Bahar the Madrileno

All of Espana in a LARGE Nutshell :)

2008-07-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends. We are back on the blog and ready to blow your panties off with our super hilarious stories. So get ready, hold tight and enjoy the read.

So Bahar gets to Madrid, sick and tired and meets with Monica. They have a nice evening touring around and eat churros with hot chocolate. Mind you, the hot chocolate isn’t really hot chocolate, no Bahar, it is chocolate sauce. The night ends happy but the morning brings even more happiness as Vahishta and Sarishta come from Canada to join in on the festivities in ESPANA!!!

It was a beautiful reunion, full of hugs, laughs, and kisses. As they were departing from the airport to catch the ever so dirty metro, they came across a load of Persian futbol players. In excitement, the girls screamed, “IRANNNNNNNN”. The boys got so happy, so happy they saw fellow Persians that they too screamed IRRAANNN.

That day was spent touring. We saw a beautiful building with the most gorgeous architecture. That building was the post office. Traveling to our art museum (which was filled with fat women with small boobies, and men missing there wee wees) we were lucky enough to pass a line of Ehhspanish prostitutes. Please, don’t get excite.

Before we embarked on this journey, Bahar joon kept mentioning the beautiful waxing the Europeans do. Excited Vahishta wanted a part of this amazing waxing experience. So Bahar and Vahishta left little Monica and Sarishta in the chocolate churros where they were constantly looked after by the waiter. Monica and Sarishta waited…and waited...only to discover three hours later that Bahar and Vahishta went around the country to find wax and were unsuccessful. But please, ladies and gentlemen don’t be upset because at the end, they did find the wax, and what a beautiful wax it was. In the mean time, Monica and Sarishta spotted the most delicious police man.

That night we flew to Ibiza. On the plane we all decided in excitement to go out all night and party until 6 am then sleep at the beach and do the same the next day. However that did not happen. We reached our hostel and we slept and did not wake up until the next afternoon. That day was spent at the beach. What beautiful creatures that beach had **wink wink** the night was fun as we all went to a big rave. Filled with scary costumed freaks and gay men, we ended up dancing to house music that only Monica likes with three gay guy friends we met.

We then traveled to Mallorca on a ferry. The travel was most fun as Monica and Sarishta sang numerous tunes and danced for everyone. When we reached Mallorca, we were stunned by the island’s beauty. The taxi driver dropped us to our hostel and before we stepped out onto the street he told us our hostel was not so good. And boy was he right. The shower only spat, the toilet didn’t work, there was no AC, there was no elevator (we were on the 4^th floor), there was construction outside our window, they didn’t clean our rooms and the list goes on.

For those above mentioned reasons, we tried to spend most of our time outside. That night we went on a stroll at the beach and found hundreds and hundreds Germans. It was our first time seeing so many Germans all at once that we got confused…we wondered for awhile if we were actually in Spain or did we travel to Germany? We spent the night dancing to German music (smack that on all the floor...German style) and ate schontsen burgers, not only that but we saw schontsenburgers having the sexy on the beach as well.

We went sightseeing the next day and saw the jewel of Mallorca (the cathedral de Mallorca). Sarishta loved this cathedral. It was very beautiful indeed. We then ate a lovely meal at an Italian restaurant. All of our orders were amazing and we were most satisfied (especially because the food in Madrid and Ibiza were disappointing to the max).

We then hopped on the bus and traveled to the Beverly Hills of Mallorca. We had a cappuccino at a lovely little bouji bouji restaurant and then had a yummie pineapple and chicken pizza on the balcony of an even nicer restaurant. We experienced the night life of Mallorca after our meal and met three really nice and fun Spanish girls. We spent the night laughing and dancing and came home extremely tired (which was a good thing because the hostel was crap). We spent the next day at the beach close to our hostel and returned back to our Italian restaurant for another round of our pastas. That night we caught our flight to Barcelona.

So we reach Barcelona at 3 am only to find out that the metro does not run at that time. A nice airport subordinate advised us to take a bus and then a cab to our hostel. We did and got to our hostel safe and sound. As we tried to check in, we found out that our booking was actually for the next night and became homeless in a blink of an eye. Yes boys and girls, we were hobos. We walked around town sad and alone, in an unknown city deciding which bench we wanted to hobo on. It was then that Bahar put her foot down and decided to stay at a very posh hotel for the night. And damn was it posh. The shower was the most unbelievable thing we’ve ever experienced. It had jets coming out of every which corner...Bahar and Sarishta spent an hour showering...please no excite, they did it separately.

