If you are above age 40 this post might interest you. If not this post will contain 0 partyparty so you should just move on to the next one
Ten things about spain
1) time
if they have wrist watches in spain you would NEVER know it. No one is ever on time for anything, nothing starts when its suppose to, none of the stores or shops have store hours, and the sun makes 8pm feel like 4 in the afternoon. Their work schedule is una BROMA(jane--joke) they go to work around ohhh 9am or 10 in the morning leave a 2pm for siesta come back at around 6pm and work till 8. doesn't that sound soooooo productive?
2) there is no ice anywhere.
and if you find it is most likely because your drink costs 15euros or your buying a 10euro bag of ice. Regardless its like gold
3) Im going to go ahead and say their is no FDA.
When i had a bad cough my madre gave me 2400mg of advil in 12 hours (in the US we take 1200mg in 24hours) and 2000mg of some other mystery Spanish drug (probably illegal in the US). Totally cured me though, cross your fingers my stomach isn't bleeding and my liver is still functioning by the end of the trip
4) why refrigerate when you can leave it out on the table for days on end? Yummm
whereas at home when we are in question about refrigerating something we err on the side of refridgerating Spanish people say lets just leave it out! For example. milk is never refridgerated, we currently have ten jugs lined up on the bottom shelve of our pantery....
5)making out
at first we were slightly repulsed by the endless amounts of people making out EVERYWHERE in the water, at the beach, at the park, at a restaurant, on your street corner..... the list goes on. and its not just like kissing with some tongue, it is like full on groping, rolling around, hard core making out. i was going to say: then Tory and I kinda got jealous, but actually its still repulsing. Totalllllly can see molly jenner getting into it though...thats a whole other thing
6) Valencia is influenced by French--yah for me!
not really. it actually just complicates the spanish language for me even more. You come to spain and they have the weird accent already and then Valencia has its own language. I actually don't know why historically their is a French influence here....but some examples are that every street is "Carre" instead of Calle and they call the college "universitat" instead of universidad
7)Boobbbbbbbbbs (and whats attached to them)
if you like them, come to the Valencia beaches on a weekend. there are a plethera of fake ones too if you're into that. But actually we've noticed that all the girls here are either realllllllllly skinny or not so skinny at all---but everyone seems really comfortable with their own bodies. which is a good thing annnnddd a bad thing. Sorry but I was 80 and 350 pounds i migghtt not frolic gayly in the surf with just thong on.
There isn't much of a style that i have seen expect trashy. Its not the exclusive style but everyone here (men and women) have tatoos, girls where shorts were you literally see their ass cheeks, and lots of see through clothes. Yah for Europe!
8)the family unit is extremly close knit
we're talking our sisters boyfriend spends the night most nights...awk. Apparently its common to not move out of your house in Spain until your married, so a lot of 30 year olds are reeking havoc on their parents casas.
9)the cats meow in spainsh. its wierd
10) they RAGE--at uva bars close at 2. Valencia some open at 2 or 3.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Blog Negligence
So Tory and I have our spanish finals in two days which obviously mean that I suddenly have all this motivation to write on our blog... Promise over the next few days we'll update you on everything thats happened in Valencia. Between the madre (Janie this means mom in spanish) drama, PaRtYiNg, and language struggles we got lottttts to talk about. And we have to get you caught up before we leave for Marseille, France--just booked our hostel!
First we'll start with Marie Jose, our Spanish mom. We started our trip thinking our home was AWESOME.
