The Goodbye: Bittersweet at best.

Soo here I am again. With 4 days left and my suitcases sit right next to me..almost all packed. Its a weird, bittersweet feeling to say the least and it does not seem that 4 months ago I was sitting in my living room creating this blog for the first time with only two days left before I said goodbye to America. My thoughts, and outlook seemed so different then, so clueless and nervous about what was going to happen to me when I came here. I was so scared and terrified yet ready to brave the unknown. Now, as I sit here at the end of the journey, after all the adventures, I am reluctant yet excited to leave. Its always hard for me to leave a place. I was a MESS when I had to leave Chico, and now I am pretty sure I'll be a MESS when I leave here too, but I know that this isn't the end. I will be back and I will see all of the amazing people I have met once again. It is a MUST!

So much has happened in the last four months and I have tried my absolute best to write down every single detail in this blog, however getting the emotions across are a little difficult and I can not even begin to describe what being here has felt like. Amazing, exciting, beautiful, nerve wrecking, unreal. Its impossible but I can only say that I am damn glad that I have lived here to witness what I claim to believe as some of the best 4 months that I have ever had in my entire life. I don't want to return to California on the sole fact alone that that solidifies that my time living in Spain is over and I am only left to remember it as if it was a dream. It wasn't a dream though, it was real, every day life and I am so blessed to have the ability to spend it in San Sebastian, Spain with 35 other people that each are now so special to me and I have grown to know and love.

The long nights and early mornings that started at an apartment, went to a bar, and ended up on the beach only to finally reach my apartment at 8 am and go to sleep will always be remembered as well as the sights I have witnessed through my travels and the inside jokes with my ladies of morning surf hour. I have the pictures of Carnival to remind me of the madness, the marks on my shoes to prove all the miles I walked to and from to school every morning, and the sand in my purse, suitcase, and pretty much every where else to solidify my love of the Atlantic Ocean. Again, I could go on and on about everything I have done and tell you only amazing things about the people that I have met but I would never be complete. I would have so much to say!

My awesome roommates Laura and Morgan made my experience so great and I was so blessed to have our little unit of Jose Arana, and become so close. They are a huge part of all my adventures here and there is never a dull moment in our apartment. With our 3 hour sessions with Pedro, being stared at on the street like we were aliens, hiking to ur mountain behind out house and our endless random days and nights of jokes it was always a great time. Hannah became a huge part of our home too with morning surf hour and making sure we all ended up out at least one night of the week. I love my girls and it truly would not be the same with out them!

I am leaving here with so much love for the world, people both states and oceans apart and so much appreciation for my life back home and my family and friends that go with it. I am so excited to hop off that plane in San Francisco on Friday, jump in Abigail's car and drive up to Chico to be there just in time for 5 dollar pitchers at rileys with all my friends to celebrate Graduation, The end of finals and beginning of Summer, and of course, my homecoming. So if you all are reading this, 6:30 PM Friday, May 20th, come find me of 5th street! : ) I feel like now I leave a piece of my heart where ever I go, I guess I have a lot to give, but I left a majority of it back in Chico, California and now a huge chunk will forever be left here in San Sebastian, Espana, especially on the sand of Zurriola Beach!

These last few days here have been some of my favorite although it is hard to really choose. Our USAC family has been coming together every night for family dinners made in Hannah's kitchen by all of us where we all then eat together and talk for hours which is then usually followed by a night of typical Spain rediculousness of all going out together and usually ending up at our most frequented bar BUGA where Oscar lovingly gives us alcohol haha. Its been so great to spend so much time with all of us together and just be funny and loud and young and crazy. Friday we went to another sideria which again there was a never a dull moment. I feel so happy and stoked on life to be surrounded by so much and so much love and I am going to miss this family when we leave, although it is sure as hell promised that a lot of them are returning to Chico for Halloween! ITS ABOUT TO BE CRAZY!!!! : )

I know this is probably one of the sappiest blogs I have ever written but I don't care. I absoulutely have loved living here and every minute that I have witnessed. Everyone was so concerned that I would fall in love with some one here and well although that may not have happened, I fell in love with a lot of concepts. I fell in love with the deisre to understand a different language, I fell in love with the ocean and the surf report, I fell inlove for sleepless nights with some of my favorite people, I fell in love with traveling, I fell in love with city after city, and of course I fell in love with Spain. Most importantly I believe, is that I fell in love with the thrill of adventure and this is the most important that I will continue to pursue and take back with me to America and along all of my travels in the future, becuase still, this is only the beginning of what is to come!

