La Truchita

"Home from Germany (21st birthday, Munich, Regensburg, Pat, wurst, beer) and only 5 more days until..."

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:22:58 -0400

“

Home from Germany (21st birthday, Munich, Regensburg, Pat, wurst, beer) and only 5 more days until I’m on my way to the States!

I CAN’T WAIT

”

"Off to see Patrick! Will be in Germany for a week hanging out and celebrating my 21st birthday!"

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:20:01 -0400

“Off to see Patrick! Will be in Germany for a week hanging out and celebrating my 21st birthday!”

"Most 70 year old men don't wear earrings...but I don't give a shit. We're soul mates"

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:44:39 -0400

Just got back from Paris with Pat! and some of our other friends…Uche..and the famous Robin (remember? my darling host in Amsterdam). It was incredible.

First, though, my flight was delayed a half hour because there were more people on board than seats. This was even after I started using legit airlines (Ryanair no more!..Because I’m illegal and they check visas). But, due to it being a real airline I got free dinner and a glass of wine. (And the guy at Subway had given me a free cookie! I was in heaven at this point). I landed in Paris (Charles de Gaulle, how you’ve been a funny character in my life) and scooted my tush over to a different gate to me…wait for it…drumroll…wait…PAT! Yay. We jumped on a train and met up with Uche and Robin and headed out for a night on the town. We went to a fog bar (sprayed fake fog every two minutes) where my favorite beer, Desperado, 1.20 in Madrid was 8 EURO. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? But it was hilarious. And I bought a very theatrically-given shot for Uche. We then went to a bar closer to Uche’s (magnificent) apartment where we accidentally let two cats out of a trap door and then got kicked out…serious. That really happened.

The next morning we slept in late, ate some crepes, saw the Tower, explored Paris and just generally hung out. I even got escargot! YUM. It was so delicious. This day was just full of relaxing, exploring and talking which is exactly what a mini vacation should be. At night we got a collection of fancy cheese, baguettes and wine and had a nice dinner at home. We went out to an “American-style” bar after munching on some nutella and sugar crepes but headed home early so we could have a fun day on Sunday.

Sunday we woke up, packed our stuff, and traveled all day with our backpacks. First we went to Sacre Couer (stunning view, beautiful church) which I had missed out on doing the last time I went. We walked by Moulin Rouge (which apparently translated to The Red Windmill. That’s a new fact for me) on our way to the finish line of the Tour du France! We actually got to see the bikers on the last bit of their ridiculous race. It was so cool. Thankfully Pat hoisted me up so I could see past the massive and rowdy crowd. We met an old Australian couple (the title of this post is a reference to a conversation we had) and the gentleman gave me a kangaroo earring (that matched his) so we could find each other again later in life. What a hoot. After that Pat and I headed to the airport where we said goodbye…until this Friday!

Friday I’m heading over to Germany to spend 6 days with The Tall One to celebrate my 21st birthday. (Although I’ll certainly need some more celebration when I get home…I think Keeley is planning a dual birthday fiesta for August 19th..stay tuned). Two weeks from today and I’ll be heading home. I’m definitely getting excited.

Lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again.

La Truchita

"I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it."

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:00:13 -0400

“I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.”

- Audrey Hepburn (via musingsinfemininity)

So..

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:22:34 -0400

..there’s no way I can begin to try to explain how awesome the camp was. I can’t remember all of the things that happened or all of the hilarious sayings from the kids. (by the way, in Spain they add “tion” to the end of Spanish words to make them English just like we add “o” to make them spanish. Ex: Teacher! My..eh..piernation hurts! (My leg hurts!)

Night time activities for the monitors was awesome. We went out almost every single night. One night we sat out on a massive boulder overlooking the city and watched a lightning storm beyond the mountains. We went swimming in the (very warm) river at night under the stars…we salsa danced, bar hopped (since there were only two bars in the ENTIRE town this meant we literally hopped (like bunnies) from one bar to the other), met some locals, exchanged jokes with the bartender, multiple night time slip n slides, we watched movies in the giant theater at the school…etc. One night David and I taught some of the Spaniards the LMFAO shuffle then impressed the heck out of them with an awesome Summer Nights duet that rocked the bar. It was total freedom at night with hardly any responsibility. It was such a freeing, incredible feeling, one that I’m not used to in my everyday life.

