oh, the little things in life

today i had the best breakfast at my casa: a slice of bread with one half peanut butter (my lastest, and best purchase) other half nutella, cafe con leche y azucar, and five little maria cookies.

what a great way to start the day. 

upbeat abroad/confessional time

My London group gathered yesterday at Dr. Phillips' house. There are a few new additions to the TOP posse (Kasey Sneed and Kimmy Court - the latter, unfortunately, is best friends with Nikki Bouchard). We talked about our two-week spring break, which got me so excited about traveling and meeting interesting people (whom I will be able to film, haha, because the residents of Worrell House, Spring 2010, are serving as testers for a Wake pilot program so we all get Flip digital video cameras). Also, there's a 1.5 hour pass/fail course that I am really looking forward to - you are supposed to join some sort of cultural/social group to immerse yourself in London living (and then write a brief paper about your experiences, of course).
So...confession-time: I have been hanging out with Ross. Please don't kill me, Haven and Devon - he really has changed a lot. A few times he has broached the topic of getting back together and I said I wouldn't even consider it until he took some proactive steps vis a vis his future. Things there are complicated, but I want to give him a second chance (even though he doesn't deserve one, which I have made clear). Yeah. But I wanted to tell you that so you don't hear it from anyone else.
That's all the news that's fit to print, or not, from my life.

Sometimes abroad is...

...like freshmen year: you have to make new friends which is hard sometimes and frustrating. Sometimes (more like all the time) I want y'all to be here with me so I can act stupid and you would understand.

...full of really annoying people: some of the people on my trip are so obnoxious and I want to slap them in the face.

...more than "raging": i wish some people would understand that I'm not here to not remember my abroad experience.

...really smoky: I am going to have lung cancer before I leave.

...really frustrating: when you run out of minutes on your phone and can't call anyone to see what they're doing. So you just have to wait for them to call you...and sometimes they dont...efffff.

...going by so fast: i've already been here for 20 days.

...soooo funnnnnnnnnnnnnn though! 

MISS YALL. 

abroad anxiety

Right now I am sort of freaking out about going abroad. This just added to it (from a blog I read):
Anyone who's spent much time in the British isles knows about the ingrained prejudice against hard-g "gingers," much of which surely dates from age-old racially-motivated distrust of Irish and Scottish immigrants, amongst whom red hair is more common. I remember when I lived there how utterly bizarre I found remarks like, "Lily Cole'd be pretty - if she wasn't ginger," or "I stood over his crib for hours just praying his hair wouldn't go ginger." What the hell? In 2007, the BBC addressed the issue with the headline, "Is Gingerism As Bad As Racism?"
Like, really? I will be a hated minority? Bo dropped out of the London program, citing the "opportiunity cost" of going abroad. For the past few weeks, I have been feeling the same way - that what I will miss out on will not be made up for by my experience in London. If I didn't think Dr. Phillips would hate me, I would also drop out, I think.

post before soc(iology)

Do people also call snacks "mixtos" in Spain, Haven? That's what they were in South America for the most part.
More later, haha.

Hello, My Name Is Haiber

So since I've been in Salamanca I have learned that my name is not Spanish friendly. 

I knew it was going to take a while for my madre to remember my name when she could hardly say it no matter how many times I repeated it. In fact the first morning I was here, I could hear my madre and little sister, Laura, snickering in the hall and asking each other if they could remember my name. haha too funny. Finally they just came and knocked on my door to tell me to help myself to breakfast. 

Since then I have been called Ivan, Ivory, and Ivy. I was Ivy for about 4 days which I really liked hahah.

But since yesterday things have rapidly progressed. I woke up Saturday afternoon (late since we were out until 5am) to a note saying that we would be having lunch at 3:15. And you may be asking yourself...who was this note addressed to?? None other than HAIBER. Yes, spelled that way and everything. 

Things have started to get a little hectic, but it is still the nice grace period when nothing big is due. On Thursday we had our first Arch Society meeting where we talked about issues confronting indigenous people in South America.
Last night I went on a date with Bo (obviously he didn't ask me if I wanted to go on a date, but he asked me for dinner and then paid, so I guess it was a date) to the Old Salem Tavern. Dinner was great, and we talked for like two hours. Then we went back to Polo and hung out with a few friends (including Sam Sims, Devon - he now has a girlfriend); Bo proceeded to get really drunk. After the rest of the people left (they were going barhopping downtown), he wanted me to stay, but I wasn't drinking and wasn't interested in being put in an awkward situation.
Upon returning to Poteat, I decided to go out to SAE's "Lax Bros and Jersey Hoes" party with Marge and her friend Elise. It was a lot of fun. One thing I wonder: is Billy dating a girl he met on the Vietnam trip? Remember when we saw him making out with a girl right before you left, Haven? We though she was a freshman. So last night Billy introduces me and Margaret to the same girl, and of course I ask, "Are you a freshman?" Turns out she is a senior, and not a very nice senior at that. But instead of hanging out with us, Billy was by her side the whole night.
So who knows what is happening there.
Miss you both so much, but it sounds like time is flying by for you and you're having tons of fun. Can't wait to hear more!

i love sangria.

Last night (as devon knows) I left around 5ish to go have tapas and sangria in La Plaza Mayor. Basically the point of this post is that I love sangria. A few of us went to this tapas bar, Bambu, for, well, tapas! It's great-- you go into this little mini bar/restaurante and get sangria with a complimentary tapas. So, last night I tried this piece of bread with cream cheese/crab/lobster spread...and it was topped with approximately seven chocolate sprinkles? ha

Later we met back up with our group and had dinner with everyone and our two professors. We sat down with all this little plates of various meats-- salchichones (sausages), chorrizo (some other form of pork), and jamon (ham) aka lots and lots of pork products. And for the next two hours, the waiters brought out plate after plate after plate of food-- more meats, breads, salads, giant shrimp, etc. Sadly Madeline I'm not sure that you would have enjoyed this menu. (Shannon has been eating loooooots of ensaladas). 

After dinner we headed back down to the plaza for, no surprise here, more sangria! We bought a few pitchers and sat around the plaza listening to bands/singers, watching the kids run around, and just getting to know each other. 

Theeeeeeen we had heard of this bar (Irish Rover) which had been recommended to us by fellow Wake kids who had been here before. So naturally, we checked it out. It was like a little Winston-Salem-- beer bong, tons of american college kids, karaoke. OH OH OH. So there is a guy here that is like the Dean Shore of Salamanca. He takes pictures of all the college kids, friends you on facebook, and tags you. Baha. Just like home. 

Today we're getting a walking tour of Salamanca-- apparently I should wear my tennis shoes because the guides practically run you all around the city?? Great. 

Di dove sei (where are you from)?
Come stai (how are you)?
Penna (pen)

These are some of the first words I learned in my Italian class yesterday. I just got out of Florentine Villas and EVERY class I have (except for my final) is a site trip. I can't wait to get into the countryside.

Yesterday was Louisa's birthday and we invited some people from Wake, a girl from NYU and a girl from Duke to come out with us to dinner. After dinner we got gelato (I had chocolate-orange and yogurt-nutella) and we walked along the Arno to this little local beach bar on the river. We sat on the dam and listened to a woman strum her guitar while singing Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" in Italian. It was really good to be with Wake people and it ended up being a great night- very chill.

I'm currently trying to figure out inexpensive options for traveling to Positano this weekend. It looks like I'm going to have to take a train to Naples, another train to Sorrento and then a bus to Positano... What could go wrong? Hahaha.

Missing you....

-Me.