run this town

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance” -Olivia Wilde

Dear Madrid, 

I'm glad I got my start a few months ago back in the states, but thank you for helping magnify & amplify it all... I owe you.

Love,

Jamie

P.S. Since we swore we'd be honest, I hope you don't mind that I already booked my escapades with Rome & Paris in October... Oh & you should know that I have a lil affair planned with Ibiza this weekend. But don't trip, all of them are only flings. I'll always come back to you.

la noche en blanco

1. ad for last night

2. trying my 1st helado in madrid w Lily

3, 4, 5. part of the partay on Gran Via

6. fake contraption making people think they're talking/listening to a stranger

7. huge see-saw w huge swings in the far distance

8. "hey baby, i'm a rockstar"

9. at the far end of gran via, heading towards the music

for the downlow on the festival: http://lanocheenblanco2010.esmadrid.com/lneb/

Personally, I just think the night was one big party where they closed the major streets down @ the central of Madrid so people can celebrate the end of summer by getting drunk, silly & having fun till a time later than the usual aka 06:00. I've never seen sooo many people cover miles & miles of streets lol. Art museums were open for free till midnight & a ton of different activities were happening all over the place. Another day, another unforgettable experience abroad :)

soltera y feliz

"Jamie, so are you married yet?"

Okay, so anyone who knows me knows I'm a hopeless romantic & so I get why people keeping askin' lol. But no, I'm not married. Nor engaged. Why must a female always be in some sort of relationship with some guy that's more than friendship? Just because we choose to be alone, it does not mean we're lonely. In fact, I'd rather be in my own presence alone 75% of the time than with anyone else aside from my mom (she's the greatest. HI MOM!!!). Lastly, just cause I'm in a foreign, beautiful country where couples are all over each other left & right doesn't mean Ima jump on the next thing that walks by! Smh, lol. Just had to get my thoughts across before one more person asked :)


Also, I haven't become a bitter, anti-love type of person. At all. I'm actually very far from that. If & when the right person comes along, I'll thank God & just see where it goes. Till then, I'm [happily] doing me.

nikes & perverted men

(Nike "Lunarlon")

It's been a good minute aka a month since I've worked out & I very stupidly didn't bring my running shoes from home. I was therefore forced to sell my soul & buy these babies. Don't even ask me how much I paid because then you'd have good reason to slap me. BUT now I'm actually forced to get it in once again because if I didn't, I'd feel really tonta for spending so much euro on something I didn't use. Thus, my bebes were actually worth every pretty penny & they'll probably be black by the time I leave :)

So today I tried to workout right outside my apartment building for literally 20 seconds then just couldn't do it there anymore since two grown Spanish men decided to pause at the front of their apartment building to full-on stare & gawk at me for 20 seconds. As I quickly ran away, I could only think that it was a good thing I decided against gym shorts. Men are internationally perverted creatures. Who knew? Note to self: This is why you get you get up at the crack of dawn to workout.

español coloquial

(in the best class E V E R )

I need to get up at 08:00 twice a week for this but I don't give a mierda! Just look at the foto. Need I say more? 

OBSESSED

(taken 7 Sep 2010; taken 9 Sep 2010)

Tell me why I can never remember the names of the one materialistic thing I love most in the world: food? Ugh. I have a pet peeve about myself. Is that even possible? UPDATE: they're called Palmeras con chocolate

So I discovered these desserts at the university's cafeteria that will be the death of me. They're these delicious pastries that are covered on one side with chocolate. & To make it even more perfect, it's in the shape of a heart. Right? I know. I die everytime I hold one in my hands. It's like it was meant just for me. & To make it even mooore ideal, its only 0.75 euros! That's like $1 for pure bliss!

My goal for the next 3 months: stay away!!! Or else I'll go back to the states #1 unrecognizable and #2 sad since I won't be able to have one whenever I want anymore. Therefore, I'll be a depressed blob. Not cute.

home-made

(Salmorejo; Trucha con jamon; Jamon relleno de ciruela)

So have I mentioned that I'm in amor with my homestay?! Not only is my family the bestest, but they also serve not only good food, but interesting as well! 

The 1st photo is one of a soup dish from Andalusia. It has soup (obviously), cut-up boiled egg, & bacon (of course).  I like it but can only eat a tablespoon or so because it that's rich. Like... kinda fish-face sour rich. I tried to eat it with bread but it was still very strong.

The 2nd photo is off a cooked fish with ham in between. I love seafood, so I really enjoyed this dish. I didn't eat the fish + ham together though. I ate the ham last lol. Pork is my least favorite meat. I'd actually rather not eat it at all, but hey, what's a girl to eat in an oinkoink-obsessed country?


The 3rd photo is my favorite dish so far hands down. They were little pieces of fruit (which fruit I have no idea lol), wrapped up in pieces of what else? Jamon. But they were DELICIOUS. Sligthly sweet, slightly salty. Vale? Perfecto.

mis domingos

(along my walk to church; fountains alongside El Rio Manzanares; Calle de Segovia; 

Catedral de la Almudena; at mass inside the cathedral)

So I'll have no problem going to church while I'm here in Madrid! The walk is too picturesque for getting into prayer-mode & to simply clear my head & truly see the beauty I'm surrounded with. I kinda had to do some werk to get up to the cathedral: there was the slightly long walk, the relatively steep hill, & then  some tricky pathways that led me to little pretty gardens with random statues & couples making out on the grass... but we'll get to the issue of the P.D.A. here in Spain when I can finally get a photo of one or some examples. Anyways, the work was so worth it because the cathedral is beautiful & kinda felt like museum since there were huge, separate & numerous alters to different Catholic images along the walls. Walking through the cathedral to the area where the mass was held felt surreal- the pathways was lined by tall, marble & fake-looking pillars. I wasn't able to understand everything at mass since I wasn't used to it in Spanish, but mostly because the priest's voice kept echoing in the huge church, but it was an experience nonetheless; & to think: I get to do this every Sunday till Dec! *sigh. Too happy :D

oh, you know, just grocery shopping... in MADRID

(outside the nearby grocery store; proud display of my 1st groceries)

So after putting off grocery shopping for a week now, I finally dragged my butt 400 ft to the grocery store. Since my homestay provides breakfast & dinner, I figured I only need a few simple things to make sandwiches for the week. As I was in the grocery store, a person's words about studying abroad came back to me 

"It's the simple things like grocery shopping or walking home when it'll it hit you that you're actually on your own, living in another country like a normal person of that country & you'll think 'wow, I really am here...'"

