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| Merry Christmas!
So, I have made it to Germany, after a wonderful time in Rome! I'm sitting right now in a REAL house, enjoying the smells of pumpkin pie, bisquick, turkey, and other wonderful delicacies that I can't find in Spain. The Moscone family is wonderful and have really made me feel at home, so in sum I am happy, blessed, and enjoying my time!
It's noon right now, we'll probably start eating soon. I keep thinking about my wonderful family, probably all gathering at Grandma's and Grandpa's with all the Garland girls and cousins..I hope y'all are having a wonderful time, know that I'm thinking of yall.
In talking to the Moscone's I think I'm going to have a good two weeks here! They get really cheap bus tickets, and hotel prices due to military status, and we are planning some fun day trips and possibly skiing!! So anywyas, I shan't get bored in the two weeks I'm here.
My departure from Rome and subsequent introduction to Germany was truly amazing. I mean it was Christmas Eve and the sun was setting just as we were taking off from the Italian coastline. It was beautiful. Upon arrival into Germany, Jodi (Jenna's sister that is Mandi's age) and her boyfriend and Jenna picked me up at the airport and gave me a small tour of Stuggart. The architecture of the churces here is so different, really gothic and pretty. Also, the main drag downtown truly looks like Hansel and Grettel...it's really funny!
Speaking of Hansel and Grettel, I'm hoping to go to the Black Forest later this week! I keep thinking about all my little cousins, Greer, Gracie, Georgie, Taylor, Katie, Priscilla, and Becca...I wish I could share it with them! OK, Mandi and Lauri, yall too!
Ok, well I gotta go, I will write later about all my Rome experiences, which were, let me disclose, crazy to say the least! But oh, so very fun, educational, and well, just surreal! Have a wonderful Christmas, and Grandma, know I'm thinking about you lots of this, your day!!! Besos. | | |
| Ok, so it´s been way too long since I have written, as always!
I went to London for 5 days with 7 other Spanish gals and it was AWESOME:
Hightlights included:
1) Childhood dream come true in watching the muscial "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"...the car actually flew!!!!
2) National Gallery....It was amazing...and FREE!!! I saw Van Gough´s sunflowers, Monet´s lilies and House of Parliament, Degas´s ballerinas (mom, the one that we used to have in our bedrooms!), works by Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and the list goes on.. It was truly amazing to see those works of art in person, after having seen them your whole life in movies and books. Really special for me....
3) Westimster Abbey...this was well worth the money....including Poet´s corner housing just about every famous British literature figure´s tomb and memorial, kings and queens for century, amazing architecture, and of course Isaac Newton´s memorial that is a key part of the DaVinci Code! :) Oh, and one more thing, it houses the coronation chair that has been used to crown British royalty since like the 1300´s....it was fun to think one day Prince William´s rear will occupy that spot.....:)
4) The TUBE...or London´s underground metro! Gals, at 8 AM there is no better place to be....London is full of young, eligible, beautiful men in suits! This city is so alive, it´s great. Although the cost of living is through the roof, it is definately worth living in if you have a good job, are career oriented, and love meeting tons of people. I swear I heard more languages and met more people from different countries than I actually met British people!
Also, the tube was great cause of this musician program that they run....the gals and I spent an hour at one point singing with one John Lennon wanna-be, earning him some extra cash I´d like to note, and rocking Picadilly Circus Station!
5) House of Parliament and Big Ben!!! As the always and forever dork that I am, I went and sat in on some Parliament sessions that was a real education on the British legislative process! The best was that in the House of Lords, they actually wear the colonial wigs! 
6) The Millenium Lodge....our rather ghetto hostel in Notting Hill was AWESOME! We met people from all over, everynight they had kareoke or some kind of fun, and it was all for only 10 pounds a night including breakfast! It made the whole London experience tons of fun....