The next day we spent walking around Barcelona. We literally saw all of Barcelona that day on foot, it was super exhausting and so we spent the night in. the next day was spent the same way, there was just so much to see in Barcelona! It is important to note at this time that Monica got a super serious burn from being in the sun that we went around town trying to find aloe vera cream. We found a bottle and Monica applied it all over her body only to find out later that it was really soap… she found out by her body foaming after applying the “gel”. That did not discourage her from using it daily after that though. She is a trooper, no doubt about it. As we were traveling through Barcelona, Vahishta was sporting a very sexy outfit: beige shorts, a pink shirt and fruit juice. Yes I said fruit juice, Vahishta had spilled mango/coconut juice all over herself early that day at the farmer’s market. Towards the end of the day, we went all the way back to our first hostel because we left Sarishta’s amazingly comfortable flip flops there. Once we got there, they gave us back our flip flops… however, they only gave back ONE. We came ALL the way back to pick up ONE flip flop?!?! Why didn’t they mention they had only the ONE when we called in the morning? Regardless, we left pissed off and Sarishta was super sad.

That night, the scariest thing happened to us. After Sarishta’s burger king meal, and Bahar and Monica’s KIT KAT Mcflurry, the girls sat together on a bench laughing and chatting. We were constantly approached by Indian men trying to sell us beer, sex and went as far as trying to convince us that we were their girlfriends. While engaged in conversation, two scary SCARY hobos slowly start approaching us... they came closer and closer and finally sped up to Monica and Sarishta and screamed crazzyyy words in Spanish. In shock, Sarishta screamed back at them… she yelled “GET AWAYYYYYYY” and we all jumped out of our seats, while the hobos took over where we were sitting and began eating Sarishta’s left over BK. We spent the night in again and listened and danced to Disney music. It was lots of fun!

The next day, we took the train to Sitges (a beautiful beach city) to stroll, eat ice cream (ferror rocher) and have a meal. (we saw the cutest doggie ever on the train, Bahar wanted to steal him). The dinner was fabulous bc we ate at a So Cal restaurant. It had the greatest food ever and Monica, Vi and Bahar drank yummy margaritas, wine, and beer. Poor Sarishta had to deal with drunkies on the ride back to Barcelona. One more important note, Bahar had drank half a glass of wine earlier that day *for break fast* and was already super happy...you can imagine what happened after a few more drinks **wink wink**.

We got ready that night and headed over to Port Olympic. Unfortunately, the metro was closed, the taxi was too expensive and we didn’t want to walk 100 miles with the hobos to get there. We then spotted a bus that went there. We weren’t the only ones. Once on board, another 500 people came on and got off at our stop as well. Port Olympic was amazing. There were 100 clubs, all free of charge, right next to each other. We had the best time club hopping, dancing to music and people watching. We finally left to go back to our hostel with the bus. However, we got on the bus that went around the other way and ended up in the boonies of Barcelona. We ended up being the only people of the bus, all exhausted and confused. The bus driver felt bad for us and dropped us off at the nearest metro. After 13 stations, we finally ended up at our hostel and slept until midday.

The next day, we left late afternoon and walked to Barceloneta. We sat at a café for 5 hours and chatted and people watched. The highlight was when we saw 4 little old ladies coming out of our café all happy. We all pointed out which little old lady were us in 50 years. We had a grand old time talking about them. We bought souvenirs while walking back. The best part was when Sarishta bargained with the Indian shop keeper to buy a hand painted, hand colored bull that Vahishta really wanted. After 30 minutes of bargaining, we left the store all sad. All of a sudden, the shop keeper came running out and said ‘ok, I’ll give it to you’. Sarishta and her master bargaining skills bought the original 19.50 euro bull for 8.60. Way to go Sarishta!!! Vahishta was then super happy. We then came back to our hostel and slept.

We are now at the airport waiting to board our flight to Germany.

We’ll write more later.

Hope you had a fun read = )

Khello from Espana!

2008-07-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Playa D'en Bossa

Ok so...we haven't had internet for a 100 years, so finally here is an update on our events of the past few days. It feels like we've been in Spain forever, but its actually only been 4 days.