I am sad to leave here and close this chapter but I am ready to see what comes next for me this summer in Chico being a 21 year old and once again attempting to survive summer school. I will have my friends by my side as well as my beautiful roommates de Espana and I am so stoked. I no longer sense nervousness in the future or andy fear. That shit went out the window the minute I tried moving into the wrong apartment. I have learned to laugh at myself even more and to appreciate every curve ball, road bump, and surprise that is thrown at me. I really have become a certified adventurer of life and I am so excited to pursue so many different excursions. So feel free to come and join me.

These next four days are going to be amazingly fun, overwhelmingly emotional, and definitely memorable. I am so excited! So here it is: Cheers to life, Cheers to Adventure and Cheers to the best 4 damn months that I have ever had in my life. Cheers to Spain. I hope that you all have enjoyed reading this blog and that it hopefully have inspired you to travel more or consider studying abroad. It has been one of the best decisions of my life and I am so thankful I am sitting here right now being able to type all of this to who ever wants to read it.

This isn't the end Europe, I will be back! Te amo europe y no es el ultimo, volvere en el futuro. Prometere lo y estoy muy emocionado!

Love all you guys, can't wait to see you back in the 530! 4 days <3
Much love,
The Koose!

And the goodbyes begin..

Soo I said goodbye to our landlord today and I would be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly bummed out. He just smiled and talked to us like he always does, was wearing plaid which made me smile, and said goodbye and safe travels and just walked out the door. I actually miss my 75 year old land lord who tricked us by telling us he didn't speak English and forced us to speak Spanish to him. He's a trickster but it was good practice. Seriously though, I'm sitting here bummed out and missing Pedro, this is obviously only a foreshadowing of what is to come with the rest of my friends here. The outlooks isn't good! Its gonna be real tough!

Also had to say goodbye to my surfboard today which was harder than I thought it was going to be too. I really didn't think I was that attached to it, but maybe I was more attached to surfing every morning so it was hard to give that up, especially since I'm not leaving right away. I know deep down though some one will buy it and I can only hope they have as much fun and adventure with it as I did. I could never think of a proper name for it but that board was awesome, bright, sun-shiney, and definitely served me well! : ) I am going to miss surfing every morning with mah girls, and walking along the beach to get to school. Just being able to soak in that Atlantic salt and the awesome scenery of San Sebastian. Its making me a little teary eyed! lol.

I have a little over 8 days left here and I fully intend on loving every minute of it and celebrating my time left here with some of the most incredible people I have ever met and have given the oppertunity to share this experience with. When it comes time to say goodbye to them you can only imagine that I am going to be super cheesy and sad but I am refusing to think about that or a countdown yet. Missing them is going to be an understatement and this is going to be a bittersweet goood bye at best. I love it here and as much as I didn't think it was possible but San Sebastian and the Basque Country has stolen a piece of my heart!

So here is a cheers to the next week and living it up the spaniard way and ending this semester and my 4 months here with a BANG! its a must. I am so excited to see all of you back in America and I know that the good times are still only begining. <3 I got soo much love for people even if it is now spread countries, continents, worlds part!

Much Love,
The Koose.

The UNREAL times of the Koose.

So here I am sitting back in my kitchen in my apartment in San Sebastian after my 15 day excursion all over Europe, and still I'm sitting here (even though its already been 4 days since I've returned) and still wondering if it was all real. If it actually happened, because in my mind there is no possible way that I just toured all of Europe and experienced things in my life that looking back about a year ago, or even six months, that I would have never imagined myself experiencing. Its seriously UNREAL. The only true word that describes it all.

During the past fifteen days I traveled to 5 countries including:

London, England
Paris, France
Prauge, Czech Republic
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barcelona, Spain

During this time I not only got to see part of the world but also got to see Mama and Brother Koose in London and Paris, spend some wonderful time with Michelle in her temporarily homeland of Prauge, and cause some trouble in AMsterdam and Barcelona with my lovely roommate Laura. I can definitely be honest when I say that with the help of all my friends and family I definitely made an impression on Europe and I will never forget this trip, and its sure going to be an adventure that is hard to top! I could write you a blog that is about 20 pages long with every detail of my trip but I feel like no one would ever make it through reading 20 pages basically bragging about my how my life is awesome, haha and I just don't have the heart to do that to anyone haha. So in brief I will tell you of each, and if you want the juicy, gorey, awesome details of everything else then I guess your just going to have to ask my personally! : )

London, England:

ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Never in my life have I ever seen so many people in my entire life and been to such a fast pace city but it was seriously awesome. Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Thames River, Big Ben, The Underground, Trofolger Square, Picidilly Circus, Oxford Circus! It was all amazing and I loved the rush of everyone and the bluntness of the british and just the look of the city. It has such an old, classic, yet beautiful and a sort of present personality to it all. I loved it! It was nice seeing my mom and brother and seeing them in Europe was also partly hilarious and comical. I guess I'm just far more adjusted to this place, but hey I have had a 3 month head start. It was also so nice hearing people speak English again, seriously almost music to my ears, and even though i felt like such a tourist, i didn't feel completely incompetent since i could speak the language! haha. All in all it was an incredible visit and i LOVED London.

Paris, France:

Also another great adventure with the kooses, however I must say that I am not a fan of French cab drivers. Seriously, homeboys like to trick you buy refusing to speak English (if they know it) and driving you around the block like 4 times until you finally end up at your hotel. Terrible. But aside from that the city is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL and has such an artistic and sophisticated vibe. Seeing the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and Luvre was so much fun and I really enjoyed just being around the Eiffel tower. I had to keep pinching myself because I legit thought that I was dreaming. It was crazy. Its huge, and it was standing right infront of me, and i just really could not believe it. Same thing with the Mona Lisa, I will forever remember the fact and treasure it that I got to see these magnificent places. Also my brother turned 25 while we were in Paris so we celebrated with going on a dinner cruise and seeing the sites of Paris via the water which was a great time. So much complimentary wine it was insane! haha but again so much fun and I could tell that Clinton could imagine no better way to celebrate be a quarter century old. shit, he will probably kill me for that one :) haha. After the cruise we stepped off the boat and we saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up and shiny and it was truly amazing. One of my favorite moments of the trip for sure!

Prauge, Czech Republic:

After a wonderful 6 days with my lovely family I left them in Paris and flew over to Prauge to see my lovely roommate de la Estados Unidos, Michelle, to show eastern Europe what we're made of! I was so glad that we were both bale to visit each other in our respective cities while abroad which made it even more awesome/special being able to share and combine both of our abroad experiences. Her mom was there for a short while with me as well and it was also nice to see mama Houck. :) We partook in a 20km bike ride through the Czech Republic where we ended up at an ancient castle and toured it. Michelle and I were quite proud of the fact that we survived that bike ride, guess even in Europe we are still pretty much badasses! My four days there were spent touring the city of Praha with Michelle and her friends Christie and Jenna which are absolutely hilarious by the way, as well as drinking many mojitos, and beer, and lets not forget about eating fried cheese. Yes, fried cheese. Which is super delicious by the way and basically a delicacy there and tastes like a huge mozarella stick..except it isn't mozarella. haha. We all had a great time at the hard rock cafe as well as going out on the town and crossing paths with a few british guys on a rugby team that were super fiesty and a whole lot of fun to hang out with. I also partook in a dance off against this italian guy which I believe that I rightfully one with putting my Krumping skills to good use haha. It was a great 4 days and I had a lot of fun seeing Michelle and doing what wonder twins do best: Cause trouble. :) also if you ever get the chance, go youtube soldiers lip syncing "Hold It Against Me" ... we watched it a bagillion times and I garuntee that you will not be disappointed! : )

Amsterdam, Netherlands:

So here is where I met up with one of my beautiful and lovely roommates Laura and our adventure together began. Let me just start by saying that Amsterdam is seriously so beyond beautiful I cannot even describe it. The best way to put it into words would be that if my brain exploded out of my body and became a city I would like to hope it would resemble something close to Amsterdam. It has such an eclectic vibe and the mass amount of people that ride bikes is not only unreal but so inspiring. Everything was clean and funky and the canals that run through the city as boats lie docked on the side only added to the beauty of it all. Everyone is so friendly and they sell delicious juice everywhere like it is no body's buisness! It has to be my absolute favorite city in the world...minus Chico of course :). I absolutely fell in love with it. We started our stay off there right by an inpromtu ride on this crazy carnival ride that swung around as it lifted us up to what I believe was like 60 meters in the air and it was AWESOME! Laura and I had such a great time and also inpromptu ended up on a bar crawl with some other great british people that we had met and decided to call me "Alli From Cali" it was seriously like freshman year all over again for a night and it was a great time. They were also very fun to drink, talk, and dance with and now they are my friends on face book so holla! haha. We jam packed a lot of things in only 2 days and went to the Van Gough museum which was so awesome, Ann Frank house which was incredibly moving, and the Heiniken brewery which was a whole lot of great fun. We also spent one afternoon in a park relaxing and even saw a 3D movie one night. Seriously, go see RIO! its awesome. I could write an entire 5 pages alone on Amsterdam, so if you want to know more I guess your just going to have to ask! haha. I am promising myself that I will return back there one day, because I am pretty sure that I left a piece of my heart there and I just can't get over the amazingness of that city. Again, it was UNREAL!

