Mameee In Pahreee

Soo this is long overdue, lol. I had been pacing my room back and forth anticipating the day for my mom to arrive. The time had finally come and on March 23rd after standing at the train station for over an hour and half.... she appeared! The joy in my heart to see her in person was overwhelming (SKYPE sometimes doesn't cut it). Now, as expected she got lost but refused to let me meet her at the airport because that would have given me an excuse to not go to class. Once she arrived she crashed for like 6 hours which completely disrupted the meticulous plans I had for our first day, but who cares... She was here! When she awoke we headed to the Hippopotamus Restaurant which had some banging potato soup (i know this bc on my first day in Cergy I was beyond sick and this was all I could eat). The experience... quite interesting, lol bc for some reason WELL DONE to the French still means allowing it to be a pink burger->Not what I really wanted my mom to experience about the amazing French cuisine.  After Dinner, we headed into Paris to see the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory. Now I have been there many of times but honestly it was amazing to enjoy the view with my mom with her first trip behind the Bahamas and S/O to my older brother Joe for making that happen (love you bro!)
The second day was meant for the Champs Elysee and a search to find Disney Paris tickets (which did not happen because they were beyond expensive). I was excited because she would see the great  and oh soo magnificent Haagen Daz store.... funny thing is out of all the flavors in the world that they offered Vanilla Swiss Almond was not one of them, lol. Guess we really can't beat the Walgreens raincheck system. After the Champs- Elysee the walking in Paris started to get to us both so we hopped on the first Sightseeing bus available. Honestly it was definitely a learned experience for me because I saw parts of Paris I didn't know existed (when I was awake to see them).  We got off at the Notre Dame and so began  her infatuation with all of the Souvenir shops. Now I'm talking walking in each store to look at all the products and then coming back after finding the best price. After seeing Notre Dame, we headed to Moulin Rouge... somewhat of an odd experience going into sex shops on the strip with your mother... i.e. I literally was covering my eyes and hiding on the opposite side of the store, lol.
We went to Montmatre which was a beautiful sight and Haagen Daz for a second time.  Time well spent!
Towards the second part it turned into another rainy day and trip to Pompidou (which left my canvas shoes soaking wet). Pompidou is hands down just a raw ass musuem... period. Although I did discover that my mom struggles with taking photos, lol. It took her like 3 times to catch the lights in a photo.
My favorite moment was taking the trip to the TOP of Eiffel which was an experience that we shared seeing that I had yet to go to the top since my arrival. It WAS FREEZING up there (and my feet were wrapped in plastic and paper towels due to the rain and my not soo good canvas shoes... leave it to mama for them good remedies). Words really can not express the beauty and honestly you see why it's called the City of Lights.


The time I had with my mom marked a highlight of my trip here for sure. When she left Tuesday, I shed a slight tear... (if that means I cried a lil bit of alot, lol). That train ride back from the airport was when I realized she was definitely on her way home to the States and I had another 2 months here. I am beyond grateful for her being able to come and God knows we had a blast while she was here. I definitely can't wait to get back and spend my first summer in the Chi since high school... #GOODTIMES.

Fallas and Firecrackers!

Spain... simply put they get it krakkin on a whole different level. But let's start from the beginning....

I didn't sleep the night before my flight to Barcelona because I had to leave my dorm at 5am to make it all the way to the airport in Beauvais, France for my 11am flight. Good thing, I left early because due to Ryan Air's cheapness you have to print your tickets out online and you can't pick them up at the counter (WTF it's an airport). So when I arrived they were sending me to all the different terminals to look for the printing station and I quote, "might work"... What do you mean MIGHT, I dropped 45 euro on this flight, so I was getting on that plane. Luckily, the machine printed my tickets after I did some reckless internet searching so I was able to get on my plane. 

