Seriously someone needs to put a straight jacket on me right now, I'm so sky high, full of ambition, creative energy, passion.I'm starting to get so antsy I can hardly stand it!!!
Don't get me wrong my experience in Spain thus far has been the best and most challenging experience of my life, it's made me grow A LOT as a person, just like I was hoping it would. However, I'm starting to get ridiculously antsy now to get back to the US, find a job, and dive in to my career head-first. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I want to do and where I want to go, etc. Although I still have no earthly idea what I should do, I do know a few things. I have to be working in a creative environment, that involves music, and interacting with tons of ppl on a regular basis.
I really hate the place I'm at right now. What I mean by that is being in this awkward, in-between school and the real world place. I absolutely HATE not knowing what I'm going to be doing next. I dread having a few months of being stuck at home in Clemmons looking for jobs. Mark my words right now, I'm about to do some big things people, just you wait! I'm about to put my life/my job search/everything in to hardcore overdrive.
Being young, having recently graduated, and pretty much having the world at my fingertips right now is the most exhilarating- yet scary, feeling ever. I can pretty much go any which way I choose, it makes me so happy.
I've just been feeling very inspired, liberated, and ambitious lately, so I felt like sharing. :)
On that note.. here's the video for Rihanna's latest single "Rude Boy", the video has a really cool Andy Warhol, 80s Atari vibe (and it's being argued it's very similar to MIA's video for "Boyz") but regardless I really like the video and the song :)
---- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
CARNA-whatthehellhappenedlastweekend-VAL!!!
I am officially speechless after last weekend... okay let´s get serious, I´m never actually speechless, but I´m about as damn close as a person can get.
Danielle and I arrived at our hostel in La Orotava, Tenerife around 1 pm Thursday. This was following an exciting night of "sleeping" in the Madrid airport (which included a group full of Germans blasting techno from their laptop, talking obnoxiously loud, and banging the floor repeatedly), an unexpected 2 hr bus ride from the airport, the worst cup of coffee of my life, and another bus for 1 hr to get to our hostel. Needless to say, we were both exhausted. But we pushed through, because we were after all in a tropical paradise of sorts.
When we arrived, almost immediately, we met 2 other Americans who are studying abroad in Madrid who were super nice. We all went on a walk down to the beach (which I swear appeared to be a 10 min walk from
our hostel and really turned out to be 1 1/2 hours away) and almost got killed when we got sidetracked and ended up walking along the highway. A bird pooped on my head, that was pretty sweet. We spent the evening 
walking along the boardwalk and frollicking on the beach in Puerta de la Cruz, a cute little beach town. We had a nice little dinner- I had a maragarita (obviously) and pizza.. I´m so lame I know! We ended the night drinking wine on the roof of our hostel, ahhhhh.
Friday, the rest of our group arrived, so we spent the day shopping for Carnaval costumes, exploring some more, and bracing ourselves for the weekend to come. Friday afternoon, I went out to lunch at this amazing restaurant. It was inside an old mansion-turned hotel/museum/restaurant and we ate on a covered wodden porch that overlooked the Island and had the most gorgeous view. For $15 I got a 3 course meal (cream of vegetable soup, grilled tuna and potatoes, and a typical Canarian dessert called "golfi"). There was also a live chicken just walking around the restaurant while we ate, luckily no one ordered chicken to eat.
