Because we want to (not the answer to every rhetorical question ever, obviously)

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Julia

Hey all,

I just want you to know that I love it here. After spending all day in bed doing nothing, which was wonderful, I went on a night walk in the park with a friend of mine. We both love to talk, so it was very entertaining.

Now I’m listening to The Church of Hot Addiction by Cobra Starship because one of my friends listened to it on spotify, and I am in love with spotify. I like this song, although it feels very stalkery to know exactly what someone else listened to 2 minutes ago hahaha

Speaking of stalkery, I never really heard a Calle 13 song until my roomie’s boyfriend sang Muerte en Hawaii to her, and now I can’t listen to any of their music without being like “Haha…. Iñigo…” So, the point of the tangent: the other song ended and I’m listening to Calle 13. Spotify is so much fun, seriously. I NEED A COOL PHONE when I get back to the U.S so that I can have spotify on it….

Ok, fine, I don’t do things…. I just spent like a half hour trying to find a way to put Can’t Believe It Koala in here. He’s so cute and now that I know what memes are (don’t ask :p) I really wanted to use one of the generators to bring my non-funny commentary to the world haha

Speaking of bringing things to the world, I’m bringin’ my sexy behind to Madrid tomorrow night (okay, technically we leave tuesday morning) so that we can land in Ireland on tuesday.

It’s a 12 day trip for me because I’m going to Andalucía afterwards. I can’t wait to see my cousin!!! And two of my teachers (two sisters) lived in Ireland for, like, 10 years, so they’re hopefully writing us a list of places to go! Since we’re there for basically a week, we can so take day trips. Nobody else wants to plan, but I’m just so excited!! The whole spotify thing started just now so that I could make myself start packing.

I partied a lot on saturday, after spending the morning on Paco (our mountain… it’s actually called Cantabria or something) All I did today was laundry. Oh and I ate stuff and slept… and took a shower and a walk. I was supposed to have a language exchange to get my nonexistent chinese to a more basic sort of level. But whatever.

This is likely my last post before Ireland, so be excited: NEXT TIME I’LL TALK ABOUT ST. PATTIE’S@@@!!!(@#*&#@^*@& :DDDDDDD

Oh God, I’m so hyped. I can’t take it.

I’m going to go pack more. (a.k.a. start)

Love ya’ll (vosotros)

Julia

P.S. I made a chinese facebook (it’s called renren.com). My name is 吴丽明 (Wú Lì Míng) which makes my first name Lì Míng. Some of my friends don’t like it but I decided to keep it. The characters are pretty, and it’s an average name. I don’t wanna be one of those girls who picks a crazy-a$$ name that means something totally over the top. So there we go 🙂

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Things I Should Be Working on in Chinese

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Julia

there will be things here.. I should be working on the things I should be working on in Spanish…

Here’s one, though!!

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Things I Need to Work on in Spanish

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Julia

there will be things here.. I’m working on it.

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The Benefits of a Neurotic Childhood (batteries sold separately)

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Julia

Yes, I am obviously talking about a friend who is not really a friend but a friend of a friend. Totally not me. That’s for sure 😉

Before getting into anything, LOOK AT THIS:

PACO!! (remember, Kelly named our mountain)

Yeah, when do you think that’s from? It’s like one of those pics I snapped back in October, right? NOPE. IT WAS TODAY! note: It’s FEBRUARY.

*moment to take in the awesome*

I was outside, doing yoga and stretches on the lawn today. In a tank top. IN A TANK TOP.

Pretty sure that is amazing. On account of the nice weather we’ve been planning on scaling Paco. In two weekends, this will be a reality.

So, take another moment to stare at Paco, and then come back to me.

…

There we go. Today in class we talked about sports that we had or hadn’t done, including hang-gliding, horseback riding, deep-sea fishing, diving, parachuting, and whatnot. From one moment to the next, while talking to Kelly and Natalie (my girls from the first trimester <3) I realized that I could do all (well, almost all… ix-nay on the ishing-fay!) of these things!!

When I was younger, I wouldn’t do anything at all because I always had an excuse to stay home and not try new things. New things that I might be bad at! I participated in the high school musicals and did cross-country for a bit, but even that was super hard for me. I attempted track, but quit because it was hard and not fun…

WOOOOO!!!! (note: not me...YET!)

