how my weekend went from best to worst in 24 hours

***disclaimer this has no pictures sorry everyone***

this past weekend I went to Sevilla and Córdoba, Spain with my program. Kathryn and I went early on Thursday night and stayed with her friend Charlotte cause on Friday morning we went SKYDIVING. Sevilla is ranked in the top ten places in the world to skydive and also has the highest skydiving point in all of Europe. The forecast said rain and we were a little nervous but when we left the house Friday morning and it was sunny we were even more nervous. We got to the drop zone at 10 am and signed all out paperwork and got our debriefing and instructions on the jump. We put on the really flattering and attractive jumpsuits and we're just about ready to poop our pants, when they made an announcement about a weather hold. The next four hours were spent watching it pour rain, making friends with some australian and british guys who were jumping by themselves, befriending the people we were jumping with, and watching some jersey shore in spanish. As we started to give up all hope, the weather seemed to clear but yet no announcements were made. So we asked if we were going to be able to and how long they would wait until they told us to go home, to which the answer was when it gets dark. Then in 15 minutes time they made an announcement that we were going to fly, we got all strapped up, I nervous laughed a lot, and we got on the plane. Really wasted no time.

What happened next there are really no words for. It took us about 10 minutes (maybe less i was too busy freaking out and laughing my ass off) to get up to the 15,000 ft point. Also sidenote, I was afraid of heights until this point. I was the last one to jump and I saw Kathryn jump before me, told her I loved her, and her I love you response was the scariest thing I've ever seen, like she really thought it was the last time she was going to say I love you to anyone ever. Then it was my turn, I dropped all my weight and was hanging out the side of the plane only with Pablo holding me in and all he said was, "Hope you're ready!" and that was that.

It was then a solid minute of free fall which was single handedly the most amazing feeling I have ever experienced. Pablo did a nice little 360 view and point out Sevilla while we were falling 120 mph. Then he opened the parachute and I expected some sort of whiplash but there was none. He let me play with the parachute for a little just dicking around in the sky like it was no big thing and we even went through a cloud and that was pretty cool. By the time we got down I wanted to go right back up. I kept hugging Pablo I was so happy and he was probably like get off me rubia but whatever I was the happiest girl alive. Already thinking about the next time I can go. The Australian man then gave us a ride home back to Sevilla and we were unsure of what to do next. So when Kathryn and I got food I naturally thought the next best step would be a tequila shot in celebration. She thought otherwise but it was a good way to commemorate the coolest thing we had ever done.

the next day we packed up our stuff and left it at the hotel where CEA would be meeting us. Then we went to meet the at the Reales Alcazares for a tour. We waited for a half hour at the wrong entrance and they went in without us and we had to pay to get in. Unfortunate but worth it to see them and also reunite with everyone. We then continued to get a tour of the Cathedral which is the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world and went 30 something stories up the the top called the Giralda with a nice 360 view of Sevilla for miles. Afterwards we went back to the food festival with some people and later met back up with CEA at Plaza de España. We hung out there, walked around, admired it, took some pictures, and then decided we would rent a 6 person bike contraption (3 rows, 2 to each, with Rachel in the middle and a basket on the front) I drove first and put my bag in the basket in the front. Everyone proceeded to put their bags on top of mine, sit in the basket, do chinese fire drills in the middle of the park, etc. It was actually so much fun until we went to return the bicycle and I realized my bag was gone. Somewhere on this 6 person bike ride it had fallen out. So there went my life essentially... my iphone, my spanish phone, my wallet with 40 euros, my debit card, my school ID, my bus card, my passport card (not to be confused with my passport phew still have that). So naturally I was pretty upset cause for some reason I always lose really important things when I'm actually not doing something stupid (i'm classifying stupid as like drunk and out at a bar, the 6 person bike was not that stupid). There are no photos from this weekend either because all my photos were on my iphone so sorry for the verbose blog post with no pics errybody.

I went to the police station with Jorge and Rachel and filed a report and that was all I could do. Called my mom and had her cancel the card (sorry mom for scaring the crap out of you). And all I could do was move on with the night. We pregamed in the boys room and were just about ready to go and Dash was taking his last chug. He rolled back on the bed with 40 in hand and legs in the air and I thinking this would be an innocent funny practical joke gave his legs a little push, but of course, at the exact second I gave a push he was bouncing to come back up. Smacked his tooth on the 40 and chipped off a quarter of his front tooth. I was responsible for him looking like a hillbilly. He was naturally very upset and I was just on the verge of a mental breakdown, cause all I could think was why me??? Ella made everyone leave Dash alone and head out without us, took me back to our room cause she saw I was on the verge of tears, screamed into pillows with me, let me cry and then gave me her St.Christopher medal because she said it was obvious not I needed the good luck more than she did. I was still convinced to go out and make the best of it and Ella picked up the bill for me for the night. She really killed it out there keeping me a moderately sane person for the rest of the weekend. I managed to have fun and make the best of it.

