cordoba

so a lot happened today. woke up, got on the bus, drove 5 hours, arrived in cordoba, my penpal dani came and got us along with his german friend jenny and mark's penpal ana, we finally found our hostel which was in the middle of NOWHERE and by nowhere i mean right by the mezquita but totally out of MY way. as in down cobblestone paths of doom. hostel is nice, room is smaller and colder and i'm pretty sure i'm taller than the bed is long, which should make tonight interesting.

went to dinner, dani made completely inappropriate conversation for a public forum, but the two other americans in our program we met at the bus station seem really cool. mason knows katie o and ilana seems like fun. yay.

i smell like smoke yet again, and HEY guess what?!?!

i locked myself out of my suitcase AGAIN. like i couldnt open it last night and then it finally opened. tonight is different. the lock is back for REVENGE. i tried to cut through it with my knife, but that just ended up with me realizing that the inner core is METAL WIRE. so that was a bad plan. at least its not the suitcase with my clothes in it this time. just you know, the rest of my LIFE. note to self: stop using the silver lock. it sucks.

now going to sleep. meeting up at the hotel and having orientation and meeting my host family tomorrow. YAY!


oh and i had this icecream that i thought looked like funfetti but was in fact closer to an ice cream version of christmas fruitcake. which was disgusting. sorry grandma, but fruitcake is gross.

love you all. ciao!

First Morning!

I would just like to say that it doesn't matter if you get 8+ hours of sleep, when you wake up at 11am(spain) but it feels like it's 2am(USA), you are not a happy camper. I feel like I was attacked by a sledgehammer.

Catching the bus at 1400 -- let's pray I make it there with all my bags!

*sorry if I'm rambling so much... but I have internet here and I'm not sure how often I'll get it so I'm taking it now while I can.


I printed out photos of friends/family and put them in the photo thing aunt di/jim got me. Glad I did. I miss you guys already.

First Night in Spain

So Mark and I departed for the Moncloa station tonight to meet up with Domenic (the guy I met at the Spanish consulate when i went to get my visa in December) but we accidentally got on the wrong metro (which was actually a completely fine metro, we just got nervous and kept switching trains) and missed him and his group by about 10 minutes. No big deal.

Went to dinner and when I thought I was ordering a hot open faced sandwich of ham and cheese, I ended up with a weird breaded mashed potato-cheese-ham ball instead. Cyndy (adpi at home) suggested we eat Tortilla Espanola if we ever didn't know what to get, so that's what mark got. It's like a giant omelette with cheese and potato. rather good.

After dinner we walked around looking for a disco to see the nightlife, but you know me, I ended up taking us to some gothic bar where everything was painted black and red and there were random mirrors on the walls, with girls in corsets and boots (me in my jeans and hollister cardigan like an IDIOT), and a sculpture of medusa's head on the wall. I then proceeded to spray my drink on the girl next to me, but thank goodness she didn't notice my party foul. Could have been a bar fight of Gothic Spain v the americans.

The metro closes at 1:30am here and opens back up at 6am but we ended up getting back to our metro station (sol) around 12 and just walked around for a while. for being in a main city of spain, dear god there are a lot of irish pubs. There was a group of 15 or so intoxicated spaniards singing outside a pub down the calle from our hostel. earlier in the night, we saw a whole procession of political cars being surrounded and escorted by police cars and bikes with their lights on. really interesting.

Now in bed. Mark's hopefully asleep as i need to stop typing. We are checking out tomorrow at noon, catching the bus at 1400 and hopefully getting the phone situation handled before then. I smell like smoke, and I forgot my bottle of febreeze. Skype'd a few people today... good to see familiar faces.


Goodnight all. I miss you already.

He llegada en Madrid! (I have arrived in Madrid)

I've made it. Those of you who got the email knew this already. If you want the emails on my big updates, like, me telling you I've survived some kind of journey, let me know.

LAX -- PHL = jamee slept
PHL -- MAD = jamee slept most of the way. was the ONLY person with someone next to me and was in quite possibly the smallest seat of my life but it was okay. SLEPT! made some new friends.

