It's my birthday and I'll dance if i want to...

Wait, what just happened?? I blinked and the calendar changed to December??  Shwat the heck is this all about? After the trip to Sevilla, we have been laying (considering our circumstances) rather low.  By low I mean 13 hour work days and taking in madrid with drinks and friends on the weekends.  November was quite a struggle for us in Madrid because, unlike the US (and I’m pretty sure most of the rest of the world) we have long weekends here just about as frequent as you change your underpants.  Well hopefully, for most of us, changing your underpants is a bit more frequent...but ya get my drift.  After we went to Sevilla we had 3 FULL 5 day weeks at school and let me tell you: I’m soo not a fan of that nonsense! haha.  For those 3 weeks I was sick with yet another cold and working my tail into the ground to get my classes taken care of.  We got to talk about Thanksgiving tho and that is one of my favorite holidays so at least my lessons were a lot of fun (but in all seriousness, when are they not?!?).  During those 3 weeks Callie and I got to plan out our long weekend in the beginning of December as well.  3 words for you: SWITZ--EERRRR--LAND!!  We decided to go to switzerland for the long 5 day weekend that just so happened to fall the week after my birthday.  Holler back:)  We tediously planned everything out and actually went the extra mile and booked our plane tickets with an actual real human sized  airplane with a real airline.  Normally we take the cheap route and go with ryan air or something of that like where the plane always feels like it’s made out of plastic and will snap in half with the first sign of turbulence and the people are packed into their seats like pickles.  I would say packed like sardines but I’ve never actually bought a can of sardines and I can’t honestly say I know how they’re packed in there.  But holy hell have you bought a jar of pickles lately?? You have to use a fork to pry the first 2 or 3 out before there is wiggle room.  So, you’re packed like pickles in a small plane that bounces and cracks with the wind...sounds comfy, right?? We then booked out our hostels which looked like they were clean and didn’t have creepy crawlers lurking behind every corner which is the norm for us.  Oh yes, we were planning a trip of luxury.  We also went to a few different Thanksgiving parties at various American friends’ places that left us over stuffed and under sober if ya know what I’m talking about :)  The weekend of my birthday was absolutely BOSS CITY!! We planned to have our friends over on December 3, the eve of my birthday, and have our own thanksgiving party.  Callie and I got up early, went to the market and bought all of our fresh groceries and then spent the day cooking, cleaning, drinking, and fighting to make ourselves presentable for company.  People started showing up at our place around 8 and we feasted on the roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and about a million other things that were brought by our guests. 

 We also went through about 6 bottles of hard liquor and 2 cases of beer so by midnight, after numerous drinks and what seemed like endless games of beer pong, we were ready to hit the streets around midnight.  We went to an intense bar in Tribunal (great for late night “let your hair down” type sessions) that had liter sized mixed drinks and a dance floor for the masses.  We started to lose people to fatigue and intoxication so some party goers started to trek back to their places for the night.  But the strong will perceiver.  We headed out and on the hunt for a new place to spread our wings.  We started to line p to a different bar but opted for more dancing instead.  We ended up at the biggest gay club I have ever been to or see in all of my life.  It was straight out of the movies.  This place was bumping like nobody’s business and the trannies were wearing heals longer than my legs.  Imagine a 6’5 guy in 8 inch platformed stiletto sized 15 shoes.  Now multiply this image by 20 because that is at least the number of trannies that were dancing on platforms.  We let completely lose and I wont give all the details because I value our friendship but we ended up getting home around 7AM.  Surely a birthday to remember, even if the memories will be clouded with alcohol and dancing machines.

Ummm...I think you're leaking.

Welp, it’s that time of the month again.  The time when I set aside a wee bit of my precious free time and fill ya’ll in on the happenings around here.  I would first like to let everyone know that I am almost completely healed from the injuries sustained in the previous blog.  Thank goodness.  I’d love to report that things have been nice and quiet in these parts but truth be told, that will never be a reality.  Callie and I spent our long weekend at the end of October (seriously, we get so many catholic holidays around here it’s absolutely criminal) on a lovely honeymoon style trip to the south of Spain in a beautiful city called Sevilla.  This, being our favorite part of Spain that we have visited thus far, was something we were very much looking forward to.  We had Monday and Tuesday off school and decided to head out Friday night and stay until Tuesday night.  I, being a real master of time, decided to get a sinus infection and a double ear infection (yes, my right ear, my sinuses, and my left ear all acquired an infection at the same time, it IS possible) two days before the scheduled departure.  I went to the doctor and they gave me a one time look over and told me, basically, that i was in some real shit.  You know in so many words.  They gave me some antibiotics and pain killers and sent me on my way.  Friday I went to school with toilet paper in both my ears to stop the leak and a whole roll of toilet paper in my bag for blowing my nose.  And yes, to answer your question, I did use it all.  At one point my paper must have fallen from my ears.  I only know this because a student was looking in his english-spanish dictionary feverishly and then timidly raised his hand to tell me I was leaking from my ear.  Leaking!  Fantastic.  After my evening classes I went home, wandered around the apartment aimlessly trying to occupy my time so I wouldn’t fall asleep or take my medication until we got on the bus and finally packed my bag with about 5 minutes to spare.  We hopped the train to the bus station and I decided I couldn’t take it anymore so I popped my pills and within minutes (literally) I was set.  Im not really sure what kind of pain killers they gave me but the label should just read “take these if you want to die for 4-8 hours” because as soon as we boarded the bus I was out like a light.  Gone to the living world and having dreams that can only be compared to a clock work orange.  We arrived to our hostel at 7AM exhausted and ready for bed.  We checked in, went to our room and low and behold someone was sleeping in one of our beds.  We managed to get things taken care of and tucked in for 3 hours to rest up for the day ahead of us.  If you haven’t been there before, Andalucia (a southern province in Spain) is absolutely breath taking.  It’s where the Alhombra is.  It’s were citrus trees grow free in the streets.  It’s where the backwoods accent is so think you think they are speaking Greek.  It’s laid back, sunny, lazy, and perfect for a long weekend.  We roamed the streets and went to open air markets and naturally took pictures with everything we saw.