Next day we went to Cordoba and saw the Mezquita/Cathedral. It was really cool and I had learned about it in class so I thought it was one of the coolest buildings I had been in in Spain. Unfortunately, almost all of us were miserably hungover and dash was missing part of his tooth so we weren't all the most enjoyable people to be around. We did enjoy a fabulous lunch though and then headed back to Granada. Yesterday Dash got his tooth fixed at the dentist and I'm excited to see it when I see him in class today. At least one thing got resolved! This weekend I go to Copenhagen to reunite with some Tulanians very near and dear to my heart. I'll be traveling with no debit card, no way of getting money and no phone! safe... Ella said she is going to give me one of her debit cards in case of emergency and she gave me her ipod touch (actually she has been my guardian angel it is not a joke) but alas it is also the first time i'll be traveling alone and the first flight i'll be taking without ella so i'm a little nervous and a bit sad. But! it's sensation white and i'm not really one for a rave or anything but i'm so excited to see everyone i don't care and also this looks pretty damn cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E96BskqZHeE (this is amsterdam but whatever all those northern european countries are really cold and kinda the same) i'll post in here next week so you know I made it back alive!

everyone reading this on the east coast, my thoughts and prayers are with you during Sandy! stay safe, stay dry, and drink wine!! love you all

p.s. i love you... ella & jill's... and brandon's romantic getaway in ireland

how do i even start to explain my trip to ireland.... well, before leaving on thursday morning, i watched p.s. i love you and cried myself to sleep wishing that hilary swank was the one that died in the movie and gerard butler was my irish husband. the next morning we woke up bright and early to get to the malaga airport for our ryanair flight to dublin. this was our first flight on ryanair and quite literally the rocky road to dublin (refer to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMw7lwxRImI). the view coming into dublin was indicative of how beautiful the country of ireland was going to be. everything, and i mean everything, was green. we were like giddy school children getting off the plane and were even more excited to get our passports stamped! usually since its travel within the european union they don't stamp your passport but i got an ireland stamp! so excited, plus the guys doing the stamping were already the friendliest people in the whole world so we were elated.

we took the bus to the generator hostel where we were staying, conveniently located next door to the jameson distillery. so this is where my rant about bus2alps comes in, i'll keep it brief. so we did a bus2alps trip because it seemed reasonable to get hostel, tours of dublin and galway, guinness tour, and entrance to cliffs of moher included and it was for the most part a deal. but the second day in the generator, which was an abnormally nice hostel, they overbooked us and we had to move to the only place in dublin that had 56 beds available. you can imagine it wasn't ideal. that part was fine, the guides were nice and i won't complain about their problem solving skills, however, the whole thing was in general something we could have done better on our own. also, these tours are for people who have not the slightest idea what it means to be an adult and rely on bus2alps to hold their hands as they travel around europe. it was fine for one trip, but we actually met people who had done every trip they had taken with bus2alps. to give you an idea, when the hostels were changed there were a select few girls who cried and called their dads to book a hotel for them. i wish i was kidding. so in general, don't book them if you have the slightest clue how to take care of yourself. and that's the meanest thing i'll say about my entire trip abroad because i'm compensating for being mad at myself for not doing better research. moving on!

so we got settled in very quickly and were out the door within a half hour. we headed out to the temple bar area and basically went bar hopping searching for live music and friendly irishmen. there was no shortage of either. the irishmen were so friendly that i even got proposed to just walking by one of them at the first pub we walked into. i said yes, duh. we went to a variety of places including the temple bar itself where we met some random irish guys that ella proceeded to let write on her stomach "i <3 ... (insert graphic image here)" you get the idea. they were just great. or as they say in ireland, they were grand. it was also awesome, but not very surprising, the amount of names i recognized from people at home. i also assumed the alter ego of Jillian Kilpatrick for the weekend which was a hit with the locals. Kilpatrick is my mom's maiden name and for even some of my closest friends it might come as a shock that my real full name is Jillian and you've just never ever heard me refer to myself like so before. Sorry deRosas side of family, but it only seemed fitting for this one weekend to ditch our ounce of latin heritage and go with our real roots. So, Jillian Eileen Kilpatrick from Boston traipsed around dublin the rest of the night pretending to remember all of deirdre goulding's school of irish dance reels and jigs and really feeling quite at home. after lots of different bars, beers, locals, and music we decided to head home around 1ish knowing we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

 this was necessary because the cars were going the wrong way, miracle i didn't get hit by one

 the river liffey, dublin

live music at gogarty's playing my new favorite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az56T76krgc

the next morning we woke up for our walking tour of dublin. i'm not really one for walking around like herded cattle in big groups of tourists but our tour guide was just the coolest irishman ever and was so passionate about irish history and all the sites that i was basically a dog on his pant leg. we went everywhere from city hall, to dublin castle, to christ church cathedral, to the project theatre where bono got his start, to trinity college, to st. stephen's green, to the natural history museum, to o'connell st, to the ha'penny bridge and many more that i'm forgetting. the city is so small that a walking tour was so easy and enjoyable, not to mention we lucked out the whole weekend with the weather, not one drop of rain. after the tour brandon, ella, and i split from the group and walked down grafton st a bit which is a great shopping area, and then got food at this awesome organic place. we all had their irish beef stew with mashed potatoes, i was actually IN HEAVEN. it was made with guinness and i love potatoes in every form it was just to die for. 