Now I tried to pick a hostel that was close to the metro stop... but as always I got lost. Turns out it was a 2 blocks from where I started but unfortunately no one spoke English and the maps were beyond confusing so I took a cab. My hostel was really nice (the best part being the FREE WIFI) and provided me with the perfect napping spot. After my nap, I hit the main street of Barcelona---> Las Ramblas. There was so much to see, with the street entertainment, music playing and all of the beautiful architecture. The best part about Las Ramblas is that it flows right into the coast line, so after about 30 or 40 minutes I was looking at the Mediterranean Sea.
After walking for about 6 hours, I headed back to the hostel and I was dead tired! I took another nap and now it was time for the Barcelona nightlife. I looked up a few clubs around Las Ramblas and set out on my walk. During this time, I discovered that all the black people in Barcelona apparently come out at night because they were EVERYwhere and during the day I saw specks through all the crowds of people. The funniest thing happened to me too... I apparently must have been walking in the not so great area of Barcelona as I got lost trying to find the club. There was this woman who seemed to be nicely dressed and was quite pretty... she started to blurt something to me in Spanish and from my expression I guess she understood I only knew English because that was her next question as she approached me. I answered yes and her immediate response verbatim, "20 dollars, fuck everything" o_O WTF, lol... I definitely had to decline because I think whatever dude brings his penis anywhere near her, it would just fall off. At that point, along with the fact that my feet wanted to fall off... I just made my way back to the hostel around 4a.m. to go to sleep.
Thursday now marked the day to head to Valencia... FALLAS! Now when I got to the train station I was thinking it would be like France and I could walk up to the platforms with my Eurail and get directly on the train without a reservation... they got me, lol! In Spain, they have security guards, baggage and reservation checks at the station. Considering I only had 20 minutes before the train and the people at the windows were acting slow, I missed my 1 o'clock train. So now I had to wait 3 hours for the next train which was cool because I got a kickstart on scholarship and job applications for the summer. BTW got an offer from GE Transportation in the Chicago area (BALLIN!)

Soo... I 've been typing this post for the past two weeks lol, so I need to sum this up quick.
Arrived in Valencia at some station and found a McDonald's with Wifi to contact Will. Luckily, he was on FB so I opened a chat and apparently he thought I was arriving Friday. Which means, I would have been stuck in a train station of Valencia because I had no idea where to go and I definitely didn't know a lick of Spanish.
So once we finally figured exactly where my train came in because all I knew was Joanna Sequillo or something like this was the name of the stop... I set out to walk toward the main station and lets just say I knew it was going to crack from that point on. There were people everywhere (except for black people, bc Spain has none and they make that known when they STARE you down, like forreal... I had to turn on 63rd street a couple times). We made it to his apartment, which was big as hell btw and started planning for Fallas Night 1. After hitting up a Kebab shop we picked up what has now become one of my favorite drink combos... Redbull and Vodka, apparently the 90/10 mix still leaves it tasting just like Redbull... killed a bottle between two people in less than an hour i.e. we were fucked up that first night. From the fireworks (which I took over 100 pictures of in 20 minutes) to the street party and the best effin fries with mildsauce (and it tasted just like mildsauce which is why I had 4/5 nights while I was in Valencia I have ever had!!
Friday consisted of waking up late in the afternoon and Will just forgetting all about Randy, who was coming into Valencia... basically Will sucks as a host, lbs. He got up made breakfast and just left a brother starving like a mofo. We toured the city and let our ears be blown off by the little six and seven year olds throwing M-80's every where. Yeah, apparently they don't care about they child's safety because they were encouraging their kids to play with mini-bombs... Definitely a different culture. Ended up buying a 2 bottles of vodka for Friday and they were finished between 3 people, so in two nights I probably had over a bottle to myself... Spain goes hard!

Virgin Mary made completely of flowers

Saturday was the big day for the Fallas and the city went crazy! Fireworks going off through all the neighborhoods and lighting up the sky. We decided to watch them set fire to Will's neighborhood Fallas and once again safety because we were about 15 feet from a 20 foot figure that they were going to set on fire. Once that bad boy was lit up, they got the picture too because my face was burning... and I thought my phone was going to melt in my hands. Shit was INTENSE! And I know I do alot of walking in Paris, but damn... we walked so much when I was in Spain. They like to walk and just keep meeting up with people, I prefer to walk and meet people at the club. But I did enjoy watching the Spaniards run from these fireworks called chasers... they light up everything else but they definitely didn't like these lil m'effers. Once lit, it shoots sparks everywhere and chases your feet. It was too damn funny watching crowds of people scatter at the sight of one.

Sunday consisted of sleep and a failed attempt to return home to Paris, so I had to book a train ticket for Monday which was cool with me because a brother was in First Class and it was niiiceee. The seat reclined all the way back, they gave me a toothbrush, a bag, and a blanket. It was a good ride home.