After re-hearing those words in my head & spending only 9,32 I gleefully walked back to mi casa because I definitely had that wow moment today & have only Him to thank for it :) Off to rest before going to my first mass in Spain at the nearby cathedral later. Be blessed.

posted @ the river

(El Rio Manzanares)

So after an aight night at the club & pub thursday night & a common refusal to pay actual € for another club last night, everyone decided to come to me & my river, El Rio Manzanares, instead. I was so damn happy that they were all coming to me because on Thursday night I had to walk home from the bus stop to my place alone at 04:00 on these dark streets with NO lights & barely any people, running with my heels in one hand & pepper spray in the other. Nunca mas, smh. So moving on... we figured that they a river can't possibly have any open hours like a park so it'd be the best spot to just chill & drink. It also has pathways & fun lil parks so heeey! 

• We played a hilarious game of psychiatrist, a video of which I'll post when I have access to another computer.

"Wait, so Juan David's pregnant & an alien?!"

• & a card game called "suck & blow" involving cards & lips... Get your head out the gutter though because it isn't what you perverts may have in mind! Haha. 
• Anyways, we were all determined to stay till 06:00 so that some of us could get breakfast when the Metro opened. & Most did even though a few were knocked out at some points towards the end lol. 

GOOD TIMES, people. Let's keep at it! Siestas will become our BFFs hahaha

mucho gusto, carlos

1. The very first part of my walk to school looks like this every morning. I know, I know- don't hate :)

2. Mi piso!

3. Bus stop

4. Train ride w my two BBs (Berkeley Boys). Sidenote: BART needs to get on the spain's train level because theyre all nice & clean.

5. Coolest part of campus is @ one of their libraries. Makes me wanna get my study on.

6. Everyone in my row passed out about 30 min into the professor's presentations on their classes.

7. Everyone wide awake a few min before the end of the presentations lol

home sweet home

(1st meal w the family; 3 y.o. "A"; 10 y.o. "M"; my room)

So I quickly realized that all my worries about my homestay had been silly & for nothing because I immediately fell in love with my family. As an only-child all my life, I finally have siblings! The 10 year old is sweet, quiet & mature beyond her years. The 3 year old is sweet as well, super energetic & is intelligent as hell. A firecracker would be the best word to describe her, lol. Their father is kind & patient & a bomb cook! I was nervous as I unpacked because I still hadn't met mi senora but when we started talking I felt comfortable right away. We talk every night about random things & the conversations are never boring. I think Ima have to say that I have the best family in Spain, ha. I love my room, too! It's a lil small but it's cozy & has everything I need: bed, plenty of closet space & a desk. These next few months are going to pass by too quickly, I'm sure :)

stone age

(LG phone thru Moviestar)

Definitely feeling like a "moviestar" right about now with my high-tech LG, oh yaaa. The iPhone doesn't have nada on this! Haha jk. I actually really like this phone though. It's so small & so light that I swear a euro weighs more. Since I only have it for texts & important calls, it gives me my life back. My mom observed that people here are barely ever on their phones, well at least far less than americans. I've always been a sucker for simplicity- it's what life should be all about since anything else is just extra.

ello!

(Telephone booth right by The Big Eye & Big Ben, London)

Greetings from England! So mah mum & I met this pinoy priest & his pinay wife at the Heathrow airport when we first got to Europe & they're letting us stay at their place. Bloody crazy, right? They're such sweet people! My favorite part of the UK: I'm mighty jealous of the racial diversity they have here. Can I get an awwmen? Btw, all this was said in a British awksent.

divine omen

(photo taken on my way back to Madrid)

Although the sights from planes have always been so beautiful, I've always hated planes because they usually make me dizzy & nauseous. Yet on my way back to Madrid, right before orientation, I saw the most breathtaking sunset. There's no doubt in my mind that He was giving me a taste of heaven to shut down all my worries about my new life for the next three months. Afterall, I was high in the clouds where he usually stands, right? :)

rise of the phoenix

(Phoenix Park aka the largest park in Europe)

I leave Ireland & therefore leave my cousins tomorrow :( But I feel so blessed, right now more than ever. God is good.

lookleft

Thanks to the people of Ireland for these traffic signals because they saved my butt HELLA* times. But suggestion: they should be re-painted as "look left... or die" lol

*Disclaimer: get used to my use of "hella" because #1 I love NorCal so don't hate and #2 once you live there for at least a year, you can't hold out for much longer. Trust.

skittles

(in front of Tito Jon & Tita DeeDee's house in Dublin)

"Sugar, ahh

Honey honey"

THE ARCHIES "SUGAR, SUGAR"

morado

(Malahide Castle; National Botanic Gardens; Malahide Demesne Regional Park)

“I think it annoys God if you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice.” -Alice Walker.

The people here in Dublin have the most green scenery everywhere.  All this green is another one of Baby Jesus' works of art. Maybe the Irish can't handle the constant beauty & that's why they get their drink on daily hahah jk. I looove irish car bombs, mmm :D