My Trip to Alberca and Miranda de Castañar

     I want to start off by saying that  La Alberca and Miranda de Castañar were some of my favorite places to visit since I have been here. We were surrounded by mountains, in a beautiful city that had such good vibes coming from it. I don't know, there was somethings about it that made me feel at peace. We only spent about 6 hours there, but it was an enjoyable and relaxing 6 hours. We were told the history of the places by a tour guide that did a fantastic job at explaining everything and even a little more. One thing I have really enjoyed about the past couple of adventures is that I get to see multiple castles. HOW COOL IS THAT!?

     Among the various sights we saw yesterday, the coolest was probably this store that was inside of a cave that was used as a winery, and is still to this day. It is called Bodega La Muralla, and I think it is worthy of a look should you ever come to the area. The store sold crafts made from the local people of the town. I bought Kyle a Libra key-chain of sorts and I bought a wind-chime-looking candle/incense burner. I feel in love with it as I saw it and it drew me in more and more until I finally decided to splurge and get it. I had not bought anything other than dresses and food so I thought it would be a nice change of pace. This shop had cannabis tea and incense. I found that peculiar.





     Our tour guide told us about the tradition of El Cochinillo which goes as follows: every year a pig is set loose on 15 June to travel around the streets and get fed by the village people. In January, the pig is captured and then donated to a family in need. I think this is such a beautiful thing that happens, even though it ends tragically for the pig. Pigs are a delicacy in Spain, and the Spaniards eat every part of it. So, for a pig to be donated to a family in need is just really cool and they are probably extremely thankful!

FLAN

   




     For lunch, we ate at a super nice restaurant where we ate paella, salad, and flan. It had a beautiful view and our professor was so excited to take us there. He gets so excited about the little things so it is kind of inspiring. We were able to shop around the town for a little bit after lunch, and of course I had to buy some freshly harvested honey from there. It is their specialty there. I also bought some "turrón" candies; also a specialty of the area. I am excited to take it home and share it with the family. There is something about being near hilltops and nature that seem to put me at peace. The weekend was definitely one of my favorites so far and I hope that someday, you can visit the same places and experience the beauty.

The view from the restaurant   

"Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one's lifetime."
- Mark Twain

...And Then I Realized My Pants Were Inside-Out

     Today really did not start off that great. First off, I could not get to bed until almost 3:30 am because there was some kind of loud music or concert of sorts going on near my window so it kept me up until I could no longer fight my eyes to stay open. Of course, as a result, I was exhausted when I woke up this morning. Then, when Haley and I were eating breakfast, our host mom comes in and starts interrogating us about her towel. I had no idea it was even her towel. I mistook it for a hand towel and I guess some of my soap left residue when I wiped off my hands. She went on to say how bad-mannered it was to use other people's towels and we should only use our own. Whatever.
     Since I was still so tired, I decided to get café con leche with Haley. I surprisingly drank all of it AND I enjoyed it. It helped me feel more alert in class and I could think better. As I was sitting in class, I moved the waistline on my pants and became a little confused. I saw the drawstring on the outside and then it hit me: MY PANTS WERE INSIDE OUT. How does that even happen? This was a perfect indication of how my day was going. I just kind of laughed to myself, nonchalantly and thought to myself: this is my life today. It has been a while since I have had something awkward/embarrassing happen to me. Luckily it was not noticeable and I had time to go flip them around. I just want to know how I had them on for 2 hours and gone to the bathroom at least 3 times before noticing such a thing.
     I must have some kind of magnetic pole that draws my life to awkward moments with pants. Usually it is them ripping, like at Zumba or in the middle of the school day. Thankfully, this time nothing ripped and I just had to turn them around. The best thing I can take away from this is that all I can do is laugh at myself, and I invite you to do the same. I told my mom my pants were on inside out, and she found it hilarious. I hope you found it as comical as she did.

Portugal Shenanigans

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Lisbon, Portugal through Cursos Internacionales (the school here in Salamanca). We had to get up around 5:30 AM to leave the house at 6 in order to walk to the bus station. My host mom still made breakfast though. Bless her soul. The trip took about 6 hours since we stopped twice for about a half-hour each time. The bus was extremely cramped so it was not the most enjoyable ride there. Once we arrived in Lisbon, we went straight to the hotel to find out that our rooms were not ready, so we dropped our bags and ventured around the new streets to find something to eat. Being the Americans that we are, we found ourselves at a burger place call Hamburger 21 (I think.) It had probably been a year since my last burger so the taste of a good burger was phenomenal.

