Happy First Day of Summer!
It's been a while, huh? I guess so, since the last time I posted was the first day of Spring, it's been a whole season! Sorry, I have been around the world and back and I'm finally caught up enough to continue this lovely past time. I hope all of your summers are going wonderfully! Here's a peak into my past couple months or so:
1. Rocky Point! Had an amazing time laying by the beach, reading and lots and lots of dancing! This was the second year going on the 'girls trip' and can't wait for this to continue.. I always have so much fun!
2. Last RHA meeting! RHA, Residence Hall Association, has been a part of my life for 2 years now and has consumed sooo much of my time, but has also made some of the best memories. Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I devoted at least an hour (sometimes 8!!) to my apartment council and general council meetings. They were exhausting, but the people I worked with made it bearable.. and usually pretty fun! I'm going to miss it, it'll be weird to not have an event every week and meetings almost every night for it!
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| My President and partner in crime, Devon! I'll miss him so much! |
3. Finals, woo! Almost all straight A's except for one 89% in my grad-level architecture class, really professor? Oh well, L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
4. Chief of Staff, say whatttt?! I got the executive position of Pan-Campus Chief of Staff for PAB, the other club I've been in for a couple years now. I'm in charge of making sure all 4 ASU campuses get a long and are on the same page- oh, and have fun too! I'm excited for the new responsibility, and all the new staff members I get to work with! This is part of the reason I'm not doing RHA, so I don't completely loose my mind with things to do!
5. That one time I traveled to Spain and spent 75% of my time being lost. Yep! My twin sister and I spent two weeks in Spain working on an organic farm/garden and just exploring. I figured this may be my last real summer ever (not because of the world ending in 2012, but because I'm graduation and word on the street is that in the 'real world' you don't get a 3-month long summer vacation. Bummer.) and I wanted to go out with a bang! I will give you the abstract of a whole novel full of adventures: Flew into Madrid, felt like zombies after what was like a 24 hour flight, took the overnight hell train to Barcelona where we had to 'sleep' in the cafeteria because there was no room for our backpacks in our assigned seats, which amounted to me staying up staring out at the blackness out the window. Began day number 3 with practically no sleep with my sister getting her purse stolen at the train station while I was sitting next to it and me crying my eyes out about it, then missing our bus to the farm 2 hours away and having to walk around Barcelona for almost an hour and a half with our huge backpacks looking for a hostel. On the brightside, we did randomly run into some big monuments like the Arc de Triomphe and Parque de Ciutadella, so all was not lost!
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| First meal in Spain, a bocadillo in Madrid! |
“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” — Lawrence Block
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| Wandering, lost in Barcelona looking for a hostel and stumble upon Parque Ciutadella! |
We spent the rest of the day sleeping in an over-priced but really nice hostel and only waking up to eat and get gelato. Woke up early to catch the bus to the farm, arrived in the tiny town of Baga a couple hours outside of Barcelona praying that our host would show up because that was the only bus that came the whole day into that town. Hooray, she showed up and we spent what was supposed to be 2 and half days and ended up being 4 full days picking daisies, watering plants, feeding the chickens and horse, hiking and exploring, practicing my Spainish, meeting other young travelers from Latvia, Italy and Israel and having an amazing and relaxing time on this tiny organic farm 20 minutes outside of France. After out much needed restoration on the farm, we took the train to Barcelona, witnessing another two robberies just on our way back to the city and dreading getting back to it. We stayed at the first hostel we found, that was under construction with a scary bathroom and a squawking parrot but spent the day at the mall next to the beach, walking Las Ramblas and checking out the open-air market.
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| Picking daisies while WWOOFing, organic farming |
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson
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| Natural fruit juice and fresh pineapple at the market in Barcelona |
After using hostelworld to find a better hostel, we arrived the second day in Barca to the most amazing hostel with sparkling bathrooms, huge bean bags, a full sized community kitchen and some awesome guys from Phoenix (small world!!) and Sweden that we hung out with and went to an Irish pub with. We spent that day at the enchanting, wonderful, outstanding, unreal, even-better-than-imagined La Sagrada Familia. It's so cool to learn about something in classes and then see it in real life, and even cooler when it's better than any picture or textbook could ever capture. We saw Park Guell, more or Gaudi's architecture and designs, and hiked to the top to see Tres Cruces and the amazing view of all of Barcelona.
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| Most amazing meal with a view of La Sagrada Familia!! |
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| Park Guell in Barcelona |
”If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.” — Roland Gau
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| Above Park Guell at Tres Cruces with a view of all of Barcelona |
When we finally got the hang of Barcelona and met new friends, we were off to Alicante where we spent the days laying out on the amazing beach with a view of the Santa Barbara castle and perfect weather and nights eating late Spanish dinners, amazing tapas and meeting up with a friend! We hiked the castle on our second day and did a little shopping in what became one of my favorite cities of the trip.
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| Hiked to the top of the Santa Barbara castle in Alicante, beautiful view of the Mediterranean! |
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan
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| Beautiful beach and view of the castle in Alicante |
After our three day stint in Alicante, we were off to Madrid to meet up with my sister's roommates and our good friends who were also travelling. It was so great to have 5 of us travelling and exploring more of Madrid. After getting separated from the walking tour after no more than 10 minutes, we made up our own and saw Plaza Mayor and Palacio Real and ate at some cute sidewalk cafes and did some shopping in the streets lined with the coolest stores. We spent our nights being winos, drinking wine out of bottles in Parque del Retiro, doing an uneventful pub crawl and having the time of our lives dancing in a night club until 5 in the morning, just like real Spaniards!
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| Made it back to Madrid |
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| Palacio Real, so cool and SO huge |
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| Madrid's Palacio Real |
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| Winos in Parque del Retiro, last night in Spain! |
Then our two week adventure came to an end, waking up an hour later at 6 to catch our flight back to Phoenix, having our names called over the intercom at the gate because we got sidetracked spending our last few euros at the gift store. The trip seemed to last forever and fly by at the same time. I was ready to book my flight back to the US after the first 3 days, but I'm ready to book my flight back to Spain thinking about the end of the trip and the places I got to see and people I got to meet. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to return to Europe for a second time, and so glad I got to spend that time in Spain. I feel like every time you leave your comfort zone, whether it's a road trip a few hours away or a trip across the world I learn something. Even getting lost had it's silver lining, we got to see parts of the cities we never would have seen and tread on quaint parts towns most tourists never get the chance to stumble upon. This trip taught me so much, both good and bad, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
So what started as an abstract of the story ended up being nearly the whole novel, thanks for reading if you stuck it out, if not.. I understand- that was a lot!
6. Viva Las Vegas! I spent my birthday in Vegas, laying poolside and ordering some birthday drinks. It was fun, but no Hangover type of adventure, which may be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.
7. Being 21. Yes, this deserves it's own number, because I have had so much fun! That may sound bad, but I am having the time of my life being legal! Happy hour, Mill Ave and drinks, oh my! I was sad when my birthday week was over, but then I realized I get to spend the rest of my life sampling new concoctions, having a great time with my favorite people and dancing the night away at any club I choose! Oh, joy!
What started off as a summer I was dreading because of my lack of internship, has become one heck of a ride! I have become best friends with the people I work with and have loved just working and then coming home and cooking with my family. Internship or not, I am living the dream and loving every minute of it.
I hope to blog again sooner rather than later, so I'll try not to be a stranger,
Alex
Muffin Base:
1 1/2 cups flour
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