Finally today we are having a sort of relaxed day waiting for our ferry to Mallorca tonight at 8pm our time, so we're just chilling and using the internet because theres not much to do but go to the beach and clubbing here in Ibiza. And we don't feel like going to the beach cause then u get all sweaty, sandy, and salty and we already checked out of our hostel so we have no where to clean up.

The time has been going by SOOOOO quickly that I barely remember what we've been doing here its all just one long blurr. However I'm going to try and clean up my memory in my head so I can tell you some coherent stories... :)

When I got here on Monday I went sightseeing all day with Monica, but the problem is that I'm sick so I got really exhausted. Plus i had been on the flight all day so it was a double whammy. I took a nap and then we continued our sight-seeing, basically I just took her around to all the things I remembered were fun to do in Madrid. We had chocolate with churros, ate dinner out on a terrace, went to botanical garden, caught up on the past couple weeks, and then crashed at the hostel.

Tuesday we got up early and went to pick up Sa and V from the airport. So, then I took them sightseeing around Madrid again & they absolutely loved it. We went to art museums etc...later in the day things became more hectic because V and I went and got European waxed before Ibiza. The best waxing in the world I may add because its not painful at all! Why don't we have this in America?!

Then we got on the airplane and when we arrived in Ibiza we had to circle for 15 mins because of technical difficulties at the landing tower. We were very exhausted and then when we got to the hostel it was like 3am and the hostel guy was totally rude. At night we didn't do anything but buy club tickets for the next night to this club called Space and the party was called La Troya.
Then after a loooong day we went to bed, chilled and chatted.

On Wednesday we went to the beach at Ibiza called Playa d'en Bossa, it was gorgeous, sunny, musical, warm and lovely. We swam, i had a mojito, we tanned and napped...lol Then we went home showered and went out. We went to the club we bought tickets for and it was all house/ trance music, but it was ok cause they had all these costumed performers who all freaky and weird, quite entertaining...the people were fine and we stayed until 5am...hardcore! :) We made 4 gay guy friends too and they danced along with us in their little gay way :-P

Today we just packed, checked out and chilled...its been a relaxation day cause everyone is tired and has either their period/ or is sick...like me. Despite all the hectic events and illnesses the trip has been amazing so far & we're only 4 days in. Thank you to all of our parents for allowing us to go on such a wonderful trip. It truly is once in a lifetime to be able to be in such a beautiful place with the greatest friends in life.

Back on the Road Again!

2008-07-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Toronto Dogs! > NY Dogs

Niagara Falls

Toronto Music Garden

Lake Ontario shore

Toronto Music Garden

Now that I'm traveling again I've decided to restart my blog in order to share my memories with everyone and save them for myself. My cause for celebration and travel is that I have graduated from undergrad and now I'm heading off to law school in the fall. The plan for my trip is to spend 10 days in Canada, then 10 days in Spain, and a week in Germany.

The past week I've spent in Toronto, Canada and it has been lovely, I won't deny. The first day, Thursday, we got here, we rested, and we drove around Toronto a little bit. I must add the reason I'm here in Toronto is to visit my girlfriend Vahishta, who has graciously allowed me to spend 10 days at her house...yay! The second day, Friday, we hit up the local malls, of course :-P On Saturday we went to the harborfront and walked along Lake Ontario, which was quite gorgeous. On the harborfront there was an international fair where we look at trinkets and tried some international food. Finally I got to have the wonderful downtown Toronto hot dog, which may actually beat the infamous NY hot dog! They have some interesting toppings like peppered corn, olives, and bacon bits. At night we went out to the clubbing district in Toronto and we went to the most popular club, Circa. It was amazing with 3 levels and various decorated rooms. Some of the rooms included anime bunny room, scuba room, blue room, red bull room, vodka room, and of course the music was different in each room. The music mixes were amazing, I had no complaints which is totally rare :-p

On Sunday we to Niagara Falls, which was ridiculously beautiful and amazing! I absolutely loved it and suggest anyone who hasn't gone to make a trip. Of course we went on a chartered bus sponsored by Casino Niagara with the Zoroastrian church that Vahishta belongs to, and there were many cute grammies and grandpies...lol They got kinda wild and kinky on the bus, no joke!

