Friday, March 16, 2012

And to Atlanta I Return!


(as written on my train ride to Barcelona on March 16) and I will post pictures when I get to ATL. Don’t fret.

SO. Ways to motivate myself to blog:

-listen to Kap Slap album on repeat—BEST mashups. Get it now.
-eat a cucumber (if anyone saw me eating this like a carrot…)
Yeah.. that’s about it. OH and of course, accompanied by the one and only Randy J

I am currently on a 5 hour train to Barcelona! So crazy that I am at the beginning of my voyage home (for the weekend..) Today was unnecessarily stressful though and it all kind of started last night.




 So I absolutely hateee people waiting on me… and last night Neva ended up waiting for Justina and I for like an hour. Luckily she was with her sister and her Slovenian Fanta bottle but still.. SORRY NEVA! Justina came from Gandia for FALLAS! Real quick so you know what that is: it´s one of the biggest festivals in Spain and thus the biggest in Valencia. It’s a five day festival but celebrations happen the entire month of March.

Things you will find during Fallas:
1)      Petardos, aka firecrackers. All the time. Morning, night, afternoon, you name it. It´s like what children do after school is throw these things at each other/innocent by standers. And they are SO loud! Like seriously sounds  like a battle field.

SO many people go to Mascletás
2)      Tents everywhereeee. In these tents you will find tapas and bars and they normally offer really good deals (beer and tapa for 1.50 euros) and then music and tables. After our fail of going out last week, (we all went to the center via taxi, got separated, and on top of that it was too late to get into anyyy club without paying 10 euros) Mats and I stumbled upon one of these tents by my piso which was fun J

3)      Mascletás. Every day at 14h in Plaza de A´juntamient (sawry probs spelled that wrong but it’s in Valenciano) there is like a mini fourth of July except they choose the really loud ones. I´m telling you, Spanish people just love unnecessary louuuud noises.

4)      And most importantly, the Fallas. These are HUGE paper mache and would figures. Like they are at least 12 feet high. Normally the figures are ironic representations of important politicans or famous people but there really are no specifications. These are almost on every street. Who makes them? I don´t know. The weirdest thing is that they burn these the last day of Fallas (ON MONDAY I WILL BE HERE FOR THIS!!!)

We get school off and most people get work off as well and just walk around Valencia drinking in the tents and looking at all the Fallas. By night, there are normally like fireworks (so I have been told) and parties everywhereeee. Just like on the street people are drinking and dancing until morning.
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Anyways, so Justina came for Las Fallas and she stayed with me last night. She didn´t get here till late though due to random things (like 10pm). Lea (one of my roommates) has her boyfriend visiting. They both traveled through Andalusia last week and got back Friday. Well, her boyfriend decided to cook dinner for us. Suppose to be at 21h but ended up not being till 22. It was soooooo good. I am an idiot though and told these Greek girls (both Ioanna) that I met the previous week, and Neva, I would meet them at Aragon metro station at 2315. Neva was on time, all the rest of us didn´t get there till midnight. It ended up not being a big deal, I just felt really bad because she was waiting on us and I was like rushing through dinner. Whatever. No pasa nada.

We then went to Turia (the dried up river bed park that is 10km long) for a botellon! This was my first botellon in Valencia (went to one last week—so fun). It´s basically just a congregation of people that drink together in a public space. I really like it just cuz there is space and it´s no longer very cold!! We were only there for a little over and hour and then we had to leave to get to the club Murray´s before 2. Not worth it… Even waiting in line was miserable—there was soooo much pushing! And the bouncer guy was so mean, alllll I wanted to do was eat my fruit that I had put in my sangria bottle L Then putting our coats in the (can´t remember the word in English) guardaropa was such a rip off. Two euros! And the lady was suuuch a bitch. I tried to be clever and combine Justina and my jacket… she caught me. I´m sorry but if you don´t want to deal with drunk people and there shenanigans then don´t work at a club.

Once we got to the dance floor, it started out fun, but the club wasn´t very big and it kept getting more and more crowded… so the pushing was unbearable. Mats almost got into a fight with this guy. I literally had to put my hand in the other guys face and, with the help of Pelle, kept that shit from going down. I texted Mats earlier today and told him about that and he was like “No, I just asked him nicely not to push me” I cleared that up for him.