Now that I’ve done things that most people talk about doing but know they’ll never actually get around to, like learning another language or traveling Europe, I realized that this barrier is gone. Now when I talk about crazy things like parachuting or deep-sea diving, I mean it. In my mind, it is a now possibility. Not a “maybe sometime” thing, not a “if someone else plans it” thing. A me thing. A thing that I will get around to because I want to do it. Failing at things is no longer an issue. I suck at Latin dancing, but I haven’t quit the class. My Spanish is iffy, but I don’t feel horrible about it anymore. I am actually working out on a regular-ish basis, and not caring that people can see that my belly is still there. So what? It’s a belly. Deal with it and look at how terrifically fast my arms muscles are firming. (this is me talking to other people in my head, which means that I’m actually saying it to myself haha)

I honestly want everyone who is reading this to take a good look at the bucket list that I KNOW you all have in your heads. Plan to tick one off this year. Why not? These things don’t usually cost a gigantic amount, so you can save up enough for that $100 parachuting lesson or whatever for a few months, and then do it. If it doesn’t work out, blame it on me! Perfect.

Doing what you want to do isn’t always possible, but getting out of our own way can be incredibly easy. Just realize that the “people” you are talking to when you think defensive, defiant things about yourself are actually you.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking.. “Uh, Julia, I already know this.” Well, it doesn’t hurt to be re-informed. You’re awesome. Do some cool sh*t. (<–sorry mom)

My lovely, amazing, smart, fun Chinese classmates are leaving me soon, and we’ve been in the program together for basically six months. I am going to miss them. Some of my wonderful Brazilian and Japanese friends are leaving me, too, and it makes me sad. It’s like trimester one all over again. But, you know what? The friends that are staying are going through the same thing, and the friends that are leaving are going to keep existing in the world. We’ll just have to work harder to communicate. Almost everywhere I travel, a free, ecstatic reunion is included!!

Here’s to my friends, old and new. You are all wonderful people and I miss you/have missed you/will miss you. (although some of you might not be too happy about this ENGLISH blog hahaha)

Much love,

Julia

 

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The Eternal Student and the Red Light District (Who went to Amsterdam? This Girl!)

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Julia

Out of all the places I’ve been so far, Barcelona is my number one…. and Amsterdam is second. I had no idea what to expect of Amsterdam. I knew it was in Holland, that there were lots of canals, that it was cold, that certain things are legal there, and that they speak Dutch. Basically, that was it. Holland=clogs, windmills, and lots of bikes.

Everything I knew was true, but I had no idea what the atmosphere of the city was like. When you tell people you’re going to Amsterdam, they raise their eyebrows and give you a knowing look, a grin, or simply go “mh-hm…” Some people comment your facebook status telling you to smoke.

So when I got there, I wasn’t sure whether it would be shocking or how gigantic the party atmosphere was. It wasn’t, and I loved it. It is SUCH a relaxed little place. It almost feels like you’re in the country because there’s so much water, and the buildings aren’t that tall, and everyone’s on their bike. The streets are bumpy with their old cobble-stoneyness. My friend didn’t like the bike paths because we almost got killed a few times, and only half of them were our fault 😛

Not that we need to admit things that are our fault…. like how I have to plan everything perfectly in order to graduate on time. The thing is, I’m what is called an eternal student. I’m the sort of person that could study for 20 years straight and not have qualifications for an actual job at the end. I dream of a future in which I can do everything at once. (except for math haha… and science…) I want to study sociology and psychology and history and culture and communications and english and spanish and german and chinese and anthropology and immigration and philosophy….

But one thing that interests me immensely is the idea of justice, of human rights. We got giggly and went to the red light district last night. As soon as we found it we stopped being amused. It’s like going to the supermarket. Except nasty and wrong. I felt myself being repulsed by the idea of the red light district, but then I realized that I have to accept the idea. It’s so much safer and better for these women that for prostitutes in other places. At least it’s legal. At least they can get help when they need it. At least they have  choice. Right?

Well, my friend Emilly and I got into a discussion about the difference between pursuing the world’s oldest profession in a place where it’s legal and in a place where it’s not. For her it’s all the same thing, with only a slighty better situation existing in places where these women aren’t arrested simply for doing their job. I promised us both that I would look it up…

Click here for what I found. Yeah. Sweden is better. Another reason to go there other than the incredible hotness that is True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard.

