RIP ANTHONY JIMENEZ.. forever in our hearts

You were an inspiration to all of us. You had the most amazing, upbeat personality of anyone. You were finally so excited about getting your life on track and being the best you could be. This is the most ironic accident of all them, you were fighting in Iraq and nothing happened, you finally make the Marines boxing team, and you get hit real bad. UNREAL.

I remember all the parties we had at your grandpas house, hundreds of people there from every grade, you never cared, you were always so open to everyone. You were just always happy, always down to do anything( good or bad haha), and just an amazing person to everyone. I am so grateful I got to see you over winter break except not knowing that this was going to be my last time :(

Everyone was praying for you but we all know you went to a better, safer place. As Cav just wrote on you wall, heaven just got a little more fun with you around.
- none can believe that we are writing RIP and writing on your facebook walls. This is a sick joke

Love you & miss you

RIP ant.

I had to come back and write something else because I just remembered one of the funniest moments. Superbowl Sunday.Raquel's house. Ice cream ALL over your face, your head in the ice trash can. Kate just posted the pics, I know your laughing up there :)

** only the good diee youn

Gloomy Sunday.

So another sad post is about to be written. I just found out through Facebook( why it is a great connection to people) that my friend Anthony Jimenez is in a coma. I don’t know the full story as of now but apparently he took a blow to the head when he was boxing in NC. He is in the Marines but I think was on a boxing team or something along those lines. I’ve known him since 7th grade and this is just unreal to me. I was basically told that if he comes out of a coma he will be brain dead. WHAT? This is crazy talk. I can’t imagine anything happening to anyone that I know, especially at a young age. Not okay by me. I used to go to his house on Peapond all the time for parties and just to hang out with everyone. He is a funny, crazy, amazing person that had a great future ahead. All we can do it pray. God, you did it once with my friends sister Jillian, you can do it again for all of us.

Stay Strong Jim , you’re in my thoughts & prayers. Love youuuuuuu.

"Take action every day - some small dose at a time." Jeffrey Gitomer

I AM.STERDAM.

 Fun, lazy, decent weather, food, drinks- all describe this past week/weekend in Amsterdam. Almost forgot… prostitution.

It was a 516 reunion in Amsterdam :) it is actually pretty funny when I think about how I am abroad with people that I knew since I was little or went to middle school with. I guess I just never imagined I’d be going to a foreign country with my friends from back home. I met Eddie, Kristy, Matt, Dirk, & Acri on Wednesday night.  Our hostel Heart of Amsterdam was located in the Red Light District. Well, if you don’t know about the RLD, let me explain. It is all of these shop windows that literally have red lights on the top of the door signaling that there is a prostitute waiting for your $ or pleasure or company, but if I was to place a safe bet, I’d go with the $.

--first thoughts were: is this real?, how can this be real,  nakedness everywhere, my guy friends are loving it, we are living right across the street from these people.

Nonetheless, it was a good experience, a learning one too: I will never resort to this profession, (as it is legal in Amsterdam). Seeeee Mom & Dad: I am learning GREAT & USEFUL things abroad ! ha

Moving onto Thursday. 6 people.1 shower= 2 hours to leave the hostel to start our day. BUTTT it was a really nice day outside, only a light jacket was needed, so it made everything much better. We went to the Anne Frank House which was very interesting and something that I never even thought of going to or heard of before. I was just told be everyone that you needed to see it and indeed you really do need to see it. You can actually see the bookcase that was used to hide the staircase and go into Anne’s room where she would write in her diary. They still had the original decorative wall pictures, postcards, etc.. that Anne put up to make her room less bare. It was just a crazy experience. I wish I knew more about the Anne Frank story, I mean I do, but just not the little details that would clarify a few things for me. Well, that’s what Google is for :)  After we just roamed the city getting lost through all the different side streets etc.. We ended up in a Coffeeshop called Barneys in the northern part of the city. I think we were at this place for hours. It was a great time which meant a lot of money spent because we just kept eating, drinking, etc.. ohhh boy. PANCAKE BAKERY...ohhhh yeahhh ! The most famous pancake bakery of them all in Amsterdam and  it was also highly recommended. It is not the traditional pancakes that you think of like IHOP but more like crepes. It just a flat pancake and you can get ice cream & whip cream on it or you can opt for the chicken, cheese, and bacon. I might have had both of them( we went back on Saturday before our flights) J It was a very YUMMMYYYYYYY place.  

Kristy & I split the Ice Cream Pancake !

