the adventures of k.

One Night Count

2012-01-27T04:43:00.001-08:00

I suck at blogging these days but I will just update you on snippets!

I am writing from the One Night Count, the annual night where hundreds of volunteers count the number of people currently experiencing homelessness outside. Yes, it is five in the morning. Yes, I just spent the better part of this morning walking under freeway underpasses in teams counting tents. And yes, it's important!

It has been a unique and changing experience, that's for sure. I can't even imagine if that was my life. The people who live on the streets are pretty amazing for their endurance, that's for sure.

This has been quite the year.

PS - Just reread this and I'm clearly exhausted. Time for more sleep!!

2011-12-23T16:06:00.001-08:00

merry christmas!!!

Post Office Party

2011-12-20T13:30:00.001-08:00

I have been a terrible blogger lately! Between planning Christmas at work and holiday things at home, I haven't had much time to update. But here are some pictures of what I've been up to:

Picture 1: The Mercy House Christmas tree!

Two: A winter bonfire of a math textbook on the shores of Lake Washington.

Three: The view across the park near my house as I walk to work. Gloomy!!

Four: Pikes market. Cute!!

Five: Donations for Wintonia!! Yaaaayyy!

Six: The Cascade Mountains at Port Angeles from an impromptu road trip.

Hooray! I think the photos might upload out of order because I'm on my phone (hence the title of this post) so you can mix and match!

love!

God Winks

2011-12-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

I've been walking to work lately. It's about a 2 mile walk, but on a nice (translation: not rainy) day, it is a really peaceful walk. I get to look out over the skyline as I cross the bridge into the city, and walk through the International District, where I always pass the shops setting up for the day. I almost always time it so that I am walking right through the market as it is being set up and I can watch as I go. Men shout instructions at each other, breaking open cardboard boxes with sharp razors, easily tossing large bags of rice or packaged fish. Women with scarves wrapped around their heads blink at me through the cold wind as I walk, a tall anachronism in this section of the city.

I pass onto First Hill, the medical section of the city, and suddenly I am transported into a world of doctors, nurses, patients - where most everyone is on some kind of deadline as they step quickly across crosswalks. I imagine my favorite doctors of Grey's Anatomy living inside of these buildings, and wonder which one is a brain surgeon. My steps are slow and steady, watching the world as I go.

In the last few minutes of my walk, I turn down a residential street, the large historical houses looming over me. I love this time of year, when the trees are slowly losing their leaves and preparing for the long, slow, cold winter. Just a few days ago, as I was walking down the street, I looked up to see the yellow leaves floating down to meet me from a sudden gust of wind. Just as it happened, the song that I was listening to hit the chorus, and the melody reached down to my bones. If you don't think this world is beautiful, you're asleep! Wake up!

Listen to this song, and figure out what was beautiful in your life today.

always,
k

Exploration

2011-11-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

Despite weather warnings for snow (!!!?! what!?!?!?!), we have had a couple of pretty, clear days. The rain is currently beating down on the skylight above me in my office, so I have a feeling that this was the last good weekend for a while. Luckily, I did my best to take advantage of it! The cool thing about Seattle is that the Great Outdoors is always all around you - all of these photos were only about twenty minutes out of the city! I felt like a solo adventure (and my housemates were busy!), so I took off to the shores of Lake Washington to walk, think, and explore.

Bridge to Mercer Island across Lake Washington

Ducks in Seward Park

Purple converse. I am thankful for these shoes - I can walk just about anywhere with them!

Seward Park at sunset.

Blue skies, fluffy clouds and open roads. Symbolism?

Geese.
(Put your leg down, goose, then this would be a perfect picture!)

Obligatory photo of myself adventuring. Mostly taken for Uncle Tom.

Seward Park shores.

This is a year of many questions and few answers, but many, many experiences of beauty!

Wishing you a Thanksgiving holiday full of family, friends and food....

Novels, Honeymoons, and Anniversaries

2011-11-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

This statement can be taken in a myriad of ways, and I intend it to be understood in all of them: the honeymoon period of JVC is over.

I find that I am settled in to my new life, and feel at home in Mercy House and the Wintonia. My trip to California was mind-boggling in that sense: I was overjoyed to be back home in California, surrounded by my loving family and friends, and yet I was also quite happy to be back "home" when I stepped off the plane in Seattle - or at the very least, back with all of my things, my housemates, and of the day-to-day I have created here. It is a weird thing.

In the other sense, the honeymoon period is over in that the fresh newness of everything is beginning to wear off. Like any person in a long-term relationship knows, this is the part where the rubber meets the road, and where you discover if you are truly in love, or simply caught up in infatuation. Every day is a reevaluation and a refocusing - why am I here? what do I want out of this experience? how am I being intentional about ensuring that happens? how am I allowing for space to be surprised? how am I challenging myself? what is life-giving and what is life-draining? All of these questions continue to simmer through my consciousness. My retreat last weekend was focused on "Right Relationship", and helped me to answer some of these questions and, like those types of things always do, created new ones.

All in all, I feel like I'm on a good track. The thing about picking up everything you know and transplanting yourself to an entirely new state, with a new job, new friends, and new home is that you're forced to examine what really matters. What makes me happy and brings me joy? What do I need in order to unwind? How well do I function when I don't actually have any friends around? How much do I truly care about dirty dishes in the sink? (Answers: Creative communities, my guitar, not so well, and, yeahhhh not much.) It's this very strange sensation of being placed with all of these new experiences all at once. Some days I feel like I'm on top of it all, and others I feel like I'm being swallowed by the Seattle rain. You never know.

In other news, I am again working on a novel for National Novel Writing Month. I hit 20,000 words last night, which is extremely exciting. I think this is my best work yet, and I'm pretty excited about it - but if I'm not blogging much, that's why. Most of my energy is spent churning out words so that I'll reach 50,000 by the 30th at midnight - eek! I'm pretty proud of myself though. This one might have something to it.

Finally, I wanted to share photos from the Wintonia Anniversary Dinner from last Thursday. It was her 102th birthday since being built - woohoo! The Wintonia building has quite a history, and has spent time as a hotel, a monastery, and now, low-income housing. There is a traditionally a dinner party thrown by the JV to celebrate - so I had a blast getting everything together! The theme was "Under The Sea".

All aboard! The living room / lobby of the Wintonia. This is where we handed out resident awards and have appetizers. The residents helped us by preparing their favorite dish to share with the building.
I hung up blue and white streamers with green ones for seaweed, and (unseen) printed out a bunch of pictures of excursions and made a photo collage for everyone to look at.
The entrance to the dining room hallway is behind me!

The hallway to the dining room!
I also painted the boat of the S.S. Wintonia and attached it to a piece of cardboard so that people could take pictures of themselves riding in the boat. The sail is attached to a broomstick.
People had a great time taking photos of themselves!

The hallway leading into the dining room. I painted a yellow submarine. Everyone loves a good Beatles reference :)

A little blurry - the other side of the hallway! The other staff helped me put up fish and cut out bubbles.

The dining room - doesn't it look nice with the green paint?
More streamers, and I found blue posterboard that had been cut into waves for the walls.

The residents sat down at the tables, and the staff served them the food. It's a nice experience for them to feel like they're in a restaurant!
I made the centerpieces out of mason jars I found in the basement. I wrapped them in blue tissue paper and ribbon, and put candles in them. They glowed a really pretty blue!
We also cut out underwater creatures and hung them from the ceilings for an 'underewater' effect.

The dining room looks down on Pike Street - the trees outside are turning colors and look great!
We also got seashells to place along the middle of the tables. Some residents took some home as souvenirs.

All in all - a very fun experience! My years as a hall-decorating Pres girl and a Kappa Kappa Gamma helped me here.

Love,

Renewal

2011-11-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for a while, I know! I have been busy visiting California, and this weekend I went on a retreat with JVC Northwest in one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen. I will write out more about what this trip home and retreat entailed, and update you all on life, but for now, I'm going to leave you with this Mary Oliver poem. It was a symbol of our retreat and I think it sums up everything.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to
walk on your knees
For a hundred miles
through the desert, repenting.
You only have to
let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about
despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world
goes on.
Meanwhile the sun
and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across
the landscapes,
over the prairies
and the deep trees,
the mountains and
the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild
geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home
again.

This world is all we've got. Let's breathe it all in.

A Day In The Life: Pumpkin Edition

2011-10-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows, I love my job. It has its ups and downs for sure, but I always know that everyday I walk into work I am going to be greeted by some zany, loveable people who truly enjoy having me there. I just don't stop smiling! They've taken to calling me the Colgate Girl.

Today I got into work around 9:15, which was actually pretty early for me. Most people are still asleep, so this place doesn't really pick up until about 3 in the afternoon! It gives me the chance to work in my office without feeling like I'm missing out on talking to people, though, so I like coming in that early sometimes. Besides, sometimes a girl has got to get her paperwork done!

Today was also our excursion to the pumpkin patch, which was just a blast! We left here around 11:00 with a full car of people - my coworker came with me, and then we had 5 residents, which was a great number. It was about an hour drive to the pumpkin patch, but it was so beautiful that nobody really seemed to mind. The Wintonia van has all sorts of quirks, and today it decided that we weren't going to listen to the radio or have working blinkers or windshield-wipers, so I was happy it wasn't raining or dark or anything! We had some good laughs and conversations in the car ride over, though, so it all turned out alright.

Back country Washington sure is pretty. I can never get used to the wildness of it all, and now, the leaves are changing, so the feeling of stepping into a storybook has doubled. Charming cottages are tucked away in these back woods between the falling leaves. It was quite a treat. The farm we visited was beautiful as well.

Fall City Farms - the owners donated all of the pumpkins, and were just the sweetest older couple!

There were a lot of kids and families! I think it was nice for the residents to be around kids - a lot of them miss their own children, and sometimes they enjoy the youthful laughs.

The couple who owned the farm have had a history of donating pumpkins to the Wintonia, which is incredibly kind. Since John* (name changed, of course) passed away two weeks ago, people have been pretty sad around these parts. I've seen a lot of tears. I think it was good for them to get out of the house and walk around in the fresh air! One of the guys on our trip even grew up on a farm, and he enjoyed hauling around the pumpkin wheelbarrows and telling us all about life on the farm growing up. I always love when people tell stories about growing up - it is one of my favorite parts of going on trips. A personal favorite story was his interaction with a particularly ferocious rooster!

One section of the pumpkin patch!

Feeding the cow. He loved the carrots!

We spent a long time picking out the PERFECT pumpkins. We are going to carve them next Monday when we decorate for Halloween. We are even going to roast all of the seeds so that we can munch on them in the week before Halloween. This will go with all of our decorations, including a giant blow-up spider! We got approximately 4,000 pumpkins, so we will have a lot of seeds. (Okay, okay, exaggeration, but we got a ton of huge pumpkins! We got a little carried away in our quest for the perfect pumpkin.)

Again, I wish that I could post pictures of my residents, but for confidentiality reasons I can't! I promise this isn't the Kandace-show - one of my residents follows me around with a camera and loves to take pictures! Here's a couple so you can get the vibe.

Perfect pumpkin quest - complete!

So much autumnal joy.

Look! A house of pumpkins!

We played in the fields for a while, and ran around a whole field of sunflowers while chasing birds. A couple of people picked out some seeds to roast or plant. I would love to gift the Wintonia with a whole crop of sunflowers! (It is my favorite flower, you know.) There was even a hay-bale maze. Of course, it was made for small children to run through, but did that stop us? Oh, no! We ran all throughout the hay-bale maze, laughing at scarecrows and taking silly photos. This all culminated in a giant hay fight, during which I was covered head-to-toe with straw, hay, mud and everything else! (I am still a bit itchy!) We were laughing so hard though, I didn't even mind being dirty.

Covered in dirt and mud - thanks for the boots, Laura!

Dirty, tired and hungry, we headed back to the van...but nobody could stop smiling and saying thanks for letting them come. We loaded up all of pumpkins and turned towards home! (It is so nice for the residents to even be able to say that little phrase: "heading HOME". After so many years on the streets, they don't take it for granted.)

The rest of the day consisted of a staff meeting, e-mail answering, sign-making, and bulletin-board updating... just all in a day's work! Tonight we are having a dessert night at our house with our support people and some former JVs. Busy, busy!

Keep smiling all. The world is a beautiful place!

Love,

I Love Bowling!

2011-10-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

I went bowling on Tuesday with the Wintonia residents - I wish I could post all the pictures, they are so cute! Here's one of me looking crazed - one of the residents has a digital camera and follows me around like a personal photographer. He's quite the character. He always burns me the pictures on a disk as soon as we get back from an excursion, so I'm acquiring quite the collection! It's very sweet.

Gotta love me some bowling.

Self-Care & Other Things

2011-10-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day at Seattle Center.

So, one of the nicest things about working in social services is the complete understanding of self-care. This word, and the idea of 'self-care practices', is entirely new to me, but I'm a pretty big fan. It is the understanding that you cannot help anybody else if you don't take care of yourself first - so it is incredibly important to make sure that you are taking care of YOU. After one glance at my morose demeanor yesterday afternoon, my supervisor promptly sent me home, informing me to use my favorite self-care practices, and to "just hang out" with my housemates. (This is the same woman who, on my first day, told me to leave early and take a walk outside because I was probably pretty overwhelmed and should explore the city I moved to. She's awesome, and quite perceptive.)

She was right - I needed a break and needed to get away from my work for a little while, even if I didn't see that right away. So, I headed home, climbed in my bed and watched some movies, ate a delicious dinner, and took an early night. I even slept in this morning, went for a run, took a long hot shower and grabbed a delicious salted caramel mocha frap from Starbucks (the queen bee of Seattle) before heading into work this afternoon around 1. It was much needed, and I feel like a million bucks. So, there's that.

I feel like I should give you all some examples of why Seattle (and my JV experience) is awesome, instead of just showing you the hard stuff. Because, there's a lot of easy, great stuff, too. Tons of it. Like walking into the kitchen every evening after work to the smell of something delicious being whipped up in the kitchen. Or, my residents shouting "hip hip HOORAY" to me as we drove home from a Mariner's game. Or Jen, Karin and I taking a walk to the 12th street lookout and laughing at random people shouting at us from their windows. The list goes on and on.

For example, I highly recommend to everyone the art of volunteering. Not JVC volunteering either (although, of course, I recommend that, too.) I mean volunteering for any local events in your city that you might be interested in attending. One weekend, Mercy House decided to volunteer at Oktoberfest in Fremont as beer-pourers. The upside of this was receiving free entry on a different night, complete with 7 free beer tokens (a $35 value). Count me in!

Both beer pouring and beer drinking was a memorable experience. Highlights include: dancing to a singer who may or may not have been the blonde musician in 10 Things I Hate About You, giving out free beers and being serenaded by drunken frat boys, winning awesome hats at the spinning wheel with Matt, an hour-long bus ride home where one of my housemates attempted to order a pizza, then ended it with "never mind, we're too poor for all that." and hung up, and learning the art of pouring a beer without any foam.

Matt and I with our awesome hats we won!

Continuing with the tradition of working minimally for free events, I volunteered to be an usher at ACT, which meant I got to enter into the theater early, hang out with the stage manager, take programs, and then sit and watch the show! It was great, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to see every ACT show for free this year by being an usher. Why haven't I discovered this before?

Anyway all, I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and kickin', and feeling much better and very present to my job, my housemates, and the other aspects of my life. I'm off to take some residents to Wal-Mart. Woop woop.

peace,
K

Don't Blink

2011-10-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

So, I apologize in advance. I wanted to write you guys a nice happy entry, with all of the fun free community outings we were going on lately and explaining all of the awesome adventures I've been having. But then, something happened last night that changed what I'm thinking about and, well. That's life I suppose. A turn of the dice.

Last night, I had to go into work because we had a group of high school students from Seattle Prep volunteering for Urban Plunge. I was really, really excited about them -- I miss working with kids and teens, and I was happy to be given the opportunity to lead them. They were serving dinner and talking to the residents - it's part of a bigger program at their high school. I didn't even mind coming into work on a Sunday night - I was going to be a part of these kids' experience with homelessness and the other half. I felt like I could be influential. Maybe they'd remember me, or something.

The kids themselves were adorable. Their eyes were as a big as saucers as they walked into the Wintonia, and I could tell how nervous they were as they began serving the meal. One of the boys had braces, and looked like a giant puppy, all arms and hands and legs. They did well, though, and talked with people and shared their food with them. All in all it looked like it was going to be great night.

As they were getting their food and I was supervising the dining room and food line, a man (we'll call him John, even though that's not his name) suddenly went stiff and couldn't speak. I recognized immediately that he was having a seizure. He's an older man, probably in his late 50s. Everything seemed to freeze. I broke into a run, sprinting down the hallway to the front desk and shouted at the front desk staff that John was having a seizure. He hesitated, and then sprinted away from me into the kitchen. "Call 911!" he yelled over his shoulder.

I grabbed the phone and punched in the numbers. (I am continually surprised at how calm I am during a crisis. I've had a few medical and other emergencies in my time, and I am always struck with how calm and in control I am while in the moment.) The medics are used to coming to this building, and sometimes take their time because they are called on so often. This time, they hurried. This man's life was on the line, and I made sure that they knew it.

I went back into the dining room, and a terrible scene was in front of me. John was laying on the floor, white as a sheet, turned on his side. He was no longer seizing, but had bit his tongue and so was bleeding quite profusely. I think he might have hit his arm when he fell, too. A crowd was around him -- though, the residents had a strange reaction. Some of them were quite worried, and gathered around him, and yelling at him to hang on. Others sat in the back of the room and ate their dinner quietly. When I questioned them to see how they were doing, they shrugged. "That's the way this life is," people seemed to feel. With as much pain and death that they have seen in their lives, they were unfazed by the situation in front of them, and it seemed to cement their resigned feelings. It was eye-opening, in that way.

Meanwhile, the sophomore high school students were watching the whole scene play out. I tried my best to keep them distracted. I paused dinner, and sent them out into the dining room to talk with residents so that they would be able to have personal contact with the people they were serving. To be honest - I didn't really know what to do. John stopped breathing multiple times before the medics arrived, but he still had a pulse. But, there's something about the human spirit that knows when another is leaving this world. He was dying, and it wasn't hard to see.

The medics arrived and did their best to take care of him. Years of watching Grey's Anatomy still didn't quite prepare me for the real thing. No cute doctors sipping coffee here. The sickening reality is this: alcohol will kill your body, and will kill you. Years of living on the streets, years without doctor's visits, years with the deadly combination of drugs and alcohol, lack of nutrition, etc, etc etc -- those things take years off your life. A body can't handle it. And so, it gives up. It moves on.

They took him to the hospital last night, and that was the last I've heard of it until this afternoon. My first update this morning, my supervisor told me that his family opted to take him off life-support. Around 1:30, the manager came into the office with my supervisor and I and told us that he had passed on.

As I drove home last night, I stopped at the lookout by my house. There's a place on 12th Ave that lets you see the entire city. It was slightly rainy, dark and damp. The city glowed through the darkness.

I'll admit it - I was pretty upset. I felt weighed down upon by all of the hurt in the world. A heaviness had settled somewhere between my ribcage, and all I could do was cry it out or drown. I cried for everyone - for John, for the high-schoolers. For my residents, so caught in their addictions they cannot escape. For their families, who have to deal with it. For myself, so far away from everyone and everything I know. I cried for everyone who has ever been broken, and cannot or will not crawl out of the brokenness. For everyone who has ever felt alone or forgotten in the world. I cried for the invisible: the funny, charismatic, friendly people I work with every day who are stuck in a cycle of poverty and addiction. I cried because I cannot save everyone. I cried because, at the end of the day, we have to save ourselves.

Why do bad things happen? We have been asking this since the beginning of time. Job fought God on it, all those years ago, struggling with the same question we all do every single day.

I wish I could tell you that I found some dramatic realization answering this question last night, as I prayed through my tears. I wish I could tell you that everything is always going to be okay, and that everything happens for a reason. I wish I could write something life-changing, that makes everything nonsensical make sense.

Sometimes, things just happen.

And, in the words of Albus Dumbledore: "We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on."

This morning, I walked into work this morning from an e-mail from an acquaintance I had in middle-school. "Thank you," she writes, "for your kindness." She wrote that I was the only person that she recalls being nice to her, and she remembers it, all these years later.

Goodness. Badness. Why does any of it happen? Will we know?

I'll leave you with the words of Sam Shepard, who wrote A Lie of the Mind, which I had the privilege to see last week. It is the final line of the play, after three hours of pain, heartbreak, and despair. It is the only thing I thought of last night, when my tears slowed and I looked towards the Seattle skyline, lit up against the dark, dark sky. The mother walks into the blizzard, and looks out into the darkness.

"There's a fire in the snow," she says. "How could that be?"

Keeping It Real - Part One

2011-09-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling that this part of my blog will happen often within this next year. I'm going to call it "Keeping It Real", because that's what a lot of the experiences in JVC are forcing me to do. Keeping it real can always be called 'Things I Take For Granted', or 'Things I Never Knew Were Blessings, Anyway". The majority of the time, these things are things that I stupidly say before realizing that my residents don't have this privilege, or things I do before recognizing that maybe not everyone has had this background. So, my theme for this week's episode is this:

Teeth.

I had terrible teeth when I was growing up. When I was a kid, a dentist once asked me, quite bewildered, "How do you CHEW?" Not one of my teeth lined up. Some kind folks dubbed me shark-teeth, and reminded me of it daily. My poor mother wondered how she got such a mutant child. Needless to say, I had many years of teeth-straightening and braces ahead of me. I remember well those tear-filled nights where all I wanted to do was rip my teeth out of my head, thank you very much, because having those suckers moved around by rubber-bands and metal wires hurt. (And I have a feeling my mother remembers them, and my many many tears and angry yells, too.) But when I was in 7th-grade, and I finally looked in the mirror for the first time with my shiny, bright, white, even teeth, I was ecstatic. I couldn't stop looking at myself. I finally had what I had always wanted - perfect teeth. (I still had the round Harry Potter glasses, bushy curly hair and overalls, but, hey, small miracles here. But back to seriousness.)

Somewhere along the way, I lost that. That recognition that these teeth are a blessing, something that not everybody has, and that I didn't have for the early years of my life. I've always been complimented on my smile since then, and it is one of my prides. I love that I have the teeth that I do, and I love that it seems to make others smile when I do. My teeth aren't perfect anymore - I forgot to wear my retainer far too many nights for that - and sometimes when I look at my teeth now, I see the crookedness and unevenness there instead of the beauty.

