Baby Baby it's a Wild World.

So, in the past week, I've had more small world encounters than I have in my entire stay in Belgium, and I really felt the need to share.

It all started in the Canary Islands when I met some people at a local bar, and we started talking.  We did the whole "where are you from?" game and find out they're from Switzerland.  When I said that I was from California, one of the guys goes "oh I have family in San Francisco" so of course, I ask where in SF.  Apparently they live in a city next to Palo Alto where I work, and he knew a lot of the San Jose and San Francisco suburbs. SO RANDOM.

SECOND small world encounter was at this super sweet club this past wednesday (no class on thursday this week so of course I went out!) It went a little something like this:

Random Guy: Hey where are you from?
Me: Oh I'm from Los Angeles
Random Guy: Really? Where in Los Angeles? I have cousins in Burbank.
Me: No way? I live right by Burbank!
...Random Guy: GLENDALE?!
Me: Why yes, actually..
Random Guy: Okay, I bet you know what ethnicity I am then!
Me: Uhh Armenian?
Random Guy: YES! You probably know a lot of Armenians huh? What are the most common names? Armen and Vahae?
Me: uh yes?
Random Guy: And all the Armenians guys drive BMWs and smoke cigarettes (pronounced see-guh-rettes)?

 We then continued to discuss KROQ's "Brow Down" video and other various Glendale related things.  

FINALLY, I was at the VeCo talent show last night, and my history professor (the Ecuadorian Barbie one) was there so I started chatting with her.  She asked if I was a study abroad and where I was from, so of course I told her Los Angeles.  Come to find out she lived in Los Angeles for a short period of time, and being from "LA"myself I asked where in LA she lived. GLENDALE. Of all the places in the world, my professor who is originally from Ecuador, and has lived in Belgium for 15 years, lived in Glendale, CA.

This def set me over the edge with small worldness.  My mind is blown how ridiculously small this world can be.

Mas Picturas De Lanzarote

My friends are awesome photographers, so here are some of there pictures from this past weekend.  Enjoy!

Adventuring in the National Park.

Laura, me, Jules, Mary, & Casey. Last night out in Famara :(

Me, Mary, Casey: right before we hit the surf!

My sand castle!

Hangin out on our roof! Laura, me, Brendan, Jules, Mary, Casey.

Beach right before sunset <3

La Vida es Mejor en Famara y en Espanol.

The weekend trip my friends and I have been talking about and looking forward to for months has finally come, and come to pass.  It hasn't even sunk in that I just spent 4 days in paradise with an incredible group of people. I'll start with a little background on how this trip came to be. Will, one of the many friends I've made here, is an avid surfer and was looking into places in Europe to surf, and discovered the island of Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands that are a territory of Spain. He didn't have to ask me twice if I wanted to take a weekend trip to this little slice of heaven for a weekend of surfing, sun, & speaking Spanish. We ended up getting a group of seven people including Will and myself together.  Our journey began on Wenesday night in a way, because the seven of us split up between Jules' and Will's houses for the night (or what turned out to be a few hours after some drinks at the Old Oak) because the airport shuttle was picking us up at 4 A.M. Thursday morning for our 7 A.M. flight from Brussels to Lanzarote. After a delirious shuttle ride, making our way through the airport, and through a 3.5 hour plane ride, we finally arrived in Lanzarote in the early afternoon. As you might pick up throughout this post, we really had no sense of time this weekend, and no need for it. No watches, clocks, or cell phones needed, although it took us entire day to even figure out we thought it was an hour earlier than it actually was, and what time it was because our phones did not pick up the hour time difference when we switched time zones.
We were lucky enough to be staying in what the locals call the Bungalows in a sleepy little surf town by the name of Famara. We rented 2 neighboring 2 bedroom bungalows with absolutely INCREDIBLE views.

The bungalow Jules, Mary, Casey & I shared.

The view of the sunset from our bungalow.

As soon as we got to the airport, we were picked up by Sergio, who ended up being one of the coolest people I have run across in a long time.  He is the owner of the surf shop Zoopark Famara that we took an all day surf lesson from.  From the airport, Sergio took us to the bungalows to drop our stuff off, then straight to Zoopark to pick up our boards, wetsuits, and jump right into our 4 hour day lesson! I can tell you the last time I was on a surfboard was when I was in Jr High probably, so needless to say it was an adventure to begin with, but I ended up doing extremely well and catching a number of waves, and falling even more in love with the ocean than I already am.

Sergio & his incredible surfshop Zoopark

Surfin safari.

So after a day of traveling, surfing, and sun, running on 3 hours of sleep, we were EXHAUSTED, yet we went home, showered up, and went our to one of the local bars for some BBQ, drinks, and laughs with some of the locals.

Brendan, Laura, Mary, Jules, Will & Casey, after a day of surfing :)

Tropical: beer of the Canary Islands. & some drinking & relaxing on our patio before we went into town.

Gorgeous sunset from our patio.