Fridayyy: weather, booo it was  a light rain & cloudy. But  again, we just roamed around the city, ate,  went into different shops( and by shops I mean there was sex-stores everywhere) I can’t believe what this city has, SO not NEW YORK or anything like in the States. We all then took a tram to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum itself was really expensive, 14 euro, but still worth it. I wish I would have a audio tour to know what I was looking at etc.. but it didn’t seem necessary at the time.  Kristy & I then went to the Sex Museum by the Central Station. It is the first and oldest sex museum. Que interesante is all that comes to mind when I think about my experience here.

Note worthy: “ Coffeeshops” in Amsterdam are NOT the same as  Coffeeshops elsewhere in the world. In Amsterdam, it means weed is sold there and you can smoke inside or out on their front terrace because it is legal in this city. It is just a crazy thing to imagine because you grow up knowing that weed is illegal in the States.  Every place was really relaxed and chill and there was just no arguments etc… I think the calming effect really has an impact. One thing that is strictly prohibited is hard drugs! SAY NO TO DRUGS WOOOOOOOOOO.

Also noteworthy: I would like to go back. There was many things I did not get to see or do which makes me sad but I wouldn’t take the weekend back at all. In the future I would like to see the Tulip gardens that are world famous, take a bike tour, go to the top of the public library to get an amazing view of the city, see the other museums that were there, etc.. Always a next time , I hope.

P.P.P.P.S. 

SPRING BREAK IS ALMOST HERE. I CANT BELIEVE THIS. I only have a month and a half left here. WHERE did the time go? I have NO IDEA. I need to start completing my bucket list that I have for Madrid. Not okay that nothing has been crossed off.  Like the Real World show puts it or maybe just my own words : “ I need to stop being lazy and start getting real” Did that make sense? Ehh oh well.SERIOUSLY though, I do not want to have any regrets about not doing activies and being adventourous. I decided that the night before is when I am going to plan  what I want to do the next day so there is no ifs &'s or butts.  But this is all for after spring break because I have midterms this week. By the way, this should be interesting. I am not sure how I am supposed to study in my bedroom where I can really talk to myself outloud( my fav way of studying, I know weird) and I am distracted by everything. AHhhhhhhhhh. BUENA SUERTE to meeeeeeee!

Muchos Besos xx !

This deserves its own post.

TEMPLE DE DEBOD!

I should just leave it there because nothing can describe how beautiful this place looks when the sun is setting on these old ancient Egyptian ruins. I can't believe this is right here in Madrid near Plaza de Espana. I feel like this is a hidden wonder of Madrid! I had people calling me after I posted pictures on facebook asking where I went to find this place & what city it was in, woooooeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Anyway, I don't know much about the history behind the ruins but I do know that they are the original and were given to Spain. I probably should look up more info, ehhh well see.

This was just a wonderful place to be at right before the sun is about to set and while the sun is setting. I can tell all of us just LOVED being here. You were able to watch the sky go from bright blue to these pinks & purples, and reds. Just wonderful. The way the ruins are illuminated is amazing. AHH I can't wait to go back, maybe have a little picnic dinner before hand and just relax! Sounds good to me.

TAKE A LOOK :

København... maybe going in the winter is not such a good idea.

Back again, only a few mintues later!

I went to Copenhagen, Denmark this weekend to visit Lindsay Garet! It was a lot fun, yet cold. But hey, I should be used to the cold since it has been rainy & freezing here the past few weeks. Copenhagen is not the type of city that you go to to visit a lot of sites etc.. It is not like Madrid or other major cities where there is a ton of sites to see and things to do. It is still a beautiful city and one that I would recommend if you were in the Scandinavian area but not for in the Winter times. The Tivoli Gardens, amusement park etc.. is not open until April and that is supposed to be the biggest attraction there. Oh well, it was still a great time.  I really liked how all the buildings looked. They were much more colorful than Madrid & built upwards( I don't know how to explain this). Even if the buildings were connected , they looked separated by the different colors.

I am going to be lazy( as usual) & try not to write a lot because estoy consada.

I finally missed my first class of the year, woo ha. I got to Denmark in the mid afternoon which was nice because we had the whole day. Lindsay & I went to Stroget Street, which is the famous shopping street with stores galore. I was trying to look for black boots because mine have a hole in them but I had no such luck, boo. Anyway, this was a great street with tons of stores that I miss from home( Urban Oufitters). Lindsay told me I must try the Hot Dogs here because they are amazing. So I did , they were.  Nom nom nom.  Later that night we went to a club called Kulobar & wall street. Everything was soo much fun !

---> I had my first real Danish :) Even though she told me that Danish's weren't really invented there, hmm

I saw the Round Tower, The Amberilog(spl) Palace, Castles, The Little Mermaid Statue, the Canal, lakes etc... Too bad the gardens weren't pretty enough at this time oh well. KeWl FaCt: Hans Christensen, based his fairy tale The Little Mermaid off the statue that is in Copenhagen. Also, which I didn't get to see because it was at least an hr away, Shakespears Hamlet was written about a Castle in Copenhagen.