But today, I realized that my residents look at my smile and see what they wish they could have. Teeth are something that so many of us take for granted. Many of my residents are missing many of their teeth, and they smile with closed mouths, if they smile at all. They cannot chew their food properly, and they have problems drinking hot or cold water since it irritates their gums. Those teeth that they do have they don't care for, since they see it as a wasted battle anyway. One resident yesterday proudly told me to look at "the old him" for the last time, since it was the day he was going to get his dentures. To be honest, I didn't notice that much of a difference when he returned, teeth in mouth, but to him, those two front teeth make him respectable, make him personable, make him able to get a job and move on with his life. A lack of teeth is just one more hurdle that the residents of the Wintonia are facing, and one more thing that "everyone else" has that they don't. And what a basic, basic need. Teeth.

I find myself conscious of it, the way that you are conscious of wearing an expensive necklace or designer clothes. As if I am flaunting my privilege all over the place, and showing off, or something. There's nothing I can do about this feeling, of course, but it just keeps things in perspective for me. And while telling me that there are starving children in Africa won't make me less hungry, perhaps this will gently remind me to keep perspective, and keep rolling on.

Keep it real.

-K

Addendum: Days When Things Are Hard

2011-09-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am continually touched by the people who live here. Today was one woman's wedding anniversary, but her partner had passed away. Needless to say, its a difficult day. Being able to hug her, remind her that she makes a difference in the world, and simply listen to her remembering a loved one reminds me of why I am here. They call this a ministry of presence for a reason. Perhaps I am discovering a different type of passion - one that lifts up my soul rather than lights it, one that quietly burns in a darkness instead of igniting the entire night sky.

Days When Things Are Hard

2011-09-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I've spent the majority of my time on this blog talking about how wonderful everything is, and how I always seem to feel at home and as if I have a purpose. Well, today is one of those days when I just don't.

Have you ever read Oh The Places You'll Go?

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.

Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And I don't know. I guess I feel like I should know all the answers to all of these things, as if I should know exactly what I want out of life and I'm ready to go take it. The truth is, as much as I love social work, it isn't my life's goal to do it. And I think that being here and doing this job has taught me that already. I love my job, don't get me wrong. I'm so blessed to have gotten the opportunity to experience all that I'm experiencing. And I am working with people, and learning their stories and all about them, and making a difference, and all of that. But I don't walk away from work with my soul singing. Not like the way that it did that one time in Dylan's living room when we blocked Charisma, or the time I sat in a coffee shop trying to figure out how to block six people and get the perfect balance, line, and weight of the picture on stage, or the time I had to pull together a tangle of clothes to create the perfect costume mood for Lauren's senior recital, or the time I had to find exactly the right words to resonate with an actor in Can't Thread A Moving Needle, and balance all of the elements to accurately depict the nuances of frustration, pain, and anger at the occurrences of rape on a college campus. I know, I know, I had that opportunity to continue it, and I didn't take it. I can't regret it, and I don't. I want to consider this year as a year of studying people, and striving to understand them, which I suppose is a writer/artist thing to say, but its true. What is this underworld of homelessness? How does it work? Why do you think the way that you do? How do you get here? I'm fascinated by the stories.

I miss Santa Clara. It's odd, because I don't miss the place, persay, because, truthfully, I don't really at all. I'm so happy to be out of there, and out of California. Part of me wonders if I'll really go back. What I miss are the people, the experiences, and that sense of being on top of the world. Walking into the theatre building and feeling like I was born to be there. Being able to reference dramatic tension, commedia del arte, the gender roles and expectations produced by storytelling, or the difference between side-light and front-light over dinner without feeling like a freak. I miss the comfort. I suppose that's to be expected with any major life change. One gets comfortable, and works their way to the top, and then outgrows it, in a sense, and must move forward. But moving forward is change, and change is hard, harder than anything else, I think, but even so we must press on, learning to place our roots in other soils. In the last month, I've changed my job, my home, my lifestyle and all of my friends. Considering it takes about three to six months to adjust to any major life change, compounding four of them on top of each other is rather radical. And I realized last night that I haven't had "non-theatre friends" who don't necessarily speak my language since I was 16. No wonder I feel like my head won't stop spinning.

I guess I need to give myself a break. As Dylan wisely reminded me last night (between his explanations of blocking and lighting of the show he's working on currently, which was so so so welcomed) -- I've only been out of college for three months. SCU started on Monday, so its really only been a week's difference.

I don't know. Life goes on.

A Day In The Life

2011-09-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, what a nice weekend! I helped miss Laura set up her room in Bellingham - it was nice to see a friendly face! I'm sure she'll upload some photos of her new place soon. It was really fun just to get out of Seattle for a weekend and hang out with an old friend. I think the highlight of my weekend was sawing the leg off of a couch so that it could fit up the stairs. (!!!) Yes, yes, those college years.... have to love it!

I've been having some adventures at work, so I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to around the Wintonia. One of the biggest perks of my job is that I can pick out all the places in Seattle I want to explore and try to plan events around it. My current favorite event that I plan is a weekly event called Walking Wednesdays.

A snapshot from a Walking Wednesdays trip to Volunteer Park.

Walking Wednesdays is exactly that: a chance for the residents to get out and about the city and just walk around! We typically have gone to various parks around the city, but as the year progresses I'm sure we will get more and more creative. One of my residents suggested we go see the Fremont Troll!

Last week we went to Volunteer Park, which was really fun. There were only four of us total, but we had a great time exploring the trails around the park. We even found an old water tower to climb up! We also found a huge green house with all types of plants and trees inside of it.

My resident took all of these pictures with her digital camera. She loves that thing! :)

Close up of some of the flowers.

Even just getting out and about is a gift for some of these folks. They don't have cars, of course, nor do most of them have money for bus passes. That means that they are restricted to hanging out in the Wintonia or going only within walking distance. That's why a lot of people get pretty excited about being able to take a ride somewhere, even if it is just to the park. I like being able to take people places - I feel like we can talk about things that you can't talk about otherwise. Have you ever felt the difference in environment when talking to someone? It's a lot easier to chat with someone about something serious when you're strolling along some flowers than sitting in my office on a folding chair. The stories people have are amazing.

Today we went to Lake Union Park, which was also beautiful. (Can you tell how much I love this city? All I can keep saying is how beautiful it is.)

Outside of the Center for Wooden Boats at Lake Union

It was an awesome day. We left the Wintonia around 11am, and headed to Lake Union. Lake Union is a really interesting place because its been really gentrified in the past few years. It looks a lot more Santa Clara than Seattle, if you know what I mean. Seattle is wild, overgrown, untamed. Santa Clara is perfectly manicured, fought back into submission. I like Seattle's overflowing energy.

Lake Union is still pretty though, albeit in a different way than the rest of Seattle. The Center For Wooden Boats is right there, and we got a chance to look through all the historical boats. (Shout-out to Molly and Arianna - no sea-chanties here!) Again, the change in scenery really opens people up. I was amazed at the stories that some folks shared about their childhood -- and all of that brought up just by being around a boat or near the water.

Center for Wooden Boats

Still from my resident's camera. She loves it!

After we walked around the docks, we settled onto a little beach / docking area and threw rocks into the water. It was so relaxing just to hang out with people and skip rocks and talk about childhood. (It was much longer ago for them!) We were laughing pretty hard. I can't believe that this is my job! We were right at a place where the water-landing planes would take off and land, too, so we just sat on the edge of the water and watched them for a long while. Then, guess who showed up!

Ducks!

We had asked the kitchen to give us a pack of bread, so we got to feed the ducks for a long time. Whoever said that feeding the ducks is only an activity for grandmas and little kids is completely wrong! We had a blast! I got a bunch of cute pictures of my residents feeding them (one guy even fed them out of his hand! I called him the Duck Drive-Thru) but I can't post any photos identifying the residents online, of course. I'll make a scrapbook or something at the end of the year though, so if you REALLY want to see, I'll show you some other time :)

It was a pretty great day. I'm getting busy at work, but its a good kind of busy. An integrated kind of busy.

Community is fun, too. I'll post all about those adventures another day, but I'll just leave you with this image: last night, all of us somehow managed to gather in the living room, and sang out hearts out to the guitar. (Favorites were: Firework by Katy Perry, and, our house song, Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show). It was a nice spontaneous moment. I'm really proud of myself - I've always wanted to learn the guitar exactly for this reason. I've always wanted to play guitar and have everyone be able to sing along! I'm pretty proud of my seven months of work. (I've been playing guitar that long!! Woohoo!)

Love you all.
-K

Ferry Boat Ride Photos!

2011-09-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today is photo dump day! I promised pictures from the ferry boat ride we took last weekend, so here you go!

The famous cranes.

This isn't our ferry boat, although I wish it was! Seattle skyline.

Wind blowing in my hair!
Also, hello Seattle behind me!

Kevin and Jen, my housemates, enjoying the ferry ride! The wind was blowing us pretty hard.

So many people out sailing! I need to find someone with a boat.

Bremerton, where the blackberry festival was.

An old navy ship from WWII.

Kevin, Karin and Jen, very excited about finger puppets at the fair!

Jen and Karin, being sleepy but excited.

More boats!

Skyline on our way back. So pretty!

I don't care what anybody says, I think this thing is gorgeous.

Still excited about the Seattle skyline, though much more tired after a day of fun.

Standing guard over the city.

Downtown, up close and personal!

The Union Street Station.

Obligatory graffiti photo! Me and Karin :)
This reminds me of Spain! (We'll take some when you come visit, Lauren!)

I love this city. When's everyone coming to visit? We may have some guest writers / appearances on here, since my bff Laura is going to be here tomorrow! Woohoo!

More and more updates soon. Leave me some comments! :)

House Tour!

2011-09-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I doubt any of you were crying in your sleep or anything wondering what my house looks like, but now you can know! Here's the infamous house tour I promised. :)

The front of the house. Home sweet home!

Mercy house sign! I love our prayer flags, too. They're handmade.

When you walk into the front door.

Down the hallway, looking into the front room.

The living room! It's very spacious, and that white couch is so cozy.

The dining room! We need a better light - that little one isn't cutting it :)

Off of the top balcony.

My room! The floor is never this clean, but you get the idea :)

Our beautiful garden. I love it! In our backyard.

I didn't take pictures of the kitchen or the other bedrooms (the kitchen was still slightly messy, and I felt weird taking pictures of other people's bedrooms!) You'll just have to see those yourselves.

:) Hooray!

A Small Novel

2011-09-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Here is a nice long blog entry for anyone who is intrigued at knowing what’s going on! It is currently Saturday morning and I am sitting in my beautiful house with my lovely housemates, who have somehow managed to get the football game on our TV. It is a gorgeous day outside, and I am thoroughly enjoying spending it being lazy in this living room. Yes, my life is rough.

Last weekend was awesome, to say the least. I had Monday off, so there was my first three-day weekend of being a Working Adult – which, I now understand what the appeal is. Helloooo sleeping in! Great. But let me back up a bit.

JVs have this tradition of hosting parties at the different holiday weekends. This gives everyone in the area a chance to visit each other, hang out, and just basically enjoy being in a different city for a while. Mercy house traditionally hosts Labor Day, so that was us! The party was a lot of fun to say the least. We had people sleeping on every available surface by the end of the night because there were so many people – under our kitchen table, on couches, in bedrooms, in the basement. It was like an epic slumber party. Everyone had a blast I think! We even set the precedent of having an awesome theme (our theme: AMURRICA) so people were pretty excited about that.

On Sunday, a bunch of my housemates and I decided to take a ferry on a day trip. It’s fairly cheap (I mean, people use it as a legitimate form of daily transportation) and the weather was beautiful, so why not! One of the nuns told us about a Blackberry Festival happening in Bremerton, so we hopped the ferry and headed over.

So. Beautiful. I had so much fun just riding the ferry and hanging out with people. The view was gorgeous. Plus – blackberries, yum! We ate an awful lot of blackberry stuff. Being a JV has taught me the value of a free sample (okay, who am I kidding, I was always all about the free sample) and we definitely ate our fill. We even split a huge waffle cone of handmade blackberry ice cream – delicious!

Monday I had considered to be my epic day off, so I was planning the excruciating task of laying on the couch, playing computer games, watching movies and basically being a lump for about 15 hours. Rough life, I KNOW. Luckily for me, I was saved from that fate from a serendipitous text from Jen (who had to work on Labor Day, poor thing) offering us two free tickets to (drum roll please) Bumbershoot! My housemates knew that Matt and I had been longing to attend all weekend long, so they gave us the tickets. Hooray!

What an amazing day! Matt and I tried to play Spot-The-Hipster, but realized it was quickly a moot point; Bumbershoot is the mecca for the Seattle hipster. Whoops. We also joked that, by the end of this year, we would slip into donning cut-off shorts, plaid button-downs, Ray-Bans and straw fedoras (the true mark of the music hipster) and only listen to obscure bands you’ve never heard of. I’ll keep you all posted on that one.

We got to see a ton of awesome bands – and I even got to meet Eisley, which I wrote in a past post. I got their autograph and they even told me I had a cute shirt and they liked my necklace (insert fangirl SQEEEEE!!!!! here). So cool. We even got lucky enough to be in the third row for the headliners Hall & Oates! Okay, let’s be real here, I don’t actually know very much about them, but I did a quick Wiki on my phone at the concert, and I’m pretty excited I got to see one of the bands on VH1s Best Bands Of All Time list. WhaBAM. We didn’t get home until about midnight, and then it was off to work the next day.

For those of you who are interested, here’s an update on work.

Work is pretty rocking. I am enjoying my job, which is really lucky, because I know that a lot of my housemates are still struggling at settling in. I think that this is the perfect job for me, mostly because there is very little structure, and I have a lot of freedom as far as my hours goes. For example, since I was running a karaoke night on Tuesday, I worked from 1 to 8, instead of 9 to 5. I wouldn’t want to do it every day, but it was a nice change! I also get to be out and about a lot, which is nice, because if I was stuck inside all day I think I would go crazy. There’s never really a dull moment – my residents are always doing something crazy or silly , and something is always happening. You know me, I like being kept on my toes, so it’s nice to have to roll with the punches.

Activity planning is something I’m finding that I really enjoy. A lot of my job is just figuring out what’s going on in Seattle, and finding a way to get people to go to it. I’m a combination activity-planner, RA, support person, and also my own publicist because (as I found out with one of my trips) I’ve really got to hype something up to get people to go. Plus I also cover the front desk if necessary, and hang out with people if they’re feeling lonely.

I realized something really important last week – I’m not going to solve any of these people’s problems. I can’t make their son call them, or their health better, or bring their spouse back from the dead. I can’t solve their dependency on alcohol, or the things that move them to it. I can only make them laugh. Laughter is a gift that I can give. And I’m really excited to do it. If I can raise them out of their difficult realities and make things look a little brighter – even for a second – that’s what I’m going to go. Even when I’m tired, or stressed, or not feeling particularly patient. That’s my job. And what a blessing to be able to bring that to people. We had karaoke last Tuesday, and it was so much fun. We sang Motown, we danced, we laughed. And that’s my gift, you know? That’s what I want to bring. And I’m enjoying every second of spending my time at the Wintonia because of that. Even when it’s rough. I’ve just got to smile. People have always said that my smile was something they loved about me – well, I’m bringing it to the Wintonia!

On another note, one project I’ve given myself is to revamp the library area at work. It has definitely been well-loved to say the least, and the books there have been read again and again and again. So, I want to make it a fresh place! I secured some book donations, and it was so rewarding to take one of my residents with me to the bookstore to pick them up. I could tell he was so happy to feel included in the process. They’re going to give us even more in the coming months, which is AWESOME. I also want to work on acquiring some artwork for the library – maybe have some of my residents help to create it? It would be so much fun and I feel like they would be able to see the effect that they are having on their living space. Make it feel like a home, you know?

Whew, okay this is one helluva post. I’m going to head out then – hope this gave you a better insight on what’s going on in my life!

Lots of love.

Not Having the Internet

2011-09-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Not having the internet is rough sometimes...especially when it comes to the debate whether to take the later bus to write an entry or go home and sleep. Sleep won this round.

In the meanwhile, here's a picture of a cool band I met on Monday at my impromtu trip to Bumbershoot.

Details to come.

....Love, K.

More camping pictures!

2011-09-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some more camping photos :)

On top of the world :)

Lovin' this fresh air.

We found snow!

Life is wonderful, all. Leave me some love - I just edited the comments section so that you don't need an account to comment, which should help anyone who has been having problems. Work and weekend updates probably later tonight!

K

Camping Trip!

2011-09-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't posted. Life in a full-time job is tiring! I've gotta say though, I don't miss term papers, or homework, or studying.... haha! Well, here's an update of what's been going on in my life!

Last weekend I went camping in the Washington Wilderness. For those of you who might not know, those Washingtonians take the outdoors very Seriously. Seriously I spell with a capitol S because its That Important to them. As for me, little miss Big City, eh, not so much. No running water, no electricity and an awful lot of clean, fresh air. Okay, okay, I guess that sounds pretty awesome. :) Our Support People Tony and Laurel (who used to be JVs and now donate some of their time sharing their family with us) treated us to this trip. Seven of the eight of us went (Jen was volunteering at a bereavement camp retreat that she's heavily involved with). It was a little bit of trouble getting there - we got lost and I found myself driving around in the middle of nowhere Washington at 9pm at night! With a lot of patience, helpful gas station attendants and just a dash of grace, our cars made it to the campsite. And what a weekend. I've never really been out in the wilderness like this before! It was absolutely beautiful.

These pictures are from our Support Person Tony's camera. He's got an awesome camera!
(My pictures are still MIA. Sorry!!)

On Saturday, we hiked up Mount Pilchuck, which was an experience to say the least. Of course we had no problem scaling the 5,320 feet! (That is to say, I huffed and puffed my way to the top!) We even hiked through SNOW! It was pretty weird, because the weather was so nice and it was so hot, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground leftover from the winter seasons. It was a grueling and challenging hike, but at the end of the day, I'm really glad I did it. Because this is what we got to see when we reached the top:

The Cascade Range

Panorama of the view. That's Mount Rainier.

There's Seattle!
(That's a really zoomed in picture, by the way.)

Mercy house and friends!

We celebrated that night around a big campfire and some delicious dinner. Thank you again to Tony and Laurel for providing all of the food!

On Sunday, we made one last small hike to the Ice Caves nearby. I had never heard of an Ice Cave before, but I soon learned that an Ice Cave was the remainder of a large glacier or piece of snow that had only melted along the bottom, and left a big arch (hence, the cave) for the water to flow through. Tony assured us that these would be "nothing special" because we weren't in Alaska, but I disagree - they were pretty awesome!

Jesse, Little Ted, Matt, Matt, Me, Karin, Caitlin and Kevin at the Ice Caves.

View looking away from the Ice Caves

Karin and Kevin looking up into the cave.

Pretty awesome, eh?

Well, I am well into Week Two of my time here at the Wintonia and I have plenty to update with, but I have to catch the 5:30 bus if I want to make it home on time, so I better run. More updates tomorrow!

Love you all!

The Emerald City!

2011-08-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I haven't written in a week - mostly I've just been busy at work and haven't really had a chance to sit down in front of a computer to write this out! Life is good - I've been learning the ropes at work and meeting a LOT of people, which is challenging. Good thing I'm okay with names!

So, a little recap. Last Friday we went to this place called Pike Street Fish Fry, and it has free fries on the third Friday of the month. Yum! So, I met all of my housemates and the other Seattle house there for LOTS of delicious french fries and cheap beer. We laughed that we had turned into grown-ups, because we were all sitting around a table, drinking a beer on a Friday night, talking about work. Afterwards we all went home, grabbed some dinner, and then went over to Cherry Abbey (the other Seattle house) to hang out. It was a lot of fun, and the perfect Friday night!

On Saturday, my housemate Jen's work was throwing an Open Mic night. She's the Volunteer Coordinator, so she's essentially in charge of the event! So the eight of us went to that, and had a great time sharing a meal with the clients at Recovery Cafe and listening to their stories through the Open Mic night. It's an incredibly positive and supportive place, and I was really humbled listening to all of the stories and music that people brought to share. I sat with a bunch of people I didn't know, and ended up making a couple of friends by the end of the meal together! And, even better, Recovery Cafe donated all of the extra food to our house! Yum! We feasted for days on that stuff.

Everyone was pretty tired on Sunday, but the weather was beautiful so I didn't want to sit in the house. I headed out to explore. I went up Capitol Hill, which is the hipster part of Seattle, and wandered around a bit. I found Elliot Bay Book Company, which is Seattle's largest independent bookstore and ...wow! What an amazing place! They even have a Drama Book Club every month, so I just might attend :) They had free WiFi, so I grabbed a lemonade and snuck off into the back corner of the bookstacks to enjoy it. Afterwards, I went out to one of the nearby parks and sat in the sun reading a book for a few hours. This is the life, man! I love not having homework!

We haven't quite settled into a pattern of living together yet, but we're starting to. It's so nice to come home from work and have everyone shout hello to you as you walk in the door! We each sign up for a night of cooking dinner, so its awesome to come home to warm food that you didn't have to cook! Cooking for eight people is its own adventure, but that's a different story.

Alright all! I'll update more tomorrow, I've got to get back to work. Give me a call or send me a text -- I miss everyone so much!

Love
K

First Day!

2011-08-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I am making this post from my first day at the Wintonia! Woohoo! As my mom can attest, I was quite scared to start work today. It turns out that the reason my supervisor hadn't called me back was because he had moved on to another agency, and I have a new supervisor! Her name is Sarah, and she's pretty much fantastic.

I'll start off talking about yesterday though, first! The virtual house tour is coming, I promise! Since I don't have internet at home, it makes uploading pictures a little more challenging, so I have to load them onto my computer first and then head somewhere with WiFi. You'll get the grand tour soon! Yesterday was our first real day in the house, and I was so so happy with how much my housemates and I cleaned it! The house was pretty cluttered and dirty from last year's tenants - eight people living in a house together is sure to create a little bit of a mess! We went to TOWN on cleaning! The nice thing about having eight people together is when they get motivated to do something, they do it! Two people were on bicycle duty (getting the old bicycles ready for riding, getting parts, etc), two people were on kitchen duty, two people rearranged the furniture in the living room, etc. I was on grocery shopping duty with Jen, which was a fun adventure. We only have $105 per week to feed eight people, so that's pretty challenging. We organized it so that we are having dinner together four nights a week, so each person only has to cook one meal, but you always come home to something hot! We paired the good cooks with the bad cooks, so everyone is learning something, too.