Love,

Julia

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On Living Better (nope, it’s not about your life ;)

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Julia

I love teaching English! I think I’ll always end up doing it on the side 😀 However, my Mami helped me face the facts and realize what I actually want to do with my life! Working for an NGO that helps immigrants is…….wait for it…………

SUPER VAGUE!

Therefore, I had to be forced to think about the reality of being in management before realizing that a social work-like job is SO MUCH BETTER. Because I love people. I decided to work with immigrants because I love people and I want to help them directly. I like teaching because I’m helping directly. Therefore, why not add a second minor: Psychology!

As most of you know, I’m an animal-loving, world-helping, hippie sort of person that wants to go into the Peace Corps… Sooo my hopeful second minor would help me get into the Master’s International Program of International Youth and Family Development at the University of Montana. It will be very hard to do a master’s and two minors in my remaining TWO years at City College, depending on which Spanish classes my credits here go towards. o.O

thrown out... mushrooms. Ironic? Yes. Sad? Yuh, cuz I like mushrooms now!

I’m working on it right now. *.* ——btw I just had to throw out some food… Ugh… living with only one other person is not good for the amounts of food you get when you buy a package.. Don’t look to the left… don’t do it. 🙁

Moooooo-ving on (like cows, which actually utilize their food quite well), the title of this blog was actually based on how I always rely on other people to make decisions, so it sucks that I got off track for like–WAIT A SECOND! OMG hahaha I didn’t get off track! I wanted to talk about how I rely on other people to make decisions…. which is how I made my “second minor” decision. With my Mami. Oh, me. Crazy gal.

So, since I’ve been purposefully writing with a clear thesis the whole time, I am now, as I completely planned out in the first place, talking about how I never clean. What? Yeah, that’s right. When I don’t clean my house, I’m mentally blaming everyone else who lives there for not cleaning… As in, “They’re not cleaning, so why should I?”

That goes back perfectly to how I rely on the actions and words of others to make decisions. Well, after a week of living alone because Kelly went to France, I realized I hate dirt. I started finally doing the dishes, and bought cleaning supplies, which have not been here for the first five months…. hehehe….?

Point being, if one relies on the actions of others to form one’s own actions, that is usually not useful, because you don’t know what they’re thinking. If someone says something that makes no sense or is just to their benefit, don’t follow that advice. However, relying on other people to HELP with your decisions isn’t bad. As long as they are your decisions. Also, talk to your mother a lot. Unless she is less awesome than mine, which she probably is. I’m sorry 😉

Well, I’m off to learn some latin dancing and then do homework, plan my trip to Amsterdam, and plan my life all night.

 

Much love,

Julia

P.S. I found “hard” tofu!! And then made this:

yup. tofu scramble... for dinner... mmmmmmmhhhmmmmm<3

 

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Hey guys, I went to Tharagotha!! (or if you’re not Spanish, Zaragoza)

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Julia

I took this pic in the palace ^^

Randomly, although I am going to Amsterdam next weekend, I decided to accompany three of my lovely Logroño friends on a trip to Zaragoza.

I took the photo to the left in Aljafería, a muslim palace from Spain’s moor times of awesome architecture. Here are some professional photos of the palace. We also have some great pictures on facebook if you want to see. I’m not in a lot of them because I stole Charlotte’s camera the entire time. Also, we went to two churches. Basilica del Pilar, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is so epic I wanted to marry it’s roof as much as I want to marry Nietzsche, mojitos, and the roof of Sant Pau in Barcelona. I decided to add to my mac’s name once more. My baby boy is now officially called Mr. Loca Sant Pau del Pilar. I’m just gonna keep adding to his name until he sounds super spanish with like 7 last names haha

Oh and I want an iphone so I can use apps. And I would like to study abroad again, probably next summer, because there’s a scholarship, called the critical language scholarship, that makes my life epic. I could go learn Hindi in India!! “Why not?” say I.

I had such a blast with my friends, and I read more of the spanish book I started. It’s called “Llave del tiempo” and it’s about the future (2121 to be exact), in which the world is owned (a.k.a. governed) by corporations. It sounds really interesting, and it is! THe main character has some sort of weirdness happening with his blood type, so the corporations want to study him but I will likely soon find out that they are evil (because every good book needs an evil corporation haha) and it will get supergood.

Oh and just because I can’t get this songs out of my head, here’s a youtube video.

