Creeps in Brussles!!!!!!!

We left Paris at 5:30 am and headed for our flight to Brussels, Belgium. Our weekend was not very great on the weather end of things, but I was hellbent on enjoying it no matter what.

AND. WE. DID.

It was cold and rainy when we landed. It was another shaking landing almost crashing the entire plan and causing a cabin full of heart attacks (probably an intern flying that thing). Ryanair, Im just not convinced this airline is even legal! In Belgium, they speak French or Dutch. Since we know NEITHER, the five of us were utterly lost for at least an hour. We took a few trams and got near our hostel, but we still weren't really sure where it was. It also seemed that no one knew where the hostel was either. This was an uncomforting fact..

On the tram, a girl overheard us speaking English and we found out she was lost looking for the same hostel!! Kelsey is just a wee little thing traveling around Europe for 40 days, celebrating her graduation! She's also a knuck-el-head (Canadian folk)! It was cool to meet someone so brave, traveling alone, just living it up!

Brussels and the five of us only had 24 hours together, so we wanted to make the best of it! After finally finding our hostel, we all changed and warmed up a bit then headed out to the Grand Place. The great thing about only having a day in Brussels is that EVERYTHING is doable within 24 hours. All its landmarks are within a few miles.

This architecture blew me away. The rain really sucked, but it was still GORGEOUS!

Grand Place

It was extremely rainy, cold and windy!

Gothic architecture 

I did some research before our trip, and many of the blogs mentioned this 'Delirium' bar! Its all about its Belgium beers, but we later found out it was also all about its creepy, old men..

All of our fancy beers!

On our way to the bar, we stopped by a hole-in-the-wall waffle shop. Here I found the most amazing thing in the world. Its called Spekulus and EVERYONE should try it!! Its also called 'cookie butter' back in the states. To me it tasted like warm, gooey teddy grams made into a spread that is almost like Nutella. I swear my life by it, it will change your whole outlook on Nutella though!!!!

I have reoccurring dreams about this Spekulus...it's the most wonderful invention.

Maeve (behind me) is such a dork....

Since it was raining and Brussels is really just known for its architecture, we decided to start our beer drinking early, having seen all we could in Grand Place without getting drenched. After our first few beers, we started to notice this clearly older fellow with a permanent smile. For the rest of the night, this Finnish man (with the creepy smile) would NOT leave us alone and DEFINITELY didn't understand what personal space even is.

As our night kept getting more rambunctious, the Finnish man made friends with another man of his age. They formed a team. Luckily, I was on the farthest end of the table from these men and was never touched. My poor friend Abby though, she took the brunt for all of us!

This is the Grandpa from the movie UP

As an eye witness myself, she was NOT coming on to him!!!

As you can see here, Abby (the blonde) is trying to move away from the man. Molly (the phantom arm) is LITERALLY trying to create the barrier between the innocent girl and the MEGA creeper!!

Why is he creeping in on their selfie?!

All of the sudden, a man that looks like the grandpa from the movie UP, bought us a round of Absinth (not the good stuff, I think its finally illegal in most bars). We obliged because what kind of Americans would we be to deny free alcohol?

I found some Welsh rugby guys and we all had a great time talking about the game. It actually makes me feel at home when I meet a rugby fan/player. For the most part, they all were ridiculously nice and even shouted "USA USA USA USA USA" for us.....then "County Roads, Take Me Home" and "Born in the USA".

This night went on and on...

These are the rugby guys!! They were a bunch of fun!

I ran into a VERY sweet lady named Maureen and we talked about traveling, studying abroad and life in general. She is from the states also! We talked, had a heart-to-heart moment, and I genuinely felt like she was one of my best friends by the time I had to go.

We decided 11:30pm was plenty late (having started at 4:30 in the same bar) and we taxied home.

Brussels was more than I could have ever imagined. Phew..

The Blau's in a foreign land: Wales, not Whales.

