im trying to catch up!

sorry for the lack of updates, all the blog stuff is on my laptop so im gunna post them when i get a chance to get some wifi. Im gunna post all the stuff from paris etc. Im headed to Barcelona tonight for the weekend and here is some stuff to look at while im away!


heres some videos
http://www.flickr.com/groups/msu_spain/pool/


photos from the guggenhiem
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69945729@N00/sets/72157605310744605/

first day of class
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69945729@N00/sets/72157605162485256/


karl had the pleasure of putting me sleeping as the cover of the album.....ill update this more soon!

the taint of europe

let me start out by first saying, EVERYTHING THEY SAY ABOUT FRANCE IS TRUE. Fuck those rude arrogant mother fuckers. I will never step foot in that stupid fucking country so long as I live. And I hope to god some stupid Frenchie comes to the USA to ask me for help and I can laugh in his face and tell him to go eat a baguette. I will delve into this more in a bit. We started by taking a bus to San Sebastian which looked absolutely bueatiful but we were only there for a short time. We then took an hour long communter train to the French city of Hemendaya to get to our high speed train to Paris. Once in Hemendaya the drama begins. We get in line for the information booth slash ticket booth with our French cheat sheet in hand so we could try and speak to the ticket person. We asked him very nicely in French if he spoke English to which he responded tha the didn’t. A lady in line behind us helped translate for us so we could get the tickets. What a cocksucker, I wanted to strangle him. He was the biggest dick head ive ever met. First it takes about 30 minutes to even get our tickets and this guy tries to overcharge our group by over 200 euro. And halfway though the whole ordeal the stupid fuck switches to PERFECT ENGLISH. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH FRENCH PEOPLE, WHY DOES EVERYONE PRETEND LIKE THEY CANT SPEAK ENGLISH. Finnally after the dude overcharged us so much we decided that it was way too much extra money and that we were just going to go back to Pamplona. We went around an located an internet café to check the price of trains and planes to Paris, we even tried to rent a car and we were going to drive it to Paris, we found out that our hostel had a 48 hour cancellation policy so there was no way we could cancel the reservations. We headed back to the train station to purchase our tickets and this time around we got a very nice person. He helped us out and didn’t try to overcharge us nearly 400 american dollars. He toldus to walk across the border into spain for cheap food to eat. It was kinda cool that you can just stroll into Spain from France on foot, and we took some pictures of us right on the border. Oh yea, and our plan was to take the highspeed train and arrive in Paris Friday night before 11. Since we chose just to wing it, there was only first class available and the only available train was the night train which meant we would have to suck it up and pay for a night at the hostel without staying in it. We ended up staying in the shithole of a city Hemndaya from noon till 10pm. When we got on the train the seats sucked and it was a long ass ride with not very much sleep. We sat in the back with some backpackers from Florida, but couldn’t really chat that much because every person on the train kept giving us dirty looks just for talking , oh well tomorrow ill be in Paris hopfully things will be better, I hope to god that Parisians aren’t more rude than the Hemndayas.

"best european media class ever"

Thursday was an awesome day in class. Karl our professor was assigned the task of lecturing one of the universities classes on European media. But Karl does what Karl wants. So instead he brought about 150 euro in markers and crayons and some mural paper and we headed out into the hallway to make a giant mural. It was a sight to behold, about 40 kids from all different countries working on one mural. There were no guidelines, people were tracing each other and drawing pictures it was so much fun, the kids from the University said it was the most fun they’d ever had in a college class. The evening was just spent chillin in the apartments because we had an early train to catch to Paris the next morning. We went to this little bar with some of the kids I met the night before called Las Portales, it was again a tiny little bar but the scene outside was even better. People were just partying in the plaza drinking bottles of wine and yelling. Which reminds me, the booze here is so unbeliably cheap .You can get a bottle of wine from the Navarra region for 78 euro cents, and it tastes better than anything you could ever find in the states. 6 packs of Heineken are only 3.50, suck on that Teddidinho. Oh yea and the other day I was at the University’s gym for the first time and failed to remember that here in Europe they measure things in kilograms, not pounds. So I thought to myself, what the hell why do these weights only go up to 20, and started tossing some plates on the bench. I laid down to bench and took the bar off and literally crushed my chest, I felt like the biggest idiot this guy who worked there had to save me. So just an FYI next time you ae in Europe lifing weights, 20 pounds does NOT equal 20 kilograms, biiiiiiiiiiig difference. I went to the grocery store and bought fresh bread, mozerella, ham, and pepperonis and made some amazing sandwiches, while I was at the grocery store I noticd something, a bunch of the workers were wearing roller skates and would skate around the store helping people and restocking shelves, pretty funny. Well we are headed to PARIIIS tomorrow so it should be an interesting day. I had no interest before I came here to even step foot in France but I guess it is kinda stupid to come all the way over here and not go there.

