Festivals and Siderias oh my oh my.

So I have been living in San Sebastian for two weeks now, and it has been a great experience! School is going well and I have my first midterm on wednesday where I will have to write an essay about my family and also ace a few multiple choice questions. It may sound pretty easy, but when you haven't taken spanish in about 6 years, describing the weather outside is even difficult. HACE FRIO! yo y my companeros tienen FRIO!! But as you can see my spanish is improving. I can definetly speak a whole lot more Spanish then when I first arrived in this city. So google translate that and see where it gets you! haha. Speaking Spanish is getting easier and easier, but I am impatient and I CANNOT wait for the day where it just flows out of my mouth as if I were speaking English. I have been set up with an intercambio, which is another student who speaks spanish and wants to practice their English. I help them with their English and they help me with my Spanish. I have not met with her yet but her name is Monica and I am hoping that we will get along great. This past weekend I also made a little intercambio friend of my own who I met outside a bar. Yes, okay sounds a little sketchy but it is fully safe I swear. and DISCLAIMER: I am not going to fall in love with this guy so for all of you who swear that I am finding my soulmate here, you are wrong! haha. His name is Uribe, and I was with my roommates and other friends from studying abroad out side a bar we frequent on Friday night and we were all speaking English. I said something about thinking that these Spanish guys in front of us could understand us, and this one guy (Uribe) nodded. I started laughing and came up and introduced my self and he proceeded to tell me that he can speak English but feels embarrassed because he's not that good at it. It was a good feeling hearing this because I am terrible with my Spanish so I hate to speak it too! He hung out with us for the rest of the night and he practiced his english and I practiced my spanish! He was very friendly and graduated from the university that I am currently attending here in San Seb. He is 24 years old and we exchanged numbers so we both can work on our new languages! It was nice to make a new friend and he and his others Spanish friends got a long very well with all of us. Can't wait to hang out with them again. It is also a good feeling knowing that my first week here was pretty rough but I must not sound like too much of a loser if I am able to make friends even with a little bit of a language barrier! haha my optimism has come back to me! HOORAY!

As for this title, I thought I would catch you up on what has been going on these days here in San Sebastian. First we shall start with the Festival de San Sebastian which I briefly mentioned before but will now completely clue you in on. Last Wednesday night was what is equivalent to Mardi Gras/ Independence Day here in San Sebastian. So at midnight all the citizens of San Sebastian dress up in either chef's outfits or drummer outfits to represent the common people and the Spanish armies of the time when St. San Sebastian fought for the towns independence from France I believe. They all march throughout the city playing several different drum songs, and the entire town drinks in celebration and participates. We even bought ourselves a cheap little drum and brought it out with us to join in on the fun. The streets were PACKED. Literally so crowded that the only thing it reminds me of is like New Years Eve in Time Square. No joke! it was insane but so much fun. We were with a bunch of other study abroad friends and had a lot of fun dancing and drinking!. My roommates and I ended up at the discotec on the beach which was amazing and so much fun that we have decided that we must go back there! It was a great festival, and the next day was devoted to all of the children from the different schools marching with their drums and in their little outfits. You could hear the sound of drumming all over the city all day long. It was amazing! I feel that I would like to take this custom back with me and on 4th of July march around the streets drumming. Whose with me? any takers? haha think about it! I truly assure you a good time!

And now for the Sideria. Okay so in the Basque Country, Siderias are very famous for their fantastic arrays of alcoholic cider as well a their food. On Friday, a bunch of us decided to go to one, and so the bartender, Oscar, at the bar we frequent chartered a bus for us and and made reservations at one of the Siderias here on the outskirts of town. Of course Oscar came with us too, and he is a feisty one and so loud and cray. He is awesome to hang out with. There were about 40 of us (all study abroad students) and we spent the night drinking different types of cider and spending time with everyone. The cider comes out of these massive barrels from a little spout and you tip your cup at the bottom near the floor and follow it up from the bottom to the top of the spout to get the cider in your cup, and it is DELICIOUS!. All the workers there were so friendly and joined in on the fun too and drank cider with us. We were there for hours and were served five courses of food. In these five courses I learned two things:

1). The Spanish prefer there steak basically still alive. The meat was so rare that I am prety sure it does not meat US FDA preparation laws but they absolutely love it super rare here. Oscar and the other bartenders that came with us were eating the steak like it was nothing. Myself, being a well done kind of girl, was brave enough to try it and shocked at the taste. It was good but lets just say I don't prefer my meet completely RED!