Jen and I went down to the Industrial District to the Grocery Outlet store for all of our food. We had quite a long list, and I was AMAZED at the deals we found! This experience is going to revolutionize the way I look at grocery shopping. Remind me never to have seven kids I have to feed! We did it though, and even managed to splurge on some delicious organic wheat bread, pretzel chips and turkey lunchmeat for everyone! We spent exactly $105! Whew! We came home to a beautiful clean and organized house, which was so encouraging.

One of the big reasons we were cleaning was because we were hosting a BBQ for the other Seattle JV house, Cherry Abbey, and some former JVs (FJVs) and other friends. We have a big grill on our porch, and yummm! We made some awesome burgers. We had a great time showing off our house, and everyone was impressed with our hard work. One person even told us that this was the cleanest they had ever seen the Mercy House! We were all pretty proud of that. After everyone left, we gathered around our living room and applauded ourselves on our hard work and successful party, and then headed straight to bed because we all had our Big First Day.

I was pretty terrified, as I said earlier, mostly because I hadn't talked to my supervisor at all! I didn't even know what time to show up to work! One of my housemates has to drive to work because he does house visits, so he dropped me off around 8:30a. I was scared, but I took a deep breath and walked right in. I was immediately welcomed by my new supervisor, and given a whirlwind of information that has lasted until now. It's been a fabulous first day, and I cannot wait to jump right in.

For the first few weeks, most of my job is simply to get to know people. We have 92 units, so that's a lot of people I need to know! I need to know everybody's name, and I want everyone to get to know me! One resident was so excited that the new JV (me!) was there - he was waiting all morning, the front desk said, for me to come out so he could take my picture. I have my own desk, my own work e-mail, and even went to my very first staff meeting today, which was a lovely welcome to the Wintonia. One of the staff was even doing an outing (she's running a "Life Skills" series right now, and the current one is on fitness) and took me and a few of the residents in the van to the Seattle Arborteum, which was a real treat. I'm so blessed to be able to be in this position, and simply to be a presence in people's lives. They all have such stories, you know? How many times do you ask people to tell them about themselves, especially people who have been through the things that these people have been through. As for myself? Not often.

Well, I'm the last one at work because I'm using the internet, and I want to go explore the area around my work a bit. We're in SUCH cool area! I'm going to go walk up to Broadway street and peruse the shops up there. I've heard that that's the place to be!

Sorry I'm picture-less. One day I'm going to just do a massive photo dump. Maybe tomorrow?

Happy birthday Auntie Nettie! I hope the family is all enjoying themselves - I know you guys are all out to dinner right now.

Peace,

K

Navigation

2011-08-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

I'm currently at the public library taking some (much-needed) alone time. Whew, what a day! Last night, my housemates and I all made dinner together (homemade pizza and salad from our garden!) and had a pretty fabulous dance party in the living room. It was amazing :) I am so excited to make our house a warm and welcoming place to stay.

I realized that not everybody knows what my job exactly entails in Seattle, so I figured I'd do a little updating! I'm not sure of the particulars yet myself (I start on Wednesday!) but I have the basics:

I'm working at a location called the Wintonia. Here's what they write about themselves:

The goal of the Wintonia Community Housing Association is to provide permanent, successful solutions to homelessness through the provision of long-term, stable, affordable housing. We also strive to help men and women who may otherwise be vulnerable and victimized on the streets to reassert control over their lives and to live in dignity. The Wintonia provides permanent, low-income housing for 92 formerly homeless individuals, half of whom are disabled by chronic alcoholism. This service enriched housing provides residents with meal services, health care, alcohol case management, and social activities.

That end bit about social activities? That's me! My official title is a Community Support Facilitator. I work at the front desk, coordinate volunteers, and, most importantly, plan all of the social events for the Wintonia. Weekly events like Bingo Night or Karaoke Night - and also, about twice a month, big trips to the ballet, zoo, etc. However, there's not really much money for all of this, so a lot of my job is also coordinating donations and asking people to help us out. Here's how you can help! If you have any ideas or connections to locations in Seattle - let me know!

So there you go! That's my job! I start on Wednesday! I'm pretty excited - it's been awesome so far, and I can't wait to start serving. I'm located right downtown too, which is pretty fabulous.

Alright, until later my friends!

In peace,
K

Hello, Seattle!

2011-08-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

Seattle skyline!

Wow! I made it! It's pretty amazing to think that last week I was in California sitting down to dinner with my mom and brother and friends and this week I have embarked upon an entirely new adventure in Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon (was it only yesterday?) and -- wow, what a house! Mercy House is absolutely adorable, and I am completely in love with my community and the house we are going to share this year. I'm completely exhausted and my head is still reeling, but I'm having a blast.

This past week at Camp Adams was really fun, exhausting and inspirational. It already feels like so long ago that I was sitting in the Hyatt, writing my past blog post. All of the JVs from the entire Northwest were at the retreat center together, and it's the only time we are going to be together throughout this whole year. It was crazy talking to the communities who were going to Alaska! (I couldn't do what they were doing!) I lived in a cabin with about 20 other girls - we had a room of 10, with each of us having our own bunk. It was the longest week of my life. I don't think I had quite thought about what I was embarking upon, and this gave me a good chance to think. Since I've been so cut off with technology, I've had the chance to be in my own head a lot, which I guess is the point. Right now I'm rushing through this post at a local cafe, trying to get it off before 6 when they close!

We went for a 5am hike to see the sunrise! It was too cloudy to see the sun, but it was fun nonetheless!

We headed into Seattle yesterday, and immediately were bombarded with a ton of information. We're living in what is called an 'intentional community', which is basically a fancy way of saying that we all have a say in everything that happens in the house. We have to discuss every decision, since we're sharing a community budget for the year. (We also have separate allowances for ourselves, which we can do whatever we want with, but food is a group decision.) The first thing we had to do was our rooms -- and I got the single! It basically came down to everyone wanting to share a room but two of us, so my housemate Matt and I get our own rooms, which I'm pretty pumped about.

Today we went on a group tour of the city and the JVs from last year to see where we all work. My job is only a 20 minute bus ride from my house, which is really exciting and easy! I'm so excited to spend time downtown :) We also got to see the Seattle waterfront, which was GORGEOUS.

Mercy House in front of the Seattle skyline.

Oh, and did I mention the view from our porch? That's right - our house has not one, but TWO decks, and we overlook the entire Puget Sound and Seattle skyline. People pay big money for these views, folks, and guess what, I'm doing it for free! It's absolutely beautiful.

Matt, Karin and Jen on our backyard patio.

Okay, well, I'm running out of time. I'll take a bunch of pictures for a virtual tour later! Sorry for the hurried post - I promise I'll get some better ones soon.

Is anybody reading this, anyway? Leave a message if you are!

Love you lots!

Always
K

Roadtrip - Day 2 and 3

2011-08-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

We passed into Oregon yesterday! I waved goodbye to dear old California and turned my eyes ahead towards the great state of Oregon.

Going north all the way!!

We pulled into Ashland fairly quickly and headed to our hotel. We stayed in an Econolodge down the road from downtown Ashland. After a nap, showers and a MSNBC special on teenage killers in the Midwest, we headed into town.

I've been to Ashland before and it is just as cute as I remembered! If you ever have a chance to stop by this little town, please do. It's very artsy and adorable, filled with little stores of hand-made crafts. We browsed a lot! However, considering I'm about to embark upon a year of simplicity, I didn't buy anything.

Laura at our lunch-stop in Ashland.

After we were thoroughly exhausted of shopping, we headed towards the theatre! The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has something called the 19-35 club, which gives out discount tickets for people between the ages of 19 to 35. This is rockin, because most people that age are quite poor and can't pay $80+ for a ticket to a Shakespeare show. You have to wait until the Thursday before the show to buy the tickets though, and they only release some. Anyways, we got lucky, and ended up getting 7th row seats to Henry IV (part 2) in the BEAUTIFUL outdoor Elizabethan Theater. I felt like I was in the Globe! The show was fantastic (there's no way OSF can do something badly!). Great experience. I also saw that they are producing Julius Cesar, and had cast Cesar as a woman. I need to come back!

In front of the theatre!

Today, we woke up and headed north on I-5 towards Portland. It was the longest stretch we've driven so far, but my mom packed us with enough food and drinks to nourish a small army, so we were alright. The views were beautiful! I don't have any pictures right now because I was driving the whole time, but Laura got a few - they should be uploaded soon!

Five hours later, we arrived in Portland and pulled up to this beautiful hotel! It was certainly fancier than anything we had stayed in before -- thanks, Mom the Travel Agent! She hooked us up! We were so comfortable that we didn't even want to leave....so we stayed nearby to the hotel, and went....

to IKEA!!! We had a lovely time there.

Finally, it was time to drop Laura off at the airport and begin the section of the journey I travel solo. It was sad to see her go -- I've enjoyed these past few days. I head into Camp Adams tomorrow for Orientation for JVC. I'm calling this section of my journey my "Life Detox" - we aren't really going to have any contact with the outside world, and something tells me there's no cell phone service. It's time to commune with nature, and all of that. So, when you don't hear from me for a week, don't panic! I'm still alive (I hope!) - I'm just breathing in the sacred scent of Mother Earth and scattering rose petals upon the ground in blessing.

Okay, okay, I'm being snarky.... but, I'm actually truly excited to start this. I chose to do Jesuit Volunteer Corps for many reasons, and one of them was to have to grow as a person on my own. I think it will be nice to unplug for a week and see what happens. I live my life connected to my phone and the internet, so it will be good for me to just put everything away and exist on this planet. I've got my lungs clear for deep breathing and my hands open for whatever comes my way.

Keep yourselves safe and happy in these next few days. Oh, and, don't forget to wish Miss Lauren Lopez happy birthday on Wednesday, won't you? (See, Lo, you're still a staple in my blog!) She's got her own blog going these days about her travels in San Francisco and Los Angeles! Check it out here: http://laurengoeslightly.blogspot.com/

See you all soon. Leave me some love in the comments!

God bless,

On The Road!

2011-08-06T01:17:00.000-07:00

I'm on the road!

It's been quite a day - I'm totally wiped! We didn't pull out until 9! Mom and Jack made a delicious BBQ, so we had to stop and eat before heading out, of course. After a round of hugs -- okay, maybe two rounds -- we were off!

This bit of the story is somewhat uneventful, so I'll just skip it. Highway Five is still doing well, though, if you're wondering. We had a weird detour because part of the highway was closed, but it was no big deal. And, bam, we were stopping again! Laura and I made it to Redding in three hours, which I'm pretty sure is some kind of record. It's hard to believe the journey has begun though. Somehow, I packed my life all in my car and we are on the road! We will be heading towards Ashland tomorrow, where we have PREMIUM tickets for Henry IV at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, which I am PUMPED about!!

Sorry this post is so boring.... I'm pretty tired. I didn't take any pictures either, since it was all dark. There will be plenty tomorrow, I'm sure!

Hasta luego!

EDIT: I'm adding on to this post this morning! (Now that I'm not so exhausted I can hardly see straight.) Waking up this morning in a random motel in the middle of Northern California has reminded me of something: I LOVE TRAVELLING. Earlier, I got up and walked around downstairs to get the "continental breakfast" - which, in motel means a banana, some coffee and a Costco scone - and chatted with the lady at the front desk. This place even had orange juice, which is a step up. I know that my mom would be sorely unhappy to see our lodgings (no room service here Mom!) but I don't mind the economy hotels. They've certainly got personality. Also, it's still a step-up from the hostels in Europe. At least I have my own bathroom here! The bed was comfortable, the sheets were clean, the people were nice -- hey, what more can you ask for, right?

I've already got that traveling excitement again. The goodbyes last night were hard; I'm going to miss San Jose / Santa Clara and everyone there so, so much. The drive was melancholy and contained more than a couple of tears and a slight sense of terror and panic that I was really, truly, actually leaving. I'm only a few hours from the California border, and I can't believe it. I'm a California girl, right!?

But, I'm so excited. It's going to be a blast. And well, why not? You only live once! Might as well live it right.

Alright, all. Time to hit the road. See you in Ashland!

Two Wolves

2011-07-20T00:52:00.000-07:00

A Cherokee elder was teaching his children about life. He said to them, "A terrible fight is going on inside me. It is a fight between two wolves. One is the wolf of joy, love, hope, kindness and compassion. The other is the wolf of fear, anger, cynicism, indifference and greed. The same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too." The children thought about it for a moment, and then one child asked, "Which wolf will win?"

The elder replied, "Whichever one you feed."

Rumblings

2011-07-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

My journey is beginning. I just received an e-mail announcing my housemates for next year in JVC and the last batch of planning before we begin.

I leave in three weeks for what I'm going to call spirituality-boot-camp, which I am simultaneously excited for and terrified of.

It all ends - and then begins.

fourth of july weekend

2011-07-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

It has passed midnight, so it is now officially the Fourth of July! Not that I am terribly enthusiastic about holidays, but I do enjoy a day off of work! (Oh dear, I've become a grown-up for saying that, haven't I?)

Speaking of, work has been going wonderfully. I've worked out the majority of the growing aches and pains - and although it is certainly still difficult to enrapture an apathetic group of middle-schoolers, I have settled into a type of routine. I don't mind waking up early and working all day either, to be honest, especially when I get that check at the end of the week! The kids keep me laughing, and always challenged, but it is better than sitting at home - that's for sure.

This weekend I went to San Francisco with Laura to visit Lauren (curse me for my two best friends having such similar names!). Lauren is living in San Francisco for the summer working as an RA for a ballet school, so I wanted to go visit her and keep her company. We went to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the Picasso exhibit that's been going on. I've been to all of this season's exhibits from Paris, so I didn't want to miss it!

Lauren and I outside of the De Young Museum in San Francisco.

We bought the audio tour (of course!) and I was so happy we did - I wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of any of the art without it. The audio tour focused a lot on his personal life, and how his various lovers influenced his art, which was incredibly fascinating. Turns out that Picasso was a royal asshole womanizer. Who would've guessed! Of course, it always makes you wonder why artistic genius allows for such utter disregard for other humans. He was one of the few artists who became famous throughout his lifetime, though, which may have influenced his ego. All in all, it was an amazing exhibit.

I bought a print of this painting, which was based on a woman he met in Paris. Notice the angular structures and acid yellows and greens. She was a snarky one.

We also discovered that we went to the De Young on the final weekend of their other exhibit, Balenciaga and Spain, which was an exhibit entirely of clothing and fashion. I just wanted to put all of the clothes on! Unfortunately, there were a lot of people in the exhibit, so it was a little claustrophobic and I didn't get to see everything as much as I wanted - but, that's okay. I had an art-filled day!

Just one example of some of Balenciaga's more modern pieces. It's fascinating to see the comparison between the visual art histories and fashion history.

After the museum, we wandered around the gardens behind the De Young for a bit and explored. We laid in the grass and enjoyed the sun! There were tourists everywhere, but it was fun to act like city-dwellers for a little while. Lauren had never been to Haight Street before, so we drove over to the Haight-Ashbury and walked around. We found the most delicious crepe place ever and proceeded to gorge ourselves on them!

Before

After!

Lauren had to be back at her job by 8 so she could check in all of the dancers, but we got lost on the way home and had just enough time to go up to Twin Peaks to look out over the entire city.

Looking out over San Francisco.

It was blustery, so we only stayed for a few minutes, but the view was definitely worth the cold. Lauren and my's old adage from Europe still holds true: the higher you climb, the greater the view. Luckily, we had our car for this trek! We hung out in Lauren's dorm room for a while afterwards - I must say, I have a strange affinity for the smell of dorm room.

Laura and I looking ridiculous.

Needless to say, a fun weekend. I'm heading back tomorrow to have a picnic in the park by Fort Mason looking out over the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge for Fourth of July. It should be exciting!

See you on the flip side!

Friday!

2011-06-25T02:38:00.000-07:00

Whew, well, I made it through week one. Only five more weeks to go! My days certainly improved from my last post, that's for sure. I ended up with a really great and creative group of kids - and it's funny to see how much I drew from my own classes from SCU. I guess I did learn something after all...

My feet hurt from standing all the time, and my brain hurts from the constant creativity I have to produce. Getting these kids to think outside the box is an entirely different kind of challenge. I don't always know what levels they are starting at, and if anybody has ever taught them how to do some of the things I'm asking of them. What I really like is how much I can work with students individually since my classroom is so small. I'm able to evaluate them individually and be able to have them all work independently. They all loved to write so much - I could have them sit and write and work on projects for 45 minutes at a time, and they'd love it. I get to plan my lessons for the next day while they're working, so I love it too!

And now -- my first weekend! Friday night and I am up until 3am, mostly because I don't have to wake up tomorrow morning super early. My friend Christine and I went out to celebrate the passing of gay marriage in New York to the LGBT club downtown. We had a pretty fun time, though we were some of the youngest ones there, which I thought was weird. Perhaps everyone is already up in SF for Pride weekend!

It seems like life is settling into a routine, at least for a few weeks. Then, up and out! Moving on to the rainy land up North. I went shopping today and got very excited about winter clothing, though, so hopefully I can dress for success :)

The Real World

2011-06-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

Today I started my first day of Life As A Grown Up. Also known as That Thing You Were Avoiding Throughout College or Damn You Are Too Young For This. That's basically how I felt all day today. Overwhelmed, lost, and confused. Perhaps I should restart my mini-series of "Things You Learn The Hard Way".

Alright, alright, it wasn't that bad. For those of you who don't know, I am teaching a creative writing class at a summer camp to middle-schoolers. Unfortunately, the management is not quite as organized as one would hope, which caused a little bit of commotion this morning. Those more experienced teachers were probably able to weather the storm and tough it out, but.... considering this is my first day with such a classroom, I was overwhelmed, to put it mildly. Middle-schoolers tend to do a lot of blinking at you. Younger kids you can fool with sparkles and ponies but, the older ones have some brains in them, and aren't so easily mystified by the magic. You actually have to know what you're talking about. And I do -- I've just got a few tricks of the teaching trade to catch up on. Oh, and, I'm back at the bottom of the totem pole, of course. Time to work my way up once again.

It's a bizarre transition to go from being too old for your collegiate world to too young for your professional one. Either way I'm playing catch-up. However, I have decided to become a sponge. I'm simply going to soak up all of the information around me. Luckily, my friend Laura's mom is an extremely experienced and talented educator, so I picked her brain over dinner tonight and she gave me some tips. They came in handy today, so why reinvent the wheel? I suppose it is a little presumptuous to think I will change the face of education with my one lowly day of teaching.

First days are always challenging, right? It's going to get better? Even if I have to grace the world before 11am?

Here's hoping!

Transatlanticism

2011-06-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm writing again. I say this so strongly because I realize now that my life is changing, that everything is transient, and all of those people that I took for granted are suddenly moving, crossing airways and freeways, continents and oceans. We will soon all be worlds away, and therefore, I write -- to keep in touch, to keep updated, and to recognize that sometimes phone calls don't happen as often as they ought.

Graduation. A fairly accurate representation of the wackiness of my department.

I'm saying goodbye to a lot of people and places. Today held a lot of endings for me, and I don't know when I will see a lot of these people again. I think that's a necessary evil; every beginning is also an ending, in a way. That doesn't mean it isn't sad. I have a photo print of Pike's Market I bought last year hanging next to my bed and I look at it every evening, hardly daring to think "I will live there soon". And - no regrets. The decision is made. I'm going.

Ahh, transition. That terrifying whisper of "change" echoes throughout my life currently, in almost every way imaginable. I live in the In-Between. I wait, sometimes more patiently than others, but waiting nevertheless, waiting for life to please, please begin. Or to please, please, slow down. The Bell Jar got it right when it says that insanity is wanting two mutually exclusive things at once. Two months is an awfully long, yet short, time. How can one want to leave, yet want to stay so badly?

And so? I write. I write because I must, because there is nothing else, because words are tethers holding us to life.

Still, the world turns on.

Christmas Time

2010-12-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

Hello blogsphere,

Not sure if anyone is out there, but I was rereading some old entries and figured I'd post something again. Right now I'm sitting in the tech booth at SCU, waiting for a DVD to finish at an event that I'm running. It's all very, very exciting. (Note the sarcasm.) I would be doing something else, but Lord of the Rings Online isn't loaded on this computer yet, and I don't have any homework or anything, since its Winter Break. So, you get to hear my lovely life-changing words again! Woo!

Lauren informed me today that exactly a year ago, she left Spain. That means that I would have left within the next few days. I remember perfectly standing outside the Renfe station for the last time with her - and we were crying so hard. We knew that we would never go back to that, even if we came back to Spain. We were right. You can't ever go back.

I just finished my final Fall quarter at SCU, if you want to talk about not going back. The weirdest part is how intensely I feel like a senior - I look at the freshmen, and I'm just in such a different mindset and place in life as them. I feel like there is a constant repitition in my brain, counting down days, reminding me that everything will end. Is that a way to go through life? I don't know - I hope not. It's exhausting. I'd like to just live.

A week until Christmas, and then a week more until 2011. One more year until the end of the world, according to the Mayans. What would our world look like if we imagined that this was actually our last year on earth? Would things change? I wonder.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my life currently.

The lovely ladies of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Eta Nu, wishing you a very merry Christmas!

My mom and I standing in front of the Christmas tree downtown.

Nick and I hitting up The Hut for a post-finals afternoon drink!

Perhaps I will post here more. I'll keep you updated! Happy holidays!

This Rolling Stone

2010-07-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't really updated in quite some time - I've been busy, and haven't really been up to much blogging adventures. I miss the days of Spain where I would blog about everything. It is almost a year since I left for Spain and started this blog -- its hard to believe. This time last year I was wondering about my visa, deciding how to pack, and wondering where I would be in a few months. I suppose I have similar worries now: where is this next year going to take me? and how is it all going to work out?

I got my blog while I was in Spain printed and bound in a book. I should take a picture of it and post it up here - but its really cool. It looks like a paperback book, and I was able to even get all of the color pictures printed as well. The best part? It was FREE! I had a promo code that I needed to use for this website that printed it for me. I'm considering getting more things like that done - I've very much into photobooks, scrapbooks, and the like. I just found a bunch of things I made at the end of high school and I am SO glad that I did those because now I have these cool memories bound in a book that I can flip through and remember.

So, we're about at midsummer. I'm not sure if I've accomplished everything that I was hoping to (reading a book a week certainly didn't happen, nor did finishing writing a lot of my stories I've been working on) but I've accomplished a lot of others things (worked a fair bit at various odd jobs, painted my room, am in the process of rereading the Harry Potter series). I feel like the best part of summer is yet to come... a lot of people are coming back into town in a few weeks, and August looks like it will be shaping up to be a good month. I'm pretty excited.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from the past month or so:

My friend Nick and I having a picnic in San Francisco.

