This Is Spain

An epic year in 20 minutes.

adjustments

back to the real world

it's really strange to be home. i kind of feel like it's just a break and i will be back to Spain in a couple weeks! but it's so nice to be with my family and it's like nothing changed. i am really anxious to get back to school because Palm Harbor just isn't as exciting as Barcelona.

the hardest thing to get used to is when i walk outside and no one is there! and i have to drive everywhere. and it's so quiet! it's also extremely humid here and hard to breathe. but i will get used to that again soon enough.

i have been eating all-american food and it's been great. i forgot how much i missed some things. cheeseburgers are the #1 thing!!! the beef in Spain just isn't so great. but it's weird when we finish dinner and the sun is still out. i'm also getting used to tv again which is weird. i forgot how many stupid reality shows are on and now i think it was better without tv. i did turn on the Spanish channel though and could understand :) they were talking about Lindsay Lohan going to jail......

the good thing is, i found a house in Orlando and it's with 4 randoms so i'm excited! i'm kind of glad i'm not living with friends so that i will meet new people and i will have something to look forward too. i need to find things that will keep me busy and i hope these people are fun!

all i know is things will never be the same

what airline is this?

my flight home.

after all i went through on my way home, i have to say i am a very lucky girl.

i get to the airport. they are checking my luggage and tell me i can only check two bags and it can only be 60 kilos. i tell them i have my life with me and i have three bags. the lady asks if i can stick one into the other. this is going to be a long day.

i start taking things out of one bag that i will need, and try making room in another to fit it in. i'm there about 10 minutes and then the lady goes, okay you know what, you have less than 60 kilos so just check all three bags. halleluyah!

so the first hurdle is down. i get through security, and then comes the gate. when you go through the gate, they have to check your passport since it's to America and they want to know how long you have been there to make sure you didn't overstay, etc. you can only stay for 90 days as a tourist. if you overstay with no visa or anything, you could either be put in jail or fined about $1,000.

i walk up to the guy, he smiles at me, takes my passport, smiles at my passport (the picture's pretty bad). he's flipping through it, and asks when i got to Spain. i say January instead of August, since i went home and came back. he shakes his head, and shows me my visa. of course, it's about six months expired. i just say, "oh, that was from last year."

he goes, "yes, so where is your stamp?" as in, my stamp of when i came back in. i showed him the one of when i came back and it's from December 31. close enough to January. he shakes his head. i just look at him kind of confused, praying i won't be turned away or called aside or anything, and crack a smile. he gestures behind him and says, "just go, just go." i made it!

second hurdle down.

so i get to the gate and my airline is Pakastani Airlines. i know, what was i thinking. i was probably the only white girl there. so as we're getting on the plane, they have to check every bag, every person. there is a huge line, and they sit there and take everything out of your carry on. they reach me finally, and they take my bag, take everything out, open everything. they open my books and leaf through every page. they tell me to turn on my laptop. they open my gum back, all my medicine boxes, everything. then they pat me down. this i passed of course, it just took forever!

the plane to Chicago was not full at all. probably because it's Pakastani and nobody wants to get on that! only a few movies were American, the rest were in their language. the food was Pakastani, there was tea with every meal, the announcements were in their language. the good thing was there were extra seats so that meant extra space to spread out!

in the end, i made it to Chicago. nine hours later.

my flight from Chicago to Florida was nothing after that. i lost one bag, and it was all shoes (i know, that's sad). but i filled out a form and they sent it to my house the next day.

my first thoughts in the airport coming home:
what time is it?
the diet coke tastes weird.
everyone is speaking English.

it is now Sunday and my arms still hurt from the IVs in the hospital.

the end.

my last two days in Barcelona were not ideal. of course i can't end on a normal day! i am Murphy's Law.

monday afternoon i woke up late and i couldn't even get out of bed. i was exhausted. i just laid there for an hour and then finally got up and decided i should pack. i started folding some clothes but i was just so exhausted and drained i couldn't even do it. i stopped and laid back in my bed. i fell asleep. i woke up again later, still exhausted. but this time i felt sick too. i tried to pack again and only got like one shirt in. i tried drinking some water and couldn't even get it down. i knew i wouldn't be able to eat anything. i started getting kind of dizzy and short of breath, and then it hurt whenever i tried to breathe normal. i had no idea what was happening!!! my blood sugar was really high, so i figured that was it. it wouldn't go down, and i ended up taking myself to the hospital. no one was home so i just googled one and took the metro. i think that was a bad move but i was probably delirious and just went.

by the time i got to the hospital, i could barely breathe and was in so much pain. i was talking to some nurses and they wouldn't take me to a room so i told them just give me a shot of insulin right there becaues i thought i was going to pass out. once i started crying they took me away! of course i had to do all of this in Spanish, and it's really amazing what you can say in an emergency.