We did the Carlsberg Brewery Tour on Saturday which was a lot fun. It was a self-guided tour but then we got 2 beers of our choice at the end! We got to see the largest unopened beer bottle collection in the world. I think there is 19,000 and going strong. Bottles from every country etc.. We then took took a day trip, well more like 3 hours trip to Sweden. Malmo, Sweden is only 30 minutes away by train so it is very accesible.We basically just at lunch there but boy was it one of THE BEST lunches ever. We ate at a place called Chili YUMMMYYY...I want to go back.  Night time was bar Barcelona. It was a nice chill relaxing place to go to since I had to be up at 7:30 am for my flight back home!


CAME BACK TO AMAZINGGGGGGGGG WEATHER WOO!! It was high 50's & Sunny. It couldn't have been better. I walked around with Kayla, got Donor Kabob( yum) & found out that the metro Cuatro Caminos is about a 5 minute walk from us. What you discover when you stop being lazy & start being adventurous.

Hasta Leugo( as in 5 minutes until my next post)

When a hero comes along...

Hola chicos!

Its been a while, not sure why I always start all my entries this way when you all should know by now that this is a weekly entry or so because I am LAZYYYYYYYYYY.

Anyway back to wayyy back back back

For my Spanish Civilization and Culture class we got to tour the Congress, Senate( we got a goodie bag to take home), and the Romantic Museum. I really like how we are able to go on all of these field trips especially to the Congress and Senate because those are really hard to get into without being part of a school organization like we are. All of these places were very enjoyable. In the Congress we got to see where the King sits and see the bullet holes from when there was a coop back in the 80's? 90's? I can't remember the time period. In the Senate we saw the two different senate rooms that were used & learned how they change the seat coverings ( either blue or red) depending on which political party is in power. They literally tear down the velvet and re-do it! Also, if a senator disagrees from the majority of the party, he has to pay the party a fine. I find this weird but maybe it is just me.

In my art history class, we went to the Royal Tapestry Factory( same building from back in the day) and to the Prado Museum again but to see Goya this time! The Tapestry factory was very interesting because we saw the tapestries that were modeled after Goya's tapestry cartoons( just paintings) and then went to the Prado to see Goya's actual work. I really love this class because the teacher shows us the most important painting and then gives us an elaborate but still captivating description of all the paintings.

...Now for When a hero comes along--
We had a group walking tour again. Kind of the same as the last one except the only difference was this was in Spanish and we got to see the 'suicide' bridge. They had to put plexy(spl?) glass all around the bridge so no one would jump off of it anymore. ANYWAY!. I was talking to my friend Britney H but also facing my other friend Britney J who was in a different conversation, when all of a sudden I saw a sketchy guy walk by. Britney J had her bag open( as usual, but now she is much more careful after this event). I stopped mid conversation and yelled " HEY HEY HEY" & stuck my hand in her bag on top of the guy whose hand was already in her bag. He was trying to steal her Ipod. He walked away nonchalantly & yelled back to the group of us " LOCA LOCA LOCA" . He was trying to play it off as if I was the crazy one. NOT COOL, but I didn't care because he didn't get away with stealing anything. My heart was racing because all of the adrenaline but it was well worth it. No one in my class even knew what was going on it happened so fast. But, I did save the day & taught Brit a lesson soooooooooo YAY.

Back to a bunch of other random things that have happened...

Decided to try to walk home from school for the first time about a week and a half ago. It was GREAT! The weather was finally so beautiful, you didn't even need a jacket, and I had never tried to walk home before. I had heard that it takes almost the same time to walk as it does to ride the metro, so why not try it. It was the most wonderful walk ever! I walked home with a girl named Yev who lives only a few metro stops north of me so it worked out perfectly. I got to see buildings I had never seen before because I was under gound the whole time. We saw the Neptune Fountain, Plaza Ciebeles, the Stock Market, Plaza Colon, a bunch of cute outdoor restaurants, and more! Along the way we found a flower shop and couldn't resist. They all smelled great and we knew flowers would be the icing on the cake for this day! I bought two flowers, one for me and one for my senora( I think she appreciated it).

Next event: Went to a second-hand English book store with my roomie Emily & some others. It was really cool cause I have never been to one, except nothing special, obv. I bought a book my Sophie Kinsella(just cause I love reading her books) but I probably won't get to reading it any time abroad, oh well. Emily & I also toured the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where Real Madrid Plays. It was kind of expensive but well worth it. We got to sit where the players sit, see the stadium when it was empty & see the sign " Real Madrid" ,see the trophies etc.. Good times especially since I live 5 minutes from the stadium.