Everyone else was being serving what they described as "baby food"and mooosh, while we heard the sweet sizzle of our madre's home fryer every night making us french fries, chicken nuggets, fried fish, and this weird fried ham and cheese block (which is obviously good because its fried). 10 pounds later we broke it to her that we in fact didn't want to look like total whales by the end of the summer--so now we only get french fries every other night. We've figured that our family isn't really much for health considering our madre is trying to lose weight by eating 20 jellos a day and she considers multicolor pasta with lettuce and croutons a "salad"
We've actually had some really good authentic dishes mostly involving rice and seafood, but at the same time we've had some food that left me legit gagging/ choking (spewing if you want to get graphic) like their weird sausage that looks like it has 0% real meat 100% organs in it, this really odd combo of COLD tomato sauce on rice with a fried egg, and supper mushy vegetables. Oh and for lunch everyday we get two sandwiches of GROSSSSSSSS lunch meat that we throw away--we've shown our madre 3 times Creme de Cacahuete (Jane this means peanut butter in spanish), but they don't sell it at her grocery store (which is one block away) and she DOES NOT SHOP at the other grocery store that has it (which is two blocks away).
#madreproblems
The mealtimes themselves are kind of hilarious. They usually involve our madre hovering over us asking us if we want more then the salad, baguette, chicken nuggets, pasta, meat and pudding we have in front of us. They also refer to Tory for everything--we are pretty sure they think i am mentally challenged (like they actually talk about me in front of Tory). Then when i attempt to speak any spanish they cut me off and ask Tory. Even though the other night our madre shrieked at me for not speaking spanish at the table. the hypocrite. Thus we've decided that she's bipolar and moved on from the subject avoiding her as much as we can.
In terms of family drama everyone here has had their share, but what really takes the cake is our madre's passive aggressive notes that she leaves around the house instructing us on what not to do, even after she's told us 1000 times through out the day. The count right now is at four explaining 1) how to work the lock (this is a not funny-funny in hindsight story we'll tell later) 2) to please hang up our clothes (shes OCD about our room) 3) to not leave any windows of the shower open because they have a depressed cat who is desperate to jump and lastly 4) something about the water and only using cold water. I honestly still don't get this one, so I'm expecting another note soon. We're averaging one a week and I'd bet we'll get another one before we go.
The finally deet on our homestay is our room. Our super smell SUPER hot super small room. Tory and i pretty much lie half naked in bed dripping in sweat trying to fall asleep all night. We have bunk beds and it is physically impossible to sit up in mine. its so great!...not
I'm just so over being mothered more then I was by my own mother when I was 12. but...OUR TRIP HAS ACTUALLY BEEN FUN I PROMISE. more on that later.
gotta watch baseball. GO HOOs
First we'll start with Marie Jose, our Spanish mom. We started our trip thinking our home was AWESOME.
Everyone else was being serving what they described as "baby food"and mooosh, while we heard the sweet sizzle of our madre's home fryer every night making us french fries, chicken nuggets, fried fish, and this weird fried ham and cheese block (which is obviously good because its fried). 10 pounds later we broke it to her that we in fact didn't want to look like total whales by the end of the summer--so now we only get french fries every other night. We've figured that our family isn't really much for health considering our madre is trying to lose weight by eating 20 jellos a day and she considers multicolor pasta with lettuce and croutons a "salad"
We've actually had some really good authentic dishes mostly involving rice and seafood, but at the same time we've had some food that left me legit gagging/ choking (spewing if you want to get graphic) like their weird sausage that looks like it has 0% real meat 100% organs in it, this really odd combo of COLD tomato sauce on rice with a fried egg, and supper mushy vegetables. Oh and for lunch everyday we get two sandwiches of GROSSSSSSSS lunch meat that we throw away--we've shown our madre 3 times Creme de Cacahuete (Jane this means peanut butter in spanish), but they don't sell it at her grocery store (which is one block away) and she DOES NOT SHOP at the other grocery store that has it (which is two blocks away).
#madreproblems
The mealtimes themselves are kind of hilarious. They usually involve our madre hovering over us asking us if we want more then the salad, baguette, chicken nuggets, pasta, meat and pudding we have in front of us. They also refer to Tory for everything--we are pretty sure they think i am mentally challenged (like they actually talk about me in front of Tory). Then when i attempt to speak any spanish they cut me off and ask Tory. Even though the other night our madre shrieked at me for not speaking spanish at the table. the hypocrite. Thus we've decided that she's bipolar and moved on from the subject avoiding her as much as we can.