  We took romantic strolls around the town and took tours of the largest gothic style cathedral in the world (IN THE WORLD!!) and the city in general. 

We ate some amazing food and drank even better wine.  We decided that we wanted to take a day trip to the beach and chose to take a 1.5 hour bus ride to Cadiz.  The bus was at 7AM so we had literally ALL day there.  We laid around lazy on the beach, walked around the old city, and ate what I can only describe as the best thing we have eaten thus far in Spain.  It was fried fish and it was heaven in a light brown crispy shell.  We went to the top of the highest tour and got to see a panoramic view of the city and ocean.  We were thinking ahead and brought a bottle of wine with us so we strolled back down to the beach, popped the cork and were ready to watch the sun go down on a picturesque view of the sea.  We put on some music and were pleasantly disturbed by a nice young gentleman asking us if we had any paper to roll a cigarette.  We did not and he walked back to his friend who was strumming a guitar.  About 10 minutes go by and the gentleman came back to us.  This time, in ENGLISH, he asked if we cared to join him and his friend to “make a party and watch the sunset”.  uuummmm, okay :)  We picked up our things and walked over to the guitar.  They then proceeded to serenade us as the sun set on the ocean.  They even sang blues music and made songs up on the spot about Callie and I.  Life win.  We slowly stumbled back across the town to the bus station, boarded our bus and went to sleep.  We were abruptly awoken by a crash.  Literally.  Our bus driver must have hit a car or a bike or a pedestrian...AND THEN KEPT GOING!!  I looked back to see the man in the back completely under the seat in front of him.  Apparently his seat was broken and acted like a projectile device when we crashed and his seat was across the bus and he was piled up in a ball under the chairs in front of him.  All I could do was laugh.  I couldn’t even help.  Let me back up for a minute and tell you why...

The day before Callie and I were hanging out on the steps near the bus station planning our relaxing day at the spa.  The steps were in front of the river and next to us (about 5 meters) there was a bridge that takes you over the river.  Many people ride their bikes in Sevilla so it wasn’t a huge surprise to us that we heard the swishing of a very fast bike rider behind us.  I started to get suspicious when I didn’t hear him slowing so I looked back.  Oddly enough, the man looked as though he was headed straight for the area of steps in between myself and the bridge.  Well that couldn’t be right.  There were about 20 steps down to the sidewalk next to the river and he was on a bike.  How was that going to work?  On and on he rode, faster and faster as he approached and still was not  changing his course.  And then it happened.  About 2 feet away from me the man started down the stairs on his bike at a lightening flash speed.  First 4 steps down were perfect.  The fifth changed his fate forever.  He must have hit the step sideways on his bike and started a spiral fall.  He fell for about 15 steps and smashed like a cartoon character on the pavement below.  I’m half surprised the pavement didn’t crack like when an acme anvil is thrown off a cliff and hits the pavement directly behind the roadrunner.  The only movement was the bike wheel still attached to the bike spinning crooked.  The other when was jammed firmly into the man’s groin.  My first reaction, thinking the man was absolutely dead (no one could survive a death fall like that) was to look at Callie to make sure she had witnessed it too.  Not because I thought it was funny, but because I don’t have the Spanish vocabulary to write a police report of this nature.  To our surprise, the man survived.  His pride, however, did not.  I was opening my mouth to call out “Are you okay?” when he looked back in the most spiteful of ways and flipped me off.  Yep, sour puss face and middle finger raised right at me.  Like I had a hand in him speeding down 20 concrete stairs on a bike and made him crash.  Slowly he scraped himself off the ground as gingerly as could be and molded his bike back into form like tin foil.  He twisted his seat back around in the forward facing position and tried to raise his leg over the bar to get back on his bike.  Nope, bad idea.  That wasn’t an option so he slowly walked away.  Things had to have been broken.  Internal bleeding of sorts must have been involved and I’m more positive that he can never have children again than I am that the sky is blue.  Anyway, my point is that I was being very serious and concerned about this falling man’s health and he flipped me off.  I wasted my serious on that fall and every other fall is minor in comparison.  So when I saw this helpless man crammed under the seat because he was thrown from his own...I laughed.  Luckily I had previously made friends with him when the route was first getting underway and he looked at me, realized I was paralyzed with the giggles and started to laugh right back.  pheewwwww, crisis avoided.  On our final day in Sevilla we went to an ancient arabic bath house and spent the morning relaxing in different whirlpools and steam rooms and baths.  We also got massages there which were just the gummy bears (I would say cherries but I don’t like those) on top.  We then sat to test some wine and olive oils only to realize that we missed our bus back.  Well, nothing we could do then so we decided to relax, drink in the scenery and vino and casually catch the evening bus back to Madrid.  Perfect weekend! 