Barcelona, Spain:

After the amazingness that was Amsterdam we set off to Barcelona but not before waiting in like a bagillion lines at the airport and having to pay 30 euro to check our backpacks since you can't carry both a purse and backpack on the plane. TERRIBLE. Arriving in Barcelona went smoothly until Laura and I had to get on the metro to get to our hostel and this weird paint stuff got on our backpacks and we had to keep on going and these creepy guys tried to talk to us and I was so completely convinced they were trying to pickpocket us haha. I just wanted to run away. The quote of the night was "You have no idea how sketchy I feel right now." haha and it was true. After getting to our hostel and sleeping all night we woke up the next day and walked along the beach, ate awesome paella, drank some wine, oh and let us not forget our encounter with the 50 year old portuguese men who sat next to us at lunch and invited us out for beers later...we didn't go haha but it was a great time at lunch. So random. So funny. We also then fell asleep on the beach and later returned to our hostel where we found out it was Sangria night. Seriously, what hostel gives your free all you can drink sangria? AWESOME ONES!!. We ended up meeting a few more british friends names as well as a few canadians and ended up going to a few clubs with them that night! It was a great time and again, after sleeping in the next day we took the adventure to the north part of the city to get our bus tickets only to find out that our bus back to San Sebastian the next day was FULL! UH OH!. But no problem, we had to use two buses to get back but we made safe and sound!. That night we went and got more paella but only after being invited to eat dinner with these 3 Italian guys who were apparently models and spoke very little English. We speak NO italian. So our dinner was filled with a a lot of huh? what? once more? and a ton of laughter. They were like little kids, so rowdy and so funny, and it definitely was blog worthy to put in here.But if you want hte full lengthy detail story, again just ask me. Its pretty funny and rediculous. They kept trying to teach us italian phrases but we had no idea what they were making us say, it was really confusing and funny. That night we also met up with new friends from our hostel that ended up being from California (REPRESENT) and so we had to go out with them Between drinking a few beers and meeting some awesome french people that were part of a bachelor party, dancing with the groom to be ( who was dressed in drag haha... its a european thing), and hitting one of the most famous club in Spain: Razzmatazz we stayed up the entire night until it was time to check out and catch our bus, and I would have not had it any other way! It was awesome, and definitely a great way to end an awesome 15 day trip!

15 days, 5 countries, 4 planes, 2 oceans, 2 buses, and 1 train I had one of the most unreal trips of my life that I will never forget. I could not have asked for better places to visit, better people to meet, or better friends/family to spend it all with. It was such an amzing experience and adventure and it only continues to inspire me to travel wherever I possibly can in the future. Whether it is one county away or one country I am determined to make traveling a more apparent component in my life, and please don't be afraid to join me and come along for the ride, I always end up having a lot of fun some way some how and it is primarily because I always have great people to share the experience with.

I am now sitting in my apartment and my days are officially numbered here. 14 to be exact and if I only knew where the time went I would be able to tell you but in my mind it is still February 5, I have not even been here for a month and I am still trying to get used to speaking Spanish and eating a hamburger with a fork and knife. I guess time really does fly when your having fun, but I know one thing for sure that not only am I sad to see this chapter in my life come to a close but I would never change my experience, travels and adventure for the world. They have become a part of me and have helped shape me into the person that I am growing up to be. Not saying that I am so grown up now but I have seen a little bit more of the world now..its given me a little more experience as I continue to make mistakes, work hard, struggle, and triumph throughout my life. I obviously fully intend on living up these next four days as much as possible starting with morning surf hour with some of my favorite ladies in the morning. San Sebastian is not only a piece of my heart but a significant part of my life that I would never trade or take back. I absolutely love it here and I have to show my gratitude for this place by sharing jut a few more crazy times before I leave.

I hope you guy enjoyed my somewhat brief overview of my travels and I'm not done with this blog jsut yet, I still got 14 days : ). So get ready for just a few more awesome adventures from me, I know they are just around the corner. Missing and loving you all and you'll see me pretty damn soon. GET READY!!!

Much Love,
The Koose