do's.. don't's

Do's and Don't's of PARIS

Do: give yourself a few days to see the whole city
Don't: try to do barcelona and Paris back-to-back..

Do: check-in at the Le Regent Montmartre
Don't: expect to be let down at this hostel

Do: show up more than 3 hrs before your flight to the bus station to beauvais
Don't: fly to/from beauvais if you can help it

Do: buy an all day subway/train pass
Don't: try to see too many things in one day.. you might spend the day underground

Do: go to the Latin Quarter. might be my favorite place to walk through
Don't: let go of your purse or wallet

Do: spend hours getting lost at the Louvre
Don't: expect to see everything in one morning.

Do: have a french bread fight in front of the Eiffle Tower
Don't: talk to the guys trying to sell you souvenirs. (5 for 1 euro is not really a deal!)

Do: offer to trade a eiffle tower keychain for a strawberry
Don't: throw away left overs. there are starving people in the city.

Do: learn some useful phrases in French
Don't: get frustrated with the language barrier

Do: go up in the Notre Dame towers
Don't: expect to see Quasimoto. :(

Do: have money with you
Don't: expect to find any barclays.

<3

Barca~

barcelona.. was pretty. idk. it wasnt spectacular for me. it was a pretty city but it didnt capture my heart like Madrid.

shopping = excellent. food = great. sight = never ending!

i have waited since my first spanish class to see the Park Guell and i FINALLY got to see the pretty mosaic bench! omggggggg. although.. we didnt find the America's Next Top Model final runway section of the park.. :/ it was still soooooo gorgeous! i hope you had the chance to look through my photos. it was bittersweet for this park to be crossed off my places to see. its like I have wanted to see it for so long.. i dont have another place in mind that i have waited that long to see!

we were only there for 1.5 days. which is clearly NOT enough time to spend in a city like that. but we were able to celebrate Allison's 21st Birthday!!! what whattt! we went to Catwalk. and had free drinks and danced awayyyyy from all the creepers. we had fun. esp Patty! :D i met a tall cute german who is super nice! i can't wait to see him again next weekend!!

<3

the London Experience:: taste

the best for last. :)

i ate so much in that weekend i gained 5 lbs. i came back to Alicante and i couldn't move very well.. kinda like the time we had Charlie's. only when i had Charlie's i really could not move bc of all the grease i consumed after not having it for a while.

things i ate:
Fish and Chips - claro.
Lasangna - omg. delic. for real. its been a while since i've had good italian.. i cant wait to actually try italian in ITALY! the cheese on top was to die for. i can not believe all the good cheeses i have tried so far.
Roast on sunday - the roast was tender and juicy! i wasnt too thrilled about the sweet potatoes, but i ate them anyway.. the bread thingy in the middle with the gravy was soooooo good. sweet and i love bread.
Clotted Cream Fudge - this is deliciousness of all fudge. it melts in your mouth and tastes like caramel.. yum
Chrunchie chocolate bar - interesting because it is a honeycomb covered in chocolate. i didnt like it at first but it kinda grew on me by the end of the weekend. it was sweet honey and chocolatey.
Salt and Vinegar (Crisps) Chips - anyone who finds me these in the States I will love for the rest of my life. that is how much i am in love with these chips. me and allison scour every convenient store in Alicante for these things and finalllllly found one that sells them!
bulgogi - had to. i was deprived for 3 months.
Chocolate Panda things - omg i loved China Town
bonbon, shichae, bolecha drinks - again. deprived for 3 months!!
Dr. Pepper - i was deprivedddddddddddddddddd!
Cocoa Cappucino from Starbucks - for the same reason i had the last 3 items.
Strongbow - for those who dont like to drink beer you should find this beer in the States. it doesnt taste like bud or heineken. it tastes sweeter bc its APPLE CIDER bEER! *shock*

yummmmmm
<3

the London Experience:: touch

hm. 2 things:

1. HARRY POTTER
- i went through platform 9 3/4 with my cart ready for Hogwarts. well i wish i could have. i came as close as i possibly ever could. it was under construction but i got to take a pic with it! mannnn~ it felt very touristy and nerdy but i loved every moment!
- and i walked across the bridge the dementors destroyed in the 6th movie!! (right? i get them all confused...) it was a beautiful bridge! but kind of an eye sore.. it looked too new in the historical city and totally blocked the view of st. paul's cathedral from the thames river. but once again i felt really nerdy for getting so excited to cross it!