Yesterday, Monday, we cleaned the house and took care of business and at night partytime!! We went out to this club called Nava and we celebrated Canada Day eve i guess you could call it. It was extremely fun with great music and lots of Indians..haha apparently the sound crew mixing the music was Indian, which draws the 1000000000000 Indians in the Toronto area to the club. Nonetheless it was lots of fun because I got to be with my girls and boys :) As usual the Indian people got into at least 6 fights, but of course their fights simply consist of glaring at each other and raising their arms. The most crazy fight was a girl fight outside the club...lol :-P

Ok so today is Canada Day and we're going to Center Island to canoe and watch fire works etc....Check out more pics online --> TRIP PICTURES :)

Long Time No See

2007-02-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ever since I came back from Europe I haven't updated this blog because of two reasons: one I'm lazy and two junior year has been a whirlwind of busy stuff to do. On Tuesday I just turned 21 so I'm thinking that I should at least try and write something for my birthday memory. It was very nice to go out with my mom for my first night out as a 21 year old. We went to Karl Strauss Brewery where we drank some beer and we had yummy margaritas too :) The food was pretty good, ahi tuna salad for my mom and turkey burger for me. I also received nice gifts from Bonnie, Rachelle, and Anna. I'm super excited for my birthday party on friday, I have put a lot of planning into this party and I hope it goes off well. Luckily Tam, Sam, and Paris are coming to see me too! Woo! <3 ok thats enough for now

Exhaustion

2006-08-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

I would really love to write a comprehensive update on all my experiences, but I'm so freakin tired after today that I cant really see that happening. I guess I must just make do with writing about my recent experiences. I shall address Florence, Venice, and Paris. To start with the most fresh in my mind I would like to say that I absolutely adore Paris. There is nothing that I haven encountered in Paris that hasn't agreed with me, including the food, shopping, museums, architecture, metro, and especially the people. I really haven't encountered any rude French people, for the most part they are people that like their niceities like "Bonjour, Au Revoir etc" and they speak very quietly in public places. The food is amazing, in short everything here is fabulous which includes all types of ethnic foods (japanese, chinese, thai, vietnamese, lebanese, moroccan, mexican, etc), drinks, snacks (crepes!), and pastries (OH MY!)I absolutely loved the Musee de Orsay today where I was able to see the best collection of Impressionist works in the world! Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Manet, and friends were all on display in all their beauty and glory. I must say the Orsay was amazing and lovely and fabulous and I cant say enough about it. If that wasn't enough we walked to the Eiffel Tower afterwards and we rode up to the top. The view was absolutely gorgeous and mesmerizing, although there were lots of people trying to see the beautiful view on the deck. I took a million pictures and afterwards we watched the light show from the bottom of the tower. Tomorrow is the Louvre! more updates promised <3

Love Shower!

2006-08-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Wow I feel overwhelmed by the lover shower of comments! :-D Thank you everybody for your interest in my experiences, I promise to give a more comprehensive and colorful account when I get back! comprehensive post and picture update tomorrow!

Do I Remember?

2006-08-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

Do I remember everything that happened? Do I remember the order? Do I remember the dates?

I can safely say no, but what I do remember is the emotions, people, places, feelings, impressions, and wonderful experiences that I had during my stay in Madrid, Spain. Yes, this is a signal that my study-abroad program is now over. I studied, partied, hugged, kissed, and said good-bye in my last week of school. Now my parents have come to Madrid and I am showing them the city that I have come to know and love. We are going to continue with a 3 week long vacation, after which I shall return home and deal with reality oh what a scary word! I am in dire need of updating so that is what I shall do! I'm sorry for the mishmash order, but Im thinking its better late than never. I wish I had kept up with my constant updating, but I wish a lot of things about my time in Madrid, however I wont regret a thing because it turned out perfectly.

Check out the larger version of this picture

No I didnt have too much sangria...just enough ;-)

I spent two days in Valencia and I sincerely wish I had more time there because I found the most beautiful beach named "El Soler" It had all these picturesque palm umbrellas with striped blue and white lounge chairs right on the beach. The sand was white and soft and the ocean was amazingly turquoise blue with the warmth of bath water. I could swim in that ocean all day long and that is what I did too! The Mediterranean is the most amazing body of water I have ever been in and that saying a lot considering my family loves beach vacations and we have been to quite a few beaches in the world.

The first day I was in Valencia I also saw a lovely aquarium and I ate barbequed corn on the beach! Yummy...I stayed a cute hostel with my friend Marina and we enjoyed El Soler beach together too. The first day I was with my roommate Tam and our friends Kim, Charlene, and Erica.