Otherwiseeeeeeeeeeee. We did the unthinkable. We found a Taco Bell in Madrid. All of us have been craving Taco Bell haha. CRUNCH WRAP SUPREME WOOO. We all decided last Tuesday that we would take the trek to this oh so great of place, TBELL. I told everyone it closed at 10 because it was inside a mall so we all raced to get there. We thought this might be a Zone B type of situation( refer to Zone B post if you don't understand) but it wasn't thank god. We had to transfer 3 times and walk a VERY long distance but finally reached this HUGE & I MEAN HUGE mall. We ran in single file because it was 9:50 and we were all really nervous. It looked as if we were going to rob the mall or do something destructive. 12 Americans all running is quiet the scene. WE MADE IT wooo! We all finally sat down & enjoyed our meals. MmMm Bean Burrito! I think everyone hated me( well not really but it is funny now) because it was 10:45 and still people were coming in to eat in TBell and then 11 rolled around and still more people. I learned that it closes at 12 on weekdays and 1 on weekends. Oops.





More you know your in Madrid when...
- You smile & no1 smiles back
- you've had the harshest winter in 30 years( boo rain & coldness)
- the little babies are in what looks like mini sleeping bags
- dog poooop is everywhere



BESOS xox

You know you're in Madrid when...

This is a little list, ongoing of course, that I have come up with that are different/confusing/interesting from the United States!

You know you're in Madrid when...

1) Pigeons fly extremely low. You better watch out otherwise they WILL be right on top of your head!

2) Everyone stands on line about 30 minutes before you can even start boarding the plane or people get up numerous stops before their actual stop on the Metro

3) Nothing is open on Sundays, no shopping, no restaurants, no grocery stores, NADA.

4) There is an abnormal amount of salt on all of your food, salad, vegetables, meat, pasta, etc... I had to tell Rosa I did not like salt that way she would stop putting it on my food. Every time I ate the salad with salt grains everywhere I wanted to choke & I felt my arteries clog ha.

5) There is NO late night food open. I don't understand! The amount of money these stores would make catering to all the late night partiers & people just out late would be crazyy! Only places I know of that are open late are Pa Pizza on Gran Via, Chocolate con churros by Sol, & the Chinos(Chinese people) who buy sandwiches from places and sell them cold on the streets to people who are desperate... it might have been to me one time :)

6) PDA is EVERYWHERE. The metros, parks, walking, everywhere. Except it is more obnoxious than I have ever seen before. I am not sure if it is because people's houses here are smaller so there is not room to hang out in the houses & so couples must go elsewhere to enjoy themselves or what but its a bit much sometimes.

7) Spanish people give you candy/ food when it is their birthday :)

8) Vale( the Spanish word for true, yes, okay, I understand, that makes sense,etc.. It has a ton of meanings) is used multiple times in a sentence and ends almost every sentence!

9) You think you understand how the street numbers work but actually you don't. They are very different from the United States. One side of the street is odd numbers and goes down in numbers while the other side of the street is even numbers but goes up in numbers. Example. You can be looking at 47 and be on the even side of the street, but since the street #'s go in the opposite direction, you will not find 48 right across the street from you like you think you would, you might have to walk  few blocks to get to you. ( im bad at explaining this boo)

10) Chupa Chups are everywhere. They are at every candy store, convience store, shops along the way on the street, movie theaters etc.. They are really good lollipops that we have in the States but are just not as popular as in Spain because they were actually invented here.

11) You think you understand that the right side will be the down escalator but then you go to the next escaloter and the down one is on the left side. I am so confused as to how you are EVER supposed to figure out which side goes up or down because I don't think their is a pattern. Its random I swear!

random other sides notes I've been meaning to write about:

- Rosa makes me eat as soon as I walk into the house from school. It is actually quite annoying becuse sometimes I need to go to the bathroom or I just want to rela x for 5 minutes and she will get offended if I don't eat right away. Also, I sometimes don't want to eat by myself so I will ask to wait 10 minutes for the girls next door to come by but she says no no no. Oh well, just cultural differences!

- I feel safe here for the most part which is a good feeling to have! Walking home alone at night is very lit up and I don't ever really feel too scared. This is a big deal for me, you all know I am BABY & a SCARDY CAT!

-Lacasitos are Spain's version of M&M's

- Rosa again, this one is sort of funny I guess. But she told me I will no longer get strawberries because I didn't eat all of mine the other day at lunch. They were expensive apparently & I only ate half of each one because I was stuffed. The son-in-law ate the rest of mine so Rosa wasn't offended anymore but she still told me that everyone else will get them except me. I told her " pero me gusta las frescas" but she wasn't having it haha.  THEN, Emily just asked me if I got strawberries at lunch yesterday, I ate separately because I was running late, & I said no. So I guess she was not kidding around lol.

BESOS!!!