Surrealism made a madman or did a madman make surrealism?

Joan´s aunt, Joanna, works at the Dali Museum so she scored us some free tickets and we took an hour drive to tour the Dali Museum. It was incredible to see all of the art he created, the sculptures and how he changed the way of thinking about art for so many people.

I could tell you about the drive to Figures and the beautiful scenery but truthfully I slept most of the way there.

When we arrived to Figures, (pronounced Fig-air-us for you American friends of mine) it took Joan and I 10 minutes to find a parking space because if I haven´t mentioned it before, people in Spain don´t have parking lots like we do here. Everyone just parks wherever they want, on both sides of the street in any direction and you´re very lucky (as Joan tends to be) if someone leaves at the precise moment you are arriving you can get a spot and that´s what exactly happened just as I told him "You are never going to find a spot, who is going to leave?"

We made our way to the Museum which Isn´t hard to miss...it is a gigantic building covered by large eggs, it´s kind of charming I guess. The museum had over 20 rooms we had to weave our way through. I still don´t think we saw everything although we did spend an hour and a half in there. Our mind, by the end of it, was sort of....well the best way to describe it is a clusterfuck.
To stand in front of Salvador Dali´s art is a wonderful experience ;if you stand there for too long you start to wonder about what he meant by it and if you stare at it even a moment longer- you start to pick it apart and your brain melts.

We went to lunch after at this wonderful place called Miru and had calamari, pasta and a wonderful hot fudge sundae. I think I have failed to mention that in winter it is very hard to find ice cream or gelat as it´s known as here. So I was very excited to have a chocolate sundae even when it was a bit chilly out.

The next day we went to Portlligat to see Dali´s house. It was so beautiful out there. Granted, we spent 25 minutes driving up a mountain at about 10-20 mph because it was so curvy and so narrow. We stopped along the way to enjoy the view, the green mountains and the brilliant blue of the Mediterranean accented by the stark white homes that lined the shore no wonder Dali chose to spend his days there. We took a very interesting tour of this very interesting and eccentric design of his home. A polar bear is the first to greet you, along with a quirky owl that still strangely seems alive. His rooms are of no normal design, you won´t find anything like it anywhere else in the world. This home he shared with his wife Gala and it was strictly for them. The house boasts a garden, a yellow room where he kept his canaries and a small cage that was once home to his cricket. The pool is odd as well, with such decor as a couch designed to look like hot pink lips, a stuffed lion and bear and other strange things.

Again, I would tell you about the drive back from Portlligat but I slept again. I get my best sleep in a car.

Today we had lunch by the beach at this Italian restaraunt DaPaolo. We took the day to go shopping in the next time, Blanes where I finally got my New Years dress and shoes! I have to say, I love shopping in Spain!

Tomorrow we are going to Barcelona and we will stay in Xevi´s fathers flat until Tuesday morning. We are bringing in 2008 by dinner at the exclusive restaraunt Le Gourmand, which is located inside the Barcelona Casino. We are having dinner with Xevi, David and his girlfriend Allison (she is from the states and I met them both while in Florida) and German. After we will go out for some drinks and end up at some club in Barcelona until very early in the morning. It is tradition here in Spain to have chocolate with Churros the next morning...sounds good to me.

That is all for now, I hope all of you have a wonderful new years eve. I wish everyone an abundance of happiness, a better year than the last and the courage to make the decisions that they know are right for them-no matter the consequences. I miss all of you very much and my thoughts will be with you on this night. I will post again after New Years.

*Besos*

European Style

I got a new haircut and color. We went to this place in Blanes, called Rafael Page, it was a little difficult when everyone spoke Catalan, except for the owner who spoke minimal english. Juliet´ did my hair and let me just say she did great. Joan helped translate any questions she had and vice versa but it went really well. It took two hours but it was well worth it. Joans mother and father paid for it as a Christmas present. (thankfully) it was many €uros! The head massage was great, the color was so vibrant (blonde and red) and she styled it perfectly. European style isn´t bad.

