The Final Stretch

It only took two months to wrap this thing up, but here goes nothing!

My last days in Spain were a blur. A complete, utter blur. One day I was out to eat with my host family as a farewell dinner. Next thing I knew my room was packed up into three bags and ready to go. Then, my host family and I were on our way to the train station jamming out to One Direction and 5 Second of Summer at the top of our lungs. Finally, I took my first step into that train station with three of my host family members (Ana Maria had to work so we said goodbye before hand) by my side and I just lost it. Every emotion hit me at once! The reality that this would probably be the last time I saw my host family for a very long time, the fear that I would lose touch with all of my AFS friends, and the relief and comfort in the fact that I was finally going home.

I pulled myself together after literally every other exchange student came over to comfort me. Each host family mingled and made light conversation until the awaited moment came when the volunteers announced that it was time to go. Saying goodbye was tough. After living with someone for ten months it almost feels as if you are all attached at the hip. We finally severed our attached hips with a warm heartfelt "This is not a goodbye, but a see you soon" and went our separate ways.

The train ride was a nice, lengthy, overnight trip to Madrid. We reached the Madrid station at about 7 AM the next morning and went through about a ten minute wrestling match with our baggage. Imagine cramming 10 MONTHS worth of belongings into three suitcases all carried by yourself. You don't know what struggle is until that is something that you have been through. 

We were the first of the AFS chapters to arrive at the university we would be staying over at and were told to put our belongings in the conference room, separated by country. Returning home just seemed to become more and more real with every passing moment of reality. We were each given a room key and assigned our own single dorms for the night complete with a personal kitchen and bathroom. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sweet! About one hour later we were called down to group up and take a small trip through Madrid, just for kicks.

I don't remember much of that trip because I was extremely sleep deprived, but I do remember taking a nice chilled out break in a local park, talking with the other exchange students for what would be one of the last times. We returned to the university and found that just about every other exchange student had arrived. Talk about overwhelming! I saw faces that I hadn't seen since September and some that I hadn't ever seen at all. It brought back all the memories of the travel to Spain and the last time we were all together in the city of Madrid. 

The night went by slowly. There was an orientation where we were told when the buses for our planes would depart accompanied by cries of dismay when some students realized their bus would be leaving at all sorts of crazy hours such as 4 and 7 AM. Other cries rang out when students realized they had less time with some of their friends than others since we would be divided by country.

Morning came and the remaining students came out to say goodbye to us. It was another cruel reality check to see how many students had already departed, a reminder of a dozen faces I would probably never see again. Our bus left arriving at the airport right on time after a slight heart attack about all the traffic we had to weave through (I was still freshly traumatized from nearly missing the plane to Santiago). We got up to baggage check to be told the miracle of all miracles. The attendants announced that, due to an under booking of that flight, we would be able to check TWO bags free of charge or over weight fees. WHEN ON EARTH DOES THAT EVER HAPPEN! I am telling you it may not seem like that big of a deal now, but those bags were monstrously heavy and it was such a relief not to have to struggle with so many bags at one time. SWISS AIRLINES ARE THE BEST AIRLINE ON THIS PLANET! To top that off my whole AFS USA group was escorted to a private security check where we could zip through without any wait in line. It was unreal how conveniently everything played out.

The trip to Zurich flew by (haha get it flew ) and we landed with exactly twenty minutes to get from one gate to another which were not so conveniently located on complete opposite sides of the airport requiring a shuttle to get there, not to mention passport checks for about fifty people squeezed into that time span as well. We made it though! 

This was it, the last leg of the trip, the home stretch if you will. Yet again everything caught up to me all at once and I nearly had a nervous break down then and there in my cozy little Swiss Air seat (fun fact, I was seated in the exact same seat on the way home as I was on the way there, everyone else was different yet mine was exactly the same) . The flight also went by rather quickly and before I knew it we were flying over the familiar sites of New York City. We all began to chant (obnoxious I know, but come on we are all just teenagers returning home to the states for the first time in about a year, give us a break). 

We land, we exit, we find our way to customs, we find our baggage. All of my friends are swarming saying how happy they are for me because, unlike them, I am one of the lucky ones that lives in New York and will therefore see my family on the other side of those doors while they still have a whole other flight to sit through. My nerves completely took over and I could not function. I swear my friend Quinn had to handle my custom papers for me people I simply could not hold them still. I barely have the coordination to make it through the second part of customs while juggling all my baggage. I am simultaneously pushing ahead of everyone else in line to get to my damn family already! I'm pretty sure everyone else was pointing and laughing at how pushy I was, but I was a girl on a mission and nothing was going to slow me down if I could help it.