After eating we went walking down the main street of Lisbon and saw one of the Plaza by the ocean. Later we stopped by a small cathedral and a huge castle (the first of many.) The castle was exciting! My phone died so I couldn’t get a lot of pictures, but the memories are still there. Once those excursions were done for the day, we had to find some food for dinner so we ate Chinese and it was the most disgusting chinese food I have ever had. There was some redemption though with this bar called the Magic Pool. The atmosphere was calm and enjoyable and the most impressive this about it was the bartender. He had a good sense of humor and was very friendly. It was a nice change of pace from Spain. Sometimes the people here can be kind of off-putting, but to each their own. I tried tinto verde, a wine only made in Portugal, and it was the most enjoyable wine I have had so far.

The most exciting thing about the hotel was that we had air conditioning and a hot breakfast! Breakfast was better than what we had been having. I HAD EGGS. It was excited and it tasted pretty okay. I, of course, had many other carbohydrates to accompany my eggs because I the love I have for carbs in unreal. Once we got around, we hopped on the bus and went to the Jerónimos Monastery and El Torre de Belém. Near the monastery, was Portugal´s famous bakery, where they make pastel de nata, from a secret recipe passed down to them from the monks who originally made them.

Jerónimos Monastery

El Torre de Belém

Boca do Inferno

After that exhilarating morning, we were able to go to the beach in Cascais. We saw the Boca do Inferno and of course the beach. It was kind of empowering the way the waves crashed against the rocks. Wade, Haley and I decided not to go back with the group and stay in paradise for a little longer. I drank mead for the first time there and it is now one of my favorite drinks. If only it was not so expensive. I will definitely need to try it in the states. We hung out by the beach and dipped our toes in the freezing Atlantic Ocean. Even though the water was cold FREEZING, it was a nice change of pace from the extremely hot sun of Portugal. (Not that it is not the same sun as every where else.) My body became used to it once it was numb. For dinner, Haley and Wade ate octopus (pulpo) and I tried piri piri sauce. The octopus was extremely tender and the piri piri sauce was a whole new level of hot sauce. Haley tried some of their white sangria and that was another fantastic drink to have. To end our adventure, we took the train and metro back to the hotel and pretty much crashed.

The next morning we traveled to Obidos which is a small, beautiful "city" surrounded by a wall that appeared like the Great Wall of China. Kelsey and I took it all the way around the perimeter. That was my favorite part of Portugal and it was so enlivening. I felt like a little kid conquering the castle. When I was walking around, I spotted a cat and named in Lemon because I found a lemon tree a couple seconds prior. After that exploration, we went to the beautiful Monastery of Batalha and saw the tomb of unknown soldiers. We were fortunate enough to be able to watch the changing of the guards during our visit. The architecture was so beautiful, even though some of the building were unfinished and will remain as such. My favorite part about that monastery was the intoxicating stained-glass windows, whose lights glistened on the marble floor.
Once we ate lunch and ate some bomb ice cream, we had to get on the bus to start to make our way back home. On the ride back, the AC stopped working and I was not happy! NO BUENO. Luckily it got fixed and all was well. Needless to say, Portugal has been one of my favorite parts about the adventure and I am so glad I was able to experience it.

Obidos

Lemon

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

Monastery of Batalha

The Adventure Series: Part 2 - February

I’m going to start this off with saying that I am really not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Which is really unfortunate because I am a hopeless romantic in the sense that I create really cute date ideas. I’d be a great boyfriend for myself (sigh). Last year on Valentine’s day was one of the best times I have ever had alone. [Refer to my last year’s Valentine’s day post here!] Between the music, pizza, and strobe lights, I’d say I was the life of my own party. Garth was at my mother’s house so I was quite literally the only living thing in my apartment.

Anyways, that’s not what I came here to talk about today. This Valentine’s day was quite different. I was not alone so that was a big game-changer. I refused to celebrate an actual Valentine’s day, so instead, Kyle and I got all dressed up at 2 am to go to IHOP. I wore my pretty red dress, he wore his button up and tie and we looked so fancy. The waitress was kind of a butthead, but I would be too at 2 in the morning. Even though my shoes hurt my feet, I had a great time and I was able to check something off of my bucket list so double score! Needless to say it was a grand adventure, thus accomplishing my goal of an adventure for February.

