The Fraaaay, Greece, Ice Cream! <3

With all this excitement about Makani, I keep forgetting to come back and write.. Plus midterms are closing in. Bleh. I feel pretty good about all of my classes so midterms shouldn't be toooo bad.. I hope.

ANYWAY! Back to the story of Ciara's Birthday Adventure 2009!!

[insert: just found out I get to watch the Chargers at a decent hour today!! 6pm baby woohoo!]

So on the morning of my birthday, a group of friends and I ventured on over the the train station to make our way to Barcelona. Before I left, actually before I was even awake, my woonnnderrrful roommates woke me up because they had yet another surprise for me! Helen and Peri made me breakfast (eggs, toast and oj... who could say no to that?) and they had a bag full of gifts for me! It included little snacks to take on the train (nuts, a chocolate muffin, and a chocolate bar with almonds), some playing cards to keep me entertained, a speaker for my ipod to play in my room!! anddd a certificate for ANOTHER gift when I got back from Greece. Yes, I know, i'm spoiled. Haha i'm scared I won't be able to do as great a job as they did for me when both their birthdays come around... anywho, after breakfast I met the rest of the girls who live in the same building as me to walk to the cab. Now this is were the story gets kinda important. As we were walking (Amanda, Andrea, Megan, Hilary and I) we're all really excited and I think either Amanda or I said something along the lines of 'Did everyone remember their bathing suits?' Hilary, lovely little Hilary, let out a little 'eek!' and turned and ran back to the building to retrieve her suit. The rest of us continue walking to the taxi stop naming things off like cameras, money, credit card, PASSPORT, etc... Brandon and Loraine were waiting at the taxi stand for us but since we all knew we couldn't fit in one cab, some of us crawled into a cab while the rest waited for Hilary to meet up with them. It only took a few minutes and we were at the train station ready to be on our way to Barcelona!! I extremely excited because 1) I still hadn't ventured to Barcelona yet and I'd have the entire day before the concert to roam around 2) I was going to see THE FRAY in a tiny tiny club so i'd pretty much be front row after I picked up my ticket from will call which I was planning on doing about a hour and a half before the show and 3) the following morning we were heading off to Greece!! We got to the train station and Andi and Amy were already there waiting for us. I went up to get out tickets because I had put them all on my card and got all 7 of them with ease. We were all set to go to Barcelona!! Hilary and the rest of the kids with her got to the train station shortly after us and about 15 minutes later we got ready to board the train. Now, usually traveling by train is a lot more expensive then it is by bus but we found an online special for only 21 euro which was cheaper than the bus and got us there in less time! Plus the buses were all sold out so we didn't have much choice. It seemed that it had all worked out for us... except when we went to get on the train, they proceeded to tell me that all of our tickets were for the FOLLOWING day. After freaking out with 5 minutes before the train left and arguing that there was no way I could have booked the tickets ON October 7th like they were accusing me of, we all ended up having to pay an extra 54 euro to get new tickets. I was really upset and it was kinda a bad start to our trip but the girls were all pretty sympathetic with me so I really couldn't do anything but get over it and look forward to the rest of the day... I realized i'm babbling a lot to i'm gonna try not to so much hahah we'll see what happens.

So when we got to Barcelona, the first thing we came across while walking to our hostel was the Arc de Triomf and it was beaaaauutiful. I was quickly excited about all the other beautiful scenery I would see throughout the day... but all that was turned around once we arrived at our hostel. Somehow while we were sitting down and preparing ourselves for a little sight seeing and ticket pickinguping, Hilary realized she didn't bring her passport. We ended up spending the day trying to figure out how to get her passport to Barcelona in time for her to make our morning flight and let me tell you it wasn't at all easy. We were all very relieved when we sorted it out which was approximately 7 hours later. During that time, I got to see ISSAC the lead singer of the Fray and take some cool stalker photos of him but was also late in getting there early. Andi and Amy, who weren't staying in the same hostel as us, got to take a picture with him before the show =[ :sigh: it's okay because i know we're destined to meet again someday. Though the day was stressful, the concert was AMAZING. I was right up front (made possible by my friends), got some AWESOME pictures, and was wished happy birthday by Isaac!! Truly a birthday to remember.

I'm going to write a quick run-down of the time in Greece and expand about some highlights. I was there for 4 days so it would take agggess to write about plus I don't think it would be fun to read all that.