We all left Madrid at like 830 (which was rough for some of the other monitors who had gone out and arrived intoxicated for the bus ride), we got the lay of the land and set up for a while. Then the kids arrived. Little did we know how close we’d all become. This day was pretty low key, with move-in, rules, placement test, two meals (not too shabby) and general getting-to-know-you. Each day was similar and we had a great time bonding.Each night we had a different activity planned (my main job with David). We had dance night, star gazing, trivia, english competition, fourth of july party/field day, birthday party celebrations, two movies (one was signs and we scared the HELL out of the kids), an immigrant game where I got to be a drug dealer/pimp/chony (trashy Spanish girl who wears too much makeup-the kids dressed me up) and Jordi was my prostitute, farewell party, etc. During the day we also went horseback riding, kayaking and windsurfing. This was not a bad job. I literally got paid (and well!) to go horseback riding through the Spanish countryside surrounded by wildflowers (appropriately my song with my dad is Wildflowers by Tom Petty). I am so blessed.

Gotta go play with the girls!

Love, love and only about three more weeks!

La Truchita

Buitrago and Operacion Ingles

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:37:31 -0400

Watching American vs Japan. Let’s go ladies!

I fell in love with 44 little Spanish kids. With the tiny town, the mountains. The amazing monitors, the new vocab I learned, the constant adventure and constant exhaustion.

Every day was wake up at 8, breakfast, two hours of class, sports hour (I taught kickball and basketball) two hours of class, lunch, siesta (a God send, I’ll definitely be bringing that tradition back to the US), work shops (I taught Glee-epic performance of I’m Yours and Rolling in the Deep, theater, and teambuilding), journals, dinner, night activities, lights out then fiesta time for the monitors.

Some notable mentions of my favorite kid..

Guille “It is my blonde” when he chose me to be his Kayak partner

Daniel Turpin, who became my and David’s favorite snuggle buddy.

Mario, who claimed to be Barney Stinson (They are obsessed with How I Met Your Mother, awesome kids)

Alejandro, who threw me in the pool three times

Miguel, who is about 6’2 and super handsome but bashful and begged me for girl advice. And also said he was terrified of me once I reprimanded the camp for being disrespectful to our director.

Carlitos. Just because he’s my Carlitos and was the nicest kid.

Angela, rebel turned favorite. Caught her smoking on the first day then were both in tears upon parting. “You have much face, Dani” when she translated the Spanish “tienes mucha cara” (you are cheeky) after I let her bribe me to keep her cell at night.

Claudia. Athlete, angel. One of the camp favorites of all.

Yasmina. Had an incredible heart to heart about body image…then she confessed her undying passion for David (the other monitor)

Paula. Best back rubs. Used to sneak into her room with Alba, Ana Maria, and Clara for late night girl talk.

And so, so many more.

Running across the street for a neighborhood festival/concert. Be back soon for more updates!

Love,

Truchita

hellogiggles: BFF’s Of The Week: MY LOVE LETTER TO SUMMER...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:41:22 -0400

hellogiggles:

BFF’s Of The Week: MY LOVE LETTER TO SUMMER CAMPS

by Sophia Rossi

"Can’t believe Operacion is over. Probably fastest two weeks of my life. Weird knowing I..."

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:37:53 -0400

“Can’t believe Operacion is over. Probably fastest two weeks of my life. Weird knowing I won’t see some of those incredible people ever again. This just means I’m that much closer to going home to the US. <3”

I know I know...

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:10:23 -0400

Sorry I haven´t been updating a lot..not a whole lot of time! These kids keep me busy. Expect a giant report when I´m finished (Friday!)

Camp!

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:30:27 -0400

Hey guys! Camp is awesome and I´m so glad I signed up for this job. I´ll try to keep you updated as often as possible but I don´t get a whole lot of computer time (too busy with the kids..not a bad thing).

I´m up near the mountains in a town caleld Buitrago del Lozoya http://www.buitrago.org/ at a marianist boarding school that is 150% the size of the town. Haha. It´s great. We have 44 kids that range in age from 11 to 17 (almost 18) which is a big difference in age/maturity (and, yes, a lot of the kids are significantly taller than me). For us to more efficiently teach we pretend like none of us speak Spanish which is really funny, especially when they talk about us right in front of us. The monitors are Rosi (my boss. Austrian. incompetent), Usama (Syrian-Spanish. doesn´t really speak English. assistant director and never around), Opal (Jamaican, roommate, talks to herself all the time), Jordi (Spanish. awesome. I´m bringin him back to SLU with me in the fall for a few years), David (Spanish-American. awesome), Irving (Mexican American, awesome), Kristin (American, awesome, roommate) and myself.