Finally I make it to the front of the line, hand over my papers and the man says "You're all set". I turned around not sure if I was able to leave on my own or not, but I got a bunch of approving nods from the other AFSers as if saying "Ya we'll cover you if they ask where you went". So there I was in front of the very last obstacle separating me and my family. I pulled open the doors to a sea of people (honestly did the whole world choose to travel today or something?). I was extremely disoriented and decided to turn right after about two full minutes of contemplation on what to do next. I began to walk slowly at first. Then behind the sea of people I heard my sister Mari yell "There she is!!!" I couldn't find the face, but even after ten months of separation I could not mistake that voice. Next thing I know I see my mother pushing and shoving like a bat out of hell, moving the barricade rope thing and grabbing me with all she had. 

Done. I. Lost. It. Everything I had bottled up, anything at all just came pouring out and I cried harder than I though humanly possible. They're real and they are here. This is finally not a dream anymore, but a reality. I looked around the room and just admired the coming together of families of all the AFS kids and I still get choked up now. It was the safest most comforting moment of my entire life. AFS changes lives. Not only does it teach you a new culture, how to be independent, meet new people, but it also brings families together. After experiencing it first hand let me tell you, distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder.

It's hard writing this last blog post today. Although my exchange ended months ago, this is it, the final closing book end of an unimaginably wonderful experience. I may never do anything that lives up to this experience. I think back on my exchange every night and think "I am so damn proud of what I have accomplished". That is one of the best things in the world, to look back and be truly, full heartedly proud of something you have done. 

I have zero regrets on my exchange. I am insanely proud of every activity I partook in and every obstacle I jumped over. Sure there were negative parts, so many that at one point in time I thought that was going to be all I remembered of my exchange. But I look back now and all the bad has slithered back into the dark cave that it belongs in. I look back and see nothing but the good. The good of meeting extraordinary people. The good in learning to be an independent individual. And most of all, the good in knowing that I didn't pass up the experience of a life time. I hit it square in the head and I am rambling. 

Long story short I LOVED MY FOREIGN EXCHANGE! Thank you to each and every person that made it possible for me! It has imprinted on me in more ways than you will ever know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3NlkldINrM&list=UUU4Fw_7UQDNA9SG-bKS8Xgg

AFS SPAIN

2013-2014

THE END

Miley Cyrus and a Whole Lot of Madness!

This past Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to go to a Miley Cyrus concert in the Palau Sant Jordi located in Barcelona. I knew for awhile that Miley was coming to Spain while I was here, but I had no idea that I would actually have the chance to go to the concert myself! It was a last minute invitation and needless to say I was STOKED!

Friday, the day of the concert, was a nice low key day to start out with. My friend Quinn (another AFSer who was bringing me to the concert) and I were back and forth on the little details like what we were going to wear and how the heck we were going to get back home after the show!

Around six o'clock I met up with Quinn and her host family and we all drove over to the venue together. The concert started at nine thirty, but we had heard that a bunch of people were camping out and standing in line for forever before hand so we quickly grabbed some dinner to go and headed for the seemingly never ending line. 

Between good food, endless conversation, and really interesting people watching (it's a Miley concert... you can imagine the things we saw!) we found ourselves at the door around eight thirty. We got in easily, despite the fact that we had left our IDs in the car which you need for every little thing here, and we were doing all we could not to start just jumping up and down from excitement!

We went to the bathrooms quickly knowing we had floor seats and once we went into that hysterical crowd there was no getting back out until all was said and done. We joined the crowd and a DJ came out to start and get us pumped up. At this point we were probably only about sixteen people from the stage, which sounds like a lot, but in reality is only about fifteen feet or so, not bad at all!

After a lot of bass drops and remixes that neither Quinn nor I knew the lights went down and we knew what was coming next! I'm not sure if you have been to a Miley show or not, but it is EXACTLY how you would imagine it! The very opening of the show is a bunch of dancers dressed in full body suit animal costumes while a huge projection of Miley is shown on the screen. Then out of no where the projection opens her mouth and Miley comes sliding out on her very own tongue.

Because how else would you enter your own concert!?

Here's a link to the opening but be warned, this is Miley Cyrus content we are talking about!

Bangerz in Barcelona

From an early point in the show Miley explained that this concert would be longer than most including covers of songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Summertime Sadness" and a few more that I can't remember at the moment. In addition the show would be filmed for the NBC station, but she wasn't sure if the channel would end up using the footage because she swore so much throughout the show, so don't hold your breath waiting for that footage!

Anyway, when she sang a few of the covers she moved to a different stage on the complete other side of the floor area. I would say about half of the people in front of us stupidly left running for the other stage leaving us room to push and shove to the front of the main stage for when she returned and played the best songs of the entire show!

