Week 16.0: Keep Calm and Carry On

Writing to you all from London, it feels appropriate to title this week's post "Keep Calm and Carry On". Beyond it being a classic Brit saying, "Keep Calm and Carry On" has truly been my motto this week after packing up my life in Barcelona and saying lots of hard goodbyes. The good news is that I made it safely to the UK on Friday night and have reconnected with TCU friends who will help me to keep my mind off of Barcelona.

Since arriving in London, I have gotten to spend time with three very awesome friends of my family. The first, one of my mom's good friends Cathy, was kind enough to treat me to a traditional British tea on Saturday afternoon at the trendy Ham Yard Hotel near Piccadilly Circus. One thing I've loved about London since Day 1: the names of streets, squares, and neighborhoods. Piccadilly Circus happens to be one of my favorites and trust me when I say it becomes instantly more awesome when announced by the British voice on the tube (London's metro). Anyhow, at afternoon tea, Cathy gave me numerous suggestions of things to do to keep busy in London and I cannot wait to start knocking some of these off my list, from museums to street markets and new restaurants she's enjoyed. Cathy, if you're reading this, thanks again for a wonderful afternoon. I couldn't have asked for a more fun first day back in London, not to mention a memorable first tea experience!

Today (Sunday), I got a slower start to my day, still feeling somewhat worn down from final exams. After spending time with my TCU roommate, Sarah, in the morning, I met my second parents for lunch at the National Portrait Gallery. For those of you who are unaware, my second parents = Leslie and Richard Kaskel, the parents of my best friend from home. These two have known me since I was probably seven years old and what a wonderful surprise it was to overlap weekends with them in London. The restaurant for lunch had a stunning view of the city and we enjoyed a nice, leisurely meal while catching up on all things that have happened since I was last at their house over the holidays. Thanks to you both for making time for me on your quick trip through London! I can't wait to see the whole Kaskel gang again in just a few short weeks (miss you Em)!

Tomorrow morning I am off to Ireland for four days to make up for the trip I missed over St. Paddy's Day Weekend. After Ireland and another sum of days in the UK, I'll be homebound after four plus months abroad. When I am back home in the States, I have every intention of writing a reflection on my time over here since there are many things I have yet to share. In this reflection, I'll spend more time explaining my final days in Barcelona, which included the holiday Sant Jordi. So please... stay tuned! And wish me luck on my first solo travels through Europe since Cádiz in 2010. Kinsale, Ireland, HERE I COME!!

(Pictures to be included next week... sorry y'all!) #BeBrave

Week 15.0: The Final Days

I'm playing a game that goes how many times can Liz type out this blogpost and then delete it all and I think I'm getting quite good at it. I'm in Week 15 of my trip with three days left to my program and my return ticket to the good old US of A does not exist (yet). This right here is the reason that words aren't coming together quite like I want them to today. I'm swamped this week with finals amidst packing up my apartment and organizing this last girls dinner and that last night out. This semester has hands down been one of the craziest and best times of my life and while I am so excited to get back home for summer and back to Texas come August for my senior year (!!), the idea of leaving Barcelona breaks my heart a little more each day.

"Everyone needs a little Barcelona in their life."

On Facebook the other day, I saw another study abroad student post the above quote as their status. To that I say, retweet, yes, 100 percent, preach. Everyone and I mean everyone needs a little Barcelona in their life. In the past couple of days, reminiscing on this semester with other study abroad kids, many people have asked what my favorite city has been and to that I say Barcelona. Did I love the Swiss Alps? Of course. Can I see myself living in London? Yep. Every new country, every new city I saw this semester amazed me and left me starry-eyed in a unique and special way. However, Barcelona has nuzzled its way into a soft part of my heart the way Cádiz, Spain, did five years ago and I am just so thankful for everything it's given me: new friendships, a new perspective, and the list goes on. 

Alright, alright, so what have I been up to lately? A couple of things. Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to snag a friend's extra seat at the Barça vs. Valencia game. Barça won 2-0 with goals scored in literally the first and last minutes of the game and the stadium was alive. From where I sat on Saturday afternoon, I could not see a single vacant seat in the house. Everyone around me sang the Barça chants at the top of their lungs and no referee call went unquestioned by Barça's biggest fans. Luckily, the game still ended well for the home team. Go Barça.

