Capítulo Diecinueve: Just Hold on a Little bit Longer, Thoughts and Memories Will be Enough

“All this bickering, all the suspicion and the closed walls, it always seemed wrong to me but I could never find the words. I mean, we're not that different in the end, not things like decency and respect. But alone in that monster's lair – and you can't imagine what it's like to be alone, really alone, thinking this is all you'll ever know – when I was there it started to make sense to me. Those guards at the palace gates, those pointy fences, they don't protect us from anything, really. That's what the falling moon is really about. It's a message from the gods...From the guardian giants... but still, it's a message...It's – we could all be gone any minute, so there's no point hiding from the world. Enemies or friends, we all die together. Maybe not all at once, but... together."
- The Deku Princess, Insomnia (a retelling of Majora's Mask)

It's been so long since I've read good fan fiction, let alone a novelization, so I was truly amazed when I found Insomnia this summer. The author takes the original characters and ideas of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and makes it his own. Let's be clear, Majora's Mask is probably the most unique Zelda game to date, not only because of the three-day time limit, but also in its storyline and character interaction. The moon is falling on top of the city of Termina, and it's your duty to travel back into time and repeat the same three days in order to solve the mystery of the moon. The game's true strength lies in its ability to make you emotionally involved -- there's this deathly sense of impending doom that is always dwelling, and when you do all the sidequests and interract with the non-playable characters, you truly become anxious to save everyone. Now take all that and throw it into a story. This guy completely twists the concept of time travel, throws in some philosophy about existence and the end of all things, and gives a distinct voice to each of the characters, including the heroic mime that is Link. Seriously, he's done really, really well with his story, and has certainly demonstrated that he is a very talented writer.

Sorry, I just had to rant about that. He's just updated his story, and I am impressed with what he's done.

But you know what else it's been long time since? My last post. Yeah, the moment I said I need to get better at posting, I get worse. Go me! Even so, I feel like as of late, I haven't been extremely available to talk to, or I just haven't been keeping in touch with some people as well as I'd like, friends and family alike. So I'm going to try and make sure I definitely improve in that regard, because there are plenty of people whom I don't want to lose contact with.

Last week itself wasn't exciting, but the weekend was fun. We used the weekend as Robby's birthday weekend (his actually birthday was yesterday). In order to rest up for the next night, we stayed in Thursday and watched Amadeus (long but pretty interesting movie about Mozart). Friday night was the real party. We went out to a Discoteca again (God, I need to cut back on going to those...). Since we've been going to Joy so much, we went to Kapital this night, and yeah, definitely worth it. Like Joy the week before, Kapital's dance floor was emptier than usual by the time we'd gotten there, so we decided to scope out the rest of the discoteca. And of course, after failing to do it last time, we HAD to do Karaoke. I haven't done Karaoke in a while, but this was a blast. There were plenty of Spanish songs, the majority which we obviously didn't know, but they had a very nice assortment of American/English songs, so we picked our poisons. First up, myself and Trinity did NSync's (yeah, remember them?) "It's Gonna be me." To make the performance even better, I remember the beginning part of the dance to that song, so yeah, you can guess what I was doing...totally worth it though. After that, Robby and Kaitlyn did "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, which is by far one of the best songs to Karaoke to. Ever. Not to mention headbanging. Yeah, there were definitey some great pictures from that one. The last song we did was performed by Trinity, Robby, and myself to Pink's "Just Like A Pill." Kind of an older, whinier song, but still great to sing to. After that, we pretty much danced the rest of the night until the morning. It was a long but successful night.