When she came back over to the main stage Quinn and I were THREE PEOPLE from the front row. I don't know how we did it, we received a good amount of dirty looks and sassy comments but hey YOLO and I am a foreigner so there is always the "I don't understand you, I am American" card! That move only works about 50% of the time because the entire world knows how to speak English as well as their native language, but hey it's worth the odds!

After a few more songs the lights go down and Miley disappears, that girl has got a LOT of outfits ok? And we see a light coming out of somewhere in the security section they have between the stage and the audience. Quinn and I were like "Is she coming to say hi or something?" super confused, but thennnnn the lights came up and we saw it was Miley's little sister Noah dancing around about ten feet in front of us! So that was pretty cool too!

Finally the most well known songs are playing and I had heard somewhere that the last three songs were "We Can't Stop", "Wrecking Ball", and "Party in the USA" (Quinn and my excuse for pushing so hard to the front was so that we could be in the front row for "Party in the USA" considering we were most likely the ONLY Americans in the crowd). So "Wrecking Ball" ends and she says goodnight (these songs were already a part of the encore) and we were DEVASTATED! THE song we were waiting for the entire time was "Party in the USA" and she wasn't even going to play it! We were trying to reason, ya maybe that song is only played in the USA leg of the tour because it is about a specific country that we aren't in, then all of a sudden I turned around and I see like a pointy green SOMETHING peeking out of the floor. I turn to Quinn and scream "IT'S THE STATUE OF LIBERTY" and then the whole party comes out decked in "American history" and just the biggest show you can imagine! 

Miley (we are practically on a first name basis now) did not let us down and the show even ended in indoor fireworks and red, white and blue confetti! It was just the best show of a concert that I have ever seen and Miley is honestly one of the few few artists these days that sounds just as good (if not better) in person as she does in studio versions! 

After the concert we were dead and I mean just completely dead. I am not sure we found our way home but it included an hour long bus ride and then a fifteen minute walk (before finding out there was a stop closer to my house... oh well). We stumbled into the house and were basically passed out within minutes.

Only hours later...

We had to wake up and get our butts on a train to a two day AFS meet up. 

Saturday consisted of a six hour long beach day just chilling with the other students. Then we hiked a bit to eat dinner at a restaurant in the mountains where it started raining. The plan was after dinner we would hike up a bit further into (into? onto? not too sure at this point) the mountain and sleep under the stars. So we walked up there set up camp and... it started raining. Not too bad, except there was clearly thunder and lightening coming from the distance. 

So we packed it back up and started to walk back down to the restaurant. Halfway back down it stops raining and someone says oh lets just sleep here. Oh that wouldn't have been too bad... except for the fact that the clearing was located DIRECTLY under about eight power lines with a possible storm heading our way. 

There was a majority vote (basically ending up to be boys against girls) and the majority voted we return to the restaurant to sleep in their patio. However it was only (ya only) about one in the morning at this point which in Spain is still a perfectly reasonable time to eat dinner and obviously the owner wasn't going to kicking his paying customers out just so a bunch of teenagers could sleep on his floor for free. So a few hours went by of an awkward balance between trying to sleep (we were tired man!) and being woken up every few minutes to be asked a question by a slightly tipsy customer about who knows what. 

Finally two thirty in the morning rolls around, everyone is gone besides us kids and one volunteer, and we are free to sleep! Great right? Ya sure... for all of an hour and a half. Four in the morning creeps up on us and BAM, CRASH, BOOM (insert storm onomatopoeia here) BIGGEST THUNDER AND LIGHTENING STORM OF MY ENTIRE LIFE COMES ALONG! 

You occasionally here of thunderstorm tragedy stories, but you never really understand how a storm can get that bad, but trust me NOW I KNOW! It was quite possibly the most terrifying, this is it, moment of my entire life because not only is this a huge storm, but on top of that we are in the mountains (we just wanted to be close to the action I suppose) and we are not even inside! We are sleeping on a freaking slab of concrete covered by a super loosely thatched hay over hang! Not ideal for a thunderstorm.

I mean this storm was intense! The thunder claps were so close it literally, LITERALLY sounded like a ginormous human clap two feet above your head and the lightening was striking down and HITTING THE GROUND a meter away from our little awning camp out. The volunteer, a normally carefree anything goes type of guy was on his phone (probably not the safest thing he could be doing during a storm) freaking out trying to figure out what he should do with us.

After about a half hour of pure terror and using my sleeping bag for protection the restaurant owner shows up and lets us sleep inside on the dining hall floor. Not super ideal, but way WAY better than electrocution! From then on it was consistent readjustments trying to get comfortable on the tiled floor and trying my best not to kick someones head since we were super cramped in between the tables and chairs in the dining hall. 

Very few hours later...

Eight thirty AM wake up call since we had to pack up and move out so that the restaurant crew could set up for there normal day... genial (great). 

