiful and we arrived to this: 

A couple of my friends and I got to play some frisbee on the beach, thanks to Taylor who brought a disc. I miss frisbee a lot, so it was nice to play, let alone on an awesome beach by the ocean. Taylor and I taught our friends from Mexico how to throw a little bit since it's not a sport in Mexico, they were a bit unsure how to play but I think they had a good time.

Next day came the rain and the caves. We decided to go to a nearby town called Génova to see some caves we heard about online. Well this nearby town turned into quite an adventure. None of the bus drivers knew what or where we were talking about, resulting in us waiting at the bus stop for over an hour. Finally after calling the people who worked at the caves we got a general idea of where we had to get off the bus we needed to be on. Unfortunately, we missed the stop anyways and had to walk a bit in the rain. We started seeing some signs for the cave, but when were arrived at a restaurant we were a bit confused. It turns out the owners of the restaurant give tours of the cave as well, so an old Spanish man led us underground, and the end result was worth the wait and walking in the rain. The caves were really impressive, although our old Spanish guide was not much of a guide. I think since there was a mix of English, German and Spanish among our group he was really trying to simplify the explanations and history of the caves. 

A little exhausting coming back, but a great trip with some great friends. What's getting a little disconcerting is I am quickly running out of money and time here in Europe. There is still so much I want to see with little funds to do it with. I've been doing it the cheapest way possible thus far, RyanAir and hostelworld.com have become my new best friends, but still the expenses add up quickly. So hopefully I will be able to pull off a couple more trips before I leave, here's so hoping.   

    

 

Owners of half of all the poo

I made it back from an amazing Semana Santa all in on piece...surprisingly. Que horror fue el aeropuerto durante la huelga. It was seriously like a scene from 'Dawn of the Dead' or something. Scary shit man.

Our lovely host sister dropped us off at the airport since there were minimal buses and metro. When we walked in, it was the quietest I have ever heard an airport, aside from say being in one in the middle of the night. All that was left was the hundreds upon hundreds of flyers and garbage the protesters left behind reading: '10 razones para la reforma del trabajo' meaning 10 reasons for work reform. Walking further into the terminal we started seeing more people sitting against walls, probably for hours and many hours to come, waiting for a flight to where ever they were supposed to go. The news said about 1 in 10 flights would be cancelled so Jenna and I were surprised when we saw our flight was one of the few that was not cancelled. Maybe since we were going to Dublin, and RyanAir is an Irish owned airline. Then we were hit with the enormous lines. I think there were only two people working at the check in and baggage for RyanAir, and since they have a policy that all non-European Union citizens need their boarding pass stamped or else they are not allowed on the plane, there in this enormous line we had to wait. We were inching oh so slowing to the front when I turn and am staring directly at my friend Allan. He just seems to pop up everywhere, it was quite funny. Shortly after we ran into Allan someone finally started a line for people who only needed their boarding pass stamped. Thankfully so, since I'm not sure we would of made our flight if we had to stay in the original line. Then off to security, which was infinitely faster, and only a short wait until we were on our plane to Dublin. It was my first experience with RyanAir and I really can't complain much other than the bag restrictions, which they gave me no problem with since they seem to ignore passengers with backpacks, and every two minutes there's an announcement for some absurd thing, or not so absurd thing they are selling. I heard a lot of negatives about the airline before my trip, but for the prices I think it's defiantly worth it.

Just 2 hours later we arrived at the Dublin airport and took a bus to our hostel. It was called the Dublin International Youth Hostel, which used to be a church and it was very obvious at the sight of the interior with the high ceilings and stain glass windows where breakfast was served.  It was cheap, surprisingly clean and only a 15 minute walk from the city center, but just in that short walk our hostel was in a pretty sketchy location. It was fine during the day, but at night I didn't feel 100% safe. Luckily nothing happened, aside from a creepy, yet semi-attractive Norwegian guy following us to our hostel until we told a group of Irish people he was bothering us and they gladly took care of it. So nice those Irish are.