2). A custom here is cracking walnuts with your forehead. Yes, it sounds weird but I am not kidding. For dinner we were served a delicious cheese dish and walnuts which we were designated to crack with our heads through a napkin. I FAILED! I tried and tried and tried and I have no proof of my success but I do have a sore spot and a bump on my forehead which I find a little funny but Mama Kuska did not. Sorry Mom, but when in Spain you must do as the Spanish do. However, I guess I need a little more walnut practice!

The Sideria overall was a great experience and afterward we all went back to Oscar's bar which is called Buga and had a few drinks. It was a great time and another weekend that I truly enjoyed living here in Spain. I know that there are many more to come and a lot more friends to be made. I love it here, and I am so glad that I am able to share all of it with you all back home via this blog. I miss you all and I hope that you are all having a great time in Chico, Salinas, Sacramento or where ever you may be! Again this is only the beginning of my adventure here so I hope you guys are prepared for more updates and more stories to be told!

Buenas Suerte!
Much Love,
The Koose

HOLA! VIVA LA SAN SEBASTIAN!

Well Hello Everyone, or should I say Hola a todos!!
I am finally here in San Sebastian, Spain and have decided to update you guys as much as possible wit hthe happenings here. There have been quite a few experiences that I have recorded in separate blogs below so you guys should definitly take a look and read and catch up! I garuntee that they will give you a few laughs, my life is rediculous! This place is beautiful and I am so excited to live here and call this home for the next few months. I walk on the beach every day to get to school, and I am surrounded by a collection of new, interesting, friendly, and warm people who have a passion for adventure and fun as much as I do. I am very excited to see what this semester brings all of us and what more amazing stories I get to tell you guys about! so prepare yourselves!

I will say I got off to kind of a rough start here in San Seb, and because of that I have decided that I am the human version of what many people like to call "murphy's law" What can go wrong will go wrong! haha I feel like every time I am thrown into a new situation I never have it easy at first. It is just like the time when I first got my permit and did not even make it out of the drive way with out breaking the front light on my cleaning lady's van. Or even when I got my license and my car was egged by some random vandals. We also cannot forget the time that I came to college and had some trouble with some kitchen utensils and also was never made aware that I was enrolled in an extra class until three weeks into school.I swear, I am MURPHY'S LAW!

While I have been in San Sebastian I have:
Fallen down a flight of stairs
Gotten my facebook page hacked and shutdown (so if you are wondering why you had to be added again, that is why)
Singed my hair from a power surge through my straightener
Went to the wrong apartment, you will soon read about.
and now I am sick with a very bad cold

I would sit here and still complain about how I am one of the select few that goes through all the trouble of these things in order for everyone else to have it easier, but I am not. Like I have said, I am not afraid of a challenge and I see all of these obstacles that have occurred in my new experiences as a chance to become more resiliant and bounce back. I am a tough kid, and I try not to let too much get to me. I take everything with a grain of salt and I do my best of coming out on top. I think 10 to 1 I always to a pretty awesome job so I am hoping that this time is no different. I just always have to remember to look for the comic relief!

I am ready to explore Spain and overcome any challenge my way, its been a rough start but I am in Spain, I am LIVING here, so I refuse to complain. I will say I am a little homesick and missing all my friends and family so if you want to help me out and say Hey and some words of encouragment, Im totally not going to stop you! I hope you enjoy everything and I have it arragned from the most recent at the top to the less recent at the bottom! so from here down ready. set. GO!

Much Love,
The Koose

First Day of School

School has begun! My first day of school was on Wednesday and it was actually great! I go to school three horus a day to learn spanish, five days a week! Our class sizes are very small. VERY small. There are only 7 people in my class and I am one of two girls. It is a lot of fun so far even though I ahve only had class for one day since today was a holiday which will have to be a whole other blog within itself! haha so crazy!