I also got the opportunity to escape the city recently with some classmates. On Sunday night, a handful of us hopped on the train and rode out to a residential area just over the mountains where one of our teachers lives. She met us all at the station with her 3-year-old twins in hand and we walked to a place for dinner to review the crazy semester and get one last laugh out of all the times we drove her crazy. On the way to dinner, I held hands with my teacher's sweet little daughter, Alba, who simply could not stop smiling. By the end of the night I was saying things like, "so why again did I not babysit for you this semester??" But seriously, why didn't I? Mommyfiles Barcelona, anyone?

Another highlight from the past couple of days was breaking in the "Corsega Frat Castle" as we like to call it (aka our apartment). All semester long, my roommates and I have abided by our RA's rules and not had guests in the apartment but this past weekend we simply couldn't resist. While I was at the game, Tori made party announcements at the beach. That night a good group of people came over and hung out with us before the bars/clubs. It was a great last hoorah and clean-up wasn't bad at all. Miranda, Elizabeth, Tori and I (the CFC gang) plan to make apartment shirts. It started as a joke and now we're literally in the process of designing these babies. Pretty pumped.

Other highlights from this week:

-Gave into Park Güell for the infamous bench pics (see below)

-Tried the last restaurant on my list, Picnic, which is a great spot for brunch

-Discovered a somewhat magical and amazing cactus park in Montjüic

-Nicknamed my roommate Elizabeth "Pancakes Campbell" for her true pancake-making talent

-Finally experienced Pippermint, a bar known for their fishbowl-style drinks

-Spent more time at the beach

-Had a coffee and study date with Tor

-Got one last lunch with my local friend Xavi who has been an awesome tour guide this semester

So what's next? What comes in between Liz leaving Barcelona and Liz coming home? Well, if you know me well... goodbyes aren't really my strength, which is why and how I've been able to convince my parents to let me stay in Europe for a little bit longer. This Friday, I will be traveling back to London to stay with one of my TCU roomies and best friends, Sarah. In London, I'll get to see Sarah, Annie, and a handful of fellow horned frogs. I also have a date for afternoon tea set with one of my mom's good friends who is now living in London. Pretty excited for my first tea experience! From London, I will be traveling solo to Ireland, flying into the south of Ireland, spending time in Kinsale, and then training it up to Dublin where I get to catch up with old friends. After that, it's back to London. I'm working on another quick side trip to Scotland (the homeland... yes I'm part Scottish) with a friend from Connecticut, Taylor, but this is not yet finalized. Momma and Poppa Stallard have their eyes on return tickets now and it's gotta be any day that this part of my trip is set in stone. Trying to look at the bright side... I should be connecting through Iceland!! So while I'm not so fond of leaving Europe, pit-stopping in Iceland is probably one of the cooler things I'll get to do in my life. I'm sure of it.

Ok... thanks for tuning in another week friends! More stories, ribbons, and rambling next week on the blog. Happy week to you all :) #BeBrave

Gorgeous flowers in the cactus park in Montjüic.

Saturday's match at Camp Nou (Go Barça)!

Pancakes campbell in action this week.

Littla Alba on my arm.

Obligatory Barcino pic in our "school uniforms".

Park Güell with Jenn and Emily!

Pippermint before our last "Loco Lunes".

Did I mention I donut want to leave?

Week 14.0: Loving on Lisbon

BIG NEWS THIS WEEK: Momma Stallard will be done with radiation treatments tomorrow! If you're friends with her on Facebook, have her email, or phone number... give her a shout. She's not one to draw attention to herself but I say this is a huge step in the direction of healthy, cancer-free Katie. #BeBrave #KatieDidIt

I can't do this past weekend justice without being unladylike for a moment. My trip to Portugal began as a disaster and by disaster I mean that Tori and I both had food poisoning at 5 am in the Barcelona - El Prat airport. As if a 6 am flight wasn't bad enough, huh? Well throw food poisoning in the mix and yeah, disaster becomes the appropriate term. Also, at this ungodly hour, the airport seemed to be packed so many people were graced by the sight of me making a run for the nearest trash. However, nothing compares to the spectacle I made while boarding our flight to Lisbon. At the most important moment of the morning, I just could not keep it down. I was doing so well! Handed over my passport and boarding pass like a big girl and oh, oh, there it came...

Thanks to Tori and Sarah for letting me be a big baby about feeling sick. Tori, too, was feeling our meal from the night before and she handled it like a true champ. Me? Not so much.