Katelyn, Molly and I at Music in the Park.

Thoroughly enjoying SF Pride and being 21.

My hair has gotten long.

At the very first Starbucks in Seattle Pike's Market!

Miss Laura and I in Seattle!

This is where the Seattle Grace Hospital should be from Grey's Anatomy!! Obviously it is not there. (Note: Denny Way!!)

Anyways, I can't believe it is already almost August. Perhaps I will get a lot more writing done, considering this month has the same name as a character in one of my stories. I've been crocheting a lot, as well, and finished making a couple of things that I might take photos of and post later.

Well, this was a slightly boring update, but it was something at least. I'm off to get ready to head to downtown Stanford with some friends to look at the old movie theatre there. Should be fun!

Love,
K

summer skin

2010-06-14T02:04:00.000-07:00

So I've reached the end of junior year. Don't know how it happened, but there it is. The past few days have been a lot of goodbyes, moving, and figuring out what comes next. Next year this time it will be me in the graduation cap and gown.

Erin, Me, Lauren, Sarah and Amber after this year's Abydos performance, the outdoor dance festival that occurs every Spring.
It was Lauren's choreography debut at Santa Clara!
(I was a bubble-blower. The rest of them are very talented dancers!!)

I'm very excited for summer. I'm moving back home to my mom's house, which boasts air-conditioning, a full fridge, and a very beautiful backyard, so I am not complaining at all. These first few days have been filled with sunshiney adventure. Friday, a group of us visited a park in Palo Alto / Los Altos hills to have a picnic lunch and hang out to celebrate the end of finals.

Here is the park that we went to. It was a beautiful day.

Miss Molly and I celebrating 3 years of friendship.
This girl even lived in the same roomwith me for a year and we are still friends!

Christine and Dylan, my favorite couple ever.

Christine dyed her hair very red not too long ago - I think it looks great!!
(Yes, I am talking about you on my blog, Christine!)

And then there's me, with a giant rock that I found.
The camera is frustratingly out of focus, but what can you do.
I feel like a California girl in this picture!!

Tomorrow I am helping my friend Nick move out of his apartment to move to San Francisco and then I am preparing for a trip to Seattle with some friends. I'll keep you updated!

Love!
k

Here Comes The Sun

2010-05-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, here it comes .... SUMMER! I feel it in the air, calling me away from all of my duties and responsibilities. My last summer before the Real World. And I've decided I want these two months to be months of FUN. Not of anything hard or stressful or challenging - I've done plenty of challenging things in this past year. I'm ready for some good old-fashioned fun.

Here are some updates on things I've been up to:

Bay to Breakers 2010 was pretty much everything a good B2B should be: exhausting, overwhelming and memorable. My group of friends and I decided that we should be SUPERHEROES for this momentous occasion!

Super Dancer, Super Girl, The Square and The Green Machine team up to conquer the 5am train!

It was the 99th anniversary of Bay to Breakers, meaning that next year will be the 100th anniversary. Yes, I am planning my outfit NOW!

Meanwhile, the Spring Musical Thoroughly Modern Millie opened on Friday night, which is pretty awesome. I've been working on costumes for Millie for the last two months, so it was awesome to finally see everything come together! It looked amazing :)

Okay, I don't know what else to write about, so here are some pretty pictures.

My old friend JoVanna and I at my brother's high school graduation. Those pictures showing up soon!

Some friends and me :)

Lauren and I dancing in the kitchen!

What a lovely, lovely life.

Always,
K

the month of may.

2010-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Santa Clara University. Spring.

Truth be told, I just wrote a "farewell" blog post announcing that I was shutting this place down -- but then I started reading some old posts and realizing that, hey, I actually like writing in this thing. Hopefully you all enjoy reading it. I promise I shall be more active, deal?

The last few months have just flown by. I think its amazing really, how quickly time just goes right by you. All of a sudden I blink and its May! I've been gone from Spain for five whole months now, yet it still feels like yesterday that I was hopping on the 36 every morning at 8am for school. Now I'm walking down the same street every day, passing the fire station instead of the peluqueria, heaving my black and white checked backpack up on my shoulder as I am late, once again, to class.

How's life, you ask? Well, its alright, I suppose.

The other night, Lauren and I stayed in and hung out in my room, looking through pictures and talking about everything. And, well, we decided that we are in a rut. The rut of junior year. I think everyone is going through it -- we've been in college for three years now and everything's really starting to hit. People are breaking up left and right, trading in years of relationships for a couple of drunken nights with faceless strangers. Nobody knows what they're doing, why they're doing it, just that something is off and needs to be fixed. The choices that we are making now are actually affecting our Future with a capital F. Consequences. Choices. Different paths. Perhaps, for us right now, it feels like anything is possible, all we have to do is reach out and grab it -- but we have to pick something. And make sure that it is the "right" thing, whatever that means. The opportunity of everything is overwhelming. The countdown to the Real World has begun. And that, well, that my friends, is a scary, scary thing.

So, how do you deal?

Hell, I don't know. I'm not one that thinks of the Future in concrete terms. It's always more like something that's hanging out there with the Milky Way, glowing on the horizon. It'll happen. Right now all I can think about is Bay to Breakers on Sunday morning and my midterm Monday afternoon.

So - here are my two-cents, blogsphere:

Take it as you will. No day but today. The dog days are over, amigos. The good times are here.

Exams: An Auditory Experience

2010-03-17T10:13:00.001-07:00

The Library: Finals Week

That's:
7 days of key clacking, gum-popping, paper flipping
168 hours of music streaming, coffee drinking, textbook lugging
10080 minutes of laptop battery frying, florescent lighting, Facebook stalking
604800 seconds of Wikipedia searching, pencil tapping, essay writing
604800000 milliseconds of forehead scratching, clothes not-washing, papers printing

and 604800000000000 nanoseconds of telling yourself:
"Hell, I never learned any of this at all."

give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher.

2010-03-03T15:29:00.002-08:00

I've been absent on here, mostly because there is little to report. My great adventures are confined to books, writing, and daydreaming while looking out of my gabled window, wishing my thoughts would open so I could step right through. Unfortunately, Peter Pan has yet to appear, and my shadow has stayed tightly sewn, though I shall stay vigilant and look fast towards the first star till morning.

I'm ready for sun - how about you?

The Vagina Monologues!

2010-02-20T23:02:00.002-08:00

I sent a very professional-esque e-mail out this afternoon about this exciting news...however, I am going to dance party away on this blog by announcing that The Vagina Monologues will appear on-campus this 2010 school year.

As in ... in a performance space. With real lighting. And real acoustics. And real tickets.
And the entire student body being able to view it.

For the past 3 years, this show has been banned due to its perceived conflicts with the teachings of the Catholic Church. And while the President of my university is not exactly endorsing the words of the performance, he is not banning it, either. At our personal meeting with him last Thursday, he explained that "it is not in the Jesuit tradition to ignore or ban words and ideas we may not agree with." I could not agree more. He also explained that, in looking at things we may not agree with, we can create a dialogue to discuss why we might not agree with them. Again, I completely agree. How can we find a way for female sexuality to live in the same world as a Catholic faith? How can all of these pieces of our human experience coexist? I would like to find the answers to these questions as well, and hope to use TVM to create a conversation on my university's campus. (Not to mention all of the atrocities that occur in regards to sexual violence, which is another beast of a conversation that we will attempt to tackle.)

We've been jumping for joy for the last few days. I am so, so proud of my university's adherence to their morals of social justice, and so proud of us women who truly have made a difference.

So, now, we're getting the ball rolling. Right now, I'm in the process of planning for auditions on Thursday and getting everything ready for directing the show. (Which, by the way, are happening in the Fess Parker Studio Theatre from 5:30 - 8, if you'd like to show up.) And although I am already completely overwhelmed with the ideas swirling through my head -- Man. I am just... so pumped. My dear friend Christine is going to be hopping on board with me as a co-director and we've already been talking about potential concepts. I'm going to be in meetings all week to get this ball rolling, but WHO CARES. I am so, so, so pumped.

I'm sure you will hear all about this budding process, but look for us to perform late April.

Who says that you can't make something happen?
All you need is perseverance and the courage to stand up for what you know is right.

Off to celebrate!
Always,
K

The shoes truly make the person: A Rebuttal

2010-02-16T10:50:00.004-08:00

The shoes truly make the person - Opinion

Flip through the latest edition of The Santa Clara, SCU's university newspaper. Between articles about Jersey Shore and a prepubescent-toned article about crushes, you will find Katherine Chow's article entitled The Shoes Truly Make the Person. Read it. Then read it again. And, if you could possibly get through it, read it a third time. Because I'm shocked. I am absolutely floored that this, this is the standard of my university newspaper. That, with all of the possible opinions in the world to have, this girl's opinion is ..... shoes?

Now, please, don't misunderstand me. I understand what she's going for here. Shoes and appearance matter. Wearing a great outfit can make you feel like a million bucks. I'm not disputing that. What I take problem with is the superficial culture of Santa Clara University that this article perpetuates.

Even from the very first line of the article, Chow differentiates herself as a member of a higher socioeconomic status. From her tone, it is clear: those of you girls who can't afford the ballet flat, stiletto and Uggs (or, gasp, perhaps don't want or need these frivolous wardrobe additions) are excluded from this world. Chow separates each shoe into a narrow box of stereotype. Clearly, only funny girls wear Converse. Sexy girls wear stilettos. Confident girls wear ...Pumas. In Chow's black-and-white view of what each shoe "is", personality and confidence only comes from a shoe.

Okay. Let's back up here. Personality comes from...a shoe? Isn't that exactly what commercial America wants you to think? That if -- and only if -- you buy this specific product, you will be good enough? That only once you buy this face cream, hand sanitizer, shoe, whatever, you will be worth something? My bad -- I was under the impression that self-confidence, morality and courage comes from within, not from another accessory. I'm fairly certain that Beyonce is just as fierce barefoot.

So, really. It is just a shoe.

Not only am I angry that TSC chose to run this article because of the above reasons, but I am also incredibly disappointed. I am disappointed because of this: not everyone in the world even gets the luxury of choosing between two pairs of shoes. 40% of the world right now is living their lives without even a single pair of shoes. Across campus, we are even having a drive called Soles for Souls to assist survivors of the Haiti earthquake -- who, by the way, are dodging infectious diseases and sores on their feet, not "puddles or dirty sidewalks", which seemed to be Chow's major concern for her well-being. Instead of writing about trying to choose a "cool outfit", Chow could have discussed the merits of supporting companies such as TOMS shoes, who donate one pair of shoes to a child in need with every purchase or researched sweatshop-free shoes that are stylish and still supporting human rights.

I'm disappointed in you, TSC. As a university centered on personal growth, enlightenment and social awareness, I expect better from you, who is the public representation of what our university is about. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of fun every so often, but when I feel like I'm reading Cosmo instead of The New York Times, there's a problem.

And Chow, I encourage you to take part in the 2010 Day Without Shoes on April 8 and write about your experience for a future editorial. This day of awareness is sponsored by TOMS, and challenges each person to spend a day barefoot to understand the challenges of going barefoot that millions of children live every day.

Perhaps then you might be able to let go of this superficiality and understand that your power and inner strength comes from within....and gain a little perspective while you're at it.

The Week From Hell

2010-02-08T13:42:00.003-08:00

Man. Quarter system. I've got to say, quarter system seriously leaves me hanging. I wonder who created the idea of jam-packing a full semester's worth of material into 10 weeks. Somebody clearly masochistic. Once you hit around Week 5, all hell starts to break loose.

Which, honestly, is the reason for my absence the past week. Reading about my constant forays into the library probably isn't very interesting. Actually, I can tell you for a fact it is quite boring. Much more boring than water-rafting down a waterfall in the Amazon, for instance. And then, on Saturday I proctored the LSAT. Whew, talk about being glad I was sitting on the other side of the table. Watching those poor future-law-students slink into the classroom, hunch behind a desk and whittle down their pencils to mere stubs...its depressing.

Wah, its all depressing. I feel like Holden Caulfield calling everything a phony. The weather's depressing, Week 5 and 6's constant pressure of work is depressing, the tree stump in the yard across the street from me is depressing. I just want it to be Spring and Summer already, where we can run off to the beach and lay in the sand, soaking up the sun. Or at least walk outside without wanting to hang yourself. Looking at the pictures of me bouncing around Spain like a bag of sunshine isn't helping either. Wa, wa, wa.

Well, at least to counteract the rainy-day-blues, I've been trying to do some fun things. Most notably, hosting the VIP Lounge PreParty in the ultra-superior upstairs lounge (also known as my attic room, but you know.)

Hollywood starlets preparing for the Red Carpet.

I must say, that was a nice blowing off of steam and a much needed break. After the LSAT on Saturday, I attended the Kappa Kappa Gamma Winter Formal with, who else? My awesomer than awesome broski, who looked super fly in his shades.

We most certainly got our dance on.

It was a little bit of a slow start (there was something going on with the buses, and half of the girls were two hours late!) but it got hoppin' pretty quick after everyone finally arrived. I've gotta say, my bro can break it down!!

After that, a much needed restful weekend to start it all again this lovely Monday. Speaking of -- I have to get to class! See you on the flip side ;)

K

maybe this time.

2010-02-04T17:50:00.003-08:00

i wish the world was flat like the old days
so i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or steam trains or freeways
there'd be no distance that could hold us back.

The In-Between

2010-01-30T11:55:00.002-08:00

Just uploaded a couple of pictures from the final days of Alicante that I forgot that I had taken.

I say that I wish I had taken more pictures, but, honestly? I took so many. Besides, when you're there you never feel like it is going to go away. How many times do we take pictures of our everyday lives? Of us simply just living in our homes, cooking, cleaning, driving to work, all of it. We only take pictures on the "special occasions", the times when something is supposedly Important. Well, I don't. The pictures I always love the most are the ones of everyday things.

Anyways, most of these things happened within the last month, but here's a bit of a photo post to wrap up January.

This is my house! Its all Christmas-ified. :) I've lived here since I was 11.

My mom running through the rain. I don't know why I like this picture, but it makes me laugh. I think because its a really natural smile -- its hard to catch on film for her.

Going to see Avatar with my SCU friends at midnight! Aww, I missed them!

Making pancakes at 2am because we are hungry. And everyone has the same paper to write and we sat in my room and sortof wrote them. And then decided pancakes were much more fun than homework.

Partyy. More to come! :)

Re: National Novel Writing Month

2010-01-26T17:11:00.005-08:00

A couple of people have asked me lately, "So, what's going on with your novel?"

To which I respond: "What novel? Oh, you mean that writhing, putrid sack of syllables that likes to sit in the corner of my desk and stare at me with angry eyes and pointed teeth? The one that's the slight green of moldy bread, and reeks of pickle juice and bile? Oh, that. Right. I'm working on it."

After which they tend to back away slowly.

But, after a month or two of shoving it in the back of my closet and ignoring its existence, the smell of rotting meat and decaying vowels is beginning to bother me, so I pulled it out to whip it into shape. And, surprise! Beneath the seven layers of dust, there are a few redeeming qualities to it. So, I'm planning on rolling up my sleeves and giving her a whirl, seeing if I can clean the disease out of this thing and find the soul. It has to be there somewhere, right? Right?

Perhaps.

Never mind that I have five classes, plus a volunteer placement, a ten-hour workweek and an independent study project. Forget that I might, you know, have other things to do. Somewhere in between all of that, right?

Well, here's your sneak peak. I uploaded the very beginning of (what-is-now) Chapter One. Its a little rough, but let me know what you think.

Okay -- back to work. See you on the flip side!

Transitions

2010-01-23T03:09:00.003-08:00

It is impossible to believe that I was living in Spain a little over a month ago. Every day that slips by is another day further away from that place, from that impossibility. It almost feels as if it doesn't exist, as if those months were just a dream and now I've woken up back into reality. But I can't discern sleep from dreaming. Which life is real?

I almost can't look back at the pictures of Spain -- it is just too painful. I think it will be a long time before I will be able to. Isn't that funny? Almost the way you can't look at photos of a person when they are gone, because you know that they aren't coming back. That's exactly how I feel.

There is nothing bad about my life back here at home. It is perfectly normal. Perfectly fine. And yet, for some reason, I honestly want to just crawl into my bed sometimes and lay there, hoping against hope that when I open up my eyes I will be in my tiny room in Alicante, staring at the ancient ceiling. As if it were that easy to switch between the two places, my two lives. It doesn't help that it is raining here every day. I love the rain, but...

I'm working on it. I'm learning a lot and focusing on my work, hoping just to get through. I'm trying to put meaning back into my life, figuring out how to incorporate everything and all of these pieces into one, tightly-knit thing. And though I can knit a scarf pretty well, knitting all of these pieces together is proving a little more challenging than I realized. After reading my friend Trevor's blog though (who is still in Spain and just got back from a month of traveling Europe), I just have to remember to make the most of every moment. Okay, maybe there isn't quite the same amount of adventure here at SC. But there's got to be something. And, well, I cooked again tonight, so I suppose that's an adventure. Simply navigating, that's an adventure.

I'm tired of 'transitioning' now. I want home to feel like home again.

Best Song Ever.

2010-01-20T22:09:00.003-08:00

Please watch this video. It will absolutely blow your mind.

Thanks.

(I love Glee.)

Julie & Julia?

2010-01-14T23:56:00.002-08:00

So, furthering with my idea of 'balance' and 'new things' in this new year, last night I decided to foray into the world of cooking -- I've decided that the idea of being a really good cook is an appealing one and I really want to work on it! My friend gave me this recipe, so I decided to try it!

Stovetop Mac & Cheese ... mmmm, doesn't that look fab??

Okay, well that picture isn't the one that I made. And, unfortunately, my camera battery died and I can't find the charger so webcam photos will have to do!

Step one. Grocery store. Now, if any of you know me, I am not exactly the Queen of Supermarket. Perhaps the Ice Queen, of the frozen section, particularly of frozen pizzas. But, looking over this recipe, I thought, "Hey, that looks pretty easy. Even an idiot like me could make mac&cheese!" Hmm. We'll see about that. An hour, two phone calls to my fabulous and ever-patient friend Dylan (who easily makes my cooking look like a little kid with an Easy-Bake Oven) and a chocolate bagel later, I was in business. Shopping list clutched firmly in hand, striding confidently down the aisles -- ahh, I could imagine the looks on my friend's faces when they saw me triumphantly unveiling a magnificent souffle or quiche! Behold! What radiance! What splendor! What dancing taste buds! What ... was that thing supposed to be?

Okay, well, maybe my dreams of becoming a world famous chef are a little preemptive, but I had fun. Sure, I covered the kitchen in grease, sprayed onion juice in my eye and almost set off the fire alarm, but I shredded two types of cheese and even mixed my own sauce! Hell, I haven't died today of stomach gastration, so I consider myself a success.

It's time to shred some cheese!! And no, not cut it ;P

Look, I'm cooking things! Very excited.

Mmm, time to boil some pasta.

The final product! Not quite like the picture, but yummy nonetheless :)

Mmm. Recipe #1 = success!! I shall keep you updated further on my endeavors ;P Right now, I'm about to go celebrate with some chocolate Jello pudding. Yumm!!

Besos!
K

So This Is The New Year.....

2010-01-12T02:06:00.002-08:00

Well, I am back. Back to the rigors of university life, back to classes, back to walking across the green, palm-tree speckled campus, back to overwhelming amounts of reading in an inordinate amount of time. Back to it all....

And yet, I have to ask myself: "What now?" I'm certainly not going to be jet-setting off to Paris anytime soon, nor am I going to be embarking upon any sort of adventure, unless they are of the academic variety of course. I think the tell-tale sign was when my faithful sidekick Lauren and I walked into a house party the first night back to college, looked around at the chaos unfolding beyond and realized: "Oh my god. We got old."

Alright, perhaps I am being existential. It is two a.m. as I write this after all. I may exaggerate slightly -- I've still got plenty of youth in me, to make questionable decisions and stay out until dawn. But still, walking around campus, looking at so many unfamiliar faces in this supposed-familiar territory, I feel like a stranger. Like when you go back to high school, and realize you don't actually know any of the girls that go there anymore, that they have long grown-up and moved away, to cook their own meals and marry themselves off to freshly-shaven men with scented aftershaves. When do those things happen? Is it somewhere in between paragraphs? In between Facebook feeds? How can I pin that down?

It is strange to be back. It is even stranger to talk to my host-family back in Alicante, that life continues over there. That it will continue to continue, and that, tomorrow, another fresh-faced girl will spend her first night alone in a stranger's bed in La Florida, spreading her unpacked things across the floral bedspread and missing the scent of home. How do I make all of these parts of life coexist in one place? Does anyone have the answer to that? Probably not.

I am going through the motions. I hope that my feeling of "home" comes back soon.

2009: A Year In Photos

2010-01-01T13:10:00.001-08:00

2009: A Year In Photos

I was looking through all of the photos of this year, and thought it might be a cool idea to show this year in pictures, instead of just writing about it.
It has been quite the year, where I've gone from Shakespearean times, to Greek Life, to old friends mingled with lots of new ones, to throwing paint, water balloons and 'reading' at Camp, to halfway across the world in Spain and now, back again. Who knows what 2010 will bring!

I rang in 2009 with an old friend, but surrounded by a bunch of new people. This theme of "new" would repeat itself a lot this year!

On January 8, 2009 the Eta Nu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was born!

Molly and Katelyn and I getting lost in San Francisco. Many more trips to the Haight will happen this year!

The Vagina Monologues 2009! We raised over $5000 and played to two sold-out houses. Epic.

Playing frisbee on the lawn. See that one guy in the black shirt? Not long after this picture was taken, the blonde in the photo above and him realized they were actually madly in love with each other. Hey, I'm not a bad match-maker, eh?

Mr Thomas and I on my birthday.

The Love Talker!!

The Kappa Kappa Slammas! Taking second place at the annual Sigma Pi volleyball tournament, losing only to the senior Delta Gammas. We rocked!

Molly, her friend Elena and I rocking it out in our dorm room. This was a too-common occurance.

The (not so) epic water balloon fight of 2009! Well, we tried.

The Space Rangers together! Let's pray that 2010 brings us all back together once more.

Enter Phase 2 of this year: CAMP G. Hello Evergreen!

All of the counselors take a snack-break at San Francisco Pride. This is pre-reading.

And of course, one of the biggest mentions of this year: Alicante. Welcome to the Barrio, my friends.

Yes, that background is real. Lounging on the beach until November.

Meeting the amazing Cuatro Chicas and learning lots of Spanish!!

Climbing ancient cities in Southern Spain.