First night we met up with my friend Mallory from back home who is studying in Dublin, and Jenna and I got our first taste of the night life in Temple Bar. The first challenge was actually finding Temple Bar since we accidentally took a left instead of a right, and I felt like the stereotypical tourist when I finally had to ask for directions to the biggest party spot in Dublin. I imagined they heard that high pitched, annoying 'biddie' voice the guys back home like to say I sound like. "Umm...like where's Temple Bar??"

I would say very successful night with Jenna, Mallory and her roommate Mona at a lovely club called 'The Button Factory' and lucky us, it was hip-hop night equipped with all the classics. So much fun. The next day, pretty hung over, I ate the best egg and cheese bagel of my life at a local corner store called 'Centra' and then it was off to the Dublin Zoo to watch some penguin sex. Not the reason we went, but we did in fact see some penguin sex until it was feeding time where they promptly stopped, typical. It was a very nice zoo, it had some of my favorite animals like giraffes and hippos, but zoos tend to make me a bit sad. It's weird to me to go and gawk at what are supposed to be wild animals in their 'natural habitat' and they never look happy or their sleeping. Also, tons of crying children. But this was defiantly one of the better zoos I've been to. Then we went back to the Temple Bar area, had the biggest cup of coffee I've had in a long time and listened to the street performers. That was one of my favorite parts about the trip was all the street performers and live music everywhere. One day shit got real when Jenna and I were watching this guy singing and playing the guitar, when a huge bachelor group came up and started singing and having fun with the singer. A most likely intoxicate, crazy homeless girl came up and tried to pick pocket one of the guys in the group. When he realized what she was doing he literally dropped that bitch to the ground with her face against the pavement, when the homeless girl's friend run up and pushed him off her. There was a bit of a scuffle and the police and ambulance coincidentally arrived to pick a man in a nearby restaurant called the 'Bad Ass Cafe' (such an awesome name). It was quite the sight to see.

The next day we went to the seven story Guinness Factory, where we got to pour 'the perfect pint' for ourselves. So much Guinness! Actually, if I had to sum up the whole trip for Ireland it would probably be Guinness. It was actually quite interesting learning how they make it and the whole process that goes into it. On the top floor is the gravity bar, and you can see the whole city from inside. It was a really nice day, and not raining for once in Ireland, which made the view so incredible. That night I convinced Jenna to go to 'The Hunger Games' with me at a theater on O'Connell street. I was so excited! The movie was really good, true to the book and I may have cried a little...So worth it, I would have had to wait until  mid-April to see it in Spain, and maybe even longer to find a theater that would show it in English. I don't mind watching movies in Spanish, just not movies I would pay to see in theaters because the over dubbing drives me crazy.

Sunday we went on a free walking tour of Dublin through 'Sandeman's New Europe.' It's this group that does tours for free in major cities, there's on in Madrid as well. I was so impressed with the tour since it was so good and it was free. Our tour guide, Richie, was a funny Irishman who really new his shit about the city he grew up in. Considering he was college student majoring in history I guess he would have to. We were one of the bigger groups he's had, and a diverse one at that. People from all over the world, and surprising a lot of Spaniards, both visiting and living there. Our host mom mentioned that a lot of Spanish people were moving to Ireland to look for work, but I was surprised by how much Spanish I heard. We actually ended the tour at a restaurant for some authentic Irish food with two lovely Spanish girls who just moved to Dublin 2 weeks prior. It was great to have a nice conversation in Spanish since Jenna and I were a bit worried about not speaking the language for over a week. We also had two Spanish roommates in our hostel the last night we were in our hostel from Barcelona. Anyway, we hit up the hot spots of Dublin on our tour like the Dublin Castle, Trinity College, the Chester Beatty library and more. After, since we were both running out of money fast we just walked around and listened to this live band that is usually at this local bar called 'Quays.' What I found interesting was that the weekends tended to be more for the older crowd and weekdays for the younger people. But it was so great to see older people out having a good time and just enjoying life and dancing. Everyone in Dublin seemed really happy and friendly, except for one weird guy who heard Jenna and I talking and asked if we were from America, and when we said yes, he seemed to be disapproving of the fact. Our final day was spent checking out of our hostel, getting Jenna's hair cut in a sketchy Asian hair salon and getting to the airport where Jenna and I would part ways, her to London and me to Liverpool.