new friends

Wednesday was the UEFA finals Manchester versus Chelsea and according to the locals it was supposed to “make the superbowl look silly”. Maybe we were in the wrong spot but there was no one out. We started with some pitchers of sangria at Hemmingway’s favorite café and then moved around the Plaza Castillo to find a bar to watch the game in. The game was actually really good as it went to a shootout. After that everyone went back to the apartment except for Kaelyn, Sarah and I. We headed to the casino bar from the other night and stayed there till about 3:00. We were walking home and we heard some bass bumping like a club was real close. We saw this door with glowing blue lights flashing and approached it. When we opened the door ther was about 20 students in there going absolutely nuts. Everyone cheered for us when we came in, it was a really small bar probably the smallest bar ive ever been in. we stayed there till around 4 and here is the best part, during closing, the bartender took everyone’s drinks and started pouring them in plastic to go cups. So everyone went outside and we were partying in the street for another 45 mins. I started talking with some of the people and found out they were all in the same study abroad program but from different countries. I made a few new friends and got some numbers so I could hopfully meet up with them later in the week.

cute PIX!

just a few pictures i thought i'd share....



heres a pic of the campus at the university of navarra
























the scenic old quarter of downtown pamplona







the city hall....a rocket is launched here to start the running of the bulls and they are released from their pens about 50 feet from where this picture was taken

SENEGAL CAN YOU HEAAAAAR ME

So much for an uneventful night. We went to our first Tapas bar, or Pinchos as they call them in the Basque region here in Spain. It was relaxed and actually it turned out to be a famous bar. It is right on the street that the running of the bulls takes place and is located right on the famous corner Estrella. This corner is famous because it is when the first stretch of the run ends and the second begins and has a 72 degree turn that causes many of the bulls to fall down. The walls were littered with the most amazing black and white photos of the festival over the years. Including a picture of Ernest Hemmingway WASTED laughing hysterically with is shirt off holding a man in his arm who had just been gored by a bull and looked more dead than alive. I tried Sangria for the first time here in spain, what a deee-wish-is drink! It tastes like fruit punch and you can literraly feel your self getting slower after each sip because its so potent. After we were finished with our Pinchos and Sangria we headed to the famous Plaza Castillo. It is famous because Ernest Hemmingway wrote the majority of his literature in that very Plaza, stayed in the same hotel every night, drank him self stupid everyday at the same Café Iruna that I was chilling at. There is even a life-size statue of him leaning on the bar inside. We headed inside to this small bar that was playing dance music. We got a taste of a drink from Pamplona called Callimocho or something which is a 50/50 mix of red wine from the Navarra region here in Pamplona and Coca-Cola, so tasty. We stayed for a bit, but this guy who must have been at least 40 would not stop harassing the girls with us and so we decided to leave.