When the three of us arrived in Lisbon, the only thing on our minds was sadly getting in bed. Unfortunately, our hostel wasn't ready to receive us until two in the afternoon so yes, we went in on a cheap hotel room to give our bodies a break. Five hours later, we woke up feeling only semi-refreshed and laughed hysterically on the phone with Sarah's mom as we explained how weird and awful our day had been thus far. After that, we decided it was time to check out of our gross and thankfully temporary hotel room to get back over to the hostel. From there... Day 1 officially began.

Because I bore myself by recapping these trips in chronological order, I'm just going to start rambling. Hope that's cool. First off, Lisbon has great vibes. On my last trip, I visited Prague and Berlin where Prague in particular felt overrun by tourists. You can't take two steps through Old Town Square without a middle aged man shoving a tour-related pamphlet in your face and Lisbon just didn't give off that "its all about tourism feel" at all. I overheard someone at the hostel saying that you come to Lisbon to see the city, that there is no attraction because Lisbon is the attraction. I had to ponder that for a moment but yes, I agree. My trip to Lisbon was so refreshing (despite the food poisoning) because Lisbon presented itself humbly.

Highlights from the trip! Although Barcelona boasts a beautiful waterfront, this past weekend in Portugal I got to spend time on the beach in a bathing suit. Yes, it was that warm! On Saturday, we messed up pretty badly and showed up at the beach in skinny jeans, t-shirts, and leather jackets, sticking out like sore thumbs. All too often I underestimate and overestimate the weather so of course I thought the beach would be too cold to actually enjoy. Well, we certainly took note of the temperature as we still attempted to lay out in our jeans. We returned the next day better equipped for a day at the beach and also enjoyed multiple pitchers of sangria because, well, we felt obligated while enjoying the waterfront. What else? We tried the famous tarta de nata that is made right outside of Lisbon in Belem. On Saturday, we passed right through Belem on the train to get to the beach and decided Day 3 required a trip to the bakery with a quick peak at the nearby monastery. The monastery ended up having a HUGE line around the block so our trip to Belem really only encompassed coffees and pastries but... still worth it.

While in Lisbon, we also made best friends with our roommate in the hostel. Tori, Sarah, and I had booked beds in a room for four people just hoping and praying that the fourth bed would be filled with someone normal. Well, our fourth roommate ended up being a 25-year-old man named Jason, originally from China but now living in Canada. We're not totally sure that his name is Jason because it was one of those long pauses followed by "you girls can just call me Jason." At one point during the trip we actually asked him about his real name and I have never seen someone dodge a topic better than our friend "Jason" did in that moment. Well played, friend. When we met up with more of our friends towards the end of the weekend, we joked that we had made best friends with our hostel roommate but we didn't actually confirm this until Sunday morning when Tori and I found a note Jason had left us. In his note he said that he found American women to be strong personalities, complimenting us in many ways and also attempting to reconnect with Tori some day if he's able to work in Seattle like he hopes to. Not sure when he developed the strong bond with Tori in particular (jealous over here!!) but the note was much appreciated. We love ya, Jas! Thanks for putting up with our spontaneous dance parties.

Sunday, after a perfect day at the beach, Tori and I were preparing to board our 8:45 pm flight when the airlines announced the gate would actually be released at 9:45 pm... wait what? While our experience on the way to Portugal was mostly positive with TAP Portugal airlines, this time we could not get any information out of them. Imagine pulling teeth with your airlines. We just wanted to go home!! At 11:30 pm, after playing on the kiddie playground, conducting our own airport wine tasting, and joking about what would go into our blog posts this week, we finally got to board our plane. While getting home at 3 am was pretty awful, it was worth having most of the day Sunday to enjoy more of Lisbon. Looking past food poisoning and delayed flights, Lisbon made for a great trip!