After yet another night of a few hours of sleep, we awoke the next morning a little groggy from the fun the night before and our adventure on our trek home from the bar in town. We used Friday as our recovery day, lounging on the beach, swimming, and Casey, Jules, & Will rented surfboards for the day & did a little more surfing! It was just what we all needed, and gave us the chance to soak in the beauty of this amazing desert island paradise. 

Bikinis & beach hair.

Yet again, that night we went into town to the second of 2 bars in the town of Famara. After another loooong night of drinking and making tons of new friends, we headed back home around 5 a.m. At this point, I don't know how I was a functioning individual. Saturday, Isabel who worked for the company we rented the bungalows from, let us borrow her car to drive out to the volcanic national park on the island.  After accidentally driving past the "park" twice, and trying to find a gas station before we ran out of gas, we made it.  It was a beautiful place, that reminded me of a mix between Kona, Hawaii, and the volcanoes off of 395 on the way to Mammoth. The contrast of colors between the volcanic rocks, the lichen growing on them, and the blue of the sky was breathtaking.  Casey, Jules, Laura, Mary & I sat in the middle of a field of volcanic rocks for an hour and a half taking in the view and talking about life. 

Casey & Laura

Gorgeous.

After we made it back to Famara, we hit the beach till the sun went down. Then it was back to the bungalows to get ready and go out into town again for our last night in paradise. Needless to say, it was another long night, out till 4, and good times were had by all!
Waking up the next morning was surreal, I could not believe we had just spent 3 days in the most beautiful and relaxing place I have ever been.  I can easily say it was the first time I had lost myself completely in the beauty of the views, the ocean, the beach, the people, the language, the rugged terrain, and good company.  I have never been more sure of my love for the Spanish language, and find myself now thinking in Spanish again. The 7 of us who went on this trip have joked about dropping out of school here in Brussels, moving to Famara, buying a bungalow, opening  a bar, and a chain of ATMs, because oddly enough, there are ZERO ATMs in the town of Famara.

So I leave you with this:
La vida es mejor en las playas de Famara, y en Espanol.
Life is better in the beaches of Famara, and in Spanish.

After my trip to Spain & Portugal in a few weeks, I might never return to a non Spanish speaking country again...

That's Amore!

I have just returned from a FABULOUS weekend trip to Bologna, Italy! There's an awesome airline in Europe called Ryan Air, where you can get some smokin' deals on cheap flights. So, I got a round trip flight from Brussels to Bologna for 20 euro. My travel companion was once again the ever so lovely Mary McDaniel, and we set of on our adventure on Saturday morning, and after almost not making it to the airport (we couldn't find the bus that took us to the airport) we eventually made it to the airport to make it through security and visa checks to sit in the terminal for an hour before we boarded our flight. On the upside, I've decided that European airports are BY FAR the BEST places to people watch. Highlight: A couple dressed in all purple. Yes. Husband and wife both in pants, shirts, and sweaters of varying shades of purple. Also spotted: a man wearing his wrap around sunglasses inside, with a navy and brown argyle sweater and metallic gold track style Reeboks. I love Europe.

ANYway, we arrived in Bologna a little after 4:30, leaving us the evening to explore the city! We had gotten a smokin' deal on a room at the Best Western in Bologna, considering Hostels in Bologna were almost non-existent, and it was awesome.

Keepin' it classy at the Best Western!

That night we got some awesome pizza that reminded me a lot of La Canada Imports pizza, but of course, being in Italy, was exponentially more delicious :) We followed the pizza up with some amazingly delicious gelato. I of course had to try the pistachio and chocolate to start with!

Mmmm Gelato!!

We then explored a bit of the city to see what Bologna nightlife was all about.  The oldest university in the world is the University of Bologna, so of course we had to check out the college bar scene! But not before, of course, going back to the hotel to get ready with a bottle of Italian wine!

Pretty fountain next to some ruins withing the city.

Bottle of vino and a fountain!

After a fabulous night out on the town, and watching some crazy Italians order and take some of the craziest shots I've ever seen, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Sunday was our day of adventuring through the city to see what we could discover. The sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the atmosphere of Italy alone made the day incredibly beautiful.

Beautiful fountain in a square in the center of the city.

Some sort of ceremony/parade we stumbled across.

Myself in a rather large doorway, and my purchase of the weekend :)

Narrow & beautiful streets.

Some more ruins!

Sunday night we decided that we has pizza, we had wine, we had gelato (twice by this point), it was time to fin some pasta for dinner! The place we ended up at was precious, and SO delicious. We wanted to take pictures of our food, buttttt people were looking at us funny to begin with, so we decided against it! Mary ordered some good old fashioned Spaghetti, and said it was by far some of the best she's ever had. I on the other hand, went for the spinach and ricotta tortelloni, with a Gorgonzola and walnut cream sauce. Words cannot describe the flavors. I'm still in awe of the explosion of flavor that was that pasta. And naturally, we followed dinner up with some more gelato. Good thing I didn't end up studying, because I'm sure I'd be fatter than I am living in Brussels!