I had a great trip, only downsides were the strength of the pound....twice the dollar, and that despite that the prices of things were the same....aka a happy meal at McDonald´s cost the same price in numbering....but it was in pounds making some 5.50 meal acutally $11!!! AHH! But I made it for five days and four nights, including airfare on €200, which is like $250....not bad!! If you´d like any suggestions let me know!
Upon return to Spain I spent two days in Santander, the beautiful town that I had previously visited, in the gorgeous province of Cantabria....I stayed with my friend Pau, and she took me on some day excursions to these gorgeous midevil (that´s not how you spell it huh?) towns....well, that day ETA (the terrorist Basque group) exploded 7 bombs around Spain, one of which was in the town we were in....we arrived 30 minutes later....due to sleeping in...and learned of what had happenned, so thank goodness we slept in! There were a few minor injuries, but in general, ETA warns and does what they call a "controlled explosion"...whatever the heck that means.
So anywyas, ever since back in September authorities captured the top ETA organizers, ETA has been very active in making their presence known. I have never felt in any danger, as I mentioned they rarely hurt people, however the daily lives of many Spanish people are interrupted by continual bomb threats, explosions, etc...So please keep this in your prayers.
In better news, next week I leave for Christmas vacation! Three days to Rome and then to Germany for two weeks with my friend Jenna from El Paso! Ok, love yall. Chau. | | |
| I am in the process of compiling all my pics, and I'll send yall the link to my online photo album soon!
In other news...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I am attempting to cook my first thanksgiving meal...wish me luck, hope I don't poison anyone, nor explode my piso (I am on the fifth floor, so this could cause some major problems)!!!
OK, more later, besos! | | |
| FYI I wrote this like a week ago, I just forgot to post it:
Hey you! So today it looked rainy outside, which was great, cause as you know, I LOVE rainy days, it makes me happy! I had been up for a few hours already cause I got a wonderful phone call at 6 am from a dear friend, anyways, so I headed down to campus.
It’s about a 10-15 min. walk down to campus, and although the skies looked threatening I didn’t take an umbrella. A: Because I don’t have one and B: Because I’m too cheap to buy one C: Because I really don’t mind walking in the rain!
Well, that was before a few minutes into the walk, the skies opened up and God rained out his heart on me! I mean we’re talking GALLONS here! AHH, I have truly never been so wet in my life! So there I am crossing the street, soaked to the bone, when a car came by and covered me in muddy water. It was great.... So much for looking cute today!
Then, after my excrutiating three hour class staring at a computer I went for coffee with my two wonderful Polish friends Tom and Asia and my Italian friend Marco. Tom was telling us about how he went to work (illegally) in London this summer at a hotel to better his English. He told me that ever since Poland joined the European Union last year there have been floods of immigrant workers to England.
Anyways, Tom went on to tell us of a how one weekend there was a huge summit of the English parliament held at that hotel and one of the seminars was a talk about what to do about the huge wave of illegal Polish workers and how to stop it. He said his boss at the hotel was ready to die as all the guys that were serving lunch (Tom and his buddies) to all these English officials were that very demographic! Jajaja
Then Marco went on to tell me that there are tons of illegal Chinese immigrants in Milan, and that since 1950 no one has died there. I didn’t understand him, and thought it might have been a language barrier thing…but no, he said it right, basically when someone dies they bury them quickly and pass the passport on to someone else! Oh, the joys and fun of globalization! I love it!
OK, so here is the plan. I am going to London for five days and four nights the first week of December with like 10 other girlfriends. Then, I was invited that next weekend to a conference in Berlin “Bringing the World Home”. It is put together by a non-profit bi-partisan organization called Americans for an Informed Democracy and they pay for my accommodation, conference fees and food (I had to submit resume and stuff, but I got it!!)
!! Anyways, as there are vacation days throughout that week, I am going to head up there early and take a day trip to visit a nearby concentration camp and explore Berlin! So…if any of y’all have gone to these places or have recommendations, friends, ANYTHING let me know! Grandpa, I know you like itenaries, so as soon as I put together something rough, I’ll email it to you!