Saturday we were exhausted, and like one time before, we took a Burger King run, which is just as good as I remember it! They don't put nearly enough ketchup on their sandwiches though...but that's a common problem in Spain. Ha. After that, Trinity and I (later joined by Robby) had a miniature movie marathon. We'd been aching to watch Mulan all week, since both of us could quote the entire thing and sing all the songs. So we go back and turn on Mulan via YouTube, and it was probably a good thing we were the only ones home for a while, because we were being pretty loud and obnoxious. Still, Mulan's a great Disney movie, and it has one of the, if not the best Disney song ever made in "I'll Make a Man Out of You." We continued our Disney movie marathon with The Fox and the Hound (we concluded that every character should have died) and Tarzan. In between Fox and the Hound and Tarzan, we made us some good egg sandwiches, as well as some fantastic mashed potatoes! Trinity makes them really well, with garlic, ranch, salt...so good! I'll have to remember that when I go home. After Tarzan, we threw in Life Is Beautiful, which is an Italian film about a family during in the Holocaust of World War II. Obviously, anything related to the Holocaust is going to be heavy and hard to take. For me, the beginning of the movie didn't really seem like it could be related to anything so tragic, but once it hit a certain part (when the "No Jews" sign is on the door of one of the shops), I was anticipating the worst to come. But actually, I didn't find this movie to be as emotionally draining as I was expecting, which is a good thing -- the fact that it's WWII is enough to make you sad and understand the suffering that all too many endured, and then throwing in this family's story and makinf it that much more violent may have made it worse and hard to handle. But they balanced it well, and the movie turned out to be quite excellent. And the ending puts a smile on.

Sunday, after a mini-fiasco about Daylights Savings Time (we went back an hour in Spain), we went into Toledo for the day. Like Segovia, it's about a half hour outside of Madrid, and it had its own beauty to behold. It's a pretty hilly city, and it was a bit bigger than Segovia, as well as more complex -- there were plenty of times where we didn't know which way we were heading, and then there was one time where we literally went in a giant circle (thanks, Mr. GPS =P), and we passed by many, many familiar shops. Some of these accidental wanderings turned out to be nice photo shots, though. And overall, it was a good trip. We went to the Alcazar (which was closed, but still gorgeous from the outside) and to the edge of the city and got some good shots of el rio Taja (with el puente going over it) as well as another nice castle in the background.

Then we hit up couple of chapels (which were a bit on the disappointing side, but still had some neat artwork), the Monasterio (also sadly a bit smaller than expected, but had some cool stuff as well, like orange trees!), and of course, La Catedral de Toledo, which I am infuriated that we could not take pictures inside. Not that I don't understand, but seriously, it was SO pretty, definitely the highlight of Toledo, and we can't take pictures of that?! Not fair. But like the other cathedrals, this one was fantastic with its architecture, stained-glass windows (it had more than the others), beautiful carvings, powerful organs, and so on. What this one had over the others, though, was the famous obra "El Expolio de Cristo" por El Greco, a famous Spanish artist who was born and raised in Toledo. There were lots of other works by El Greco (and other artists) there, too, but this one was the most well known, and the room they'd made to display was simply breath-taking. The heavens painted on the ceiling, the golden frame, surrounded by other fantastic paintings, it was truly amazing. Once again, I WISH I could have taken pictures, but they're awfully picky about those photo snaps. I did get a couple nice shots from the outside, though (which was still beautiful). Heading back into Toledo, we took a walk around the city until resting in a park and playing cards until it was time to catch the train. The city was also well known for its craftsmanship and making swords and armor. Many a time, I wanted to buy a sword...but yeah, first of all, I don't have the money for that, and second, getting it back to the United States could be problematic...so it's a good thing I resisted.

Overall, Toledo in my opinion was not as impressive as Segovia, but it was still great to see! After walking up and down hills for a while, though, my legs were kind of sore...I need to get back into shape. Once again, pictures will be coming a bit later (maybe tomorrow).

Other things:

We want to go to Barcelona this weekend, but we'll see how that goes. We've been putting off booking tickets, so who knows what's available?

Wednesday, they have this thing called anti-karaoke, which is basically classic 80s, hard rock karaoke (sin las televisiones). Since we had a successful Karaoke night on Friday, we're pretty thrilled to try this out. Plus, you get to dress up in ridiculous outfits, which it makes sense since Halloween is coming up.

Oh yeah, I miss those American holidays. I hope you all are getting into the spirit! I can't believe it's the end of October already. Like seriously, where the hell does time go? Pretty soon, it'll be Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. *gasp*

Like I said, sorry about my lack of communication as of late. Hopefully I'll be around to be able to catch some of you and have a chat on Skype or something. Hope all is well!

Adios!

~ LSquared

Capítulo Diecinueve: Somewhere a Clock is Ticking

"One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this.”

- Don Quijote de la Mancha

Just as I had predicted, my updates are steadily decreasing. I honestly hadn't noticed that I haven't updated in four or five days. As usual, time sneaks up on me.

