Croatia, Day One!

Day one in Croatia was unforgettable! I don't just mean the beautiful weather (it felt so nice to sweat again) and the beautiful scenery--I mean we really had quite an unforgettable moment when we had tomatoes thrown at us. But I'll get to that in a bit.
...muahahah quite the tease eh?
Lauren, Casey, Juls, April, and I arrived in Zadar, a main city in Croatia, on Thursday night, and we squished us five little girls into a tax to get to our hostel in Bibinje, a small town ten minutes from Zadar. We got the BEST pizza in the world--I'm not kidding. I don't even really like pizza!Look at Casey ready to jump into that pie of cheesy deliciousness. Apparently Zadar is known for its fabulous pizza. I'm thinking it's because of the Italian influence across the waters.
We jumped on a bus to Zadar, and it's just an adorable little town with a bumpin' night life. Zadarians are pretty well dressed, and I think they're pretty good looking too. Lots of olive skin and dark hair and high waisted shorts. We went to an outdoor bar that was playing lots of MJ and Ghostbusters, so we were boppin.
They had a bridge across the river that was lit up!
When we tried to get a taxi to get back into Bibinje, one of the taxi drivers tried to scam us into paying double what we were supposed to. That was Bad News Bears Croatia Style #1.

The next day we got into Zadar bright and early to catch a bus to the lakes, but when we tried to get onto the bus, the driver told us that we were trying to get on the wrong bus and that the next one was actually ours. When the next bus driver pulled up, he told us that our bus had already left! We raced to the ticket vendor to see what was happening, and she raced out to find out that the first bus driver had lied to us. She apologized and gave us our money back, but told us that the driver didn't want to drive us because we were American--apparently it's a pretty common occurrence. BNBCS #2.But it was okay because we got the most delicious ice cream in the world (Kinder chocolate flavored? Hekk yeah!)--it might have been better than Spain's.
MAYBE. And then we went back to Bibinje to our beach that was literally 50 steps from the backyard of our hostel.
We're in the Adriatic!!
Pretty, right? I think I might like Costa Brava of Spain more, but this was still really nice.
And this is our cute little hostel.

While we were sitting on the beach, a Croatian guy came and was chatting us up (naturally since we're a group of American beauts), when a tomato hit Casey! There was a group of 16 year old Croatian boys throwing tomatoes at us! We were like WHAT THE HELL?! And they didn't stop at one tomato! It was at least three! We were about to hulk into Angry Americans, but we decided to just leave instead. We asked Mr. Croatian why they were throwing tomatoes at us, but he didn't quite give us a straight answer. BNBCS #3. But really, what the hell?

And then when the girls were getting on a bus to Zadar again that night, the bus driver asked them, "Croatians?" And they said, "No, we're trying to get to Zadar though," and he shut the door on them. BNBCS #4. What the hell?
I knew that there was the joke that people hate Americans, but I didn't really believe them--after all, we're all people who are more than their nationality. I don't want to think that the tomato event was because we were American. I think those boys were just making fun of Mr. Croatian for trying to mack it with 5 girls. But still... who throws tomatoes at complete strangers? Oh well. At least we got a free shot after dinner!

Parlez vous anglais?

I think I'm a very domestic person. For my host family, I've made spring rolls (with thai peanut sauce yum yum. I also go through phases where for a week straight all I want in peanut butter), a chocolate and vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and strawberries for my dad (host), and m&m cookies for the family. And I like doing it! I'd rather stay at home and cook than go out to a bar. I'm too young to be a homebody!! What is happening to me?! I'm a 40 year-old stuck in a 20 year-old body!
So I'm offsetting it by going to Croatia tomorrow! The weather should be beautiful (90s and sunny, as opposed to moody Belgium weather. It can be 80 one moment, and then raining and 68 the next), and the beach should be wonderful too.
But for now, I'm chilling on my bed, not packing or doing homework and watching Sherlock instead. SUCH A GOOD SHOW! It's on BBC and it's Sherlock Holmes in modern day.
But anyway, here's a picture of le roomie and le garcon, Sebastian, with the spring rolls of moi.
Look at my superb french skills! I'm going to be a super pro at this language any day now.
hah.
But really, French 101 is my favorite class so far, and I think I'll pick it up quickly as long as i continue to flash card it every night. And I can hit on people in French too! "Tu es celibataire? Oui? Moi oussi!"
(Translation: "Are you single? Yes? Me too!")
But I'm not really sure where I'd go from there. I could ask how much something costs... ha! I don't think that will help in my wooing of a French man. Ew.
But I really love learning languages! It's so fun. I wish I could just take a billion 101 language classes.