Our teacher is named Paco and he uses a lot of expressive hand motions in order to illustrate is not one hundred percent English. He really seems like a great guy and class goes by so fast. I feel like I am really going to enjoy this semester. I am taking four classes but how it works is that we take each class one at a time for a few weeks at a time. Right now I am in Spanish 1 and I will be until the second week of Feb and I will switch to Spanish 2 and so on and so on! I am also taking a surfing class which starts in the middle of March and goes for five weeks which I am very excited about. I am trying to take on every oppertunity possible because I know that I will never get this chance ever again.

I also attend class from 2:30 to 5:50 which is a great time becuase it allows me to get everything I need to done in the morning, and walk to school in a good amount of time. This is a huge change from my schedule of 8 AM EVERY SINGLE DAY last semester so I am very VERY thankful for that.

I know that this is going to be a very good semester for me and it is going to allow me to grow as a perso nand become even more independent than I already am. I've always embraced growing but sometimes I get a little ahead of ymself and stumble a little bit and make mistakes, and get some battle wounds but I know that I am capable of doing this and surviving here. So here is to a great, new semester that I am ready to take on and in the words of Papa Koose: Sieze the Day! Love you Dad!

Much Love,
The Koose

Fork and Knife

Okay so after you read about our visit with Pedro below this one and how it went, we were really hungry so Morgan, her mom, Laura, and I all went out to get some food. It is Ten O Clock by this point and a lot of places are shut down. We walked all the way to Parta Vieja to find something to eat and we were so desperate that we almost picked McDonalds. We thankfully found a small Burger cafe where we could sit down and relax so we chose there.

First off the menu, as usual, is in Spanish and we are trying to figure it out with patience and calmly, and then the waiter comes out and basically says "your gonna want this" and hands us an English menu. We were just like oh god is it really that noticable that we are not from here? haha It is true we are defenitly out of our element and have to take everything with humor. But oh it gets better...here it is. Again I am pretty sure this would only happen to me.

So we order out food and I get a hamburger. Easy, normal,typical. A hamburger. So I start picking it up and eating it like any normal person would do. And Im taking my first bite out and a table of guys across from us hollers at me and say something and points to my burger. I couldn't figure it out and so I asked do you want a bite? and I don't think they understood me so they nodded anyway so I am like okay why the hell not and make a motion to get out of my chair and then they go no no no. At this point I am so confused. And then I look around and everyone is eating their hamburger and sandwiches with a fork, and a knife. So those guys were basically trying to tell me that I look like a freak and a cave person because I am eating with my hands. Everyone at my table realized it at the same time and we just started laughing. So note to all future travelers of the world: In Spain NEVER eat with you hands. EVER!

I feel like I already have a pretty good sense of humor but all of these experiences are giving me a thicker skin. I don't understand anything and it is all new to me so I can't get down or feel embarassed. I just have to keep on going and learn from each experience which I believe I am doing a great job at! I hope this is good comic relief for all of you though!

Much Love,
The Koose

2 1/2 Hours with Pedro

so as you will read my below, after the feat of finding my apartment, that evening we all had to sit down and meet with out landlord at 7. He knocked on the door and I opened and introduced myself when he looked at me in great confusion. HE SPEAKS NO ENGLISH! again this is a problem because at this point in time I speak no Spanish. Morgan is a little bit more advanced than I am, so she was the prime communicator but our skills only went so far. Also he is a native of the basque language here which is also known as Euskara. He also prefers to speak this language and suggests that we learn it while we are at school for three hours a day! He also has no desire to speak English and refused to let us use dictionaries or online translators to help figure out what he was saying.

Pedro was at out apartment for 2 and 1/2 hours! which is a VERY long time when you have no idea what the person is saying. We were so exhausted trying to piece together anything he was saying and it ws our first day in our apartment as well so we were trying to get adjusted. It was pretty painful. From what we could piece together, at one point he was telling us to take a bus to the outskirts of town where there are bears and caves....we were not too sure where he was going with that one. What was worse was he would try to talk to me and when I didn't understand him he kept repeating himself and looking at me. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die! haha it was terrible. All in all though Pedro is a sweet sweet guy and I really like him a lot, he's about 80 or so years old but I am not sure exactly.

