El tiempo de mi vida

Many others have studied and traveled abroad before me, so the idea is nothing original. But how I interpret it and what I make of it is entirely up to me, and I plan to turn this adventure into one of the most organic and meaningful experiences of my life.

Follow me to stay up to date on my life while I study in Bilbao, Spain for the year.

18 mile hike in the rain. Worth it. San Juan de #Gaztelugatxe (Taken with instagram)

18 mile hike in the rain. Worth it. San Juan de #Gaztelugatxe (Taken with instagram)

Posted May 6, 2012 at 7:35 am 2 notes

Reblogged from thenbhd

way to go guys

projectionofme:

the neighbourhood x refinery 29

Posted April 29, 2012 at 4:33 am 6 notes

Check these guys out! thenbhd: Want to come see us play? Ok. :) We’d enjoy your company. Here are our first 4 live dates, thus calling this the ‘CaliFOURnia’ for those of you who’s minds aren’t as up to par as others. Can’t wait to play these shows. Things are going so well for this band and we honestly couldn’t be more excited. Be sure to go get your tickets online! :) See you there assholes.

Reblogged from thenbhd

Check these guys out!

thenbhd:

Want to come see us play? Ok. :) We’d enjoy your company. Here are our first 4 live dates, thus calling this the ‘CaliFOURnia’ for those of you who’s minds aren’t as up to par as others.

Can’t wait to play these shows. Things are going so well for this band and we honestly couldn’t be more excited.

Be sure to go get your tickets online! :)

See you there assholes.