The weekend was quite lovely. After being away from Madrid for a weekend, I was in the mood to go out into the city and enjoy a social outing. Trinity and I ended up going to a Discoteca on Friday night, and as usual, that was fun. We usually go out to places like that on Thursday nights; surprisingly, the night life gets kicking at a later hour on Fridays -- the Discoteca didn't really start getting more crowded until after 1:30. I'm not sure if Thursday nights are particularly popular nights, or if this Friday was just off, or what, but I noticed the difference. Nevertheless, it was a good time, and we enjoyed dancing to some pretty good music. At one point, a violinist came out on stage, and he played along to the beat of some techno music. I must say, he gave a great performance -- he rocked out as well as any rockstar to that violin, and I was impressed. Didn't help that he was cute, but I'm pretty convinced that he was gay.

Saturday, Trinity, Robby, and I were supposed to go into Segovia, a city that's just a half-hour train ride outside of Madrid, in the morning. Unfortunately, the train we wanted to take was full, and the other train was significantly more expensive. As a result, our day trip was delayed a day (oh, boo-hoo...) and we ended up going back to Trinity's place and hung out for a while. It was probably a good thing that we ended up not going that day given that Trinity and I had been out fairly late at the discoteca the night before, and we were both still pretty tired from it. The day was not wasted, though. Trinity had gone back to the US a week before to attend her brother's wedding, and she came back with a batch of small goodies, a.k.a. American food. We made a wonderful Velvetta cheese dip, and then stuffed our faces as we watched Disney-Pixar's "The Incredibles" on YouTube (as much as some people tend to insult the Disney-Pixar duo, you have to admit that they make really good movies, Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles, A Bugs Life just to name a few). Still too lazy and too tired to do anything, we watched another movie, M. Night Shymalan's "The Village," which I had never seen. Personally wasn't overly impressed with it. M. Night Shymalan's obviously known for his spooky thrillers, and his big final plot twists, but this ending really seemed so lacking, like I was expecting it to be more dynamic, but it wasn't. Overall movie wasn't scary either. Still, it had some neat symbolism and motifs to it. Anyway, I'd say this was a fairly "American" day.

Early Sunday morning, before heading out to Segovia, we made strawberry pancakes (another gift from Trinity who brought back Bisquik). We bought some strawberries and milk and had us a good American Breakfast. Seriously, Spain's breakfasts are sorely disappointing; you don't get that much food, and it's not considered as important as the other meals. I myself don't eat breakfast that much (I like my sleep), but when I do, I expect to eat a full American breakfast; we're talking eggs, sausage or bacon, hashbrowns, juice...the works.

The pancakes, which were delicious, weren't even the highlight of the day, because the day trip to Segovia was great. Segovia is (obviously) much smaller than Madrid (not necesarily 'rural', but definitely not as much of a city feel), but out of all the places I've been to in Spain, it's probably my favorite. Immediately upon getting there, we stood before the Roman Aqueducts (a bunch of arches stacked on top of each other). Robby and I had seen a picture of this in our clase de Historia de Espana while learning about the influence of the Roman Empire on Spain. Actually it was just incredible. In some ways, it reminded me of the Great Wall of China, because it stretched a long way, though obviously not anywhere as long as the Great Wall, and it was made with beautiful stone. The city as a whole was right up my alley of interest -- it was just like everything you'd heard about medieval castles, a fortress-like structure on top of a cliff with a big wall surrounding the city for protection. The walls even had the places where guards would patrol!

Continuing, we headed into the city and immediately saw a Cathedral peeking through the alleys, above all the buildings. Of course, we had to go check it out. It was the gothic style La Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion y de San Frutos, and like La Catedral de Burgos en La Rioja, it was jaw-dropping. Amazing. It wasn't as big or complex as Burgos, but it was just as gorgeous. The architecture and other artwork inside and out were quite stunning. Something that I didn't mention last time that I definitely should have are the ceilings inside a Cathedral -- they have some really neat, difficult-to-make designs which make you wonder how the hell people were able to make that. As usual, I could go on and on about this Cathedral. Pictures later.

