the sensational land of chocolate, beer, and waffles... BELGIUM

This past weekend, my friends and I went to Belgium. The main reason we went was for a giant music festival there called Sensation, but I also wanted to go because my dad had told me it was one of his favorite European cities he had been to. It really is a cool city, it's very stereotypical european- the architecture, the streets, everything. Despite the mediocre weather (cloudy and gray, but luckily the rain held off til the end of the day Saturday), we still got to enjoy a nice walk around Brussels. Our hotel was close to the center, so the first night when we got there, we went to a bar Delirium, that everyone had told us to go to. Here, they have a billion beers (well, the most they've had at once was 2004) on tap. Belgian is known for its beer, so of course we tried a few. After, we went and got UNBELIEVABLE french fries, which apparently Belgian is also known for (frites, as they say. they speak some weird language, Flemish, a combination of French and Dutch. There were quite a few instances when communication was an issue). I am utterly confused as to why french fries are not called belgian fries, as these fries were 100 times better than any fries I ate in France.

Saturday we woke up and of course the first thing we wanted to do was get a Belgian waffle. We assumed that, like crepes in France, the best, most authentic waffles would be the ones sold at the stands in the streets. Well, I don't think we would have gone wrong anywhere we went, but the waffle I had was absolutely delicious. Drizzled in chocolate sauce with vanilla soft serve on top. Yum.
After enjoying our waffles (I think I got more on my face than in my mouth, but oh well), we shopped for a bit (mostly window shopping, and a few last minute items for Sensation that night) and walked around before heading over to the Chocolate Museum. Sadly, the chocolate museum was a letdown. I thought there would be more samples than there were, and there was basically nothing there at all. The museum was tiny. We didn't stay for the demonstration, which probably would have been interesting, but we got bored walking around before it was even close to starting. Oh well. We settled for stopping in some unreal chocolate shops and of course purchasing some belgian chocolate to take back.

After buying chocolate, we went to the only landmark I had heard of in Brussels, Mannekin Pis. Why is this such a huge attraction? I have no idea. It's hilarious, but bizarre. It is literally a statue of a young boy peeing. It's also tiny, I expected it to be bigger. Brussels is OBSESSED with Mannekin Pis. Every chocolate store has chocolate versions, some in a variety of colors. There's fake statues of it all over. It's very odd. The statue was dressed up for St. Patricks day, which was cute.

Before going back to the hotel to get ready for sensation, we explored the Red Light District. Now, I haven't been to Amsterdam yet (I am going in a few weeks), but I was told this area is comparable, mainly because of the prostitutes in the windows. This was the strangest thing I have ever seen, I literally could not stop staring, NOT because I was checking out the women, but because this concept fascinated me. This was basically a street consisting of stores with basically naked women standing posing and dancing in the windows. Unbelievable.

We then went back to the hotel and changed into our all white clothes. We were taking a train to Hasselt, for an electronic/house music festival called Sensation, where the dress code was white, except for neon accessories. This festival was UNREAL. the amount of people there was absurd. Thousands. Yet, of course, I still happened to bump into GW people. Really confused of how this keeps happening to me on the other side of the world, but hey I wont complain! Anyways, we then caught an early train back to Brussels before heading home. It was another exhausting, but terrific weekend.

the real mannekin pis .... a giant fake mannekin pis

yum yum yum

Barceloca (no, there is no typo)

