Spain Summary

I compiled all my footage, all of my photos, and all of my friends' photos to create the best-of-the-best for a summary of the 2010 semester abroad.

There are some bits from Alicante, Valencia, Granada, Elche (where I took a day trip with Scott), and even some footage of my internship.

Enjoy!

Okay. I'll let you in on it, too.

My best friend in the entire program, Carly, left on Friday to see her brother in Sicily and travel around with him before she goes home.

But for me, it was the final day I'd get to see her...until hopefully my graduation party this summer.

It was a very sentimental goodbye, and I wanted to make her a video with all the crazy footage I got of her, because she was the star for a majority of it.

I originally made the video unsearchable, but that proved to be difficult to view for some reason. I made it public on Youtube, and since I made it public there, I figured I'd share it with you all here.

Now, there is a lot of inside jokes in the video, some of which I will try to explain below:
-The "classy as fuck" line by me refers to how we would sometimes use "as fuck" in inappropriate ways, so as to ruin the classiness of the sentence. "That baby is as cute as fuck" and "this is sentimental as fuck" are some examples.
-My dancing: we always wanted to make a dance/sing video but it never was made. Plus, I know how many times Carly acted like a fool on camera for me, so I wanted to reciprocate. Also, the "check out my bum" line was intentional in that sometimes I would accidentally brush up against her butt and she would joke that I was checking her out.
-"This is as exciting as balls" was the same as the "as fuck" line...just a little more strange, and based on how someone we knew talked
-The bus driving away: The actual last time I ever saw Carly...on her bus to Valencia.
-Carly's comments about booze and weed were exact quotes from two of the guys we were walking to the bars with. They were so ridiculous that Carly wanted to mock them on camera.
-Carly mouthing "fuck you! fuck you all!" was in reference to the fact that she, melanie, and I were secluded from the group when we went to the beach. I panned the group (who were all facing away from us) and Carly shared her innermost sentiments.
-The pic of me and Carly staring into eachother's eyes was based on a music video of Bono and The Edge playing in the bar we were at.
-Me feeding carly in cooking class: We stole half the bag of chocolate chips and I would snack on them when no one was looking. When carly was busy chopping, I had to feed her.
-Carly's odd crisscross runway walk: based on an episode of America's Next Top Model
-Marco Polo: Some weird guy who approached Carly in Valencia


The rest is just plain strange footage of us being weird. If only I could capture her trademark weird sound effects. You can hear one when she says "What the-*raerr*" while playing digital solitaire.


Now that you are "in the know," I guess you can watch it.


On to the video already!

A heartfelt farewell

My friend Morgen wrote a blog entry about her "guapas" (beauties) aka friends she made in Spain in the program. I often talk about Morgen, Carly, Sarah, etc, so I think you should have a read...


http://labibliotecaestaenfuego.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-guapas.html

Calpe Update with Pictures (with captions!)

As I mentioned before, we went to Calp for the day.

I think it is written "Calp" but pronounced "Calp-ay" so sometimes I write it with an E.

Drew, my friend, organized a trip for us to go there, and it was about 10 euro round trip to get there. We had a brief stop at the beach, then we climbed up the mountain for most of the time. It was super cool, with these ropes that helped you around "rough" areas. When we got to the top, there were 2 cats living off of human food, as well as a bajillion seagulls that came within feet of our heads. The view was gorgeous. We ate our bagged lunches when we got to the top, much to the jealousy of those cats.

When we got down, we stopped at a cafe just because, then caught a bus ride to the tram. We were cutting it close, b/c the tram left only every hour, so we caught the bus and literally got to the tram station 2 minutes before it arrived, around 8pm. We got on the tram home and witnessed a dancing, screaming/singing drunk spanish woman, which was entertaining for about 5 minutes, then annoying for the rest. Overall, it was a successful trip.


Check out this link to see pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/108023025018790851796/Calpe#
Let me know if it doesn't work...

Calpe Teaser...

Yesterday my friend Drew organized (it's nice when someone else takes charge!) a day trip for some friends to go on a hike in Calpe (2 hour tram ride away). I will write more about it later, along with translations from my radio shows, a brief overview of the USAC hike from January, the cave visit from January, and about a bajillion other things...

but let me leave you this picture as a teaser from yesterday's Calpe hike...

Carnaval Update 2010

Last night was carnaval. To give you a taste of some of the mayhem, here is what my friend's status update was this morning (or rather...afternoon) on Facebook:

Lost: pirate bandana, sword, eye patch, gun, bottle of rum, 20 euro, and memory.

I dressed as a DHARMA Initiative from LOST (known as PERDIDOS here), and saw 21 other DHARMAs!!! Only got a hold of 18 of them, though. My friends weren't fast enough to chase me with the camera for a group of three of them.
Went out at 9:30, stayed out till 4:30am. The party was not even close to ending, and I totally could have stayed out longer had my friends dressed warmer and had more energy.
I set my alarm accordingly, waking up at 2:30pm "this morning".

Pictures and details to come...

Fotos! Fotos! Fotos! Part 2

Park that runs along the water



HUUUGE trees in this park



Parque de Canalejas: that is what it's called




If you ever look up a pic of Alicante, this might be what you see, L'Explananda




Every single tile was hand-laid



Private casino...by invite only!



First four kings' initials were A, L, L, and A, which is interesting because it spells the word for God in Arabic...and they have a strong Moorish history. By the way, this is the coat of arms for Alicante.




The ayuntamiento in El Barrio



Old part of town




Palm trees are everywhere!




Heading up to the Santa Cruz area. Super Cute



Isn't it lovely?





You can see the castle from Santa Cruz



Church in Santa Cruz



Mike, Morgen, Steve, Sarah and Me atop the Barrio Santa Cruz




Morgen, Sarah, Mike, Me, Steve and Allie in Santa Cruz



Steve and Sarah being kids


Sarah is a great photographer...this is overlooking Alicante from halfway up the castle


Sarah again!


Way up top at the castle. Lots of seagulls.


The Mediterranean


Some tombs or something at the castle.



Again, the Mediterranean, but looking to the right instead of to the left, as in the previous picture




Steve and Carly at the castle



More castle


Sarah, Drew, Steve, Me, and Carly posing in an action scene at the castle


Sarah, Steve, Me, Carly, and Drew at the castle




Sarah, Carly and I spell USA!




This castle is over 600 yrs old


Overlooking ALICANTE




Steve, me and Carly pose with the cannons
Parking for motorcycles!


A little window overlooking the city



castle against the sunset





Me sitting on the ledge of the road up to the castle. You can see the bull ring off to MY left.