Then, I’ll be in Rome for three days leading up to Christmas and it’s to Stuggart for Christmas! OK, so I am VERY blessed! More later....
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| Election DAY!
If the presidential candidates were women, who would you vote for?
President Georgetta Wilhelmina Bush
OR Juanita Kerry
JAJAJAJA
OK, so, for some reason I feel the need to comment on all this, if anything, to remind myself later of what I am going through. THis may be boring to some of yall so, sorry!
If I have changed at all thus far, in the month and a half that I have been in Spain, it regards this very day.
It is very simple. I never, fully, realized the power and influence of the United States until I moved here. But, frankly, you cannot go anywhere without seeing it. First, you turn the TV on and you have primarily American shows..the OC (which I am sadly obsessed with), Will and Grace, ER, Everwood, Law and Order, I could go on...oh yeah, the Friends phenomena is not only limited to the US, I have seen this show now in Italian, French, German, and Spanish. Aside from entertainment programming, you cannot watch one news program without seeing some report on the US, elections, corporate America, etc..
OK, let´s say I get tired of watching TV and decide to turn the radio on. Every other song is in English, by American singers, talking about America. Turn to a news talk show, what are they talking about...the US.
OK, enough, so I meander on outside....there is a Mary Kay downstairs, along with a McDonalds, Burger King, KFC....a car drives by with some hip hop song blaring...I look up and there is a huge billboard advertising the latest Hollywood movie. I go to school and use an IBM Intel pentium computer, proffesors spend a large amount of classtime in Worldwide Economy and Audiovisual Marketing, and Audiovisual Design class talking about the US. My reading material for classes is little and far between, but when we do have it, all the articles are in English, by american researchers and writers.
It is no wonder Europeans hate us...they can´t get away from us! A true dichotemy. It truly is a love-hate relationship. They look down on corporate American capitalistic practices for extorting the poor, making money, and reaping the power that comes with that....yet they want the product we produce and they teach the way we do it.
I am not sure if by writing this I am conforming to the American stereotype of the obnoxious, proud American, because believe you me, I am not the banner waving patriot. What I am trying to show, is that I NEVER understood the "why" nor the scope concerning our power, influence, and general resentment towards us.
So anywyas, all this is basically to state that it has been a tough couple of weeks, these leading up to the elections. I have done dozens of interviews for radio, TV, and newspapers (that´s what happens when you´re one of the few Americans at a journalism school). In each, I have attempted to represent a bi-partisan view of what is going on...although in each and every interview they have attempted to extract from me my view on the war and Bush.
I have primarily taken the argument, throughout the interviews, that the real issue is how European media has mis-represented the elections and struggle that is taking place in the US. I mean, you ask any Spanish student, and they would tell you that Kerry was going to win by a landslide. I will say that if Bush wins, the people here in Spain, at least, will be astounded. For all that has been presented to them, is the protests, rally´s, documentaries, shows, speeches, etc.. of Kerry.
I sent in my absentee ballot about a month ago. It is my first presidential election in which I can vote, and also I am registered to vote in Missouri, a swing state, so needless to say I feel special!
On the American side of things, as a student at a journalism school in a swing state, I receive TONS of emails a day concerning the elections and how the US media is handling the coverage. It is really fascinating. I am so jealous of my beautiful sister Mandi, who at Wellesley, in the outskirts of Boston, has the opportunity to see everything up close and personal!
Ok, well, I gotta go to class, I just wanted to reflect a little! By the way, the New York Times website (election guide link) has INCREDIBLE interactive graphics, where you can learn A LOT about the elections dealing with each individual state stats, etc... . You can even set up your own senarios of who wins what, etc..Plus, it´s free to register yourself. OK, so I am a MAJOR journalism dork! But anyways. Love yall. Chau.
By the way, if you are bored and need some laughs check out this GREAT FUN website: Muffin Films. My favorite is the Muffin Tree..don´t ask... | | |
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