After my final exam on Thursday, I rushed home to pack up and hit the road to Wales!!!

- Why Wales:

My mom did a great job capturing the happiness my dad has for his job. You cant describe his mannerisms right now, just look at it! 

In 2006, my dad was asked to spend a summer of in Ruthin, Wales working at the ABS company over there. He spent 3 months fending for himself in a land where they drive on "the other" side of the road (You cant say wrong side of the road, they take great offense to that). We missed him a lot that summer but I guess his friends in Wales have been missing him too!! So for the second time, my parents have saved up to go on holiday to Wales. They're so cute and happy over there, it was great to see them while Im studying abroad, but better yet embracing the travel bug like I do!

So proud of them getting out of WI every once in a blue moon ;)

- Who is even in Wales:

Aside from a few rugby coaches I've had the privilege to meet and learn from (S/O to Bowie & Plug), my dad made quite a few friends while he was there. Is that even hard to believe though? The man talks to anyone and everyone. To name a few of their friends: Rhys & Angie, Caryis & John, Frank and Nain are the folks we stayed with and I met for the first time.

- What is over in Wales:
Sheep, mountains, beer, farms & awesome accents.

Other than that, I cant even begin to describe how gorgeous it is. Take a look:

- When in Wales:

My parents, twice now, have gone for about a week to vacation and catch up with their Welsh friends. I only met up with my parents for the weekend, but their friends I met are actually TOO generous. They bought me dinner, clothes and beer even though I tried VERY HARD to not let them pay! I figure because they can heard sheep so dang well, so they had no problem getting around me to pay for things.

So the trip began:

• I began with a city bus that took me to--> 
• the bus station just in the knick of time --> 
• road to Malaga next to the smelliest lady EVER (I don't mean to be rude, but she had fancy shoes on, a really nice smart phone and obviously wasn't homeless, so why was she smelling like a stinky dog? Tip: its courteous to shower and stay clean when you're about to ride a bus, side by side with a stranger for a few hours!) -->
• arrived at the Malaga bus station and waited for --> 
• the express bus to the airport where I chatted with a couple British girls who were very nice -->
• I hopped a plane to Manchester, UK  which took 3 hours -->
• I went through border control and honestly, the man asking me the questions must have REALLY thought I was going to cause havoc in Manchester. He grilled me pretty hard and yelled at me a few times!

Man: 'Where are you from?'
Me: 'ahhhhhh Wisconsin'
Man: 'NO!!! I MEAN WHERE ARE YOU FROM?'
Me ('omgosh what answer is he looking for?!'): 'Well, Spain?'
Man (apparently very angry): 'WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!!?!"
Me:(about to cry) 'I was born in Wi, I am from the US. I am a student studying for a semester in Granada, Spain but I flew in from Malaga, Spain. Im not sure how else to answer the question"
Man (a little calmer): 'Well what are you studying?!'
Me: .............Spanish language
Man: (rolls his eyes) 'Nice answer, how long are you here for and why'
Me: 'I am here for the weekend Visiting my parents who are on holiday in Wales'
Man: *STAMP* 'NEXT!!!!'


He hates his job..





Then I grabbed a taxi to the hotel. My room was obviously a party room in the past: black marks on the wall, no telephone, a big giant black stain on the ground, a queen sized bed with 2 flimsy pillows & a blanket that wasn't that warm. It was much cooler in the UK than Spain, so when I found out the thermostat was broken, I basically ran some boiling water for a bath and warmed up. Finally hitting the hay by 3:30am or so, I uncomfortably slept until the morning. I and got picked up by Rhys & Angie, my mom and pops by 11:30am at the hotel. It was such a joy to finally see family again, I very much miss them!!!

We then drove to Ruthin, a small but beautiful town with gigantic hills and mountains, trees and fields, grass and sheep everywhere! I felt like I was already back home in WI. We stopped for some "tea & cake" (basically any food and drink, but mostly a social hour in the afternoon) then climbed to the top of Moel Famau (pronounced: 'moil-fam-ah'). The hike took a total of about two beautiful hours, breathing in clean air again. It felt wonderful to be out of the city and smelling the clean air once
again.

