longest post ever? yep.

The best word to describe my life these days : whirlwind.
Since I last updated I've been to Barcelona, Amsterdam, and right now I happen to be in Paris. nbd.

Barcelona:
The hostel was surprisingly nice, I did a good job. We napped. A lot. The men there, and really just the people in general, seem to be on a whole different level of crazy spanish. La Fira is this club that is decorated from old carnival equipment (right up my alley of course), and I ate it up, it was so fun. We went to the beach one day, and ohhh, I miss the beach. Naked men everywhere. A very nautical city, which was perfecto para mi. The Picasso Museum was great, I loveeee his work, he was quite the master.. I was just wandering through the museum awestruck. Las Ramblas were INSANE, but so interesting..tons of street performers, tons of history.. the whole time I was in Barcelona I just kept thinking about Shadow of the Wind, but then, I do that with every city it seems like..

midterms. boo.

Amsterdam:
Highly, highly considering studying abroad my junior or senior year in the Netherlands. Absolutely gorgeous. My whole life I have had this weird fantasy/dream of Venice, and it is always because of the canals, and Amsterdam has the same situation going on, it's so beautiful. The weather is like home, the leaves were yellow and orange and falling everywhere. The air was crisp and cold and left your face feeling fresh. First impressions of the red light district- a little stomach turning, as a woman, it's hard to see. But the more I walked around and the more nights I spent there, it just seems to be such a part of their culture, but I think live porn shows and a million prostitutes in windows is always a little shocking. But oh, the swans in the canals, and the Homomonument. Just literally everything about Amsterdam is perfect to me, I really really fell in love with the place. It's that perfect mix of huge city but small town feeling.. We went to the Anne Frank house, so sad but really encouraging, the Heineken brewery which was soo fun! I didn't want to leave, I of course, love beer, but learning about it and seeing different aspects of the industry was really neat for me. We also went to Madame Tousad's but I really missed my mom being there since we went to the one in DC and had such a fun time..and we went to this haunted Amsterdam Dungeon thing because it was HALLOWEEN. Best holiday ever. I dressed up as the devil and we went on this pub crawl with a bunch of australians and one mexican girl, and everyone loved that I dressed up, because it's a very North American holiday. And oh, the Van Gogh Museum, talk about awestruck, his brushstrokes have always astounded me but to see them like that..I was enthralled and beyond impressed.

Paris:
So far, so good. I was a little apprehensive and terrified actually, with everything that has been going on with Americans/Paris/Middle East.. But Paris has pretty much lived up to its hype. The food, ohhh the food, why doesn't everyone get to eat like this? I just had a 3 formage (3 cheese) crepe, mm mmm good. And for lunch I had this salad, with the BEST dressing I have ever tasted, and slices of goat cheese, oh yes. We walked from our hotel to the Louvre, and on the way I saw the Eiffel Tower, and could kick myself for not going today because it's supposed to rain all weekend, and Notre Dame, and the Seine, and a bunch of other cool buildings. But oh, when I got to the Louvre, I said "oh my god i feel like im in the da vinci code right now! " It was the besttttt, I am obsessed with Dan Brown, so I probably took 600 photos of that right there, and we saw the Mona Lisa, and you probably have a vision of the painting being this impressively large painting, but in reality it's the smallest painting in the room, but still quite impressive, how many people can say that they have seen the original Mona Lisa? Now I am laying in this huge queen size bed in this luxury hotel, I just could not possibly trade my life in for anyone eleses, except maybe a millionaire..

I am taking a weekend off from travelling next weekend, I think, and then Nov 17th I am meeting my amazing amazing boyfriend in Venice Italy, yes please.