I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

So. I cant believe the first semester is already over. I think I would hang myself if I was only here for a semester and not a year. They say time flies when you’re having fun—well apparently it also flies when you are studying extremely hard and going the extra mile to do well in school while trying to be all you can be. Because boy has time flown here. Is flown a word? Hmm. You get the point.

Anyway

I went to Belgium a few weeks ago for a music thing called I LOVE TECHNO. Apparently it’s the biggest event Europe has every year….it was in an inside stadiumish thing in Gent---sold out at 35,000. ya it was crowded. My once greenish shoes are now completely black. I love when ppl step on my feet. It was absolutely insane. Sooo much fun. Very claustrophobic at times, but totally worth it. Everyone was just sweatily jumping and dancing around to intense beats that stir in your soul and may or may not change your life. And thankfully, a lot of people took E so they were real friendly and pretty nice. I was using some guys shoulder to jump up and see over the crowd, and he turned around and I thought he was gonna punch me, but he bent down and put me on his shoulders. See? So nice. I started a kick line with another guy and then he gave me his glow stick after! Such generosity.

We flew in to Brussels, and then took a train to Gent….where we accidentally rode first class—its times like those that I love being a foreigner. When the conductors came around to check out tickets they started blabbin away in French and we were like uhh…English? So the girl attempts her broken English with specks of French thrown in between and informs us that we need to go to TWICE class….not second, but twice. Haha ahhh I love it. Now I know how I sound when I speak Spanish…We walked around Gent the night we got there and then the next day….so beautiful. Definitely unlike any other place I have been…the buildings and streets were so…different. It was invigorating to see another part of this marvelous world we live in. our first night in Gent, our cab driver took us through the red light district bc we told him we had never seen it before…but I think it was more for his benefit than ours…he was quite knowledgeable—prices, what you get for that price, how much it costs to take a girl home, how much time you have, etc. I said sir, you sure seem to know a lot about this…where can I sign up?

We were staying at a holiday inn, in a room booked for two, but there were 5 of us…so we found the back door. Quite a talent, I must say not getting caught for 3 days. So there was this complimentary breakfast thing, and we couldn’t decide which two would get to go, and we didn’t have time to go in shifts, so we all went together. Discretely, of course, not drawing attention to ourselves, hoping they don’t ask for our room number. And being sooo sneaky, im waiting for my toast, and I drop my plate. Throw it on the ground. The loudest crash you have ever heard. It broke into ten thousand pieces. I chucked it. Of course. I would. That would happen to nooobody else. So much for going unnoticed.

We went back to Brussels to fly home, but we only had a night there. The main plaza….wwwaaauuuuu. it was goooorgeous. It was all lit up with lights eeeverywhere going all kinds of directions. Breathtaking. We asked some guy to take our picture bc he had a nice camera and a tripod with him so we figured he could handle it. After he took a few with our cameras, he asked us if he could take a picture…and we were like umm you just did..? but he wanted a picture with his giant camera so we were like uh ok sure why not. And then he starts having us walk toward him, then back up, then jump, then crouch, then stand up….basically he was Nigel from America’s Next Top Model. Kinda weird, but all in good fun. We were walking through the plaza trying to find some statue, and 3 of my friends had to go pee, so I was waiting outside with one other girl, and this old irish man comes up to me and asks me if I’m American. And clearly I answered yes—and then he says, oh well I wont hold that against you. And he was serious. I said I didn’t mention anything about the fur coat growing out of your ears, now, did I sir. But I wont hold that against you, either. Then he went on and on about obama, the hotel he was staying in, how his wife gets mad at him when he doesn’t stop talking to random strangers….then he made me walk over and see the hotel he was staying in….? thankfully his wife (who he called old faithful?) walked up with a box of pizza and I was free. Oh, meeting new people. How I do love it.

