vale vale!!

Oh my where to even begin?! it's only been two days, and it's starting to look like Spain is going to treat me well! The city of Santander is urban and mostly everyone lives in apartments. BUT it's right on the beach, so it is the best of both worlds! When we first got here, we stayed in a hotel right on the beach, and our house mother came to pick us up the next morning. I'm rooming with Adriana Perez (spring 09 weenie) in an apartment. Our house mother (Maria Paz) is an older lady, she's super sweet and cooks us way too much food!!! I swear I'm going to gain 10 pounds during these next few weeks, ha. She lives with her husband (Marino), daughter (Mercedes) , and two grandbabies. They are both girls, one is 5months old (Ludi) and the other is 1 year old (Mariana), oh my they are absolutely beautiful! And I cant wait to play with them :)

Honestly, it was awkward at first trying to communicate, but after while Adriana and I got more comfortable. We even gave our house mom, a gift from Texas. It was texas state shaped bowl, and little cowboy boot ornament with the texas flag on it. Ha, I think she liked it?! She also showed us some photos, and told us that most of her family are "granjeros" or farmers and live out in the country. Her daughter (Mercedes), actually goes back to the country every weekend with her daughters: Ludi and Mariana to be with her husband because she works in the city and he is a farmer out there.

fashion, time, chilling out.

Everyone is so put together, even when they are just walking the dog! I really do regret packing tshirts, because those are non existent to Spaniards. It's quite refreshing actually, and i cant wait to go shopping here! Which leads me to time...the stores open from 10am-2pm, then closed for siesta, then open again from 4:30-8pm. and thats just the weekdays. Saturday afternoons and sundays, all the stores are closed :( also, spaniards seem to never be in a rush, it's so cute to see the older couples just walking slowly holding hands down the street. and if they are 15minutes late, they dont care. (which i really like, ha). Just walking down the street, you would honestly think that no one works here, because there are always people just chilling at cafes outside, or in the plazas playing with their kids. and i love that :)

la vida de noche

nightlife, we went out as a group last night to la plaza canadio, which is where all the bars are. It's basically a square and everyone hangs outside drinking and chilling out .And i realized then, how funny it is, how different all the UT people in my program are. bc I hardly doubt that i wouldve met them in austin! Also, bars and clubs dont close until 6am! which is super late for the average american. But hey, i think that is why the siesta was invented, bc you can just always nap and recuperate then.

palabras nuevas (new words)

vale- means "okay" and is only used in Spain. Ha took me a while to figure it out!
calimocho- wine and coke
sangria- yall know what this is, but just want to point out that a bottle of this or wine at the supermarket is as low as .87 cents...crazzyyyy


I'm soo sorry for taking forever :( but I'll make sure to put up new posts again. I'm already learning so much and I want to write everything down and be able to remember it all. I'm so glad we are doing this, bc I love to read and keep up with what yall are doing!! I definitely miss Cullen, you gorgeous girls, and my family..but at this rate I think the time here is going to fly by!

con amor -M

surfers paradise

right now i'm staying in a hostel in a town called surfers paradise(obviously known for its surfing), its on the northeastern coast of australia they call the "gold coast" its beautiful here! it reminds me of miami but extremely more laid back, a city with a huge amount of backpackers and surfers. I'm here with Andrew, Cameron (his roommate) who goes to UT also, and then two girls from canada and paris and a guy from scotland.. i feel like i've gotten a whole new perspective hanging out with people from all over the world, i love it! Its not just Sydney, but all over Australia, everyone is from all over the place, you hardly even meet people who are really from australia, its such a melting pot of the world here. The hostel life is actually pretty awesome, living out of a tiny backpack is a little overrated but the people you meet are so cool! and everyone is totally laid back and really nice. Right now Andrew and I are sharing a room with a guy from Alberta Canada who has lived in East Asia for the past year and a older man from Adelade Australia who has like 6 kids and a wife, and a guy Michael from Belgium who speaks like 6 languages... so you can see the vast range of people living in hostels. I think its pretty interesting that I haven't met any Americans here really (besides the people who are studying abroad with Andrew). They're used to our accents here because of Hollywood movies and stuff but I still think people are surprised to hear us because not that many Americans travel in the hostels compared to Europeans. I haven't personally seen the movie "hostel" but i can tell you that its not scary at all, the hostel were staying in is pretty awesome, it has a pool and a kitchen for us to cook in, a movie theater, and a bar that has specials everynight and then everyone goes out together, its pretty awesome being legal here, i cant wait til were all 21 so we can go out together more! So far...We spent one day on the beach here and it was beautiful, i actually went out in the water and tried to body style surf and totally got dominated by the waves, theyre intense here but the water is like crystal clear its sooo pretty. The rest of the days its been kinda cloudy, but much warmer than sydney, i've just been hanging out in the hostel with everyone. Tonight is everyones last night staying here in the hostel so were going out "with a bang" (say that in a french/canadian/english/scottish accent) and they've talked me into trying "goon" (the name for cheap strong australian wine) soo this should be an interesting night out here in aussie land!

