Wait, you're telling me I still have a month of vacation?!

I can't believe I've only been in Barcelona for a week (well, a tad over, but I'm really not counting). It feels like I've been here longer, but in a good way.

My Apartment
Not going to lie, when I first walked in I was a little apprehensive.... the place was dirty and organized. I mean the kitchen had dishes piled up in the sink and more piled up on the side, the cabinets made no sense, the trash was full and over flowing, and when I walked into the bathroom the floor was soaking wet. My room itself wasn't so bad, just a little dusty. Now, I do not necessarily think of myself as a neat freak but if there's one thing I get a little OCD about (especially when I'm living with people) is keeping the public spaces clean and tidy. Fortunately, as far as the dishes were concerned, I had simply walked into the apartment at a bad time because that hasn't been a problem since. However, after I took my first shower and the water started to pool around my feet because the drain was clogged, I decided to be "that girl" and just buy everything I thought the apartment needed....starting with Drano. Thankfully, coming from London and Norway, I found everything dirt cheap. I also reorganized the kitchen cabinets because, and I think most people would agree, all the plates should be with other plates and all the cups with cups, etc, etc. So, yeah, that was my first couple of days. Yes, I was a little worried the other girls (did I mention I have 7 roommates?) would be upset/maybe offended that I had decided to do so much without consulting the "household" but most of them just seemed thankful. Now, I really like my place! My room itself is the best part, it's big, airy, and has a terrace! Granted, it was pretty cold the first couple of days because there's no heat in the apartment but now that it's warmed up some it's amazing. Today I ate lunch and read out on my terrace. Here's to many more similar afternoons in the future!

The location of my apartment is also pretty amazing. It's right near Plaza Catalunya and the center of the city. There are so many great places within walking distance and if I can't walk then the bus and metro stops are only a few blocks away. Fantastic!

My Roommates

I've mentioned that there are 7 and yes, that is a lot, but so far so good! While I haven't had too much time yet to hang out and get to know all of them, the ones that I have talked to and hung out with I really like. They're from all over the world too which is pretty cool: Vietnam, Italy, Lebanon, The Netherlands and Florida.

School
Oh yeah, there's a reason I'm living in Barcelona at the moment, sometimes it's easy to forget. Funny story, I emailed my adviser when I arrived here and, due to a slight miscommunication, my courses do not start until March. On one hand it's been great because I've had time to figure stuff out with registering for classes, opening a bank account, getting a SIM card, and all that boring but necessary stuff but on the other hand I'm here to learn! Not that I'm complaining, I'm very good at bumming around European cities, but still, I was looking forward to being a somewhat productive member of society again....

Thankfully, in a couple of weeks I'll be starting a Spanish class so my weeks will be slightly structured again. I really hope to improve my Spanish while I'm here. Sometime I'm a bit surprised at how much I understand when someone is speaking to me but my responses are fairly basic and minimal. I think the class is pretty immersive so hopefully after the five weeks are over I'll be able to have a short conversation without consulting "Google translate" on my phone.

Speaking of bumming around.......
The first weekend I was here my friend Ana (from my same master's program) was also in town. She's from Terrassa (a city 20 km NE of Barcelona), and invited me for a day of hiking in Montserrat followed by lunch at her parent's place. Montserrat is a mountain with a monastery/basilica famous for its black faced Virgin Mary.

Copied from the internet, didn't wait in the humongous/slow moving line to see her up close

You take a funicular up the mountain to the monastery, which is amazing enough in its views, and from there it's a 2 hour hike to the peak. It was pretty windy and cold the day we went but that certainly didn't detract from the views, simply amazing.

View of the church from above

We did the hike in the morning which was great because we got there before a lot of the tourists. On our way up it was only us and a few crazy Spaniards who exercise by running up the mountain.

The hike really worked up our appetite which was much needed for lunch. Ana's mom made a delicious seafood feast with paella as the main event. Mmmmm, it's a good thing I don't eat like that every day.... The only time I've been homesick in the past couple of months was this afternoon with Ana and her family. Even though there was a language barrier between us, they were so welcoming and warm....her dad constantly imploring me to taste different alcohols, never leaving my glass empty for long, and her mom serving me the largest plate of paella I've ever seen in my life made it easy for me to compare them to my own parents :).

I haven't done too much site seeing here on yet because 1) I've been here twice before on vacation and have seen all the main sites and 2) what's the rush? but I have made it to a couple of places.

Last weekend I went up to Castell de Montjuic, a place I don't think I've visited before on other trips here but it had really nice views of the city and the sea.