Posted April 11, 2012 at 12:47 pm 11 notes

I should be punished for how infrequently I have used this… I am nearing the end of my Spring Break and it has been an incredible trip. Today is Easter, and I toured the concentration camp in Dachau outside Munich and visited Nymphenburg Palace which was the home of the Bavarian king Ludwig II. Our trip started on March 29th in Amsterdam with about 15 or so people in our USAC program, and we stayed there for tour days. Amsterdam is like a twisted Disneyland for grown-ups. The debauchery is surreal, and the coffee shops and the Red Light District held up to their reputation. We were surprised though, at how beautiful the city is and how nice the people are. There are more canals in Amsterdam than Venice, and they don’t smell like they do in Italy… There are bikes everywhere, and the city is very clean. Our hotel was amazing even though there was a little mix-up with the rooms, but the staff was awesome and the breakfast was great. People were spread out in the city but we hung out mostly every night.  Sandeman’s New (City Name) tours are awesome. I highly recommend doing the free walking tour whenever you are in a new city. You get to walk around the main areas of the city and learn your way around while learning the history and stories behind the city itself and its landmarks. We did one in Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich. While in Amsterdam, we also saw the Van Gogh museum, which was really amazing. There was a temporary exhibit Called “dreams of nature” about the symbolism movement throughout different periods and artistic styles with art from Kandinsky to Van Gogh. We also saw all of the permanent pieces as well.  After living it up in Amsterdam, we headed to Berlin. We were a bit disappointed at Germany’s capital, simply because it is so urban and expansive that it was hard to get a feel for the city. It’s main attractions are museums, WWII sites and historical places, and the nightlife. We did a walking tour here, but only made it half-way through because it was so cold. The night is primetime in Berlin, and the first night there we wandered out looking for a bar or club and stumbled on a line of people waiting to walk down the door to a basement. When we asked a couple of Amazon women (professional Euro league volleyball players from the States) what was going on they said there was a club through the doors. Inside, the walls were all painted black, with minimal lighting, small doorways and twisting tunnels. Several rooms were scattered around through Alice in Wonderland-like doorways, such as a mini sex shop, a projection room showing random film clips, and other lounge rooms. There were also three bars and two dance floors playing old school rap and hip hop or electro/trance. German people are very good looking. Lots of blondes with good skin and nice smiles. The only bad thing about this place was that people still smoke a lot in clubs in Germany, and the next morning our clothing was absolutely stanky. The next night, we met up with Trevor and Lys, who were CouchSurfing with a girl named Annika from Hamburg. She took us out to get Spätzle, a dish made with sauerkraut, onions, meat, and noodles made out of potato. After that, we met a bunch of her fellow CouchSurfing friends from Colombia and hung out at a bar for a few, until we left to go to a Salsa club. Despite being culturally confused, hanging out with Colombians and salsa dancing in Germany, we got to practice some Spanish and see some really cool dancing. I am not good at Salsa dancing.  After Berlin, I left with Trevor and Lys to Munich. The rest of our group split up to Italy and other places. We got to Munich and were planning on CouchSurfing, however our original person fell through. We met up with my roommate Paul and went to a Bierhaus called Augustiner until we could decide what we were going to do for the night, besides spend our first night in Munich homeless. Since it was the beginning of Easter weekend, the bars and clubs are closed. It is actually illegal to dance on the Friday before Easter. The beer here is amazing, the food is awesome too. We ended up luckily crashing on the floor of Paul’s hostel and then leaving our luggage there for the day while we went on the walking tour.  Munich is much prettier and cleaner than Berlin. There were a lot of tourists for the holiday weekend but we saw most of the main attractions. We only did half of the tour here as well, partially because of the cold again, and partially because we had to meet the guy we were CouchSurfing with. His name is Michael Shreck, and he is an ambassador for CouchSurfing. He has hosted hundreds of surfers and been to over 100 different countries. He works for BMW developing GPS, started a company that is contracted by the Air Force, and has two PhDs. We stayed here with a Brasilian named Louis who is studying brewing in Chicago and Munich, a long-term surfer named Julien who is taking a year off school, and a student from U of Cincinnati, working an internship at BMW. That night, Michael made us a dinner of tacos with Mckormick’s taco seasoning and salsa, and then took us to a couple beer houses and the famous Hofbräuhaus and we had a few different beers.  On Easter Sunday, it snowed overnight, and we woke up to a couple inches of white over all the Springtime green. We left for Dachau and spent two and a half hours walking around the camp and through the museum. It was cold, and even though we were freezing, we recognized that it was hard to complain about being cold when you are visiting a concentration camp… The camp at Dachau is the first camp, and the only camp that functioned throughout the entire 12 years of Hitler’s power. The experience was very interesting and very somber.  When we got back to Munich, we met Michael and he led us through the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, the old home of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria. He was very rich, and built a massive park and estate with numerous houses, topped by a large garden and beautiful palace. We walked through this park to Hirschgarten, the world’s largest beer garden, which during the summer houses more than 100,000 beer drinkers and picnickers. That night we had awesome chicken wings and Livercheese, which has no liver, nor cheese. It is like German meatloaf and has the consistency of Spam with a sausage-like taste. Once again, the food here is BOMB.  Trevor and Lys left at noon the next day, so I went to check out some stuff on my own. I went to see the famous, but somewhat unknown Eisbach, an river branch off the Isar River that flows through Munich and the English Garden. At the Eisbach, there is a man-made obstacle underwater that creates a standing wave in the river that allows people to surf there. There were about 10 guys surfing when I got there, and even though I debated getting in to surf or asking to borrow a wetsuit, I decided it was way too cold and resigned to watching. After that I went to the BMW Welt, offices, museum, and factory grounds in Northern Munich with my friend from high school Fabian, and his fiancee Shelyce, who is another friend’s older sister. He is in an apprenticeship program with BMW and showed me around the museum, and then they walked with me through Olympic Park, which was built for the Summer Games here in the 70s. i will upload the photos and finish the post when I get home tomorrow. my plane leaves at 10am, with a 3 hour stopover in Barcelona and then finally arriving in Bilbao…

I should be punished for how infrequently I have used this…

I am nearing the end of my Spring Break and it has been an incredible trip. Today is Easter, and I toured the concentration camp in Dachau outside Munich and visited Nymphenburg Palace which was the home of the Bavarian king Ludwig II.

Our trip started on March 29th in Amsterdam with about 15 or so people in our USAC program, and we stayed there for tour days. Amsterdam is like a twisted Disneyland for grown-ups. The debauchery is surreal, and the coffee shops and the Red Light District held up to their reputation. We were surprised though, at how beautiful the city is and how nice the people are. There are more canals in Amsterdam than Venice, and they don’t smell like they do in Italy… There are bikes everywhere, and the city is very clean. Our hotel was amazing even though there was a little mix-up with the rooms, but the staff was awesome and the breakfast was great. People were spread out in the city but we hung out mostly every night. 