they took me to a room and hooked me up to all these IVs of water and insulin and glucose, etc. etc. it hurt so bad. my blood sugar took forever to come down because they just had me on an IV with a tiny bit going in at a time. i needed a full shot to get it down quick! but i never got one. about 6 hours later and 7 liters of water in me later, it was finally back to normal. they took a million blood tests and just kept sticking me!

in the end, they said i should stay overnight. they wanted to make sure it stayed down and everything else was okay. they even took x-rays. i passed out and slept for the entire time i was there, any time nobody was doing anything to me. in the morning they finally fed me and gave me an actual cup to drink out of. i was DYING of thirst! an IV doesn't cut it.

after awhile my blood sugar became 37, which is extremely low, and i thought, i'm never going to get out of here. they gave me some sugar, took more tests, blah blah blah. i talked to about 20 doctors. the cool thing was that all of the nurses were really young and would just come and talk to me about other things so that i was distracted. they kept asking why i was by myself and one of the doctors gave me his phone to call someone so they knew where i was. my friend olivia ended up coming by to see me.

so i'm there tuesday and they are finally saying things are stable and my tests are coming out okay. then some specialist guy comes in and tells me he wants me to stay. i told him no way! i have a plane across the ocean tomorrow! he actually asked if i would change my flight. i said no, and i was very stubborn. if they said i was okay, and i felt okay, i was going to leave. a few hours later he asked if i could stay one more night and just leave straight from the hospital to go to the airport. um, what?? who would want to do that! plus i had to pack. i told him that. he asked if someone could pack and bring my bags. i think olivia would have done it, but there was no way i would make her and there was no way i'd go from the hospital to the airport.

in the end, at about 7pm on tuesday, they let me go. they gave me new insulin that would last for about a week. now that i am home i have a new pump that is working fine and everything is back to normal.

i would have been so upset to spend my last night in the hospital. i didn't go out and party or anything, but my boyfriend came over and we just hung out and i'm glad i spent my last day with him. i had to say goodbye! that was the saddest thing though and i can't believe i actually left. i will be back.

CAMPEONES

we are the champions!

i'm sure you have heard because i am way late with this one, but Spain won the world cup!!! it was one of the most exciting nights of my life.

i went to a bar with my friend and we got there an hour early and it was completely full already. we watched the first half of the game there and then we got hungry. they were out of food! so we left and went to another place that actually had a seat and a gigantic huge screen tv and the best pizza ever.

we went into two overtimes and it was so intense and exciting and crazy and i can't even explain!
once we won, the restaurant basically turned over. of course, the next thing is to take to the streets. so so so many people, so much red and yellow. so many flags. people getting naked. people climbing the street signs and traffic lights. fireworks. beer flying. it was awesome.

i'll have pictures later.

tick tick tick

this is what happens when you piss off Catalunyans:
Saturday in Barcelona, super intense day and needs to be addressed!

so Saturday i walk outside thinking it's a normal day... (not normal, on any given saturday, never think this), but, i just thought nothing would be going on for once i guess? so i get outside, and this is what i see:

everyone is Catalan, everyone has flags, everyone is angry.

this is what went down (in short):

Catalonia has its own Constitution. Spain thinks some of Catalonia's amendments are unconstitutional. so Spain tells Catalunya they are taking those amendments out. They are restricting the Constitution. of an entire nation. this is so serious for them. i've never seen any country (or any person for that matter) so intense and passionate about one thing in my whole life. it's not PETA against a meat-eating person, it's not a Christian against a Jewish person, this is serious!!! get it??

so basically, Catalunya is more "Spain" now. but  they waved their flags of "Adeu Epanya!" (goodbye spain). they know what they want. they want what they want. they will continue to be and speak and act different than any other "nation." they don't even support the Spanish football team. that is serious!

change of tongue?

i find myself saying some things in English that are literally translated from Spanish, but they are things that i would never say a year ago. this is hard to explain. but for example:

"dime algo" means like, "tell me what you think," or maybe even better, "let me know." but literally, it means, "tell me something." so sometimes i will just say "tell me something!" when i am talking. it's not that awkward, but still i never said it before.

another one:
i will say "mas o menos" at all times, even when talking English. it just means "kind of." sometimes i will even mess up my English sentences because when you translate them literally, the words are in different order. so i will say something like, "at the beach, there also is restaurants." or, "how it is?" instead of, "how is it?"

some other things i have noticed, only because my sister told me this one:
when i ask questions, i state them instead and then end with a, no? as in: "you have been there many times, no?"
and since she told me that, i also notice i say Spanish noises, like ay and ufff, which they always say. like instead of ugh. also, when i am typing online, when i laugh i say, jaja, instead of, haha. swearing is also more fun in Spanish because i feel like i'm not swearing at all :)
also, they say yes and no like three times each, never just once. so now i do that, even in English.

i don't know, it's all strange and weird but it's funny to me. i am getting better, and the coolest thing is that Catalan is getting easier to read! i can make out most things. and some foods i don't even know in Spanish but in Cataln i do, since everything at the groceries are labeled in Catalan. i hope i can go home and speak normal. broken English is only cool if you have an accent.