One week I was lucky enough to go to and see a showing of the Nutcracker by one of the greatest ballet companies in the world! The show was extremely beautiful, captivating and exciting. I went with my roommate Tam and we almost missed the beginning of the show just because it had been such a hectic day of errands, but luckily we made it right in time and we had great seats near the front. My favorite part of the ballet was when the ballerinas played couples from different parts of the world such as Arabia, China, England, Germany, etc. Their costumes were very beautiful, Tchaikovsky's music was perfect, and the dancing was gorgeous. The female dancer for the Arabian couple was amazing because she was beautiful, a great dancer, and ridiculously flexible. I admire such talent...

I went on another excursion with my school to a town outside of Madrid called Segovia . All it had was a Roman aqueduct and a castle that Disney used as a basis for its castle in Disneyland. I wasnt really too impressed by this city.

Things I have left to update about Barcelona, San Sebastian, Finals, Clubbing, Swimming, Saying Goodbye, Hello to my Parents...

Ketchup

2006-07-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well arent I just a lazy old lady...not really its been rather hectic around here. For a while I didnt have internet access and then I just got overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I had to talk about. I think Im gonna take this chunk by chunk, so bear with me.

The trip to Galacia was perhaps the highlight of my trip so far in Spain. This region of Spain is absolutely gorgeous and eye opening. I had no idea that Spain was so diverse. The north, center, and south of Spain are amazingly different. The best way I can describe the area is something between the Red Woods in California and the way I imagine Ireland to look in the spring time. The area is amazingly peaceful and it felt like a breathe of fresh air after a couple hectic weeks in the big city. Im sorry if I repeat stuff from my last post, but I am just saying everything that I remember for now. After a long boring bus ride we got to O Cebreiro, which was a cute quaint town with one main street. We looked at these straw huts that people lived in up until recently (1970s) and we enjoyed the little village. After taking in the beautiful nature on top of the mountain and seeing a cute little church, we packed back into the bus and went to A Coruna. We stayed at a beautiful hotel there and I roomed with my apartmentmate Tam. After dinner we saw a performance by traditional Gallego (Galician) musicians and they danced and played traditional instruments (like Bag Pipes!) It made me realize what a mix Spain is of Iberian and Celtic influence. Surprise! Many Spanish people are descended from the same people as the Irish and Bretons (I know 2 hot ones :-P) In fact Galicia is completely inundated by the Celtic influence in the culture. The next day we saw a tour of A Coruna and we climbed up hundreds of stairs in a centuries old Roman light house called the "Tower of Hercules." It is still used today and it has a great view from the top. After that we hit the beach and that was my first topless beach experience. It was very interesting seeing many women just relaxing on the beach topless, young, old, pretty, ugly, everybody!

On a side note I have to say that Europe or I should say Spain is very very good to its elderly population. In the US, Americans have this basic notion that once you get past 65 you are no longer a person and you should begin the dying process by slowly removing yourself from society. However, in Spain it is the complete opposite, retired people are enjoying themselves more than anyone else and thats how it should be! They already put in all their years of work, and now they are out and about. In Spain I see retired people, chilling in cafes, drinking in the bars, gossiping on the metro, shopping in the youthful stores, dancing at the discos, hanging out till the latest hours, tanning at the beach, and generally just living life to the fullest. In addition to that they are treated with extreme respect everywhere they go, since they are older and have lived more life. So, my conclusion is come live out your old age where is it acceptable to live your life to the fullest to the very last drop.

Anyways, on Saturday we took a ride to the city San Andres de Teixico, which is a beautiful town on the top of the mountains in Galicia. It is extremely tiny and very cute. The view from the top of the mountain was awe inspiring, I could not stop saying wow, and I could not close my mouth. Seriously, pictures cannot do it justice and I really hope to discover more places like this that I havent heard of but just blow me away. After the trip back down the mountain we stopped in Cedeira, where we had a huge delicious lunch as a group and then proceeded to the beach right outside the restaurant. That was the most beautiful beach I have seen in Spain, if not in my whole life. The water was clear and blue, the sand was white and soft, and the view was of the amazing forest we had just descended out of. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the sand and just listening to the waves crash. The next day we visited Santiago de Compostela that has some religious significance, but I really dont wanna get into it. It was a nice town with a giant cathedral, but it was a bit too touristy for my taste. Back to Madrid! :)

Ok so things have become muddled in my mind which is the danger of not updating more often...the chronology of things has been become blurred. In addition, I am quite sure I have forgotten a hundred million things I did. So, let me just say I went to a cool hip hop club called Chesterfield the night before we left for Galicia and it was fantastic. Why? because somehow everyone on my program got the word we were going to the club and we overtook the whole place. It was super fun and very convivial...to use a strange word :-P