All I know is that every month when he comes to pick up the rent we might want to reserve a lot of extra time for his visit haha. By the end of it, Morgan, Laura, and I were so delirious we just couldn't believe all that happened and we just laughed. Seriously it is going to be interesting when he comes for february's rent, so prepare yourselves for another blog about him!

Much love,
The Koose

This is not my apartment. WOOPS! Lo siento Lo Siento

We arrived in San Sebastian on the 16th I believe and spent one night in a hotel with the the entire group as part of the orientation process. The next day we were given the keys to our apartments that are spread throughout the city which is split up into several different districts. Some of the most popular districts where people live are El Centro, which is the center part of town and has the baks and the shops, and stores like that, Parta Vieja which is where city hall is, the bars, and all the restraunts, and then there is Gross, which is not gross at all. Gross is the area where the surfing beach is and has a very laid back vibe. I live in Gross and I absolutely love it! I am five blocks from the beach and live with two amazing girls that also attend Chico State named Laura Huepper and Morgan Allen. I can tell that we are going to be having a lot of fun these next four months and I cannot wait for it. Its going to be awesome. We live on the other side of the city compared to the university so it is about a 40 minute walk to school, but we walk right along the beach so I am not complaining about that one! The scenery is beautiful even when it is foggy out. I absolutely love it all!

So let me tell you the tale of how I got to our apartment. Oh believe me its a good one that is probably no one but me would even be put in this situation, so here it goes:

Laura and I are waiting outside to ride to our apartment together and Morgan and her mom, who was visiting for a few days, would take a separate cab and meet us there. The cab pulls up and the guy comes out and shakes his head at us, says no and leaves. Laura and I are just standing there so confused and have no idea what to do but to laugh. So then we get the front desk lady to help us with the next cab and basically it turns out that I have to go in my own cab because both of our luggage wont fit in one cab trunk. So I leave and plan to meet Morgan, her mom, and Laura there. In order to tell the cab person where to go we were advised to point at the address we were given on our orientation paper and they would just know. Me being the idiot that I am packed my papers in my luggage which was now in the trunk so Laura pointed at hers before I left them so I should be set right? WRONG!

We get to my street corner where the driver drops me off and directly points me where I need to go. But I being the person who has to make everything complicated screws even a simple, easy finger point up. I walk up to my apartment and try to insert my key. I have three keys. But I decided that only one key should work for the entire apartment and the other two were for mail or something, or that the door to the building shouldn't even be locked because its day time. So i walk up another few feet and there is another entrance to a different part of the building that I am able to get into due to someone opening the door for me. I just assume that this is my apartment so i go to my apartment number and i insert the key and it doesn't work. I'm fiddling with the lock, and its dark in the hallway so i decide to turn on the light, I ring the doorbell and this lady comes out and I am pretty sure I scared the living daylights out of her! She speaks a little English and I am basically trying to tell her that I live in that apartment and she is like uhh noo. So then i remember the paper with my address on it. So I open up my small suitcase to try and find it. Its not there,. I open my huge suitcase and start searching through all the while I am still in the hall way and this lady thinks I am crazy. I am so frazzled and embarrassed and I feel terrible. I finally find the paper and point to the address and she tells me that I was in the building 13 when I should be in building 11. So basically the first door I went to when I tried my key was my building. Smart one Alli! So then I pack up all my clothes and luggage in the hallway of the building and finally get to my right area where I spy Morgan and Laura. I apologized to the lady and she was giggling at me but if it wasn't for her I would have been lost for probably another hour or so. It was bad.

But finally we got settled in and our apartment is quite small but very old fashioned and homey. I like it! I have my own room with a full bed and Morgan and Laura share a room. Its really cozy and fun but our kitchen is smaller than the size of my hall bathroom that was in my apartment back in Chico. its TINY! We have already gone grocery shopping and picked up food which is another experience within itself! Everything is in SPANIsH! obviously. but reading ingredients and brands is something that you severely take for granted back home. Trying to figure out how to microwave noodles is difficult here. and that just should not be hard. ever.! It makes me very excited and determined to pick up Spanish quickly in order to understand all of this. When you are thrown into a situation a lot like this you have to work hard to resolve the problems that you do not understand and I fully intend on doing that!