Day 1: Arrive in Athens, settle into our hostel, wander city, eat a gyro....and another half. eat ice cream from wonderful ice cream shop called 'I SCREAM!'
Day 2: Parthenon, Acropolis, lunch (chicken gyros), ice cream, Acropolis museum, nap, dinner at the most amazing family style greek restaurant ever recommended by our hostel man!, go to a dance club on the beach that is actually hosting a high school dance (that needless to say is just a bit awkward for someone who just turned 20)
Day 3: Cruise of Greek islands Hydra, Poros, and Aegina, dinner in the market - legit Greek Salad and the lamb gyros that Hilary and Andrea couldn't finish, ice cream from 'Ice Grill' which KILLS Baskin Robbins. They have 54 flavors that they HAND MAKE every day. YUP.
Day 4: Temple of Zeus, Agora, lunch (chicken gyro, extra tzatziki), a bit of shopping and ice cream, beach, then one final dinner of.. you guessed it. Gyros.

(another insert: although I love being home and having my parents/grandma/rubios/chipotle cook for me, I also really do love being at school because I that i'm a pretty dang good cook myself! aka just had a very good dinner)

I have to say, even though I've been to Greece before, I was still plenty amazed at the old temples and ruins. They're all just so mind blowing to experience. It was weird to think that last time I was there I was 15 and I never though i'd be back there, especially not 5 years later... The Acropolis museum was new to me though. In fact it's only been open for about 4 months! It only cost one euro to get in and it was reallllllyy something else. You could look down through the glass floor and see old parts of the city!

As you can clearly tell, I spent the most of my time doing what I do best-eating. All the food we tried was wonderful! Even the first thing I ate when I got off the plane (spinach and cheese pie) was delicious. Probably has to do with the fact that I LOVE cheese and spinach is pretty awesome too. The desserts were amazing... we had baklava from little bakeries in the middle of tiny little allies and they were by far the best i've ever tried.

Everyone who we talked to seemed have great advice about what we should see our do and had interesting tid-bits to divulge (the owner of our hostel said that some people believe there's a second acropolis under the main one, that archaeologists found a hollow chamber below the acropolis but the government won't let them explore it, and a man in a jewelry store explained how the Venetian-style houses on Hydra are a product of the island's close ties to Venice, Italy and how the Greeks used to sail over to Italy and they brought back the architecture with them). The people there were much more friendly than I remembered, not that i ever thought they were rude but i'm surprised I didn't notice all the hospitality the first time around!

I think my favorite part (besides the food, great accommodation, and amazing people) was riding a donkey on a tour through Hydra and going for a swim in the bright blue waters that surround the island. I did feel a bit bad for riding him after though.. I feel like they should just them them go roam where they please for a while instead of having tourists ride on them all day every day. It is the only mode of transportation on the island though..

So.. that was Greece. That was my birthday adventure. It was an amazing way to celebrate the end of my teenage years and also the start of my :gulp: twenties. Oh, and you better believe I pulled the 'it's my birthday!' card the enttttiiireee time we were there. And it was SUCCESSFUL!

Pictures to come..

Muchisimos besos para todos,

Ciara

I'M AN AUNT!

I'M AN AUNT I'M AN AUNT I'M AN AUNT!!!!

You can call me 'Tia Ciara' thank you very much.

A Little Late!!

Sorry I haven't written in a while!! I don't even know who reads this but still haha. It's mainly because since Biarritz I haven't done anything exciting... EXCEPT HAVE A BIRTHDAY! I guess there were a FEW exciting things in between, and my computer did break and I was without one for a while, but mainly just going to class and living the Pamplonian lifestyle.