The day I almost lost a nipple....again

It’s already the closing of october? no, that can’t be right.  really??  ssshhwwwhaaaatt???  Well I just can’t believe it but I suppose it’s the truth.  It says it on every newspaper that i’ve looked at today.  We’ve been keeping ourselves so busy with work and our private english lessons that there really isn’t much to report.  We haven’t gone on any adventures, we haven’t run into too much trouble, and other than a major wipeout in the halls and a birthday celebration for Callie, I’d say it’s rather lame over here.  First, let’s start with the wipeout...

It was a beautiful fall day in Madrid.  The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, it was a balmy 95 degrees (in October?!?!), and Brenna was racing around the halls of el Colegio Patrocinio de San Jose as always.  I didn’t have a break in between my last class of the day for normal classes and my first class of the school of English here at school.  It was a Thursday so I was running back to the teachers’ workroom to drop off my books for the older kids and grab all of my arts and crafts supplies for my 4 year olds.  In one hand I grabbed my construction paper, glue, glitter, and markers and in the other I grabbed a fairly large pair of scissors.  One of the teachers saw I was in a hurry and jokingly said “Brenna, you’d better not run with those scissors!!” and me, being a smartass, put the scissors point down in my hand in the safety position and said mockingly “Oh yes, SAFETY FIRST!!”  And with that, I was off in a blaze.  Down the hall i ran in my squeaky hot pink crocs towards the infant side of the building.  I finally got down the hall and could see my students on the landing ahead of me about 6 stairs above the hall.  They all saw me as well and acknowledged this by screaming “BREEEENNNAAAAA!!!!” and jumping in excitement.  (side note: I’d love to say they just get this excited when I come but truth be told 4 year olds get excited for anything.  ie: okay, it’s time to dance “YAAYYY!! DANCE!!”  okay, it’s time to color “YAAYYY!! COLOR!!”  okay, it’s toilet time... “YAAYYY!! TOILETS!!”) So there they were with their eyes full of hope, wonder and innocents and there I was running up the halls with my huge backpack on and my hands full of art supplies and death trap scissors.  Well wouldn’t you know I made it up the first 5 stairs without a glitch.  The sixth and final step would, however, decide my fate.  The top of my hot pink croc got stuck on the edge of the stair and I started to propel in the oddest forward motion that has ever been witnessed in these halls I guarantee you.  I suddenly started in a running motion as I was falling up the stairs due to the excess weight of the pack on my back.  I knew I was in for it and yet I still was holding on to hope (and art supplies and large scissors) and kept running to try to regain my balance.  Just take a minute to picture it.  You’ve all seen the running fall on America’s Funniest home videos, or in person if you were ever so lucky.  Well that was me.  In front of 4 year olds all looking on in disbelief (yes children, adults do fall from time to time).  Finally there was no more hope and I was going down.  Faster and faster I fell until all of the sudden I hit the ground like a ton of flayling bricks.  There was an instant lightening bolt pain in my right nipple.  What was that?  It only took me a split second to remember the scissors.  HOLLLYYYYY SHIIIIITTTTT!!  I just impaled myself on a pair of large scissors in front of my children and they entered via the right nipple.  Not only am I dead but now all the children and EMTs that come to collect my body will remember me as the weird American girl that cut her nipple off.  Fantastic.  I didn’t want to breath.  or move.  and so for a good 30 seconds i decided to just lay there with my eyes closed and my chest 6 inches above the ground in silence.  Finally i realized “IM NOT DEAD!!”  that was only half the battle, now I needed to check that nipple.  I looked down in pure astonishment as I realized that earlier when I mockingly said “ha ha, safety first” I inadvertently saved my life, my dignity, and my right nipple.  The point of the scissors was planted in the wooded floor and the handle was so far in my chest I swear you could see the finger holes coming out my back.  Slowly I got up, took my first breath, and checked my chest to make sure areola was intact and of the proper shape in my shirt.  Turns out, all systems were a go for me.  phewww, that. was. close!  I looked over at the children and realized that their eyes were the size of watermelons and there was condensation forming in two pairs.  If you ever wondered what 18 4-year olds look like scared stiff, please, re-enact the previous catastrophe.  I will advise you, however, it’s THE WORST!!  Before I finished telling them that everything was alright one of them was a complete ball of heat, tears, and snot and another was well on her way.  I bent down to give her a hug and she clung to me like a spider monkey.  Her gooey fingers tightly clasped around my neck and her snotty, teary face embedded in my hair.  Wonderful.  I couldn’t stand up without her so I moved all of my supplies to one hand (carefully placing the scissors in my bag, of course) and picked her up with my other arm.  Plainly, I had to hold her at an arms length because the area that had been impaled was entirely to sore for a booger monster to be against it.  When I stood up, the other teary eyed child immediately put her hand up from behind me and in between my legs so she had a firm grip on my groin and we were all off to class.  Finally.  Apart from the snot that took me an entire day to remove from my hair, a black and blue mark that is still healing on my boob, and a nice crotch grab...I’d say we still had a pretty successful day of arts and crafts. 

