January 2011
35 posts
I Must Look Spanish Today.
After dropping off my postcards to be mailed out I was walking to class in my normal clothing, jeans and a tee shirt along with my black jacket, with some kind of a Spanish pastrie in my hand (which turned out to be AMAZING) a young girl came up to me and asked in her best Spanish, “Donde esta… H&M?” I was so unbelievably happy that she didn’t ask me something difficult...
Okay, So Seville.
This post is not going to be a ramble thing where I’m talking about beauty and whatever. Let me start from the beginning…
We got up at what? 6:37AM or something? I don’t even know (except that I obviously do know because I was so specific). I packed my stuff in like ten minutes and went downstairs to meet the bus and Fernando at 7. It was about five hour bus trip to Seville. I...
Sevilla.
This weekend the group of us traveled to the city of Seville (or Sevilla, if you’re Spanish or want to sound sophisticated). It is unbelievably beautiful. Comparing two cities, Madrid and Seville, I’d have to choose Seville. Madrid is a major city with all of the major city characteristics - good and bad - which I love… obviously I live in New York but then Seville is different....
“No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our...”
– Ingmar Bergman.
You've Got A Friend In Me.
Being away from home is certainly a test of your humanity. Thank god I’ve already been through it because I moved to New York City from Syracuse, which is a distance of about 300 miles. I’m used to not being with the ones I was closest to. Therefore I should be used to this, right? I had to leave my high school friends and my parents. I moved to a place that’s the complete and total opposite of...
"I Wanna Wake Up With The Animals"
Don’t ask what the point of the title is because it really has nothing to do with the content of this post. Lol.
But anyway, I don’t know what my last post was about… something about the Irish Rover. Not much has been going on since I posted that on I think Wednesday? Except for the fact that my friends and I have traveled to Madrid for the weekend. Madrid is a really fantastic...
Open Bar AKA, Shit Show.
The Irish Rover is a pub just outside of Plaza Mayor - and ironically, placed right next to where one of the classroom buildings is. It’s a great little place that used to be a theater of some kind and now it’s a bar. It’s all really beautiful cherry wood, there’s a stage and balconies and all of these great features and history to it… I noticed all of this before I...
'Cause I'm Havin' A Good Time With You.
I think it’s pretty fantastic that while I thought that everyone that’s been through this whole experience was lying when they said that by the end of the semester the people that you’ve been living with for four months become some of your best friends, that I’m kind of realizing that it’s probably gonna be true. It hasn’t even been a week and we’re all...
“You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark. This...”
– Bruce Springsteen.
I'll Have What She's Having.
While here in Salamanca the pressure is taken off an American 19 year old trying to order a drink at a bar, it resumes itself at the café when that American is trying to order food. It is a fear that I didn’t know I had and it comes swiftly as the waiter says “hola” and he/she is expecting you to answer and by answer, I don’t mean stutter out a smattering of Spanglish syllables. And before you...
A "Boring" Night In Salamanca.
Well, last night my friends and I discovered the reason for siesta.
It was a long day of orientation and tours of Salamanca - one of them enlightening us to the fact that there is a holiday here in this city based on the day way back when that the men at the university were aloud to go over the river and sleep with the prostitutes again… something along those lines anyway. How great is...
“Break me out tonight, I wanna see the sun risin’ anywhere but here.”
– The Rescues.
"I'm Hungry, God Damn It." 9:30AM.
Day one in Salamanca… well, actually it hasn’t even been a day yet. People are starting to revolt because places in this city apparently aren’t open early in the morning. There are no Starbucks, no 24/7 711’s, no Denny’s serving all day pancakes. It’s Saturday however, and I think that might be part of the problem. We can only hope that this isn’t how...
I have been awake for literally two days straight with the exception of an hour nap.
From the short little walk that I took earlier, I can’t wait until I have energy to explore the rest of this city. It’s so beautiful.
I wish I could write more but my brain is pretty scattered right now. Tomorrow. Now, it’s time for bed.
Hopes And Dreams And Whatever.
Well, I’ve been on this plane now for four hours and if it weren’t for in flight entertainment I would be bored out of my mind. They showed Eat, Pray, Love which, sadly, was not very good. However, it did teach me something about why this trip could be good for me. This woman, played by Julia Roberts, is in a rut in her life. She divorces her husband of eight years (for practically no good reason,...
I Changed It Again.
Don’t worry, by this time on Friday my posts will become infinitely more interesting as I search for the nearest whatever while I’m flipping through my Rick Steves’ Spanish phrasebook in the middle of the road. Right now, I’m still searching for a damn title. Now I’ve moved onto “Out Of The Box.”
Check back in a day or two.
I Figured Out A Title.
It’s simple, and I think I need simple. It comes from my travel hero - a woman who I admire greatly but would not think twice if I had the chance to take her job - Samantha Brown.
Welcome to Amy Rio’s Passport to Europe.
Trying to Figure Out A Title.
I don’t even know if I want this blog or if I’ll ever even use it but I created it because I’m going to Europe pretty much tomorrow and it’s 2:00 in the morning and I’ve been skyping - I don’t think that’s an actual word - with my friend for almost four hours now and the conversation has dwindled even though neither of us will end the call. Anyway, my...
“If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you...”