In terms of family drama everyone here has had their share, but what really takes the cake is our madre's passive aggressive notes that she leaves around the house instructing us on what not to do, even after she's told us 1000 times through out the day. The count right now is at four explaining 1) how to work the lock (this is a not funny-funny in hindsight story we'll tell later) 2) to please hang up our clothes (shes OCD about our room) 3) to not leave any windows of the shower open because they have a depressed cat who is desperate to jump and lastly 4) something about the water and only using cold water. I honestly still don't get this one, so I'm expecting another note soon. We're averaging one a week and I'd bet we'll get another one before we go.
The finally deet on our homestay is our room. Our super smell SUPER hot super small room. Tory and i pretty much lie half naked in bed dripping in sweat trying to fall asleep all night. We have bunk beds and it is physically impossible to sit up in mine. its so great!...not
I'm just so over being mothered more then I was by my own mother when I was 12. but...OUR TRIP HAS ACTUALLY BEEN FUN I PROMISE. more on that later.
gotta watch baseball. GO HOOs
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
LA PLAYA
Sooooooo today we were woken by screaming (and i mean screaming) children. Oh guess what they will be there every morning because there is a kindergarden behind our apartment. This is only the beginning of the hilarity of our living situation, and i dont mean that in a bad way at all! just in a every time Tory moves in our bunk beds i hear it--that's life kinda way.
I love the family. Its funny because Tory gets about half of what Mama is saying and i get an eighth and they are usually conflicting. Like "she said we get on the bus close to the Consum" "oh I thought she said NOT to get on the bus next to the Consum" "oh..." we usually figure it out though.
Its hilarious how worried they are about our pale skin. After we went on a run today and both of our faces were red Mama kept telling Tory tomorrow she should wear sunscreen. like repeatedly. We kept telling her it was from running but I am almost positive tomorrow she will insist she watch Tory put face sunscreen on. In other news I am going to be another race by the end of the summer!!! We went to the beach today and it was sooo perfect.
more to add later.
Choaaaaaaaaaa
Catalina
I love the family. Its funny because Tory gets about half of what Mama is saying and i get an eighth and they are usually conflicting. Like "she said we get on the bus close to the Consum" "oh I thought she said NOT to get on the bus next to the Consum" "oh..." we usually figure it out though.
Its hilarious how worried they are about our pale skin. After we went on a run today and both of our faces were red Mama kept telling Tory tomorrow she should wear sunscreen. like repeatedly. We kept telling her it was from running but I am almost positive tomorrow she will insist she watch Tory put face sunscreen on. In other news I am going to be another race by the end of the summer!!! We went to the beach today and it was sooo perfect.
more to add later.
Choaaaaaaaaaa
Catalina
Monday, 23 May 2011
España!!
Hola! Saludos de España!
So we officially survived our first country and made it out of England alive and with a new-found tendency to say certain words with slight British accents. We spent two days doing the tourist thing, walking around London, learning how to ride the Tube and the double decker buses with our royal wedding edition "oyster cards", checking out Buckingham Palace, and touring the Tower of London (where they keep some serious bling..500 carat diamonds anyone?). The rest of our time we spent reminiscing on our high school days.. helping Reilly, one of the boys who we were staying with, shop for prom and graduation and discussing all the latest school prama (aka prom drama...thanks for that Caitlyn). One of the nights we went "pubbing" with the Doorises [their name is officially the most difficult to pluralize] and ended up at a place called Tex-Mex [you know going the culturally diverse route and getting margaritas] where they have over 150 different types of shooters and the rowdiest customers don sombreros. Oh and last night after grabbing dinner in SoHo with some friends [Collin and our new friend Chivé], we got conned into buying 10 dollars worth of frozen yogurt at this place called Snog [this place frightened Chivé who refused to go in] ...thanks in part to the fact that we couldn't understand what the lady behind the counter was saying [who says British isnt another language?].