The rest of the day consisted of a hike to see an entire birds eye view of Barcelona, a flour and tissue paper bomb fight between the host parents and the exchange students, then a nice lunch back at our new found home, the mountain restaurant. 

Around three o'clock that afternoon it begins...... HAILING I mean come on, give us a break here! Yup, quarter sized hail balls clattering all over the place. Luckily at this point we were already eating inside, but we could not believe the weather!!!! It was insane!!!!

After the lunch was all wrapped up we said our goodbyes and Roman and Ana Maria drove Quinn and I to the train station where we had to catch the train to Quinn's house, where I would be visiting for the next three days. Everything went smoothly from that point on! That visit is going to have to be another blog post because that was a lot to soak in at one point and my brain needs a rest before I can bang out that much English at one time again. It's easy to switch between the languages but grammatically, I literally have no idea where I am at! 

Hope your weekends all went a bit more smoothly than mine and I can't wait to tell you all about the Banyoles chapter of my trip which was probably one of my favorites! :) Have a great day! See you very soon!

It's June!!!

Well, well, well who knew June would come so quickly!?

These past few weeks have been quite average if you ask me. The weekend before last weekend the host family and I headed over to the Art Museum of Catalunya. I am not a huge museum person (OK lets be honest... I am not a museum person at all, wish I was, but I'm not) but I didn't feel too guilty since the entrance fee was gratis (free)! 

We saw some cool art and stuff, then we were drawn to a gospel choir singing in the middle of the place. They were pretty good and sang a song from Mama Mia in Catalan so that was pretty cool. At this point we were watching from the balcony area and decided to go downstairs to be on the same level as the singers. When we got down the choir started singing "This Little Light of Mine" and were swaying back and forth (as gospel choirs do). Unfortunately one particular old lady got a little too into her swaying which earned her a spot on the floor... quite abruptly if you catch my drift and the concert quickly came to an end. (She was ok, just a little shaken up.)

Shortly after, we finished looking around the museum and then climbed a lot A LOT of stairs to see the view from the roof! Here are some pictures of all those shenanigans.

Los padres!

Just showing my appreciation of the arts.

Huh.....

YAY ART!

We will skip right on through my last week of school because lets be honest... Spanish school is quite boring!

This past weekend!

The weekend began on Friday night when Ana, Ana Maria, Roman and I packed into the car and drove into Barcelona to watch a fountain / lights / music show in the Plaza de Catalunya. It didn't last long but we did grab some ice cream and sat on the steps to watch the show.

The camera knows how to focus on what's important (the ice cream)!

Ya water, lights and music!

 Saturday comes along, we have a low family lunch then Roman, Ana Maria and I head off to Sitges which is a neighboring city which is very popular for tourists! Fun fact about Sitges is that it is home to the most gay couples in all of Spain, if not all of Europe!

First off we went to the beach first passing by a nude beach, then making it to the normal one where there was still a great deal of toplessness... the more ya know. 

Nude beach!

After a bit of beach time and literally only getting our ankles wet in sea water because it started to get windy and cool we went to find a cafe. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but with my host family, if not every Spanish family, going out of the house for any reason means you will end up at a cafe of some sort eating something or other. This time around it meant ice cream... writing these is helping me realize where all of this extra weight is coming from... MOVING RIGHT ALONG! 

As we were walking through the streets we wandered into a wedding of a gay couple, ya know the part where they throw rice and stuff! So that was cool and it just felt time and place correct considering we were walking through basically the capitol (capital?) of the gay couple community! 

After wandering for a bit longer we got back into the car and drove home. The car ride to and from Sitges is one of those classic European, windy, sea side roads which I absolutely LOVE! I honestly never had the type of appreciation for road trips such as this one before Spain that I have now. I love them!

Then Sunday was another lazy day. I went grocery shopping with Roman then to the pool with Ana and Ana Maria. That brings us to today which was just another low key chill day as will be the rest of the week minus Friday!!!!! But I will be writing about that when the time comes! ;)

Hope your weekends have been nice and relaxing as well! Sorry nothing extreeeeemly exciting hasn't been going on, but hopefully that will be coming up in the next few days and weeks I have left!

I'll be writing again soon, then seeing you all shortly after (TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LEFT NOW!) 

Adios Muchachos!

Final Orientation

This past weekend was the final orientation of the 2013-2014 year program of the Catalunya area.... Let us just take a second to soak that all in. 

As expected the orientation was even better than the last following the pattern that has been set from the start. All of the exchange kids this year are finally completely comfortable around one another and our true personalities were shown full force this time which was just fantastic! 