I definitely have a few favorites so far and a few kids who I want to slap when they open their mouths to speak but overall it´s really great.

I teach Kickball, Theater (all boys), Glee (all girls), and Teambuilding..which has turned into “talk about boys with the girls while the boys try to do flips/gymnastics). Not a bad set up to have.

Brief summary of what´s been happening (I´ll keep updating as I go along!)

Friday: Arrive at the bus stop at 830 ( had to get up at 630 to pack and get there) then an hour and a half ride out of Madrid to Buitrago. We set up and greeted the kids and did icebreakers and bonded all day. We have a really good group (funny things: we have A Couple, and a cousin due that is super sexual with each other and some other funny characters. I have so many great quotes from them so far).

Augh. Just got called away. I´ll be back later to update more!

"I´m still alive! I promise. I´ll try to update later but 44 spanish kids and an inefficient (read:..."

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:34:46 -0400

“I´m still alive! I promise. I´ll try to update later but 44 spanish kids and an inefficient (read: idiot) manager are keeping me busy! Having a great time”

"Off to Operacion Ingles!"

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:23:54 -0400

“Off to Operacion Ingles!”

"Nice and cool on my way to SLU this morning. After days upon days of 100+ weather that was a mega..."

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:41:58 -0400

“Nice and cool on my way to SLU this morning. After days upon days of 100+ weather that was a mega blessing #glimpseofGod #SJAshoutout”

PatJohnDani Parte Dos

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:24:59 -0400

Great meeting about Operacion Ingles. Learned a lot about what I’ll be doing and it makes me super excited!

Anyway. Back to Thursday. So we took the train home and got ready for a night on the town which turned out to be hilarious. We just promoter-hopped and got free drinks at random and weird clubs and laughed at the hilarious people around us. We were pretty tired after our long day so we headed back to the hostel to rest up because John was supposed to arrive Friday! Thankfully that night we also got a private room so we could spread out and not worry about loud strangers stumbling around and yelling in the dark. Whew.

Friday morning we woke up (on time for breakfast!) then hung around the hostel for a while. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant then explored some of the tourist-y (and awesome) areas of Madrid like Plaza Major. We stopped for a few glasses of wine at different places and observed what was going on in Madrid. Then we took an epic nap in..wait for it…the royal gardens. No big deal. We finished the afternoon with a glass of wine on the street with all the prostitutes and watched them try to seduce people. It was great fun. I love our wholesome activity time. We then headed to the airport to find John..who wasn’t there! The poor guy was delayed and got in 6 hours after he was supposed to get in..meaning he was stuck traveling until 3am! Poor guy. But when Pat and I didn’t see him we made our way to El Tigre and ate until we were so stuffed that we had to take a break during the walk on the way home. John arrived and we were happy. Yay friends uniting!

Saturday=waking up early enough for breakfast. I love those croissants at that hostel. The three of us trekked over to the Blackston’s again. We loaded up with some friends of theirs and headed to Toledo for an olive oil tasting. But, psych, Spain sucks sometimes and the place didn’t even open that day event though we had a scheduled appointment. We ended up at this incredible restaurant built in 1657 and I tried bull’s tail and foie. Interesante. And I may have fallen asleep on the way back. Whatevs. The three of us took an EPIC trip and rode the teleferico cable cars across the city and got to spend some time together in a small, enclosed space high in the air while Pat thought it was funny to rock back and forth. I’ll slap him later for that. We then explored an awesome rose garden, photobombed some wedding pics and figured out how to walk from Arguelles to Principe Pio (crazy, huh, Grimm?) we explored Sol a little, did some prostitute watching, and headed back to El Tigre for more ridiculous portions of tapas. Nom nom nom. We headed back to the hostel for a quick outfit change then went to various bars. Read: O’Connells, O’Neills, Dubliners. Yay branching out in Spain. Haha. We headed back and got some much-needed sleep.

Sunday lead to another day of failing to wake up in time. Although we did almost get kicked out when John accidentally held an open water bottle over the floor and dumped it out..and some other hijinx…but we survived and got out of there in time to grab chocolate and churros! Yay nutritious breakfasts. I like hanging out with those two. We then headed to El Mercado de San Miguel where we shared croquetas, queso and wine. Thyssen museum was up next. It’s one of the best museums in Madrid (along with El Prado and Reina Sofia). It had an awesome Liechtenstein (one of my favorite artists) and O’Keefe along with some Monets and other nice bits. Also a lot of modern art. John knew his stuff and I learned a lot. And it was fun exploring the museum with those two. We generally have fun doing anything. Then, after some more wine we hit up A BULL FIGHT Epicccc. So many bulls were killed. A dude got flipped in the air. It was awesome. We stayed for hours watching bulls get killed. I loved it. No moral issues or anything. So great. Yeehaw! We tried a tasty new restaurant where we tried Spanish wine, gambas al ajillo, paella, and chicken and jalenpeno pizza. Num. We then free bar hopped for the rest of the night.