And of course I've made it to the beach:

That's all for now but I can already tell it's going to be a great semester. Can't wait to discover more of this city!

Bumming Around

I have been on vacation for over a month now and still have a little over a week remaining. Student life really is the best form of life. This vacation has been amazing and I today I realized I should write a post before I forget everything I've done and all the people I've seen/met.

Travel with me back in time to last year, a few days before Christmas....

Stjørdal, Norway:  Dec 21-23, 2014

I spent a couple of days here with my friend Hanne and her wonderfully welcoming family before I flew out of Trondheim. It was a very relaxing couple of days. The highlights were helping to bake the gingerbread pieces for a gingerbread house (way more involved than the traditional McElroy graham cracker houses) and eating the traditional dinner with lutefisk. It wasn't bad, pretty flavorless actually, but I can see how some people might not like the texture. Here's a link for those of you thinking "what the hell is lutefisk?" I also made the required visit to Hell....

 Yup, there really is a Hell, Norway

Bavaria, Germany: Dec 23 - 29, 2014

Most of this time was spent outside of Munich in the small town of Schnaitsee with Nadia and her mom at here cousin Stephan's house. Stephan's house is this amazing old stone farmhouse only heated with stoves. Cold, yes, but I also think it only added positively to the experience. It was so cozy, sitting around the stove drinking what seemed like an endless supply of gluhwein, making home cooked meals every night, watching Christmas movies dubbed in German .... I really loved it. Nadia and her family were amazing and it really felt like a home away from home. It snowed the night of Christmas which only added to the charm of the area....

 We did get to spend 1 day in Munich where I was able to drink in a couple beer halls (yum yum), see the glockenspiel (very anti climatic), and walk around (beautiful city). I highly recommend the free walking tour of the city center. I love taking walking tours around old cities; they really help to refresh my historical knowledge and the guides for the free walking tours are always great because they work solely off of tips.

London: Dec 29 - Jan 28

Well, two of the above days were spent back in my old stomping ground of Gloucester visiting my friend Kate and her adorable daughter Jennifer but the rest of the time I was the unofficial third roommate of Nadia (and her official roommate Ronja) in London. God I love London, I can’t wait to live there next year though it might bankrupt me. Some of the notable activities:

*New Year’s Eve: An “Around the World in 80 Days” themed party hosted by two of Nadia’s friends. Initially I was a little apprehensive about the party when Nadia told me about the 19^th century dress code but after we purchased bowler hats and mustaches I was all in. The party was the type of party I can only imagine myself being ambitious enough to prepare. It was a small affair, only 10 people, but it was a dinner party with different drinks, food courses, and trivia/activities in line with the places Phileas Fogg visits in the book. Now I've never read the book, but that wasn't a required prerequisite. In all honestly, the night ranks in my top five New Year’s of all time.

*Street Markets: Yummy yummy yummy food.

*Indian and Punjabi Cuisine: Best food in London, I ate a lot of it. (Tayyabs and Lahore were both great places)

*The Bermondsey Beer Mile: I learned about this while I was doing the Meantime Brewery Tour in Greenwich, mentioned it to my friend Amanda and her husband Carl who also live in London, and two days later we were walking the mile. To anyone who likes beer and has a free Saturday in London, do this. I think it’s a relatively new activity that has popped up over the years but basically it’s a brewery crawl of six microbreweries mostly under the railway arches from South Bermondsey to London Bridge. They are all within walking distance of each other and most of them only open up shop on Saturdays between 10 am - 5 pm for people to actually drink at the brewery. The beers are tasty, there's the Maltby Street Market nearby for when you need sustenance, and all in all, it makes for a really fun day. One word to the wise, don't drink anymore after the mile is complete. Go home and go to bed. I won't go into details but London took my hat from me that night......

*Walking Tours: I did two "Street Art Tours," one with the London Free Tours by Foot group (with Nadia and friends) and another through the Street Art London group (by myself). Both were good but I liked the Street Art London tour the best. It was a much smaller group and guide talked more about the art than the history and politics of the area which is more what I wanted out of the tour. I only remember a few of the artists' names but the art is still cool regardless....

Ben Wilson: Guy who paint discarded chewing gum on the side walk

Space Invader

 Roa

We also did a "Jack the Ripper" Tour with the Free Tours group which was really great. The guide is a Jack the Ripper Tour guide expert, no, really, she's doing her Phd in "dark tourism." Who knew that's a thing?! We actually did the two free tours in one afternoon which I don't recommend; we were absolutely exhausted the following day.