So I'm traveling with this guy mark who is the only other person who was on the plane who is in my program. We managed the metro together (3 separate lines, me with 2 rolly bags, a giant backpack, and my laptop bag... basically... luggage on the metro = almost certain death) and arrived at the hostel. Maybe I can post pictures later.

We're at the hostel adriano if you want to google it in madrid. The room is peach, the bed is yellow, the bathroom is so yellow it's ridiculous. very tiny, slippery shower. the phone cyndy gave me is being dysfunctional so i have to take it in to movistar tomorrow.

As for now, Mark and I woke up from a lovely 5 hour nap and are about to go take the metro to Moncloa to meet up with Domenic (the guy I met in the visa office two months ago) for dinner and bar hopping. Huzzah.

Here's to the first night.

Goodbye America!

I leave the house in 1.5 hours. My flight is in 6 hours. I will be in Madrid in 20 hours.

if anyone wants to see the swanky little hostal I booked for the one night in madrid, here is the website -- http://www.adrianohostal.com/

No idea what room I've got. But I do have my reservation confirmation and directions on how to get there from the airport.

I have my bus ticket from Madrid to Cordoba. I have a travel buddy from Philadelphia all the way to Cordoba.

I have this giant excitement in my heart and I'm ready.

But seeing how I leave in a little over an hour, I really need to finish packing.

haHA! Am becoming phone wiz at making my arrangements for Spain. Have called phone company to be put on 3 month suspension, informed wellsfargo of my new location and received special international access code in case financial business goes awry (la di DA!), as well as chose my seat for all 4 flights and also checked the baggage limitations. Have plans on Wednesday to go to the campus STA travel office and get my International Student Identification Card which will give me fabulous discounts and such while abroad. HURRAH!

Attempted to purchase train ticket the other night and it was just a horrible mess. Dani, my Spanish buddy set up by the university, went and found me potential train times and gave me the website to purchase everything, except when I tried to do it, the website was down. Now, it being in spanish, I didn't quite realize it was down and then had issues trying to connect to Spain to call for the train reservation from Madrid to Cordoba. Stupid time difference ruined that idea. In the end, those 3 trains are "purchase at station only" trains so I found an alternative. I will purchase it today.

I should arrive in Madrid around 10am on Friday and from there I will find a place to stay for the night in the city, which is roughly a half hour away from the airport. I may meet up with Emily, as she arrives an hour earlier, but her program also starts that afternoon. Saturday I may wander around a bit and get on the train around 6 or so and arrive in Cordoba around 8pm, or, as I have to remember 20:00. Dani has offered to retrieve me from the train station and take me to my hostel and then out for some "tapas" -- although, I will probably want an entire meal, not just a bowl of olives or some appetizer mumbo jumbo. It will be nice to see Cordoba from the local view the first night, and also so I won't be alone just chilling in my hostel feeling like an idiot.



*edit -- apparently am still retarded in america... when i called to be put on suspension, they put my phone on suspension NOW and not for friday. idiotic people. will call and yell at them.
Sunday night at 1800 (6pm for you Americans) I am to report to the TRYP hotel (which Dani said was on the walk to the hostel so he'd point it out) to begin my orientation. Very excited.

Five days left. I've attempted to pack multiple times. Fail. I have Euros to pick up at the bank and I've set most of my family up on Skype. Talked to Katie O on skype for the first time today, and it was really great because I haven't seen or spoken to her in nearly 2 weeks.

Good to see her. That way I know people still exist and are definitely alive on the other side of the world.

11 Days from now I will be in Spain. The plan is to be in Madrid the first night and travel the second day to Cordoba. I'm saying my goodbyes to my Dana Point family this weekend, and I'll be sad to leave them. Grandma cried when we said goodbye, but I know we'll be just fine. I'm going to miss Sam giving me dried apricots while I'm in Spain.

I've got a lot of logistical planning to figure out. I think I'll start packing on Tuesday.

Oh boy.

Recently found out that I am the ONLY student from UCLA participating in my particular program at Cordoba. No other UCLA student will be with me. Well, here's to starting out on a completely unknown adventure. Fabulous.