Best Week(end) Ever...

This evening, I woke up from the best 4 hour nap I have ever taken. That in itself is a bold statement considering that I am the Queen of Naps. But this nap trumped them all. I finally hit my pillow after being up for 30 consecutive hours; my springy, creaky, puny bed felt exactly like one of those puffy, perfect clouds you see when you look out the window of an airplane. What was I doing in these 30 hours you might ask? Well, living it up in Madrid of course.

At 7:30 a.m. this past Friday, I boarded the plane to Madrid to begin one of the best weekends of my life. Thank you EasyJet. We arrived at Cats Hostel, which was AMAZING by the way, at around 11 a.m. and began roaming the city. Abi, Brooke and I wandered through the streets of Madrid, stopping at beautiful plazas and churches and admiring the beautiful people of Spain. With no direction and no plan, we decided to spend our first day enjoying the sun and hustle and bustle of the Plaza Mayor. Gelato in hand, we sat basking in the rays and watching all the street performers and people go about their day. It was amazing and a great change of pace for all of us. Then we reluctantly made our way back to the hostel, took a 3 hour power nap and decided to kill some time and a couple pitchers of Sangria while we waiting for the rest of our group to get in.

Dressed and ready to go at around 7 p.m., we found our way to a restaurant called La Tia Cebolla (accento sobre la "i") and decided this is where we were going to satisfy our sangria fix. All I can say is...buena idea. The waiters were friendly, the sangria was tasty and the bar snacks kept on coming. By 9:30 we were feeling good and ready to meet up with the guys and take on the evening. And so we did. It was a full night of laughing, dancing, drinking and soaking up the perfection that is Spain. And so at 4 a.m., when I couldn't bare my heels anymore, we made our way home for a few hours of shut eye.

The next morning, after my complimentary croissant and orange juice, I got ready to greet the day in Spain. All 9 of us set out to see the sights of Madrid. We made our way to La Reina Sofia, the Prado and   the Royal Palace but these places were nowhere near my favorites. For me, it was sauntering through the gorgeous parks, eating peanuts and laughing. It was sitting in the Plaza Mayor with frozen yogurt, taking pictures of a sad excuse for a Spiderman and talking about how lucky we felt being in Spain. It was sneaking back into our hostel to snag a spot on a couch and relax after Brooke, Abi and I had already checked out. It was the witty banter, toasts over dinner and side streets less traveled that made the trip what it was. Perfect. The churros and chocolate at 3 a.m., between the nightclub and the flight, wasn't bad either. Though admittedly, and please do not judge, I might have preferred the Dominos around the corner.

And so, at 4:30 a.m., we cabbed it to the airport. I had another croissant and slept in the terminal while we waited for our plane to arrive. Even though my feet hurt (I'm still having trouble walking), I looked like a hot mess and was delirious from lack of sleep, I would not change anything about the trip for the world. I'd like to leave you with my final exchange in Spain before boarding the plane.

Me: "I am going to leave Spain with as much dignity as I possibly can."

Brooke: "Alisa, you have croissant in your hair."

Me: "Right. Obviously..."

And we all erupt with laughter...which seemed to be the theme of the trip. Cheers!

Kooky Things My Professor Says...

So I've been told on many occasions by family, friends, random acquaintances and otherwise that I have a strangely expansive vocabulary. Not to toot my own horn, but I too believe this to be true. I have been known to come up with an original pet name or two and if I'm feeling extra on my game I can even incorporate phrases like "off her rocker", "toasted my noodle" and "outer Kishnev" into my everyday lingo. Because I have such an appreciation for the spoken word, I have decided to take note of everything my theatre professor says. This woman is a riot and can easily trump any word, phrase, insult, pet name etc. that I could ever think of...even on my best days.

To begin,

1. Toffee-nosed: stuck up, looks down on others
2. Had his fingers in many pies: doing too many things at one time (this one caught me off guard because I found it kinda gross)
3. "You can't buy a bun without it having a sexual connotation to it..."-- I just thought this was funny because...well if you ever heard her talk you would have too.

Instead of taking legitimate notes, I will dedicate myself to documenting each quirky thing she says. And then update you all immediately. Cheers!

This Week I...

1. Attempted to get tickets to Le Mis an hour before the show. Fail. Apparently these "student discount" tickets that everyone is talking about are a myth. But if anyone is going to finagle their way into a Broadway show...it's me.

2. Almost got my ass kicked on the Tube by two drunks. Really glad I didn't. That is all.

3. Tried a tuna sandwich with pesto...kinda weird. Kinda dug it.

4. Tried Indian food for the first time! Now this one was really exciting. Obviously me being me, I asked the man at the counter a million questions and tried a million samples of different curry--they were all realllllly good. Don't ask me what I ordered though, I have no clue. All I know is I ate about a pound of nan and a whole lotta chickpeas and curry. For my first time, I'd say I did pretty good. The place we went to was down a little road (at first I was a little nervous) but when we got there it seemed like Brick Lane's best kept secret. The restaurant was called Sweet and Spicy...so i guess it's not so secret anymore :-)

Regardless, while I was eating, I tried to channel my inner Adam Richman. I think it worked for the most part. I wouldn't say that Man won, but I definitely put up a good fight.

Couldn't tell you what this was but it was rullll good.

Commencing my feast

Mid to end of feasting. I tried man, I tried.

Brianne kicked ass.

Tonight, in the Sweet and Spicy Indian food challenge...

MAN (specifically Brianne) won.

Ben's Cookies Part Deux: The White Chocolate Cranberry

just a little shop in Bath

Ben's Cookies :-)

Gotta try em all

Trip To Stonehenge and Bath

stonehendge

beautiful church in bath

dog that looks like syd syd :-)

bath

beautiful views!!

Classes have Begun!

So I've started a few of my classes and am already loving them! Luckily for me, each of my teachers might as well have walked out of Harry Potter. One of them is exactly like Professor Trelawney and it is SUPERB. She's my theatre teacher which makes it even better.

For anyone who knows me...you will soon understand why I am sooooo excited about this class. I get to see a play every Tuesday--amazing.  The next day in class we just sit around and analyze the actors, set, costumes, lighting and so on--DOUBLE AMAZING.

My teacher is beyond knowledgeable and is super quirky. She's a tiny, older Scottish woman with an extremely expressive voice and appreciation for a good sense of humor. Not to mention--she's been on like a million pilgrimages all over while following the work of her favorite authors and playwrights. Not only is that dedication, but it's ridiculously cool.

Another one of my teachers could very well prove to be the Dumbledoor of the bunch. He is wickedly funny and sarcastic but also seems to have a genuine interest in his students. He asked my class about the type of people we are, where we came from, what we are interested and what we'd like to get out of the class.

That's about ten times more than the majority of my professors have ever asked me in my college career this far, mind you.

Weirdly enough, I kinda just like listening him to him speak. It's so proper and...well gorgeous sounding for lack of a better word. He also did a little activity that I thought was interesting--in order to illustrate the importance of newspapers to the British, he compared each of the students in class to one of the 10 newspapers he brought in just based on snap judgements.

I wrote down the descriptions of each of the newspapers. I've been thinking about which of my friends correspond to each of the papers. Mwaahahaha...more to come :-)

Cheers!

Note

a guy on my trip almost got kicked out of a bar for innocently trying to "dougie" the other night...

not only is that one of the funniest stories i have ever heard but i'm glad to know that they do not take well to the "dougie" overseas...not like i was planning on doing it myself.