I've learned a few new words!
Capsicum = peppers (green/red/yellow)
Brekky= Breakfast
Vaken (dutch)= Wake up!
Sunny= sunglasses
Fillet= fillet.. however they say it like "phil-it" and not "phil-ayy"
(also any spanish words they totally say wrong here)

.. So basically in Australia if you take any word and add a "y" you're good to go!


Meshell!: I'm like the worst packer ever, so i feel your pain, BUT I'm jealous you get to be in espana, get better at speaking spanish that way you can help me out with my espanol in the fall! :]
Callie: As soon as i get home, were gunna have to go to the pool like everyday, and go out around austin more! <3
Brooke: As soon as i get home, we need to skype it up! So we can plan where we wanna go (i talked to Luca (hes from Como, Italy) he told me that basically anywhere in Italy is gunna be awesome to see, but he gave me a few places to go! I'm so exciited to tell you about the hostels and stuff. And i'm excited you love italia so much... please find a cute northern boytoy!


G'day mates!

We're all moving North...

Sorry for my belated entry..I haven't spent much time on the computer since I got here. Italy is INCREDIBLE!! I'm absolutely in love with this country and may never come home. If it weren't for yall back in Texas, I think I'd stay forever. The food, views and people are awesome and my Italian is getting so much better.

As for the men...yall wouldn't like any of the Italian men. Some are pretty hot, but most are pretty guido/metro. Not good ole country boys like we like haha. But I've discovered something wonderful...guys from up north in the U.S. actually like girls like me. Its pretty crazy...everyone in my program is from up north and everyone is calling me things like "cute" and "adorable" because I use words like "yall". I told them that back home, I'm considered "nice" or "chill", but never cute. Needless to say I'm loving it. We all need to move up north apparently (actually just me and Callie since Michelle and Kayce are already set in this category). They love that we are polite and laid back and "sweet", I guess it is a change from northern girls with attitudes?

Other than that, I have eaten more pizza, pasta and gelato than I know what to do with and I've been going out, drinking wine, and dressing up in more than jeans and tshirts a lot more than I do back home, which is different...yall wouldn't even recognize me haha.

I'm off to do one of my favorite Perugian things...sit on the steps in the piazza with a glass of wine and people watch. Love and miss yall!! - B

crazylady

Yep, right now, that's me. Trying to pack my life in suitcase is never a task that I thoroughly enjoy. The summer is just about to begin for me and I'm just a jumble of emotions. I'm so glad to hear that yall are doing so great, and hopefully Brooke will be an author of the blog soon (I just sent her another invite)! Wait, do you hear that?! That would be my lovely red suitcase, it's hungry and calling for clothes :( Next post, I'll be in España. eekkkkk

buds and dirty beaches

There's not too much excitement down here in Brazoria, TX. Yesterday, however, I was reunited with my other "sisterhood" for a fun day of scrapbooking! I may or may not have told you all about the scrapbook that me and my friends, Breanna, Laurin, and Natalie, have kept since high school. We send it back and forth to one another throughout the semester, each completing one page in the scrapbook with our own pictures. The three of you are in most of my pictures...haha. Maybe one day you'll get to see it. :)

We went to Galveston for lunch and met Natalie's boyfriend's mom who surprised us with t-shirts that say "The Sisterhood" on the back. Then we went to her house in "Pleasantville" (literally every house had a white picket fence with a perfectly manicured yard...it was insane) and spent the day rummaging through her scrapbooking room. It was like shopping in the scrapbooking section at Hobby Lobby or Michaels, except we could use anything we wanted!!! It was a great day...when we get together we always get along like we haven't spend months and months apart.