Living with the amazing Juani, who tells me "te muero!" (you kill me!) every time she finds out I post a picture of her on the Internet ;P

Just another night botelloning at the Castillo. Okay, lies, this photo was (somewhat) staged, but I like it anyway. Its a little accurate, as well.

And most just living in this beautiful, beautiful place. May 2010 bring me closer back here.

Happy New Years to All!
May this new year bring health, happiness and sunshiney days. :)
See you in 2010!!

Always,
K

10 Things

2009-12-27T17:16:00.002-08:00

My younger brother and I getting ready for some Christmas action.
Note the Christmas sweater. 'Tis the season!

As New Year's quickly approaches, I've realized that it is that time of year again -- time to make myself some resolutions! I have to admit -- 2009 was one of the best years ever, but I hope that 2010 can top it! Here is a list of 10 things I want to accomplish in 2010.

1. Keep running. I blogged earlier about the Couch to 5k program. I got to Week 5 before I got pretty sick and it got too cold in Alicante (I didn't bring any cold-weather gear). Now I am better and outfitted correctly, so I hope to keep running! There's a 5k in Big Sur in April -- I'd love to compete!
2. Keep writing. I also blogged about National Novel Writing Month where participants write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Well, I completed the challenge, banging out my 50,000 words, but I'm still in a bit of a mess. Next year, I want to whip that baby into shape and keep churning out words. I try to write every day, and I want to keep that up.
3. Volunteer. If going to Spain taught me anything, its that I have a pretty lucky and privileged life over here in the States. I want to use my extra time helping other people out -- and if I get to use my Spanish while doing so, all the better.
4. Go to Church. On a somewhat related note, I need to get my butt back in that pew. I really love the faith-community and want to stay involved in my parish -- and what better way than to head over to the student mass every Sunday? Anyone want to come with?
5. Read 50 books. I figure that having a number is probably a good idea. I love to read and this way I'll keep on it -- I will post book reviews as I read them, to keep my readers in on the loop, too.
6. Floss every day. Hey, that's important, right?
7. Do my homework. This sounds somewhat self-explanatory and simple, yet somehow this always manages to get away from me. Rather important, really.
8. Save. Save. Save. If I ever want to get back to Europe and spend that summer with my Spanish family in their summer home in the south of France, I need to get some money in that bank account again. So, I have two savings accounts: one for 'life' and another for 'europe'. I have two years -- I think that's a good amount of time!
9. Plant a garden. Okay, maybe not an entire garden. But I do enjoy having green things around, and my backyard does have a hidden pumpkin patch. Or maybe just a little window box. In any case -- flowers are pretty, so I'm going to grow some!
10. No pasa nada. In honor of Espana and all of the adventures there, I'm going to add this phrase to my vocabulary. Somewhat akin to 'Hakuna Matata'. Life is too short to be stressed about it. Keep it all in perspective and remember -- no pasa nada. It is all going to be okay.

Alright, your turn! Post your own list!

hi, i'm k. nice to meet you.

2009-12-23T10:47:00.002-08:00

oh hi there.

As I said in a previous post, I am now back home! Which means access to all of my goods that had been previously hibernating -- aka, all of my crafting supplies, my nerdy glasses and my red sweater that reminds me of hot chocolate and winter breezes. I've spent the morning (thinking about) unpacking, though I will be moving again after Christmas, so I don't know why I will bother, really.

In honor of my friend Grace's blog (I have mentioned her before!), I'm going to list off 10 random facts about me. She also brought over some wonderfully tasty cheesecake squares yesterday afternoon whilst dressed like a present. (Her boyfriend was dressed like a reindeer). Very adorable. Read her blog for pictures!

1. I'm an intense packrat. I love scrapbooks, boxes of memories, books, knick-knacks, all of it. My room is jam-packed full of memories and I love it that way. I can fill shelves and shelves with just things.
2. I have a bucket list. Some of things on it include: running a marathon, publishing a novel, having a garden, and learning another language (French is next!).
3. Little Women is my favourite book of all time. Jo is my literary idol. I think I love this book because, as I get older, I understand it more and more and learn new things from it. It is a book that grows as you grow, so it is always teaching me new insights and I am always understanding the characters in different and more complex ways.
4. I taught myself to knit about three years ago and then I taught myself to crochet this summer. I like being able to create things with my hands.
5. I collect frogs. No, not real life frogs, but frog figurines. I have at least 25 of them. I started when I was a little kid and I bought this tiny glass frog from a museum where my brother and I had gone on a field trip at a summer camp -- I still have it. Since then, my collection has just grown.
6. I've kept a relatively consistant journal since I was in second-grade. Back then, I was talking about the people I thought I had crushes on, stories about a black cat named Shadow and my favorite games to play with my cousins. It has changed a bit since then, though I still talk about those things sometimes. :)
7. I'm the queen of summer camp. I love being a camp counselor more than anything else in the world and I'm trying to figure out how to make that happen professionally. Ideas?
8. I like wearing these glasses (I'm wearing them in the picture above). I had to wear them for a role I had in high school and took them from the theatre. They've been mine ever since! (Sorry about that, PHS!)
9. My favorite music is very eclectic. I like a lot of everything, though my favorite stuff is acoustic or blues. (Or Lady Gaga, but you know.)
10. I've visited 8 countries so far...but I haven't even visited that many state in the U.S. As you probably could tell from the past four months, I love to travel and plan on continuing the trend. It might not be Rome, but I'm hoping to find some cool adventures around my city.

Wishing you a fabulous Christmas!
K

american things

2009-12-22T22:02:00.003-08:00

I flew into Dallas, Texas of all places to begin my journey back to the world of America. The land where everything is bigger, where ten-gallon hats and cowboy boots are the norm and the dancing Cowgirls on T.V. remind us what the world is really about. I sat down in the airport in a gray, comfortless chair (somewhat like the grey, comfortless mood to which I had succumbed), looked over and saw a pile of McDonalds trash, an empty Starbucks cup and a discarded Rockstar Energy Drink can, right in front of a large flat-screen T.V. where American football was playing and men were surrounding it, yelling.

Perhaps my feelings for being back are evident.

In any case, I am in fact, back. Or at least my body is, my mind being somewhere amongst the Spanish countryside dancing around medieval castles and Mediterranean seas to flamenco rhythms. But, what this unfortunately means is that "The Adventures of K" might be taking a different turn -- an Americanized one. Luckily for all of you, I hope to continue to have more adventures, and, of course, I always have unsolicited opinions on the state of the world, which I can continue to market into cyberspace on the off-chance someone cares to listen. But, I hope to further peak your interest and that you'll continue reading, though I probably won't be jetsetting off to Paris anytime soon. But, I might make it up to San Francisco, and I have a feeling there's some journeys left to be had yet in this world of California -- so, there's that, at least.

Wishing you lots of love, happiness and the
occasional bit of anarchy this holiday season!

always yours,
k

End Of Days

2009-12-19T12:37:00.001-08:00

Well. Here it is. I feel as if I should write something profound in here, being as you all read this for the last four months, I owe you at least something interesting to end it off with.

But... I got nothing. I've spent the last two days furiously packing, saying goodbyes, wiping tears and tying loose ends... and they still aren't all tied. I'm trying to figure out how to do this without feeling like I'm being ripped in half, but I don't think there is a way -- other than this: I'm coming back.

As soon as I realized that, everything got a heck of a lot easier. Because, well, why not? I've got family in Alicante, now, don't I? And don't you make sure you visit your family every couple of years?

So, saying goodbye wasn't goodbye. It was "Hasta pronto" -- See you soon. Of course, I'm sad. I'm terribly, terribly sad. But, I've embarked on my journey back, and I will be back in the States within the next 24 hours. Right now, I'm in my hotel in Madrid, having taken the train from Alicante along the snow-capped countryside and am now sitting with a can of Coke, half of my Spanish madre's wonderful tortilla-bocadillo sandwich, free WiFi and a movie playing on the TV in my four-star hotel. Just talked to my mom, who is soo excited to see me and a couple of friends who are already planning to hang-out as soon as I'm up to it. So. I guess my life there was only put on pause and maybe I can figure out how to press "play" again.

Anyways. I'm going to get myself situated and settle in for bed. See you tomorrow, everyone!

Days When I Miss "The Customer Is Always Right":

2009-12-17T05:40:00.002-08:00

As I am attempting to buy a pair of adorable boots at the cash register of a 3-6-9 shoe store (where all of the prices are either 3, 6 or 9 euros) - I just fought them out of some other lady's hands and snuck into where they were hiding the others to get my size:

"Oh, sorry, I can't sell those to you."
"Uhm...why not?"
"I don't know the price."

To which I stare at her blankly and blink at her for a moment before I answer:
"Well, who does?"
"You can come back in the afternoon and get them then."

We go round and round for a while and I even talk to the boss, who doesn't know the price either. I don't really understand why they don't actually know the price, or why they can't just call someone who does. So I ask to put my name on them at least and put them behind the counter, which, of course, they can't do either.

I wanted to yell at them that I was the customer, I had my money and I would give it to someone else, that I didn't want to come back later, that I was sick and I wanted these boots now so I could go home and sleep and that they were being really stupid because they weren't going to get my money there anymore. But, then I remembered, I was in Spain, and they wouldn't care.

Oh, Spain. These are the days I miss the American preoccupation with doing whatever it takes to take your money.

Noche de Paz

2009-12-15T09:55:00.001-08:00

I had my choir concert last Saturday and last night. On Saturday, it was at this amazingly beautiful cathedral in a town called Villena by the mountains. We all met at the university, and then took a bus over. It was freezing! I wish I could have captured the inside of this cathedral, though. So gorgeous and I love the way songs sound in big churches. It was one of the most moving experiences -- I wish you all could have been there! We sang 'Silent Night' and we sang it in every language that people know in our choir. People sang in German, French, Vallenciano, English and Spanish...and it was just so cool to be standing there, with this group of random people from all over the world singing this song that we all know. Magical.

Then, last night, I had my final choir concert in Teatro Arniches, which is awesomely right next to my house! I was so happy because a bunch of my friends came and surprised me! (My Spanish madre was supposed to come and so excited about it, but it was FREEZING and she wasn't feeling well so she couldn't go brave the elements, which was a bummer, but I understand!) I had such a great time. Here's a video of "Silent Night" -- its on facebook, so I think you might have to log on to see it. Anyway, I am in the second row on the right behind the tall girl with blonde hair.
video of choir.

Greeley, another American student, and Paco, our choir director.

Me, Greeley and Paco. They're so awesome!

Alicante friends who came to see the show! Love them :)

Anyways, it was so much fun. I am so bummed out to be leaving the choir!! As Paco, the choir director said: You've got to be American.. you just come, help and then leave everything a mess! Hahah. He also says that California is a separate country because I don't speak English right!! (He doesn't speak English practically at alllll, so this is hilarious.)

Well, I am laying in my bed wrapped in a blanket looking at my piles of things and hoping they will magically fill my suitcase. Maybe if I wish hard enough?

Okay, okay, time to get cracking!

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Christmas On The Beach

2009-12-12T04:12:00.001-08:00

The other day I decided to take a walk downtown. Christmas has sprung in Alicante, complete with Bellenes (nativity scenes) and Christmas lights strung all along the street. It is absolutely magnificent!

The weather has been pretty cold (though not as cold as San Jose, I hear) but it was warmer, so I grabbed a sweater and took a walk down to the beach. Here's what I saw:

How many times am I going to say I watched the sunset over the Mediterranean sea? I leave in exactly seven days. Whoa.

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What This Means.

2009-12-06T15:26:00.002-08:00

Suddenly, I find myself in a pub in Barcelona, the walls brightly lit, the tables filled with laughter and companionship. In fact, I am sitting next to a British woman in her forties whose name is Joy, who has had her birthday today and celebrated it by coming to Barcelona and getting a tattoo. Her husband next to her, telling me about their 30th-wedding anniversary coming up, how they have three daughters, how I need to understand the importance of this gift I have been given. Across the bar, a Dutch bartender keeps the misshapen glasses full, his shoulder-length blonde hair falling across his face. It turns out, this is a Dutch holiday, and we're in a Dutch bar, filled with people celebrating. Football is on the screen behind the bar -- Real Madrid versus another team, but no one is paying attention, too busy talking and laughing and flirting in Spanish, Dutch, English, German... it is all a mix of languages, the sounds flowing through the air until they are all mixed into one language, the language of humanity, the one that we all understand. Even if we may not understand each other's words, laughter is universal.

I have two pieces of advice for you, the man says, leaning over to me and placing his hand on my shoulder. His hair is greying slightly at the temples, and his eyes are a little red, but his hand is quite steady. Keep your words clean, he says, because one day you may have to eat them. He then pauses for a moment, looking right at me for this next part, as if to emphasize the importance of his words. And, most importantly, he says, voice serious, do what makes you happy. Don't waste your life with bollocks. I don't care if my daughters turn out to be hippies, or anything else, he says. I just want them to be happy. So, make yourself happy.

Behind me, the bar continues to fill, the night continues to swell, the people of Barcelona coming out from under the rocks, it seems, to fill the streets with merriment. The world out there is still turning, but in this moment, I am floored.

I am home in two weeks exactly.
I am not sure what to feel.

Only A Few Hours In Barcelona......

2009-12-04T13:38:00.001-08:00

....and I am already in love with this hostel!

We are staying at the:

which is AH-DOR-AH-BLE. When we walked in to the hostel, the owners were sitting down for some lunch at the big kitchen table in the middle of this comfy room -- I felt like I walked into their house, not a hostel! They took our stuff, and we went out downstairs to a "lounge" to relax... It feels like a little den! It is underground, with really cool arched brick ceilings, a tv, couches.. it is so clean and friendly. I'm sitting in it as I'm writing this!

Everyone here is just so nice and friendly -- they even offered us free dinner that they cooked for the whole group! And, as I am sitting here, the other owner walked by with a puppy that was very cute (and named Manualito!) and even gave me a few licks and I got to hug it.

Well, tomorrow is a day of sightseeing, so I'm gonna hit the hay. Love you all!

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Sevilla -- Warning: Picture Overload!

2009-12-03T06:49:00.002-08:00

SEVILLA!!

So, after the Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night, I hopped on a bus at 7am on Friday morning to head over to SEVILLA. Sevilla is in southern Spain, in Andalusia, which is what you think about when you think of Spain. Beautiful, southern Spain.

It is an 8 to 10 hour bus-ride to Sevilla, so we didn't get to our hotel until late in the afternoon. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel about a twenty-minute bus ride from the city center. It was a bummer that it wasn't directly in the city, but I hear that the hotels in the city are incredibly expensive, so, oh well.

First off, we walked around downtown Sevilla a bit and got acquainted with the place. I went on an organized trip through the university, so we had a tour guide the entire time and a chartered bus -- it was pretty sweet. There was an optional excursion to go on a boat cruise along the Gualdaquiver river, but we opted out and did our OWN version of a river cruise....:

I know this is a terrible picture, but you can get an idea of the boats we rode in! So tiny.

That's right! We were walking along the river and saw the sign to rent some paddle-boats! So we took the last few, hopped in and paddled around the river for an hour. So much fun! It was absolutely freezing and everyone was looking at us like we were crazy because it was getting dark, but we had a blast.

It got dark really fast while we were still on the water. This is one of the bridges we paddled under.

Afterwards, I met up with Lauren and Trevor for approximately four minutes and then we trooped off for dinner. We had a very Spanish meal of tapas where everyone got to pick something. I should've taken a picture of this meal -- it was pretty intense. Spanish tortillas, mussels, weird fish meatballs, salad, bread... all kinds of things! After, my friend Liz and I got some Spanish beer and hung out at this bar by the Cathedral that seemed to the ~the place~ for all of the Spaniards to hang out. There were people allll around the Cathedral! Very cool. We didn't talk to anyone, but we did people-watch quite a bit....

The next day, we woke up early and went on a bus tour around Sevilla. Sevilla was the site of two different Expos -- one in the twenties, and one only a couple of years ago. Countries from all over the world came to these and built buildings and such, so there's all sorts of cool buildings from both Expos dedicated to all the countries. There's like, an Africa building.

After, we walked around with a tour guide who showed us around the city...

Fountain in Sevilla. I took a lot of solo pictures -- gosh, Lauren!

This street is called 'Aqua' because its right next to the aquduct and water would used to run down it.

This is the thinnest street in Sevilla, in the Santa Cruz Barrio. The Santa Cruz Barrio is a little bit like the Ritz of Sevilla, but it didn't used to be. Back in the days of the dictator, you weren't allowed to have any sort of public affection, even if you were married. So couples would go down this street (which is known now as the Calle de Besos or 'Street of Kisses') to have some intimate moments because it was easy to hide there. Also, the streets are so thin so that people could jump from rooftop to rooftop and homeowners could drop things on criminals. Okay, I don't really know if that's why, but that's what people do!!

From the Barrio de Santa Cruz, we headed over to the Catedral de Sevilla, which happens to be the third largest Christian cathedral IN THE WORLD. (First is the Vatican, second is in London). It is Gothic-style, which means the huge turrets and intricate architecture. So absolutely beautiful. Allow me to indulge you:

Outside of the Catedral. It is HUGE.

Main entrance door.

It is realllyyyy hard to get pictures inside of a Church, but I did manage to snap this one. This is the patron saint of the Internet, who gets his own big statue in the Catedral. So, you know, my patron saint.

Inside the Catedral also is the tomb of Christopher Columbus. I was a little disappointed -- I'm not sure what I was expecting! It was just a big statue that said that he was buried underneath... maybe I hoped for a coffin at least? Anyways, I think it is funny that Spain cares so much about Christopher Colon, as they call him, when America really doesn't. We also climbed the bell tower (that huge turret that's in the above picture) and it gave us a view over all of Sevilla. I'm starting to really love these views I'm getting -- it is so hard to climb up, but I always know it will be worth it! The higher and harder the climb, the better the view!

Sevilla is the fourth-largest city in Spain. First is Madrid, then Barcelona, then Valencia. Hey, I've been all those places! (Or soon will be!)

Looking down from the Bell Tower.

I can hear the bells! (Musical theatre reference.)
Also, I kept making hunchback jokes, but nobody laughed. Womp womp.

I feel like all of these pictures are just of me. Well, probably because they are. I don't like pictures of just buildings because they're boring, so you have to look at my face all the time. I always have to make sure I like my outfit when I go sightseeing, hah.

NEXT (I know, there's more) we went to Alcazar, which is a miniature Alhambra. Except, the word "miniature" is relative here, because the Alhambra is like, the size of a large city. Alcazar was really pretty; we walked around all the gardens and such. We even got lost in a hedge maze! (And then pretended we were Harry Potter trying to find the Goblet of Fire... Man, I'm cool.)

This picture is probably superfluous, HOWEVER these fish were grossing me out. They were swimming in this pond that used to irrigate the gardens or something? I was watching them because I thought they were kind of cool, then I realized they actually grossed me out and I had to run away from them. I thought I would share that charming story.

Some of the girls on the tour to Sevilla. Yay for new friends!

Inside the gardens. Pretty, eh?

We got some lunch at this place called 500 Mondaditos, which was really cool. They have 500 different types of baby sandwiches, and they each cost around one euro, so you just order however many you want. So we got those and camped out on the sidewalk to chow down. The thing about Europe is -- they charge you more to sit ANYWHERE, so BEWARE when just going to sit down places. There's usually a sitting fee. And if they have enough money to buy chairs and tables, they're going to be expensive. Better off with the guys with carts and pop a squat in a doorway somewhere. It will probably taste better, too. (Just don't do this in Morocco. My friends went there and are now quite ill.. trust me, you don't want to hear the detailed symptoms.)

Saturday night I went to a flamenco show! I had already gone to one in Granada, but Sevilla has a different type of flamenco, so I wanted to see that, too. It was absolutely amazing. It was in the tiny little courtyard, with ivy covering all of the blue-and-white Spanish tile and lit by candle-light. The dancers were soo good. One day I might put up an example of flamenco so you can listen to it -- it is a little strange, but hauntingly beautiful in person. Flamenco is all about storytelling in dance and song, and they told some beautiful stories that hit you right at the soul; it gets you at a gut-level, in a way that only music can. Must-do at some point in your life.

On Sunday it was RAINING. I was very unhappy about this because I, once more, did not bring a warm enough jacket. (This is a constant theme in my life. I just need to bring. my. jacket. always.) Luckily enough, it stopped raining right when we got to the PLAZA DE ESPANA.

The Plaza de Espana. All of the regions of Spain are represented here in the artwork.

Standing on the steps of the Plaza.

View of what the Plaza looks like.

NOW -- Take a good look at my above pictures. Now, watch this short video.......

Look familiar????

Yes, that's right -- they filmed Star Wars at the Plaza de Espana. Very cool if I do say so myself. I ran around like a fool pretending to be a Jedi. Lovely. Across from the Plaza de Espana is El Parque de Maria Luisa, which is this huge beautiful park.

And then we hopped on the bus for another eight hours back home! Talk about a long weekend, whew. Did you get through that? Have I lost everyone?

Anyways, it has been really great. I only have three more weeks here -- I cannot believe it!! My friend and I booked train tickets to Barcelona tomorrow morning, so we're heading off there next! Wow, Barcelona! I'm so excited!

Miss you all tons! Love you bunches.
Besos,
Kandace

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Accion de Gracis -- El Dia Que No Existe

2009-11-30T15:12:00.002-08:00

Happy post-Turkey day all! We've made it through Black Friday, the official consumerist entryway into the holiday season. So let's bust out our Christmas music and ring in the holiday cheer!

Over on the Spanish front here, that mentality doesn't really exist. Black Friday, of course, is an American phenomenon...although, my madre told me that they have the day of rebajas (sales) in the spring before the Spanish festivals that sounds an awful lot like it. And, of course, Thanksgiving doesn't exist either, being one of the only truly unique American holidays.

I never really thought about how different it would be for people to not even know what Thanksgiving was. No Turkey-Day jokes, cranberry sauce or children's turkey handprints lining the walls. CIEE attempted to give us Americans a traditional Thanksgiving, though. It was actually slightly amusing to see the Spaniards do Thanksgiving... like most American things Europeans try to do, it never comes out exactly right.... But, I was extremely happy for their gestures all the same, and really loved going to a huge dinner with all of my CIEE family. The next time we're all going to be together like that is in three weeks when we're heading home (!!!).

In honor of Thanksgiving, I took some pictures with my Spanish family. (Although the dinner was just the American students, the families didn't come).

Adrian, Mario, Me and Juani in our living room.

Adrian and I. Why is is SO adorable???