We left and half of us chose to stay out and have a couple more beers. In Pamplona everything closes early except from Thursday to Saturday and we kept asking locals for directions to a bar that was open, finally we found one that was open and we went inside and it was a very different scene. Every single patron of the bar was black, which is so rare because I have yet to see more than 4 black people here in Pamplona. The bar was a little bigger than your average dorm room and had maybe four bar stools. They had a bench in the front which consisted of a piece of wood perched atop 3 kegs. I started chatting with one of the guys there and found out it was a hangout for people from Senegal. Being the curious person that I am I inquired more and it evolved into a full blown conversation in Spanish for well over an hour. He was the first person from Senegal that I have ever talked to and I was the first person from America that he had ever spoken with. So we shared stories of culture, music, women, sports, everything. They are extremely fond of our rap music; Tupac, Nas, DMX, Wutang, Kanye. He spoke 3 languages, French, Spanish, and his native tounge of Apto or something of the sort. It was amazing that I was able to communicate with him so well, my Spanish is getting exponentially better every day here, the improvement is incredible. Just watching TV in Spanish does wonders for your vocabulary. A bunch of the guys were in different hip hop bands, and they rapped for us and I got their numbers because they frequently hold concerts at this Bob Marley bar here in Pamplona. Im pissed that I forgot to take any pictures with them, but I will meet them again and have another opportunity to snap some pictures.

first day of class

The University of Navarra is about a 15 minute walk from our apartments. We met up at 9 and headed there for 930 class. We met with the dean and got our usernames for WiFi and got a lay of the land. We got a tour of the communications building, very cool. The actual design is a giant cube, 3 floors, very modern looking. I made the mistake of not eating breakfast before we headed over there and was basically struggling to survive during the whole tour and shebang. There was an American there that worked for the international program and he gave us some good advice about which bars and clubs to go to in the city and where to find free WiFi here in the city, it is actually very prevalent. We headed to the cafeteria where I finally got some grub and then headed to the computer lab where I proceeded to surf the internet harder than ever before. Its really sad how addicted I am to the internet, I feel like a crack head scratching my neck trying to find WiFi. Oh well, I got a lot done, I booked my hostel in Barcelona for the weekend after next, and there happens to be a giant electronica festival that weekend so it should be a great time. I also booked my hotel in Ibiza, which I am so stoked for it was only 25 euro per person a night and this place has a giant pool bars the whole kit and caboodle, so I absolutely cant wait for that.

People are talking about going to France this weekend and I think I might join them, they are trying to go to Paris but I would really like to see the south of France, in particular Nice and Marseille which is on the French Riviera. I have a couple of girl friends in London who I might talk to about going to Nice this weekend with them instead of Paris. After all was said and done I came back to my apartment and took a nice long siesta. Which before I forget, they take very seriously. From the hours of 2pm – 4pm no store is open except for restaurants, and it is a special time to relax and no business is done. So I came back and took a nice nap, actually the first real sleep ive gotten here, the city is pretty loud at night it was a rough night last night. Im trying to figure out my railpass situation for when this program is done. It is so confusing because there are so many passes, unlimited travel in one country, regional passes, 3 4 and 5 country passes and for each of those there is many different options on how to use it. I think im going to get a 3 country pass of Italy, Germany, and France. That way I can fly to Florence take the train to Germany where I want to see Munich and Berlin. I have a good family friend that is staying just outside Stuttgart right now and we talked today about meeting up for a night or two in Munich as she is only a 2 hours ride away. Everyone is out grocery shopping right now and Im pretty sure that we are going to cook some dinner and head to some bars, I need to get some beers in me so I can sleep a bit easier, I feel jetlagged still a little bit. Well im anxious to eat dinner, I will update this thing tomorrow morning if anything special happens tonight otherwise ill take it easy for the night. Adios.

sunday sunday sundaaaaaaaay

Well we only have two keys for three people so I got shafted and locked out of my apartment and had to sleep on the couch in the girls room. It was actually pretty fun a bunch of us stayed up till about 5:30 just hanging out. The next morning I woke up around noon and everyone was still sleeping, actually everyone in the girls room slept till about 7:30 pm, and my roommates slept till 4:30. One of the girls was awake so we decided to try and venture into town to get some food. Wow what an ordeal. First of all like I said before nothing was open. We stepped into this Irish pub waited for like 10 minutes to try and order only to find out that they don’t serve food until 7pm. So we proceeded to go across the street to McDonalds. After eating my 9$ value meal we headed into town, it was about a 25 minute walk. The downtown area is very pretty, exactly how I pictured Pamplona. Here where im living at, everything is very modern like a normal city, but as you venture into town and enter the old quarter where they do the running of the bulls its like a step back in time. We walked around for about three hours just exploring and actually found a really cool plaza. It was the size of a football field with a giant stone gazebo like structure that had to be hundreds of years old. Surrounding the plaza was about 10 bars, kinda like Campo de Fiori in Rome for those of you have been there. We went and visited the Plaza Del Toros which is where they run to during the running of the bulls festival, I am very excited to see an actual bull fight it should be very enlightening. After wandering around we headed back to the apartment and got ready for dinner.