the ha'penny bridge, cause it used to cost half a pence to cross it. those clever irish

speaking of guinness, after our lunch we met back up with the group, found out about the hostels, moved hostels by cab paid for by bus2alps and then cabbed to our tour at the guinness storehouse. the guinness storehouse was a staple to our time in dublin, we drank a hefty amount of guinness cause when in ireland do as the irish do. so guinness was actually created before the united states in 1750 by arthur guinness because there was no fresh drinking water in ireland and whiskey and gin etc were too harsh so he created guinness for people to live off of. hence, the drinking culture in ireland, it's actually a crucial part of their history believe it or not. we toured every floor, enjoyed our free sample(s) (oops were we supposed to take one?.... we took three), learned about the making, the history, the advertising, etc and then headed to the top floor for our free guinness at the gravity bar. did you know it takes 119.5 seconds to pour a perfect draft guinness? for those of you who have had to do it before you know what a pain in the ass it is to pour one but after watching them do it at the gravity bar (and every bar i ordered a guinness at) i think i can take my talents to the orleans inn this summer. the gravity bar had an unreal view of all of dublin and we enjoyed our guinnesses as well as ran into our friend sarah from tulane! such a small world.

my first beer ever

guinness mustaches...yum

after guinness we went back to the hostel to get ready to go out. no time wasted. we grabbed a burger for dinner before....which was also unreal ugh the beef in ireland was just to die for and being a carnivore like myself i was yearning for some good ol' fashioned homegrown MEAT. afterwards we headed to a pub crawl with the rest of the bus2alps crew. honestly we would have gone on a different one but our really awesome tour guide from that morning said he was going to be there so we were like we must go he is the man. he wasn't there. and then we found out that his tours and these pub crawls were run by the same company, oh the deception! never thought such a jolly irishman would lie to me like so but i guess its the business. so we had to endure the somewhat painful company of the other bus2alps tourists during this pub crawl. we went to some cool places including one of the bars bono owns but once we finally got to the fourth bar that had the live music (what i was looking for the whole time) we decided to ditch and stay at this place once everyone left for the next place. it was here that we ran into some french canadians who had some irish friends that convinced us to follow them to another pub. motto to following random strangers this weekend: why not? we weren't going to get taken in ireland so we jumped on every opportunity to hang with locals. we met these guys' irish friends, one of them legitimately being mitchell from modern family's straight and incredibly drunk and hilarious twin, and followed them to this super swanky club called hogan's. it was too swanky for me but ella said it reminded her of LA, not a club but not a pub just a very swanky bar. we met all of their friends and i could have just let them talk to me for hours cause i like listening to their accents but once we realized the ratio of girls to guys we figured we should probably ditch the situation as it was getting late anyway and we had to be up at 7 am.

the next day we headed out to the cliffs of moher bright and early. it was still dark when we got on the bus, which was some sort of luxury mercedes benz bus (not too shabby bus2alps i'll give you that one cause its in the name). the seats on this thing put me right to sleep and when i woke up the sun was rising over the irish countryside and i don't care how corny it is but it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. until we got to the cliffs. the cliffs of moher are in county clare and at their highest reach something like 750 ft. they were also in the running for the seven wonders of the world. put the cliffs in portugal to shame. they were absolutely breathtaking and although ella's camera snapped a lot of great shots, no photo can really do the view justice. we of course snapped touristy pictures from every angle and wandered up and down the edges of the cliffs for 2 hours. it was actually pretty mind blowing because they had a dedication to those who had lost their lives at the cliffs of moher, which initially i thought was suicides, but actually probably commemorated people who had just fallen off the side as well because if you aren't careful it's definitely possible. sorry kind of a grave thought. anyway! gorgeous views and so many stereotypical abroad shots taken. this was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, it was to die for and everyone needs to go in their lifetime.

everything is so damn GREEN

yes everyone, ella and i are dating and only take pics with each other

this shot was so candid!!!!

after the cliffs of moher, we headed out to galway. the ride to galway was all through these tiny winding backroads in the country side which had some more amazing views but was incredibly bumpy and i was pretty sure i was gonna toss my cookies at one point cause i felt so carsick. also at one point we had to stop cause a heard of sheep trotted by our bus. no joke. how irish is that? i loved galway from the second we set foot in it. we got a walking tour of this city as well from this very old irishman who was something like 7th generation galwegian named Liam. the city was tiny and we saw all of its points of interest in an hour walking, but if i had to compare it i think that galway would be the granada of ireland. more small town with a hint of city feel to it with a lot of students and culture. after the tour we had time to wander around so we sat down for lunch and ate more amazing food. this time i had quiche lorraine and butternut squash... yum. and of course we headed to shop st for some dessert where i had actually the most amazing hot chocolate and slice of carrot cake in my life. i'm starting to realize half of this entry is about how much i enjoyed the food.... major #fatgirlprobz oh well. there was also some sort of musical parade going on where this marching band played songs ranging from irish songs to the scooby doo theme song to grease lightning while two people on huge stilts walked around them in weird costumes giving people high fives. it was definitely entertaining. also, thomas dillon the original maker of the claddagh ring started this symbol and selling this ring in galway. i've been given two claddagh rings in my lifetime and both times they haven't fit my fat fingers so i figured while in galway it only seemed right to finally invest in a genuine one. the rest of the day was spent wandering around galway up the river and people watching. we headed back to dublin around 6 for our last night there.