Sandeman’s New (City Name) tours are awesome. I highly recommend doing the free walking tour whenever you are in a new city. You get to walk around the main areas of the city and learn your way around while learning the history and stories behind the city itself and its landmarks. We did one in Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich.

While in Amsterdam, we also saw the Van Gogh museum, which was really amazing. There was a temporary exhibit Called “dreams of nature” about the symbolism movement throughout different periods and artistic styles with art from Kandinsky to Van Gogh. We also saw all of the permanent pieces as well. 

After living it up in Amsterdam, we headed to Berlin. We were a bit disappointed at Germany’s capital, simply because it is so urban and expansive that it was hard to get a feel for the city. It’s main attractions are museums, WWII sites and historical places, and the nightlife. We did a walking tour here, but only made it half-way through because it was so cold.

The night is primetime in Berlin, and the first night there we wandered out looking for a bar or club and stumbled on a line of people waiting to walk down the door to a basement. When we asked a couple of Amazon women (professional Euro league volleyball players from the States) what was going on they said there was a club through the doors. Inside, the walls were all painted black, with minimal lighting, small doorways and twisting tunnels. Several rooms were scattered around through Alice in Wonderland-like doorways, such as a mini sex shop, a projection room showing random film clips, and other lounge rooms. There were also three bars and two dance floors playing old school rap and hip hop or electro/trance. German people are very good looking. Lots of blondes with good skin and nice smiles. The only bad thing about this place was that people still smoke a lot in clubs in Germany, and the next morning our clothing was absolutely stanky.

The next night, we met up with Trevor and Lys, who were CouchSurfing with a girl named Annika from Hamburg. She took us out to get Spätzle, a dish made with sauerkraut, onions, meat, and noodles made out of potato. After that, we met a bunch of her fellow CouchSurfing friends from Colombia and hung out at a bar for a few, until we left to go to a Salsa club. Despite being culturally confused, hanging out with Colombians and salsa dancing in Germany, we got to practice some Spanish and see some really cool dancing. I am not good at Salsa dancing. 

After Berlin, I left with Trevor and Lys to Munich. The rest of our group split up to Italy and other places. We got to Munich and were planning on CouchSurfing, however our original person fell through. We met up with my roommate Paul and went to a Bierhaus called Augustiner until we could decide what we were going to do for the night, besides spend our first night in Munich homeless. Since it was the beginning of Easter weekend, the bars and clubs are closed. It is actually illegal to dance on the Friday before Easter. The beer here is amazing, the food is awesome too. We ended up luckily crashing on the floor of Paul’s hostel and then leaving our luggage there for the day while we went on the walking tour. 

Munich is much prettier and cleaner than Berlin. There were a lot of tourists for the holiday weekend but we saw most of the main attractions. We only did half of the tour here as well, partially because of the cold again, and partially because we had to meet the guy we were CouchSurfing with. His name is Michael Shreck, and he is an ambassador for CouchSurfing. He has hosted hundreds of surfers and been to over 100 different countries. He works for BMW developing GPS, started a company that is contracted by the Air Force, and has two PhDs. We stayed here with a Brasilian named Louis who is studying brewing in Chicago and Munich, a long-term surfer named Julien who is taking a year off school, and a student from U of Cincinnati, working an internship at BMW.

That night, Michael made us a dinner of tacos with Mckormick’s taco seasoning and salsa, and then took us to a couple beer houses and the famous Hofbräuhaus and we had a few different beers. 

On Easter Sunday, it snowed overnight, and we woke up to a couple inches of white over all the Springtime green. We left for Dachau and spent two and a half hours walking around the camp and through the museum. It was cold, and even though we were freezing, we recognized that it was hard to complain about being cold when you are visiting a concentration camp… The camp at Dachau is the first camp, and the only camp that functioned throughout the entire 12 years of Hitler’s power. The experience was very interesting and very somber. 

When we got back to Munich, we met Michael and he led us through the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, the old home of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria. He was very rich, and built a massive park and estate with numerous houses, topped by a large garden and beautiful palace. We walked through this park to Hirschgarten, the world’s largest beer garden, which during the summer houses more than 100,000 beer drinkers and picnickers. That night we had awesome chicken wings and Livercheese, which has no liver, nor cheese. It is like German meatloaf and has the consistency of Spam with a sausage-like taste. Once again, the food here is BOMB. 

