picasso, red lights, and zombies! oh my!

                                  I recently got back from half-term break, during which I traveled to Barcelona with some friends and Amsterdam and Brighton with my mum. It was a week full of new experiences. I flew on a plane alone for the first time, tried tapas, ordered a pastry in spanish, stood face to face with an original Picasso, learned about the dangers of bike paths, ate french fries with curry, and watched zombies parade down the main street of Brighton (groaning, shuffling, and outstretched arms required). I saw 3 cities in 3 countries in one week, pretty successful for my first trip abroad. I already have plans for Paris in a few weeks, Germany in February, and a crazy 3 week long traveling extravaganza in June when the rest of my friends are beginning next years classes! It's like some sort of crazy jetset life where I can vacation in Spain, go to London for lunch, and go shopping in France on the weekend (Calais, France this weekend!) without much hassle. I easily spend most of my money on clothes and food, and divide my time equally between writing, drawing, exploring, shopping, and schoolwork (:[ ). Even though I'm loving all my time here, I'm excited to come home in a few weeks and see everyone! I already have a list of restaurants and places I want to go in America! Can't wait to be home!

Barcelona was absolutely amazing. Of all the exploring and site-seeing I did, my absolute favorite part was going to the Picasso Museum. I saw an exhibit there that was a comparison between Degas and Picasso, and the similarities were striking and fascinating. I stood in front of one of Picasso's self-portraits for 15 minutes just admiring his dark impression of himself. In Barcelona I also saw Christopher Columbus's statue and some roman ruins buried 20 feet under the city. The harbor was covered in large modern art expositions and there were limitless squares in which one could sit with a tea and a croissant and just watch how interesting people are. I ate gelato every night and had at least one pastry per day (I think it may actually be a requirement, the pastry shops were packed). I also went to the zoo and watched a dolphin show in spanish and tried paella (which was delicious). I was not a huge fan of the youth hostel, but it was just a place to sleep!

Apparently, if you do nothing else when you go to Amsterdam, you need to try french fries with mayonnaise. Especially when you travel with my mum. I found the "best french fry place in Amsterdam" and we trekked over. I ended up getting french fries with curry, and even though I'm not a huge french fry person, they were really good. We went to Anne Frank's house and saw her real red plaid diary on display. The most haunting part of the entire tour was listening to Anne Frank's father say that after reading her diary, he realized he had barely known his own daughter. We walked around the red light district late at night and learned some interesting tidbits from the tour of old couples we were following. For example, the best alleys are the most narrow ones apparently. We walked down the narrowest alley in the red light district, it was about the width of a person and a half. Sure enough, there were some very pretty women and a well-populated bar down it. It was interesting to go to a place where all things taboo are not only accepted, but normal.

This zombie parade down Brighton's main street was easily one of the coolest Halloween celebrations I'd ever seen. Hundreds of people congregated at the train station, saturated in white and red face paint dragging paper mache organs and fastening humorous deadly instruments to their heads (a pencil, a stiletto shoe). The zombie Blues Brothers were there, as well as the zombie Village People, and the zombie Pope was posing with the zombie Devil. They began to process with a cry of "BRAINS" and a stifled "The zombie's are coming!" and so it began. Process is used loosely in this context of course as really, they began to stomp, shuffle, groan, scream, drag, and pose their way down the sidewalk, arms outstretched and eyes vacant. It took nearly an hour for them all to pass, and for the rest of the day and long into the night, we saw zombie's wandering the city (we even saw a zombie street band performing at White Night later). That night was a festival known as White Night, when the whole city is lit up in fantastic colors and designs with many venues for interesting activities all night. We watched local graffiti artists paint illuminated white canvas and a building's face be transformed into a movie screen. Brighton is possibly one of my favorite places in England.
            Well, that is a summary of my trip, but in other news, I just got back from a weekend in London where I met most of the other ESU kids. I had a ton of fun! It was really nice to get to know them finally and I like them all a lot. We went out one night, but mostly just explored the city by day and talked all night. I also received my report card of sorts, all good news, and decorated my room for Christmas! I'm getting excited for my trip to Paris in a few weeks and brushing up on my french. Miss everyone!
xxx