Now, time for some...
Fun facts about Europe!
1. Asians are not scarce here! There's like a mini Chinatown near the center of the city. It's like a Chinastreet, actually. Yet people are still amazed at seeing Asians! When I go out, people always comment on me being asian... pretty sure I was called Lucy Liu at a point. Awesome.
2. You can tell who's American and who's European just by what they wear. The style here is much more put together but casual at the same time. Americans wear more tight clothes, Uggs, and Northface.
3. Peter the Great came to Brussels and threw up after a night of Belgian beer, and the Belgians built a monument where he threw up.
4. Seriously, waffle stands are everywhere.5. They charge for plastic bags at the grocery stores. I love it! It forces people to be environmentally conscious.
6. Their metro system is almost completely on an honor system--a lot of the times the gates are open, so you don't haaave to swipe your card so you could technically just go in without paying, but everyone does anyway.
7. Gum is really expensive here because no one chews it.
8. People are really okay with B.O. It's a little scary how often I get whiffs of nasty from the people around me at the metro.
9. There's a bar here with 2000 different beers. It's next to the tequila bar that has 200 different types of tequila. What the hekk
10. Belgians specialize in kriek, a cherry beer. It's really good! My dad (host) gave me a bottle at dinner.
11. Dutch channels usually have programs in English and subtitles in Dutch.

Little Peeing Boy

These past few days have been a whirlwind!
Orientation was pretty cool--meaning we had to sit through lengthy talks, but we were fed pastries (chocolate cwah-sohnts what up) and the people here seem awesome. I definitely click with these people much better than the people I met in Spain, but it might've been because I was in a different mindset. I'm so excited to be here now! Everyone seems really cool because we're all here for the same purpose--to get a really great cultural and educational experience. It's different than the summer program because I feel like that was more like a mini-vacation, so people treated it that way. In other words, people were more inclined to get piss drunk every night. I don't think it's like that here! Everyone just wants to travel, I think. SO WE'RE GOING TO CROATIA NEXT WEEKEND. YES. I
CANNOT
WAIT.
But I shouldn't get too ahead of myself. I haven't even gotten a waffle or chocolate or pomme frites yet! But we did get to see the little peeing man. The fact that he's a symbol of Brussels shows how interesting of a city this is.
And here are some friends (yes! I had success in making friends!) with everything that Brussels stands for--peeing boy and waffles.

I think I might have nailed my internship interview too! If all goes well, I'll be working with a theater/dance/arts/music management organization funded by the Dutch government. I would be helping plan Jethrfst, which is a week of theater and dance. Cool, huh? And get this! My potential boss is a man who ballroom danced for 8 years in Germany! Hmm. I may try to seduce him back into dancing so I can have a partner. Muahaha.

And my friend said that her interviewer was a Vesalius student like us who landed an internship 8 years ago and then got a job at that company and stayed in Brussels to live here! MAYBE THAT'S MY FUTURE TOO! How exciting would that be? I secretly hope that I'll somehow romantically (when I say "romantic," I don't mean that boys are involved. I mean like Victorian Lit "romantic") be swept into the world of Europe forever. But that's secret.

Dutchies Are Awesome

No really, Dutchies are the coolest people in the world.