In the United States people are so paranoid about where to touch children and how to handle them because we are complete prudes that it was a swift change to move to a place where you literally can’t go a whole day of school without kissing at least 20 students.  When the little ones leave they line up at the door and I need to hand them over to their parents.  I find their parents, they pull me down for a hug and a kiss, and they are off.  I’m still not completely over the whole hygiene aspect of this tradition, but I’m in love with my children.  The older kids interrupt class to make fun of my hot pink crocs that I wear on my feet or let me know that it’s really not lady-like to wear my hair in a pony tail everyday.  But the little ones stop class to kiss me and tell me how beautiful I am.  HEEELLLLOOO?!?! Does it get any better than that??  Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no rush to have a germ monster of my own any time soon, but I’d loooooovvveeee a niece or nephew.....sean...katie???  I’m just saying.

Curious coconuts and crazy cockroaches

WE HAVE A HOME!!!  The road to getting where we are today is a bit on the rocky side of things, BUT after due diligence and lots of frustration, we have rented an apartment for the year and it feels darn good :)  Although I hate to leave the nest at Belén’s, it is time for me to spread my wings and get a goin’ to where I gots to be getting.

Belén has cooked me many meals and we have finished even more bottles of wine and beer with Miguel and it’s been a fabulous time.  Let me share with you the details of the past week’s events:

School started up with a nice kick in the pants.  Students don’t realize this, but teachers want to be in classes just as much as the kids do.  So, at the beginning of the year you can imagine the ambience at this place.  But, after a week of school already in session, I received my time table of classes and was all legit to go.  Belén made pizza for dinner one night and after we had some fruit for dessert.  I was offered a coco and refused (trust me, when you are in a different country and you are offered a food that you don’t understand the name of, ALWAYS REFUSE!!  Never know if you are going to luck out with something totally rad or a bowl full of monkey brains) but I’m soooo glad Irea, the youngest of Belén’s daughters, did not.  I was thinking it was something chocolate-ish and being a hater of most sweets I really thought I was being clever by connecting coco to cocoa.  But alas, Miguel went to the fridge and pulled out this coco.  And it was a coconut.  Another bad guess by the Brennster.  Anyway, it wasn’t like shredded coconut, it was a whole hairy round coconut.  I may be a little sheltered but never in my day have I seen such a thing uncut and uncleaned.  For these reasons I was incredibly curious to see how you do in fact open a coconut.  I have no idea where to even begin to open a coconut.  Well it wasn’t long after I was watching that I realized that Miguel didn’t have the slightest clue either.  Awesome.  First he tried to stab it with a knife.  NOPE.  The he tried to use a wine bottle opener.  Strike 2.  Finally he left the kitchen and returned with a pick and hammer.  Ding ding ding, we have a winner.  He managed to pike 2 small holes in the top of the coconut and drain the juice.  To my surprise that coconut was packin quite a bit of juice.  Like a whole stinkin pint.  (and here’s a little tip for all those who have not yet drank from a freshly stabbed coconut: the juice=not good.  Bad actually, very very bad.)  So great, he drained the coconut and now he just needed to get up in there and take out all the fresh white meat.  He swings open the window and give the beast fruit a solid whack.  nothing.  cracks it again.  nothing.  One last violent blow and *poof* the difficult little round fruit opens up like a clam and reveals its inner goodness.  Irea ate a bite and was less than impressed with it, the look on Miguel’s face was priceless.  Hurt even.  All the hard work, creativity, and sweat on his brow for a less than enthusiastic response.  I tried some fresh coco myself and I have to tell ya...tastes just like sunscreen smells.  

Okay so after a week of searching, turn downs, and cramping a friend’s style in her house, we finally found an apartment that we could move into immediately.  It is in the exact same neighborhood as our place last year and it appeared to be pretty great.  We are only renting the rooms so although we have access to the whole place, there are 3 rooms and we don’t have a say in the other roommate because the landlords rent that out on a first come first served basis.  Bueno.  We paid the first month’s rent and a one month deposit and were ready to move in.  Belén and Miguel packed all my things into there VW and drove me over.  After we moved everything in, they left and Callie and I were happy to finally be able to relax.  After a few hours we decided to make our first meal in our new apartment.  We got groceries, ran home and headed for the kitchen.  We flipped on the lights and the counters, sink, and cabinets started moving.  Scurrying really.  It went from brown to white and blue.  If you have not yet guessed, we were NOT on LSD...we had cockroaches.  Not a cockroach or a small peaceful family, but muchas muchas muchas cucarachas.  FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDGGGGEEEEE (just like in “A Christmas Story”, I’m editing the four letter word that creeped out of my mouth.  It felt like slow-mo just the same).  Well this is great.  We just gave some old spanish man that we just met all of our money, didn’t sign a contract, and now have an infestation of critters.  Perfecto.  Well I’ll spare the horrifying details, but we got in contact with our landlord who immediately called the pest control service.  We fumigated the apartment on Friday and slept there Friday night.  Good idea? you decide.  We could use everything but the kitchen so we found some great cheap street food for the weekend and on Monday a cleaning lady came and swept up all of the cockroach bodies and made our place sparkle like new (and it was probably new in about 1930 so considering everything, it doesn’t look half bad at all).  Callie and I are finally all settled in, were told we have a male roommate from the canary islands who doesn’t speak a word of english and will move in at the end of this week.  Clearly, updates to follow.  But as for now we are incredibly happy with our place and have decided that we have lucked out for now.  Holy crap i don’t want to move again and go thru this stuff all over!!!