This past weekend some friends and I went to Barcelona. While this was a super fun weekend, one of the best yet, I was very quickly reminded why I chose Seville over Barca (for those of you who don't know, I was very torn between the two), and reassured that I made the right decision because:
1) I saw more Americans than Spaniards. I'm not exaggerating. This was a very touristy city (as one could assume), and Spanish is barely even spoken. Even when we attempted to speak Spanish, everyone spoke to us in English. It was interesting.
2) I saw half of the GW population. While this was very nice to surprisingly bump into my GW friends in a city across the world, part of the reason I went abroad was to have a break from GW and make some new friends. It was great seeing people though, it was very weird to be sitting outside eating lunch when all of a sudden my friend from AEPhi walks by! And then this happened again at every bar and club I went to! I even saw people from my camp! It was unreal.
3) Barcelona is the real city that never sleeps. It probably wasn't my best idea to go there the weekend right before midterms, but oh well. The nightlife is insane, it is normal to be out until 6 am every night of the week. Sunday, our flight left at 6:55 am, so we went straight from the club to the airport (with a quick pit stop at the hostel just to pick up our stuff). I'm still catching up on sleep from this weekend, and returned with a pretty bad cold, so I don't think my body would have appreciated an entire semester there.

Now, I'll give a quick play-by-play of the weekend's events. Friday evening we arrived and checked into our hostel. It was our first legitimate hostel experience- bunk beds, one common bathroom, etc. Not exactly what we're used to, but it was clean and in a perfect location, and we weren't sleeping there much anyway (we slept there a total of 5 hours the whole weekend...). After getting settled, we walked around until we found a hole-in-the-wall tapas place, where we ate some great food for a surprisingly cheap price (unusual for Barcelona). That night, we met up with my friend's friends, and we all went to a club where I happened to see my friend from camp, as well as a bunch of people from GW. The club was huge, packed, and a great time.

Saturday, after waking up early to take advantage of the hostel's free breakfast (which was just toast, unfortunately), we headed out to sightsee. I have never done so much walking in my life, but we managed to see alot of the city. Barcelona is known for Gaudi's architecture, which is extremely beautiful and unique. We first went to La Sagrada Familia, a church Gaudi began to build, but died before finishing, so it is still unfinished. We didn't have the opportunity to go in, but the outside was gorgeous. We then walked to Parque Guell, which is basically on top of a mountain, and you get a gorgeous view of the whole city. After stopping to eat, we walked along Las Ramblas, a famous pedestrian street of shopping and restaurants. We walked around a really cool market with every type of food stand you can think of - fruits, juice, smoothies, candies, meats, etc. They even had a stand with animal body parts, including heads, tongues, brains, and hearts. It was disgusting, but fascinating. After this, some of our friends had told us about a beer festival by the beach that was supposed to be cool, so we walked for about an hour trying to find it. We finally found it, and the line was absurdly long, so we decided to pass after all that. At least we got to have a long walk along the water, which was very nice (and a bit chilly compared to Seville...).

Saturday night was another crazy one. We first went to this famous bar called "Chupitos" which is the Spanish word for "shots." Here, they had over 200 types of shots, and it's a secret of what is in each one. My favorites were the Pop Rock shots and the Boy Scout shots. The Boy Scout shot consisted of lighting the bar on fire, roasting a marshmallow, dipping it in a shot, then eating the marshmallow then taking the shot. The Pop Rock shot was when you put the candy pop rocks in your mouth then take a shot and listen to the pop rocks sizzle. It was an odd sensation. Their most famous shot is the "Monica Lowinski." This is a shot that i did NOT partake in, but had the lucky opportunity to witness. I am not going to get into details of what this is (use your imagination..), but let me just say it was hilarious to watch. After Chupitos, we went to Catwalk, a club right by the beach, which was just as cool as the club the night before.



shots at Chupitos...Bob Marley on the left, Boy Scout on the right.


the market on ramblas...don't those animal parts look appetizing?

the views from Parque Güell

La Sagrada Familia

In conclusion, while I am still recovering from my crazy weekend in Barcelona, it was definitely worth it. It certainly deserves the reputation that it has, and I'm excited to go back for longer with my parents in a few weeks so I can see what else the city has to offer.