Much Love,
The Koose

Ohh Alfred, and Discotecs

Our last night in Madrid we decided to go to a seven story discotec which is basically a huge dance club, and of course it being seven stories, it is one of the biggest discotecs in Europe. It was Huge to say the least, and that night has become the start of the redicilous stories that have led me to my home of San Sebastian. The first story starts with a man named Alfred.

So as I have said before, Spaniards do not start their night until very late, the discotec did not even open until one o clock, and us being Americans walked across Madrid to get there and arrived there at midnight. With some time to kill we found a small bar/cafe that we could hang out in and kill some time. As we were there we were ordering drinks and again, not being able to speak spanish, Laura and I were being ignored at first, so this older man stepped up and ordered for us. We were so amazed and super thankful. So we sat there for a while enjoying our drinks and realized that the man was going in out from behind the counter. We put two and two together and realized that he was the owner of the bar. With the little spanish that we knew we asked what his name was and began conversing with him a little, and this man is was Alfred.

Alfred was a super friendly guy who has never been to California and really enjoyed talking to us. He bought us free chupitos and even had a few cocktails with us as well. He seemed really grateful that we had come in an talked to him and invited us back to his place of business the next morning for coffee. We were sad to tell him that we could not make because we were leaving to San Sebastian but he told us whenever we visit Madrid again we must go see him. He was a real hoot to talk to! Alfred even kept his bar open longer until we left haha, it was such an honor in a sense. We said our goodbyes and did the whole double cheek kiss thing (which you do EVERYWHERE here) and went off to the discotec. It is on our to do list to go have coffee with Alfred! He was awesome.

And this leads us to the discotec.... the thing was HUGE!!!! Seven stories of different dance floors, bars, and lounges. It was was covered in techno lights with music blasting and people all around and our entire group danced the night away. We were using quite a lot of spanish here and it was really easy to get into the flow of speaking it which was nice. Something that I thought was funny about the club was that when Laura and I used the bathroom, we made two friends named Sarah and Christina. They lived in Madrid and wanted to practice their English and we wanted to practice our spanish so we were in the bathroom for a good half hour just talking to them. It reminded me of Chico where you always make friends with the girls you meet in the bathrooms at parties. It must be like a worldly accepted social norm. I was greatly intriuged by this. They were very sweet and friendly and also asked when we would be visiting Madrid again so we could meet up with them. Its nice to know that we have so many friends to connect up with in one of the biggest cities in all of Spain now! 4 million people live there! WOW!

It was a great way to end the Madrid tour and put us all in a more excited mood to leave for San Sebastian the next morning. We have four months of fun and insanity and experiences here in Spain and I know that each of them are going to be very very special!

Much Love,
The Koose

Madness In Madrid.

Madrid is AMAZING! In the past 48 hours I have seen so much and done so much that writing it all down is probably gonna be a little difficult, because I won't be able to do it justice! haha.

So as I said we arrived in Madrid and my luggage finally came so hooray! Alli has clothes and comfy shoes!!. The first day here we went on a walking tour of Madrid where we walked all over the city and went to a museum that displayed art from all the way back to the 15th century. It was absolutely beautiful, and there was soo much to see. Our tour guide was seriously legit. I think she is the most badass old tiny person I have ever met! seriously, her name is Maria and she is about 60 years or so old, and is on like 4'10 and she is soo feisty and fun. It was really funny when we were in the museum because she walks so fast and turns around corners so quickly that she would straight disappear and we couldn't find her in the sea of people. It was a good laugh!

After the museum we went through the city again and stopped at plaza mayor which is a large plaza (duh) in the center part of the city called La Puerta del Sol. the architecture all around Mardrid is crazy. It is so old and huge and beautiful and dramatic, you just want to stare at it for hours and take tons of pictures of course! which will be up on facebook really soon! We also got a tour of the royal palace which is beyond HUGE! it has a total of 2800 rooms and the 10 we went through were decorated and so amazing. Seriously, there were chandeliers EVERYWHERE and im not talking like little baby ones, im talking like ones that weigh up to 900 pounds. it was amazing!