Me, Rhys, my mum & pops

We all made it to the top of Moel Famau! 2.4 miles round trip. My dad is so good at taking photos.

Like father like daughter? We take great pictures...

After the hike we went to our friend Carys's mothers house about 15 minutes away. We stayed with Nain, which is the Welsh word for grandmother. She is just the sweetest 80 year old woman I've ever met!!! They cooked us a delicious lamb dinner and Carys's other half, John poured us all some wine. I think he was testing my limit though. He poured me three medium sized glasses of wine then surprised me saying I was going on a pub crawl with his son and his son's girlfriend. John gave Dillon & Kat £20  to take me out for the night!!! Dil & Kat took me to four bars total because we had a mission. I collect beer bottle tops and I am making a pretty bottle cap design on top of my grandma's old night stand. The thing is, not a lot of beer is bottled in Wales, almost all beers are on tap! So without any luck at the first bar, we couldn't find me any beer bottles with interesting designs and I just ordered a pint a local beer instead. But, A PINT OF BEER IN WALES IS ACTUALLY LIKE HALF A GALLON I KID YOU NOT! They thought it was funny when I almost fell off my bar stool just from looking at the size of beer I had just ordered. We marched on to the next pub looking for our bottle caps, but in the end we had TERRIBLE luck. No bottle caps at all. We all had a great night and Dil, who had to work on the farm in the early morning, was our DD and drove us home. I slept like a baby, half drunk and jet legged from all the traveling just to get there.

Carys on the left and her mother, Nain on the right

Day 2 in Wales:

The Welsh believe in overfeeding their guests; that's how they let you know you're welcome. So breakfast (remember I'm used to solely toast and coffee for breakfast here in Spain) was scrambled eggs, MOUTHWATERING BACON, cereal, toast, coffee, juice and the works. I was in heaven.

Then we drove through whats called Horseshoe Pass. Absolutely breathtaking. This is my kind of world.

Carys took us shopping in Llangollen (pronounced: 'clan-gloth-lan' with a lot of phlegm) where I bought a few things and she treated us to my first fish 'n chips. THE PORTIONS WERE HUGE! The fish was the size of my forearm and the 'chips' (actually french fries) could have fed three people. No joke.

FISH & CHIPS

A gorgeous little creek running through the town 

Nain, my mama & pops 

so cute!!

Welsh Potatoes are the special today

On the way back home, we stopped at some old ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey.

The ruins and some mountains

Stunning architecture 

cool little stairway....AM I IN HOGWARTS?!

I want some windows like this :)

typical pose...sorry 

I RSVP'd to my bosses wedding in October by posting this pic on his Facebook wall. Cant make it, Im a kah-gillion miles away right now!!!

It was eery to be walking around the ruins of a few buildings that were used for monks to live in. Its amazing to think of how much more we have today. I wish I could have experienced that life where you work all day just to make dinner. I would be a heck of a lot less stressed out about grades and such, but probably more about communal diseases.

I fell asleep, catching flies in my mouth, on the car ride back to Nain's house. We all napped for a bit then got ready to go out for a fancy dinner. Almost all the people in Wales my parents knew were at dinner and we ate like kings & queens.

I had fettuccine carbonara, garlic bread, a pint of local lager and then my 'mum' and I split the most enchanting chocolate sponge cake. We all went home and I got another night's sleep in the most comfortable bed I've been in since living in Europe. I actually woke up both mornings in Wales having dreamt for the first time, that I can remember, in Europe. I think this is because my bed in Spain is reallllllllllllllllly kinda hard and small and I don't have my comfy blankets from home that have been passed from sister to sister, getting perfectly broken in for me!

