my thoughts. my words. my life.

buenos tardes, seville!

good afternoon, seville :) there are so many things i want to write about, especially in madrid, but i think i’ll just do a little re-cap o last night into today, first. lemme start with the train station…

arriving was a little frustrating because the people gave our professor the wrong number to call for cars. what we’d originally payed for did not arrive, so we ended up taking taxis. all payments were to be reimbursed. the weather was probably somewhere between 6-10 degrees hotter than madrid, but not too hot (*i’d also like to make a side note that we took the high speed train which travels at about 200 mph. what would have taken 6 hours via car and 1 hr via plane took us no more than 2 hours to get to seville. amazing!). madison and i didn’t get the most friendly or happiest of taxi drivers, but i got to where i needed to be eventually..heh. buzzed the apartment number, said “carmen” when asked who it was, and met my host-mother (gumersinda contreras) in the stairs. i was really impressed with the interior because it exceeded my expectations. it was in a pretty good condition, as was the apartment itself. when we went inside, she immediately sat me down and conversed with me in spanish. i was definitely nervous, because i suck at speaking, but i can manage. she was extremely welcoming, friendly, and wants nothing more than for me to practice speaking spanish. i’m doing okay though; i’ve had people (BSIB and some locals) tell me that my spanish is pretty good. hurray! a little bit more about my home-stay:

• the family has 6 kids who are all moved out, which means up to 6 study abroad students can stay here.
• there are 3 other american girls here (thank god) who go to university of new england; two from maine, one from CT. they are saving my lives. i feel terribly guilty speaking in english, but i can’t help it sometimes! especially if they speak english to me.
• my room is the tiniest, but i have my own bathroom that is divided by a curtain. the shower is equivalent to one large square tile (i kid you not, LOL), but the girls said i can use their shower since it’s way bigger and actually has a tub.
• spaghetti, bread, and salad for dinner. some chocolate mousse thing for dessert.

bed time around 1:00am after i had had my dose of WIFI. been without it for so long and i’d been dying to type on here about my trip so far; even though it’s only been like 4 days haha! shoot, this trip is gonna go by too fast!

for this morning - set alarms for 7::55-8:15am. host mother got woried i wasn’t awake, but i told her i was and have a bad habit of just laying in bed after waking up..heh. she said she does too, lol! breakfast consisted of toast (not the soft bread, but something crunchy/hard) with jam/butter, cereal, and cookies (galletas). i only had 3 pieces of toast with jam and a glass of water. didn’t have much time to sit and feast, so i left around 840am to find the plaza de cuba. found it, no problem, thanks to the girls for explaining it to me. sadly did not find anyone from the dialogue group, so i just went on my own. spoke to about 3 locals asking for la avenida constitucion and la escuela clic. i think i did alright because i had no trouble getting to the school. i just didn’t know how long to walk for, lol. ran into rachel, and then found the rest of the group. brava for lost! :D

took a simple placement test, waited, got placed, took a tour of the school, and went to class with claudia & sarah (and this other girl from PA). speaking was such a challenge - i cannot believe the girl who i was partnered with spoke so freaking well and quickly… she’d only been studying since the end of janaury. what the efffff?! makes me look horrible..T-T but it also motivated me to practice as much as i can so i can be better. oh which reminds me, i should probably do my hw for tomorrow, lol. find subjunctive, indicative, and answer questions. que fácil! :)

got textbook after class, met up with some los remedios kids, walked back to the plaza de cuba together, and then parted ways. yeah, i got lost. walked around for like 15 minutes trying to find my damn street! (virgen de setefilla). tried to make it so that i didn’t look too lost though..even though i was lol. found my way eventually, had no problem with my keys getting in, and now i’m sitting in bed waiting for what’s supposed to be a huge lunch, prepared by my host father. my room is next to the kitchen - pretty sure he’s making food right now with all that noise, lol. can’t wait!