Also I went to the Zarzuela which is like Spanish Opera and it includes flamenco-like dancing and singing. It was very enjoyable and beautiful, although I was extremely drowsy due to a large dose of cough medicine. Hmm...I should have more to say about this but I dont really :-P

The next friday I went to the Royal Monastery of Saint Lorenzo of Escorial, which was a large plain building with not much impressive about it. The town around it was not very nice either. Afterwards we went to this memorial cathedral up in the mountains which was built in the side of the mountain and it was massive. It was very impressive because the ceilings were extremely high and there was art on the ceilings and all over the cathedral. The memorial was for all the people who died in the Spanish Civil War, and it was very touching and spiritual. I lit a candle Catholic style to put blessings on my family and friends. <3

Ok more updates after a bit of a break, so much to say! But do check out all the new pics i have uploaded! :-D *muah*

Galacia Trip

2006-07-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well I dont have much time to update, so I will just throw up a bit of what has been happening the past couple days. (Haha...this has been pirated, you know what Im talking about ;) ) Today was one of the most gorgeous lovely beautiful peaceful tranquil days of my trip. We went up to a city called San Andres and another called Ceideira (not sure of spelling) they were up in the mountains and it was absolutely gorgeous. It is covered with eucalyptus, oak, and chesnut trees plus the ground is covered with ferns. There are high cliffs over looking the beautiful ocean and estuaries also. In addition there are wild horses running free and wild oxen roaming also. The cows and oxen are beautiful however because they are called Galatian Blondies and they are extremely cute with pretty blonde or white coats. They are freely roaming around the mountains with the lovely white and brown horses. Also there are ancient ruins and castles there, plus there are little hamlets all over the mountain with simple happy people enjoying the nature although they live rather crudely. We also went to this beach in Ceideira that was empty and completely gorgeous beautiful lovely wonderful perfect. I just didnt wanna leave, it had lovely soft white sand and nice blue clear water with the view of the little town nearby and the view of the gorgeous forests and mountains right ahead. All the people had massive old fruit trees which I imagine were giving delicious fruits. The trees I saw a lot of were figs, apples, peaches, and plums. I saw a very very very huge apple tree that I didnt even know they could get so big. More to say more to show more to come! :)

Weekend Update

2006-07-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

So a little short update cause Im pressed for time. Rebajas, yes what a beautiful thing for women at least. By that word I am referring to the sales in Spain that are only allowed to occur twice a year therefore 50 - 70% off sales become a frenzy of women rabidly buying everything they can to stock up for the rest of the year. I must admit that I bought a red dress and a pair of comfy sandals for all the crazy walking we have to do here. Tonight there were fireworks outside my window which is rather appropriate since I am missing 4th of July. I guess I got my share of fireworks in for the year :)

Toledo Trip

2006-06-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today we rode a bus to Toledo, and I was so grateful for it because I was starting to get a bit sick of Madrid. It is a lovely city but sometimes it drives me nuts with the amount of bustling, the heat, and the impersonality of it. Finally I got some really quaint European charm in Toledo. The city is so amazing and beautiful it took my breath away. The Arab and Muslim influence in the city is very obvious and it has been so well preserved it just looks gorgeous. At one time Toledo was the capital of Spain. Mostly because it is up on a hill and it is surrounded by a river on 3 sides.

The architecture there was quintisential European style, all light tan stone and built close together. It was extremely charming with cobblestone streets and small cafes everywhere. In addition Toledo has an extremely interesting history because at one time there were Christians, Jews, and Muslims all living there so they all collaborated and created lovely mixtures of architecture. In addition Toledo has a grand cathedral that is wonderfully built and amazingly decorated by art from El Greco (a famous Spanish painter, actually from Greece). The other beautiful thing I saw was a synagogue built by Muslims and converted to a church. It had such an interesting mix of decorations and history.

I loved Toledo and I went a bit picture crazy, but I think its good cause it gives a good idea of how the city looks. Ok love, peace out

Spain v. France

2006-06-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, I am glad that everyone I care about so much is enjoying my little travel diary. Yesterday I experienced probably the most exciting thing in my life, which was the Spain v. France World Cup game in Madrid. The game started at nine o'clock and there was a large screen in the Plaza de Colon, where all of Madrid was gathering. Before the game I invested in a souvenir of Spain which is a Spain soccer jersey. I went back to my apartment and got ready for the festivities, by donning my gear and getting ready to go. We rode the metro to the Plaza and there were hundreds of other people on the metro obviously going to the game and singing in Spanish.