Everything is so hip and funky and cool, like Ikea! And I love Ikea. I went to the Netherlands with my host family this weekend (they are so nicefdsfjsfjds I can't believe they actually brought me along), and it was so cool. There are so many cows and horses everywhere!

We did a house swap, so we got to stay in this interior decorator's house. It was not THAT impressive, but still cool none the less.House swaps are fun because you get to snoop though and try to guess what the residents are like. They had a bedroom with lots of naked women on the wall, and the focus was always on their boobs or butt. It was essentially black and white porn in frames. And she had this one room where she had collections and collections of cross stitch and squirrels. And cross stitched squirrels (lower lefthand corner). WHY?!

She had a stuffed squirrel too, but I didn't take a picture of that.But instead, check out the little figurine squirrels! ...WHY?!

I left the light on at night when I went to bed, you know, just in case a giant stuffed squirrel comes out and eats me.

The town is adorable. It was on the river side, and Dutch people are SO PRETTY. It might be the blonde hair, the cool style, the high cheek bones... they're just so pretty.

The kids watching a man's parrot dance to a street organ. The street organ reads music off of a continuous page with holes in it to mark what keys to play, and it even had drums and cymbals that were marked in too!

Then we went to the Royal Palace of the Netherlands!The Dutch style is very understated, organized, and symmetrical.


Here's Kiki on the path in the woodlands around the palace. So cute with her little striped leggings!

And they had peacocks wandering around (I almost said campus) palace. My hosties and the peacock are both wary of each other.

And there was a HUGE garden in the back.

I want to get married to myself in a garden! Not like that one, but I love having green everywhere.

We went out for Dutch pancakes afterwards, which are large thin pancakes generally topped with some combination of cheese, ham, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions, and you top all of THAT off with MAPLE SYRUP! I was unsure of how I'd feel about that mix of sweet and savory, but it is so good. Who knew that cheese and maple syrup would be so good together? Oh and also a heart attack on a plate, but oh well

And I also got another pair of cool European shoes for 10 euro. HEH

Fun Facts About Europe:
- The drivers who are turning onto the road have right of way.
- Birkenstocks are like the Dutchies' Converses. Everyone wears them!
- Dutch children are called "cheese heads" because their hair is so blonde (basically white) and it looks like cheese. HAHA
- Everything is super kid-friendly, so almost all restaurants have a kids play section.
- Cyclists have right-of-way over EVERYONE (then pedestrians, then cars). In a lot of places in the Netherlands, it's easier to bike than to drive. I love that! There are bikers everywhere.

Place Grookt

The Grand Place is rather quite nice. It's nothing in comparison to Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, but this may be because it didn't seem very big with the huge flower carpet, so I'll need to revisit it. But it's surrounded by chocolate shops! Seriously! I think 3 out of 4 stores in the area sell chocolate. Dang.
And it's super cute that they always seem to have some music playing in the background. Today they had two different groups of musicians playing classical music. So nice! It creates such a nice ambiance.

And here is Sabastian, one of my host family's little boys who loves me. :)

We play monopoly a lot.

Flower Carpet!

I love flowers. When I'm rich and famous (or just rich... or just have married someone rich), I want to be surrounded by flowers all the time. I know people say they're a waste of money and for the frivolous, but I love them! I don't mind being vain and petty if I get my flowers. So when I found out that "flower carpet" event was going on this weekend in the Grand Place (the main plaza of Brussels), I was so excited to go! It's an event that only happens once every two years, so I'm really lucky to have been able to see it! It's made of 650,000 flowers and covers 19,275 square feet.

So pretty, right?I wish I could have that in my backyard!

And they concluded the night with fireworks (another thing that I love and plan to have every night when I'm rich) and a light show with the fountain. So very cool.

I like Brussels!