Saturday the weather was beautiful, in the mid-upper 70s and sunny so obviously we spent the day lounging on the beach. Because of the volcano, the beaches are all black-sand beaches so it was really cool
for me because I´d never seen that before. I bought some super ugly flip flops, a couple postcards, and a really cute towel that says Canary Islands.. I figured it's not everyday you see someone at home with a Canary Islands towel so it'll be fun to show off. :)
Saturday night (also my last night there) we decided to stay in Puerta de la Cruz b/c there was a music competition and a lot of stuff going on there, not to mention it was closer to our hostel and much more convenient. We went out around 10:30 or so with a group of about 10-ish ppl and we somehow picked up a few more people along the way and we all managed to stay together for the most part this time. We spent the night drinking, laughing, and dancing and I don't think I've laughed so hard and so much in a long time! We nicknamed this night "noche de gratis" (free night) because we somehow wound up getting a lot of food and drinks for free. Infact at one point in
the night, Danielle actually paid for her beer with the condoms we had gotten from the Red Cross earlier in the night.. only at Carnaval can u buy a beer with condoms! haha The original plan WAS to stay out until about 2 then go back to the hostel to sleep for a few hours because Danielle and I had to take a 6:30 am bus to the airport to catch our 8:40 flight. Wellllll about that.... Once 2 am rolled around, we figured it would be in our best interest to just push through and stay out all night b/c when are we gonna be partying in The Canary Islands for Carnaval again anytime soon? Exactly. So... we made it till about 5 and then went back to shower and catch the bus. The sleep deprivation (that I'm still trying to compensate for/recover from 2 days later) was well worth it!
Soooo... with all that said, this weekend was by far one of the best trips/weekends I've had in a long time. Carnaval was the experience of a lifetime and one I will never ever ever forget. If anyone reading this has a chance to go experience it for yourself, a HIGHLY recommend it-- just stay longer than a weekend because lord knows I wish I was still there now! Here's some pictures for anyone who hasn't joined the rest of the world on facebook yet:
Danielle and I arrived at our hostel in La Orotava, Tenerife around 1 pm Thursday. This was following an exciting night of "sleeping" in the Madrid airport (which included a group full of Germans blasting techno from their laptop, talking obnoxiously loud, and banging the floor repeatedly), an unexpected 2 hr bus ride from the airport, the worst cup of coffee of my life, and another bus for 1 hr to get to our hostel. Needless to say, we were both exhausted. But we pushed through, because we were after all in a tropical paradise of sorts.
Tenerife was one of the most beautiful places I´ve been. With a constant temperature of approx. 70 degrees, tropical plants, palm trees, a volcano, snow-peaked mountains, and black-sand beaches, it has virtually everything you can imagine. It was one of those places that you can be content just exploring for days.
When we arrived, almost immediately, we met 2 other Americans who are studying abroad in Madrid who were super nice. We all went on a walk down to the beach (which I swear appeared to be a 10 min walk from
our hostel and really turned out to be 1 1/2 hours away) and almost got killed when we got sidetracked and ended up walking along the highway. A bird pooped on my head, that was pretty sweet. We spent the evening 
walking along the boardwalk and frollicking on the beach in Puerta de la Cruz, a cute little beach town. We had a nice little dinner- I had a maragarita (obviously) and pizza.. I´m so lame I know! We ended the night drinking wine on the roof of our hostel, ahhhhh.
Friday, the rest of our group arrived, so we spent the day shopping for Carnaval costumes, exploring some more, and bracing ourselves for the weekend to come. Friday afternoon, I went out to lunch at this amazing restaurant. It was inside an old mansion-turned hotel/museum/restaurant and we ate on a covered wodden porch that overlooked the Island and had the most gorgeous view. For $15 I got a 3 course meal (cream of vegetable soup, grilled tuna and potatoes, and a typical Canarian dessert called "golfi"). There was also a live chicken just walking around the restaurant while we ate, luckily no one ordered chicken to eat.