On a complete side note, I’m writing this in the teachers’ room at my school during my break and I’m sitting in a chair that just so happens to be between the other two teachers in the room.  They are both about 2 feet away from me on either side and they are yelling at each other.   Loudly.  I’m not sure where to look.  AWKWARRRRD.

Homeless aint so bad, i got peeps :)

I know you are thinking to yourself “Homeless?  Surely she’s mistaken.”  Let me put your questions to rest---> I am indeed in the center of madrid in the land of petty thieves and funny languages without a place to hang my hat at the end of the day.  I’ve been here for 5 days and I’m finding it just short of impossible to find an apartment to rent under my working conditions.  You need to have the following prerequisites in order to sign an apartment contract here: be a legal resident (check), have a working contract with a business in Spain (check), have a bank account that has money coming in due to said job (check), and be here for at least one year (check).  So why is this proving to be so stinkin’ difficult?? Because the company that employs me is absolutely impossible and refuses to give me the correct documentation so that I can prove that I qualify for all of these things.  Do I have a contract? yes.  Do I have access to it? no.  They sign the contract and then email it to me.  There is nowhere for me to sign it and in turn the emailed copy is void.  Am I a legal resident? yes.  Do I have a valid card to prove it? no.    My NIE (residence card) is expired and although I have an appointment with the government to get a new one which is all I need for the customs officers and the police officers but not enough to get a place to live.  Have I got a bank account? yes.  Have I been paid in 3 months?  no.  Because I am a teacher I only get paid October thru June and they need to see that I have had money coming in for the last three months (July, August, and September).  Enough to pull your hair out, isn’t it?!?!  Oh Spain, all I do is love you and all you do is poo on me.  WHAT. IS. THE. DEEEAAALLLL?!?!?  I really need to get out of these types of relationships, yaknowwhati’msayin??

However, there is a beautiful silver lining on this one hell of a dark cloud.  My spanish family.  Belén and Miguel and the girls have graciously opened their house (and their refrigerator) to me once again.  I have been staying with them since I arrived and I gotta tell ya’ll: This homeless life really isn’t that bad :)  I have my own bedroom outfitted with a great bed and cool air because it’s in the basement (invaluable in this crazy spanish heat).  I even have my own bathroom with a shower in it.  Not bad, not bad at all.  I know this sounds great and all and you’re all wondering why the heck I’m looking for a new place to live and to be honest the idea of staying in the lap of luxury isn’t a bad one.  But alas, I am an adult and and they are a family and although my time there is great, all good things must come to an end.  It’s like having a slumber party over and over again.  Sooner or later they’re going to get sick of me and I’d really like to leave before we get to that point!

So, in order to find an apartment you have the option of searching a few different ways here.  First, you can look online at the endless apartment websites that either lead you to dead ends or creepy roommates (seriously, I wont bore you with the details but I will say that last night an ad took us to a great area of town, great building, and a sir creepsalot by the name of Mili).  Second, you can walk around the city with your neck strained to look at all the tall buildings because they hang their “for rent” signs off their balconies.  I wish there was a map of the city with my footprints showing all the places we have walked.  We have walked from Legazpi to Tetuán (that’s like 7 miles) and everywhere in between, and Callie has called literally about 75 people inquiring about apartments and so far all the leads we have are just not making the cut.  And if they do we don’t even qualify for the places.  I’m over here walking my ass off (like that’s even possible) and all signs point to---> LOSER.  Nothing.  Nada.  Ladies and gentlemen, check back with me in about 2 months but at the moment, this stinks!  Although this is rather upsetting, i refuse to be discouraged!! I WILL find a place to live.  It WILL be nice.  And I’ll post pictures of the beauty as soon as I’ve won it over :)  It’s been 5 days and I don’t already have everything that I want with all my things falling into place, what is this world coming to??  

Welcome back!...now hit the bricks!

