Day 1

Sitting on the plane in New York, ready to take off for Lima, the captain tells us a storm is coming in and we have to wait 30 minutes. Later, after finishing my book, he tells us another 30 minutes. Eventually we take off and 7.5 hours later arrive .. at 11pm. Erin and I make our way out and both get *randomly* stopped at the bag check area ( you pushed a button.. if it was green you went through.. red- you step to the side and we both pushed it and both got red) They gave us a hard time because i had two laptops (one in erin's carryon and one in mine) while erin had the rest of the luggage on a cart.. they wanted to know why i was going through with two laptops... duh. We walk out to a huge crowd of people holding up signs with names.. and i hear "Abi, Abi!" We found erin's also and made a quick split/goodbye. I arrived to a garage door set between other similar buildings (different colors, different styles, but same sort of squished into eachother look) and then to two very very friendly people- Antonio and Lucy. Bedtime.

Now, I feel like I've been here for a week already.. I've just had a very full first day!! Class then met program people, walked around a lot, had lunch, met two families of friends, made it home, learned about random streets, a bit of my neighborhood, made it to my sister's house, we got lost (really badly) looking for a supermarket, got lost trying to get back from it, took the CRAZZZZZZY public transportation which are these loco vans that speed along with people stuffed inside of it, holding on for dear life. Back at my house we supper'd then talked for like 2 hours with my crazy fun old host dad, watched host sister teach host brother to dance, and then finally navigated the streets to bring my sister back.
Yep we have internet! My room is twice the size of my spain room (haha, not that that's saying much) we have a big dog that's super cool (Atila) with one of those curly, bushy tails, I'm so tired, and i saw the ocean between buildings today. :)

Good first day.

Off Again

I feel like I've just gotten home, and now I'm following plans that I made a year ago to study another semester abroad-- in Lima, Peru. It's both harder and easier than I imagined. Harder because I don't think that I've really gotten over my Spain trip yet, and here I am going again.. I'm still reeling a bit from it and very hazy about somethings.. like classes and transfer credits. It's not for sure what credits I'll receive from the classes I took in Spain.. and that hugely impacts what classes I should take in Peru. I'm a little worried because I got a C+ in one of my Spain classes .. my first C .. ever :( . If my GPA falls, I could lose my scholarship.. i studied sooo hard for the final in that class. It's really frustrating. That was the only grade in the class, and we were given no idea what it would be over so we had to study everything.

Anyway. in some ways this is easier.. for one, packing is much quicker! I know so much better that I can do without a lot of the stuff that I brought to spain. I'm still in the "flexible" mode, i think.. where I know now that I can be dropped in a random city and survive alright.. so i'm not too nervous about living there. I'm also much more at ease because Erin's coming with me. It doesn't seem like such a huge leap from home if she's coming with me :)

Our flight is on Sunday (in 2 days), but we actually leave home tomorrow.. will stay with Gma and Gpa Schmiesing until my parents' reunion thing is over, then we'll go to Detroit and get a motel. I'm still not packed.. I have one suitcase practically done and everything i need to take is out, i think.. i just have to pack it now. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, i guess.

I hope I'm not missing out on a ton while i'm gone. I have a friend graduating this December. I feel really bad that we won't get to be together another semester. Although I would be at IU anyway, it seems like now that I won't be able to come home and visit, I'll be missing a lot at home too. We'll have internet.. skype.. other than physically, we won't be that far away :)

Well.. i've definitely got a little bit of nervousness setting in now. Excitement.. anxiety... hunger. No, really.. i'm hungry right now.

It's almost time!

Foam Partay!!

I've been babysitting for a little boy of 15 months every night for a while. It's sometimes annoying, but GREAT pay and good times-- no reason to complain! One night, I made it home after babysitting in time to catch carolyn online and went out with her to some party.. i find out as i meet her that it's a FOAM party!

weird

Just outside my window.. well that was unexpected.

I'm not in Austria

What a Saturday. At 12 am, I took a bus from Madrid and got to Barcelona at 8am and saw "La Sagrada Familia" ('The Sacred Family'), Barcelona's famous church designed by Gaudi. This was my third time to be in Barcelona by myself!! :) Each time I've gone, it was on my way to another city.

So that's where the fun stopped and the annoyance began. After another hour on a bus, I got to the airport where I stood in line for about 25 minutes to check-in. Then the guy at the counter says, in a very chipper way, "well, you're not confirmed for this flight" and I'm like.. "what?" I've given him the paper that I printed off from when I bought the flight- the paper that says "That's it! Your booking is complete, this is your Itinerary/Receipt.Please print this page and bring it with you when you check-in along with the required form of valid form of photo ID." This paper also had a confirmation number and a booking date. So this man then tells me that for some reason, everything went through on my end, and although I received this information telling me "That's it!", I didn't receive an email (I didn't know i was supposed to receive an email!), so that means it wasn't confirmed on their end and if I want to get on that flight, I'll have to pay 250 euros.. ($375) .. oh, and that's just one way.. it'd be 315euros for round trip ($475) &#*$^#! WHAT?! what am i supposed to do now?! I've just paid 75dollars to get to barcelona and another 30 dollars to get to the airport and now I have to pay almost 500 dollars (just under what I paid for roundtrip to Europe) for a flight that I should already be set for!?
So.. if I did something wrong, alright.. but what else was I supposed to do? I followed all the directions for booking the flight, I've done it through them 10 times before, I paid and everything, now why wouldn't I be confirmed, then?! OH, because you didn't send an email? WHY didn't you send an email!?