It all started Saturday afternoon. I caught an hour long train to the station and when I got there I saw a bunch of other AFSers, as expected since it was the only train that would get us there on time. When I say on time I mean a half our early so in that time we could easily find the hostile which we have to walk to on our own right? Wrong. After doing a few circles around the town failing miserably at our map reading skills we were found walking along the beach by one of the volunteers. 

We thought it was sort of strange that the dude had the time to come and find us (only about six out of the group of thirty) considering there was a whole orientation going on already which included ALL of the students going away next year from the area (about like fifty of them!!!). 

We then asked him how the heck he knew to come get us with all that going on and his response was "Well this is the time in the orientation when the sendings (those going away next year) are to ask you guys their questions about being abroad and it's been hard to do because there are only about three of you guys there." Easy to say we could not stop laughing or feel comforted by the fact that a bunch of the others were lost too or just taking their sweet time getting there.

So once we go to the hostile it was complete MADNESS! Instead of asking questions the volunteers had the sendings play a getting to know you game going around asking peoples names, age, languages they knew, and were they were from / going the follow year. I guess they had been playing for awhile because when we opened the door we were MOBBED and added to their already incredibly long lists of names and ages.

Then more of "us" showed up and we were sat in a huge circle. One of the volunteers asked who was from America, which I didn't actually hear, I was just told by a Spanish kid next to me to raise my hand. By the time I had it was too late to realize I was the only "volunteer". I was assigned about six Spaniards going to the US the following year and we were told we had two hours to go and talk about all their questions about their coming year that I would OBVIOUSLY know the answer to... kind of.

My group was actually the bomb and we made some real quality progress in there "Have you ever shot a gun?" "Do you own a gun?" "What do you eat for breakfast?" "Are the school buses actually yellow?" just to give you a few examples. One of the coolest things about my group was a girl from my group, who is a host sister of one of the exchange students here now, already has her host family and she is headed just outside of Boston, Massachusetts only about two hours away! Woot woot!

Lucia, the one in the middle, is the one who is headed to Massachusetts.

After this dazzling activity came a separation time sendings in one room hostings (as we were called) in another. We talked about what we learned from the year and such then began to plan out our super special ceremony for the night. 

Next came dinner which was quick seeing as right after we had to prepare for our ceremony that the hostings would be putting on for the sending (which the volunteers had preformed for us way back in October). We all changed into togas (a white, strategically tied bed sheet) and painted our faces and bodies with some crayon stuff. 

I can't find the group pictures we took (because as anyone here will tell you I don't take my own pictures, I just hop into others and wait for them to upload them because its just easier that way), but this gives you a good idea of what we looked like.

We then headed into a room lit some candles and danced around like animals until the sendings came in and we had to get all serious. I am not too sure if I am suppose to be explaining how the ceremony goes down for those who may be doing an exchange may be reading this and the whole point is for them to ask questions about it and "learn from our ways" so if you are really that interested on hearing how it goes down you can ask me about it in a month when I come home.

Next the sendings were sent free and the hostings got down to the serious, emotional stuffy stuff. Half of the candles were blown out and half were kept lit. The lights were kept off and we were told that the next half hour would consist of us individually coming up as we please to either light a candle and explain a positive that we experienced throughout our last nine months in Spain or blow one out for a negative. 

At first everyone was a bit hesitant to share and there were plenty of struggles with the lighter, but then more and more people came forward and opened up about their time. It was actually super emotional and this was the first point throughout my whole exchange that I truly realized my time here is actually going to come to an end and I am going to have to say goodbye to some of the coolest most incredible people I have had the privileged of knowing in my entire life. Exchange students are all like that you know. We all come from incredibly different backgrounds and home lives and for just ten months we have come together and experienced some of the hardest situations of our entire lives together and formed a bond that is truly unlike any I have ever had before. 

After about forty five minutes and a few laughs mixed with tears we were freed to go, which just turned into a huge hug session. Then we were off to talk and mess around and do as we pleased for the rest of the night.

Next morning came and well nothing too exciting happened that day. We got our exclusive AFS Catalunya t-shirts which are... bright to say the least. We took a lot of photos to immortalize the moments that we know we will look back on with nothing but smiles. Then we separated again as we pleased, half of us going to the beach and half of us going rock climbing up one of those rock wall things. I went for the beach where me and a few others just sat around in the sand talking about TV shows, our exchanges and really whatever else came to mind. 

All too soon it came to an end and I found myself having to say goodbye, well actually about a million goodbyes, then walking to the train station with a few others. Then from then on I was just kind of in shock thinking of how in just one short month (to put time into perspective I was just in Italy a month ago. I know that feels like yesterday!) I will be meeting with these guys for the very last time to head to Madrid to head our separate ways home from there. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO!?! I just don't get it.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I am so incredibly lucky to have made the friends I have on this journey! 

Now I am off to study for finals... maybe... stress on the maybe...