tis all for now. hope everyone in the states taking summer classes is having a good time in boston lol. miss yall. miss my fam. happy mother’s day to my wonderful mother and my wonderful sister! wish i could be there to celebrate their special day as being the best mothers out there :) les amo <3

t minus 45 minutes…

…until it’s just about time for me to leave my boston apartment and head on over to boston logan airport (for the first time ever…) to hop on a plane that will fly me to madrid, spain. craaaaaazy. so many things going through my head right now. as excited as i am, i’m also a little nervous. and i just wanted to jot down these last few words before i started making moves… or as baby joy would say.. M&M’s… LOL!

i’m super excited about being back and traveling, but i’m hella nervous because it’s gonna be different going as a college student as opposed to junior year of high school. everything was so structured, and the teacher was always there to guide us. we all met up at school,took a bus together, got on the plane together, traveled together, ate together..pretty much EVERYTHING together lol. going on dialogue, i’m going to have so much more freedom and independence; so much more responsibility. i hope i don’t get lost too much. i hope i don’t lose anything or waste time. i hope i make the most of everything and walk for days because i want to see as much as i can, even though i’ve been to three of the four cities we’re going to. i hope no one pick pockets me, or anyone in the group. i must remember to keep me bag in front of me at all times. heck, i’ll even hold it if that guarantees that i’ll have all my belongings by the time i get to my end destination. i hope i don’t suck at conversing in spanish, because that’s always been a weak spot for me. i hope i learn a few recipes from my host-mom who happens to be a chef! wahooo. and most of all, i just hope i have a memorable time with the 30+ kids i’ll be going with. everything on this trip will be a learning experience, whether it’s making my way over to the airport or learning the streets of seville & interacting with locals.

as for everyone i’m leaving behind for just a few weeks, i’ll miss you all terribly! friends in NY, friends in boston, and of course my family<3 i feel so blessed and fortunate to be going on this trip, and that people are checking up on me thru text, phone call, and facebook to wish me a safe flight. thank you so much! i’ll be thinking of you all. have a wonderful summer 1. i’ll see everyone when i get back! :)

ps; i WILL be updating this blog if anyone cares to follow up on what exactly i’m doing in spain, lol. i’ll let you know what 5-10 minute showers are like…yay…………………….. -_-

i want to believe.

I want to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it is possible for anyone to find that special person. That person to spend Christmas with or grow old with or just take a nice silly walk in Central Park with.

                                                                                                   anonymous.

it’s a beautiful day and i can’t stop…

..myself from smilin’. if i’m drinkin, then i’m buyin’…

a little bit obsessed, considering i’ve had Michael Buble’s A Beautiful Day on repeat for the past hour. ugh, your voice is so beautiful. sing me to sleep, will you?? and your face isn’t half bad either, hellooooooo. love the song. love the lyrics. “baby it’s fine, you said that we should just be friends, well i came up with that line, and i’m sure it’s for the best. if you ever change your mind don’t hold your breath.” so clever. so catchy. and it puts me in a happy mood, despite the topic of the song not being so pleasant, lol - just like his “haven’t met you yet” song. anyway, it’s a beautiful day! …well it was, and it will be for the next couple days in boston :)

lalalaaaaaaaalyric video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RglMIKG0GFw

six days at home in NY.

although i had the option of going back home to 845 on tuesday of finals week - so like, two weeks ago, giving me an extra week at home - i decided against it because i wanted to just spend some time in boston relaxing. i didn’t have many opportunities to do so while planning all that conference and barkada stuff, so yeah. not a bad choice on my part - i really did enjoy bumming around and being able to sit outside to appreciate the spring weather. i was lucky to have had amazing weather in new york as well, aside from that first day i got back on monday evening. the rest of the week? beautiful.