Mario and Adrian acting silly in front of the camera.
Why do I feel like I'm looking at the next generation of the
"Kandace-and-Sarah" phenomenon?
They're cousins, too.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was in a restaurant near the University. A couple of people gave speeches, including miss Lauren (who spoke in front of the entire program in Spanish! woo! I am a proud stage-mom.) and some other people. Me and the other two kids from choir sang as well. It was a nice little ceremony!

Thanksgiving dinner set-up.

Afterwards I came home and skyped with my actual family at Thanksgiving dinner, which was a trip. I was climbing into bed because it was almost 2am, but my family back home was just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner! It was a little overwhelming and made me miss home a lot -- I told them to save some pumpkin pie for me! -- but I was glad that I got to see everyone on Thanksgiving :) How weird that you can communicate like that from a thousand miles away! I felt like I was sitting right in the middle of my living room.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I meant to make a post earlier in the week about how choir's going. It is going great and I am having a ton of fun. On Wednesday night after rehearsal, we all went over to Burger King (yes, in Spain) and grabbed dinner and made an absolute mess of ourselves with laughter! I said, no matter what country I'm in, it is always a good idea for some burgers, fries and milkshakes after rehearsal with the cast! The Spaniards wasted no time teaching us all sorts of inappropriate things to say and the best ways to use our Spanish. (Don't worry, I won't repeat them here.) Even the choir director came to hang out with us! Once we got kicked out of BK (because it was closing!) we went over to this underwater bar thing in San Vicente, and hung out there for a bit. It was super fun just to chill out and hang out with all of the Spanish kids. I even got to go cruising in a car! (Which doesn't really sound that exciting, but when I haven't been in an actual car for four months, this is a big deal). We just drove down the freeway, blaring Spanish music, dancing, laughing -- very cool. Felt just like heading down the 101 with my friends. It keeps amazing me how, no matter where I'm at, we're all the same in some ways.

Then, of course, I was in Sevilla this weekend, but that deserves a post of its own, too. I'll probably split them up again, and spend the next few days posting pictures! Let's just say -- it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

Here's a teaser... (and yes, I took this picture):

because this picture rocks:

2009-11-20T06:27:00.003-08:00

this is what happens when i take too many pictures
in front of monuments smiling and looking cute.

that is all.

oh, also, i got a package from my bff THOMAS today filled with a DVD of When Harry Met Sally (yessss), a cool clay frog, and a card with lots and lots of love. As if that was not enough, I got a letter (in French!) from Miss Grace with cupcake illustrations. Man, I have the best friends! Thanks for making my day, guys! <3

oh, more valencia!

2009-11-17T09:52:00.002-08:00

Valencia, Day TWO

We woke up early and hopped on another bus, heading this time to the City of Arts and Sciences, which is basically a huge center similar to things you might find in the Tech Museum, but better. Unfortunately, we having more camera probz, as people forgot to bring their camera chargers. It was pretty funny, because by the end of the day, we were down to like, one camera for six of us. Oh, well. No-one can say I have a lack of pictures!!

First, we were going to go to an AQUARIUM, one of the biggest aquariums in the world. Now, I know, I know, aquariums are like zoos, which are giant prisons for animals, and I should hate them fundamentally. Fish should be free to swim as far as their little beating fish hearts desire. However, all of my progressive friends are just going to have to forgive me as I say: I LOVE AQUARIUMS. I like looking at fish!! :) Besides, fish don't have feelings anyway, so they don't care. ;P Kidding.

Here is my professor and some friends and I being excited to go to the AQUARIUM.

Inside of the aquarium, being eaten by a SHARK.

The aquarium was very cool -- we 'traveled' all over the world, and saw all different kinds of fishes. We also got to go to a dolphin show, which definitely was the highlight of the aquarium trip.

All the dolphins were doing such great tricks! I've decided I'm going to be a dolphin trainer.

Hello, dolphin friend!

After we were bored with the aquarium, (we literally had six hours of free time to spend there), we left and went to the nearby mall to get some comida and explore. Yup. It was very...mall-like. (Says my scientific evaluation!) We also explored more of the surrounding architecture:

Here is an example of the really cool architecture. Behind me is a bridge (the tall white part) and a building that looks like a whale. I don't know what it is.

It felt a little bit like we stepped into the future.

Afterwards, we went to the round building in the picture above to watch an IMAX film, which they said was in 3D, but I think I just misunderstood their Spanish because it wasn't. It was still cool, though, and it was the biggest IMAX I've been to -- you felt like you were sitting on the inside of a globe, more than a screen, and it felt almost like "Soaring Over California" at Disneyland, minus the orange scents and cool breeze. It was a cool experience, but I was a little whatever about the film itself.

By this time, it was time to hop back on the bus and head back to Alicante! We got back around seven, which was just enough time to hang out with my family, eat some dinner, then head out for a night on the town. It was brought to my attention that I only have five more weeks! I can't believe it.

On Sunday morning, Lauren and I woke up early to go to Mass at the Cathedral de San Nicolas, which we had been trying to do for quite some time, but never really got there.

The Cathedral of Alicante.

It was a very interesting mass... very "fire-and-brimstone" and orthodox Catholicism. It was my first Mass in Spain, and I have got to say, it was an experience being part of the Catholic Mass in such a historically Catholic culture. Spain has been Catholic.. well, always. However, it was an interesting congregation because it was literally all older people -- there were no families, no young people. We stuck out, and not just because of our English. The homily was so interesting, because it was very..Spanish, if that makes sense. "Somos Espanoles," the priest kept saying, "Espanoles fuertes!" with his arms waving and his voice rising and falling, the way that I always imagined old-school preachers, but I've never seen. I wonder how much the pairing of religion and the dictatorship has on the current congregation; after, as we were talking about it, we thought that young people may be leaving the church because of that. What a shame. I hope that this was an atypical part of Spanish culture, more to do with where we chose to go than a reflection upon religion in Spain. Interesting cultural difference, nevertheless!

Anyways, I am off to work on some more homework. I know, homework? In Spain! I don't understand it either. What were my professors thinking!?

Hasta luego. More interesting things to come!

Besos!
<3 k

oh, valencia!

2009-11-16T14:39:00.005-08:00

I spent all weekend singing one of my favorite songs, "O, Valencia" (which, if you are not familiar with, get ON it) because, as you probably guessed, I spent Friday and Saturday in the city of Valencia, which is about two hours north of Alicante and the capital of the Comunidat Valenciano region of Spain, which is where I am living. Valencia is known for its antiquity while also being an extremely modern city, containing The City of Arts and Sciences, which was funded by the EU and contains all sorts of modern buildings, and cool things like one of the world's largest aquariums and an IMAX theatre, both of which I went to!

Much love to everyone in Alicante that I am stealing pictures from in order to document this trip (*cough* Lauren *cough*) because, as you know, my Canon has gone to the great Camera Place in the sky, where all lens errors are remedied and every camera becomes a digital-SLR. (Tech joke. Anyways.)

Ready to go on a bus trip at 9am! Woo!

We arrived in Valencia on Friday morning, after a two-hour bus ride from Alicante's centro. We dropped off our bags, and headed off to sight-see. First stop: La Lonja de Seda, which is where the ancient silk trade of Europe used to be centered.

The stained-glass window!

My Spanish professora Raquel, me and another one of the CIEE staff walking us to the rest of the group. We got a little behind taking too many pictures with graffiti.

Like this.

After, we went to the Torres de Serrano, which was really pretty to look at as well.

Torre de Serrano. We climbed up to the top of that. It's taller than it looks!

The view from the Torre de Serrano. Looks pretty normal, doesn't it?

Playing princess in the castle.

Lauren's rendition of a princess, calling for her Prince Charming. (We missed you, Trevor!)

The girls in front of a fountain in the Plaza de La Virgen.

The best travel partners around!!

We had a little bit of free time next, and spent it walking around Valencia and exploring. We went into the Mercado Central, which is basically a huge indoor market of all the different Spanish foods. If you don't like meat, stay away! There's a ton of fish, bloody cow flanks, huge legs of things, etc etc. However, there's also so much fruit, vegetables and Spanish treats that its cool to just go in and look around!

Inside the Mercado Central. Lots of Spaniards doing their daily shopping.

Spanish strawberries. Mmm!! Note that its all in euros!

Good ol' meat. Very typical Spanish set-up -- meat just hanging out there until somebody buys it. I wonder how all the Spaniards don't get sick all the time?

We are pro at the jumping pictures by now :)

Next, we went to the Catedral, which is huge and absolutely beautiful, like everything I've seen. I don't know if I'm starting to get jaded about all this beauty around me all the time! Apparently, a relic of the Holy Grail is found inside of this Church, a fact which I contested highly, but after a little bit of research, it looks like a lot of scholars actually do believe that it is possible Jesus interacted with this cup in some way or another during the time of his death -- so, I guess I've seen a piece of the Holy Grail! I'm still somewhat skeptical, but whatever it is, if Jesus touched it, it is still pretty darn cool.

One of the many doors to the Catedral of Valencia.. this is outside of the main door.

The Holy Grail??

Next, we climbed the Torre del Micalet, which looks out over all of Valencia. It was part of the Catedral, with this incredibly tiny turret that we had to climb up. Some people counted and I think it was about 200 something stairs? However, these aren't your typical stairs -- its a round turret, so its a winding staircase, that gets narrower at the top. If you get claustrophobic, I wouldn't recommend it: its either all the way up or all the way down! There is no inbetween, or landings! However, the view ... well, its worth it.

View at sunset over Old-Town Valencia.

The bell at the top of the tower. This decided to ring while I was standing under it taking a picture. Cool experience to see it actually ring, but very loud!!

Lauren and I overlooking Valencia.

My CIEE group of all the students.

This is the top of the staircase, just to give you an idea of how narrow it w as! Imagine climbing up at least seven stories of that in a line of 30 people!! Scary! No windows or doors or anything either. All or nothing!

Afterwards, we had more free time where Lauren and I went back to the hotel and hung out for a while. I got to take a BATH, which, I know, I know, does not sound like a huge deal, but seriously guys, stop taking baths for granted. I do not own one, so taking this bath was basically like arriving into heaven. I don't know if its cheating, but I LOVE traveling with CIEE because we stay in these 4-star hotels that feel just like America again, with a bidet. You know, sometimes, I don't have to be a legitimate Spaniard...which is why we got CHINESE WOK for dinner!

We are so excited about this chinese take-out. YUM.

And then, just to make sure that we were truly Spaniards, we went to a Valor chocolateria (remember our epic trip to the chocolate factory? Well, same company.) and got ourselves some chocolate con churros. For Jeana, who didn't really get to experience the magic in Alicante (although, casi), here's what it looks like:

Why, yes, this IS an attractive picture. You're welcome, friends, for putting it online :)

After all of that, the girls from my Spanish class (featured in chocolate picture above) and I went to this jazz club, where we got to feel very classy and listen to a jazz band play some live music and chat it up. It was the perfect way to end the evening, and like the old women we are, we climbed into bed about midnight, just as the drunken, loud other American students started hitting the pavement and the dance clubs. Oops. So, whatever little birdies have been telling y'all that I party too much, presta atencion! ;)

Anyways, there is more to this story of Valencia and my weekend (I haven't even hit Saturday yet!) but its after midnight here and I'm tired. I've got to get up early tomorrow for class! So, I will leave you with a cliffhanger -- what will happen next!?

Thanks for reading! Love you all.

<3>

Mira! Tengo amigos! Y puedo hablar espanol!

2009-11-11T14:49:00.002-08:00

Oh, hi there.

So, as I was thinking about what I wanted to write in my blog today, it suddenly struck me that the simple act of having a blog is incredibly narcissistic. As is spending hours rewriting the HTML and designing funny paint splatters in Photoshop, and then spending hours sending the link to everyone who ever logged on to the Internet, so that they may ooh and aah accordingly. Most likely, the seven outfit changes and twenty six minutes spent poking at myself in the mirror this morning (making me late for my friend, Mr. Autobus) can be classified under the category of "narcissism" as well. And, since cleverness is mostly found in the power of three, my obsession with Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal, Blogger and occasionally DailyBooth add to this phenomenon of self-obsession as well.

HOWEVER. Since I consider myself a humble soul, I will not bore you today with stories of myself. In fact, this is because there are very few interesting stories to tell of myself today, unless you count finding a yellow flower in the street and giving it to my madre boring. Which I do. So, I shall regale you with stories of MY AMIGOS. Yes, that is right. Amigos. I have them. Sometimes.

Mostly, this will probably just consist of me hotlinking photos of people from Facebook and writing snarky comments about them. Additionally, if you see yourself on here, consider yourself flattered, not stalked, and carry on your merry way. If you see yourself on here and you don't actually know me... well.

(This is in no particular order, by the way.)

This is Adam. That weird-looking person on the right is apparently me.
Adam has bright orange sunglasses that you can see on the beach from ten kilometers away.
He is also awesome.

This is a group of girls I paid to take a picture with me.
From the top, Lauren, Laura-Ann, Sarah and I.
They are all standing on the wall, but since I'm wearing heeled boots, I figured this was probably a bad idea. I should have stayed with this, though, because I fell later whilst trying (captured in another photo.)

This is my new choir friend Marianna. And yes, I def stole this picture from Facebook, so Marianna, if you're reading this and think I'm creepy -- I'm not , promise. We have fun doing things like singing songs in English with Spanish students, and eating a lot. She's also probably the nicest person I've ever met.

These are more people I paid to hang out with me.
From right to left, Liz, some girl, Jordan and JT.
Liz and I are going to Sevilla in a few weeks. :DD

That's Laura-Ann and Andrew.
Laura-Ann and I like to dance with old men.
And Andrew's generally nice, I swear.

These are the Cuatro Chicas of my Spanish class.
Lauren, Michelle, Me and Cristina.
We have a lot of fun asking our professora Raquel how to say important details in Spanish like, how to ask a hairdresser to fully define your layers, and how to tell a guy in the barrio that he's creepy and awkward.

Did you enjoy a small respite from the commentary of my vida? Excellent. I tried to include photos that I actually am not in, as well. However, no te preocupes. Friday, I am going to Valencia with CIEE for the weekend, and I am sure I will get into some (photo-less) shenanigans there and will commence my commentary. In Spanish. So you have to translate. HA.

Well, it is after midnight here and I am exhausted, which may or may not be clear from my writing. I adore you all, loving fans. I know you shall wait diligently for my next exciting, earth-shattering update.

Always!
K

Los Lunes...

2009-11-09T06:48:00.002-08:00

I think I've been avoiding writing in here because I don't have a camera, and the idea of blogging is much less fun without pictures. However, my goddess of a mom has solved my problem with a quick trip to Fries Electronics and the United States Postal Service, so I should have one within a week or so. I love the Silicon Valley, right?

Last week in my Spanish Contemporary History class, we had a "scavenger hunt" through the city of Alicante to find historical things in our own city. It was a little unorganized and chaotic, but overall a fun learning experience. Who knew that so many streets were named after Facist activists? I felt a little bit like I was on Amazing Race, because my teacher just walked into our classroom, told us our teams, handed us papers and maps and said, "go". It was a race to the finish! My partner and I were first back, yess -- but that may have had more to do with the general lack of enthusiasm for the project from other class members for various reasons than our advanced scavenging skills. It was a good time, though. It really cemented my knowledge of the Barrio and the downtown area, and added some fun facts to my knowledge base, so I guess that's good.

On Friday, I finally finished my midterms! Whew, a week and a half of Spanish testing is always draining so some of the girls and I went out to this cafe Lauren and I had found on our walk through the city I blogged about earlier. We split a giant pitcher of sangria, and it was awesome just to sit there next to the beautiful basilica in the old part of town, surrounded by colorful houses, potted plants and Spanish tile at this old wooden restaurant. You'd pay so much for that sort of atmosphere in the States, but here? Its everywhere. Its just a part of the culture. Perfect way to start off the weekend.

Saturday, my friend from Santa Clara came to visit me in Alicante! (No, not all the way from the US -- she lives in London, haha.) That was really fun, because I got to share some of my life here with someone from back home. The weather was a little cold for Alicante, but nowhere near the cold of London, so after walking around a bit, we just sat and basked on the beach. In November. Awesome. My madre spoiled us rotten with enough food to feed a small army, which of course, being the non-wasting students we are, we ate. Waste not, want not, am I right? On Saturday night, we went out to this cider place in the Barrio and ordered this weird cider stuff that I'd been wanting to try since I first saw it in Spain. Let me tell you up front -- steer clear. Very strange. I wish I had taken a picture for all of you back home, but it's this weird wooden contraption they roll up to your table. The bottle of cider goes upside down in this little hole in the wooden thing, and then you push a button to spray it in the glass. That part is fun, anyway.

On Sunday, I climbed the castle again. This time I took a different route, looking out over the ocean as we were climbing. Beautiful. I don't think I am ever going to stop loving the ocean as much as I do. I am a Pisces after all!

Sunday night, Jeana and I met up with some of my other friends in Alicante to introduce her to the wonderful world of chocolate con churros. We found a good place by the Plaza, and it was a pretty hilarious experience of once more trying to finagle our way through ordering at a Spanish chocolateria. We ended up with four huge mugs of melted chocolate and a huge round of Spanish sweet bread for the six of us, so I think we did pretty well. Basically, you just dip the bread or fruit or whatever into this chocolate, which is more like a melted bar of chocolate than anything else. It was a lot of fun...I haven't laughed that hard in so long, I was practically crying. Good food with good friends = great memory! Unfortunately, Jeana had to hop the plane back to London at that point :( Lauren and I walked back to our respective houses, but not before stopping and talking for literally another hour and a half at our corner! We were laughing so hard, people must've thought we were crazy. My madre says she can always tell when I've spent all day talking in English, hahah.

And today... well. Its Monday. I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out my class schedule for Santa Clara next quarter (I know, can you believe it? I can't!). However, we finished every tense that exists in Spanish today, and wrote out everything we've learned on the board.... it was a lot. Really cool to see. Also, I can roll my rs on the regular now!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (can you hear it?)
<3 k

Girl's Day Out

2009-11-03T12:59:00.002-08:00

So, this has been a week of midterms. Hooray? Anyways, I was bummin' hcore this afternoon after getting back my Spanish test and realizing that I am still making stupid mistakes. So, after our final midterm of the day (yay!), Lauren and I decided to have a girl's day and shop a little and go explore Alicante some more!

You know, sometimes I forget that I'm like...living in Spain. I was looking at pictures of my friends all around the world and I was like -- wow, look at that. They're like, in ROME. Or in GREECE. Or MOROCCO, riding CAMELS. How legit is that!? And then I was looking around my room, around my house and was like, wait... I'm in SPAIN. I guess its that midway point, where things start feeling normal, like we've got a routine. I guess it is true that once you start living within such antiquity all the time, you start to forget to see it. Sort of like what I've realized about San Francisco and home, how much I've taken it for granted -- as soon as I get home, I want to do all of the touristy things there. I've never even walked across the Golden Gate Bridge! Or been to Alcatraz! Silly, huh?

Anyways, so I guess I sortof forgot just how cool Alicante is. But, after my walk with Lauren this afternoon, I remember!

I wish I had photos to show you, but, alas, since my camera has decided to KICK THE BUCKET, I cannot. (I know. Any and all donations to the restore-Kandace's-right-arm-and-buy-her-a-new-camera foundation can be directed to the University of Alicante, c/o Kandace. Thanks.) I suppose I will have to stun you with my witty commentary and sparkling dialogue.

After class, it was a beautiful day -- clear and still warm. We took the bus and dropped our stuff off at her house then set off for el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the ancient part of town. That's my favorite part of Alicante, because the houses are what you think of when you think of Spain: brightly-colored, with tall, thin winding streets, balconies with potted greenery, painted shutters, hanging laundry. The cobblestone streets are so old, I can just imagine them being placed stone by stone. After wandering around the streets for a couple of hours, we ended up on the beach (por supuesto!) where our friend was sunbathing. The weather was just perfect, with the water clear and sparkling and "La Cara del Moro" carved into the mountain above us. We stayed there just laying on the sand and chatting. Perfect. After, we walked around some more and wandered into a strange looking shop entitled "Taller de Ceramicas Antiguas". After some hesitation, we went in, and ended up talking to the shopowner for almost an hour! He was an old Spanish man, telling us about the history of all of the ceramics, how his son and he makes them and paints every one according to a historical piece. Midway through, his friend came in who works at a museum, and told us all about the history of the various languages of Spain and even more about the ceramics. The older man told us about how he can trace his lineage back hundreds of years -- he's a Spaniard, through and through! So proud.

In case you're wondering, Spain speaks 5 languages: Castalleano (what you think of when you think of Spanish), Catalan (in northern Spain), Euskera (the Basque language, which has no roots in any known language), Galician (in Galicia, northern Spain), and Valenciano (which is spoken in Valencia, my region). And, yes, they are all separate languages, which means they don't really understand each other. Spanish is mandatory for all, but most people speak the native language of their own region. Catalauna is especially proud of their Catalan. Crazy.

Also, we found the CUTEST puppy ever. It was all paws and love. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're my madre) the family who owned her was just inside the restaurant, but I made a new friend :)

Anyways, great day of much needed relaxation and fun. I'll def go back to visit that shopowner! He also told us about a pretty great panaderia on that street where they sold pan antigua. Mmmmm. I'll have to find that one!

Besos y besos.

Merry Halloween!

2009-10-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

So, since today is HALLOWEEN, I thought I would write a holiday/costume/custom themed blog entry. Its probably pretty easy to guess that Halloween is in my top three all-time-favorite holidays! Unfortunately, Spain doesn't celebrate Halloween...they have much cooler holidays, like Las Hogueras, which happens for midsummer in Alicante and they have huge bonfires on the beach and around the centro; Tomatina, which is the tomato-throwing festival in southern Spain; Running of the Bulls in Pampalona in northern Spain; and Carnaval, which is another huge fiesta in Valencia. All involve lots of dressing up, fireworks, and having a huge party in the middle of downtown. Which is great, but I'm not going to be here for any of them :( So, we Americans are going to celebrate Halloween anyway.

And I am going to be FRENCH MIME. See, that's my costume! I was practicing my makeup yesterday. It's legit because that hat is actually from Montmartre in Paris. YES. I'm fairly certain my madre thinks I'm insane because I was running around the house in this get-up yesterday for like two hours, hahah.

However, I have found another Spaniard with a love for dress-up:

Mario! I look very strange in that picture, but he's cute, so whatever. Mario, my madre's 6 year old grandson, and I are bffz. We ran around the house last week and he dressed up in all of my accessories.

He loved my rainbow scarf :)

We have a blast. Also, yesterday, my madre made PAELLA, which is Alicante's famous type of food. It's extremely hard to make and especially hard to make well. Luckily, my madre is one of the best cooks I've ever seen, so she's got it, no problem.