2. HARRODS
for those who have no idea what this is.. it is a department store. my retail heaven. my first step on the carpeted floors was like taking my first step on the clouds. it is heaven because of the brands they carry. and omgggggggggggggggggggggg its a retail-orgasmic experience.
i was too scared to touch anything because of my admiration of all the merchandise. here is a list of some of the brands they had: MAC, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Marc Jacobs,  Burberry, Miss Sixty, True Religion Jeans, All Saints, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Juicy Couture...
but the best part of this was touching Louboutin shoes. sigh... this is how it happened: omg i've always wanted nude shoes that look like this. i wonder how much they cost. [flip over shoe] shit 500 pounds thats really expensive. [flip back over to put down] wait a sec.. was that red under the shoe????! [flip back over] hollllly shit! Louboutin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i mean it was such an experience that i can still feel the smooth fabric of the shoe in my hand. still.. even now as i write this post. love. that is love.

<3

the London Experience:: smell

my gawd.. smells. i wouldnt say that London has a specific scent.. maybe the scent of exhaust but what big city doesnt smell like auto exhaust? definately around the time my stomach would grumble at me i would slow down in front of every restaurant to get a whiff of what they were selling.

especially when we went to China Town. OHHHHHHHHHHH man. the smell of asian food and the asian-ness was glorious. i cant believe i have to wait another 3 months to get a smell and taste of that. when we were eating at Corean Chili i could smell the spicy chicken and the samgupsal being grilled a few tables away and i knew i was home.

when we walked towards Big Ben there were street vendors selling hot dogs and caramelized almonds.. ohhh my gawd. i can smell them now just thinking about it. if they had been selling caramelized pecans i would have bought them allll~ all the food street vendors made me hungry even when i wasnt.

i think the smells of China Town tho was the best. the absolute best.

i cant forget to mention that my nose failed me that weekend.. i could not sniff out an Abercrombie and Fitch or a Hollister Co. every other person had a shopping bag from there but i never saw the store... i guess i'm going to have to continue to wait to experience ANF international.. keep waiting..

the London Experience:: sound

between the rumbles of the double deckers, the beeping car horns of crazy taxi drivers, and the screeching of the tube there really isnt much to hear in London. :) i lie. mainly, other than the different languages and accents you hear all around you, you hear the street performers. i love live music! good or bad. it takes some courage [and the need to collect change from everyone's pockets] to perform in front of that many pass byers. i heard some good jazzy music coming from one of the bridges we passed under during our boat cruise and i heard from bad jazz from a performer in the tube station. the good music reminded me of the good ol' times in high school band. the bad music made me want to kick over his speaker.

i also got the opportunity to listen to a live musical! WICKED! which was... WICKED! haha. [never gets old] the singers were amazing. one of the last notes G(ahh)linda has to hit was AMAZING. i wish i could sing like that. and there was one munchkin guy at the beginning that only had one line that made my heart just melt... sigh. the lady who played Elphaba was STUPENDOUS! o.m.g. her voice was soooooo good. my favorite song has to be Defying Gravity, What is this Feeling?, and For Good. gawd. each one was amazing.

there was also a Speaker's Circle with real stands so you were standing on your very own SOAP BOX! :D for the 5 seconds that i was listening to them they spoke about God, and Heaven, salvation... you know. the normal Brother Jeb talk. man.. i miss Mizzou.

speaking of Mizzou.. when we were watching the changing of the guard it was rainy and cold. it totally reminded me of Marching Band season and i miss it.. surprisingly. and it doesnt help that the guard marching band came through and it sounded so good with the few people they had. i love brass instruments and the full sounds they produce... why am i a wind instrument