Today, Tuesday, April 14, I am now less than two weeks away from the end of my program. WHAT!?!? Did I not just get back from spring break? Thursday marks our last day of classes and by next Thursday, I'll be done with finals too. Yesterday, our program held reverse culture shock workshops for us, mandatory since they replaced our Spanish class. Well, if leaving here hadn't already been on my mind every second of the waking day, it definitely is now. In this workshop, they explained to us how most study abroad students have made their host city feel like home by the end of the trip. Each student has a unique routine and going back home to a new and different routine can be equally as frightening as entering a new country. They made us read testimonials from former students and then and there I became depressed. These students said exactly what I've been feeling. I've spent the past couple of days making frantic to-do lists of oh, you still haven't seen this or eaten there but you can't forget to do this one last time for the memories. Where am I going to find all the time for these checklist activities when I am studying for finals and packing up my apartment? Luckily, thanks to my loving parents, my time in Europe does not end quite as soon as my program does. After Barcelona, I will be returning to London to spend several days with my TCU friends studying there. From London, I will be making a brief trip to Ireland to visit old friends in Dublin and new friends in Kinsale! Therefore, there are certainly more stories and ribbons to come but for now, check out the pictures I snapped in Lisbon.

#BeBrave Lisbon

View from the Arc de Triomphe.

Best gelato in Lisbon (and only my second gelato this entire semester)

Enjoying the beautiful weather.

Celebrities are people too ft. Sarah Newton and a glass of orange sangria.

When we got it right on Day 3 (swimsuits over skinny jeans)

Hi Ginger!

Paradise in Portugal.

Week 12.0/13.0: Spring Break

While I wouldn't have minded some swim suit weather, this year's spring break was definitely not Cabo or PV. Last Friday at six in the morning, Tori and I left Barcelona with our bags packed for more winter weather and potential rain. We were headed off to Berlin and Prague before returning to Barcelona for Easter weekend with Tori's family. So... how did spring break end up? While I usually narrate my weeks in the chronological order of events, it seems more fitting to recap this past week by a handful of reoccurring themes. Between Berlin and Prague, Tori and I spent many hours getting lost, dining with strangers, chasing good coffee, asking locals to explain the history, making more American friends, and lastly, taking ribbon pics!

First things first: Tori and I like to go about things the hard way. This is one of our favorite inside jokes... we simply cannot do things the easy way. Upon arriving in Berlin, we could not for the life of us locate our airbnb. While planning spring break, Tori and I had split up the cities so each of us could become the respective "Berlin expert" and "Prague expert". Well, her city was Berlin and there we were wandering the streets of Kreuzberg feeling desperate and homeless. After about an hour of wandering around and playing phone tag with our airbnb host, we finally found the apartment and ditched our bags. Well, for the next couple of hours we proceeded to get even more lost by the Berlin metro system which I swear would not have been any easier to navigate even if we could have read the German signage. Once we finally emerged from the metro, our Berlin expert Tori realized she had taken us to the Berlin Wall Memorial and not the remaining strip of the Berlin Wall referred to as the East Side Gallery. So Day 1 of spring break concluded without us seeing any of the famous Berlin sights, minus Checkpoint Charlie but Tori and I have decided this is not a sight. Checkpoint Charlie is a tourist trap.

Besides getting lost, Tori and I also frequently dined with strangers. Once again, this reoccurring theme began on the very first day of our trip when Tori made dinner reservations for 3 at a restaurant called The Bird and our third friend did not end up making it. The Bird, being a very popular burger joint in Berlin, eventually decided to make Tori and my 4-person table into a communal table when they realized our other friend was not joining us that night. So... Tori and I made friends with an extremely friendly, gay couple from Berlin. Berliners, they called themselves. Sasa and Simon were great table company as they told us about local history, their favorite spots to eat and go out, as well as what not to wear as a girl according to a guy. Apparently, guys hate rompers and high-waisted shorts. Come on boys... high-waisted shorts give us a great figure! Anyhow, Tori and I towards the end of the meal, after feeling like we had made best friends with this gay couple, decided to put our new friends on the spot (as we like to do with locals) and ask about their perception of Americans. Simon weighed in on this one saying how American girls go crazy when they travel internationally and are not very conservative or respectful of their bodies. Sasa said he thinks Americans like to act informed while really they are not very educated. They also agreed that Americans are known for being violent or at least that our country has way higher violence rates than anywhere they are aware of... and this was sadly a response we got from more than one of our random "dining with strangers" experiences.

In Prague, Tori and I were seated with two men from Sweden, who were road-tripping back home from the Swiss Alps. When asked of their perception of Americans, one of these guys had something very interesting to say. This table mate of ours, Jona, said Americans are hard to get to know. He explained this further by saying he finds Americans to be very friendly, yet we all have this self image or brand that we seek to maintain and so he and others find it impossible to get to know us because we do not allow for conversation beyond surface-level. Sadly, I found myself nodding through his entire answer.