After that, we went to the highlight of the city: the castle which inspired Disney, Alcazar. Okay. You know I love medieval history. You know I love medieval fantasy. So yeah. Putting me in a castle makes me an EXTREMELY happy panda. The Ireland castles were really cool, but we didn't really get to go inside one. We got the chance to explore Alcazar, and I had a field day. First step in, there's a 'knight in armor' on display, and I just jump like a typical fan girl. Kind of sad really, but I really enjoyed going through this castle and looking at all the displays it had to offer: stained glass, displays of weapons and armor, portraits and other paintings, the views of the outside lands, all of it was just great. Apparently, the place had been used as a prison for a couple of years, but it was so difficult for me to imagine how that was possible -- the entire place was way too elegant and royal for it to be suited solely for prisoners. We also got to climb the tower, which was actually quite treacherous. First of all, there were LOTS of stairs. I mean, if you're a coach and want to have your athletes get into shape by doing stair exercises, this is the place to do it. I was very much so out of breath upon reaching the top. And secondly, the stairway was narrow, and the stairs were steep. Imagine dozens of people making their way up and down those stairs, squeezing passed other people doing the same thing. Seriously, this was the one set of stairs you did NOT want to fall on. The adventure up was definitely worth it, though, as we got a great view of the city of Segovia, with the gorgeous Cathedral in the background, as well as the land around. Really, really pretty stuff.

We got some lunch after exploring the castle, which was nice but nothing worth describing in great detail. After, we ventured a little ways out of the city (around the castle) and visited a couple of churches. While those were beautiful in their own right, we were really camera happy because of the view of the castle that we were able to get from heading that way. The castle literally stood ABOVE everything, like a city of the sky. You could see it just standing on the cliff, towering above the rest of the land. Reminded me a bit of Middle Earth and Lord Of The Rings. Anyway, lots of pictures for sure! They'll come later. After walking all that way and back (keep in mind that the walk back was very uphill), we were pretty beat, and luckily, it was about time to catch the bus and train back to Madrid.

Overall, very successful day trip. We want to try and do a day trip to Toledo this weekend.

In other news...

Weird to think that I'm about halfway done with my entire adventure in Spain/Europe. This semester has gone by really quickly, and I feel there's still so much that I would like to do and see, even if I don't know what those things or sights are. Time is always going, even when I'm not doing anything productive, and I seem to miss it as it passes me by sometimes.

Speaking of being halfway through things, I'm probably over partially the academics, and classes are still going pretty well. I'm fairly confident that I'm doing well in all of them (although it's a bit unfair to judge some classes since the grade is based on a final or a paper). Actually, the classes really don't seem overly difficult at all. Makes me kind of worried to go back to IWU and get slammed with work.

Two things about IWU: they've sent out the email about class registration. They had a list of classes that would most likely be available during the Spring, but the official course catalog comes out tomorrow. I'm not too worried, since I guess I have a slight advantage in registration this semester, as well as the fact that I have a pretty good idea as to what I'd like to take. I guess I'm still just a little concerned about getting into what I need to, as well as covering all my credits. Class registration is always stressful for me (as it is for everyone), even though I'm generally prepared and have had pretty good luck with registering. Personal Reminder: I need to get those emails about classes as soon as possible.

Other news about IWU that I've received: H1N1 has hit the campus. I've never taken it too seriously; as a matter of fact, I've joked about it on numerous occassions, but I guess now that it's literally struck home, I'm more attentive and a bit more worried. I'm not by any means freaking out or becoming paranoid, and I'm sure the student body is healthy enough to fight it off, but it's kind of scary to think about it being that close to friends, and in my case, family as well. So to all those at IWU, please stay healthy and keep me updated!!

It's chilly here, at least in this house...but a big warm blanket makes me sleep oh so well!

Hasta luego.

~ LSquared

Capítulo Dieciocho: I Wanna Get Wit Ya, and Take yo' Picta!

Ireland Pictures. Need I say more?



Lovely ladies; Gulickans Reunited



Church on campus; the back of it

Castle Ruins at NUI; Castle-Turned-Government-Building

Dalkey Castle Ruins; island

Looks a wee-bit dangerous, yeah?; us livin' on the edge

I wanted this picture "on the rocks"; Dalkey city lights

O'Connell Statue in Dublin; St. Patrick's Church

Another shot of St. Patrick's; the deceiving plaza-looking area before the castle

THIS is what we wanted to see: The Dublin Castle; castle tower in black and white

Dedicated to the 2006 Special Olympics; Dublin Castle Courtyard

Myself, Abbie, and Robby in the castle courtyard; Molly Malone Statue ("Thank You Boob Lady")

Entrance; Trinity College

One of the parks; Oscar Wilde Statue

This was in the distillery -- if you touch this 240 year-old stone, you'll have 10 years good luck; Jameson Distillery

Me at the Jameson Distillery; Bar hopping/Pub crawling

Capítulo Diecisiete: Greener with the Scenery

"Knowing is independent of being. I did not know you existed before you bumbled in here and ruined my nap. Yet that doesn't mean you weren't real before you woke me."