Trevor and Lys left at noon the next day, so I went to check out some stuff on my own. I went to see the famous, but somewhat unknown Eisbach, an river branch off the Isar River that flows through Munich and the English Garden. At the Eisbach, there is a man-made obstacle underwater that creates a standing wave in the river that allows people to surf there. There were about 10 guys surfing when I got there, and even though I debated getting in to surf or asking to borrow a wetsuit, I decided it was way too cold and resigned to watching. After that I went to the BMW Welt, offices, museum, and factory grounds in Northern Munich with my friend from high school Fabian, and his fiancee Shelyce, who is another friend’s older sister. He is in an apprenticeship program with BMW and showed me around the museum, and then they walked with me through Olympic Park, which was built for the Summer Games here in the 70s.

i will upload the photos and finish the post when I get home tomorrow. my plane leaves at 10am, with a 3 hour stopover in Barcelona and then finally arriving in Bilbao…

Posted April 9, 2012 at 11:09 am 2 notes

Here are the follow-up photos to go along with the last blog update:

  1. A Spanish sunset in Madrid, the weekend I went to meet my new roommate and the new USAC group.
  2. This is what my face looked like when I had the mumps. After it stopped hurting, it was hilarious -__-
  3. First snow in Getxo/Bilbao in four or five years according to some locals. We got a few days of dusting and some flurries but it didn’t stick.
  4. It did stick to the mountains around the river basin that Greater Bilbao sits in, and it made for a beautiful view everywhere you look.
  5. Cold night, full moon, and clearing skies look super spooky.
  6. Finally some blue sky color to give us a break from the grey clouds we’ve been seeing non-stop.

Posted February 13, 2012 at 2:19 am 1 notes

Bilbao Semester 2, thus far

I have been seriously slacking on the blog, sorry to those who read/care.

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

  • The new semester started, and my new roommate Paul moved in. He is from Minnesota but goes to UND.
  • I started working at an internet software company called Anboto as an intern in their finance department. I work Monday through Thursday after class until 7pm.
  • I got the mumps. I missed a week of school and it was one of the most miserable things that I’ve ever experienced. 
  • The new group of USACers is huge, there are over 60 kids as opposed to our group last semester, and a lot more Erasmus and international kids. Also, the group overall speaks a lot better Spanish, and it’s nice to see the Americans interacting with the locals more when we go out. It’s a nice change from being the loud Americans. We’re still loud but at least we can be loud in castellano. 
  • The weather has been mostly miserable. Cold, wet, windy. The few nice spots have been some brisk winter sunshine and a couple days of snow that made the surrounding mountains look like frosted cakes. 
  • I booked my trip for Spring Break. I am flying into Amsterdam, bussing to Berlin, Munich, and Vienna, and then flying back to Bilbao. All in all, there are about 15 of us going, and 20 of us will be on one flight to Amsterdam. Needless to say, that should be a rowdy flight…

After catching up with school after being sick, and finishing my first Spanish test this week, I finally got a chance to get to this thing…I will post a few pictures of some of the stuff I just mentioned once I unload my camera and iPod. 

Love you guys, miss you all.

Posted February 8, 2012 at 12:02 pm 1 notes

Holidays in the UK:

1) Steven showed up the day Donald and I got back from Dublin. Everyone knew he was coming except me. He was here until the 28th. Couldn’t stick around for New Year’s but it was awesome while he was here and he should have a good one in Madrid anyway. Donald’s sister and brother came to visit as well. My mom sent us all stockings for Christmas. 

2) We spent a night walking around Camden Markets, and went to a new pub called Brewdog. It is a sister pub to the Brewdog Pub and Brewery in Aberdeen, Scotland. Then we walked along the Thames past Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye (picture 3).

4/5) While everyone was here, we went to the famous London IceBar, sponsored by IceHotel. The entire bar is made of ice, including the walls and furniture. The quote is from Kurt Cobain and says, “Wanting to be someone you are not is a waste of the person you are.”

6) Picadilly Square all lit up for Christmas.

