Merry Christmas!

Happy Jesus Birthday, everyone! I made it home to Missouri, safe and sound (after an epically long travel period). I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break!

Never Nudes!

During our stay in Istanbul, my favorite (only) pair of jeans met their demise.  I’ve always been very hard on my clothes, climbing over things and running around doing various stupid things.  Unfortunately, my jeans just couldn’t keep up anymore.  By the end of the trip, the tears in the crotch-area of my jeans made their way halfway around the back of my thigh, necessitating tights underneath and leaving the jeans unfortunately irreparable.

RIP, level 99s.

Never fear, citizens of the world! I found another use for them.  Channeling Tobias Fünke from the television series Arrested Development, I am a proud owner/wearer of:

Never-Nudes!!

THERE ARE DOZENS OF US!! DOZENS!!

Nonprofits: Share the Love

On my flight back from Istanbul, I happened to join a conversation with two young men who were on a cross-continental trip, spreading awareness for a non-profit based in the Bay Area. They started together in China and worked their way, eventually, to Istanbul, volunteering along the way. Check out the organization at this website:

http://www.worldwideopen.org/

It’s a very Christian organization, so take it as such. Regardless of affiliation, more good can always be done working together. Just some food for thought.

Lufthansa and Swiss Air >>>>>> Ryanair and Vueling

Sometimes good flights just can’t be beat.

We made it back from Istanbul with bizarre stories and bazaar schwag in hand. But first: I must learn the entire history of northern Africa. See you later!

Londontown

As mentioned previously, I spent last weekend in London with my friend Miranda, from B&B P2SF09.  It was an awesome time and reaffirmed everything I had previously learned about London from Love, Actually.

1.  They really like Christmas

2.  It’s kinda cold there

3.  They have cool accents.

So Miranda came and picked me up at Victoria Station, snowman donut in hand.  We proceeded back to her place (she goes to London School of Economics for a Master’s program, and lives in school housing).  After dropping my things off, we went to her pub and I met some friends.  Showing that she does, in fact, know me, Miranda then took me to her library.  It’s epically huge and well designed and probably has a consistent internet connection.  You know, many of the things that Spanish libraries lack.

The next day (Saturday), we got out of our sleeping bags, packed up our bins, loaded the trailer, signed a thank-you card and got on our bikes.

All of that previous sentence was a lie- except for the getting on our bikes part.

That’s right, Miranda’s back on the (wrong side of the) road.  I have to say, as awesome as it was to watch her get on the bike again (after a crash in Colorado leading to a broken collarbone/head injury), it was terrifying to do so in England, with the backwards-upside down-completely wrong direction of traffic.  We survived and rode to Hyde Park, enjoying being back on the road together.

Pay no attention to my looming shadow.

Afterwards we wandered along the Thames, stopping for lunch and banana-flavored hot chocolate along the way.  I saw some of the famouses: The Globe (after burning down several times), many marketplaces, St. Paul’s Cathedral, bridges galore, Westminster and Big Ben.

Westminster and Big Ben.
This is my token tourist picture

Saturday night, we took the advice of Miranda’s flatmate and paid online for this Secret Cinema event. Basically, you paid online and they send you an invitation, complete with address, time and costume suggestions  This time it was American 20′s (flappers, gangsters, etc).  So we get there and everyone is really into it- flowers, sequins, slang.  They take us into this fake speakeasy, where you can sit and watch showgirls dancing and tap shows, as well as hear live big band music.

Then comes the cinema part: they turned on the movie, this film from the 70s called Bugsy Malone starring a young Scott Baio and Jodie Foster.  All of the characters are kids, but act as adults- gangsters, dancers and working people, trying to make their way in the age of Prohibition.  The way the gangsters kill each other in the films is by cream pies in the face or by guns loaded with cream.

So the movie plays and at the climax they pause- all of the actors/dancers/live people are screaming “they’re coming, get ready” and they hand us ponchos and cream pies.  We all end up throwing the cream pies at each other in a mock-battle scene and then the show ends in a song and dance number.  The next morning, the song was still stuck in my head.