Hope you all had fantastic weekends as well and I will be seeing (most of) you in just one month! Take care!

The Color Run

This past Sunday a bunch of AFSers from all over Spain and I joined over 20,000 people in a Color Run through Barcelona!

For those of you who don't know what a Color Run is, it is a 5 kilometer "race". Every one kilometer or so there are checkpoints of a different color (ex. after one kilometer you reach the orange station). At these stations powdered paint is being thrown by volunteers in every direction. The idea is that by the finish line you are covered head to toe in a rainbow of various colors!

My personal Color Run experience started bright and early at the train station of Barcelona Sants to meet up with all the other participating AFSers. There we changed into our super stylish (least flattering t-shirts I have ever seen) and pinned on our numbers as you do before a 5k. From the train station we walked to La Plaza de España to meet up with all the other THOUSANDS of people also participating in the run.

Plaza de España (stolen from the internet)

So once we made it to the starting line we had to wait a good half hour or so to start the race because they only let about one thousand people leave the starting line at a time so that the color stations didn't get too filled up. While we waited there was a DJ pumping up the jams getting us ready to go. However that was not the only source of entertainment! While waiting we saw quite a few interesting costumes including horse masks, pigtails and LOTS of tutus! Also while waiting we used the time to take a few group photos!

When we were finally able to start we ran... for all of two minutes until we realized we were going up hill. The first station we reached was the orange station. We quickly figured out that if you enter the color stations (they have a blow up ring around the entrance and are fenced in until you reach the exit) and walked along side the barriers you would get far more colorful than if you walked through the center because the people holding the color were right along them. 

Walking through these stops it is a VERY good idea to be wearing glasses of some sort because there is literally powder EVERYWHERE. Honestly if you looked inside my lungs after the whole thing I have no doubt in my mind it would look like a magestic rainbow in there because that stuff was just all over the place! It was so much so that some people wore those doctors masks over their mouths and noses while walking through because it was so bad!

Also at these stations there is obviously powder on the floor as well so if you didn't want to wait for someone to throw the paint directly on you, you could easily pick it up and do it yourself or roll around on the ground like some sort of animal to get covered from head to toe. There was plenty of both!

Moving out of the orange station we ran probably another two minutes, if that! Also while running to this station we past along side runners who had already gone through the next station and by a literal 1 in 20,000 chance I spotted Emma who was also doing the run with her friend and had come completely separate from me!

The next station we reached was the yellow station and these paint throwers were more energetic than the last! We passed through this station a little slower wanting to get as completely covered as we possibly could. Another 1 in 20,000 chance of running into my other host sister Ana who had also come separately from both Emma and I occurred at the yellow station!

They next stop (I am convinced it was not a full 5k because these stations were like five minutes walking distance apart and came way faster than you would expect) was the blue station! Again, these people were crazier than the last! Actually blue may have been the absolute craziest! You could barely see a foot ahead of you because the air was so thick of powder! The powder was super soft by the way, like literal colored powdered sugar! Unfortunately it did NOT taste at all like the stuff and equally as unfortunately it continuously found its way into my mouth.**

Moving right along we came to the green station. While I was walking along in this station one of the paint throwers looked straight at me and said "LOOK LOOK LOOK" and he was pointing at the ground right in front of me. Because I am 1000% gullible (or maybe just 1000% cautious and considerate of what other people have to say) I looked right where he was pointing. He then poured his ENTIRE bottle of green powder like straight into my ear. (It is been two showers later and I STILL have green dust coming out of my ear!)

After the green station was a drink stop where they gave us super good lemonade and then it was a little ways more to the finish line! The AFS group and I decided to sprint the last 50 meters or so and crossed the finish line as a team!

Once you had made it to the finish line there were about  a million things going on at once! You could get your picture taken in a photo booth (which I did I just don't have the pictures yet because they only give two strips to a group of freaking seven people), eat food, and most importantly enter the concert area! 

As you entered the concert area (keep in mind twenty THOUSAND people) you were handed a packet of powdered paint. On the stage on a part of a screen that was shopping random pan shots of the people in the audience (also made it onto that screen which was harder than you might think!) was a countdown. This countdown started over ever twenty minutes and when it reached zero the packets were thrown into the air so it would be a beautiful, powderful, colorful warp! 

Throughout the concert there were more paint packets being thrown into the audience, t-shirts, sunglasses THE WORKS! I am not too sure what time the concert actually ended (there wasn't an actual band, just a DJ and a bunch of prerecorded music) but we stayed until maybe one in the afternoon in which time we somehow, as a group of maybe fifteen or more, worked our way all the way to the very front of the stage where all the action was happening! 

After we made our way to the exit we took a bunch of group photos!