7) This is the Bentalls shopping center in Kingston. Huge mall with tons of people doing the day-after-Christmas rush.

8) Buckingham Palace. When the flag is up, the Queen is in the building.

9) Hyde Park, down the road from Buckingham Palace. During Christmastime they have a huge fair called Winter Wonderland. Think Conejo Valley Days for London. 

This weekend is NYE/New Year’s. I am missing my family at home all at my grandparent’s house in Chico, but I am glad to be able to spend the holidays with my friends in the meantime!

Posted December 29, 2011 at 3:44 am 2 notes

Photo timeline from my last couple weeks.

1) Christmastime in Bilbao. Unfortunately I will not be around long enough to see all of the celebrations, I am spending the holidays in London with Donald.

2) Went to Dublin after being in Kingston upon Thames and Central London for a couple days with Donald, his roommates, and Eddie (our friend from Australia). Eddie and Donald went to Dublin with me. These metal signs are old Guinness ads in the Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate. The toucan is the most famous Guinness mascot.

3, 4) More Guinness signs.

5) Arthur Guinness statue, Guinness Storehouse.

6) Tons of old Guinness bottles from over the years.

7) Courtyard of Trinity College in Dublin.

8) Dublin Castle

9) Irish fire engine. 

Posted December 28, 2011 at 11:47 am 2 notes

Surfing at the Gym...idk about this

Reblogged from beachriot

tavikswimwear:

This morning we stumbled across an article in the Wall Street Journal about the RipSurfer X, an exercise machine that simulates the feel of surfing.

Let us elaborate: According to the WSJ, “fitness seekers use a machine called the RipSurfer X, an actual surfboard affixed atop inflatable…

(Source: beachriot)

Posted December 23, 2011 at 2:05 pm 12 notes

After my first couple days in London, I went to Dublin for 4 days, 3 nights. It was Donald Truesdell, Eddie Mallan (our friend from Australia), and myself. Madisson and Ian, friends from last semester in Bilbao, also wound up staying with us at Abigail’s Hostel in Temple Bar. The first night we got there, we went on a bar crawl which took us all around the area called Temple Bar, which is an old bar-filled part of Dublin. We had a LOT of Guinness, listened to great great music, and met some awesome people. The second day, we woke up late and went to St. James Gate, site of the Guinness Storehouse. We spent a long time there taking in the brewing tradition and history of Arthur Guinness, and learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness on our own. That night, we went out and browsed the other pubs we didn’t see on the pub crawl. Our third day, we walked around the other part of Dublin and did some window shopping, and finally wound up at this amazing park, St. Stephen’s Green. That night, we went out to dinner and had some awesome food. Our last day, our flight didn’t leave until 9pm that night so Donald and I wandered around trying to find internet so I could work on my Fantasy Football lineup for finals… We’ll see.  Now I am back in London and will be here through January 4th. As I type this, Steven, Allie, and her sister just showed up unexpected from Madrid!!! Can’t wait until Christmas.

After my first couple days in London, I went to Dublin for 4 days, 3 nights. It was Donald Truesdell, Eddie Mallan (our friend from Australia), and myself. Madisson and Ian, friends from last semester in Bilbao, also wound up staying with us at Abigail’s Hostel in Temple Bar. The first night we got there, we went on a bar crawl which took us all around the area called Temple Bar, which is an old bar-filled part of Dublin. We had a LOT of Guinness, listened to great great music, and met some awesome people. The second day, we woke up late and went to St. James Gate, site of the Guinness Storehouse. We spent a long time there taking in the brewing tradition and history of Arthur Guinness, and learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness on our own. That night, we went out and browsed the other pubs we didn’t see on the pub crawl. Our third day, we walked around the other part of Dublin and did some window shopping, and finally wound up at this amazing park, St. Stephen’s Green. That night, we went out to dinner and had some awesome food. Our last day, our flight didn’t leave until 9pm that night so Donald and I wandered around trying to find internet so I could work on my Fantasy Football lineup for finals… We’ll see. 

Now I am back in London and will be here through January 4th. As I type this, Steven, Allie, and her sister just showed up unexpected from Madrid!!! Can’t wait until Christmas.

Posted December 19, 2011 at 3:35 pm 11 notes