Day 3:

I woke and had another filling breakfast, knowing I wouldn't get one of those again for a long while. My parents were off to the Irish Sea for the next few days with their friend Frank. The rest of their vacation in Wales was wonderful and I cant wait to see the photos when my mama finally gets them onto Facebook!!

Carys and Nain dropped me off at a shuttle that would take me to the Manchester airport and I finally flew back to my home in Spain. Now since my phone was stolen about three weeks ago, I luckily had insurance and got a new one sent home. My parents thankfully brought that to me and once I got through security and such, I finally got WiFi for the first time in three days. I went to check all my emails, social media, weather and stuff when finally I logged into Facebook with 27 messages. CRIPES! I miss my pals back home :)

These girls are my Winona family. This is the stunning team for fall 2013. I MISS THIS!!!

All together though, I love Wales! Its gorgeous, the people are SO GENEROUS and very easygoing, the food is wonderful and the pint sizes for beer are just perfect. I was offered to come back this summer and get a job wrapping wool or shearing sheep, sounds pretty grand to me!!

See these guys in 2 more months!

The flies here are just like the men,

you swat them away but they just keep comin' back!!

I'm not even joking. You can bat at these flies all day long and they don't care, they just keep following you! Same goes for the men, they just don't get it.

So in turn, I just learned to drop the 'Minnesota Nice' act and say it like it is.

'Minnesota Nice' : Smile, hug & bake food for basically anyone ya know eh? Strangers included.

YEAH, DON'T DO THIS IN SPAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The first week and half I walked around smiling at everyone: little kids, old folks and I even said 'hola' to a few people in passing.

In Spain, when you make eye contact, smile or even say hello to a stranger on the street, it means you want 'more than a friendship' with them.

Now that my roomie Molly reminded me of this cultural difference, I understand why so many old men were grinning ear to ear on my walk to school. Damn it Jerianne.

'Guapa' was taught to us Americanos to mean: good looking, pretty etc. So along with this, about once or twice a day SOMEONE would call me guapa. I took this as "Good job Jeri, you lookin' fine today"









No.

I was suspicious because most days here, I roll out of bed and throw on a pair of running shorts  and go to class for 4 hours in a tiny desk. One day I was about to go for a run, I was stretching against a wall when an older lady came up to me and asked if I knew were some stupid street was. I didn't (since I'm terrible with direction) and she said 'ohhhhh gracias guapa!' and I KNEW RIGHT THEN AND THERE IT DIDNT MEAN PRETTY! I hadn't showered in two days, my hair was in a ratty bun, I didn't have any make up on and was wearing some very unflattering running clothes. So I asked a few people if 'guapa' actually meant "ugly little unwashed weasel" because that's me most days.

'Guapa' here means sweetie or honey or young woman. Again, damn it Jerianne.


Some 'cultural differences' you might want to learn about...

