A new change, a new day

I feel as if I have seen everything there is to see here in Dublin. We´ve gone to the touristic places, I´ve been in every shopping center there is and had coffee and hot cocoa in almost every cafe´. We´re thinking about going out of the city and seeing the Irish countryside; maybe the Wicklow Mountains. The days are flying by, we leave for Spain Tuesday afternoon. His parents are flying in on Saturday, we will go to lunch and then they will catch their flight back to Barcelona. They will be flying in from Las Vegas, I´m sure they had a great time, I can´t wait to see the pictures! Joan and I are thinking for my 21st we should go to Vegas. I know anything will be better than my last birthday.

Joan had his exam today so I wandered around Debenhams Department Store. It is enough to keep a girl occupied for an hour and a half which is exactly how long it took Joan to finish his exam. It was raining (as usual) when we wanted to actually go do something fun, so we ended up taking the bus back home. It wouldn´t be so bad to stay in the flat except the Internet isn´t working and it makes downloading movies impossible. We did go to the cinema to see Charlie Wilson´s War and I do recommend it. Also, No Country for Old Men. There´s a spanish actor, Javier Bardem, who is absolutely brilliant.

As I was saying, we´ve been in the flat all day and for some reason I´m not bored out of my mind. I´m reading a lot and I finally got Joan to begin reading ´The Five People You Meet in Heaven´ by Mitch Albom, it is thought-provoking and powerful yet it´s comforting and well thought-out. A must read.

Some exciting news was brought to my attention today, Joan has class with a girl from France. She works for this corporation...I´m really not sure but they throw this extravagant party that is promoted by a club in Paris and they invite people in the fashion industry, models agents and designers. This party will be in Barcelona in a couple months at this club called The Cat Walk. This girl told Joan if he knew of any beautiful girls he could invite and she would add them as his guests...well I told him he better just be bringing me haha but I told him how much I would love love love to bring my Sigma Kappa girls! Can any of you make it to Barcelona in March? Go to www.sohappyinparis.com and then get back to me! I have a lot to do before then......with models around, Good Lord!

Miss you all so much!

C.M.

Being Europen Is Like Having The Fast-Pass at Disney World

I say this because the Q for Non-EU arrivals was entirely to long and EU arrivals barely had to show their passport at all. I doubt if the security man even looked to see if it was a male or female breezing by his kiosk. I of course was asked a plethora of questions including "why I was here" "how long I planned on staying" and "what my blood type is" Maybe the last one wasn´t true but it may have well been.

The Q for the taxi´s was even longer and Joan and I played, ´guess their accent´ it was a good a laugh until I started mimicking every dialect that floated through my ears and I think I was starting to get a bit loud. The man behind me was probably very confused as I was British, Spanish,Irish, Hungarian and American, all in a matter of ten minutes.

Being in Dublin is so great. I love Spain and all it has offered me but I told Joan that in Dublin I felt like I belonged where as in Spain I always feel like a tourist. No one stares at me here, I understand what (almost) everyone is saying, I look like every other Irish girl here ( except well, I´m stunning, right?) ha. Anyway, I really will miss Dublin once Joan finishes his exams.

Yesterday we walked to the mall and the supermarket. I picked up the book, "P.S. I love you" and it really is brilliant. I finished it in less than 24 hours and I believe I cried at least four times. We´re going to the cinema to see it tomorrow. The best part is that it takes place here in Ireland so it´s very surreal to read about the places in the book like Grafton Street and such and have actually been there. I think we might hit up one of the cafe´s they mention so much in the book and try to sit at the window and people watch as the main character loved to do. I must be a nerd but I love things like that.

Joan is stressed for his exams, he has one tomorrow and another in 8 days. He has 4 in all. I told him to enjoy the worries of exams because very soon we will be dealing with the worries of reality. I thought it would be easy to get a work visa. I don´t think it will be terribly difficult but it´s been more of a challenge than we originally thought. We went to the Consulate last week and it was closed. We called and they told us to call Madrid. We called Madrid and they told us to call Washington. We have finally decided to get an immigration lawyer to walk us through the process instead.