- Solembum, Eragon

Over a week since my last post?

I've already been to Ireland and back?!

...oops.

I definitely meant to update before I left for the Land o' Leprachauns, but I guess I got busy. Then I meant to update yesterday about the trip, but I was way too exhausted. Even now, I'm way too tired to be posting, but I figured that I'd stop leaving people hanging. Be warned, though: this post might be a bit disorganized due to sleepiness.

Okay, I do have some other stuff to update with, but I'll just talk about the Ireland for now:

Robby and I left for Ireland Thursday immediately after class, which was more painful than usual -- it's annoying when you're excitedly anticipating something and time seems to move so sluggishly slow! We took the train to the metro station closest to the airport, then from there to the airport, and from there to Ireland. The plane ride went pretty smoothly, though we apparently picked the wrong side of the plane to sit on. As we drew closer to Ireland, we could see the glowing city Dublin below, lamposts shining like floating orbs of light in the dark sky. Unfortunately, the city was seen better from the opposite side of the plane; we realized this as we were looking at the window, trying to get a good view of the city, only to look out the other side's window to see the view we had desired. Actually, the scene was quite pretty -- you really couldn't see any of the land (except the lights below), but the moon was also out that night, and that mixed with the city was a sight to behold.

We got into Dublin and speed walked through the airport. We had actually gotten in a little early, so we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to find Hannah and Brad, who were picking us up, but luckily, as we walked out into the main airport area, there they were, waiting for us. It was a really nice greeting, as Hannah basically jumped into my arms (do not mistaken this for a romantic reunion...ha, ha!).

After that quick but nice "OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE! HI!" greeting, we grabbed a taxi and headed out to Maynooth, where they are studying. They live on campus of NUI, in fairly new and really nice apartment complexes. It reminded me of the Dodds suite, only each person has their individual room, and there is a shared kitchen. Anyway, Brad, Hannah, Robby and I made it back to Maynooth safely, only to realize that Abbie was mysteriously not answering her phone! We'd suspected that she had fallen asleep (a typical Abba thing to do), so we continuously called her. We must have left her with twenty four missed calls. We also tried to go over to her place and wake her up by...Brad throwing a shoe at her window? Not a good idea, but there was no damage thankfully. Eventually, Abbie called us back and came over. We sat and talked for a while before going to bed. Talking like we were that night really made me miss Dodds; strange as this may sound, but at that point (and a few other points), it didn't feel like we were in Ireland at all, rather just back in the Dodds suite, kicking back and talking just like before. It was a very nostalgic, yet good feeling to be back with them like that.

The next day, we slept in after staying up a little late. This worked out alright, given that both Abbie and Hannah had class. After they got back from class, they showed us around Maynooth a little bit. They had to go grocery shopping, not only because we were there, but also because it's part of their meal plan -- they live on their own and have to prepare their own meals. The cheapest grocery store is about a fifteen minute walk from, which was kind of nice since we got a glance at the little city of Maynooth. It reminded me a lot of downtown Crystal Lake, only more...Irish, and a bit bigger. There were little shops everywhere, and buildings that looked like traditional Ireland buildings made of stone. Even in the distance, there were castle ruins! But more on those later. =) After grocery shopping, we returned and helped Hannah prepare dinner (yeah, it was that late already). We had purchased trout filets at the supermarket, so that was the night's dinner, and it truly tasted wonderful. Well cooked, Hannah Jones!

I think Robby and I were itching to get a piece of the night life in Ireland since we've obviously been enjoying Spain's nightly diversions, so we made plans to go out to a night club. We prepared ourselves in lovely attire, took photos, and then headed out. Okay, apparently in Ireland, night life is poppin' on weekdays, but on the weekends, they're supposed to be slow -- everyone goes home and stays in for some unexplained reason. So, with it being a Friday night, the club was sadly deserted. There were a handful of people there, but no one dancing or anything. We tried another bar that had a dance floor, but that one was emptier than the club. We ended up not staying out for very long and instead went back to the apartments and hung out. It was cool to see the club and bar and all, and getting dressed up was an added bonus, but I'd say night life in Ireland on the weekend is a bit disappointing. Still, I enjoyed myself.