All of us in the group went to a hotel down the street to eat dinner on MSU’s tab and it was pretty good, not very Spanish, but good. After that we headed back to the apartments to talk about some study abroad stuff for the trip and then opened a bottle of wine and hung out till about 3. Im laying in bed right now and we have class at 9:30 tomorrow and we get a tour of the University of Navarra where we will be studying for the next two and a half weeks. Apparently there is a dress code there and were told not to wear sneakers or athletic shorts? What the hell, we had no notice im not trying to throw on a button down and dress shoes at 9:30 in the morning to go get a tour, so who knows what will happen because I didn’t bring a lot of very dressy clothes. Oh well tomorrow should be fun I need to go to bed now. Adios

loud americans

Interesting night. We started by having some cocktails and wine over at the girls room and went out around 11:30. We tried to find the center of town where you would think everything was poppin but we had no luck trying to find “downtown”. So we settled for the first establishment we could find that looked like a bar. Obviously we were your typical drunk Americans, the loudest people in the bar, we were catching a lot of dirty looks from locals who didn’t take to kindly to blacked out college students. The beer is fantastic, but expensive. I only had four or five beers but it was more than enough, the beer is strong as shit. The first bar we were at closed at around 2am and we headed across the street to another one till about 3:30. I spent only 20 euro, which is really good I guess but not with the exchange rate, what is that like 35-40 dollars? Apparently Sunday is a big deal here, as in NOTHING is open. I was hoping to go buy some eggs and bacon and a cell phone but it looks like I wont be able to do that. We have reservations at 8pm for dinner and that was the earliest they would seat us. Its really interesting how late they eat here, you will see little kids running around at like 11 at night, I would love to know how late those little kids sleep in. Well im going to wander around town until I find some food, and maybe some internet. Im fiending for some ESPN and some CNN right now, and all they have on tv is horse racing, Spanish anime, and handball tournaments. Hasta Luego…..

welcome to pamplona

Here is a photo from my window.

Wow, just arrived in Pamplona. What a cool city. Its just outside the Pyrenese mountains so there are rolling hills everywhere. The city it self is very clean and our accommodations are out of this world. The girls are staying in what I would call a 5 star hotel and there is three of us guys posted up in this BRAND NEW apartment with a view of the city. Our plane to Pamplona from Madrid was delayed about two hours and I ran into Karl our professor and about four other students. After getting settled in we headed to the grocery store to pick up some food and liquor. Man o man, 97 euro cents for a bottle of the best red wine ive ever had??? Are you kidding me. My backpack got soaked in transit and all my stuff smells like a wet dog. To make matters even sweeter, apparently Europeans don’t use dryers? News to me, but I wish I would have known that after trying to look for dryer sheets for 25 mins at the super market. Also there is no febreeze here, everyone loves febreeze you can spray it on anything how can you not have that here. We were all starving so we picked up some frozen pizzas, wine, and a liter of vodka at the super market. Im gunna be taking tons of pics and im going to post select ones here and then link the galleries. Its Saturday night so you know what that means, first night out on the town. Should be interesting to see how drunk I get and how much money I spend, definitely going to be a learning experience. Well im about to shower, which reminds me, in the shower there is a GIANT opaque window that you can open up. So hypothetically I could be completely naked just chillin in the window. The window is massive, like from my knees past my head, so ill definitely be clowning up there. Stay tuned……

Buenas Dias!