The next morning WE GOT FREE BREAKFAST, grabbed some wine cheese and baguettes and had a lovely picnic in the park and talked.

Then was sad time and we had to part and it was AWFUL. I just want to be with them forever. Can’t separate Lily, Marshall and Ted.

Ah well. We shall all be together again one day. I’m lucky to have such great people in my life as is.

Time to go rest up

La Truchita

Three Best Friends That Anyone Could Have

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 05:51:00 -0400

Hello all!

Yeah. My blogging has really gone down the tubes. Lo siento but c’est la vie. Gotta live life as it presents itself to you. BUT I shall update you now.

1. There has been a lot of confusion about where I’m living. I’m with the American family now. American food, pool, adorable kids, barbecue, air conditioning, American T.V. shows, productivity…all things I love. It’s a really great place. I’m sort of living there as an au pair right now and they’ve really made me feel like part of the family. It’s such a blessing.

2. Today starts mega planning for Operacion Ingles. I leave early Friday morning for the camp and will get back sometime on the 15th. Not sure how much internet access I’ll have but I’ll try to keep everyone updated as much as possible!

3. And now the good stuff. The Pat-John-Dani weekend in Spain. Glorious.

Okay. So Wednesday I scooted from babysitting to tutoring then on to the airport. In traditional “me” fashion I got there WAY too early. But, can you blame me? I was pretty excited. After waiting around for a few hours I FINALLY got to pick up my boyfriend from the gate! We grabbed our bags and headed to Cat’s Hostel (where Laura and Elle stayed when they visited). I took him to Euroshot night at O’Neill’s (typical Wednesday tradition) then we headed back to the hostel. That night we did not have a private room so we spent the night being woken up by loud roommates. Ah well. Such is the life of a college student on a budget. Can’t complain too much because I was overall just happy to be where I was with Pat.

Thursday we slept in pretty late (missing free breakfast. darn it) and headed out into the city. We got some tasty breakfast (quiche for me and a ham and cheese hot pocket-like thing for Pat), grabbed some nice wine/baguette/manchego cheese and headed to Retiro. I had been waiting for MONTHS to get to go to Retiro with Pat. It was even better than I had dreamed. We walked around the stunning park, ate our picnic and just talked. Even though most of our relationship tends to be us talking on the phone or skype we still manage to find stuff to talk about when we’re together. Then..the rowboats. YES. I’ll add pictures later but he and I changed into our swimsuits then headed over to the lake. We spent at least an hour rowing around and listening to music. We followed that up with ice cream cones and some more relaxing in the shade (note: this blog entry will contain many food references. and “how we avoided the sun” acknowledgments as it was over 100 degrees almost every day). We then headed over to the Blackstons (Americans) for a barbecue. YUM. As a reminder, I haven’t had barbecue since I left home. Oh how I’ve missed it. We walked in and Pat was immediately surrounded by 4 screaming little girls. They forced him to be their pool buddy where they promptly began abusing him with various water toys. He was a trooper, though, and won all of them over. We ate tasty gazpacho, sangria, roasted peppers, ham, cheese, hummus, veggies, potato salad and…drum roll please..RIBS. Pat ate pretty much a whole rack. We chatted with the Blackstons and their friends and spent about four hours just hanging with them and listening to all their stories about “how Ari saved George W. Bush from massive diarrhea attacks” and various other anecdotes about living the nomadic military life. Very cool. Alas, I must pause my retelling of the awesome weekend and go to an O.I. meeting. It’s weird being back at SLU-Madrid right now! Makes me miss all the people I studied abroad with this semester even more than I already did.

Hasta pronto,

La Truchita

"When my son first left for college, his dad gave him advice for life: you can date each and every..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:02:35 -0400

“

When my son first left for college,
his dad gave him advice for life:
you can date each and every Kappa
But bring home a DG for a wife.

You can party with the Tri-Delts,
and it’s fine to date a Zeta,
but when it’s time to marry,
be sure she’s DG, not a Theta

Chi O’s can be on your agenda,
and Pi Phi’s are fun for a date,
but never, ever forget
that you’ll want a DG as your mate.