Topic for today's post: Ciara's 20th Birthd

ay Part 1

5 days before my birthday, my roommates had a surprise birthday p

arty for me. It was funny because I knew we were having people over. Earlier in the week, Peri asked me if I wanted to have a potluck at our apt. friday night and I got excited because last time we had a potluck we had AMAZING FOOD! Anyway, friday came around and about 5 minutes before people were supposed to be coming over I heard Peri and Helen whispering stuff to each other while I was doing my hair in the bathroom and next thing I knew they were in the bathroom with me with a tiara and wand at the ready and said "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

I looked at them like they were crazy because it was clearly NOT my birthday. That's when they proceeded to tell me that everyone was actually coming over for a birthday party and I

had to wear the tiara. People started showing up, along with mounds and mounds of phenomenal food, many birthday wishes and even some little gifts for me! By the time I was done, I had eaten 3 plates of food and was STUFFED! And just when I thought I couldn't eat anymore, my roommates came into the living room where everyone was with a homemade ice cream cake! Let me tell you about this cake because it deserves it: Peri makes the most amazing homemade brownies ever.. she's made them a few times since i've been here and it's amazing to watch her melt the chocolate and add all the ingredients together. Anyway, she was making brownies or the potluck, or so I thought. During the day when I was making my ceviche and Peri was napping, Helen

insisted that the brownies needed to cool and there was no more room in our fridge so she was going to put them in Amanda and Andrea's upstairs. I didn't understand why she couldn't leave them in our kitchen to cool but I kinda just shrugged it off. Turns out, they used Amanda and Andrea's kitchen to construct my cake. There's a coffee shop near us called Orbredor that sells the most WONDERFUL ice cream... Helen and Peri picked the two best flavors there (Cookie and Ferrero Rocher), melted, and refroze them on top of the brownie cake.... ask anyone who had a piece and they'll tell you they've never had anything taste as delicious as that cake. At the end of the night, we had about 30 people in our tiny little piso and I had a great evening.

My second night of festivities included even more food. I'm realizing now that my entire 10 days of birthday celebrations included massive amounts of food. Lovely. Saturday night my friend

Estefania had an all girls sleepover at her apartment! It was my last teenage sleepover ever =[ how sad. But it was soo much fun! Her and her roommates, Carmen and Ana, moved all their mattresses and their fourth roommates mattress as well, to the living room to create a masssssiiiiveeee bed for us all to sleep on! The three of them also made two very large stacks of crepes and bought every kind of filing imaginable for them and spread them out

buffet style so that when the rest of us got there, we felt like we were in a 5 star hotel. The other girls who stayed over were Laura and Kristina (the lovely Danish girls) and Atalanta (my Italian friend who also lived in California for half her life!!). We ate, sang N'Sync and the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, and watched the Lion King!... yes. Walt Disney's The Lion King. Haha who would have thought a group of 23 to 19 year old girls could have so much fun with Disney still? I'm so happy Tef and Carmen decided to have us all over it was a blast! > all of us minus Carmen.. she took the picture!!

I have some reading to do and laundry to finish, so tomorrow I shall finish my birthday story which is to include: Karaoke, THE FRAY CONCERT, and Greeeeeceee <3

Un Besito!

Ciara

Biarritz

View from my room last thursday evening

After a week of struggling to get my life together (yes, I am exaggerating just a little) my friend Tef decided we should take a little day trip... to France. Nobigdeal. It all happened like this: Mon,Tues, Wed, and Thurs I had been freaking out about classes because none of the ones offered in English here would count toward my major and if they did they were only offered in spring semester and everything you could think of with my school schedule was going wrong. By Thursday right before the deadline I somehow figured everything out, which is typical considering that's how I normally finish things: right before their due. So thursday night I had my Business Communications class (the picture to the left is when I was leaving campus) and afterward my roommates and I hosted 'Mexican Night' at our apartment! I made tacos and rice for about... 8 people? (The Danish girls Laura and Kristina-better known as Heidi because I swear she looks like Heidi Klum, my three roommates Helen, Peri and Nick, Andi and Amy - girls from Bentley, Tasha came over for a bit-she's from Ireland, and myself of course). Helen made her chili again which was really good and Peri made nachos and Nick (while being supervised by me of course) made guacamole. Laura and Kristina brought over some kind of cheese and onion appetizer and Kalimotxo (wine and coke... sounds nasty but looove it) and Amy and Andi brought over some mexican beer which of course is essential to a proper Mexican Night. Anywho, it was nice hanging out with the girls and Nick all night and just relaxing. The following morning Tef planned our little trip for Saturday so we didn't do anything Friday night... By 8 am Saturday morning we were at the bus station and climbing aboard our bus to Biarritz.. not gonna lie I slept the entire way there which kinda sucks cause I wish I took pictures but I would have ended up carsick anyway so I guess it's for the better. When we finally arrived (the bus was only about an hour and a half drive) we all clamored out of the bus and began our search for food. Not realizing I was no longer in Spain but in FRANCE I had a really hard time reading the signs but thank goodness Peri happens to know some French.. she saved the day. We got some sandwiches and coffee then made our way down to the beach where we pretty much laid alllll day. A few of us (Andi, Amy, Amanda and Peri) got up around 3 and walked around the town and got lunch. Once again, as I have been doing ever so much over here, I ordered pizza. Haha BUT I did get a crepe. And let me tell you, that was the best kind of dessert i've had in a long while. I got nutella and banana. BOMB. Very very delicious. The city was really pretty and everywhere you went you could see the ocean.. I loved it. OOHH I forgot to mention that we saw like a dance practice? I guess you could call it on a stage next to the beach. It was like a contemporary dance routine and it was... interesting haha. I enjoyed it mostly because it was something i've never seen before so I figure it was part of my French culture for the day.