Once outside of the Color Run area it felt a bit strange to see strangers looking all clean and well not covered head to toe in paint! It took all I had not to run on up to someone wearing a clean white shirt and give them a huge ass hug just to see their reaction, but in the end I decided to play nice and let those lucky souls be. However, I guess our group in particular was quiet extraordinary or amusing or something because even though there were about a million other people covered in paint taking pictures only a little ways away, passersby came along and asked us if they could take pictures with the group. So that was pretty cool too I guess! (Unfortunately for me they did not ask for hugs.

After all that commotion we made our way to the train station. There we said our goodbye and parted for our separate ways. Lucky for me I wasn't the only color runner on my train, however that didn't stop anyone from giving me strange looks. I couldn't really blame them either! Once finally in my town I spent the entire fifteen minute walk to our apartment stretching and releasing (does that make sense?) to get the powder to come off leaving behind a rainbow trail in my wake. 

While doing this some guy came running from behind me and happened to be wearing a Color Run t-shirt as well. He kinda just stopped and looked at me for a minute until I gave him a knowing nod and point to our shirts. He then just smiled and kept running. He probably expected to be doing a bit more running during the "race" but let me tell ya the majority of the people there were not all about that and it was so crowded that it actually made it quite difficult for the poor actual runners to pass by. 

After that I finally reached home and took probably THE most colorful shower of my life and without even making a mess of the bathroom, which was a pretty big accomplishment if I do say so myself!

All in all it was a great experience and something that I won't be forgetting anytime soon! I hope you all had equally exciting weekends. I have my last AFS orientation coming up this weekend which I am sure will bring a few more stories to tell! Until then have a nice week! ADIOS!

The Italy Chapter

I think it's about time I do a short rewind of my trip to Italy. The majority of this post is just going to be pictures and explanations to go along with them instead of a fully detailed day to day experience. Here we go!

Here we have the classic airplane photo. I am BEYOND thrilled to report that there were no airport mishaps leaving or returning from Barcelona and I mean nothing! No delays, no forgotten passports, no security run through's NOTHING so that was pretty exciting for me! That night I was picked up at the airport by my cousin Daniela who I thought was going to be difficult to recognize (seeing as I hadn't seen here in person in  6 years or so) but nope! I step into the waiting room area and see a blonde wearing a hot pink coat and somehow I just knew it was her!

Fast forward to the next day and another cousin, Gianpaolo, drove in for a visit to Milan.

In Milan, in front of the famous Duomo (Cathedral) of Milan I met up with Feli, an Italian exchange student who was living in New York and good friends with Emma last year so that was really, really cool to be able to meet up with her again!

After our short trip to Milan, there is actually not too much to see there besides the Duomo and loads of over priced clothing, GP and I said goodbye to Daniela and were off to Trentino (a district kind of like Catalunya or Dutchess County) where we would visit some more towns like Trento and Stenico.

Now we have already established that I am no photographer so this picture was borrowed from the internet and isn't exactly where I was staying, but this is the kind of scenery that I was surrounded by the whole time there. It was such a refreshing change from the city like scenery that I have been living in for the past eight months, which don't get me wrong is nice too, but deep down I think I will always be a mountains and fresh water lakes person just like home! 

The next day we were up for a road trip 'round the mountain!

First was a walk along this river and crossing paths with a massive water fall.

Then we bought sandwiches and ate lunch on some park benches in front of these bad boys! Then one last short hike to a hidden mountain church overlooking another river. There we saw a bear (in captivity) because the story of the church was that "It was built by a man who just wanted to worship alone and in peace. For his trip he carried the things he needed on the back of a donkey. At one point during the trip a bear came along and ate the donkey so the dude just harnessed up the bear and brought him along to first of all carry his things and second of all protect the place from visitors." SO NATURALLY there was a bear there like a massive biggest-damn-bear-I-have-ever-seen-in-my-entire-life there, not doing such a great job keeping away all the visitors since we were all standing there gawking at it anyway.

After that little adventure it was back to the house for some down time then dinner. 

The next day we went for a walk around a local park with this view! 

So ya just a casual stroll there eating Gelato until it was time to head back to eat lunch, which was real Italian lasagna (it was just as good if not better than you are imagining right now) and I got to meet another cousin, Silvia, whom I became really close with throughout the rest of the trip!

After lunch we headed out to Riva, a touristy town with lots of little shops and a big lake!

(Silvia left, Lia right)

The following day GP and I did a bit more exploring in the morning then we picked up Silvia from school, ate lunch, then drove to Verona!

Some random street in Verona.  

This is the famous balcony of Romeo and Juliet. If you look closely at the bottom right side of this picture you can see the statue of a woman (Juliet? Maybe? I'm not sure.). Apparently it is good luck to go up and touch the poor girls boobs. Unfortunately I did not go up to experience the umm phenomenon because there were a lot of people waiting around so I didn't want to ruin their chances of touching the golden boobs themselves when I simply could have cared less.