Cooking the paella. Look at that giant gas tank thing! And you have to use that special pan and the special way to cook it. Mmm.

Still cooking. My madre was like, "Don't take a picture of that! That's ugly! Wait until it's finished!" But I thought it was cool.

My madre, serving the table. She seriously refuses to do photos, so this is all I've got :) She's adorable, though. And look, you can see our patio outside! :)

My Spanish "hermanas" over for lunch. On the right is Yolanda (Yoli), Mario's mom, and on the left is Eva, Adrian's mom. They're very sweet! Also, something I've noticed, Spaniards (and Europeans in general), don't smile for pictures. They just don't. Its strange. They make like, a mugshot sexy face. I don't get it.

The final product! Man, I should be a food photographer. Yum.
(Note: If you really like food photography, or just want to read something awesome, check out my friend Grace's blog. She always has cute food pictures of things she makes!)

Well, that's it, I suppose! I've got to get cracking on this homework/studying business, so I shall talk to you all, soon. Shout-out to my actual mother, whose birthday in on SUNDAY so give her a call and wish her well! :)

Besos y besos! <3>

Es Tu Vida, Haz Que Tu Quieras

2009-10-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished talking to my Spanish madre. It was one of those conversations that started as talking about homework and ended up being something much more.

I've written a lot about places I've gone to and things that I've done, but I haven't written much about my family, which, for obvious reasons, is the biggest influence on my time in Alicante.

Juani on her wedding day. So beautiful.

She told me all about her life, today. I just asked her to tell me stories of when she was twenty, and then she started telling me all of these things about her, and her life, and her family. She told me how she lived the majority of her life under a dictatorship, where women weren't allowed to be outside of their houses after 9:30pm. They could only stay home and work in the home, she said, cook and clean and do everything while her husband just waited for her to serve him. She told me how she couldn't live like that, that she wanted to be free. How, after twenty-five years of marriage, she finally had had enough of being locked in, and separated from her husband. How everyone told her she was crazy, that she was going to be alone for the rest of her life, that she was making a huge mistake, and she told me that she would rather be alone and free than together and captured.

She told me how, when she was young, her father worked on the railroad, so she rode it for free all around Spain and watched the brown tierra fly under the wheels. She told me how she had three daughters, and raised them to be smart, to think. She told me how she was never like those other girls, that she always wanted more.

You only get one life, she said, you might as well live it the way you want.

Every summer, she goes to her house in southern France alone, just to be there, in a beautiful place that she loves. Here in Alicante, she said, she has family, she has her home, she has her students, her grandsons and daughters, she has memories, but there, she is able to be alone, in a beautiful town, with herself and her friends. She is able to do what she wants, where she wants, to explore, discover and understand her world.

It was hard, she told me, to go against her husband, to go against what people expected. But, every day, she knows it was worth it. Her life is hers, now. Politics, republics, dictators, for her they are all fancy words for liars, all of them -- she has lived through three sets of governments, maybe more. The only thing she knows is to rely on herself.

I told her she would like the women in my family.

Es tu vida, she told me. Haz que tu quieras.

Este Fin de Semana

2009-10-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

So, it is the middle of October and yesterday I spent the entire day at the beach. Granted, it wasn't blazing hot or anything, but it was still really warm. Since its late in the season, all the tourists are gone and the beaches are empty. You know me, I've always loved the ocean and always loved to swim. Plus, I found a bus that runs straight to the beach in fifteen minutes, YES. Before, it took me like, an hour to get there, because I had to walk, so it was always a pain to go. Now, I can go whenever I want, yeah! I love swimming in this ocean -- the water is so clear. It must've been at least ten feet where I was swimming, and I could see the bottom of the ocean perfectly. Awesome.

On Saturday, I went to a Medieval Festival in a nearby town called Elche, which is a short train-ride away. That was really cool. It reminded me on the Renaissance Faire almost, except ten times cooler because we were actually standing by a medieval castle.

Medieval Festival in Elche.

It was a nice little day trip. I wish I hadn't had eaten before, though, because there was so much food there! Empanadas, kebaps, pan, dulces, mmmm. I did succumb to buying myself some dulces, however, because they just looked toooooo tasty.

Stand of sweets, sweets, sweets! Very yummy.

You know you're in Spain when: you look at this sign and pronounce it in your head "cha-co-la-te" instead of "cha-co-lete"

Then, on Saturday night, I hung out with some friends and ran around the Barrio until 4am. I hadn't actually done that in a while, so it was fun to be out with everyone! Isn't it weird that being out until 4 means you pooped out early? I still can't get over it.

Ahh, proof that I have other friends than Lauren! (Though, I'm cheating, this wasn't actually from Saturday, but I like it!)

Good times, y'all. Good times. Can you believe I've already been here two months? And I'll be home in six weeks? I can't!

Paris! Part Two

2009-10-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Paris Part Dos:

Ahh, where did I leave off? Paris! Well, I'll give you a summary of the rest of our trip!

Day Three: Since we had two busy days, we decided to take it easy and just take a day to really take in the city and hang out. We woke up late and had breakfast at our hostel (bread, bread, warm cereal and coffee! Yes!) and then went over to an outdoor market in the Latin Quarter. (Thank you, London amigas, for introducing me to this concept!) It was nowhere as big as anything in London and reminded me more of a little farmer's market than anything, but it was cultural! Lauren saw some raspberries she absolutely needed to buy (excellent choice, Lo) and we decided to buy lunch there and picnic in a park later.

We took turns buying things because we were scared of the language barrier! Buying cheese was an adventure. We walked into the store next to the market, and there were seriously like hundreds of cheeses, ranging from 8euros to 70! Well, I don't really know anything about cheese. I picked one that looked okay and sign-languaged my way through buying some. We kept trying to say we wanted less, but, eventually we just bought it because the guy had gone in the back twice to cut it in half! We had like, a month's worth of cheese! So funny.

Next we walked through the Latin Quarter, which is really pretty. We stumbled across this:

We're still not quite sure what it was. Pantheon? University? Something cool. I look like a hippie.

We got really lucky because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Cold, as you can tell by my bundling up in pictures, but crystal-clear blue skies and it felt like FALL. After this, we went to this really cool park (I forget the name) but it used to be like, the royal park or something.

Lauren playing with leaves. We spent lots of time taking these pictures :)

Yeah, that's where we ate lunch. Beautiful, right? It was stunning.

My turn! Lauren and I have an on-going joke that we have exactly the same pictures, just switched people.

Here was our French picnic lunch. Cheap French wine, baguette, fruit, and cheese. We wanted to get meat of some sort but cheese was hard enough, we figured meat would be impossible!

Needless to say, we had a LOT of fun picnicking. We seriously spent like two hours here! We realized we forgot some important picnic materials, however, mainly cups, any sort of napkin, a knife.. Luckily, our wine-opener had a little knife and I borrowed some cups from a nearby cafe, so we were golden. Yum!

After topping off our bottle of cheap French wine, we decided it was a good idea to run around the park like silly Americans, and then head over to the Eiffel Tower because we hadn't seen it during the day.

Jumping for joy at the Torre Eiffel. Literally.

After this, it was extremely cold and we were extremely tired, but we dragged ourselves over to the D'Orsay Museum, which is said to be better than the Lourve. Its filled with a lot of Impressionist Art. If you don't know what that is, its the soft, fuzzy-looking art with lots of light and pastels. Like, all of those famous ballerina pictures are Impressionist and in the D'Orsay. Impressionism isn't totally my thing, but it was still cool to say that I've been there. After, we ran home, crawled into bed and promptly died of exhaustion.

Day Four: Our final full day in Paris! We attempted to wake up early, but, considering Lauren and I are the same person, we all know how that goes. (Not well). We decided to dedicate this day to visiting Versailles, the palace that King Henry the Whatever built outside of Paris in 15whatever to show how awesome he was. It's about an hour and a half train ride outside of Paris. Once we got there, though, it was absolutely FREEZING and RAINING on top of it! No bueno. Especially because we had to stand in line for almost another hour to buy our tickets. We should've listened to the lady who told us to buy them beforehand! We were also both extremely grumpy, cold and tired, so it was a little bit comical when you look back on it. It was a little bit like, "Great. More palaces. More kings. WhatEVER." :P However, it was still really cool to see all of these famous rooms and places. The ticket came with a free audio tour, so we got to listen to descriptions of everything. I might say that I liked the Palacio Real in Madrid better, though! However, the King had it goin' on with the Hall of Mirrors:

Also, more fun facts for you to learn: The king had a "sleeping ceremony" where they would kiss the royal forehead, rub the royal feet, change his shirt because he sweat a lot, make sure he was okay, etc. And his bed was so small and weird! Like, people could come and watch him while he was sleeping! So weird. Also, to ensure there was no fraud with heirs, the queen was forced to give birth in PUBLIC. Uh, no thanks. Don't want my lady hanging out all over for the world to see, thankyouverymuch! Also, Versailles is the famous place where they stormed during the French Revolution and Marie Antoinette lived and famously said, "Let them eat cake" (although its debated whether she actually said this). I saw her bedroom and apparently there's a secret door she escaped through when the peasants stormed the palace. I understand why they were so mad! As a starving, tired, cold, poor student standing at the foot of all of this gaudiness, I was infuriated, too. Luckily, there was a McDonalds nearby so Lauren and I didn't have to storm the castle.

Looking over the grounds of Versailles. I was eating my stolen bread from the hostel. I felt this was extremely ironic
.

The grounds of Versailles. This is only a small, small part of them.

Me, standing at the back of the Palace in the Gardens.

The grounds of Versailles. As far as you can see is still gardens! And they go further than that! Imagine! We didn't walk that far. We felt content just looking at it, haha. (Look at the sky! Storm!)

My favorite picture so far. :)

After this, we perked up a bit from the food, then hopped on the train back to Paris to go to the Lourve. We didn't really have much time, but we got to see the Mona Lisa (sortof whatever) and other cool stuff. I don't really know much about art history, but I felt really intelligent? Also, I didn't realize that the Lourve actually used to be a palace before Versailles was, so it is absolutely HUGE and gorgeous inside. We went into the basement and saw part of the original building. It was creepy because nobody else was down there! Very cool. We also saw some cool Toulose-Lotrec (I'm not spelling it right but I'm too lazy to look it up) stuff about the Moulin Rouge and Bohemian Life, etc. and we also saw a lot of cut-outs from the Chat Noir, which is actually a theatre! (I did not know this.) We saw Hammarabi's Code, too, which is the first original written code of law. That's where the phrase 'an eye for an eye' and many of the Biblical laws originate from. Very cool. I wish that I had more time to see it all.

THEN, (as if that was not enough), we signed up for a pub crawl. We had a mini-adventure involving being incredibly lost and late, but thankfully we ended up where the pub-crawl started. A pub-crawl is when you sign up with a company and they take you to a bunch of bars across the city and then a dance-club. They show you a bunch of cool places and you get in everywhere for free, so its worth your money. That was fun, because some of our other friends we made in Paris were there and then we made friends with other people, too. (Yes, we have other friends!! You couldn't tell by the pictures, I know!) Good way to end off the vacation.

Day 5: We were kicked out of our hostel at 10, but we didn't have to be at the bus to the airport until 2, so we went up to Montmartre one more time to see the Sacre Cour during the day.

Children of the Revolution.

Then of course, we took an hour long bus ride to the airport in the middle of nowhere. (There are three places for planes to take off. Not terminals. Plane spots. Three.) Hung out there for three and a half hours. Took the two hour plane ride home and then took another bus for an hour and a half to my house in Alicante. Whew!

Paris. City that stole my heart. I wasn't expecting it, but it did. I'll be back!

Eep.

2009-10-21T14:17:00.001-07:00

I keep thinking this will update itself! I'll get to it, I promise.......... You'll get a fat rest-of-Paris-recap soon.

In the meanwhile, school has become actual school (I know, what?). While still being significantly less work than SCU, trying to write papers and prepare oral presentations while in Spain is difficult. My brain just isn't quite there, you know? It also probably doesn't help that it was my friend's birthday last night, so we went out and stayed out until 4am...and I have class at 8. But, no te preocupes, I did all my homework before I went out. So at least I'm a responsible slacker.

I've also been fighting waves of incredible homesickness. I think it has to do with the lack of "autumn" seasons here -- I miss watching the leaves turn and getting ready for Halloween. But, no worries, yesterday afternoon it was really stormy outside, so I curled up with my teddy bear and a movie and felt right as rain.

Also, I'm embarking on a new adventure: I joined the Universidad de Alicante choir! My friend told me about it yesterday and I e-mailed the guy today and we auditioned tonight...and we got in! UA's newest alto, right here! So there's three Americans in the choir, now. Except, both of the other students speak fluent Spanish and as for me, well, we all know how that goes. It was mentally exhausting to go a rehearsal completely in Spanish. So fun, though. We're even going to have a Christmas show! I'm excited to meet lots of Spanish students, as well. I think it will be a cool experience and it seems like it will be pretty laid-back, which is exactly what I wanted!

Anyways, I'm completely exhausted so I'm going to hit the hay. Love you all, miss you bunches. Auntie Kathy -- I wear those headbands you sent me all the time! Love themmmm (and you!).

Besos y besos.
<3 Kandace

Paris -- Day 1

2009-10-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Bonjour, Paris!

(note: wayyyy too many pictures to post on this blog, but if you're interested, there's a Picassa photostream on the left margin that I added that will update automatically with new pictures when I load them onto my computer. Feel free to poke through those!)

I've spent the last two days in Paris, and they have been the most magical two days of my life. There's something about this city that completes me, maybe its just the experiences that I've had and the lucky things we've discovered along the way.

Day 1: After a short run-in with baggage control at RyanAir and some sneaking on of overweight bags, Lauren and I started our foray into Paris. It took us a while to actually get there -- we flew in to this tiny airport outside of the city and had to take a bus then the metro to our hostel. We were quite exhausted (and my tired legs decided to make me fall down a flight of stairs) and looking forward to a restful nap before beginning to explore. How happily surprised we were to find our hostel was one of the best in Paris! Beautiful, large rooms, with a restaurant on the bottom floor, 24-hour reception desk and a bar/club in the basement! They set us up with a free walking tour and some other cool deals and we were good to go. First stop? The Eiffel Tower.

Magic. Pure magic.

Me! In Paris! In front of the Eiffel Tower! At night!

Standing underneath the Eiffel Tower as it is all lighting up!

Day 2: We woke up bright and early and headed over to the free walking tour that our hostel gave us a flyer for. Turns out, this is the one of the highest-rated walking tours in Paris (and this company is great all over Europe!) and we had the best tour-guide ever. She took us on a four-hour tour of Paris, hitting all of the stops and giving us all of the inside information on everything. She told us the times when museums were free for students, cool places to shop, where to explore, what to see. Perfect. Best possible thing to do first! Her energy was awesome and infectious so we were so excited, too. I wish I knew more about French history now!

Our tour group for our walking tour in front of the Fountain of Saint Michel.
Chris, our tour guide, is the one in red in the front.

Cool things I learned:

Louis XIV used to think he was so talented, he would dance for his courts. It's been said he could dance and perform wonderfully. Now, I am curious if they're just too scared to tell him he was terrible.
Knight's Templar were massacred and burned at the stake at this place we visited. The leader cursed the pope and king responsible as he was burning, and they died within six months. Everyone flipped and wouldn't go back there for 200 years. That's why one of the kings turned it into his personal garden for frolicking in the nude.
There is a society called The Guardians of the French Language and they ensure the French language stays intact and no English words are found there. (Uh, yeah okay, way to hate, French.) These people are called The Immortals. They had to decide whether the 'iPod' would be masculine or feminine in French. Masculine won.

Me, pretending to be a Knight's Templar. Except they weren't hung, they were burned.

Pretending to be Carrie Bradshaw, on the bridge where the final episode takes place! I love Big!

This is where the guillotine used to stand during the French Revolution. It was said that horses wouldn't even walk down this street because the streets were so soaked with blood. The streets flooded with it. Lovely image, don't you think?

After, we went to the Arc di Triomphe (or however you spell it) then to Notre Dame and explored that for a while. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. How can you even imagine these things? I'm looking at them and they don't feel real.

Notre Dame cathedral.

There were also some crazy people outside Notre Dame with pigeons landing on them. Those pidgeons were so scary! They looked like they were going to eat me! They'd divebomb your head! Ahh! No, little old creepy lady with pigeons perched on your shoulders, I do not want to hold them!

Lauren, chasing pigeons!

After Notre Dame, we were pretty exhausted, so we ran back to the hostel for a quick nap, shower, and rest before heading out again. This time, we wanted to conquer Montmartre, the red light district and also the artists' quarter. Also known as, the home of the MOULIN ROUGE.

Yes, I took that picture. The legit MOULIN ROUGE. :D

What a fun place to be. The energy was just buzzing. Lauren and I wanted to try to find the Sacre Ceur, supposedly one of the best viewpoints of Paris. Well, we didn't know how exactly to get there, but we knew it was up, so we figured if we walked "up" enough, we'd get there! We were right! But not only did we find it, we also discovered some amazing tiny streets in Montmartre. The view was spectacular. It was a feeling I couldn't describe, like being on top of the world. We were sitting on the steps of this beautiful church, listening to this French guy play guitar and sing French songs, and looking out over the world. It doesn't get better than that.

Except, it did. We went into the Church (mostly to escape this French dude who was talking to us in French. Clearly, we didn't understand him. We pretended to only speak Spanish, though, because on the whole, French hate Americans and English-speakers. He totally bought it, too, and didn't understand a word of Spanish . At one point, Lauren started saying the Our Father to me in Spanish, and he thought we were talking about him!) Anyways, we went into the Church and discovered they were just starting Mass. The nuns were standing at the altar singing. Lauren and I sat down in the congregation and listened. It was a profound religious experience, listening to the Word of God being spoken in another language, but with the same rituals. Very, very cool. And of course, we come out of the church to stand on these steps looking out over the world again. Nothing can beat that.

After, we grabbed the Metro and hopped on home to our warm and comfy beds. I'll write about today's adventures tomorrow! As for now, time to sleep!

WELCOME TO LONDON

2009-10-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

So, I went to London this weekend. It’s actually pretty cool how it came about, because I wasn’t supposed to really do anything this weekend, but last Tuesday, I was talking to my friend who lives in London and suddenly I was just like, “I’m going to come visit you!” So I booked a flight on Tuesday, flew out on Friday and left this morning…whew! And let me tell you, it has been an adventure…

So, Friday night I flew into London really late. Which prompted my last post, including lots of things I learned the hard way. Mostly that London. Is. Intense. I’m not sure why I thought that, Hey, I’ve been to San Francisco, I went to New York once, I can deal with London no problem. Incorrect. Quite wrong. In fact, London can take one look at both of those other cities and eat them alive. London is this entire other creature of city and intensity this San Jose girl had never experienced. Stepping off the bus into London at 1am? That was quite a culture-shock.

Another thing. I missed the memo somehow that London is Cold. I write Cold with a capital C because this temperature change is not California/Alicante/I wear-jeans-and-maybe-a-sweater-cold. This is get-in-your-bones-London-can-kick-your-sorry-ass-Kandace-because-you-don’t-know-anything Cold. However, in my defense, as I was packing for London, I was dying of heat in Alicante, wearing a tank top and shorts, pouring sweat because it was so hot there. I couldn’t even imagine having to wear a jacket. I’m trying to cut myself some slack. Hey, at least I brought gloves.

So, Friday night, somehow or another I manage to make it to my hostel. I was with these two other Spanish girls for a while – they had never been on an airplane before, nor did they speak any English, so I can only imagine what London was like for them. I was actually playing translator for a long time, which was a cool phenomenon. (Usually it’s the other way around! Living in an English-speaking society again was a nice little rest.) Now, I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. Once, I saw that ad for the movie Hostel and got the idea that hostels were haunted houses that stupid people stayed in if they wanted to get murdered. They’re actually just like dorms. My hostel was off of King’s Cross station, which, fun fact, is the station that Harry Potter takes to get to Hogwarts (more on this later). It had bright green walls and funky furniture and was actually pretty cool. I didn’t take any actual pictures of the hostel, but it was pretty basic. My room had 12 beds in it (4 sets of bunkbeds with 3 beds on each set), which was pretty intense. I had a middle bunk, which I thought was perfect, and I made myself a little nest. The beds have curtains around them, which is good for privacy, and also a lamp with an electrical outlet, and really really comfortable beds and blankets. All in all, a good choice for what I needed it to be. I spent a grand total of 8 hours there, so no big. I never even saw it in daylight!

I met up with my friend Jeana on Saturday (hey lady, if you’re reading this!) which was absolutely wonderful. I don’t think I anticipated how awesome it would be to see somebody familiar. So much fun. We decided to do the “Kandace and Jeana Walk Around London Tour”, which I highly recommend (tips accepted, of course. We take Visa, Mastercard, dollars, pounds, euros, yen, cupcakes, your first-born…) We hit all of the biggies: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Hyde Park…probably more, but I can’t remember the names of things! Mostly we just walked everywhere and stumbled across things. The thing I love about London – and Europe – is that these buildings are just so intricate and intense to look at. We walked past this building, and we were like “Oh, this has got to be something.” simply because it was so beautiful, like a church or something…and it turned out to be a pre-school! So crazy. Also, all of the houses have names, which is very cool. Sort of like the parties at Santa Clara, except better. We also decided to go on the London Eye, which is basically this hugeee Ferris Wheel above the city. You get an awesome 360 view of everything. This was a good choice considering my intense fear of heights.

In front of the classic Red Telephone Booth of London

Statue outside of the National Gallery

Me and Bennie. We're just hanging out.

The London Eye overlooking the River Thames

Big Ben is rather big.

View from the London Eye. We are super high.

London Eye, looking down on the city.

One thing about London is how easy it is to get around. You can get anywhere. Also, I highly recommend riding the regular two-decker buses to get a view of the city. You can pay for those guided tours, or you can just ride the regular bus. If you get lucky, there are four seats in the very front of the top of the bus, so all you have is a window in front of you, and it feels like you’re flying over the streets of London. Incredibly, incredibly cool. Plus, you never know if your bus driver’s going to run over that Londoner who just stepped out into the middle of the street! (As Londoners do.)

Me in front of the Big Red Bus!

Then, on Saturday night, WE GOT TO GO SEE A SHOW IN LONDON. Right. So. I can die happy. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to see (Billy Eliot sounded cool) but I wanted to do something classic, so we saw the Lion King in the Lyceum Theatre. So great. So, so great. Jeana must’ve thought I was nuts because I was just so jazzed by being able to do this. I’ve waited my entire life to see a show in London. I’ve been dreaming about getting to London and watching shows since I was 13. I could’ve just watched things all day. Life is complete.