TIME FOR LUNCH!!

I'll write again soooooon.

Un beso x

Sevillllaaa!

So i've had my first successful trip! This past weekend I journeyed with two girls from my school, (Andi and Amy) and went to Sevilla to meet up with Kelli! It was kind of a lot of traveling but I'm realllly glad I went. It started on Friday morning with a 5 hour bus trip at 6am from Pamplona to Barcelona which was followed by a 2 and a half hour train ride to Sevilla... but once we were there it was amaaazzinnnggg. It was about... oh.... only 102 degrees. -_- haha it was incredibly hot. By the time we arrived it was 4:30 pm so the three of us went to our hostel and checked in.. when I reserved a room I was sure I asked for a private room for the three of us... little did we know we had a roommate. Named Sal. Or, we think that's what he said his name was... he was nice enough just reallllly shy. I mean it was probably intimidating sharing a room with three random girls but he dealt with it pretty well haha. Anywho, after resting from our journey, we got up and roamed around to find out that our hostel was in a prime location directly located near not 3 but 4 big American chains. That's right, we were located in the heart of the US. We found a McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, AND Ben and Jerry's ALLLLLLLL directly next to each other. It was kind of amazing even though i'm not a fast food eater... it was nice to feel at home... well kinda hah. We wandered around until around 7 or 8 then went back and got ready to go out to dinner. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but in Spain restaurants do not serve any kind of dinner-type meal until around 9pm EARLIEST... oddly enough i've adapted quite well to this idea of eating super late. (Above-left is a picture of Andi in her bunk at the hostel) We ended up eating at this cute little restaurant near the Catedral de Sevilla.. it had a pretty view of the Giralda (the bell tower) and the food was amaaazing! Afterwards we walked around more which was easier cause it was cooler and took some more pictures of the city and people watched. The next morning we got up and went on a bus tour which was fun and interesting.. the history of Sevilla is interesting. The only bad part was that it was 102 (again) and we were sitting on the top section of a double-decker bus, exposed to the sunlight. I think I lost about 30 lbs. sweating up there. Still definitely worth while. Around 4 o'clock I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Kelli... I was soooo happy to see her!! The entire time we got to spend together (which wasn't even a full 24 hours =/ ) I was just amazed that i've know her since 4th grade and there we were, in Spain together! It was truly amazing having her hang out with my new friends from Bentley and wandering around the city together. We went out on a pub 'crawl' which actually turned more into a history lesson about the city but I was ok with that. We had about 7 girls in the group and ended up calling it a night rather early.. I think all 4 of us were tired from all the walking and traveling we had been doing all weekend. The next morning I had to say bye to Kelli again for the second time in two months... needless to say that sucked. But it was nice being there with her for a night. Overall I thought Sevilla was wonderful and everyone was really nice there. OH AND for those who might be learning Spanish, their Spanish is SOO much easier to understand than that of my fellow Pamplonians. And i'm pretty sure i just made up that word but... you know what I mean. =]

Well I need to go finish up my marketing homework, seeing as how it's one of me three classes here. Haha no worries, i'll add some more classes... hopefully.

Un beso,

Ciara

From left to right: Kelli, Amy, Andi

Giant paella anyone?