Today was a family beach day. I always make a point to go to the beach when I come home. It was relaxing, but, boy have I put on the pounds these past couple weeks! I decided to start Weight Watchers with the fam, so no Amy's Ice Cream for me. Ha. Also, I got a new camera!!! Whoo...have you seen the Taylor Swift commercial with the camera that you can take panoramic views with? That's mine! So hopefully I'll have more incentive to take pictures this summer.

Love you all! Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to talk about... :)

Ello Mates!

Okay so its 8 a.m. here on Saturday (...5 p.m. Friday for Texas) I dont even know where to start.. So i got here on Monday (your Sunday) the flight was actually so amazing, I was in first class the whole way so it was basically my heaven. I got to lay down the whole time, watch movies, play games and all while someone brought me delicious food whenever i wanted :] so you guys obviously know i enjoyed it wayyy too much! This week Andrew and i have gone all over the place, the first day i got here i went to a Norwegian Independence Party in the park in the middle of Sydney with Andrew's norwegian friend Oyven, and it made me realize how boring I am! Norwegians like to dress up really fancy all the time, so they were all looking super cute, could speak english and norwegian and every single person there was tall, blonde, and had blue gorgeous eyes, it was seriously exactly what you would think. They also thought it was the funniest thing ever when I knew the signs for "west side" and "east side" they think people really throw up gang signs all over America hahahah... We've also been all over the city, to the harbour, chinatown, yesterday we went to the aquarium.. I can go out here because the legal age is 18 so we've tried a few cool pubs and stuff (i still feel like im doing something wrong drinking in public lol) BUT my favorite part was on Wednesday night we went to the original Hillsong Church that's here in Sydney and it obviously had really awesome worship music!

Sydney reminds me so much of New York City the only difference is everywhere you go here people are speaking a different language.. Sydney has such a diverse population of people and so many people live here theres actually only like 30% real aussie's still living here so unfortunately I dont get to hear that cool accent all the time, but I have gotten to meet some of Andrews aussie friends he made at church and they really do say "mates" and so many other weird words here, I decided i'm going to make a list so I dont forget!

The Lingo Around Sydney
aussie word/ our word

chips= french fries
crisps= potato chips
chemist= pharmacy
nappies= diapers
pram = stroller
dooner = blanket
"How are you going" = how are you doing
goon = cheap wine
budgie smugglers= guys swimsuit
no worries = no problem, that's cool, forget about it
cheers= thanks!
bubbler= water fountain
leaves= salad
whacker= idiot

They also use the word "dollar" so it's confusing because they're talking about the australian dollar, which by the way their money is like bright cool colors, so much more fun to spend then ours! I've also had to learn to calculate celcius to fahrenheit and kilometers to miles, that's hard to get used to! Anyways there will be more words coming later, that's all I could think of for right now, I'll keep adding! Also here in Sydney Ugg boots are like uber popular, everything is really really expensive (but their minimum wage is $15).. like i'm talking for a 6 pack of beer its like $35 or more. It's fall so its cold in the evening and the leaves are falling (i feel like football season should be starting). Kids can work at the age of 12! so that's weird when a 12 year old boy is taking your order at a restaurant...And they drive on the other side of the road so its super confusing trying to figure out which direction to look when you're crossing the street, I'm surprised I haven't gotten run over yet. Okay so this is super long, but just a little bit of it. I have taken tons of pictures i'll have to post some on here when I get back to Austin, it is so gorgeous here i dont ever wanna leave. Andrew and I are flying up to northern Australia to a place called Byron Bay next week and it's a lot warmer so I'm gunna get to take surfing lessons and actually enjoy laying out at the beach!

I love you! and I can't wait to hear all about what you're doing!

Kayce :]

breakin the ice

Pandora is awful today, I have not liked one song in the past 20 minutes.

ha wooo first blog post!

KCB your turn :)