The flight was the shortest flight I've ever experienced, about 30 minutes. I literally close my eyes for what felt like a second, and was awoken by the feeling of a landing plane. I was so excited to see my friends Chris and Alex, I almost didn't know what to expect after not seeing them for a year. They were on the bus when I got to the arrival area in the airport so I decided to get some subway. While in line I heard, "Crystal?" and turn around a low and behold there is Chris and Alex just the same as they were a whole year ago, only the minor changes you see when you look back on pictures of yourself from prior years and you can tell a difference, but only slight alterations. We burst into a hug, and almost into tears for me I was so excited. Then we subsequently annoyed the subway workers because we were too caught up in asking each other questions to finish our orders. Sorry subway workers. We finally got our food and sat down to catch up. Yes, obviously after a year some things change, this person doesn't hang out with this person anymore, this person moved, this person dropped out, the usual. But talking to them, it was almost like no time had passed, which was great because I was wondering what it would be like going back without the American gang there.

Next stop, Chris's apartment with a quick stop at a tequila bar in Liverpool for a proper welcoming. Four tequila shots later, one of them being chili flavored thanks to Alex, we were back on our way to Ormskirk. They kept saying that they had dessert waiting for me, knowing them I knew it wouldn't be your typical dessert. When we got to Chris's they blind folded me with my scarf, led me to the kitchen and said to open my mouth (I know, this sounds so bad haha). I got a mouth fully of 'jelly' a.k.a jello shots. They made so much dessert, there were shot glasses and tupperware  bowls full of jelly. And that was just the beginning of a night full of beer pong and going out to bars. I never thought I would be so happy to play beer pong since first of all, I'm not very good, and second of all I didn't play that often in the States. I guess it's that whole thing of not being able to have it, you miss it more. After playing beer pong we went out to a bar and this is where it gets a little hazy. The bar closed a bit early, but Chris and Alex were talking with this guy they met who said he owned a bar around the corner and said we could do a lock-in. It was so much fun, I've never done a lock-in before so this was a first for me. We all walked around the corner and he opened his bar for us, drank, danced and played pool. End result, having loads of fun and figuring out I don't get better at playing pool the drunker I get. Overall, very successful first night if I do say so myself.

Next couple of days were spent relaxing, watching 'Anchorman' which I wanted to do for a long time now, and revisiting some clubs from my last spring break in England. Although, probably not the best idea to go to a club the night before Chris and I planned on going to his hometown of Blackpool the next morning. Needless to say, even if we didn't have troubles with the train, we still wouldn't have got there at the time we planned. When we arrived, it was a bit cold, but the sun was shinning for our walk on the promenade and pier. Blackpool it right next to the ocean, and sort of like New Jersey but with an English twist...or maybe it's just the accent. Chris was telling me they recently redid the promenade, and it shows, it looked very sleek and new. It would be nice to be there in the summer time, but at least I got to touch the sand on the beach :)    

Afterward we made our way to Chris's house where we had a lovely dinner of fish n' chips with his family. Such nice people bless them. Great food, with great people and conversation. Later at night we went to a local bar with Chris's girlfriend. It was so nice going to his hometown and visiting the places he likes to go to, showing me his world basically, since pretty soon we will be showing him our world when he comes to visit America for a month during the summer. Oh, I can only imagine what a month that will be like, or what we will remember from it. Chris and I were both exhausted after the past couple of days in Ormskirk, so after the bar closed we called it a night and I slept for about 11 hours straight, only to be awaken by Chris, who was awaken by his mom. We got ready to go back to Chris's apartment for my final night in England. We spent it at Liquid and Alpine, and it was such a blast. I danced my face off and got hit on by a lesbian who was convinced one day we would do 'Wife Swap' together. The thought of leaving was really sad, and it was a sad goodbye the next day at the airport. I had such an amazing time, and such an amazing spring break I didn't want it to end. Two years in a row I spent spring break in England, hopefully the trend will continue.

So thank you all for showing me a beautiful time. I can honestly say I will never forget this spring break for reasons listed, and reasons not listed.