Today was a Post-christmas lunch with Joan´s mothers side of the family. It went well, I met her brother and sister and their families and we opened presents and there was a tradition that the kids do, where they beat a piece of wood, like a log (that has a face on it) and tell it to "Poo something good out, not fish or anything bad, or they will beat it harder" a bit creepy yes, but so funny. The parents cover the log with a blanket and underneath is candy and treats. The children go and wet the end of the stick while the parents hide more sweets and toys under the log and the children do it again. It was so funny, a bit different but good. I have really become an ambassador for America, dispelling the rumors about Americans and their inability to distinguish one European country from another.

Joan is in Girona now meeting his friend Carlos. Carlos plays hockey for some team in Spain, I can´t remember which one but he hasn´t seen him for awhile. I was going to go but decided to stay here in Lloret, watch some episodes of FRIENDS and just hang out. It has been 24/7 with Joan and we are not on each others nerves at all but it is probably good we have this break, even if it is for just two hours or so.

I know it one of my previous posts I said I wasn´t sure about living here- and I still may not be sure but each day I learn something new about Joan, traditions in Spain, this new lifestyle; I think it could be possible I could stay here. Stay here for a few weeks? A few months? A year?
Who´s to say,? Each day gets better and I´m learning about what I want from life and what direction I want to go with it.

Tomorrow, Joan and I are going to the Dali museum a couple of hours away. His aunt works there and got us tickets, apparently it is very impressive. His house is there as well as a castle. We went to a castle today in Tossa, it was absolutely gorgeous. I will be sure to post pictures soon.

I will finish this now and post more soon, I miss all of you in the states!

*Besos*

Bones Festes

Merry Christmas!

We just opened presents this morning, Sergi gave me a bracelet from the company Tous, it is silver and just perfect, I will put pictures up soon. Joan gave me a necklace and pearl earrings, perfect as well. His parents gave me a giftcard to go shopping at Zara, a english to spanish phrase book (which will come in handy this afternoon when we go to his grandparents house). It wasn´t akward like I thought it might be, I felt very at home here and everything was great.

Who knows what the rest of the afternoon will be like but I will be sure and update you as soon as I find out. ;)

Happy Holidays

¿Aquest cami o aquest altra?

I am finally in Spain. After almost two years of writing letters, sending emails,phone cards and cell phone bills I am here with Joan. It in incredible. It is hard to believe that I´m here. His family is very hospitable to me, his brother Sergi doesn´t know to much english but today when I took him with me to go Christmas shopping, we did pretty well with conversation despite how little we both know about the other language.

Arriving here was stressful, I was so nervous to meet his father at the airport. We flew Ryanair which is a joke of a flight. Trumpets and applause came over the speakers when we landed...is that something to celebrate with this airline? His father was very welcoming, I was more nervous to meet his mom and grandparents. His mother hugged me right away and said how beautiful I was. Then we went over to his grandparents house, they don´t speak english so we kind of stared at each other and all I could manage was ¨Hola". I´ve learned more words since I´ve been here, none that I can spell and only a few I could actually remember.

Barcelona is amazing, the first time we went it was cloudy and dreary and even shopping was depressing. We went to starbucks and I thought, "finally, something familiar" well they didn´t have my peppermint mocha, which really is a small thing but I felt so homesick and the Christmas music playing overhead only added to that. Joan was very understanding (of course) and said we could move back to the states, anywhere I wanted and he would be ok with that. That is great, you know, but I want to be here. I knew it would be hard and different and there would be obstacles but with his perfect english and friends that speak english, like Xevi, I feel better about it all the time.

We left Lloret and drove to Barcelona to meet Xevi and his friend Manu, we got lost trying to find the cinema. Of course when we arrived, the movie we thought was showing there wasn´t and we ended up having to see, The Golden Compass. It was horrible, and the theatre was so small because we went to see it in English and we even had assigned seats. It was so funny because literally six people watched the movie with us.