We got a late start the next morning, too...we'd probably stayed up later than we'd thought. But anyway, after getting regrouped, we planned to take a day trip to Dalkey, a small pueblo about 45 minutes outside of Dublin. Before heading to Dalkey, Abbie and Hannah showed us more of Maynooth. They took us on a mini-tour of their campus, showing us the more modern side of it, and the older side, which looked more like typical Ireland (with uh, more stone buildings). They have a really pretty church on campus, not as big as a cathedral, but stunning nonetheless. Well constructed. It was really interesting to see the differences in architecture style between Spain and Ireland. We also passed by some castle ruins, which sadly we could not enter. It's incredible to see these castles still standing after hundreds and hundreds of years. These things have been under several sieges, and been unused for quite some time, yet they're still here, and still will be so long as people decide to continue preserving them. If you think about it, these things could probably outlast any skyscrapers made today.

After, we took a bus to Dublin, then a train out to Dalkey. The little town was right by the "Irish Sea" (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean), which was really neat. We explored a few different castles: one was the Dalkey Castle (closer to the center of the city), another which I can't remember the name had been rebuilt a little bit and was being used as a government building (I think), and the final one was closer to the water (again, I can't remember the name -- I've got to work on that). Seeing the water made us, especially Hannah, want to find a beach, or at least some place where we could get close to the water. In the distance of the castle closest to the water was this set of big, tall rocks that people could explore in and climb on. Now, we're responsible, reckless college students that, so naturally, we had to check it out. After finally finding these giant rocks (with the help of a friendly Irish stranger), we proceeded to hang around them for a couple hours, taking pictures and just exploring. Hannah was determined to see a seal (they're supposed to be around there), but unfortunately, we did not see one, though she claims to have seen a seal's tail, swimming away. At one point, we went towards the bottom of the rocks and closer to the water. With our luck, the tide came roaring in at that point, and a couple of us had a wet foot and pants, but in retrospect, it was probably one of the most humorous parts of the day. Actually, who would have thought that climbing around on rocks would be an appealing passtime?

We got back late from Dalkey, and so we had a late taco dinner. We ended up falling asleep to Pocahontas on YouTube. It's been a while since I've seen that, but definitely a Disney classic!

Sunday, our final day, was spent entirely in Dublin. We actually got up early for this expedition, and we were also joined by one of their friends from the Study Abroad program as well. So, we get into the city around 10:20, and a few people want to go to the mass at St. Patrick's. Logically, that's our first stop. Europe really knows how to construct churches properly, because every church I've seen is just stunning. This one was no different. It was significantly bigger than the one on their campus, though not as big as some of the ones in Spain, but as usual, wonderfully constructed. Under the rainy Ireland sky (though I guess it wasn't raining...but it was a tad bit cloudy), it had kind of a darker feel to it, but I think that added a unique element to it for some reason. After we split up with the people who wanted to attend the Sunday mass, Robby, Abbie and I went off to explore Dublin a little bit. First stop, we went to the Dublin Castle. This was deceiving at first, because we initially found a small little plaza-like area, and we weren't really sure if we were in the right place or not. But after a bit of exploring, we found what we were looking for...and yeah, it was pretty awesome. I love castles, and getting to see a nearly-complete Ireland Castle was great for me. We even got to see the courtyard, which also held a small statue dedicated to the 2006 Special Olympics!

After the castle, we took two more brief stops. One was to Trinity College, which holds some impressive architecture of its own. In fact, it's a tourist highlight. That makes me wonder what the students at the university think of that...personally, I wouldn't want my school to be filled with tourists constantly; I'd find it distracting and annoying. Still, being the tourists we were, we had to visit it, and yeah, it had some pretty cool stuff. We didn't get to go into the famous library (one of the biggest of any university) due to cost and length of the line, but we got to see other parts of the University, which was pretty neat. Definitely had the Ireland feel to it -- green grass, stone buildings, etc. After that, we passed by the Molly Malone statue (well know for her...chest area) and took a quick walk through one of the parks.