Once we got to the game it became apparent it was going to be no easy task to try and see the screen because there was an excess of 20,000 Spaniards in the plaza. Luckily I was with my roommates, so we stuck tight together and we climbed up upon an overhang so we could watch the game. Unfortunately there were so many tall people and huge tree in front of the screen, so I could not see much of the game. However, the scene on the overhang was much more entertaining than the game. The passionate Spaniards were screaming, praying, singing, drinking, smoking, dancing, and generally running amok on and off the overhang. They were so excited that they shook the concrete platform. When Spain made a goal hundreds of flares and fireworks all of a sudden appeared from among the crowd. I must admit it was a bit scary because I wasn't expecting it and it sounding like gun shots.

The scene was frantic, crazy, exciting, wonderful...I dont know what else to say. The crowd was very disappointed that Spain lost, but I dont mind much since I love France too (hint hint ;-) because of my lover :-P) Afterwards we went and celebrated making it out of the mob alive together. It seems that I am not going to give my body a chance to recover from this awful cold because I'm too busy taking in Spain and all of its experiences. Before the end of the next week I intend to go to a Flamenco show, eat chocolate con churros, visit Barcelona, and of course interact with Spaniards.

On a less exciting note, I did go to the Museo Archaeologico yesterday, which contains many Spanish artifacts. It was quite beautiful and I will be going back tomorrow to see the rest of the museum. Also on Friday I will be going to Toledo to see the city where the Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived in peace hundreds of years ago...

pictures and videos of the game have been posted :-)

First Day of Classes

2006-06-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, but internet service has been rather spotty lately. This weekend was amazingly fun because I went out everynight to discotecas with my roommates and other friends in the program. We danced all night long until 6 am and then we took the metro back home. Today was our first day of school which was ok, our professors were very nice and I was able to speak Spanish pretty well today if I may say so. After that we attended to our chores, such as shopping, buying cell phones, changing our plans and other very exciting things. But, I'll just keep the details for my own memory :-D After that we were late for our walking tour provided by the school, so we just chilled at a terraza and drank sangria and ate bar snacks. It was so beautiful and peaceful and a accordion player came and played lovely music for us. It was a total "Europe moment" pictures to be posted later.

After that we went to meet our classmates to have dinner at a Spanish restaurant where we had paella. I'm not sure if it was the restaurant or if paella is just yucky. I thought it was way too salty and it was dry. I am not a fan of Spanish food so far, it is salty, fatty, and bland. There is also not much variety, but maybe I just have a superficial opinion so far and I need to explore more.

I posted up many new pictures on yahoo, but I put them in the same Madrid Week 1 album and I created a new Week 2 album for pictures starting from today. I really want to say thank you and I love you to everyone leaving me messages because it makes me feel super at home and loved. I miss everybody and I hope you're doing well!

Love love love <3

First Night Out

2006-06-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, I must say that last night was quite adventurous and exciting. We went out at around 11 o'clock and we rode the metro to Puerta Del Sol where we met up with Farouk, Nour, Sean, Marina, Patrick, Manuel, etc. The first place we went was a pub called the Dubliners and I was surprised by the fact that it was almost completely foreigners and they were playing awful American music. By that I mean Bon Jovi, yikes, and they finally moved onto better things, but we did not stay there long because it was not a good place to practice our Spanish skills. Especially after the hours long boring orientation that basically ruined all of our travel plans, we needed some relaxation and happy time. The best part of last night was the fact that we were such a large group and we all watched out for each other. So next we went to the discotecas called torero, mona lisa, joven something, something something, and finally something or other. Ok so thats not exactly accurate but lets just say we did a lot of dancing at a lot of different places. I was wearing my white dress and some people told me I looked like Marilyn Monroe...perhaps they had a few too many drinks :-P Someone even asked me if I was Brazilian, I guess my Spanish is pretty good :-D Woohoo! When we were ready to go home and our feet were aching it was 5 am! Haha...and the streets and clubs were still packed. Spain is crazy place with very active people. People of all ages were out till very late at night enjoying the warm weather and the social people. We took a crazy Spanish cab home and we finally made it to sleep by 7am. After some philosophical musings of course...:-P
I wish everyone was here enjoying the night life with me, especially my roomies <3 We would be the hottest couple around!! :-D No doubt!