After, Manu went to meet some other friends and we went to a pub called The Black Sheep. It was made for locals for sure. It was down an alley, around a corner, down another alley and there you were. Everyone was starring at me, I just had a black casual dress and tall black boots on, hot for sure, but gosh. Creepy guys looking at me left and right. At first Joan thought I was being silly but he soon noticed when the guys at the table besides us, continually looked at me.
Being with Joan and Xevi was nice, I learned a lot about Xevi and he was always so polite and spoke English, something I really appreciated. After we went to this place called Sidecar...very packed but a club was underneath that began to fill after we arrived. Xevi ordered me rum called Cacique, straight up on the rocks. ( no captain here) and after that a screwdriver. Oh man, did I get sloshed. Writing this, I realize it´s because I hadn´t eaten anything all day, even Joan and Xevi couldn´t figure out why I was so intoxicated. We decided to stay in Barcelona for the night and ended up crashing in Xevi´s fathers flat. He was out of town and it was in the city center so close by. I remember nothing of the night.

I woke up the next morning not realizing where I was. It was a rather entertaining morning but you will just have to ask me about that if you want to know what happened.

We walked around the streets of Barcelona, I was hoping to get new clothes for the day because at noon on a Sunday, I was walking around in a black dress and tall black boots, day old hair and make up, looking like, what I thought to be, a hooker. Joan insisted I was wrong but I could feel the stares. Even some lady in the street said, (thanks to translation from Joan) "She must be freezing!" and I was.

There is just one of the adventures I´ve had so far, I know many more will come. I will have pictures soon, after Christmas of course.

Happy Holidays
Bon Nadal
Bones Festes

Dublin is Intoxicating

My European vacation started when my aunt dropped me off at the small regional airport in town. Since I am moving to Spain I packed three bags, one enourmous one and two big ones. So picture a 5 ft 3 inch girl, pulling three suitcases (or trying to) down a long que to check her bags. It was quite a sight as the man behind me put it, "it´s making the time fly by" as he did not bother to help me. Nice, yeah? The good thing was, I was upgraded to business class, bad thing that happened was that the man sitting next to me spilled his coke on my seat. When I arrived to Chicago, O Hare was a mess and literally, it took me 25 minutes to get from terminal a to terminal b....the seven hour flight to dublin wasn´t terrible, I had an aisle seat and no one sat next to me, so it was good. I couldn´t sleep so the hours dragged on....

The funniest part of the whole experience was landing in dublin and getting my luggage. (did you read paragraph 1) Imagine me again, surrounded my strangers not understanding where to go, nervous to greet Joan and wondering how I was going to get my bags from point a to point b. I get a trolly and strenuously lugged my bags onto the trolley. The best part of this is me trying to navigate the trolly to the exit to get outside. I am pushing this wondering why a) everyone is staring at me b) why in the hell is the trolly so heavy? I soon found this out, about 10 meters later when a kind woman said, "oh hun, you have to push down the latch to release the wheels!"
enough said.

Dublin was great, I slept for hours after arriving to Joans flat and afterwards we went to The Hardrock Cafe and I had a delicious Mai Tai. We walked around Grafton Street, went to the St.Stephen Greens Mall and browsed the shops. I rode a double decker bus for the first time, learned all about €uros and tried a Guinness.

The next night, we went out with Joans flatmate from Hungary. He was a good time, we met by the spire, went to the christmas market and went to dinner at this great place called The Porterhouse, I had my other favorite, a Harvey Wallbanger. We wanted to go pub to pub and we made it a few meters to The Czeck Inn. There were some "european bitches" as my friend Heather puts them. We continued to drink...I had a vodka red, whatever that is...tasted like medicine but gosh did I begin to get sloshed. We made our way TurksHead, I had a kamikazee and a baby guiness shot. After that, we went to another pub...the name escapes me now (it escaped me then too) and after that we went back to The Czeck Inn again to meet some colleagues of his and a few of them....all of them were pretty wasted. There is nothing like drunk irish men.

Next thing I know, we are at a Burger King in Dublin......and well, I cant add much more to that except I´m sure it was good.

Dublin is a very intoxicating city in more ways then one. I cannot wait to go back and grab a pint, you should too when you get the chance. I´ll be back in a couple weeks, next post:

"Aquest cami o aquest altra?"