I did have an interview a couple days ago. The local television reporter, Anna gave me an interview and asked my skills. I am not a broadcasting major so nothing in her field was a skill of mine. I could write though. However, all the writing is down in Catalan and unless Lloret´s viewers want to hear a few select phrases than I cannot write for the news yet. What I can do is run the camera. I can film the news. They need a camera...woman I guess, and offered me the job. She has to run it by her boss and see if that would work, if once I learn Catalan I could start writing for show, interviewing etc. It´s a lot of pressure and I´m not sure I want it. Another job I´m hoping to get is with this magazine in Barcelona. I really really want it. Well, what I really want is to continue this vacation and not work at all but Joan´s funds and my funds are running low. Granted, I haven´t spent much while being here and if I hadn´t had so many bills to pay off I would have $2,000 to use but since I only came here with $1000.....and I have to send a $200 check to Northwest by the end of this month and God only knows how I will manage that.

Joan and I move into our flat when I get back to Spain as well. It´s more than I thought we would ever find. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, tile floors, a balcony and windows from wall to wall in the living room that overlook the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Lloret. The flat comes with some extra furniture that is so hideous, we may hide it in a bedroom or try and throw it out if we are allowed. IKEA will be our shop of choice very soon.

I am very curious about this new life of mine. So often at night while I´m lying awake and Joan is sleeping beside me, I wonder about all the "what ifs" in life. What if I hadn´t met Joan that night by the lake? What if I dumped him ages ago? What if he dumped me? What if I stayed in Europe? So many questions to consider. The most important one being, What will make me happy? What do I believe will bring happiness to my life?

I stumble with these questions and even more with the answers.
In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare writes;

Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future is instant.

I believe that is how I must think in order to survive this huge lifestyle change. We would all like a road map to the future, wouldn´t it make life easier? We try to find a loophole to life everyday. We read horoscopes, we listen to weather forecasters, fortune tellers etc. People don´t want to know for the pure joy of knowing, just so that they can do something about it. If it is forecasted to rain this afternoon, we want an umbrella,knowledge is power.

I know I am rambling and I could continue for pages and pages and still not be sure of what will make me happy or if I can control my future or knowing that whatever small choice I make could change the outcome of my life entirely.

I just want someone to tell me that I made the right choice by moving my life overseas. I know in my heart that this was the right choice for me, I just want the American Consulate to agree and give me a damn work visa.

This post has turned into a rather depressing look on a really not so completely depressing situation. I can´t say I´m unhappy because any tedious thing can become exciting when you´re in another country. For example, "I am going grocery shopping in Boringsville, USA" OR
"I am going grocery shopping in Dublin, Ireland or Barcelona, Spain!" I know it´s stupid but sooner or later the novelty of living here will wear off and I WILL just be grocery shopping in Barcelona,Spain. However unbelieveable that sounds to me now, it will be my life in the next few months, working and studying like everyone else.

I hope the next post won´t be so dramatically written about my worries and hopes for the future, I hope the next post will bring some good news about something.

For now, I have two weeks in Dublin to think about all my options, enjoy the sights, enjoy the boyfriend and write to you all.

Many blessings and best wishes all around

C.M.

This post could have so many different titles

Such as¨"Gelat and Shopping, what more could I ask for?"
" I´m pretty sure I´m now a part of the Spanish Mafia"
" Vacation´s over, time to move into the real world"
Pretty much any title would work. I haven´t written in awhile so I have a lot of ground to cover. Joan usually helps me remember everything, but he´s not feeling well today so he´s already in bed. I´ll go back to as far as I can remember.....Sunday before new years I guess will work.

Joan and I drove to Barcelona to meet his friend Xevi. Xevi´s father is still out of town so we stayed in his flat again last weekend. It´s so nice to be right in the city. Sunday night Joan and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Everyone gets onto me about this but after so much Spanish cuisine it´s nice to have something different. We get there, an hour and a half wait. I try and get Joan to slip the host some €uros but he insists he would be something like Chandler on Friends and just make an ass of himself so we wait. Three Mai-Tai´s later we get our seat and I have the most amazing dinner. It´s nice to have American food now and then, I took it for granted for sure. After that we got a couple drinks and relaxed around the city. Xevi was out seeing American Gangster with some friends and since Joan and I had already seen it, we had to wait around for him to get back to his flat (we forgot to get keys from him). Around midnight we are bored, didnt want any food, didnt want any drinks, shops were closed, no clubs we felt like going too-so we made our way back to Xevi´s neighborhood. We sat and waited for at least 40 minutes until Xevi got back and immediatly passed out. It was a good night. Needless to say, my week go immensely better.