OG claddagh

after the bus ride back i was a little delusional cause the bus was 1000 degrees for some reason but after some motivation we were back out the door by 9:30 to head out to some different places. we stopped at the porter house for some specially brewed beers and some live music. after a beer there we headed down to camden st per recommendation but realized it was more of a local club scene which wasn't what we were looking for. we started walking back towards temple bar when we decided to walk down this random back road that seemed kind of crowded. then we saw a sign for live music so we walked into this bar called the stag's head. we went downstairs expecting bathrooms and happened upon some of the best live music we saw all weekend. it was a very authentic place filled with irish locals, but of course you can't just walk into these places without realizing how small this world really is. ella and i were mocking ourselves for being so american in this very irish place when the guy behind us asked us where in the states we were from. he happened to be from atlantic city near where ella has a summer house and knew a bunch of her friends from brigantine. smallest world ever. this kids mom was from ireland and they were all there on family vacation so we got to hang with their whole family and they were the merriest clan ever the mom was loving dancing with us and we had a blast with all of them.

the next morning we woke up early to get a full last day wandering dublin. what better way to start your day then a good glass of whiskey? we headed to the jameson distillery for a 10 am tour because that just seemed like the most healthy choice. the jameson distillery is actually the old jameson distillery, they now distill their whiskey in cork and this was more of a done up museum like tour but nonetheless still really cool. jameson is hands down the best whiskey out there and as i learned on sunday its because they distill their whiskey three times and age it five years in three different kinds of casks and then marry it all together so that's where it gets its smoother kind of vanilla like taste. at the end ella got to do the honors of being a certified whiskey taster (which our tour guide had to put out a disclaimer at the beginning to all americans: this is not a shot contest... embarrassing). so we tasted jameson compared to jack daniel's (once distilled whiskey) and johnnie walker black (twice distilled scotch). jameson wins again. i got a complimentary whiskey ginger and savored it til the very last drop.

GOOD MORNING WORLD!!!

a balanced part of today's breakfast

turn that chandelier upside down... my christmas tree next year

after jameson we were feeling a little silly but walked around the rest of the day. we saw st. patrick's cathedral and went into the bank pub which was rated national bar of the year in 2009 and i can see why it was absolutely gorgeous. but we went in there because our tour guide from the first day told us they had an exact replica of the book of kells that they even change the page every day like they do at trinity and it doesn't cost 12 euros to see. how sneaky are we? after we sat down for a burger at bobo's which seemed to me to be the irish boston burger company. they had so many choices. i obviously went for the emancipator which was complete with onion rings, bacon, etc... i practically made love to this burger it was so good. okay last time i talk about the food i ate. anyway before heading back to the hostel to grab our stuff and head to the airport we went to a bar near jameson that seemed to be a sort of whole in the wall called cobblestone. they had live music but it was very mellow and enjoyable sunday afternoon in a bar kinda setting if you catch my drift. we enjoyed one last guinness before hitting the road. only seemed appropriate to fill out stomachs with jameson, guinness, and a burger before heading out, right?

YUM

so we sadly parted ways with ireland. i have already started researching grad programs in dublin because i am actually obsessed and want to move back. i am so glad i got to visit but i know it would have been tOo convenient for me to study abroad there. i am certainly enjoying the challenge of being in spain and it is perfect for me for this semester, but ireland is where i can see myself living for the rest of my life. still waiting to find my gerry, ya know?  this weekend i head out with my program to some local spanish cities, sevilla and cordoba. i'm leaving earlier than my program with kathryn because we are going SKYDIVING! sevilla is ranked in the top 10 places in the world to go skydiving actually and it was pretty reasonably priced as well (of course if you don't buy the completely overpriced photos+DVD package). it's something i have always wanted to do, and i'm actually pretty scared of heights.... so if i don't pee my pants it will be a success. if i write another post you'll know i've survived!! as they say in ireland, sláinte!

McDonalds.... the root of all evils

so this past weekend i traveled to spain's lovely capital of madrid. i had been before for only a night to travel for oktoberfest, but this trip was to do and see everything madrid has to offer. basically ella and i wrote up a list of things we definitely wanted to see and managed to do tourist's guide to madrid 101 in one weekend. i'm actually pretty impressed by how much we accomplished. ella and i winged everything from the start. we bought our bus tickets right before we were going to leave thursday and managed to get them all and get right on a bus. we got there late thursday night kinda hoping to chill out with everyone, but that was not the expectations of the madrilenos. so we have about 1000 tulanian friends in madrid right now and we were lucky enough to stay in beds in an apartment of theirs cause of other people traveling. it was actually really nice they have quite the set up over there. so we got to the apartment and immediately rushed to get ready to pregame and go out.

we went to a pregame at jess's apartment and got to see nicole who was visiting owen from tulane! also lana, who graduated and is now working in italy, was there for the weekend staying with hunter in that apartment with us so we got to see visitors from everywhere. it was awesome to have so many tulanians in one place, always love when that happens. so we stayed at the pregame for a very extended amount of time and finally made moves to this place called cave bar. cave bar made these infamous drinks where milk comes out of the ceilings and into the drinks and is notorious for making people vom. so naturally i opted out of having one. after being there for a little bit it was decided that everyone was really tired from traveling and we should all just go back and hang at the apartments. clearly the next step was to hit up the local mcdonalds. apparently only hunter, wylie, and i were down for mickey d's but it was whatever i was so excited obvs ordered a big mac medium combo with sprite. yum. as we were walking back to their apartment a block away, hunter and wylie were on either side of me as i peacefully and quite happily enjoyed my medium french fries. once we turned the corner we noticed these group of guys running full speed at us, and usually when someone is running at you that fast you think okay they're in a hurry they'll go around me. i've noticed when i usually try to play chicken on the streets with random spanish pedestrians they don't move out of the way ever, but i didn't realize this also applied to grown men in a full sprint. next thing i know i had gone flying in the air and had been completely knocked to my ass. i smacked my head on the pavement and my food went everywhere. when i came to, my first thought was of course "MY BIG MAC!!!" ....it was covered in sprite (as was i) and all over the ground ...(as was i). so as the boys are trying to get me to my feet i vaguely remember them arguing with these spanish men. the one line that stuck in my head was when all the guy could say was "perdon" and hunter's response was "perdon?! I don't give a FUCK about perdon" i didn't want the boys to start a fight with these spaniards so i just said esta bien and we kept going. in hindsight definitely should have made them buy me another big mac. also still considering emailing the traffic department of the madrid government if that exists to see if they have footage of this because a video of me actually being trampled and thrown back about 5 feet would go viral in a heart beat.