This, also in the plaza of Romeo and Juliet, was a wall COVERED in chewing gum. At first we were completely grossed out until I realized that there were flakes of paper stuck to the gum as well so I think the wall was used to stick love letters to the wall... we can only hope. Also to the right (in reality, not the picture) there was a wall of locks ya know to lock in your love or something I don't know!

Here, the entry / exit walk way to the Romeo and Juliet plaza were two walls covered floor to ceiling in hearts with names written in them. Instead of getting creative and writing something clever, Silvia and I decided on just writing our two names together in a heart in the middle of the madness.

Next was a short walk along a canal, caught a bus, returned to the car and headed back home.

The following day Silvia skipped school so we could all go on a family trip to Venice! This was by far my favorite day of the whole trip! 

Venice is famous for their elaborate face masks and you literally can't escape these things. They are EVERYWHERE! There is Venice they have Carnival, similar to Spain, and everyone dresses up in fancy dresses and wheres one of these for the event. How freaking cool and completely terrifying at the same time!

Here we have the famous cathedral of Venice and to the right is where the Duke of Venice makes speeches. If you look really carefully about four or five windows to the right of the churchy part there is one reddish orange window which is only for the Duke. Legit, like royal king mine and only mine mentality going on there!

That orange brick building in the background is actually a tower where you can see all of Venice from. We didn't go up for two reasons. One the line was a bit long and two it was getting close to the top of the hour, which according to Silvia if you get stuck up there at the top of the hour when the bell chimes you will basically want to throw yourself out the window because it's so damn loud! 

Another fun fact about this tower is that way back when in some year that no one knew BUT SURELY EXISTED, the tower fell down like London Bridge is Falling Down style! Right there in the square. All throughout the plaza you can find pictures of people sitting at tables in the square having lunch with the tower just crumbled around the square in the background. So ya, that was a thing!

Next we have the entry to the main canal of Venice. In case you didn't know there are no cars in Venice, literally none. You either have a boat or walk your ass where you want to go. Here we have some gondolas which we didn't actually go in because they cost something crazy like 80 euros which is equal to 100 dollars or maybe a little more. Plus there were like seven of us so we probably would have had to take two. FUN FACT gondola drivers actually do wear striped shirts! They stand in the middle of busy squares and if you want a ride you just walk up to them, tell them you wanna go, and they take you to their "ship". 

And here we are, Silvia and I after stepping off our ferry we took up the main canal right before heading home. That night we went over to her house for dinner then played Just Dance after dinner for the whole families entertainment. At about ten or so Silvia and I walked back to her grandparents house where I was staying, since I stayed late after dinner to play. (The schedule change time wise like calling ten o'clock late for a school night was really strange to me! Spain has got my times all mixed up! OH and I eat slower now! Literally I was the last to finish every time! Readjustment may feel stranger than I thought!) After we got to her grandparents house we said our final goodbyes since I wouldn't be seeing her in the morning before I left. 

The next day we went to Trento for lunch before heading to Burgamo, a very rich city close to the airport were I would be flying out of. 

While there we got caught in a thunderstorm, which after I thought about it was my first thunderstorm in eight months! Ya it rains here in Barcelona, but there is never thunder or lightening, another thing I miss about living in New York. 

While in Burgamo we saw a few churches which you can see in the background above. They were super impressive, just as you would expect Italian churches to be. There I learned that the holy water thing I saw in Santiago is in fact a common thing because there were about three of the metal water holders in each church, goes to show how much I know thinking it was a one time thing!

Finally after a final dinner together of pizza *Side Note: In Italy you eat your own pizza. Like a full freaking medium sized pizza SOLO. I couldn't handle it, meanwhile the respectfully seventy something year old grandmother I was with could finish off her own in the time I ate a half... Safe to say us Americans are in fact NOT the biggest eaters in the world. After spending a week with them I can safely say it is hands down the Italians who win that prize? Moving on...* we went off to the airport where I said my last goodbye and boarded my flight home without a problem!

The plane was under booked so the flight attendant told me I could sit in the very spacious emergency exit zone all to myself! Let me tell you, you have never lived until you have had two full plane arm rests to yourself for a full plane ride! 

Then there I was back in Barcelona with a sense of home, which was such a refreshing feeling. Barcelona is truly my home away from home where I have a family whom I truly consider to be my own! Finding Roman went without a problem this time (unlike after El Camino...) and I was home by 1 AM in bed for 6 hours before going off to school the following day! 

So there it is! Italy in a nutshell for you! A big fat thank you to everyone who made this trip possible for me, you guys are the best! That's all for now I guess! Have a nice week! Ciao!