Anyways, we ended up leaving at like 4 because none of us were enjoying it. Oh well win some lose some.
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OH funny—so at dinner, Cristina asked me if I was in a sorority cuz she saw me with my letters in one of my pictures. Haha, made for an interesting conversation… then they proceeded to ask me if there were really like the jock/popular/nerd clicks… We do not paint a good picture for the rest of the world via our media hahaha

Mmkay so woke up today around 1pm, normal post going out time, but then my struggles began. I felt soooo bad that Justina stayed with me. I told her she could go to the center with Pella and his friend at 3pm when they messaged FFF but of course Justina is too good of a friend and waited on me. I hd so much to do do! I don’t know whyyy the fuck I didn’t do it before. Seriously… then we could of gone to the center to look at the Fallas and watch Masclet’as but fml I am an idiot. So instead, for an hour and a half I had to check in online, by my train ticket from Madrid when I return, book a hotel for tonight, figure out my train deal for today. And on top of that I had internet complications… Justina I LOVE you sanks so much for being patient!

We did get lunch together at this really good place that we discovered by my apartment, but my mind was somewhere else.
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LOOK what I’ve realized. Well, before let me say, I am SUPER excited about coming home! When I was, errr sangriaed, I was like GUYS  I GET TO SEE MY DOG!!! And friends and family, obvi. AND I HAVE A SISTER!?! But here’s the thing: this casual visit to the States is five days, right? Here’s the kicker: I will only spend ONE day chillin’.

Thursday- all pre traveling bullshit and this miserable train ride to Barcelona

Friday- have to wake up at 5am to get my ass to the airport by 7 for a 10 hr and 35 minute flight. WTF Delta?? It was 8.5 on the way here. Dennis informed me there was some head winds or some shit. LAME. Here I was, thinking I was to arrive at 130pm. But no. Now at 330pm. That causes a lot of “timing” inconveniences. Boo.

Saturday- my play day! EEEEEEEEEE

Sunday- meet and greaet da baybeeee and me.. (haha Mats asked me recently why I always say baby instead of my sister- you try acquiring a sister after 20 years of only having a brother. Well, 17 years). For those of you that will be coming, great! I’m super excited to see you all J And those not, hatechyoass. Nah just kidding I understand its spring break y tal. No pasa tada nos vemos en agosto (as the Spanish would say)

Monday- arrive in Madrid at 655am (my flight leaves at 630pm Atlanta time on Sunday) and then wait until 1110 to take  a six hour regional train ride to Valencia. Ugh.

So I literally will be traveling longer than I will be in the USA. Worth it, of course, just a shit ton of effort for so little time. I really want to get my dad to record Rufus (my dog) seeing me for the first time in two months. He’ll be so e-cited! EEEE my dog! Not some bullshit rat with clothes. And then of course I want my dad to be paparazzi for me meeting my sister! I am gonna me an emotional mess; jet lagged, traveled, and meeting an infant that shares my DNA.

So about a week ago, I had like a crisis. I literally started panicking about this whole going home thing. This was my thought process, that now seems rather bizzare. I, and I think my family, kind of skipped the whole miss each other/homesick phase. I know that may sound bad, but I have yet to like Ahhhhh I miss home and wanna go back. And this is my hypothesis: Normally, the first two weeks or so are the most difficult, but I was so distracted! Everything was new, I went out constantly—well you remember my first set of blogs. I literally didn’t have time to contemplate home and be sad and then by the end of the two week Spanish course I had my friends and life here to keep me focused in Spain instead of the USA.

[Side note: I now feel extremelyyy uncomfortable using the terms America for the USA. It doesn’t make sense.. Latin America, Canada, I have met so many people from the other American countries. Why the fuck did we need to have such a complicated name. And “US American” reminds me of Miss SC or wherever that dumb beauty pageant contestant was from]

And then on my parents side, well, they were busy having a baby. So just SO many changes for both parties. But nowww we both have our new (temporary) lives. Like Spain is no longer a dream to me—tis real lyf. I am very much present in my life here in the Valencia. But now I am going home and like rock the boat. I am gonna realize what exactly I have been missing... and the baby! I literally have NO IDEA what I am missing! So being home will be great: get so see my family, RUFUS!, some friends, etc. Then I come back Sunday. I won’t even have time to get used to being home—not even the time change! On Monday when I arrive to Madrid, it will be like, wait was I really just in the USA?? But yeah then when I get back to Valencia I return to my life here. It’s routine now though—there won’t be like constant thingsss happening to keep me distracted so I am a leeettle worried that readjusting to our (my family and I as two separate entities)separate lives. And this time I leave for almost five months.
2<<5 months. Let’s put this is days: 60<<150 days. Oh snapz.

So we will just see how all that goes. But shout outs sanks to those of you that helped me through that little break down. I reallllyyy do have amazing friends that I would probably go insane without.

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