aftermath of my collision the day after. poor fries brushed to the side like they ain't nothin'

so in madrid i got a concussion!!! great start to the weekend. slept like a baby that night which you're not supposed to do but whatever i'm alive, got up the next morning bright and early (at noon) to brace some art museums. ella, lana, and i decided that without knowing the city really at all we should definitely walk to the prado even though its not that close. we got lost. and then it started raining. its funny cause that happened in real life, you just can't make that stuff up. despite my efforts to hop on a metro, no one wanted to cave. so we kept walking. then we got to a building that said "Museo del Prado Casa del Buen Retiro"... the building was pretty small so i was a bit confused and thinking.... this is it? and we walked up to the door and it said it was closed and we were like wtf the prado is never closed this is absurd why is it still raining on me. we pouted for a little, laughed cause we were delusional, kept walking to find shelter cause we were cold and then boom! the real prado appeared. thank god. we got our carbo-load on at a local cafe and brace the enormous art museum for a day of culture. on the real though it was actually one of the coolest places i have ever been. i am a sucker for a good museum and i studied a lot of the spanish art like velazquez and goya in my intro to spanish culture class last semester so it meant a lot more. we saw goya's black paintings like saturn, el dos y el tres de mayo, velazquez's las meninas, a few paintings by el greco and many more. it was unbelievable to see them in real life. we were then rushed out of the prado (after 2 hours) thinking we were going to a bullfight with the boys, but alas we just met them for burritos. we then went on a little walking tour to plaza del sol and plaza mayor. it was a holiday so they were absolutely packed. then for dinner we got drink at el tigre which were huge and came with so many tapas. seriously they wouldn't stop bringing us tapas and i was full but couldn't help myself. after we went back and got ready for round 2.

soaked and ready to prado bitchez

plaza del sol

so at this point i'm exhausted, have a headache, and can't really see straight but everyone was like we're going clubbing!!! yaaaa pacha!!!! and i just physically, mentally, and emotionally did not have it in me. so after faking it at the pregame until 3 am, when everyone walked out the door of the apartment i made my way to the bedroom to catch some shut eye. clubs aren't exactly my scene anyway so i was pretty pumped to get back into bed. the next morning while everyone was asleep i thought it would be a nice gesture to go get bagels for everyone cause they're hard to come about here. i googled and found a place and mapped it out. i then stealthily snuck into bretts room, took his keys from his nightstand table, and snuck back out, only to not so stealthily smack my head directly on my bump on the wall protruding next to bretts door. and to top it off when i went traipsing around madrid to find this bagel place..... it didn't exist. oh well it was nice to take a walk alone. then ella and i started our touristy day once again.

we went to the reina sofia first which is the modern art museum. i loved this museum it was insane so much art that you could stare at forever and still have no idea what it means. there was also a couple exhibitions on photography and propaganda as well as extensive collections of dali and picasso. some of you may know that i spent the majority of the end of sophomore year studying guernica by picasso and making a huge project on it for my spanish class. it was one of the hardest projects i've ever done but to actually see it in real life was so rewarding. after we stopped for a doner kebab, duh, and met up with lana to galavant around the palacio real, or royal palace. that was also pretty mindblowing cause there is just so much history in one place sometimes its hard for my little peabrain to wrap my head around it. we saw the armory and got a little tour of the inside, saw some drawing rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, and even a chapel. ella played this game with herself, how many pictures can she take before she got yelled at so that was fun. after the palacio we met up with everyone else at parque del retiro and lounged for a little while before enjoying some churros con chocolate.

ladies at the palacio

the armory... comfort was not a concept back then

ella sneaking a pic of the porcelain room in the palace before getting yelled at

parque del retiro

scobb and i imitating statues in retiro, LOL STUDY ABROAD IS FUN!!!!!

that night we made dinner at the boys apartment. correction: ella made dinner and we ate all of it and it was delicious. we sat at the table and had a nice little family meal it was lovely. after we were pretty stuffed but managed to motivate to pregame at owen and jess's and check out the madrid botellon. it was very different than the granada one which is more or less a glorified parking lot turned drinking/pregame haven. in madrid its actually in a park and much more spread out but it was still really cool. after we had had our fair share of the botellon we went back to warm up cause it was pretty chilly and watched some videos including the art of flight. apparently i was the last one to see this short film but it literally blew my mind. look it up. 

on sunday we had basically conquered all our touristy excursions but made one last trip to el rastro which is the huge market only on sundays where you can buy a lot of really cheap crap. i'm not good at shopping with other people so i didn't get anything but ella got a coat and a shirt for 7 euros total to give you an idea of how cheap it was. we then lounged around with the guys for the rest of the day until our bus later that afternoon. it was a nice lazy sunday after an incredibly fun weekend. i loved madrid so much and i know i'll be back. it was certainly my most cultural weekend yet with all the sightseeing, i was personally pretty impressed by ella and me's determination to see it all. hopefully we can take this attitude with us this weekend to dublin, ireland! it's crazy cause i actually leave in two days for another trip but i actually could not be more excited to be visiting both dublin and galway. i'm about to go p.s. i love you on all your asses next post so be sure to check it out for an update on my irish wedding!