We met up with the mass people a little after 12 and hit up lunch at some sort of bagel place. This was definitely American style, but it was definitely delicious! God I definitely miss some American food! Okay, so I'm not going to get distracted by food...next, we went to another park and visited the Oscar Wilde statue. Make no mistake, that man was a genius, and he has some of the best quotes of any famous person. I kind of wish I could have met him; the guy 's just so witty! Well anyhoo, after hanging out with Oscar Wilde, we went over to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. They gave us a brief look at the history of Jameson whiskey, and an overview as to how whiskey is made, which was neat. It was very similar to many of the tours in La Rioja, in which they told us how wine was made and what not. At the end of the tour, we got to sample some. A handful of people were selected to be 'tasters', however, in which they got to sample three different kinds of whiskey as well as received their own mixed (or not mixed) drink of Jameson Whiskey. Melissa, the girl who had come with us that day, was one of those people, and she got to sample Jack Daniels, Scotch, and Jameson. Let's say after that, she was feelin' pretty good -- she essentially had three shots of whiskey within fifteen or twenty minutes.

We hit up dinner after that, at a small Crepes-like place, also panini's. After dinner, however, the real party began: we went pub crawling for a good four hours. Honestly, you really don't have to like drinking to enjoy something like this; it's more for the socializing, being with a good company of people and having some good conversations. Really, that's what we had here -- we were enjoying each other's company, and just sitting back at each bar/pub having a good time. That's not to say of course, that I didn't have anything to drink...they have some really good stuff there, I must say! There was this hard cider called Bulmers, and that stuff is delicious! It has either an apple or pear flavor, and both are quite good. Then I also tried the world-famous Guiness, which actually wasn't bad -- it tasted like beer and coffee mixed together, two things that I usually don't like (putting aside my recent addiction to cafe con leche), but this had a surprisingly decent taste. It was smooth, and didn't make me want to gag. I can't say it's something I'd drink often, but it's something I wouldn't mind. The other thing that was surprisingly addicting? The game (or sport) of Darts. Seriously, they had a tournament playing on the TV in one of the bars, and we couldn't stop watching it! For some reason, it was exciting, watching these guys throw these little arrows effortlessly into bulls-eyes (or other spots) and concentrating so hard.

That was, unfortunately, the end of our trip. Robby and I grabbed a bus back to the airport, and spent the night there until our 6:00 flight. We didn't want to spend money on a hostal, or on a cab from Maynooth to the Dublin airport, so we figured to be cost efficient, we'd crash in the airport. We got there a little before midnight, so it was only a...five hour wait. And we could check in in just three hours! So, not so bad, right? Well, I've never had to spend the night in an airport before, but I can honestly say that it's an experience I'd rather not repeat. I've never felt more like a hobo, trying to find these really crappy place to sleep or wait, trying to stay warm (that airport was friggin' cold!), trying to not go crazy...yeah. I could probably do it again if I absolutely had to, but that was not at all comfortable. And you can bet that I did not sleep well, if at all, the entire time there. Plane ride was not great, either -- I did manage to sleep for most of the flight, but my fall allergies have finally kicked in. So runny nose + airplane ride = Not so good, especially for ears. Yeah, I couldn't hear very well when I got off that plane...and throw some extreme sleepiness on top of that. Hence why I was messed up when I got back in Madrid in the morning, and am still a little messed up now.

I'd gladly do it again for that experience in Ireland. I had a really good time, even though it was way too short and I didn't get to see a lot of the country. I still got to see some really gorgeous things, and go through some culturally different experiences. The best part, however, was being with friends, having a good time, and getting to explore yet another foreign place. People talk about how they want to get out and "see the world," and it's weird yet exciting to think that I'm actually doing that. And I'm doing it with friends.

I'm very lucky, and very grateful.

Okay, on another note: it was weird as hell to go into a country that didn't speak Spanish. Like really, it felt so awkward at first. When I got into the Dublin airport (getting my visa checked), I was still speaking Spanish, saying everyday phrases like "Perdon (excuse me)" o "Lo siento" o "Buenos Dias/noches/tardes." It was almost...foreign, to hear people speaking English around me. At the same time, it was a bit refreshing to be able to take a break from speaking Spanish all the time.