The Adventure Series: Part 1 - January

     Starting at the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to have an adventure, big or small, every month. Luckily, I have been able to stick with this and it has definitely been one of the best goals I have had. Over the next couple of weeks and for the following months I am going to share my adventures with you all. That being said, here is my January adventure:

 

This is miss Neva Finke. We met at Army military training and we have been best friends ever since. We do not get to see each other as much as we would like, but we definitely have a great time with each other when we do. To start off the new year, we went on a spur-of-the-moment adventure to Tennessee. We did not have a destination or a plan or a sense of organization at all. The only thing we knew what that we were headed south to see what the road had to offer us. The first day of travel we just drove around finding the little nooks-and-crannies of Kentucky and Tennessee. We found some great reads in a Goodwill Store, an amazing little park, and finally ended up near the Great Smoky Mountains. We decided we did not want to try to conquer the mountain after a long day of travel so we stopped for some Chinese at a buffet, then "rough it" and stay in the car on the first, cuddled up with our mountain of blankets.
     Keep in mind, this was January and it was cold outside. Regardless, we made it through the night. My toes were numb, but I started moving around again and they came right back to life. We wanted to try to see the sun rise on the mountain, but that clearly did not happen. Once we woke up and got some food, we put on our hiking boots and headed up the mountain. There is something about Mother Nature that makes you realize so much about yourself. We stopped to have our fun and take a plethora of pictures, of course. We hiked all day, from the time we got around until the sun was setting. The day could not have gone better. We had beautiful weather, we did not start slipping on rocks until we started coming down, and it was a great time shared between friends and nature.

     The only downfall of that day was that I got some pretty nasty blisters. OUCH. We decided that we did not want to sleep in a cold car another night, so we found a cheap motel for 30 something dollars. DEAL. It was a warm place to sleep, and it had a bed. We tried yet again to wake up for the sunrise, and almost missed it again. Luckily we woke up with just enough time to drive partially up the mountain and get some great pictures and memories.

     The trek back was not nearly as exhilarating, but it was equally enjoyable. We were both exhausted and ready to be back home. I think this was a great and promising way to start off my 2016. It's proved to be great so far and I hope that the rest of my year is as memorable as the beginning.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my 21st birthday and I had a phenomenal time. I was fortunate enough to spend it in Spain, which I had dreamed about for ages. In the morning I had classes and before going home for lunch, I did a little shopping around to see if I could find a new outfit to wear for the special occasion. Knowing me, I like the strange and fun clothing so I went into Mango Outlet and found this perfect leopard print dress for 8 euros. SCORE.

After flamenco class, I had to buy some adult beverages, to celebrate of course. So Haley and I went to El Corte Ingles and bought some Malibu, pineapple juice, apple juice, and peach liquor (which we thought was apple). After all of those shenanigans, I did my Insanity workout and hurried home to clean up and get changed for the night ahead. I fixed my hair, did my makeup, and put on my rocking dress. I felt like a million bucks. We tried to hurry and eat dinner so we could catch the sunset on the bridge. We made it just in time to see the end of it. Luckily I was able to get a great picture to add to the collection of sunsets.

Once we were done modeling, we found our spot and starting mixing the drinks together. I made the apple-peach drink and it was okay. Definitely bearable, but not a preferred drink. Megan, Mary, Kelsey, Poe, Wade, and Will (our friends from our school group that came with us) met us down there and we just relaxed by the river and enjoyed some drinks. The moon was a beautiful shade of orange and it sat close to the river. Something out of the movies almost. Will spilled wine on his shirt and then tried to lick it off and then rinse it off in the river...

Once I started drinking, all I wanted to do was dance, so that is what I did. We put on some music and I just did my thing.

Then we headed to the Irish Theatre for KARAOKE NIGHT. I have never done karaoke, drunk, in front of random strangers. My song of choice was No Scrubs by TLC. I used to sing it when I was younger and its a song I knew the lyrics to so I thought, "why not!?" I definitely got into it and the stage was mine! I only had two shots at the bar (Thank you Mary and Ella.)

After spending a couple hours at the Irish Theatre, I decided that it was time to go home. That walk was...interesting. I did not feel intoxicated like I had felt in the past. I was not dizzy or nauseated, I just felt really light. I did not really feel drunk, but I definitely was. Not in the sense of the obnoxious, sloppy drunk, just more of a "I had a really good time" kind of feeling. We finally made it home around 2 am and had to get up at 745 the next morning for class...oops.