So I’ve left the nest many times in my day.  I left for college when I was only 17 to go to Pittsburgh, I left for Ireland when I was 20, and went for my first round in Madrid when I was 22.  So why then, do I find myself emotional when leaving this time?  I didn’t even know that was possible.  I’ve already been thru this and while I was enjoying my last night at home with my dogs and not packing, I hugged both their necks as hard as I could and when I tried to speak to tell them to be good for Mom and Dad while I was gone, I realized that there was a frog the size of a bowling ball in my throat prohibiting me from speaking.  I got really hot, had trouble breathing, and I could feel my face turn red as my eyes filled up with a watery sting.  What the heck was happening??  I’ve heard of this before, I believe it’s called sadness and I never thought I’d be a victim of this debilitating state.  But, I suppose we all have to go thru it.  I found myself violently bawling in the fur of two very confused labs.  Both my puppies,  Marley and Murphy, are basically the same size as me and although SOME people think they are no more than animals dependent on humans for survival, they’re much more.  They are the creators of happiness, a soft pillow on the floor when I’m watching TV, and the only souls in this world that I can trust with every secret I have ever had.  They are part of our family and we treat them as such.  And when I was spending my last hours with them all I could think about was not being able to run my fingers thru their hair for the next ten months.  I miss my family so much, but they can talk to me on the phone and on skype.  When my parents put the dogs on skype, they just think it’s like the TV and look aimlessly at it.  When they hear my voice they automatically look up at my room, sometimes run up there to see if I’m there, and then that’s it.  They don’t see me on the computer.  Heartbreaking, really.  And so I sat there, like a 5 year old crying.  

The morning that I left I went and got breakfast with my Auntie Joyce and Uncle Bill at steak & shake.  Seriously, their breakfast is pretty good.  Who woulda thought??  They brought me a book and a really sweet card and I found that darn frog resting comfortably snug in my throat once again.  I was holding it in pretty good when I was hugging them good bye but inevitably later when I was reading the card that I couldn’t finish at the burger joint, the tears started rolling.

When we finally rushed out of the house with my poorly packed goods for my 3:00 flight, I was completely frazzled.  I waited to pack my bags the morning I left which in hindsight wasn’t the best of ideas.  So we finally were off to the airport and about 15 minutes into the 30 minute ride I realized that I had left my spanish cell phone at home.  While a mobile phone sounds rather insignificant in the big scheme of things, when you are traveling to a different continent and have no place to live, getting in touch with your friends is the most important thing and that cell phone is like my lifeline.  We didn’t have much time so I called Sean (another source of my tears.  I gave Kyle a hug the night before who also made the frog return. I’m turning into a blubbering baby these days, I’ll tell ya!) to have him meet me at the airport with it.  We got to the airport at about 1:45 and when we finally got our heavy bags checked it was around 2:00.  Perfect, we still had about 40 minutes to hang out with my mom and dad before we had to go thru security so dad was outside at the curb waiting for sean and my mom and I made our way to wendy’s for my LAST frosty in a long long time.  I checked the boards to make sure that my flight was on time and it was.  But the funny thing was: the flight said it was leaving on time...at 2:19.  Weird, why would it say that our flight was on time at 2:19 when it wasn’t leaving until 3:00??  Oohh, riiight, I read the itinerary wrong (i swear that has never happened before!) and I now had 19 minutes to get my phone, get thru security, and catch my flight.  Dad was still waiting outside and I talked with the security who said that they could let me thru and then send my phone thru when it came to meet me at the gate.  Perfect except I didn’t say good bye to my pops yet.  AAAAHHHHHH.  Panic ensued as my mom starts to hug me with her quick good byes trying to push me to security.  I held my ground and at 2:07 (i checked the time every 5 seconds) I saw my dad running towards me with my bright orage covered phone in his hand.  He shoved it in my bags, gave me a kiss and a squeeze and I ran thru the security line, got thru and made it to my gate at exactly 2:09.  10 minutes before the flight takes off, JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME!!  and everybody on my flight was still there waiting.  No one had boarded yet.  How thoughtful waiting for me, right?? SIKE.  They were all waiting because the flight coming in was delayed, in turn delaying mine.  So I still got there with about 40 minutes before we boarded.  AAAHHHHH again.  I rushed for nothing? No wendys???  Son of a...!!!

After my layover in Atlanta I made it to Madrid with a warm welcome from a family of one of my students who picked me up and dropped me off at Beléns (seriously, it’s good to make the right friends, huh?).  I got to her house jet lagged and tired and ready for a nap.  Cecilia, Belén’s daughter, helped me with my smaller bags down to the basement where my room is.  You have to go down a set of winding brick stairs to get there and while a coherent, sober adult would have no problems getting down the stairs in one piece, of course I would have difficulties.  I grabbed my huge bag and started to walk down the stairs and about two steps in completely ate it and fell plunging head first over my bags and down the brick stairs.  Welcome back, Brenna!!  