Pictures to be posted soon :)

New Apartment Rocks!

2006-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

This morning I checked out of my hostel and then I took a cab to the UC Center which was totally on the other side of Madrid, but it was nice and I met a bunch of students there. I met one of my roomates named Adam and he is this African American guy who studies aerospace and mechanical engineering at UCI. So we left together to the apartment in a cab and we went sightseeing. We just went to the same areas I saw yesterday and walked around a bit but we did take the subway and I was pro at directions! Adam was like "wow michelle you really know your way" and I was like woo!! Im not lost! Im cool! Plus I know Spanish better then all my roommates and all the people I met today, which is cool. They were all impressed that I was here all alone and I was like oh yeah Im pimpin :-P So we came back to the apartment and I met my other roommate named Ryan. He is a nice chill guy, and he is a super senior at UCSB and he studies psychology. We talked for a long time together while watching world cup. Finally my last roommate came and her name is Tam and she studies management and economics at UC Davis. She is a cute feisty little asian girl and I think its adorable cause she always calls me "honey" or "baby" ...hehe shes poke-able. So I have to tell you, my apartment is beautiful!!! It is nothing like I expected, think of CV and make it 10 times nicer. It is on the 3rd floor of a private apartment building and it has 3 rooms. Tam and I each have our own rooms and Adam and Ryan share a room (haha!) The boys have their own bathroom in their room and Tam and I share a bathroom but its not inside our rooms. Then we also have a nice kitchen and a big living room. The whole apartment has hardwood floors that are pretty and the bathrooms have very nice marble. The showers are really good and everything seems brand new. The kitchen is all hooked up w/ appliances, dishes, pots, pans, cleaning supplies, dishwasher, microwave,washing machine! (in the kitchen!), stove, oven, everything. The cutest part is that we have clothing lines outside the kitchen window to hang our clothes on to dry..hehe. Finally, the living room has a nice large rectangle table with 6 chairs. Then we have two love seat couches and chairs and we have 2 tvs in the living room. Plus there is a nice wooden tv console to hold the TV and VCR. On top of that my room has a nice view over a little park :) I must admit I just love this apartment and my roommates are so far very very nice and friendly. Tonight we went out to dinner to a Thai restaurant and we had yummy food and sangria! :-D Partay...class tomorrow at 3pm! that totally rocks haha... <3

Love to everyone

Check out videos and pics of my apartment :) (facebook or yahoo)

Busy Busy Bahar

2006-06-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what kiwis grow on? Well, I haven't but I found out today that kiwi's grown on some kind of vine :) What I have seen a lot of is cafes, taparias, plazas, nuns, clothing stores, and shoe stores. What I havent see are SUVs, smog, skanky people, traffic jams, or hot guys! Haha...everyone said Spanish men are hot, but I have yet to see any, not that I'm looking or anything :-P Today I visited all the major sites in Madrid, which are Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen, Plaza Mayor, Plaza Cibelles, Catedral de San Isidro, Jardin Botanica.

I also had tapas! :-D I had tortilla espanola (potatos, eggs, etc) and sangria! Oh yea the sangria was yummy, but very low alcohol content mind you, and guess what? I didnt get carded haha...:) I also had gelato which is not Spanish, but oh well it was good.

If you would like to see more pics check out: click me

and check out you tube for videos :): video

Peace out

Arrival

2006-06-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

I have made it to Spain without too much trouble. I changed planes once in Paris and the second plane was almost empty so I had a whole row of chairs to myself to lay down and nap a bit. Spain is different from what I expected because it is extremely clean, organized, and contemporary. Everyone seems to be driving new cars although they are small and cute.

My hostel is rather nice and I share the room with 7 other girls. Of course I already got lost one time finding my way back from the "Corte Ingles" (like nordstroms or something) after I bought a sim card. I hate getting lost! I have a bit of pictures, but I will add them later. :-)

*muah*

Bye!

2006-06-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

I'm off tomorrow! <3 Bye Everybody, bye CA!

The Beginning

2006-05-25T00:55:00.000-07:00

Well, its about a month before I leave to Spain and I am basically bursting with excitement, so I had to start designing my travel blog. I plan to maintain this blog well and chronicle every part of my journey, for my own personal memory and as a way to keep in touch with friends and family while I am away this summer. So, enjoy! :-D