although six days wasn’t much, i tried to make the most of every single day. for starters, i didn’t sleep in until noon every day. as a matter of fact, i woke up earlier than usual; all because i wanted to spend as much time with my niece as possible. my mom knew how much i missed katelyn, so after i arrived in chinatown where she picked me up (around 4:30pm, with a pit stop at columbia university to bring my brother some food), we immediately went to edgewater where i found my sister and my niece. gosh i missed our family’s adorable princess! videos and pictures just weren’t enough. i ran over to the smiling angel and picked her up, hugged her, kissed her, and played with her until it was time to get ready for bed. my sister ended up cooking chicken marsaala for dinner - YUM. obviously, we went back the next day (tuesday) to play with her some more. we actually had to baby sit while my sister renewed her license, so we took katelyn to my parents’ apartment. she was a bad girl and did not nap, but i guess she just couldn’t handle the excitement of aunty carmen being home - HAHA. but yeah, nap time was a fail, so when my sister came home, she set an alarm for “quiet time” before taking katelyn out of her crib. “mommy come onnnnnnn” in her ever-so-adorable baby voice, is what she kept repeating. soooo funny and soo cute. LOL! couldn’t handle it. when she came out, she snacked, we played, played some more at my sister’s place, and then left to pick up my dad for dinner. we ate at this new korean/chinese place with my parents’ friends. not bad. i got hella spicy dumplings (*note to self: never ask a korean if they think the food is spicy because chances are, they’ll say no LOL) & crab meat fried rice. yuuuuum. got home around 1030pm that night.

and then wednesday came! had a lovely breakfast with my mom and aunty evelyn at northvale diner. it was really nice being able to see her and catch up after not having seen her in what? a year? maybe two? i don’t even remember… and then, what was supposed to happen on thursday occurred a day early. my mom dropped me off at mitsuwa a little past 11am, where i met up with chris and jeff! ‘twas a beautiful day and i couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather while hanging out at mitsuwa. first thing’s first, the boys ate. and then we went to the snack aisles, duh, where we went straight to the onigiri section and bought like..too many (my fav has to be the eel one mmmm). LOL. AND THEN! we bumped into adriel! what a pleasant surprised. it was like FIND all over again.. HAHA. caught up a bit, made our way to the cash register, and then proceeded to walk around outside. shops weren’t all that exciting, so we decided to take a quick joy ride in sonic aka jeff’s car. quite a beauty i must say. and during that joy ride, this kid decides to speed up and break the law…zooming WAY ahead of all the other cars. and then…that “hair pin” turn (new vocab, waduppp)…i feared that the car was going to flip over or something. scary shit! but so adventurous and exciting, and i’m into that stuff! definitely a memorable experience :)

after that, we headed back to mitsuwa where i met THE mike acoba of city college. jeff had to leave, and so the three of us hopped in chris’ car and made our way to montclair state university…d1 showing support for MUFASA! (congrats guys!). that trip was so spontaneous, i love it. district 1 ND randomly showing up at a district 3 school..LOL. where i found out that one of the guys was dating a girl i knew at BU and another guy was friends with our new barkada IPR. SMALL WORLD! had a great time getting to know some of the people. it was also amazing running into glenn! knew he’d be super surprised to see me there lmao. i’ll definitely visit again if i ever get the chance! (*this was also the first time i tried cheese ice-cream…wtfffff!?!? o___O). got dropped off at my sister’s place where i played with katelyn again. my mom was there already, too. watched katelyn eat a bit and then went to pick up my dad. we went back home to eat at our usual korean restaurant, where i ran into patrick noh! (and then made a blog post about my culture shock with koreans and filipinos lOL yeah…). great food. i’mso fortunate to be able to come home and have parents that are willing to take me out to have sushi. i love you guys <3