I would just like to announce to the world that I love my host mom. And the host family. I wish I had pictures of them to post, but for now you'll just have to take my word that they are wonderful. There are three kids, Kiki (3), Jasper (5), and Sebastian (7). The mom is Barbara, and she's from California and so so so sweet. The dad is a good-looking Dutch man Marc, and they both teach yoga! I took my first lesson today--it was so hard. I barely lasted haha but I liked it a lot! And they teach it every day, so I'm hoping to take as many classes as possible. The kids are really cute, but still wary of me, naturally. I watched Avatar with them today! So cute. And I helped the parents paint their kitchen, and that's when I got to know them better. Barbara talks a lot, and she talks to me like a regular girlfriend, so it's so comfortable with her. AND SHE GAVE ME PEANUT BUTTERfdfkljdslfdsf I was so happy. I can't wait to get more--she told me of this one place that has it, and if they go to Holland this weekend, she said she'd stock up. yayayayayay
I think I'm really going to like it here. I just can't wait until my life starts up!
And I think my search for a ballroom studio is going to be successful--I'm off to check out a practice space tomorrow I think, but either way I know that there are places around. Yahoo!
So I just need to find ways to waste my life away until Sunday when the roomie comes, and then I'll force her to be my friend. yes for forced social interactions!!
Sorry, no pictures today but I don't care because I'm happy! I think I'll be able to make friends! And I got a cell phone today, so now it's just waiting to be filled with numbers that I can text unlimited-ly to!
Things I currently love love love: peanut butter, soy milk, chocolate cereal, metros
oh, and i guess my friends too :p thanks for remembering me :)

Brussels' First Impression!

I am eating cereal with soy milk right now. I am so very happyfdjsfsflsldfsdf HAPPY! Soy milk, our time apart has been too long. A whole month! I don't think it's very popular in Belgium though. I had to look in three supermarkets to find it haha but it's back in my life! yayayay
I also tried what I thought was peanut butter but turned out to be something else, but delicious also. Or it could just be weird French peanut butter. I can't tell. But it's good!
So as you can tell, I'm in Belgium now! I think I'm really going to like living here, but last night I was absolutely MISERABLE when I arrived. I think it was my worst day in Europe so far! But I think it was all because I was tired and cranky.

First, I had to get up at 8 am after a sleepless night (due to excitement, perhaps?), and then I had to wait at the airport for 10 hours. The waiting was okay, but when the flight landed late and my cab driver was missing, I was freaking out because a woman was meeting me at 10 pm to give me the key to the house... I got there at 12:30 am. I ended up having to take a train and two metros to get back, and I had like 70 lbs of luggage to take around with me and I hadn't eaten all day, AND the Brussels metro is really shady looking at night especially since there was almost no one around, so I was just freaking out silently for the 3 hours it took for me to get to the house. And there were a lot of groups of men meandering around at 11 pm at night. Not that I'm a little pansy (have you seen these guns?) but I know I can occasionally look like I'm 12. And the luggage would prevent me from unleashing all of my ninja skills, so I was a little worried. Just a little. There were a whole bunch of times I was like "EFF THIS I'M TAKING A CAB" but I figured that if I survived that night, I could survive anything. And I did! So I'm invincible!

Today was much better though. The house is absolutely ADORABLE.That's my room! I have yet to unpack so I took a picture of the clean side.They have a yoga studio!! And they said I get free yoga lessons!!! And there's a hard wood floor... you know what that means! I think I just might be able to bust out my ballroom shoes in the house--HOW PERFECT!Sorry guys, but I'm pretty sure this house is like 10 hundred times nicer than the ones on College Ave. muahaha

My host family is currently vacationing in Paris until Sunday, so I'm in the house by myself until then. I'm starting to feel like I can be really really happy here--I bought my monthly metro card, so I can go anywhere as many times as I want!Check it out! I'm so cool 8) For some reason, as soon as I got that card, I felt like I belonged here. muahahah so hip so cool

And this elderly Indian couple came up to me and asked me how to buy a metro card, and I did it for them! Even though the kiosk was in French! They turned out to be from Rhode Island, and they were so happy to meet another American (and when they heard I was from Edison, they were even happier, naturally) and said that Europeans are so much ruder than Americans because no one would help them. I think they were asking the wrong Europeans... last night, the only reason why I survived was this really nice lady who helped me out by asking people in French if I could borrow a cell phone and accompanying me on the train and leading me to the right metro line. Thank goodness for her!! She was an angel.