So what have we learned??  Pack before the morning you leave, check and recheck your flight times, I’m a REALLY ugly cryer, and under no circumstances is it okay to lug a bag bigger than yourself down winding brick stairs.  EVER.  It’s going to be a good year guys, there is no reason for it not to be :):)

New great look, same great taste

          OOhh my my my how ironic is that last post?? Talkin all about how I'm going to work harder to keep up with my blogging and posts and then dropping off the face of the earth for a good 6 months.  If there's one thing to learn from that last post it's this: I. Am. A. LIAR!!  Big fat stinkin' liar, huh?!?  The saddest part about the statement I made claiming to keep up with this: I really believed it.  Don't feel bad for checking back in hopes of me keeping up my promise only to be duped.  I too fell victim of the nonsensical claim that I would prescribe to new blogs on a daily basis.  Therefore I hold no grudges against the people who don't believe this next statement. --> I WILL start keeping these post coming fresh to ya as frequent as possible.  Honestly, THIS time I fully intend to keep my word and hit the blog scene running once again :)
         I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I am the busiest person in the world and that is my resoning for not writing about all of my outtings.  That would be an exaggeration.  But it wouldn't be a complete lie to say i was probably in the top 5.  Between getting my masters finished up, writing my thesis (surprise! I waited 'til the last minute to write that bad boy), hosting my family, hosting some rowdy canadians, getting my last minute travel in (malaga, granada, italy, and barcelona), and trying to muster up enough lesson plans to last the rest of the complete whirlwind of a school year...I've had my hands full!  However, this doesn't excuse me for the lull that has been experienced during the summer months.  To sound completely selfish (not sound, I HAVE been completely selfish this summer) I just wanted to relax and have some good ol' fashion quality time with my bad self.  I spent quite a few nights at the lake which, after all my traveling, is still my most favorite place on this incredible earth.  I went kayaking, water skiing, tubing, and had my fill of adult beverages.  We also took trips up to Niagra falls, toledo to visit some family, Michigan (booo) to visit my beautiful sister (yaaayyy), Chicago to catch a Sox game, and a finally a week long stay in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  Now, you might find yourself wondering "where the heeeccckkk is that??".  Don't worry, I assure you that you are not alone.  Up until I met people that lived there did I believe that Nova Scotia sounded like a city that Old Navy thought up to write on their clothes as an adventurous ocean side getaway.  Forget the Old Navy part and to my delight, that previous statement held to be pretty true.
         Now, after almost 2 months outside of Europe, I'm starting to prepare for another go.  Round 2 begins on September 7th and although it sounds like I've been relaxing for 2 months, I'm not so sure I'm exactly ready to dive back into the world of teaching.  This may come as a shock, but I rather enjoy living on my own time :)  Don't get me wrong, when the time comes I'm sure i'll be thinking to myself "What were ya thinkin Bren, you LOVE this stuff!!" The best way to describe it is like eating an incredibly delicious and filling dinner and then hearing the waitor say, "who saved room for dessert??" At first you kick yourself for not realizing that there is the possibility of dessert but after they bring out the perfectly sculpted ice cream scoops you have no choice but to dig in.  It's at that exact moment that you think to yourself "I wasn't sure if I was ready for this but DAAAMMNNNN this is good."  Oh yeah...just like that :)
        Welp, now that I believe I've taken the past few paragraphs to do a poor job of catching you up to date on what's been going on, I will start to get my things ready for the trip back to Spain and am promising you to do a better job of keep all in the loop of my happenings.  I'll leave you with a great quote that I've decided to live my Spanish time by and a pinky promise that you'll hear from me soon!


"Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world.  Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before.  Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before."
-Eirch Fromm

Back in the saddle again

I´M BAAAAAACCCKKKK.  Okay: I´m going to really work on updating this as often as I can fit into my schedule.  I know I know, you´ve read this before but I really do plan on keeping this up THIS time :)  I´m telling you, I can´t wait until next year when I have the time to sit back, relax, and blog as much as my little heart desires (and obviously have more of a social life, meet more people, and travel at least double as much as I am this year).  This year the classes I am taking, the classes I am teaching, and all this spanish nonsense is keeping my pretty busy.  Next year, however, I´ll be free to gallavant around the city as I see fit.  Monday I was completely exhausted in classes after the superbowl situtation the night before BUT I somehow managed to fight through the grogginess and pump out some fun lessons.  Classes were a bit hard to sit through on tuesday night and by the time I got home (around 10) I was more than delited to see that my roommate had made a family dinner.  I grabbed a burrito, a shower, and hit the hay in a flash.  Wednesday was another B-E-A-utiful day in lovely Madrid and I even pushed through and walked the 7 miles back to my apartment after school instead of riding the train.  Such an amazing walk through the city.  I work on the northern outskirts of the city and live on teh south so I get to walk all the way through Madrid.  A nice little tour of the whole city and a great way to get an idea of where everything around me is :)  Keeping it real quiet for the week but there are big things to be had this weekend!!  So glad it´s thursday!  sooooo close  to el fin de semana i can taste it!!   :)

here we go...again

Superbowl weekend and the weather is fantastic.  at home we are getting dumped on with snow and wind and everything horrible for ohio winters and here it’s freakin beautiful and in the 60’s.  holler back.  Saturday i did a bunch of much needed laundry and got in some ultimate frisbee like a champ :)  sunday all i wanted to do was lay low until the superbowl but that obviously didn’t happen lving in the most beautiful city in the world.  Callie and i met out sydney and we walked all over downtown checking things out and of course stopping once for an ice cream and then again for an alcoholic coffee beverage.  A-MAZ-ING.  So my quiet day in turned into a whole day out in the city.  Usually I love these days but the superbowl starts at 6:30PM in ohio which is a solid 12:30AM here. aaaahhhhh!!  around 8 my apartment started to buzz with the silly packers fans i live with and myself breaking bread before the game.  I made a steelers t-shirt from an old white T i acquired (no idea where that came from!) and made my own terrible towel out of yellow construction paper.  That was a 30 minutes well spent :)  

AT around 10 we left our apartment and walked to sol to cheer on our respective teams.  Good thing for me, all the people that we met out were steelers fans.  

wooooo calle caceres!!