<3

the London Experience:: sight

this is a 5 part blog post. there was so much too do and see in London && because i am so in love with it still that i feel like this is the best way for me to tell you about my experiences.

first off. London is a beautiful city when it isnt cloudy or rainy, which we were blessed with this weekend. mostly sunny, upper 50s and rained for only a few hrs during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on sunday morning. we saw just about everything but the palaces and castles, Abbey Road, all of Oxford Street, the museums..

my favorite thing the whole trip was watching WICKED. that musical was... WICKED!! loved it. the music was amazing and the actors were great. and our seats were the bomb! we sat on the right side a few rows up from the very back on the groud floor nearest to the middle aisle. it was an amazing view of the play.

riding through Hyde Park at dusk was lovely! beautiful and green. the view was breathetaking... something you would see out of a movie. we didnt get to see Peter Pan statue but it was still a gorgeous adventure!

another equally beautiful sight was the Tower Bridge. ohhh man. after its new/fresh paint job it was so magnificant! all parts of the city was beening renovated and repainted for all the upcoming events! the royal wedding and the 2012 olympics! wish we could have seen the olympic village as well... but! when that time comes its going to be a fresh new look for the historical city!

the history is so rich. and well i'm not well versed in history but you can see it from every corner. and the London Eye is an eye sore! everything is soooooo beautiful and then all the sudden in the distance you see a round ferris wheel! yuckkkkk!

people are sooooo much more diverse in London as well. its been a while since i've seen that many other colored people in one city! haha. and the food.. there were too many to choose from and soo much to eat. [that will be another post] the men werent that bad either. especially some foreigners who helped me up to ride the lion! [had to get my Mizzou traditions fix while i was there] they were cute! and then by some fate it just so happened that they were staying around the corner from our room at the same hostel! ohhhh man did i about die when i found out. but didnt really talk to them. but stared a bit.

i think i feel for more than just the city there tho.

<3

if you wannabe my lova

"So here's the story from A to Z." About CARNAVAL in ALICANTE. Pretty much it's a week long celebration leading up to Lent. Anddddd with churro stands everywhere!!

Thursday Night:: Jueves Gras

We went out to the barrio at midnight looking for salchichas (hot dogs) and this is what we found. Night one of CARNAVAL we listened to a band in baby outfits and ate free salchichas and drank free sangria. We saw people dressed up in scary costumes like the devil, the joker, and all kinds of weirdness. It smelt like barbeque and weed everywhere! I came home and I had to put up my jacket outside because I couldn't keep it in my room while I was sleeping!

>.<

Friday Night:: Viernes del Pregon

We just went out like it was a normal friday night. Nothing special other than the concert stage on Las Ramblas! Ilove live music.

Saturday Night:: Sabado Ramblero

On Saturday everyone dressed up in a costume that is fun. We ran into soooooooooooo many guys dressed as girls and nuns/popes. The costumes were supposed to be contradictions. That is a pic of some of the costumes my friends dressed up as. As you can tell it was HALLOWEEN for us all over again! And I loved every moment of dressing up and seeing everyone dress up in their original costumes. Well.... except for these guys.

Let me introduce you to myMoroccans  who dressed up as... MORACCANS! (original I know). From left to right:: Yassine, Abel, the guy with a beard and nerd glasses, Sidi, Ayoub, and Yassin. Love these guys and their creativity.

There were many people on Las Ramblas that night. We passed by 3 concert stages and an empty barrio to get there. I never celebrated carnaval before, but I kinda hope that somewhere in the States they celebrate it like this, or atleast close to this. FOR REAL. 3 concert stages in the street, a large stage to show off your costume, people drinking openly in the streets, the bars on the street, street vendors selling masks, candy, food, accessories... etc. It was a crazy night.