I asked the guy if this happens often while my eyes started to tear up.. and he just shrugged and said, "Yeah, sometimes". He did give me options, though.. I could pay 300euros for a flight on TUESDAY or 250 for a flight to a different city on Sunday... I just laughed at him and said "that really doesn't help me at all." After trying and getting nowhere for a long time, I was turned away and was standing in the middle of this airport with all these people staring at me as I was sobbing and shaking. I don't have Julie's numer to call to tell her not to pick me up from the airport, I don't know if I'll be able to use my Tuesday bus ticket to Madrid for today, I'm all alone and I just want to call home and talk to my mom! I find a phone where I can make international calls.. and I'm just standing in front of it crying for a while.. 1) i don't have any 2euro coins, which is all that the machine takes 2)I can't focus enough to read in Spanish how i'm supposed to operate it and 3)ARRGH!!

I probably stood there for 5-10 minutes when a lady comes up to me, calls her husband and friend back and asks me (I think) if i speak.... something.. which I obviously don't as I don't know what she said. So her husband spoke to me in Spanish and asked me what was wrong. After I told him, he stuck a coin in the phone and dialed home for me, and they stood there while I cried into the phone talking to mom. I felt really badly because as she picked up I could just imagine her heart flipping when she hears someone bawling on the other end, so i tell her "I'm ok, I'm not hurt, just really upset!" She reassures me, tells me she loves me, and that they will get ahold of Julie. I showered the people that helped me with thanks, and eventually end up outside the building against the wall just cooling off a bit when another lady approached me. She was from Scotland and just talked to me while she rolled her cigarette. It was pretty difficult to understand her because of her accent (had to have her repeat "it's bright'nin up a bit" 3 times before i got it). She made me feel a lot better, I started thinking logically again and remembering that this isn't at all close to a tragedy, of course I would LOVE to be having a great time with Julie in Graz, but .. hopefully there's a reason for this. I caught the bus back to Barcelona, then to Madrid and arrived back at my apartment at midnight to put everything away that I had packed up just 24 hours before.

18 hours of bus rides, a few hours of crying, a few of sleep, and the beginning of "G.I. Jane" 3 times without sound make for a long day.

study... or not?

I need to study.. so here I am writing.

I had tapas (not 'topless' as a couple people have misheard on the phone) on Wednesday night with Carolyn and Anso (her roommate) at a great place beside El Tigre, so I went back there last night with Henrietta, Eddie, and Danny, great fun. Then last night a friend from Valencia called saying that he's coming to Madrid today and that we should get together.. so at 6 I'm going back to that place with him and his girlfriend. Man, I think this bar should give some sort of publicity prize.

My final is next Monday.. so I guess I have about 9 days to study.. but i'm going to Austria this weekend.. so that cuts out about 4 days. AHH i'm nervous. I hate this part-- the actual doing work part. Not very enjoyable. I'm going to be SOOO relieved when it's over! Sounds like an after-final celebration is coming up soon.

Not much else is going on right now.. studies, i got my hair cut, english classes, heading to barcelona tonight to catch the plane tomorrow, OH! and Viggo Mortensen is staying in Henrietta's hotel right now. How crazy is that?! He's the actor that played Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, as well as Hidalgo in.. .Hidalgo. Those are the only two i can think of at the moment, but he's like a George Clooney to me.. yes he's old, but still lookin' good! Haha. Maybe I'll start "visiting Henrietta" at work at lot for a while.

I love it here, and REALLY looking forward to the rest of this month, but I'm definitely excited to go home!! A lot of things are going on at home, some of which might seem like small things if I were there, but I want to be there for them!! I called home last night. . well we talked on skype, so it was free.. and I got pangs like crazy listening to all the commotion that i was missing. I heard everyone laughing in the kitchen and little bits of a story Erin was telling (she just got back from Europe on a trip with her friend), and then I heard Erin coaching Flint on how to do cartwheels. Jason, Britt and the boys, Craig and Brooke, Mom and Dad, Erin and Tyler and Lucas were all there. I LOVE having a big family! just makes it harder when I'm gone ;)

A bit incomplete without Saad, we'll get a proper one soon :)

Drums in the Park

I went for a walk with Henrietta the other day and found a new section of the park by where we live.. and there were peacocks! How nice.

Today I went to the rastro(BIG flea market) with Carolyn and then we called people and decided to go to that park 1)to see the peacocks and 2) to play drums. Carolyn, Danny, and Eugene all have drums, so we just switched around a lot, just having a really relaxing day.