Damn blogger just changed everything to dutch just when I was getting used to Spanish! hahah I think Dutch is such a goofy lookin' language. I keep trying to speak Spanish to everyone here--I think it's now my go-to language whenever I can't use English. Too bad it's completely useless now! I'm sure I confuse the hekk out of people when I say "gracias" to their "merci." Whoops.

I miss "Waka waka." That was definitely the theme song of Spain. But I have a really good feeling for Belgium. :)

Ciao Barcelona!

The dogs in Spain are ridiculously well-behaved. They are almost NEVER on leashes, but they always come back to their owners! I don't get it. Even the Spanish PETS are more cultured than American ones!
I also just heard that I missed the John Mayer concert WAH! It's only like my dream to see him in concert... but then again it's my dream to be in Spain too, so I guess I can't have it all, huh? But oh, John Mayer.
I'm currently sitting in the Barcelona Airport waiting for my flight to Brussels in 5 hours (dang right? I've been here since 9 AM, so I'm chilling here for a total of 10 hours. SUPER DANG, huh?). It was so weird leaving the hotel this morning! I was finally getting used to this place, and already it's time to leave. But I'm ready too--I want to get to Belgium so I can finally settle down. The entire time I've been here, I knew I was leaving in five weeks so I couldn't really make myself at home. I just can't wait to get to my house and unpack!

For my last day in Barcelona, Amanda and I decided to make the most of the place by going just about everywhere: the aquarium, the ice bar, the Gothics, Las Ramblas.I absolutely love aquariums (I'm considering getting married to myself in one), so I HAD to go. This is the third aquarium I've been to this year (heh), but I was still really excited. I mean, who wouldn't be?! Sharks are SO COOL! Barcelona is said to have one of the best Mediterranean aquariums, but I was unfortunately disappointed. Granted, it was nice with this large tank that you walk under(as seen here), but the entire aquarium was pretty small in comparison to Camden's and Baltimore's. And no touch tank either! Sad. But I still liked seeing all the fishies. And the sharks! So cool.

But what was "cooler" was the ice bar, in more ways than one (har har see what I did there? I am so good with witty wordplays and smooooth transitions). It was pretty pricy (15 euro or 18 dollars to get in with a free drink), but it was totally worth it! It was SO COLD though--they gave us jackets and gloves to borrow, but my bare legs had inch tall goosebumps in minutes. But it was really hip! Guay ("cool" in Spanish)!
We went to Las Ramblas too, which is Barcelona's famous street that has lots of street performers, pick pockets, and flower stands! I liked the flowers the most. You have to be really careful with your bags, but it was really worth it seeing all these people dressed up in costumes. There was even a man who threw fire! We stumbled across this AMAZING street market--this was probably one of the coolest things I've been to in Spain.Look at that fruit! SO BEAUTIFUL!
And SEAFOOD GALORE! There were quite a few moving lobsters on their backs that freaked me out. But squid! Octopus! Prawns! Shrimp! Mussels! Everything! Everywhere!
And of course, jamon. Ham! Spain's true love.

And then we went to the Gothics are where we saw the cathedral, which was cool but too dark to take pictures.At night, the girls and I had one last little get together with sangria, cheese, and silly games to end our trip in Spain. No telepizza though... but it was a perfect way to end the trip. I will miss them!

(The best place to sit in the airport is outside the arrivals gate because you can watch the reunions--hugs, kisses, running into arms... I love it. The best part is watching their eyes light up when they catch a glimpse of who they've been waiting for. It reminds me of the end of Love Actually. I have real life romance scenes right before my eyes!)