These were my girls for the night. This will be the only night that I will ever openly sing in the streets. :) These girls are amazing!! I am Posh Spice; Kara is Scary Spice; Katie is Sporty Spice; Allison is baby Spice; and we are the Spice Girls version that didn't include Ginger Spice. && Kara finally was able to get churros con chocolate in the morning! "make it last forever, friendship never ends~"

Some more of my girls at Carpe Diem, our favorite place to get down. :) I absolutely loved Anna's costume for real. At the end of the night.. At around 6:30am Las Ramblas was a mess and I went to bed as the sun was peaking over the horizon (next time I want to be sitting on the beach). There was trash EVERYWHERE and the sidewalks were sticky with spilled alcohol and who knows what! Even on Sunday the streets were a complete mess. There was lots of work for the cleaners in Alicante the next few days..

This is still an ongoing festival, so more will be added as it continues.

<3

keep your friends close.. but your enemies closer.

this is my order of importance according to how i categorize people in my life.
1. family. DUH
2. friends i have known the longest.
3. girl friends.
4. my guy friends.
5. ex-boyfriends
6. some of my friends' current boyfriends
7. friends my friends know and consider to be good people.
8. people i have drank with more than just one weekend.
9. people i have known but never really talked to.
10. friends of friends of friends.
11. friends of friends of friends of friends.
12. some of my friends' ex-boyfriends.
LAST. boys. siempre. no matter what.

my beautiful bodied moraccan

man. i am an emotional rollar coaster! haha. explanation of the last post: i just wanted to go home bc things weren't going as planned. but after talking to my madre it made much more sense. and you know what. we are from different cultures and i will try my hardest to understand yours but you have to understand where i am coming from as well. first. the language barrier. and now a culture difference makes our relationship that much more interesting.

continuing my story about my beautiful bodied moraccan. he has a girlfriend.. supposedly. and so we had a discussion about it and he said that we were just "una noche y ya esta." he says he has one but his friends say he doesnt.  let the games begin: him 1. me 0.

he's playing a game. a game i don't play anymore. well.. a game i thought i didnt play anymore. last weekend i had the opportunity to play the game. and i did. i played my cards and he turned away. score: him 1. me 1.

then he really got to me that night by dancing w one of my friends. they danced a bit more inappropriately than i wanted to see and that didnt fly with me and i left. so the score: him 2. me 1.

friday. the first day of CARNAVAL. when i posted love to hate it was because things with him were not going according to plan. (like i said before) he danced with another friend of mine and even asked her to go home with him. wow. score now: him 3. me 1.

saturday. CARNAVAL. sooooo much fun! you have no idea how crazy the streets were. there were 3 stages on las ramblas. i miss live music so muchhh~ && people dressed up in the most crazy costumes. guys dressed up as girls, chickens everywhere, fried eggs, supermen, men dressed up as chinese men, belly dancers, pirates, sumo wrestlers, scary costumes, moraccans dressed as moraccans and SPICE GIRLS. people drinking in the streets and alcohol served in the streets. funnnnn night! :) well everything was going well. i was dressed as Posh Spice. [pictures]. danced with the moraccan. and everything was fine. kinda. that will another blog post. well. we continued to mess around w each other. he stole my sunglasses. and in the process of getting it back we kissed. just a peak. then we went to SWING and the new girl wanted to dance with other guys so we went around the discoteca chasing after a guy with a brown leather jacket she had seen when we were walking in. couldnt find him, but i found myself a ninja! ;) he was cute. he was grabby so i said no. then he would put his hands behind his back and then he would give me that "smile" so i stuck with him.. then he took my hand and i thought we were just going to walk to another non-crowded part of the club or outside but no. he was headed toward the bathroom!!! i rannnnnnn away! but the moraccans had seen it all. him 3. me 2.

to be continued..

<3

love to hate

its too late. i'm super homesick tonight and i feel bad for flaking out on Kara on one of her last nights in ALICANTE. i'm trying but its getting harder. life was so much better when there were no boys in my life. now there are a group of them that i would love to hate but would hate to miss. each one is a different love of my life i dont even know them.

each moment i relate to someone i love and its unfair to remember them when you know they arent even giving you the time of day. its CARNAVAL and its supposed to be a fun celebration. i get to celebrate Halloween twice this year.. but then i remember how much fun i had last Halloween and i miss you. i cant help it and i've never been more happier than i am when i see the sun shining here and when i get to do me. i still remember.. do you?

<3