Actually, though, throughout the trip, I was speaking Spanish some of the time without even realizing it. Just with once again, the everyday phrases that you use to communicate with the general public. So it felt natural. Want to know what I DID realize, though? Actually two things. One: my English is starting to get worse. I feel like I don't speak it as clearly as I used to, nor do I write it as well. Being somewhat of a perfectionist with English grammar and spelling, I've noticed just how many typos and mistakes I'm making when writing things in English -- it takes more time because I have to go back and fix the errors, which are caused sometimes because of the Spanish language (they phrase things differently). Two: I'm starting to naturally pick up the Spanish accent when I speak Spanish. So as embarassing as this may be, I now use the 'jota' (pronounced: hoe-tah, but it sounds like you're about to spit) and the lisp when pronouncing the letter 'c' as an 's'.

...then again, this is probably a good thing!

Alright, I will post pictures (as usual) later, but now it is bed time! I'm still trying to recover from Ireland!

Hasta pronto!

~ LSquared

Capítulo Dieciséis: Lost in the Sky, Clouds Roll by, and I Roll With Them

"Life's tough; get a helmet!"

- Boy Meets World

Since when is it October?

I've been thinking about how fast and slow time has gone by here. Sometimes, I'll be doing homework or something else, then look at my clock and see that hours have passed, or that it's become dark out. Even now, I'm finding it hard to believe that it's the month of October. But then I look at the calendar, and figure out that I've only been here for a little over a month, which is not very long, but it feels like I've been here for so much longer.

Not to sound like a weirdo or geek or something, but time is such a maysterious thing.

I find it ironic that I'm talking about time, and that I watched Donnie Darko (a movie which involves quite a bit of time-traveling philosophy) just three days ago.

It's been a pretty chill weekend. I figured that this would be a good weekend to take a break from going out so much and so late. On top of the fact that I go out a lot on weekends, I figured it would also be good to rest up for Ireland, which is this next weekend! We leave on Thursday, and will be staying with Hannah, Abbie, and Brad in Maynooth. I'm really looking forward to it, seeing friends and seeing new sights.

There have been a couple cool things going on the last few days, though. On Friday, we went exploring in the afternoon and ended up accidentally running into the big gathering for the 2016 Olympics (Madrid was one of the candidates). This of course, ended up being a really good accident, because you really don't see/go to things like this very often, and it was free. It was set up like a summer concert -- two big stages in front of a giant crowd of crazily-excited people. There was a big beach ball being hit around the crowd, and the majority of the people there had these big 'Olympic' Hands that they were shaking and cheering with. It was a neat experience to see so many city people come together in excitement and support of their own city (that's kind of why I like sports in general -- it unites people from all over for a moment of friendly and entertaining competition). They were giving out free stuff all over the place, actually. We walked out of there with a cool program about the four Olympic Candidates and a free t-shirt. Unfortunately, no hand, which was what we wanted most. Still, we got some nice souvenirs from the event. I'm sure most of you know already, but the place that ended up winning was Rio de Latino America. I would have loved to see it come to Chicago or Madrid (despite the renovations that the cities would have had to undergo), but I'm glad that Rio won over Tokyo. But hey, what's up with Chicago being eliminated in the first round?! Fail!

Saturday morning was terrible. I really don't feel like going into great detail, so long story short, I had the absolute worst luck with public transportation and ended up missing the CIEE Excursion for that day, showing why I wouldn't want to live in the city. Thankful, it wasn't an event of importance (it was optional), but still, it was a very frustrating morning that had me running around aimlessly for nearly two hours. Despite the rough start, the day as a whole turned out to be really good. After my messed up morning, I proceeded to make myself feel better by buying myself a Big Mac (it was right there; I couldn't resist). Furthermore, I got to go to El Museo Reina Sofia for free and got to see Guernica (famous Picasso work), and I also got to go to the Botanical Gardens without the ridiculous glowing IV bags, and they were beautiful.

Yesterday also provided a big change: two male students from the US moved in to the apartment, one from Cali, the other from New York. I had been told about their arrival just the day before, so it was kind of short notice for me. They seem like good guys, though, and we get along, which is awesome. We've talked a lot since they've gotten here, and we share some similar interests. They're enthusiastic about learning the ropes of Madrid; lucky for them, I've been here for a little while. Heh.

Been doing homework much of the day, and studying for an exam (and doing an exam for that matter). So yeah, boring, head-hurting day.

Well, if time is moving fast, then hopefully this week will zoom by so I can be on my way to Ireland!

Adios!

- LSquared