On the way back to the airport in Brussels, we sort of forgot the fact that we had to take a train at a specific time, and plan for the tram and taxi ride with enough time to get to that train on time….the time of which we had no idea what it was, all to get to the airport in time to catch our flight. the only flight going back to spain that day. Real smooth. But thankfully, when we got to the train station, there was a train leaving fairly soon—in 6 minutes to be exact. And of course the machines weren’t working, so we had to stand in the huge line that says IF YOU ARE A DUMB FOREIGNER STAND HERE SO PEOPLE CAN STARE AT YOU AND MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE CRAWLING IN A HOLE AND EATING HAMBURGERS IN AMERICA FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. And that line was abouuuttt 459 people long. So we are like nervously standing there freaking out bc they wont sell you the ticket after a certain time (aside from the fact that you still have to find where the train is down the long hall and up 62 flights of stairs) but thank God it moved quickly—we got our tickets exactly one minute before the train left and got on as they were honking the horn or whatever that awful sound is that blares that means its leaving. Once we got to the other train station, (I think we left the north one and went to the south one—or maybe vice-versa) we had to take a bus from the train to the airport…another chunk of transportation we sort of forgot about. At this time it was about 8:30, and our flight was at 9:25. (With Ryaniar, the airline we were flying with, they don’t allow you to check in after 40 mins before your flight). We ran on to the bus, and being a little flustered with a huge backpack, I miss-judged the space I had to sit, and as I swung my backpack around from my back to the front of me while sitting, I totally landed on the guys leg next to me. THAT wasn’t awkward or anything. We got to the flight window at 8:44, one minute before they closed the flight check-in. now if that isn’t impeccable timing my friends, I don’t know what is. After that, I only had to be held up at security-- (the ONLY one in the entire line of 20 ppl) so they could check my empty carry-on 16 times in their stupid machine—for another 11 minutes. Good thing my cholesterol is low (it probably isn’t) because I would have a heart-attack right then and there. Everyone else but sara decided to run and get some breakfast at a stand before we had to get on board, so I was all on my lonesome with sara slowly inching towards the gate, but being my loyal late friend. Finally they told me to have a good flight and I said, oh you mean now that you made me miss it? And I was off. Bounding through the airport scanning the signs hoping for my gate number to appear, sprinting to the counter, not drawing negative attention to myself at all, to get the utter privilege of being the last one on the plane. Thank goodness its free seating on Ryanair, because otherwise I may have not been stuck next to the smoker with sars, herpes, Chlamydia, whooping cough, and whatever other diseases that are highly contagious, who decided to scratch his dandruff all over me. What a TREAT! When the plane finally landed, he made a fist, pounded his chest twice, and then shot his arm straight in front of him. A move that was a mix between a G from the Bloods, and Hitler. Then he said something to me in who even knows what language (it was probably spanish and i should have understood...) after looking at me like why the hek aren’t you doing this too? All you can do is smile and nod. With a slight chuckle and exhale. That is key.
The more I see, the less content I am with not seeing more. And by see, I mean go. A picture wont do it for me. Which is why I kind of hate taking pictures. Cuz it never turns out how something really is, or how you see it in that moment. Which is sorta the whole point of a picture…ironic.
All the Christmas lights are finally lit after 3 weeks of being up, but not lit—apparently they were conserving energy this year. A lot of the nativity scenes are getting put up, or are opened to walk through. Haha I heard the song “Drummer Boy” in Spanish in a store the other day—quite interesting. Everyone is out all the time now going shopping like crazy, despite the fact that it is freezing outside. Literally. It hurts. When you walk you try to go fast so you can get out of the cold, but the faster you go, the more breeze there is on your face, so it’s a lose lose situation. So painful. All the street “entertainers” are comin out too. I hate it. Yesterday this mime guy was on the sidewalk and I saw him from afar so I was like ok don’t look don’t look but then they have these squeaky things that they squeak at you bc they know you are scared of them and you cant ignore the squeak so then you HAVE to look and it’s the worst thing ever and then when you make the dreadful eye contact, they squeak again. A;ldkfjas;dlkjf freaks me out. Then they like wink or make a heart shape with their hands oohh its horrible. So creepy. Like I thought mimes couldn’t make noise you cant just change the rules and start squeaking, freak. I was obviously avoiding looking at you for a reason. Keep your squeaker to yourself. Squeak freak. Or the girls that paint themselves all gold or all silver—but then they don’t even hold still to at least make it look cool they like scratch or sigh or do whatever non-statues do—like whats the point? Or even worse…sometimes they wink at you. gaaaaaaah. Ya and the other night it snowed here—not hail, not sleet, snow. There was like 3 inches of snow on the cars all down my street. Like did choose to live in the sierras, or Granada….sometimes I get confused. It was absolutely gorgeous nonetheless, just even more freezing.
Well now that all my finals are done and I have no class left for the semester, I think I’ll study some of the wine they rage about. Im kidding mom. I’ll clean my room. Ive been working on it since abouuutttt last month. We’ll see what happens.
Well that’s it for now…other than that its just ordinary Spanish life getting yelled at by old men on buses who cant figure out where the bus is and somehow think it is my responsibility to tell them where and when to get off…but damn with the kind of canes they use around here, you do anything they tell you to.

I wish you all the merriest of Navidads. SPREAD THE LOVE PEACE AND JOY! Forever and ever Amen…or somethin. i love you all. from the bottom of my heaaarrrtttt. feliz navidad prospero ano y felicidad. dadadadadada i wanna wish you a merrrryy christmas, i wanna whish you a merrryyy christmas...k im done. good song though.

Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish. Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself. ~Francis C. Farley

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith

For the spirit of Christmas fulfills the greatest hunger of mankind. ~Loring A. Schuler