But adjusting to looking the opposite way when crossing the street and deciphering the British lingo was a cake walk compared to what Caitlyn and I have experienced in the past 12 hours. We arrived in Valencia at 12 o clock today 1) a day earlier than everybody else in the group 2) Still without phones and 3) not knowing where to go or how to get there. Using our less than stellar Spanglish [today i managed to ask our sister what classes she drank and demanded that our Mama do my laundry at that every moment...ooooppsie] we somehow managed to get to our host family's house and settled in. The family has been very welcoming and so nice but they speak no English whatsover so we've had to butcher our way through many a conversation already...with lots of nods, smiles, and "I have no clue what you just said" looks. We have several housemates..a cute little dog named CoCo a cat named Gris who likes to run away and jump out windows so we have to be on the lookout, a little baby turtle whose name we do not know[es una tortuga!], and a 22-year old peer daughter ["peer daughter" lol] who's name has already escaped us [BUT IS SO COOL shes going to take us out when she is done with exams and seems to be the only family member that understand we need to be spoken to about 5 times slower] The food here is soo good which is such [like suuuuuchhhh] a problem. And Caitlyn and I have no clue how to say "I'm full" in Spanish so all we can do is eat more. Looks like its time to accidentally get lost in Valencia and go for another 6 mile run. To say that we are out of our element would be an understatement but even though Caitlyn confuses her French, Spanish, and God knows what other language she thinks in, all too often and I can't understand half the words they say with the Spanish "th" we survived our first day and are already 5 pounds heavier than when arrived.
Tomorrow we go to LA PLAYA and get tan. Our host family already made me go to the pharmacy to get SPF 50 sunscreen so no worries there [they literally forced her to buy 30 dollar sunscreen because they think she is so pale]. That's all for now...Sorry I suck at blogging.
¡Adios Amigos!
Victoria
(y Catalina the editor...i put my comments in [brackets])
obviously Tory put up the suuuuuper cute pic of herself and my foolish ones...
So we officially survived our first country and made it out of England alive and with a new-found tendency to say certain words with slight British accents. We spent two days doing the tourist thing, walking around London, learning how to ride the Tube and the double decker buses with our royal wedding edition "oyster cards", checking out Buckingham Palace, and touring the Tower of London (where they keep some serious bling..500 carat diamonds anyone?). The rest of our time we spent reminiscing on our high school days.. helping Reilly, one of the boys who we were staying with, shop for prom and graduation and discussing all the latest school prama (aka prom drama...thanks for that Caitlyn). One of the nights we went "pubbing" with the Doorises [their name is officially the most difficult to pluralize] and ended up at a place called Tex-Mex [you know going the culturally diverse route and getting margaritas] where they have over 150 different types of shooters and the rowdiest customers don sombreros. Oh and last night after grabbing dinner in SoHo with some friends [Collin and our new friend Chivé], we got conned into buying 10 dollars worth of frozen yogurt at this place called Snog [this place frightened Chivé who refused to go in] ...thanks in part to the fact that we couldn't understand what the lady behind the counter was saying [who says British isnt another language?].