*Yelp Cooking School Event: Nadia is now a yelp "elite" which means she gets invited to free events only for elites. This was her first elite event and it was awesome; makes me want to start writing more yelp reviews. Basically we did a "street food" cooking class which also included cocktail making and wine. All for free. Let me reiterate, awesome.

*Straddling the Prime Meridian: One foot in the East hemisphere and one foot in the West hemisphere. Where modern time telling was developed...

*Ice skating by Liverpool Street

* Seeing the Rosetta Stone and the British Museum: I hardly go to museums but I figured I should check this one off the list. Great museum though, lots of cool very old stuff (like mummies)

*And of course, seeing James McAvoy in "The Ruling Class" and also getting to take a picture with him: For those of you who are unaware, Nadia and I have been James McAvoy fans for years. I'm not sure where or how it started, maybe Atonement? Penelope? Becoming Jane? Regardless, it's a very good thing that he's married with a child or we might argue seriously about who would be allowed to marry him.....
Anyways, I'm lucky that we scored tickets to this play while I was there, it just opened and it's running until April. I'm even luckier that we were able to score a great deal and only pay 15 pounds for the ticket. I had never heard of the play before, it's from the 70's and hasn't been performed in a while I think, but it was really great. Yes, I'm biased towards James but he is phenomenal on the stage and the rest of the cast also put on a fantastic show. There was singing, dancing, unicycle riding, murder, half nudity... it really had it all. Best line of the play (in my opinion):

Lady Claire Gurney: How do you know you're God?

Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney: Simple. When I pray to Him, I find I am talking to myself.

After the play Nadia and I went and waited outside the stage doors with about 50 other women to get the picture with McAvoy. That's why he looks so exhausted in the picture, after spending three hours on stage he's was nice enough to stick around to take pictures and sign autographs. Yes, I felt like a 14 year old girl but whatever, now I have this picture and it makes me happy (Some of the other fans brought him gifts...at least we weren't THAT crazy).

As I said before, I love London and this was by far my favorite visit I've ever had there. Of course, the fact that I was there for a month means that I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the city. Shout out to all the people who housed me while I was in England: Kate, Amanda, and of course Nadia and Ronja. I am very lucky to have so many awesome friends and especially a friend who doesn't think twice when I ask if I can stay for a month.

Oslo: Jan 28-30

Just a short trip back to Norway to finish my Spanish visa. I never visited Oslo last fall so even though it's annoying I had to come back for my visa it was nice to walk around the city today. In fact, it has nice to be back in Norway in general, it's like being wrapped in warm blanket, comfortable, familiar.... I walked around a lot today but didn't take too many pictures. Here are a few from Vigeland Park, my favorite place I went today but to be fair, I only saw about half of the city in one day....

Funny picture of Norwegian kids sliding down icy stairs in the park. Their teacher was the one pushing them down..... one of the reasons I love Norway. Teachers in the states would have to worry about being sued/convicted of abuse or something stupid if they did this and a kid got hurt...

Tomorrow morning I fly to Barcelona and on the 9th I start my second semester of school. I can't wait to unpack my backpack. Being a bum and crashing at people's houses is great and everything but I am ready to hang up my clothes and have my own room.....

So there you have it, first post of 2015. I think it's going to be great year!

Adiós Noruega! Gracias por los recuerdos.....

The search for Elsa is coming to an end. In a few days I will leave Norway....not forever because I have to fly to Oslo in January to finish getting my Spanish visa (more on that later), but these are still my last remaining days as a full time Norwegian resident. This feeling is always tough. You get used to a place, you develop a routine, you make friends, and suddenly you are uprooting your life once again to move and repeat. I've been living this lifestyle for the past five years and it's always a mixture of excitement and sadness when one's time in a place comes to an end. Well, when I was working it wasn't always sadness (some projects I really wanted to get the hell out of there) but for the most part the feeling is the same every time I leave a place that I've lived long enough to recognize street names and stop using Google maps. I can't help but be excited and slightly nervous for the next chapters in this incredibly lucky life of mine but I will miss Norway. I really like this country and the people I've met here. It is a country and culture that I could live in for the rest of my life if given the opportunity.

So, I thought it fitting to end my time in Norway with a list detailing my favorite memories:

1) My new friends. I've met some great people here and one of the reasons I'm so sad is that I know some of them I may never see again. It's bound to happen, people's lives get crazy and it's hard to stay in touch. Yes, there's always Facebook with it's updates and glimpses into people's live but it's really only good to a certain extent. I hope anyone reading this, new friend or old, knows that no matter how much or how little we keep in touch, they will always hold a special place in my life. And hopefully, someday, we'll meet again...