Would I have watched that movie otherwise? Probably not.  But it was a way cool experience and was a really ingenious idea.

Sunday morning, Miranda and I woke up and headed down through Picadilly Circus towards Buckingham Palace.  The parks were gorgeous, even on a dreary day and we got to see some of the guards.

Wintertime in London (I like parks.)

Then I met back up with Aley in Victoria Station (Aley had also been hanging around London), I parted ways with Miranda and caught my plane back to Barcelona.  The difference in temperatures on each tarmac was astounding.

I also had one of the best customs experiences, coming back into Girona, when the agent spoke to me in Spanish, complimented my fluency (ha!), and said that it was a pleasure to meet me.  It made me smile.

So now I’m off to Istanbul, tomorrow morning.  I guess by this point in time it’s almost mandatory for me to post this video:

We Love They Might Be Giants, right Casie?

Abrupt wake-up

This morning, I was on the verge of waking up to my alarm when I somehow managed to pull my phone charging cord, causing the glass of water on my headboard to fall down onto my left temple, soaking my bed. It was an inauspicious start to a day.

To the point

- Got back from London, where I visited Miranda and rode bikes
-Barcelona won over Madrid tonight, 1 – 0
- I am doing this race: buffepicrun.com

Dalí was an insane genius.

This past weekend, the Consortium traveled up the Costa Brava following in Dalí’s footsteps.  We visited his house (with a swimming pool in a decidedly phallic shape), his museum in Figueres (lined with eggs on the roof) and the castle he bought and redecorated for his lover, Gala, with whom he only once had “relations”.  I loved hearing his stories- he has all the eccentricities I’d ever dream of having, and then some.  For example, he has this sculpture of “Christ made of rubbish” in his backyard.

One of the most famous pieces in his museum in Figueres is the Room in the Shape of Mae West’s face.  In reality, it wasn’t made by Dalí, but the idea/inspiration/everything about it came from a painting he made.  Later, another person arranged the room to reflet the original painting, and now there’s a giant face of Mae West made of furniture.

Mae West had a booger.

And then to the Gala castle, in Púbol, on Sunday: Basically, Gala and Dalí were in a love-filled, sexless relationship for a while, then a love-less, sexless relationship near the end of their lives.  Dalí bought this castle and decorated it eccentrically for Gala, and only came when directly invited by Gala.  He was only invited 3 times.

It was gorgeous, with amazing gardens (and leaves changing colors!).  We looked through everything and saw the lonely tomb of Gala.  There’s a spot next to her for Dalí, but after she died, he changed his mind and is buried in Figueres.  Major Diss.

I think the best part is the radiator.  Gala didn’t like the radiator in her sitting room, and asked Dalí to paint something to cover the ugly thing up.

Real radiator behind, painted one in front.

He painted a radiator.

 

 

So that’s Dalí in a nutshell (emphasis on the nut).  I’m sorry I’ve been so behind.  School here is actually existent and I’ve had a string of visitors keeping me happily distracted.  I’d like to shout out to Marisa R. for pestering me about updating (take that, woman).  And then a special Happy Birthday shout out to Margaret W., one of my besties from Brown (studying in Copenhagen) who is visiting me for her 20th birthday and Thanksgiving.

And that’s what I’ve got right now.  I’m heading to London this weekend and then it’s going to be HISTORY OF ISLAM, ALL THE TIME.

peace out

 

Update FAIL

Off to Girona and Figueres, to follow the Route of Dalí.  He was one crazy kid- read his wikipedia article to get an idea of what we’re getting into.

I promise, upon return I will give a more substantial update.

 

PS: countdown until the one and only MARGARET WATSON visits- 97 hours

Without Limits

I found the movie about Steve Prefontaine, that my high school cross-country team would watch in the bus to meets far away, on YouTube. Somehow, I managed to watch all of it. I don’t feel that guilty about it, since there were Spanish subtitles.

I recommend using your time in a similar way.