We want you to enjoy your college years
and give all the sororities a spin.
But never buy a ring
unless DG is on her pin.

During your four years of college,
you’ll go from one house to another,
but take the advice of your smiling ol’dad
and bring home a DG to your mother.

”

"Just had an incredible, beautiful weekend with Pat and John. Was heartbroken to see it go. Expect..."

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:47:00 -0400

“Just had an incredible, beautiful weekend with Pat and John. Was heartbroken to see it go. Expect some blog updates tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow starts my epic planning for Operacion Ingles and I’ll ship out on Friday for the 15 day camp at Buitrago de Lozoya (http://www.buitrago.org/)!”

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:44:24 -0400

"Safely moved in with the American family! (Pool. YESSS) It’s nice and hot all the time..."

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:38:50 -0400

“Safely moved in with the American family! (Pool. YESSS) It’s nice and hot all the time here..mostly mid nineties. Just working on plans for next year and still working on random Spanish vocab and stuff like that. My accent and language skills are definitely improving! Pat gets here in two days! And John in 4!”

Lake Como, General Musings

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:15:34 -0400

So I’ve been getting sass for not updating my blog…mostly Robin (hey, glad you read, at least!) so I’ll go ahead and add in some of my life updates. Last week I got home from Germany on Wednesday and pretty much just had time to shower before it was time to head on over to Italy (exaggeration. deal). Here are a few images/some info about the place I visited http://www.discovercomo.com/

Friday afternoon I headed to Milan and, get this, I used an actual airline. AN ACTUAL AIRLINE! I had an assigned seat and everything. And I was incredulous when the snack cart rolled by AND I GOT FREE SNACKS! Yum. I landed right after ten where I met up with my friend Rory and two new friends, Michelle and Caitlin. Unfortunately Pat’s plane was delayed an hour which lead us to missing our train home which meant we got to spend some quality hours sleeping on the floor of the train station. Not actually all that bad. It’s amazing how much safer you feel with a giant guy next to you who’s there to protect you.

Early the next morning we took a train out to Lake Como to hang at Rory’s lake house. Between sessions of nodding off (it’s that public transportation narcolepsy I have) I woke to see stunning views of beautiful mountains and lakes in a beautiful, picturesque, small Italian town. (George Clooney’s place was across the lake, no big deal). We had to trek up a mountain to get to the home (big hill, whatever) but the views were totally worth it. Upon arrival the five of us promptly fell asleep (for like four hours) then had snacks on the balcony. We headed down to the main town to grab pizza and bond which turned into an unofficial wine tasting while we watched a storm over the lake. I also got to carry one a few conversations in Italianol (Spanish-Italian combo) which tickled me. Afterward, we headed back up to the house with groceries and spent the early evening eating Rosemary-flavored pringles (classy, Italy) and sharing more of that tasty Italian wine. We headed down again that night and went to a DELICIOUS pizza place where we all shared a bunch of different pizzas. My favorite was the gorgonzola-pear and I had a chance to try anchovy and caper pizza for the first time! Salllllty. After such a long day we decided it’d be best to just head home so we all hung out and chatted late into the night until we fell asleep.

The next morning (after some serious sleeping in) we headed down to the town for pastries and coffee and some good talks by the lake. We had to head to the airport pretty soon after that but it was an incredible trip.

It sounds short when I retell it but this was actually one of my favorite trips. It was SO relaxing to be able to talk to friends and just take in the beauty of the surroundings. I felt very lucky.

Since then I’ve mostly been nannying for the American military family that I babysit. I’m still living in my friend’s apartment and will be until next weekend. (Then the American family is letting me stay with them) My friend Jason (shout out to Chaminade-SJA book club) just arrived in Madrid so we’ll be hanging out all weekend. Pat is coming this Wednesday until Monday and John is meeting up with us on Friday. I can’t WAIT to have my favorite boys with me. Yay!

In addition this week two of my friends were in town so I went out with them. Good bonding time. And when I was meeting up with them in Sol I got interviewed (in Spanish) which made me feel AWESOME with my language skills, made fun of stupid hippies with another hippy and chatted and prayed with a group of kids who were doing missionary work in Madrid. Awesome.

So. It’s 1:15 on a Friday and I’m babysitting. Tomorrow I”m going to check out an art district with Jason and Sneed but also rest up a lot because I have a cold. I’m happy to be here but will definitely be ready when I can come home.

Love and miss America

La Truchita