1. Dogs
• A lot of the people here have dogs, but they are ALL small ones. I've seen about 4 big dogs total. Where is the love for my large pups?
• It is totally legal to let your little dog take a big, giant crap in the middle of the street and NOT clean it up. I've come close to stepping in a few steamy piles. 
• Dogs in the city do not need leashes. Beware. 
2. Homelessness
• I live out in the country back in Wisco. Winona, MN (my college town) isn't very big at all so homeless people weren't in my life each day. I am aware of homelessness, don't get me wrong, my sister Adrienne was a volunteer coordinator for homeless shelter in a WI.
• Walking to school I see at minimum 5 homeless folks a day. I'm not really sure what to make of it quite yet. There are homeless people here with cell phones, smoking cigarettes and even hand out lighters (in hopes you will pay them for it). 
• (Particular case I need suggestions for) There is a young homeless man who I see each day. He is very nice and always says good morning to me, though he has never asked me for money. I am my father's daughter (if any of you know my pops, he would probably help you move the sofa you were stealing from his house. Both my parents are almost TOO compassionate.) and I feel that if he is STILL there after my 3 month course here, I'd like to bring him lunch or something. I just don't want to do it now; what if I'm being naive and he ends up following me home or something? Is this wrong?
3. Weed
• I'm not sure if it's legal to smoke or not here. I smell it each day when I walk to school.
• Last week in our last hour of class, 4 boys were smoking weed outside our classroom window. Our professor proceeded to explain the verb "to get high" and the boys started to giggle and covertly blow it into our classroom. This city never gets boring...
• Walking home from class and I ended up turning a corner and almost physically ran into a guy toking it up outside my apartment building. He said 'hola' and I almost lunged into a full sprint to get home.
• Is it legal or is it not? Who knows...
4. Aussie vs. Kiwi
• A few friends from back home, who had studied in Granada, recommended an Irish bar called 'Hannigan's' near our school. It wasn't open for the season yet so we went across the street to Paddy's. They make some really strong drinks at the Irish bars here.
• Paddy himself was bar tending. Since he spoke English, we all flocked for familiar conversation. I found out he went on a cycling trip: 3000 miles in 3 months in the U.S.
• HE BIKED THROUGH MADISON,WI,  THROUGH MY SMALL HOMETOWN AND UP PAST MY COLLEGE IN MINNESOTA! small world..
• At this pub, we met some Aussie boys who were on a vacation trip. By this time I had asked Paddy to turn on a rugby match for his homegirl who misses the game. I was staring at the TV, being totally antisocial when the Aussie boys wanted to talk about rugby. They said they seriously didn't believe that I played rugby, so I told them Kiwis are better. That ended our conversation for the night as well as our short-lived friendship. No regrets.

These are the Aussies - before I told them to "stick it where the sun don't shine" - another famous Randy Blau phrase..

1. No conservative clothing here
• There are butt cheeks for days 
• When we go out at night, I look like I dressed up as a soccer mom compared to all the Spanish ladies (I'm okay with it)
• You cant find shorts here. They are actually just denim granny panties that these girls wear. 
2. Going out at night
• Iphones are realllllllll hot commodities here 
• My phone was pick pocketed
• I have a friend who had her Iphone stolen, she was sent a replacement one and that was stolen at the SAME BAR mine was..
• Pick pocketers are so sneaky here, but we've heard its the worst in Barcelona
• The other night, our professor Javier took the class out to some really local and authentic bars where they had a few drinks and tapas. Javier told us after the final exam tomorrow we can go out for some tapas and few cervesas with him. He's such a funny guy!
• Finding late night (actually EARLY morning, like 5am or 6am) 'drunk munchies' is REALLY hard. My roommate Molly & I discovered a little Shwarma (kebab) place that is cheap and open at 5:30am. SPANISH LIFE COMPLETE!

1. Randoms
• Fanta Limon (lemon flavored fanta, not lemon lime clear soda, LEMON flavored) is worth getting shipped to the U.S.  It's the most delicious soda!
• Our host mama has grandchildren (over 5) and about once a week we have a big family meal with some of them. THEY ARE ALL SO CUTE! Mateo is the 14 month old who is over like 2-3 times a week and he's SO HAPPY all the time!! I want to steal him and bring him home with me. Mateo goes to bed around 10pm or 1030 though. So basically this 14 month old child can stay up later than both my parents. Wow
• Mars Bar?s They are kind of an older candy, but they are really popular here in Spain. I found some Mars Bars flavored ice cream!

We went hiking in Los Cahorros last Saturday morning. My camera is refusing to charge so I stole some bomb pictures from my girl Shelby.

S/O to her blog as well!

 http://killenadventures.blogspot.com.es/

This shot reminds me of one of my fav states from back home, Utah!

One last fact: 

My hometown population: 472 
Granada, Spain: 239,000

I'm liking the big city, but I'm missing: animal contact, fresh country air, quiet nights, leaving doors unlocked, gravel roads, GRASS and cereal with real milk!!!