But adjusting to looking the opposite way when crossing the street and deciphering the British lingo was a cake walk compared to what Caitlyn and I have experienced in the past 12 hours. We arrived in Valencia at 12 o clock today 1) a day earlier than everybody else in the group 2) Still without phones and 3) not knowing where to go or how to get there. Using our less than stellar Spanglish [today i managed to ask our sister what classes she drank and demanded that our Mama do my laundry at that every moment...ooooppsie] we somehow managed to get to our host family's house and settled in. The family has been very welcoming and so nice but they speak no English whatsover so we've had to butcher our way through many a conversation already...with lots of nods, smiles, and "I have no clue what you just said" looks. We have several housemates..a cute little dog named CoCo a cat named Gris who likes to run away and jump out windows so we have to be on the lookout, a little baby turtle whose name we do not know[es una tortuga!], and a 22-year old peer daughter ["peer daughter" lol] who's name has already escaped us [BUT IS SO COOL shes going to take us out when she is done with exams and seems to be the only family member that understand we need to be spoken to about 5 times slower] The food here is soo good which is such [like suuuuuchhhh] a problem. And Caitlyn and I have no clue how to say "I'm full" in Spanish so all we can do is eat more. Looks like its time to accidentally get lost in Valencia and go for another 6 mile run. To say that we are out of our element would be an understatement but even though Caitlyn confuses her French, Spanish, and God knows what other language she thinks in, all too often and I can't understand half the words they say with the Spanish "th" we survived our first day and are already 5 pounds heavier than when arrived.
Tomorrow we go to LA PLAYA and get tan. Our host family already made me go to the pharmacy to get SPF 50 sunscreen so no worries there [they literally forced her to buy 30 dollar sunscreen because they think she is so pale]. That's all for now...Sorry I suck at blogging.
¡Adios Amigos!
Victoria
(y Catalina the editor...i put my comments in [brackets])
obviously Tory put up the suuuuuper cute pic of herself and my foolish ones...
Thursday, 19 May 2011
London Living
HIII ALLL,
Coming at you live from LONDON. Sooooo great here tory and i have decided we might live here after college. Right now we are staying with Will Dooris's, my (Caitlyn's) friend from high school, family. They are being so amazing the first day they showed us around and we saw Big Ben, Buckingham palace, Westminster, Pickcadilly Circus lalala. Then today we went on a casual 6.6 mile run (meant to go 3, but obviously got lost and obviously walked most the way home) and went shopping! Some people in London look really cute while others are 50 and wearing pleather, so really there is a wide variety of fashions I guess you could say.
Getting to London was what typical...and pretty indicative of our planning stage of this trip aka we had no idea what was going on. 1)neither of us had phones so when I got to DC i had no idea if Tory was there 2)we didnt have email at the airport so I couldn't email Mrs. Dooris and tell her what I was wearing as I was supposed to 3) we didn't have the Dooris's address or phone numbers so when we went through customs the lady verbally attacked our stupidity for a good 5 minutes and almost didn't let us in soo needless to say the plane leaving an hour and a half late due to weather was icing on the cake. BUT WE ARRIVED. at 7 am London time and 1 am US time. and we preceded to stay up till 8 pm to get acclimated to the time difference. We are suppose to go pubbing tomorrow!!!!!
and we throw away our rubbish in the bin...
Sorry this post is really boring I'm just really sleepy. better stories to come I promise. ALSO as a disclaimer excuse my spelling and punctuation and general word choice anndddddd general thought process . If i had to edit this blog it would be rather boring for me to write soooooooooo I'm not going to. I cant speak for Tory! (who just edited this post)
NIGHT YALL
Caitlyn
(edited by tory)
Coming at you live from LONDON. Sooooo great here tory and i have decided we might live here after college. Right now we are staying with Will Dooris's, my (Caitlyn's) friend from high school, family. They are being so amazing the first day they showed us around and we saw Big Ben, Buckingham palace, Westminster, Pickcadilly Circus lalala. Then today we went on a casual 6.6 mile run (meant to go 3, but obviously got lost and obviously walked most the way home) and went shopping! Some people in London look really cute while others are 50 and wearing pleather, so really there is a wide variety of fashions I guess you could say.
and we throw away our rubbish in the bin...
Sorry this post is really boring I'm just really sleepy. better stories to come I promise. ALSO as a disclaimer excuse my spelling and punctuation and general word choice anndddddd general thought process . If i had to edit this blog it would be rather boring for me to write soooooooooo I'm not going to. I cant speak for Tory! (who just edited this post)
NIGHT YALL
Caitlyn
(edited by tory)
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