(I know I'm copying Stephen Colbert with this song but it's a great song!)

2) My trip to Lofoten. Definitely the first place I'm coming back to for a Norwegian vacation. It's just such a breathtaking place.

3) Participating in the outdoorsy Norwegian lifestyle. I think I went on more hikes over these past few months than I've gone on in the past few years. I don't know why that is, I like hiking and I like nature, I should really do it more often. Also, big fan of staying in a cabin in the woods.

4) Cross country skiing. I know this is also a part of the Norwegian outdoorsy lifestyle but it was so much fun I decided it should get its own number and I just returned from the outing about 30 minutes ago. My friend Silje and her boyfriend took me and they were so wonderfully patient. It's been about 15 years since I've had skis on my feet and it took me a bit to get used to it again but I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. Yes, I fell more that once but several of them were just because I don't really know how to stop......What made the whole thing even better was that it was all on a lit path in the dark and there were hardly any other people on the trail. Sometimes it felt like we had the forest to ourselves...

It was awesome and just another reason for me to wish I were staying longer in Norway. Boy am I going to be sore tomorrow though.....

5) Thanksgiving. One of my favorite days/evenings of the whole semester. We (myself and the two other Americans in CoMEM) put together a huge meal composed of traditional American favorites and asked our fellow cohorts to bring any dish they wanted. We ended up with quite an international spread and one of the best meals I ate all semester. Plus, I pretty much took the day off from studying and treated myself to mimosas which I hadn't enjoyed in quite a while. It was a great day.

6) Proving to myself that I'm able to do school again. It was hard to get back into the rhythm of being a student with homework and studying but I think I did OK in all of my classes. I have yet to get any grades back but I'm definitely not an "A" student anymore and I'm fine with that result. I'm proud of myself regardless. This past month I studied more than I think I ever studied during my undergrad. Granted, I don't think the classes I took were any harder than anything I took for my bachelor's but I was extremely anxious about final exams. In Norway that one exam is 100% of your grade for the class. I'm not used to this type of testing, and I'm not a fan to be honest, but I did it and survived.

7) Seeing Trondheim in the summer (and experiencing the long days) as well as seeing Trondheim in the winter. I have to say, I'm getting used to the darkness, maybe because I'm a natural night owl? Not that I love it, the long days in August are preferable, but the dark isn't so bad once you get used to it. Plus it finally snowed! Good solid snow blanketing the city. It's really pretty. I was able to walk around after hitting the Christmas market today and take some pictures.

I have a lot to look forward to during my break. First, my break is almost two months long. Crazy, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself except try and focus on my Spanish Rosetta Stone more. Tomorrow I leave Trondheim to go stay with my friend Hanne at her parents' place until I leave. Have I mentioned how awesome my friends are? They really take care of me! Someday I will return the favor. On Tuesday I fly to Munich to meet Nadia and spend Christmas with her and her family until the 29th where I'll fly back with her to London to ring in the New Year and spend almost the whole month of January. I'm going to get to see some old friends from when I interned in England years ago as well as apply (and wait) for a visa to India. Late January I fly back to Oslo for two nights so I can go to the Spanish Embassy to get my student visa sticker in my passport. Yes, that sounds a little ridiculous doesn't it, but don't even get me started on my Spanish visa. I had a minor meltdown last week when, after I finally received my letter of admission into UPC,  and I realized I couldn't apply for my Spanish visa while I was in London. I had to do it here, in Oslo, or back in the states. After many emails and phone calls, I ended up mailing my passport and visa application to Oslo for them to check over and mail back to me...one week before I was set to leave Norway. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous mailing out my passport BUT it all ended up working out and I am once again in possession of my international travel lifeline. I still have to return in January to get the actual visa which is slightly annoying but hey, I haven't been to Oslo yet so there you go, silver lining. I fly from Oslo to Barcelona on January 30th where I will finally see my new home for the next 4-5 months and hopefully get all settled in before school starts on February 9th. However I can't get too comfortable because on February 11th I'm set to fly to New Delhi for a week to attend my wonderful friend UD's wedding. Two months, 5 countries, I think it'll be a bit exhausting but I'm looking forward to every moment.

That's a wrap Norway! So long and thanks for all the fish.

Selfies and Ice Bucks.......