and then thursday came. what did i do thursday? oh yes. woke up early, went to chinatown with the mother, sister, and niece, got a hair cut (not bad!), and ate dim sum at red egg. i was impressed; the dim sum was fresh; they didn’t roll it around in carts. pretty good! walked around afterwards because the two mothers needed to buy groceries. i was there to carry everything.. -_- LOL the least i could do i suppose. katelyn napped in the car, we dropped off some stuff at columbia for stanley, headed to my sister’s place once again to play with katelyn, and then went home when she started snacking. i rested for a bit while at home and then headed to the mall with my mom. yayyy shopping spree! one of my better deals: a banana republic dress that was originally $140, dropped to $95, and then was on sale for another 40% which made the final total a little over $50 with tax. hallelujahhhh! thank god for sales, discounts, and my mom’s coupons! LOL got a lot of cute clothes; again, super thankful for having parents like mine. i love them so much, as crazy as they make me<3

and then there was friday, my last full day at home. this was the only day i woke up insanely late…like 1pm..LOL. i slept like a baby. wished my mom a happy birthday when she came back. ate some food, headed to the mall because the macy’s salesperson did not take off the buckle thingyy that sets off the alarm at the store exit/entrance; plus, we had to return some things. this ended up being another shopping spree… LOL. causing us to run just a little bit late for our dinner reservations in the city. we went home, dropped off some things, picked up some things, then headed out to edgewater to pick up my sister and katelyn. next stop was columbia university to pick up stanley, who was slightly over-dressed, but refused to take his tie off because he apparently spent so much time putting it all together.. LOL. this kid, into fashion and whatnot now..

met up with my dad and anthony at the restaurant. i honestly don’t even know the name cause it’s fairly long, but i do know that it was an all you can eat brazilian buffet. got two alcoholic drinks - one famous brazilian beverage and a piña colatta. waiters would walk around with meat on these sticks and when you flip over this cardboard circle thing to green, they would come over and ask if you wanted any. if it was on red, no one would come and bother you. the appetizer bar was absolutely AMAZING. food ranged from calamari, to salad, to sushi, to pasta, and more. i cannot tell you how tremendous everything was. it was one of those nights where at the end, i actually meant it when i said i was bloated. my stomach hurt, not because i needed to take a poo or anything but because i ate so much, my stomach really could not handle it.. LOL poor me. never again will i expect to be able to diet while at home. smh. but yeah, dessert was great too. i hope my mom had a wonderful time that evening. nothing brings her more joy than sitting down & having a great meal with our entire family (except my oldest sister wasn’t there since she went to HK..). i love her so much and she really is the best mom a child could ever ask for. no one should dare challenge that statement because i will have no problem listing out every damn thing she has done for her family and her kids. despite the fact that she drives me absolutely insane and makes me want to rip my hair out of my head quite often, i know she’s doing it because she cares. i really am a lucky girl :]

now, i’m back in boston - my second home<3

HOLD UPPPPPP..how could i forget mentioning that i went bar hopping i nyack with my TZ 2010 loves?! we’re all 21 now bitchesss and we decided to spend friday night out at pour house - until ma girl got kicked out pshh RUDE - & bourbon. i must say, bourbon was pretty poppin and live! 2 for 1’s. for the price of one beer at PH i could have gotten 2 at bourbon! waaaack. got tips off of 1 shot & 3 corona’s. aside from the two guys tryina dance with me, i had a pretty awesome time. also saw someone i thought i knew, but didn’t actually know, and found out that it was the kid when i posted on his pic on IG. LOL! oh what are the chances…… didn’t get home til about 3:30am. shout out to papa brown for coming to pick us up and drop us off safe n sound at our homes :) thanks jennie, chris, nikki, & ana for an excellent last night in rockland<3

happy birthday to the BEST mom in the world!

can’t wait to have dinner later on tonight with the fam +plus brother-in-law and niece -minus my older sister cause she’s in HK :( i know nothing brings my mother more joy than when the whole family is together. i hope she has a wonderful day! now..what to give her?? :/

and… all this hype about iron man 3 on may 3 when i haven’t even seen the second one yet! this is an issue. haven’t seen the avengers yet either. i haven’t seen a number of things, actually…. lol. someone solve this problemmm D:

goodnight!