gypsy land

last night, ella became a real gypsy. los gitanos are everywhere in Granada and we often aspire to be as sly as them. personally, i am not a good enough liar or suave enough to ever accomplish such a feat but before my own eyes last night ella transformed into a real life gitana. when we were out at a local discoteca, i watched her go beyond a roped off forbidden staircase, and downstairs to the abyss. when she returned she had a new drink. she had snuck down to the off limits downstairs bar where no one was, climbed on the bar and filled up her drink and came back up. later, a man approached her asking her to go outside. ella, thinking this was just another random creepy spanish dude, gave attitude. he then told he was a security guard and they had her on camera stealing the drink. she was honest about it and gave pouty eyes to this intimidating security guard. she asked for my keys (and this is why i could never be a gypsy) and i tried to get the guy to let her stay by giving him 'tude. i gave ella my keys to leave knowing she had something up her sleeve. next thing i know not only had she convinced the security guard to let her stay, but somehow got all of us a round a free drinks through this security guard. it was hands down the sliest and most impressive act i've ever seen. performed like a true gypsy. salu, ella

portiMEOW, portugal

hola todos! so like i said in my last post i'm traveling every weekend until second weekend in november. this is only problematic for me cause i have a feeling i'm gonna get really lazy with these posts. hopefully not but we'll see. SO! this weekend we went to portimao, portugal. this was an optional trip through our program so we paid for it but for what it was we really did not pay that much at all. It was also fun because it was all of us traveling together, and now that we've all started traveling its gonna be rarer to be spending our weekends together. on friday we left by bus for a 7 hour ride before dawn. i slept almost the entire way waking up every few hours to find myself drooling all over my travel pillow. it was a pretty easy bus ride there until they started playing the dubbed version of sideways in spanish at full blast. we also picked up two strangers off the road and claimed they were our tour guides for the weekend. Pretty sure they were hitch hikers but thats fine. one was a fat old spanish man named pepe who had a knack for making really unfunny comments about drinking and girls etc. and one was ricu who was this young dude from finland that chain smoked the whole time and came out and partied with us.

at around 1 we arrived in Faro, Portugal which is the capital of the Algarve province. we got a nice little tour from an adorable portuguese woman i think pepe tried to hit on. we saw some old cathedrals with some big crazy organs, but we also saw these creepy chapels that were covered in human bones. no joke real human skulls and bones lining every inch of the walls. pretty cool looking. we took some pictures on the bell tower, saw the marina, and went on our way. we ate lunch at this super swanky restaurant that already had everything set up for us. this trip was filled with the finest dining i will have on my entire trip i think. we had a 3 course meal (casual) including some yummy apps, delicious pork, salad, rice, fries, and then ice cream and coffee. ugh so good. after that we were on our last leg of the bus ride to get to portimao to check into our hotel.

those are all skulls and bones, how edgy and creepy and cool

our hotel was also unnecessarily nice and spoiled me on all trips to come. ella and i had a waterfront room with a nice little balcony overlooking the beautiful praia de rocha beach in portugal. we put our stuff down and immediately headed down to the beach. the water looked atlantic to me, but i guess it was somewhere between atlantic and mediterranean but was so amazing. my next idea was obviously to purchase a soccer ball and organize a game of world cup. as always, beach world cup is a blood bath. my baby toe may have been broken in the process and my team did not win, but we fought hard. greatest beach game alive. we then went and hung in the pool a little bit before dinner (sidenote to all you cape codders we played trivia and i pulled out my hardest nlb trivia question: which president was the only one to serve two non consecutive terms? winner gets a prize i stumped everyone in portugal). dinner was a buffet, ugh no self control. ate my way into a mild food coma and invited everyone over to our room to pregame before going out. ella and i thought we were the shit cause we had a waterfront room, then annie and erin were like if you guys wanna come over to our place we have a big patio. they were not joking. their balcony/patio was bigger than our room and i'm embarrassed we even invited anyone. but nonetheless it was so fun having everyone together. we all hit the clubs together like some linebockaahs. killed it on the dance floor as usual god any ounce of alcohol makes me think i'm miss new booty or something but whatever.

tulane ladies (and brandon) pre club

so we continued to bar hop a little. our hotel was on a strip with a ton of bars and clubs so everything was walking and so convenient. we were over the clubbing and decided the next logical step with the night would be to go skinny dipping in the mediterranean sea, cause por que no? if you've never gone skinny dipping in your adult life i pity you because it has to be the most liberating experience in the world. the water was unbelievably clear and warm and ideal skinny dipping conditions. passerbys probably would have thought all of us were wearing bathing suits by the extreme tanlines but lucky for us there was no one on the beach to judge. trekked back to the hotel in our now soaking wet clothes and took the best showers of our lives and invited everyone over to cuddle with us. it was glorious.