Just touched down in madrid, airport is nothing fancy but you gotta love the goofy euro fashion styles. I swear people here will wear their armani sunglasses inside even if the lights went out. Just had my first taste of some spanish Cafe or coffee. talk about a kick in the mouth, this shit at the airport puts starbucks to shame. Its pretty overwhelming being in a country where no one speaks english as their primary language. You always see other languages posted on airport signs back in the states, and you never realize how helpful it is until your trying to navigate through a giant airport with 12th grade spanish. The flight here wasnt too bad, i popped a sleeping pill and basicly dont even remember the flight here, i woke up to the sound of the captain telling us to prepare for landing so i am rested and ready to go. The flight to pamplona is only an hour so im gunna try and snap some pictures out the window if i can of some spanish landscapes.

I should arrive in pamplona around 2pm which will give me ample time to set up shop in my apartment and explore a bit, i have no idea if there is WiFi at my apartment so i will see what i can do to update this little mug once im in Pamplona.

Adios

goodbye usa

Welp, first off i cannot believe how much stuff i could fit into that backpack. If i didn't pack like such a jackass i could have easily fit my entire suitcase into that backpack, but you know you need to have at least three pairs of nikes and 97 t shirts when your traveling the globe. I had just enough space, and i can actually fit my laptop into that little man purse of a backpack. Which reminds me; hip hip hoorray for HP, i shipped them my computer on monday, and they had it back to me thursday morning, so it looks like i will be able to bring it after all.

I am leaving for the airport in 90 minutes from this post, I will try to update this with pictures from Madrid when i land there but i dont know if they will have free Wifi, regardless i'll write some shit down and snap some pictures.

See you all in 93 days.

so much to do

Friday is fast approaching and I feel overwhelmed with things to do and people to see. The AC power port on my laptop broke the other day and I had to send it in which means I won't have my laptop until the 21st at the earliest. To make matters worse it will be around 150$ to ship it international with a date range of 10-20 business days. My brother came in the clutch huge by telling me he'd let me take his laptop abroad and use mine for the summer when it came in the mail. Mad props on that Conner. I still have mad bills and parking tickets to pay before I leave and it seems that something new is always added to the list of things to do.

My plane leaves at around 5:30 on Friday and I arrive the next day in Madrid at around 11am. I then fly into Pamplona ending up there at around 1:15pm. Tomorrow I am heading back up to school to bid my final farewells to the homies still posted up in east lansing. I will update with some pictures on the bags I decide to use. Im thinking of bringing a good medium sized backpacking backpack and then a medium sized roller bag. I think im going to use a daypack as my carry on so it will be very small not big enough to fit anything major except my sketch pad, ipod, water, pencils etc etc.

Travel Itinerary

Here is a pretty accurate calendar of where I will be for the next 93 days, I am hoping to stick to this unless something pops up that catches my attention.

• May 16 - May 29: Pamplona, Spain
• May 23 - May 25: San Sebastian, Spain
• May 30 - June 1: Barcelona, Spain
• June 4 - June 11: Madrid, Spain
• June 10: Toledo, Spain
• June 12 - June 15: Ibiza, Spain
• June 17: Segovia, Spain
• June 18 - June 20: Madrid, Spain
• June 21 - June 23: Florence, Italy
• June 25 - June 28: Berlin, Germany
• June 29 - July 3: London, England
• July 4 - July 6: ?????? 4th of July weekend
• July 9 - July 10: Stonehenge / Bath, England
• July 11 - July 13: No Plans yet
• July 14 - July 16: York, England
• July 17 - July 20: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• July 22 - July 28: Edinburgh, Scotland
• July 31 - August 3: Dublin, Ireland
• August 4 - August 7: London, England
• August 8: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• August 9 - August 12: Prague, Czech Republic
• August 13 - August 14: Vienna, Austria
• August 15 - August 16: Salzburg, Austria
• August 17 - 18: Geneva, Switzerland
  

welcome

beginning may 16th i will be leaving for ninety-three days to travel and study around europe. I am going to try and update this blog every day of my trip with pictures and stories. stay tuned...