I’m gonna go read more and then sleep. Full day tomorrow: Mormon church, lunch with friends, learning chinese words from a friend.

 

Woo life!

Love you guys

Julia

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The Whiny, Overprivileged Opinions of a Traveling Gal. (Feel free to hate on this)

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Julia

Yeah so the first thing I said when I came back from London, after spending the previous weekend in Madrid was, “Uuugghhh I hate traveling, I’m so glad I’m home… It’s COLD in England! I miss everyone.”

OOooh GATE

Yeah. I’m not a good human being. The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was amazing. But I waited like an hour in the cold to see them. I couldn’t feel my dedos. I saw a lot of beautiful things (Including SBG), but my favorite had to be the gates of the parks and important places. They’re made of gold and pretty stuff! Oh and I didn’t even set foot into any museum. I am an uncultured nitwit.. so sue me. I visited the prime meridian.

Madrid was awesome, too, but I prefer Barcelona. Actually nothing is going to make me as happy as spending Ireland in the wonderful company of my roomie, her boyfriend, and my cousin. Except maybe visiting my charming friend Sara in Rome. I HAVE TO MAKE A LIST. I had no time to see everything in London because I just hate planning, and I decided four days before going that I would go. Freaking most expensive trip of LIFE.

SO, I started figuring out all the shite for my Ireland trip, and I’m going to work on my stuff for Andalucía very soon. I booked my flight to Rome, and now I feel better. My life is in order. I am coming home in June. It’s freaking me out. On the one hand I’m super-excited, and on the other I never, ever, ever want to leave Logroño, the people I met here, or the memories I made. I want to eat champis on Calle Laurel every week. I want to have vino tinto and go to Concept, even though it costs too much.

My Spanish is still improving but I need to study, which I will SO DO. Kelly and her visiting sister are going to travel soon, so I will be alone and bored. I also took out a book from the library. I never finished Harry Potter. Don’t ask.

Just as a quick diversion from my ineptitude, here’s a adorable pic (not because I’m in it but because a 16-year-old french or italian boy…. I don’t remember which, I just know he didn’t speak English…. took my picture for me. He didn’t realize that I wanted the whole lion to be in it. He and his ten friends were super surprised when I made my lion face haha. What was I supposed to do? I was alone in Trafalgar Square and I was wearing a lion hat.)

I am home and loving it. I skyped my parents yesterday and found out that the giants won. I didn’t care. Oh, and my Mami just came on skype 😀

I’m chilling with my roomie and her sister. My map of Logroño fell off the wall, which might be a bad omen like having a fever on Chinese New Year. Yeah, I pretend I know things 😉

Well, I’m off to pretend to be productive, think about the people I owe postcards to, and wonder about bureaucracy in public schools (tounge, cheek: acquaint yourselves)

All my love,

Julia

P.S. DIANA IS LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO LIVE SOON. THAT MEANS I WILL HAVE A ROOMIE AND AN APARTMENT WAITING FOR ME WHEN I GET BACK TO THE CITAYYY!!!

 

P.P.S. I went to platform 9 3/4…. that right there is probably a good enough reason to go to London. For serious. I don’t care if JK Rowling wrote about the wrong station. I love King’s Cross because my life happened there when I was little and obsessed.

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definitely in love (hint: Not a stripper)

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Julia

01 Accidentally in Love <<–listen to this while reading, por favor 😀 It might have skips because the Shrek CD was scratched, but we can’t have everything now, can we?….. ¡¿Can we?! *gasp*

SO hey, hi there. I’m super inspired to write right now, but I’m typing my blog in my email inbox first and then publishing it tomorrow, becaaaaaauuuuse my blog is on a protest-y black-out thing against that whole SOPA idiocy. In reality, I don’t actually know what’s going on, but I have smart friends, so I pretend to fit in.


Totally speaking of which, I just skyped my dear friend, Andy, who is in Shanghai until tomorrow. He just learned chinese there for three weeks and got a really high grade on his finalllll….. and I’m super proud of him. Logroño-Shanghai skypefest for the win! He showed me what it looks like outside his window and I was like, *gasp* “SHANGHAI!” as if buildings really look that different in other cities. because all I saw was this—————————->>

ALSO I HAD MY FIRST CHINESE-GERMAN LANGUAGE EXCHANGE TODAY. It was with two chicas from my class. Muy amable. I had a lot of fun with them and we’re gonna do it for an hour every week until they leave in march.
Then I went to go study some Spanish downstairs in the residencia. It went well. I did my homework, saw some friends, and communicated with cocky English guy. (Still not sure I like him, although I fed him the candy my grandma sent as if he was on the same level of awesome as the others. Go figure.) Then my friend Natalie “llamada perdida”-ed me (which means she called and I didn’t pick up, so it wouldn’t cost anyone anything. However, the call itself served the purpose of alerting me of something we’d previously discussed; she wanted me to come to her room to do the homework), and so I came upstairs.