Needless to say, I had a fantastic 21st birthday and I do not think it could have gone any better. I was surrounded by good company in a beautiful city. This is definitely one for the books!

Now, I leave you with a snapshot of my walk home:

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My First Week in Spain

Hello my fellow earthlings!

On Thursday, June 30 I made my way to Spain and it is everything I expected and more! The 8 hour plain ride was more than worth it. I landed in Madrid on Friday morning after surviving the navigation through the Chicago airport and starting off at the wrong terminal. I only had a small breakdown of stress so I consider that a win in my books!

Being in a new city, in a huge airport, in another country, and not speaking English is slightly intimidating at first. It takes a hot second for the brain to adjust to such a shock. Luckily I did not have any issues with my luggage. Once I exchanged my money, I managed to figure out my way around the metro and get to down town Madrid near Puerto del Sol. I did not have much of an idea where I was going other than I was going to Way Hostel (which was awesome by the way!) I went on a tour of the city and saw the Royal Palace and other landmarks such as el Templo de Debod, an egyptian gift to Spain. I tried my first sangria and tapas and peaked through the curtains of the night life of the Spanish Culture. It was Gay Pride Week there so it was crazy with loud music and festivals on every Plaza.

The next day was quite the interesting one. I had tortilla and café con leche, checked out of my hostel and made my way to the airport. I thought I was taking a reasonable way, but boy was I wrong. I ended up having to walk about 2 km while rolling my suitcase. Oh, my poor suitcase. It was extremely hot and it had to roll a long way. It never stood a chance. I had walked so far that I had rolled the wheels off my suitcase and they congealed to the plastic that was holding them together. MY WHEELS MELTED OFF OF MY DAMN SUITCASE. And of course, there was some confusion on exactly where to go, but I made it to my group and we headed to Salamanca.

When I first met with my host mom, MaryPaz, I was a little frazzled because I was not used to only thinking in Spanish and it was hard to understand her at first. LUCKILY, I have gotten much better at understanding her and I am even able to have small conversation with her as well! My room mate Haley is awesome as well. We get along great and we even found out that we had a class together last summer! It's weird how life works like that.

Haley and I on our first night out in Spain!

Throughout this past week I have done a lot of sight seeing, tried some sangría, tinto de verano, mojitos, chocolate con churros, and so many other new dishes that my host mom has made. Speaking of which. She is one of the cutest people I have ever met. She can be a little passive aggressive at times, but the way she talks with such passion just makes me so happy. She also has this little cute dog named Clipper that she takes on walks to the park. Its so adorable.


Needless to say, Spain has held a lot of first for this curious cat right here. I had my first discoteca/bar experience. I am so sorry people had to see me dance. It was actually a pretty good time, but man I was so tired the next day. HOW DO YOU PEOPLE DO IT!? Bless your souls. This was also my first time in Europe, first time living with a host family, going to school in another country, speaking Spanish on the regular and understanding what is going on, and my first time truly appreciation all of the history in Spain. Some of these pictures show how beautiful Spain is, but it does not do it justice at all. I cannot wait to see how the other 5 weeks go. My classes are going well and I am learning so much. I will be sure to keep you all updated on my adventures. I know I haven't written much about my life in the past 6 months so I have a lot of catching up to do. I hope you enjoy my adventures through my stories and hopefully you can share some of your stories as well. After all, this is a café.

Check out my Instagram for more pictures! @offamyrocker


Until next time.

Let's Chat Soon.


Besos.

Temple of Debod, The Egyptian Temple

I bought this dress for 6 euros at El Rastro (Flea Market). What a steal!

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca

Royal Palace, Madrid

Drinking the touristy sangria, but I like tinto de verano better. Tinto is the more local drink. Sangria is more fruity.

House of the famous Cervantes, author of Don Quijote

Looking out over Salamanca at sunset. You know me and my affinity for sunsets.

The walkways of this historic church were not suited for the people of today.

La Iglesia de San Millán. The oldest church in Salamanca.

The infamous Rana (aka frog) on top of the skeleton head! 

My other love: waterfalls. 

Just some of the beautiful architecture in Spain. This picture features our professor, who is so excited to teach us and show us all of the amazing things in Spain. He is a truly wonderful person  who has graced us with his presence.

"Life is not guaranteed, eat dessert first."

At El Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, a Romeo and Juliet type story.

Some Salamanca wall art. This town is so beautiful.

And many more...