While eating seems to be one of Tori and my favorite past times in Europe, we don't just chase good food joints around town... we also chase coffee! I always say I could live in a coffee shop or one day when I retire I'm going to own a coffee shop so of course before traveling to Berlin and Prague I did my homework. Lucky me, Buzzfeed had already done most of this research and so, at least in Berlin, I dragged Tori to a place called Bonanza Coffee which resides at #19 on Buzzfeed's "25 Coffee Shops Around The World You Have To See Before You Die." Sunday morning, this satisfied our coffee craving before we ventured into a local market with vintage clothing/furniture and other local vendors.

As for asking locals to explain some of the history, I'm sure you already picked up on Tori and I harassing Sasa and Simon about the Nazi era in Germany and the local concentration camps. While in Berlin, we also received a brief history lesson from our airbnb host Ignacio. After returning to the apartment from a busy day of sightseeing, Tori and I sat with Ignacio at his kitchen table as he drew out a map of Berlin and explained how the wall separated the city and had an impact on the surrounding areas, separating families, lovers, and friends for over 30 years. Ignacio, who has lived in Berlin for just a few years now (originally from Chile), said he has even seen the city transform since he has been there. In his opinion, Berlin just keeps trying to be bigger and better and the city is loosing green space by the day and even some of its history is getting destroyed as the local government caters to tourism and overall appearing more "efficient". Efficiency = a German thing.

Beyond making friends with locals of the cities we visited and other foreigners seated with us for dinner, Tori and I also collected a handful of other American friends during our travels this past week. In Berlin, we met a cool guy named Doug from Philly. Doug did his undergrad at Harvard, worked a few years in commercial real estate and just recently went back to school for an MBA at UT Austin. Doug's continuing his studies this semester from Switzerland (not really sure how) and was on the bar crawl we did in Berlin one night. Doug became one of the crew and gave us some great Berlin tips, as he had arrived in the city a couple days before us. Tori and I also made some American friends in Prague at a Mexican restaurant called Agave (same place we ate with the Swedes). The restaurant owner had joked about making our table a communal one and we insisted that we didn't mind so he proceeded to ask what our type was. Tori joked "American college guys are our type" and a couple minutes later we found ourselves with two house margaritas, apparently paid for by the American college guys in the other room. Although this was a total set-up by the owner, our main man Glenn, we ended up meeting the other American students before leaving and they invited us to go out with them that night. To sum it up, the whole study abroad experience is one big "wow what a small world" kind of thing. Turns out two of the kids are from Connecticut, a couple towns over from Greenwich, and happen to know my amazing, adorable little sis Eileen (miss you baby boo).

Lastly, this trip consisted of a lot of ribbon picture-taking because it's impossible to get the perfect shot when your iPhone 5S won't focus. Coming at you this week with two of my best shots from spring break... a pink awareness ribbon from the Berlin Wall (East Side Gallery) and another in front of the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square of Prague. As my fabulous travels are soon coming to an end, I hope that each of you are inspired by my ribbons around the world. Brave Goes Abroad has been my baby this semester and it brings me true happiness to leave this little pink reminder in every city I visit.

A few other highlights from this week:

-Running into my high school friend Ben in both Berlin and Prague and meeting his crazy college friends (Jake Richman new BFF)

-Experiencing some of the coolest graffiti murals in the world

-Trying bizarre drinks like Club-Mate, popular in Berlin, and Banana Bread Beer which we found at a restaurant in Prague

-Having our first shared-room experience at a hostel, shout out to our cool roommates nights two and three in Prague

-Getting to spend some more bonding time with our IU crew from Barcelona, including Megan, Emily, Bos, Danny, and Connor (Jake... you too!)

-Visiting places my best friends from home suggested to me in Prague

-Happening upon a Dali/Warhol exhibition in Prague where Tori made a custom banana-print shirt (there has never been a more Tori shirt in the world)

Enough babbling from me. The picture part:

East Side Gallery, Berlin Wall.

#BeBrave Berlin

Beer "garten" experience (where Tori ordered and hated the wiener schnitzel)

Cheers! At least the beer was good.

Found Ben in Berlin.

Old Town Square, Prague.

Banana bread beer... in case you thought I was kidding.

The John Lennon Wall (because spring break was actually a graffiti tour of Europe)

Tori went bananas at the Warhol exhibition.

Sugary goodness, famous in Prague.

#BeBrave Prague