I am aware that the writing is the wrong way around, but let's face it, you know what the book cover says, and you can't read it because it's in Spanish. Also, I look better this way around and I'm wearing earrings. Look! 😀

The result of this giggly study sesh is to the left. We learned stuff about conditional sentences, and also, I decided what I love. I made a list. On my Spanish homework. Which my teacher (who understands enough English) is going to read. It goes like this:
I’m in love with:
The roof of San Pau in Barcelona
Nietzsche
Sirius Black
Earl Gray tea
Portuguese Accents in Spanish
It’s definitely not complete, but I will work on it. Every time I say “I’m in love with…”, I will record it.
In other news, I went to the gym again, today. It was just as epically fun as yesterday, and I shall do the same tomorrow. Kelly and I have decided to go every day after class, now that she has an abono (ummm… whatchamacallit in English??? uhhhh….. Thanks to my lovely NY friend, Thalia, I have a word here that means basically the same thing: membership. Geez. Tooth efficiently pulled.). So, now that she has a MEMBERSHIP, she can come with me and I can not be alone.
New Years’ goals usually fail, but not if they’re goal goals, like being vegan (go willpower!), or making the gym into a habit.
Woo us! I would feel really healthy if my grandmother hadn’t sent me every piece of candy her apartment could offer a poor, starved, vegan grandchild who is wasting away in Spain’s desert regions (all of them).
Much love,
Julia

P.S. Speaking of New Years’, I’m going to a Chinese New Year’s “party” on Sunday. At a WOK, in Logroño. SO fake. But with real Chinese people. And I’ll say at least five chinese words. Ni Hao, and Wo Ai Ni 😀 (excuse the lack of accents. It’s 5:11 in the morning and I’m tired) Anyway, stop reading. This is a postscript. The important stuff is over… o.o

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So maybe life is perfect (and a lot of videos)

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Julia

Or just studying abroad. Or maybe it’s just the way my rose-colored glasses and I think about everything. Tengo que practicar mi español pero estoy más feliz haciendo un blog en inglés. (too lazy to blog in Spanish)

My roomie is skyping her mom about a trip she is taking soon with her sister to France and Amsterdam and stuff. It sounds epic. Then, in March, she is going to Dublin with her boyfriend, my cousin, and meee. St. Patrick’s Day is going to be so wonderful in Ireland! I know the actual party life of St. Pat’s started in the U.S. but it still feels amazing that my first Irish experience is going to be in Dublin around St. Patrick’s Day. It’ll also be my best friend’s birthday while I’m there, so I’m DEFINITELY buying him something AWESOME in Ireland.

Soooooo Ireland is full of people with Irish accents that are good. Yeah. I’m just going to float on a cloud of aural bliss. However, I seem to be doing that now because I realized how awesome the Brazilian accent is in Spanish. All of the (three) Brazilians that I know sound so adorable when they speak Spanish. It’s probably because Portuguese is softer than Spanish, but my favorite part is the “e.” Instead of pronouncing it “eh” like the Spaniards, they say it almost like “yeh” with a Spanish “i” sound in the front.

Actually, I can’t wait to start distinguishing the different accents in Spanish. I’ve got a lot of the foreign ones down, but the hard part is knowing the regional accents of Spain, then moving on to the various countries of Latin America. Oooooooh excitedddd

However, I can distinguish most of the English ones.

Can you?

Yeah I’m going crazy on the videos but this one is hella funny. Love this guy, especially at the end. Why don’t you watch one more video. This one’s about love.

 

We heard it in class. My teacher for Fridays is amazing. The other ones I’ve had before and I’m SO happy to have them again. I basically had happy tears in my eyes when I found out that they are teaching us again. Now I’ve gotta go get ready to watch my friend’s (roomie’s bf) rugby game 🙂

Have a good weekend, guys.

Love,

Julia

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