Bologna was an amazing experience, to say the least. I get so frustrated that I can't share these experiences with people I know would enjoy/get so much out of them. I know for a fact both of my parents would have been in heaven, between the art, the food, and the people. And as far as my brother goes, we'd just have to give him a bottle of Limocello and send him on his way :)

Next blog update: Canary Islands summary! (I know, my life is rough)

California Dreamin'

Not gonna lie, now that I've been here for 2 months, the weather's getting a little gloomy, combined with the fact I've had some down time, and trying to avoid studying for midterms, I find myself missing a few things from home!

• FOOTBALL. No, not soccer, I get enough of that here, and I could care less (except some of the players are beautiful so I don't mind watching them prance around the field for a while). With the start of NFL regular season & college football, I'm going absolutely insane not being able to plop on a couch for Sunday football, or venturing to SJSU south campus for tailgating shenanigans an some sub-par Spartan football. With SJSU's homecoming football game this past weekend and missing out on what sounds like one of the most epic tailgates in a while, I find myself missing my SJ family SO much. But I always keep it in the back of my mind that I'll be back in a matter of months to wreak havoc with my SJ loves again :)
• DRYERS. Doing laundry here sucks, as I've stated before, even more so when it takes even longer for clothes to dry in the winter, making it exponentially more sucky. 
• FOOD. mainly BAGELS: There's an entire section for Philadelphia cream cheese in the super market, but no bagels, ANYWHERE. I have never missed Goldsteins or House of Bagels more than I do now. However, Mary, Casey, & Jules have discovered a bagel shop owned by American expats, which I am determined to find. BURRITOS: Both the regular & breakfast varieties. I crave them constantly. I've failed miserably in my attempt to recreate them in my own kitchen here. What do I have to do to get some Lucky Boy or La Vics up in here? IN-N-OUT: I don't know how you out of staters do it, but I miss it, OH SO much. There's also other various food items, none of which I can recall at the moment, but obviously local food establishments like Imports, Franks Famous, Lucky Boy, Kogi truck, Dish ect. ect.
• SWEAT PANTS. There are some days I wish it was socially acceptable to wear a pair of yoga pants to class, or in public in general.  Wore a pair the other day just to run into VeCo to print some homework out, and people definitely judged me. Damn you Europe and your affinity for always looking put together! My new favorite thing is wearing my sweats on the metro in the midst of rush hour on my way to yoga. Take THAT fashonistas!
• INDIAN SUMMERS. I know you all have been complaining about the 100+ degree days you've been having in California, but I am letting you know how unbelievably jealous I am. All I can think of at the moment is the fact that I'll be on a beach in the Canary Islands in 10 days soaking up the 75+ degree sunshine in my now ill fitting bikini. 
• FRIENDS/FAMILY. I cannot tell you how weird it is not seeing my friends and family on a regular basis. Skyping makes it easier, but it's weird that I can only see them via internet and they're half way across the world! Don't get me wrong, I have made some AMAZING friends here in Brussels, but I miss my besties, and the shenanigans we get into in SJ and LA. And my family, well as much as I hate to admit it, I kinda like them, and I do miss them. Especially my puppy dog Margieee! The cat, well, I don't really care one way or the other, he's kind of obnoxious and I don't think he likes me either. My hamster, is adorable, and makes me smile, so I miss her too! 

I think that's enough whining for now. I know I'm in BELGIUM, traveling all over EUROPE and I'm complaining about things I miss about America in my blog. Anyway. Now for some Brussels updates! I didn't do any traveling this weekend, being moderately responsible because midterms are this week, but it didn't stop me from enjoying myself! Every year, the City of Brussels puts on a music and arts festival called Nuit Blanche. It's an all night festival that goes till 5 a.m.  & originated in Paris. Translated exactly it means white night but I guess it's a French phrase that means "sleepless night" so their marketing campaign is "you won't have to count any sheep tonight" and there are sheep all over their advertisements.


Earlier that night I had gone over to Casey's house for her host mom Maria's birthday dinner, which was homemade Paella, and I was in heaven. We finally left there at 11, and hit the streets of St. Catharine in downtown Bruxelles, for some all night shenanigans! There were art displays, some really creepy ones, street performers, interactive art, DJs, bands, and it was AMAZING.

Brendan on the stilts that were some sort of exhibit. Lots of fun, but not a stellar idea with the level of inebriation of the festivals participants!

Some of the artwork. Bicycless!

Everyone was drunk, and beer cans littered the streets. I have NEVER seen so many empty beer cans in my LIFE.

Beer.

We found a super sick DJ and listened and danced and drank for almost 2 hours! Mary, Will, Brendan, Laura and I stayed out all night till 5:30 in the morning when the metros started back up again. The man next to me on the metro who asked if I was from England cracked open another tall can of Juplier on the Metro on his way home. Definition rage train. It was an awesomely fun night, and another one of the million reasons I love Brussles.

This man was our hero. Richard Simmons-esque dance moves that could not be rivaled by anyone in the crowd!

The super sick DJ.