Today we traveled to Segovia Spain and went through this huge castle that resembles the one of sleeping beauty's. It was beautiful and going inside was insane. There were knight gear everywhere and gold and the view on the hill side through the windows was unreal. I couldn't believe it!! Not gonna lie, I feel like a total badass now that I can say I have been to a real castle! haha. I would describe it all to you but I feel like the pictures i will post will say a lot more than I can.

We also went to the Madrid museum of modern art where there were orginal paintings by Dali and Picasso, including Picassos Guernica (google it) which was crazy. Its huge and has an entire room devoted to viewing it along with two gaurds that watch it all time. I couldn't believe as I was standing there that Picasso himself had painted that piece and I was standing write infront of it. It wasn't just a print, it wasn't a poster it was the REAL thing! I was seriously in awe. It has been one of my favorite parts of the trip so far!

Okay so now getting adjusted to this Spanish Culture. DEAR JESUS it is different haha. but not in a bad way just in a good way, despite jet lag, waking up at nine and walking four hours, i have been going out to bars with some of my friends that I have met, and it is crazy to think that the night just gets crackin at 2 am. People don't eat dinner here till like elven and you don't go ome till like 5 or 6. Although I have not made it to that late yet, i am working on it. I gotta show Spain what Chico is made of haha. I will say though that Siestas are my new favorite thing of life. I took a nap from 6 pm to 10 pm tonight and thats like totally normal here! haha I absolutely love it!

Trying to speak Spanish is kind of difficult but I am surviving, between my friends, my phrase book, and my hand gestures I have done well so far! but it is pretty difficult and I feel so bad not being able to respons sometimes haha. Me and Laura (my roommate and girl in my sorority) got laughed at getting beer last night and we have no idea why. It was pretty funny though so we didn't mind. Its just so funny being a foriengner for once. Something I am definitly going to have to get used to!

I am enjoying my time here in Madrid and I cannot wait to get to San Sebastian and move into my apartment...which is five blocks away from the beach might I add!! Its such a tough life I am living these days! haha ;]. It should be a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go to more bars and order tapas which are small appetizers and more drinks. I love being of legal drinking age! It is probably one of the best feelings in life, and I even got carded the other night and I proudly showed my I.D! its awesome haha. The food here is also amazing and the Spanish have a weird obsession with Ham, I am not sure why! but im not complaining haha!

The clubs are a lot of fun too and it was fun dancing the other night! I was almost challenged to a dance off against this other girl from Iowa on a completely different program than our group who was wasted, and was dancing all over the place but I ended up not doing it. Didn't want to pull out my awesome krumping skills just yet haha plus she was more fun to laugh at then actually talk to haha. Rediculous. but i love it! haha only the start of the insane stuff I am going to be witnessing and partaking in here in Spain and I am so excited to throw myself into all of it! San Sebastian here I come!! Get ready!! Miss you all!!

Much Love,
The Koose!

Landings, Luggage, and other things. Hello Madrid!

Mmmm a lingering Madrid Sunset!! : ]
So yesterday, I departed for my trip to Spain and after 1 Ten hour flight to London and another 2 hour plane flight, I am finally in Madrid for the next four days. Every one studying abroad through my program within Spain is here and there are about 80 of us. It still has not finally hit me yet that I am actually doing this, but as I sit on my twin bed in my hotel room...its starting to feel just a little bit more real!

Everyone here seems so friendly and kind, it looks like its going to be an all around good group going to San Sebastian. I predict we are all going to have an insane time and get along, tomorrow I find out my living arrangements for when I arrive there and I am super stoked.

Lets just say though.. that I am DEFINITLY not a fan of flying over long distances. I thought driving to Chico from Salinas was hard ( which is only 5 hrs), the ten hour flight from San Fran to London was rediculous. Although it didn't seem like a complete ten hours since I spent the entire time watching movies, but the time change really messes up your system. I am writing this as I am on like 26 hours of no sleep and it is 11 PM here. I cannot wait to crawl into my bed and pass out for the night. It still seems weird to me knowing that everyone back in California is really only half way into their day. It kinda makes me jealous for some how I believe if I were in that time zone I would not have this sleep deprivation. But hey, you have to roll with the punches and keep on going. Im on a trip of a life time right now.. do you really think I am going to complain? HELL NO! haha