In a little over a month I will be done with my first semester of CoMEM. Ugh, just typing that statement reminds me how much I need to study for exams on a day that I've been extremely lazy. It is so easy to find other things to do/watch on Netflix instead of studying. In fact, I just finished watching "Freaks and Geeks." How have I never watched that show before?! I'm obsessed.
Slacking aside, these last few weeks have been full of ups and downs. My grandmother died....that was a tough thing to deal with being so far away and without my family. I was able to go to the funerals of my other grand parents and it still feels a little incomplete that I couldn't go to hers....it's hard to put these feelings into words when you lose someone you love and I am certainly not very good at expressing my emotions outwardly but I will miss her. She was a great grandmother and I will forever be her "baby Kyle."

So, yeah, let's lighten the mood a little bit now. Speaking of light, there's less and less of it every day. I think it's only light outside now from 9 - 4:30ish but even when the sun is out it does not get very high in the sky. It's weird how it messes with your mood and attitude. I didn't think it would be that bad but already I can feel the short days taking their toll on me but I have to stay optimistic because it's only going to get worse. Some people say vitamin D supplements help so I'll have to give it a go. I need to force myself to work out at well and get those endorphin's pumping. I am not the best at motivating myself to go to the gym when it's cold and dark outside but hey, it's another way to procrastinate so maybe that'll give me the push I need....

I went on my last big trip of the semester last weekend to Iceland. It was a trip I'd been looking forward to for a couple months now and did not disappoint. For those of you who need a little background, my sister's boyfriend Cory spent the month of October touring around Europe with his band Spray Paint. They ended their tour in Reykjavik at the Iceland Airwaves music festival and when I heard Katy was going to Reykjavik to meet up with them I thought it would be really fun if I joined.
Interesting facts:

• Both Katy and I have traveled a lot internationally but we've never been anywhere outside of the US together (unless you count the border of Mexico which I certainly don't). 
• I'd never actually seen Cory play in ANY of his bands before. I know I know, how can that be? they've been dating for 6 six years and Cory has been a member of numerous bands with consistent gigs all over Austin. 

I don't know, I'm a bad sister (and maybe I was still holding out hope that he'd get back together with his Huey Lewis and the News cover band but I fear that's just a pipe dream). Regardless, both of those situations have now been rectified. My friend and extensive travel buddy Nadia also joined in on the trip which was just the cherry on the sundae. That trip marked the 9th country we've ever traveled to together, crazy. Anyways, the trip was fabulous though it didn't feel like I was in a foreign country. We spent most of our time in Reykjavik which Katy described as akin to a ski town in Colorado. I know it was a music festival (though, to be honest, it really just seemed like Austin on a normal weekend) and therefore filled with tourists, but it was still weird to hear so much English. Americans, Brits, they were EVERYWHERE. It was nice getting back on the plane to Norway and not understanding any of the conversations around me. We did get out of the city for one day and saw the countries major sites but to experience the full charm of Iceland's countryside I'm sure one has to spend a few days camping and hiking. Another trip for another time (in the summer). All in all, the trip was filled with:

• Geothermal hot pots. Didn't make it to the Blue Lagoon due to some technical difficulties but we did go to two of the cities many heated pools/hot pots. Very relaxing. No swim up bar but the largest one had a slide with disco lights. You've certainly got to be comfortable with nakedness though, they require you to shower without a swimsuit in the locker rooms before getting into the pools.
• Cheap beer. At least for me. In fact, everything was cheaper than Norway in general. It was great and it felt good to eat out, go to bars, and partake in good old fashioned gluttony without constantly thinking about the price.
• Music. It was nice to see some live music again, it's really been a while. Plus, I got to pull the "I'm with the band" card once and cut in line which can't help but make a person feel like a baller. I also got to witness the one and only time Spray Paint will ever rock out a hotel conference room. Awkward but priceless.
• Selfies. I don't know what it was but I was obsessed with taking selfies in Iceland. The city has a ton of statues every where and maybe it was the alliteration of the phrase "selfies with statues" that really appealed to me. A few of my favorites (most have already been put on facebook but I know I have a few readers who refrain from social media):
  
  
  

  

  Half face selfie. Tribute to my mother who is always taking this more artful form of a selfie. Really quite hard to do when you try.

  
  
  
  
  
  

And now some non selfie pictures of the scenery:

Apparently they used to drown women here back in the day. A common punishment for incest.....

Gullfoss waterfall. 

:

Nadia and I channeling our inner viking after touring the Saga Museum. A very interesting museum that has wax figure displays describing some Icelandic history. They're creepily life like and depict lovely scenes of war and beheadings.

I believe that summarizes almost everything. Enough procrastinating already, I need to study! But wait, Netflix now has all of "Gilmore Girls" available to watch.......