Just touched down in Londontown

This past weekend I went to London! I visited my friend from home, Libby, and it worked out very well. Getting there was a pain, as I had to fly in to an airport somewhat outside of London, then take an hour and a half bus, and I didn't get to Libby until almost 3 am, but hey, got there eventually!
Saturday we took a bus tour (on a double decker bus, of course), so we basically saw all the famous sightseeing places - London Bridge (technically called the tower bridge, who knew? The original London Bridge is actually in Arizona, boring), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, The London Eye, Big Ben, and the House of Parliament. While I was really hoping to run into Will and Kate on the streets, no such luck. Didn't see Harry Potter either, although I do wish I had the chance to pay a visit to Platform 9 3/4. Saturday night we went out for dinner to a typical London pub. We then bounced around to a few pubs and went out to a club in Picadilly, a popular area of London. It was fun! However, the club had a very random group of people, mostly people my age, but there were a few people around 50 years old. Kind of confused of whether or not this is normal for London, but I was informed it was not. There were also people there in sweatshirts and sneakers, which is not allowed at any club I've ever been to in any city, or country for that matter. It was a very unique experience, to say the least.

Sunday we did not have much time before I had to catch the bus to the airport mid afternoon for my flight, but I was fortunate enough to experience the stereotypical London rain. We spent the afternoon at Harrods, the biggest department store in the world. This was unbelievable, I could have spent all day (and my entire life savings) in there. They sell clothes (every designer you've ever heard of, plus more), accessories, food (an entire supermarket, meat store, chocolate store, and giant bakery), cars, furniture, and more. We ate lunch at a diner in the department store. I got my fair share of American food - chicken fingers, french fries, and of course, Libby and I split a 5 scoop ice cream sundae. On the way out, I stopped in the food department (biggest chocolate department I've ever seen, in a department store!) and got a cupcake (red velvet, yum) and box of chocolate for my host family.

It was very nice to be able to speak English! It was tempting for me to speak Spanish to every cab driver and store or restaurant employee, but then I reminded myself they knew my language! Although, their accent is much nicer to listen to than mine. Also, it was fascinating how they drive on the other side of the road. I was very disoriented, when crossing the street cars come the complete opposite direction than what I'm used to!
me inside a phonebooth, cliche tourist pic
Big Ben and the London Eye behind it
House of Parliament
Buckingham Palace (the Queen was not in, unfortunately)
Westminster Abbey
Just a street, the cute streets like this made me realize London is really not as similar to America as people claim it is, the only similarity I really noticed was the language.
Libby and I in front of the Buckingham Palace gates

Well, it's time for me to go to bed. I'm exhausted from this weekend. Cheerio!

The Great Outdoors

It's been a little while since I posted, so this is going to be a quick post about some recent Spanish activities I've done. The weather has become even more beautiful, always sunny and in the 70s. Last week I realized it was one of my last weekends in Seville, which is very sad. So, my friend and I spent the weekend exploring parts of Seville we hadn't been to before, and trying new activities. The main highlights of our weekend were these:
1. Exploring Los Remedios- an area of Seville. We walked along Calle Asunción, a quaint street of restaurants and shops. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, which was surprisingly delicious. The best surprise was that, despite our refusal, they gave us free tequila shots with the check. Very curious if this is a customary action of Spanish Mexican restaurants or if the waitress just really liked us, but either way, I won't complain. Except for the fact that it was 2 in the afternoon, but hey, I was raised to never say no to free things.
2. After walking along Calle Asunción, we decided to take a paddleboat out on the river. This was the most peaceful, beautiful experience you could imagine. We had an hour of just laying out on the river, in a paddleboat, drinking mojitos. They also forgot to charge us for the paddleboat, so it was just a day of free treats!


On Friday, my special interest group, which is based around sports, took a trip to Cadiz for hiking. Of course, it started pouring the second we began to hike (why wouldn't it? Southern Spain is in a huge drought, but of course it would rain when we are hiking). So, we got back on the bus and went to the end of the trail, and by then it had stopped raining, so we hiked a little bit. The hike was along the ocean, and it was beautiful. If you looked really hard, you could see outlines of some mountains in the distance across the ocean, and we were informed this land was Africa!! He said on less cloudy days Africa was more visible. I wish we could have completed the entire hike, the view I got to see in the 20 minutes I was there was unreal.