Friday night we got dressed up in our costumes and headed into Santa Cruz (the big city in Tenerife) for the opening parade of Carnaval. All the "Carnaval Queens" ride in elaborate floats through the streets along 
with a million cross-dressers, ppl in ridiculous costumes, and a million other floats and bands etc. I´ve seriously never seen so many ppl in one place in my life, there must have been 100s of thousands of people there. We threw back a few sodas and stumbled upon (literally- just kidding Mom!) an amazing spot to catch the parade. We spent the first part of the night dancing, enjoying the parade, and taking breaks to hacer un pis (take a pee) and take chupitos de vodka with cross dressers in bars. Circa 1 am I (along with Danielle, and our 2 new friends from California) ended up on the floats in the parade. First we were on a fireman (bombero) float complete with free rum and cokes and fire hoses to play with (get your mind out of the gutter, there were literally fire hoses). After getting kicked-off that float, we managed to find our way on to a hippie float. What a surprise, finding myself in the center of attention, even in the middle of Carnaval in The Canary Islands. Somehow everyone made it home in one piece that night, even though many of us got there at 
different times. One of the guys we met
actually ended up passed out on the neighbors roof in his Roman soldier outfit, can you imagine when they discovered that in the morning? haha Bottom line- Friday=ridiculous.
with a million cross-dressers, ppl in ridiculous costumes, and a million other floats and bands etc. I´ve seriously never seen so many ppl in one place in my life, there must have been 100s of thousands of people there. We threw back a few sodas and stumbled upon (literally- just kidding Mom!) an amazing spot to catch the parade. We spent the first part of the night dancing, enjoying the parade, and taking breaks to hacer un pis (take a pee) and take chupitos de vodka with cross dressers in bars. Circa 1 am I (along with Danielle, and our 2 new friends from California) ended up on the floats in the parade. First we were on a fireman (bombero) float complete with free rum and cokes and fire hoses to play with (get your mind out of the gutter, there were literally fire hoses). After getting kicked-off that float, we managed to find our way on to a hippie float. What a surprise, finding myself in the center of attention, even in the middle of Carnaval in The Canary Islands. Somehow everyone made it home in one piece that night, even though many of us got there at 
different times. One of the guys we metactually ended up passed out on the neighbors roof in his Roman soldier outfit, can you imagine when they discovered that in the morning? haha Bottom line- Friday=ridiculous.
Saturday the weather was beautiful, in the mid-upper 70s and sunny so obviously we spent the day lounging on the beach. Because of the volcano, the beaches are all black-sand beaches so it was really cool
for me because I´d never seen that before. I bought some super ugly flip flops, a couple postcards, and a really cute towel that says Canary Islands.. I figured it's not everyday you see someone at home with a Canary Islands towel so it'll be fun to show off. :)Saturday night (also my last night there) we decided to stay in Puerta de la Cruz b/c there was a music competition and a lot of stuff going on there, not to mention it was closer to our hostel and much more convenient. We went out around 10:30 or so with a group of about 10-ish ppl and we somehow picked up a few more people along the way and we all managed to stay together for the most part this time. We spent the night drinking, laughing, and dancing and I don't think I've laughed so hard and so much in a long time! We nicknamed this night "noche de gratis" (free night) because we somehow wound up getting a lot of food and drinks for free. Infact at one point in
the night, Danielle actually paid for her beer with the condoms we had gotten from the Red Cross earlier in the night.. only at Carnaval can u buy a beer with condoms! haha The original plan WAS to stay out until about 2 then go back to the hostel to sleep for a few hours because Danielle and I had to take a 6:30 am bus to the airport to catch our 8:40 flight. Wellllll about that.... Once 2 am rolled around, we figured it would be in our best interest to just push through and stay out all night b/c when are we gonna be partying in The Canary Islands for Carnaval again anytime soon? Exactly. So... we made it till about 5 and then went back to shower and catch the bus. The sleep deprivation (that I'm still trying to compensate for/recover from 2 days later) was well worth it!Soooo... with all that said, this weekend was by far one of the best trips/weekends I've had in a long time. Carnaval was the experience of a lifetime and one I will never ever ever forget. If anyone reading this has a chance to go experience it for yourself, a HIGHLY recommend it-- just stay longer than a weekend because lord knows I wish I was still there now! Here's some pictures for anyone who hasn't joined the rest of the world on facebook yet:
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