next morning we woke up for breakfast and out boat/grotto tour. it might have been cause i was slightly hungover but the seasickness that ensued from the boat ride out to the caves was no bueno. came pretty close to tossing my cookies but once we anchored and were able to jump in the water and be stable i felt like 100 dollars as ella would say. we went swimming off the boat and then got tours of the caves and grottos in lagos in mini motor boats. there we some amazing views and it was unbelievably tropical. definitely the highlight of this vacation (i can't really call it a trip cause everything was planned for us and it was the most tropical place i've ever been it was unreal) they served us lunch before we took off but once again the rocking made me quite motion sick and got rid of my appetite for the most part. we got back to portimao around 5 or so and went to shower and get ready for more sight seeing.

cave that looks like an elephant.... woah

this was real life.. how? idk but i saw it glow like this

boatz n hoez

we took the bus to a couple sights including a fortress in sagres, and cabo sao vicente which was what the europeans thought the end of the world was when they thought it was flat (stupid idiots). they had really great ice cream at the end of the world and some really scary cliffs you could walk along that made for some nice scenic photos. we then made our way to lagos to get a little walking tour. we saw the slave market and the center of town and the marina and headed to dinner. another huge meal with a huge group that was delicious. after a few hours we headed back to portimao for our last night of our vacation.

cool artsy panoramic iphone shot with sam chillin on the cliffs in cabo sao vicente

hey look its me at the end of the world! selfies are just the greatest

we went out again not as crazy as the first night but i did step foot into my first casino. it wreaked of cigarettes and all of our friends lost a lot of money so i still just dont really get it but maybe i will some day. the next morning ella and i woke up at the crack of dawn, ate breakfast before anyone else, and went to the beach. we got in a few hours before we had to say goodbye to portimao and our vacationland.

so portugal wasn't exactly the most culturally rich place but it was unbelievably beautiful scenically and just the beach vacation i needed. it was my last beach weekend of this abroad trip and we certainly went out with a bang so i couldn't have asked for anything better. the bus ride home was filled with would you rathers and deep conversations to the tune of the most depressing movie to ever revolutionary road dubbed in spanish. a lovely trip with some lovely people. this weekend, madrid! more tulane shenanigans!

conejo, conejo

rabbit rabbit, its october! so we've officially been here more than a month. it's actually crazy how fast time flies. this week was spent with a lot of recovery time from oktoberfest as well as our final exam for our intensive class (i passed mom and dad, whooo! level 7 here i come). honestly though, so happy to be done with that class. 4 hours a day 5 days a week was getting really old really fast. this past weekend was my last weekend in Granada until the second weekend in November. pretty crazy stuff. Jess and Shale came to visit which was great cause we got to spend time with them but it also made us do a lot of Granadian things. 

On Friday when they got here we met them at their hostel in the albaycin near Plaza nueva. i had recommended it to them cause i saw somewhere it was rated top 10 hostels in the world, which according to them was certifiably true. After that we went tapas bar hopping including Bar Sevilla where Garcia Lorca and Hemingway used to hang out. it was cool but Ella and I complained about how an 18 euro bottle of wine is outrageous, which I swear for Granada it really is! it was rainy and gross out, for the first time since april in Granada so we stuck to indoor activities that really only ranged from beer to wine. after a few hours of great company, great wine, and great conversation we went our separate ways for dinner and getting ready until meeting up later for the botellon. 

ella and i made our way to poe where everyone was before the botellon only after leaving a series of embarrassing facebook videos on our friends walls who are on other continents. from there, i'm not sure who decided to make the move on this one but we went to the chupeteria which is a shots bar (chupitos is shots in spanish, a very valuable vocab lesson) where all chupitos are a euro. aka my demise. i was actually pretty tame at the chupeteria but by the time we all left the botellon pregame was not looking so necessary. but we went all excited to show jess and shale what the botellon was all about.

really its a time warp where you always meet a ton of friends and speak a fair amount of spanish. i met a great spanish friend in the bathroom area who seemed really cool but she talked so fast i just kept saying si not having any real idea what she was talking about. then we all made the move to mae west at what i believe was around 3 am. so mae west is this very exclusive spanish club and half of us got denied from it. sam made me try to get in about 4 times and every time they denied us. i've never faced such discrimination for being a rubia (blonde) but they were not having it. also ella and i got in another fight at mae west cause she wanted to leave even though she had already gotten in and i wanted to stay just because it was the principle of being denied so many times i felt like i had to make it in there once. screw mae west it brings out the worst in everyone and they're mean racists. so point of story never made it into mae west and pretty much solidified my hatred for the clubbing atmosphere in general. not my scene, thanks but no thanks.

the next day somehow but the grace of god ella and i woke up at 11 am to meet jess, shale, and brandon to go to the cave museums in the sacromonte. the sacromonte is a really cool ancient neighborhood that has a stereotype of being home to the gypsies once the christians invaded Granada. it was actually very cool we got to walk around and see different set up quarters of what a typical cave bedroom, kitchen, and barn would look like. they also had a lot of history about the caves, the gypsies, and the culture of flamenco. 