Sunday, woke up early again and this time I ventured through the streets to meet up with Jeana at her apartment by myself. Weirdly empowering, walking through the streets by yourself. First thing on the agenda was the GLOBE THEATRE. Yeah, you know, the one that Shakespeare performed in. NO BIG. (We had tried to get tickets to the show the night before there, but I’m sure they were just laughing at us. Turns out it was the last night of their season, and it was about 4 hours until the show at the freakin’ Globe. Yeah, okay.) I was like a kid in a candy store. Funny thing was, I was the only one who was really jazzed up (there were a couple of 10-year-olds who thought it was really cool) and our tour-guide was being a pretentious sour-puss so that was kind of a bummer. However, my enthusiasm could not be restrained, because I WAS STANDING IN THE GLOBE.

Okay, for those of you who do not know the significance of this place, I shall tell you. The Globe Theatre was Shakespeare’s theatre, the place where all of his plays were originally performed. It was the place for all the revelry and mayhem and magic of the London stage. It was where everything happened, where Romeo and Juliet fell in love, where Hamlet went nuts, where people flirted and danced and the common-folk laughed at crude jokes while the intellectuals listened to this beautiful, lyrical verse. Essentially, my mecca. Remember when I said I could die happy after seeing Lion King? Well, just strike me down right now, lightning!

Me in the Globe Theatre! With Shakespeare!

Afterwards, we met up with our mutual friend Lindsey, another Kappa, who is also studying for her Master’s in London. We met her in the King’s Cross Station, which of course meant that we had to go find Platform 9¾! I got such a kick out of that, because I am alllllll about Harry Potter. I told everyone in Alicante that if I didn’t come back from London, that meant I had gotten through the platform and I was going to Hogwarts and never coming back and going off to live as a wizard. Alas, we did not, so we moved on to this really cute pub, and got fatty cheeseburgers. Mmm.

Yes. My life is now complete.

Then we walked next door to the British Library, which happens to be incredibly cool. It’s the deepest basement in London but even cooler, it has this special collection of all these super old and important documents. For example, the MAGNA CARTA. (History flashback: This was the document that the barons forced the king to sign to show that he was subjected to law as well. It was the precursor to most other independence-documents in the world, including the Declaration of Independence.) Also, I saw things by Beethoven (who had scribbled out music and re-composed!), Leonardo da Vinci, a piece of the Guttenberg Bible, the original Alice in Wonderland, a letter by Slyvia Plath and her composition of a poem, and a bunch of the original Beatles’ compositions on backs of envelopes and greeting cards and the like. I was totally in intellectual heaven. Of course, Britain has pretty much everything, and I wanted to stay and look at all of the museums, (the Rosetta Stone is in Britain!) but, of course, I couldn’t. We picked a good one, though.

Still acting like wizards outside of the British library.

After all of this, (yes, there’s still more to tell!) they took me to the Camden Market, which is this hugeee outdoor market. It is sortof where all the hippies and trendy people hang out – so, you know, me – and they sell pretty much anything you can think of. It went on forever. I bought a scarf (you know, so when people ask me where I got it, I can say, “Oh, you know, just picked it up in London, no big deal”) !!!! and a cool little coin-purse thing. I have American money, Euros and now pence in my wallet, so I’ve decided I’m starting a coin collection.

Unfortunately, after the market adventure, Jeana had to head off to do her homework. (What, do you mean she’s like, in school? Studying? To get her master’s? Ugh. Lame.) However Lindsey and I continued adventuring! At this point, it was pretty late by London-standards and getting dark. (And Cold. If you haven’t forgotten, I don’t have a big jacket, just a light one and gloves.) But, being cold is a small price to pay for seeing London by night! We went down to the River Thames and walked along it – the British really know how to light their city. It was breath-taking. I got to see Big Ben and Parliament by night as well, which was spectacular. We walked by Westminister Abbey (however, it was closed considering it was night), which was really cool even if we did just see the outside. This was when we realized that we had never seen Buckingham Palace!

So, of course, we must go.

The sign for Buckingham Palace. Note it is night, hahah.

We scrounged around a bit on the map and finally figured out how to get there. After a couple wrong turns and turn-arounds later, we finally got there. And it was cool. But also, clearly the sort of thing you need to see by day. Because, it closes. (Duh.) And there’s not really anything to see when everyone’s sleeping. (Duh.) And apparently, the cool guards with big hats that aren’t ever supposed to smile don’t have a 24-hour shift. (WHAT! I know. I know. I feel like I’ve been deceived. I thought they had to stand outside of the palace 24/7! To guard! What if I had decided to storm the building! Who would stop me! We also determined that, Britain, being Britain, would simply glare at us with her Britain-esque gaze and we would fall, stunned, to the ground instantly. Because Britain wins. Always.) Despite all of this, though, it was still really neat because, since it was all closed, there was nobody around and no crowds, so we could stay and look and hang out as long as we wanted!

We didn't see any guards, Britain! Fail.

After this, we were completely exhausted and headed back over towards King’s Cross, where Lindsey lives as well. My flight left at 6:15, meaning I wanted to get there by at least 4:30, meaning I had to take the shuttle at 3:30, meaning that I wasn’t getting much sleep. Everything worked out perfectly, though, which was nice. There was even a girl who was studying in Alicante and on the same flight who was staying in my same hostel! Weird. But good to have a buddy!

Whew. London. Overall feelings: Intense, awesome and completely alive. Not sure where it ranks on top-favorite-places-of-all-time yet. I loved it, to be sure, but it has a completely different feel from Spain. I think if I lived in London, I would be lonely there. It’s very harsh and grey. London has my heart but Spain, with its warmth, flavor and culture, steals my soul. I still want to go back, though. As I was flying away in the airplane, I looked back down on the city and swore that this wouldn’t be the last time I looked at it.

Next up, Paris!

Things I Learn The Hard Way -- Part 2

2009-10-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Things I Learn The Hard Way

1. Pay the extra 50 euros to fly in at a decent hour. After you have paid the random bus and taxi, you could've just saved that money and taken the metro.
2. Spanish phones require a PIN number every time you turn them on. What this means is, when shut off, your phone automatically goes into lock-down. Unless you have this very random PIN number (which you don't choose), you are 100% screwed and can't get into anything in your phone. Even to figure out what time it is. Also, you only get 3 tries to guess it, so if you don't know it, you are even more screwed. I don't understand why the Spanish do this. Probably to punish the dumb Americans.
3. Listen to your mother. Always. Just do it.

In other news, I'm in London and its awesome. :)

Adventures of the Chocolate Factory

2009-10-09T05:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, while my friend Jordan and I were looking at the HUGE wall of chocolate in the grocery store (the Spanish love their chocolate), this British lady must have heard us speaking in English and came up to us. Have you seen the chocolate factory? She asked (add your own British accent). Chocolate factory!?!? We said. Yes, she said, take the tram up to a town called Villajoyosa and there's a chocolate factory there. Get off the tram, walk straight, turn left and then left again and its right there.

Well, of course, this sounds like an adventure. Monday, we decided to go.

After class, four of us hopped on the tram that runs along the Costa Blanca coast, armed with nothing but beach-gear, cameras and the vague knowledge that there was possibly a chocolate factory somewhere around here and tours came hourly. A laughter-filled (and probably stereotypical-obnoxious-loud-Americanized) tram ride later, we step off the tram. And all of a sudden I realize.... oh damn. I am in Spain.

Perhaps this strikes me so suddenly due to the fact that we are clearly the only English-speaking people within forty kilometers. And that our Americanized clothes and terrible accents are suddenly glaringly obvious. Oh, and that, whereas before, I've been living in a city, suddenly I've stepped into a picturesque, crumbling, ancient legitimate Spanish town.

We walk along the streets for a bit, exploring and trying to find the elusive chocolate factory. We practice our Spanish and ask for directions, and finally arrive at the Valor factory just as the tour was beginning. The lady takes us into the tour room and informs us that a tour bus has just pulled up, and we're going to all be doing the tour together. No problem, we reply. Just then, the door opens and approximately 100 Spanish men and women walk into the room -- and let me clarify, when I say Spanish men and women, I mean personas muchas mayores. Aka, we are the only ones under 70. And four pretty American girls with a room full of abuelos is just asking for disaster :)

The Spanish, like the Italians, have no concept of personal space. Especially if you're a joven (young person. Which, in Spain, means under 30. Literally, you get joven prices until you're 30. Yeah!) So, needless to say, we were all best friends within a few minutes :) They were so fascinated by us - I don't know if they've ever met twenty-something Americans before! Lots of fun. They poked and prodded and told us all sorts of funny things. This really round old Spanish man poked my tummy and said, "Gordita, gordita, you like chocolate too? Like me!" and patted his round tummy. In Spain, calling someone gordita isn't a form of insult, it also means like, chubbycute rather than a fatty. You'd call your mom that, or your best friend. It was funny. Quite a cultural difference! Spanish are quite direct -- they'll come up to you and tell you exactly what they're thinking.

Afterwards, we ate lots of free chocolate and then went to explore some more. I didn't want to take any pictures because I didn't want to stand out any more than I already did -- but it was so cool to be in real Spain, with the tiny, tall streets, brightly colored buildings, Spanish tile and potted plants, children playing in the streets and abuelos sitting in rocking chairs on tiny porches and abuelitas sweeping the doorsteps. As we were running around the streets, my friend Jordan runs ahead and calls back to us. "Uh, guys? Come here. I just found paradise."

We turn the corner, and we are standing on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. There is literally nobody around, the sand is so fine and golden white, palm trees sprouting from the ground. The water is so clear you can see ten feet to the bottom. We arrive right before sunset, as well, so the rays are just absolutely beautiful dancing across the water. The weather is perfectly warm and, when we jump in the water, it is perfectly warm tambien. The Mediterranean is really salty, so you float without even trying. Jordan and I collected a bunch of sea-shells and even saw a bunch of fish! The four of us watched the sun-set over the city, where the brightly colored houses were lining the beach. So, so beautiful. These are the kind of adventures I live for.

And right now, I am listening to my madre's Spanish music (actually I think its Cuban, haha) and packing for London and Paris. What a life.

Granada

2009-10-06T14:18:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I have returned to Alicante after quite a weekend in Granada. If you didn't know, Granada is in the south of Spain, which was occupied by the Moors way-back-when, so most of the architecture is a weird mix between the two cultures. It was incredibly beautiful though, and quite different than Alicante or Madrid or any of the other coastal towns I've visited. I'm getting the feeling that every place I visit here is going to be vastly different than anything else.

Typical Granada building at night. This is the area of all the cool stores.

I'm actually really tired, so this might be a short post. Granada was absolutely beautiful, there are no doubts there. Stunning, even. The Alhambra, one of the most-visited places in Spain, is in Granada, and basically it is just this huge castle that the Moors built for their royalty. Talk about excessive. I think my only problem was that, everywhere we went in Granada, we went in a huge tour group -- for example, when we visited the Alhambra, I was in a group of like, 25 people with a tour guide. One thing I've come to realize about traveling is how awesome it is to get away from the tourist-things and discover places nobody usually goes. Open doors, walk up staircases, turn down different streets -- those are the things that are most memorable, not standing in a line with a thousand other tourists taking photos of the same thing.

However, cool notes about Granada:

Friday -- Drove the five hours south to Granada and checked into our hotel room. I've got to say, I love that CIEE travels in style. Best hotels, ever. Plus, Lauren and I got a corner room with a balcony (we like those, have you noticed?) so our room was even bigger than everyone else's. Very cool. Spent the day exploring and then went to a flamenco show that night. Granada has a unique area where all of the Gypsies live, carved into caves in the mountains. Apparently some still live there authentically, up really high where you can't really get to. We saw a flamenco show in one of the caves (although, it wasn't what I expected when they told me 'cave', but it was still cool and carved out of rock). Now that, whew. Teach me how to dance like that. I took a video, but I'm still figuring out how to upload it and I don't feel like messing with it right now :)

Oh, also, Friday afternoon I got in a fight with these Spanish guys for harassing these 12-year old girls. The girls were sitting there in their school uniforms and these older Spanish men came up to them and started saying all this inappropriate, racy stuff to them. (In Spanish, of course.) These girls are just sitting there looking terrified, and I'm watching them as I'm sitting by the fountain with my friends. I ask the girls if they want these guys to be talking to them, and they're like No! No! and so, of course, being me, I march right up to these guys, get in their faces and tell them to shove off. (Yeah, in my broken Spanish. Although the feminist-fury in my eyes probably spoke louder than anything.) Well, they start yelling at me, now. So, here I am, standing in front of these girls, which this guy is literally like, pushing me around, looking for a fight. All I could think of was, of course, I am going to be arrested for getting in a fight in Spain trying to protect these young girls from some creepers. Of all the reasons I'd be arrested, that sounds about right. All my friends were just standing there gaping. Finally, after my stares of death, the guys left...the girls were so shocked at this crazy American girl (me) who had gone up against the machisimo. Probably stupid, but I was pretty proud, hahah.

Lauren, Michelle, me and Cristina -- everyone in my Spanish class!

Saturday -- Woke up early to tour the Alhambra. This place is so huge you literally need three hours to see it. At least. And even then, you'll be rushing through most of it. It's a miniature city, basically. We're planning on renting the place out for my friend's wedding, which is going to occur sometime during this semester we're abroad. We've got about a month to find her a groom. I'm sure that renting out that palace would be no problem, right?

Highlights: I stood in the room where Christopher Columbus asked Queen Isabella and Ferdinand if he could get the money to go the new world, and saw the box where Isabella kept her jewels she gave him to sell for the money. Also, there's this other story that apparently, when the Moors were still running the Alhambra, one of the kings found out his wife was having an affair. (We got to walk through the gardens that apparently they were discovered in, which were magical, so I don't really blame her for being seduced. There was also some legend about this specific tree and good luck or something, but I wasn't really listening.) Anyways, so he finds out about this affair, and decides to invite the man and his entire family to a party in the palace. Too bad when each person walks in the room, he cuts off their head and kills them. Nice guy, huh? Never mind that he had a whole wing dedicated to his concubines. Some things never change. There are still "bloodstains" on the fountain in the room (we got to walk through it) -- except, really, its just oxidation of the metals, but it still looks creepy when you think about it.

I thought this looked quite scenic.

One of the many cool things to see in the Alhambra.

Running through the gardens of the Alhambra.
Clearly, we were paying much attention to the tour guide.

During free time, some friends and I explored more of Gyspy-land Granada. We ate lots of kabobs, which, contrary to popular belief, do not actually come on sticks but rather in tortilla-like pockets of bread. Also, these are the best things I've ever eaten in my entire life. I'm pretty sure every meal was a kabob. We found some staircases and climbed them until we ran out of stairs. That was cool, because it was so authentic and real, not touristy in the least. We found a really cool vista, called "Los Ojos de Granada" (or at least that's what some grafiti said, so I'm going to take that as law). Took some pictures, tripped around. Fun.

Look what we found! Best picture of the trip, for sure.

We also found a really cool, authentic tapas bar for dinner. The way that tapas work in Granada is that every time you order a drink, you get a free plate of food. This is wonderful, because not only are you getting to hang out in a pub and drink some cerveza with your amigos, but you also get fed for the same price. I'm a fan.

Later, went on some more tours of old stuff. Got to see Isabella and Ferdinand's coffins (yes, legit 100+ year old coffins) which was quite the trip. Some cool big church place, too. Clearly, I was listening intently to our tour guide.

Would you like some fried Octop?

Sunday: Got to sleep in, which was a blessing. Once more visited Gypsy-land Granada (yes, I just made that name up). Lauren and I shopped around a bit and bought some cool wall-hangings for our rooms at home. This added to our collection of gypsy-pants we had bought the day before from a legit gypsy. Super cool. We poked around the stores some more, then bought more kabobs and ate them on a street corner and people-watched. I felt very European, sitting on a stoop and eating my non-American food and speaking Spanish. Excellent. Then, climbed on a bus and slept for the 5 hours home!

Sorry that I am being lazy and not uploading more pictures and telling more stories. Also, I wrote this entry in appx ten minutes, so if its curt, silly or nonsensical, that's why. Perhaps I will tomorrow :) Love you!

Warning, Nerd Post Ahead

2009-10-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hello there! So, good news & bad news: I figured out what the heck is wrong with me. It's tonsilitis, which, in case the internet world needs to know, is a constant problem of my life, so no big. That's the bad news (which isn't really bad). Good news, the healthcare system in Spain ROCKS (You go, Obama. Copy Spain!**) I got to see the doctor immediately, got a prescription, filled it within appx two minutes, paid about $10 for two antibiotics and I was good to go. I woke up this morning feeling like a new woman.

In other news, I wanted to update you on my classes, which ROCK by the way. I had to switch my schedule around because they weren't offering some classes I needed (which I'm going to have to deal with when I get home, but ohhhwell right now). Firstly, I am taking Contemporary/Modern Spanish History from the most beautiful professor named Jaime. Yes, his name is Jaime and he looks like he just stepped out of a historical Spanish romance novel. (I'm lookin' at you Miss Katelyn.) He's super tan with the Spanish dark features and typical scruff, wears dark demin jeans, European shoes and those white, loose-fitting button-down shirts that all the Spanish men seem to wear in movies. I'm talking Enrique Iglesis, Antonio Banderas here. And he's my professor. Oh, I am going to learn a LOT. Did I mention he speaks three languages fluently? Italian, Spanish and English. And, okay, this might sound weird, but he has an incredibly poetical way of speaking. I think its the Spanish and Italian in him, because we English-speakers are not this poetical in everyday life. He said at least four incredibly profound thoughts within the two hours I've already spent in his class. Wonderful.

Beautiful professor aside, I'm actually super excited for this class because of the fact that the history I am learning took place here, where I am living. It's not like in the United States, where history is only 100 years back, or, if we learn world history, its something intangible and extremely far away. Last class, we were talking about the build-up to the 20th Century, and talked about all of these kings, queens and dynasties that lived in Madrid. Madrid, the city that I spent four days in, touring the Palacio Real and looking at famous works of art in the Prado. It didn't mean much to me then, but as he was talking about these people and these events, I just kept thinking -- I saw that. I was there. I know that. I can picture this.

It adds so much to a class, to talk about the politics of a certain ruler, and to have stood in the King's Room in the Palacio Real in Madrid and know what he saw as he signed that document, to know what it felt like to be there, what changes he made, what portraits he commissioned to be painted. I feel like I am going to learn so much simply because I want to imagine all of these stories that existed in these places, all of the intricacies. There's no way that I can learn it all in only four months....guess I'll just have to come back!

I'm also taking 20th Century Spanish Literature and Drama, which met for the first time today. I'm really excited for that class, too. (Not to mention my professora for that is also extremely attractive. She's got this gorgeous black hair that falls practically to her knees and these greenish-blue eyes. I'm secretly beginning to think CIEE only hires young, attractive professors to ensure we come to class.) What's nice is that it is going to pair perfectly with history, so as I'm learning the history, I will also be reading some of the works of literature that came out during that time. Which, as you know, since art influences culture and culture influences art.... studying them side by side is ideal.

Also, I get to read Spanish poetry and beautiful writers in Spanish, which is amazing. I love the way this language feels in my mouth and when I'm speaking it. One of my friends said its amazing, almost like secret passwords, that if you say the right piece in the right order, it unlocks to produce what you want. Its a silly way to think about it, she said, it's just language. But that's what I do.

I've advanced to actually having conversations with people in Spanish. I think my need to communicate is overpowering my need to be grammatically correct, because sometimes I just explode and talk and talk to my madre and Spanish people. I've realized that I actually understand a good 75% of what they are saying and I know how to respond -- the problem is just increasing my vocabulary. That's really what is holding me back. Perhaps I should do in Spanish what my dad told me to do in English: read the dictionary and memorize ten words a day. Could my brain handle it? Not sure.

Anywho, I just got back from a wonderful romp at the beach with my friend Jordan. We missed the rest of the group by like 3 hours because we were napping and being bums, but we got there eventually (after everyone left, of course, hahah). No worries, though, because the ocean was absolutely beautiful and the beach wasn't crowded at all. The sun was setting right behind the castle as I was swimming in the perfectly warm and clear Mediterranean sea.... tell me how I am not living in paradise?? All I kept thinking as I was floating and looking up at the sky was I live here, I live here, I live here... I am getting spoiled rotten. Not sure how I'm going to fare when I am back in boring San Jose.

But, alas, I am covered in sea-water and look like a sea-monster, which is not an attractive thing to most people. I need to take a shower and then start packing for GRANADA, which is where I am going to be weekend-ing tomorrow. Apparently it is beautiful, so I will update you when I return on Sunday night. Lauren and I are also going to be meeting up with her boyfriend Trevor (remember him from Madrid?) again and Elise, my roommate from freshman year. (The not-crazy-one that I actually adore) who is studying in Barcelona but going to Granada for the weekend. So, this should be pretty fantastic.

Talk to you soon. Thank you to everyone who has sent me mail -- it really makes my day! I love reading your comments too (and yes, I can read them Auntie Nettie!! :) ) so keep 'em coming~! Love love.

<3 K

**Footnote: I really don't know a damn thing about healthcare, nor what is going on with it in the US. So all of you up in arms about my political views to publicize healthcare, hush. I don't really know that much about it, other than I liked how easy and cheap it was to get meds here.

Snow Day in Alicante

2009-09-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

So, like I've been mentioning, it is raining record-amounts here. So much so that the University shut down completely today due to flooding, giving us a "rain-day-off", if you will.

This is phenomenal and would lead to many adventures, minus the fact that I am sick again and have spent the entire day fighting fever&sore-throat hell. (I know, right?) My madre's 3-year old grandson is sick as well -- you should have seen us at lunch today. Him and I were both propped up in our chairs, trying vainly to swallow the soup. At least I wasn't crying hysterically like the 3-year-old...right? Right?

Oh wait, I called my mom crying this morning. Oops.

Anyways, I wanted to go out and get some pictures of the damages, but since I am quarantined I can't. Here are some photos from the news, though. Yes, these are Alicante.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/09/16/valencia/1253126103.html
Click that for a video of Alicante and the storms. I couldn't figure out how to post the video within this blog, but its pretty crazy!

Also, family, please note that I really will be fine, I just have a throat-infection. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get antibiotics...I've spent all day sleeping and already feel a bit better, so don't worry! I just laugh at my ridiculousness of being in Spain and spending two weeks of it completely ill. Woot.