Monday we went shopping at El Corte Ingles a gigantic department store to get some last minute items for New Years. I had to get black tights and a red thong. It is good luck to wear red on new years and since my dress was a metallic silver-black combo that was my only option. To make things even better, we went for some Gelat at this great ice cream place. I had something called a "Sweet Gofre". It is a small belgian waffle, but a bit sweeter, with chocolate and carmel syrup and chocolate ice cream on top with sweet whipped cream and thinly sliced almonds. It was without a doubt the best dessert I´ve had in a long time.

Later that afternoon, Joan and Xevi figured it would be a wise choice to take a siesta before the nights festivities. I didn´t know we would be out until 7:30 the next morning.....

We left Xevi´s around 8:45 p.m. It was me, Joan, Xevi and German. The most hilarious guys I have ever met. We had to take the metro because finding a cab is impossible on New Years. My feet are already hurting. Granted, I was wearing the highest heeled shoes ever but they were so gorgeous and they matched my dress perfectly. Anyway, we took the metro across town to the Barcelona Casino. It isn´t much fun standing in a crowded metro dressed up with a bunch of other people dressed up ready to go out as well. It is even less fun with creepy guys staring at you. We left the metro and there was a guy there, maybe 19 or younger even watching everyone....I had a bad vibe from him immediatly. Not more that 2 minutes later as we were crossing the street do we hear a loud scream and there is that same creepy boy running from four Italian girls. He stole one´s purse. The poor thing was crying hysterically. The girls gloves were in her purse and fell out as the bastard took off and so German went and got them from another man who picked them up. Can you imagine? What a horrible way to start the new year. I´m so glad I didn´t take a purse. Joan was the perfect gentleman and said, "I´m sorry you had to see that honey" while German said, "Don´t worry babe, you got three body guards here"

We arrived at the casino and met with David and Allison and his family. David is Joan´s other friend that I met in Florida. David´s girlfriend Allison, is from Philly but studied in Florida and met David. It was so nice to see her again, it had been two years since I had seen either of them.

We go into the casino and they ask for our passports. Joan left them home. Home in Lloret, an hour away. Shit. Luckily, we got in with a few strings pulled in our favor. We are led into the VIP section of the restaraunt, and there are only about 8 tables inside. The room is decorated with black gold and white. We take our seats and dinner begins. 10 courses and 3 bottles of Champagne and Wine later, it is 30 minutes until New Years! Allison and I have talked the entire time, we are going through a very similar situation so we got along famously. The waiters passed around gift boxes for each of us, everyone in the room got a watch. I am not one for watches really but mine was a beauty. Black crocodile band with diamonds and very funky numbers on the face, very cool. We also had gold bags under our seat filled with a party hat, confetti, noise makers, masks and streamers. Immediatly everyone started celebrating even though we had 10 minutes to go. The waiters passed around bags of 12 grapes for us to eat at midnight. These grapes had seeds so Allison and I took them out, it was a mess and the guys made fun of us but we thought for sure we could eat them faster that way. 12 seconds after midnight, I had five grapes left, Xevi had given up half way through, David couldn´t go fast enough either, Allison had most of hers still in her mouth and had spit them into her napkin and Joan was the only one who had eaten all 12. I still don´t think he chewed.

It was the best New Years I´ve had in a long while. Everyone was so happy and I seriously haven´t laughed so much at a dinner before. A band started up and we danced and talked until three or so. We went to the actual casino and watched David´s father throw down a $100 chip at random and win. I could never do that.

After we went to this club, Up and Down. It was 45 €uros a person but well worth it. I love Spanish music and danced all night. My heels were off by this time for sure. We all parted ways and it was only Xevi, Joan and I heading back to the flat. My feet were in such pain. I didn´t dare take my shoes off on the streets so I suffered through while we walked and walked and walked until we finally found a metro. We still had 10 stops or something before we reached Xevi´s flat. That is so far! I would have had to walk that entire way had we not found that metro. My feet only stopped hurting today, and it´s officially Friday. We got back at 7:30 and completely collapsed. I don´t think we woke up until 1 or so on Tuesday and all we got accomplished was a trip to Burger King and some sight seeing. It was truly a great time.

So much more has happened between then and now but that will have to wait for another post. I´ll post pictures tomorrow as well. You just have to see the heels on the shoes I wore.

Tomorrow is a busy day though, two interviews and we´re finally looking at the flat we will be living in!

I hope all of you had a splendid New Years, Happy 2008!

Best Wishes & Be Nice

¿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