jess fraternizing with the cavemen

mirror pics in a cave cause thats cool

me and jesus christ just chilling taking selfies in a cave bedroom

so saturday night we continued with our cultural exploration of granada and went to a flamenco show! also in sacromonte. sooo saturday was a lot of uphill walking but that was fine we got some lovely views and i also discovered the panorama setting on the new iphone update so i was killing it up there. all the walking led to some talks about what makes walking uncomfortable and was i the last one to find out that jess shit his pants in bruff freshman year? i think i actually keeled over laughing so hard (sorry for publishing this on the internet jess but you said everyone else knew). anyway so we bought out tickets to the flamenco show at la rocio around 8 or so and left for dinner to come back for a 10 pm show. we later discovered that la rocio is one of the most famous flamenco bars in granada and plenty of famous celebrities have come in and out of there to see them perform. it was in a cave so to give you an idea of what it looked like.... well very much like a cave but hallway shaped almost and we all sat around the edges, the seats were all filled and the dancers performed up and down this strip for us. along with the dancers comes the amazing flamenco music and rhythm. its characterized by the passion they use when the dance and sing not necessarily skill but intensity. it was amazing and we got a free drink with the show as well and it was certainly the most stereotypical spanish thing we've done so far. also when invited by sexy flamenco dancer to dance with her, i obviously obliged and killed it up there. just kidding. i tried to imitate her oh so natural and suave dance moves and i definitely looked like an awkward white girl (no really i'm being modest, i think in reality i should quit school and live in the caves and dance flamenco i was that good).

cave acoustics

the sexiest flamenco dancer to ever live

wait just kidding i'm the sexiest flamenco dancer to ever live (how cute we match)

so after our amazing show i was all fired up and dancing flamenco in the streets. i'm so talented! but after we got a gelato (duh) and went our separate ways and said goodbye to jess and shale our first and probably last visitors. it was great having them around cause they made us do so much and we had a lovely weekend with them. ella and i went straight to bed after cause we had to get up at 8 am to catch a bus with our program for a trip they organized to nerja for us. nerja is a beach town in malaga which we had tried to go to before for a beach day but bus tickets were sold out. once we got there it was very obvious why everyone would be going there and there were no tickets. it was actually breathtaking. first we went to the balcon de europa and saw the amazing view of the mediterranean sea. i've never been anywhere tropical in my life and this was easily the closest i have ever gotten to it.

view from the balcon de europa (is this real life? idk..)

me and my gf at the balcon de europa, probs gonna be our xmas card, thoughts??

so from the balcon, we went and ate lunch as a group which was like 40 something people. a lot of people and a lot of paella. since i still have not conquered my fear and disgust of seafood i had chicken (god i am so embarrassingly american and i cant shake it) the huge roasted chicken came with a heaping portion of french fries of which i proceeded to eat every last bite of....cause i'm american get used to it. then they gave us ice cream bars for desert which i proceeded to spill all over my white shirt!!! chocolate stains on my shirt for the rest of the day solidified my #fatgirlprobz. oh which reminds me i forgot to preface that fat girl problems hashtag.... that morning when ella and i were eating breakfast i looked in the cabinet and saw a cinnamon bun, i decided since i was going to the beach, fine jill, some self control wouldn't hurt, have a yogurt. ella and i took our bocadillos that lola had packed us out of the fridge and went about our day. we get to the bus to have a snack out of them and ella has an extra piece of fruit.... what does jill have? a cinnamon bun #fatgirlprobz.

anyway, from the group lunch we were free to explore. we went to the beach and of course couldn't be at the beach without going in the water. for the mediterranean sea it was frigid, but apparently that was cause of all the rain from earlier in the week. later on after some lounging, ella, sam, dash, brandon and i went exploring down the beach. we got to some rocks that of course we had to climb. we made our way to this little cove/beach/cave area which was like i said the closest i have ever come to a tropical place. i was like a kid in a candy store swimming around these rocks climbing up to the view to see the caves and all. also there's not a chance in hell there's a shark in the mediterranean sea but i just could not shake my cape cod paranoia and needed someone to be in the water with me at all times (so they would get eaten and i wouldn't) but being out there was truly unbelievable. we had to be back at the bus at 3:30 to go to frigiliana which was a typical white architecture town built in the caves for the moriscos to take shelter in while the christians we're conquering andalucia. it was very interesting and the tour guide was very passionate about spanish history but after the beach we were all so tired and ready to head back.

fun secret cove beach we played on, does this not look like the carribean? idk cause i've never been but this is how i imagine it

so after a lovely weekend, we had no school on monday! whooooo! i had a pretty productive day, finalizing my schedule, exercising, finding my building, sending some emails, finishing the first season of newsroom, stuffing my face with churros con chocolate. great day. but today reality hit. i had my first two university of granada classes. so as a tulane student we're required to take two classes at ugr with spanish professors that only speak spanish, with spanish students, in mostly spanish subjects. so needless to say its pretty intimidating especially when everyone else gets to take less intense spanish classes with americans. so this morning andy and i met up early to walk there. i had walked there the day before so i knew it was going to be pretty long. it was 40 minutes uphill really early which was pretty brutal we were quite sweaty by the end of it. we sat in class with a bunch of spaniards and some other tulane kids only for the professor never to show up. solid first class of the day. the second class was a hispanicamerican narrative class which i swear was taught by the younger, spanish version of my pops. it was pretty weird cause pops is my grandfather who is an american/british literature professor in the states so literally this was his exact opposite professor for spaniards. but i understood mostly everything he said i just have to focus more on focusing. i can't zone out like i would in normal american classes unfortunately. but i'm excited to finally have my real schedule under my belt and move on with the month of october (which will be lucky cause i said rabbit rabbit .... or debo decir, conejo conejo jajaja). this weekend i go to portugal with my program and everything is planned for us which is actually so nice. it will be filled with all meals and accomodations paid for, lots of beach time, some sailing, some cave explorations, and some shenanigans. definitely looking forward to it! hasta luego guapas!