The downside of all of the flying and airport nonsense is not only security, but the fact that as of right now as I lie here (in Madrid), my luggage is still in London. Somehow the baggage did not transfer onto the next flight to Madrid for any of the students so many are with out clothes for tomorrow. Thanks to Abigail, I am fully equipped..minus comfortable walking shoes but I will survive. Once we landed in madrid, passed customs, and went to claim our baggage, after five bags came out of the carosoel, we were notified that most of the luggage had not been retrieved and that took ANOTHER two hours of standing in line and waiting to give the airline our adress and them telling us that ur bags would be ato ur hotel the next day. 2 HOURS! We go to the airport at 3:330 and we didn't end up leaving until a little closer to 7. I wanted to die. My feet hurt, I was tired, I didn't even care about my luggage, i just was wanted to get out of that damn airport. It was like the Disneyland from HELL!

Now it is all taken care of and the bags should be her by tomorrow. Everyone is partaking in a walking tour of Madrid which should be both beautiful and exciting. Driving from the airport to the motel was beautiful and I fell inlove with the sky and architecture of each building. There are many statues and fountains placed around the city which give it an old feel and a sense of magic. You should see the City Hall. You couldn't even imagine the amazingness of it if you tried!

This is only just the begining but I am so excited to start this adventure! I love and miss everyone back at home and I promise to keep you updated! A happy birthday goes out to my mom and my best friend Abigail! I LOVE YOU BOTH! and i cna't wait to see you guys when i get back! This has been a long day but I am still so pumped and so ready to take the bull by the horns and be adventurous! These next couple of days in Madrid should be beautiful, interesting, and hopefully filled with fun! Love you guys!

The KooseA

Basically 2 days left.

So, 6 months, turned into 4, which turned into 36 days, which turned into me sitting here next to my suitcases completely packed, (underweight thankyouverymuch) with a little over 2 days left before I leave America the Beautiful for Spain. I have no clue where the time went, but I am honestly amazed that this is actually happening. I have no idea what to expect, who I will meet, what I will do, and what will happen over the couse of these next four months and although I am a little terrified, I have no doubt in my mind that I can do this. I want this, and needless to say, I am STOKED!

I think there are few things you should know about me before reading my blog (although most of you know me already)in order to know what you are getting yourselves into:
1. I am highly un predictable, I always say what comes to mind, Im fiesty, sassy to most, and I try not take shit off anyone.
2. I swear like a sailor, so please don't get offended, haha
3. I am not a person to turn down random excursions, adventures or new experiences.
4. I am not afraid of change, I live for it.
5. I'm not a normal girl, never have been, but I guess I'll let you be the judge of that.
6. I often do a lot of really weird, random stuff just for shits and giggles.
7. I intend on doing and experiencing everything possible in life, this is only the beginning.
8. I once chased my friend down the street with a frying pan, im kinda unpredictable.
9. I have a really big heart, I hope people don't take advantage of it.
10. I'm not afraid of a challenge.

So there is probably more but I hope to keep this blog updated so all of you can keep tabs on me (please don't forget about me!!) and see what I'm up to since the 9 hr. time difference may be a bit of a problem. So I hope you guys find this entertaining, fun, and enjoy it. I like to keep things light and funny, and I usually write blogs the way I would talk to one of my friends, so hopefully its just like I am right across from you like I would be sitting Meriam Library (if your from Chico) telling you everything instead of studying! :].

I am leaving behind a whole lot of people that I absolutely love more than life. My family, who is probably going to have a heart attack with out contacting me every five minutes, my best friends whose 21st birthdays I am going to miss, My roommates, who have shared many crazy times with me, My chico family: complete with dysfunctional alcoholism and a whole lot a of love as well as my main ladies and my favorite boys both of which and I can never imagine my life without,and some people that they don't even know how much i am impacted by them. These people have given me so much love and so many great times and are partially for the person that I have become and my love for life. I want you all to know that I love you all so much and I will be back sooner than you know it. Everyone can skype me almost any time at : allikuska so do it I dare you. Its going to be the craziest, different, awesome, freaky, intense, weird, fun, ugly, beautiful, fabulous, unreal, 4 months of my life and I can't wait to share it with each and every one of you! So lets bring it on SPAIN, cuz I'm ready to show you what I'm made of!

Much love,
The Koose