So yesterday was our last day of our welcoming 'week' for international students.. and it ended with a lot of food!! It started off rather boring.. we had a lot of meetings and information sessions to go to and my orientation leaders Ana and Teph weren't there because they apparently stayed out too late partying haha. But after all the boring stuff was a nice coffee break (with yummy snacks provided) and a group of us went out to the grass area in front of the communications building to wait for our feast to begin. Now, I still hadn't tried paella before this so I didn't really know what to expect. Especially because I knew that there was going to be in a MASSIVE pan or skillet whatever it is you want to call that thing in the picture above. The weather was extremely odd while we were down in the grass area and eating.. first we were all dying in the heat with not enough trees for shade. Next thing we knew, the sun was covered by a cloud and we were in the shade. Then it rained. 3 minutes later, sun. Odd. So odd. But anyway, back to the food. IT WAS AMAZING!! I think I love paella. Actually I know I do. And for anyone who hasn't tried it, I highly recommend you get some. And I don't think anyone can't actually like it. They have sooo many different kinds... chicken, pork, beef, seafood, vegetarian.... it's amazing! I want to learn how to make all of them so when I come back to the US of A I won't miss it too much.

Later in the evening, Teph had people over at her apartment and I had a great time... I met a lot of people from Germany and Australia.. good times. =] Ah and I attempted to salsa. And I really do mean attempted.

This morning we had our first day of classes which was stressful... because I don't have any. And i'm still trying to figure out my schedule... it's difficult not getting stressed about things here. Everyone in Spain is so relaxed and takes their time even doing simple things like lunch... that can take about 4 hours!! Coming from a place where we know our schedule for the following year before the present semester is even over, i'm having a hard time adjusting. I guess i'm just scared i'm going to miss important information in my classes, which shows me that maybe I am actually a better student than I thought haha.

I plan on trying with the classes again tomorrow.. maybe I can get at least one class set up. That'd be nice.

Alright well it is time for me to go do some research about how to get myself to Sevilla this weekend... more soon!!

Love love and more love,
Ciara


Oh and just so my roommate knows I love her... I present to you, Helen Melon. <3

San Sebastian

My roommate Peri and me!

Second post! Yayy!!

I'm extremely tired because all the international kids spent the day in San Sebastian but I wanted to update =].


So far my time here has been AMAZING.. I finally have internet at home (I do realize I didn't have it for about a week but it felt like much longer) and it's nice to be able to contact Mom, Dad, and Sister (and of course my nephew). My apartment it pretty legit.. close to campus and my flatmates are really fun. Yesterday we started the international orientation "week" which is 3 days long. My tour guides are the same age as I am and I made friends with two of the girls!! They're both from Guatemala? and their names are Ana and Teph (Stephanie). They're here for four years and they know all about Pamplona and are more than willing to show me around. =]

So today we woke up and went to San Sebastian.. it's about an hour away by bus and it was such a cool experience!! We started a tour of the city at around 10:30ish and then we pretty much spent the rest of our time laying around on the beach (yes people really don't wear bikini tops. I was expecting it but it was still quite a shock. No worries though, i'm sticking to my American conservative roots and keeping my clothes ON), eating AMAZING seafood tapas, Spanish ice cream, and wandering around the city. Right before we had to leave, Peri (one of my roommates) and I had to go to the bathroom and just ran into the nearest place we saw and pretty much got chased out afterwards. Haha it was a funny event so I thought i'd share that random detail of my day.

Anyway, i'm really tired and have to wake up earrrrllllllyyy so i'm going to go brush my teeth and head to bed!!


Love you and miss you all lots and lots,
Ciara








One of the many beautiful statues.. first thing we saw as we got off the bus.

Above and Below: Playa de la Concha

Not really sure what this is... but there were always people just hanging out in it every time we passed..














Best beach picture I could get without any nudity =] Playa de Gros

Above and below: Iglesia Santa Maria del Coro



















View from the pier of Isle de Santa Klara

Boardwalk... GREAT FOOD ALONG HERE!!

First Post!!

HELLO ALL!! So i´ve decided that I wanted to start a blog about my adventures in Spain so I can have an easy way to share them with you all!! I don´t know how interesting they´ll be but you´ll be able to read them as often as you´d like!! As of right now I still don´t have internet in my apartment so I don´t know how often i´ll be able to write but when we do eventually get WiFi i´ll write as much as possible!!

I hope you all are well and I miss you!!


Love,
Ciara