We even managed to meet 2 spanish guys and turn them into steelers fans as well. 

Juan and Carlos with the terrible towels!!!

I also ran into a group of German men that were in town and happened to be lucky enough (or incredibly unfortunate, depending on the way you are looking at it) to be at the same bar as us!  Needless to say I convinced them to be steelers supporters.  I dazzled them with my high school German.  Works like a charm :)

Wir wollen die Steelers zu gewinnen! (we want the steelers to win!!...i think haha)

However, no matter how much beer i drank (a disgusting amount) or how much Carlos and Juan cheered (surprisingly 80% in english)  Ben and the boys did not pull through for us. 

STEEELLLEERRRRRSSSSS!!

The game came to a nasty ending with green coming out on top, me stupid drunk, and exactly 3 hours to walk home, sleep, wake up, and get to class. yyaaayyyyy :)  We somehow found our ways home, fell asleep, and with the help of the Lord above I made it to my morning class on time :)  Seriously, it went by so fast I don’t even remember waking up, changing my clothes, and getting to classes.  The first three hours teaching all i was doing was feeling a massive headache, trying to keep the kids busy, and fighting will all my might not to violently vomit all over the class.  To my sheer amazement the other teachers and the kids were all clueless to the lack of responsibility I was displaying the night before.  We stayed out, cheered on our hardest, and still the steelers didn’t pull through.  O well, there’s always next year :)  we had such a kick ass night (as you can see from the pictures)  that I really don’t care and even though I am STILL hurting from all the booze and partying, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat!! 

Buckeyes in spain!!

The week at school has come and gone yet again i’m still not completely convinced i’m not just dreaming this whole life up.  Friday’s classes went swimmingly well and after Callie and I met over at Belen’s house for a nice evening of shit shooting and buckeye making.  Of course every time I go over there it feels like home to me but this time was a little different because we were making the very food that I grew up making all fall season with my mom, mana, and auntie Joyce.  We got to my home away from home around 5 and were immediately greeted with a homemade meal and yet another deceivingly delicious spanish treat.  Every time i get over to Belen’s she offers me something that I can’t imagine would ever taste good and every time she makes me try it I am pleasantly surprised.  This time was homemade pizza and a rice pudding style spanish desert that I am a big fan of :)  After desert, naturally we opened a bottle of wine and i FINALLY got to meet Belen’s husband Miguel.  HE. IS. AWESOME!!  not only did he put up with 4 females chatting away all night (Belen, Callie, Bea, and myself)  he also played camera man when we started putting the buckeyes together, he put on some background music, lit some incense, and let me call him tio on the way out!!  

all the goodies

in the making...

AAAHHHHHH!!!!

The actual buckeye making turned a little ugly because they were a bit sticky.  BUT they tasted amazing just the same and we sat and chomped on some buckeyes as we drank coffee and wounded down for the evening.  It’s so strange how you can travel half way around the world and run into people that are exactly the same as your family back home.  yet another night out a huge success.  Not to mention all the extra buckeyes we made...

Too blessed to be stressed

The whole month of January has flown by faster than I could ever express and before I knew it, it was already saying February on the calendar.  During that time we had a great house guest: the one and only JAMES HARRELL III.  We of course had a jacked up good time and went out to a new club in town.  Not new to the town, but new to us.  I hate to say this, but I feel almost too old to be going to those places.  Where do all the twenty somethings hang out???  I look around and all I see are kids that are the same age as my students.  weeeiiiirrrrrddddd.  James came and went in a flash but we had a brilliant time.  I have been doing a lot for classes; both teaching and studying, and I feel like I am in such a great place in my life right now that I could never ask for anything more.  You are all aware of my thoughts on my magnificent family and I have friends to die for.  I’m living in a fantastic city in a downtown apartment with the most perfect roommates.  I couldn’t have been placed in a better school to teach at and my classes for my masters program are actually going better than I had imagined.  This time is such an amazing experience that I have decided to apply for another year here.  I don’t find out for a bit if I get accepted back but I really am putting all my eggs into that basket because I can’t think of another place I would want to be next year.  Not to mention it is February and while winter is kicking the shit out of the states, it’s a mild 55 degrees here.  The sun is shining.  The birds are chirping.  And life couldn’t get any better (except of course if I had a valentine for next weekend....but I still have a week to figure that out!!)  HAHAHA :)  livin.  the.  dream.

Catch ya later USA, HOLA Españaaaaaaa

My last day on home soil I got a farewell brunch with the Balemians and mana and papa and was pleasantly surprised to see my cousin Ali, my Aunt Tammy, Steve, and Aunt Tracy and ROB with my mom, dad, and Kyle, and uncle Mark.  I can’t express how much I love my family.  They mean more to me than words could ever get across.  Brunch was amazing and just the way I wanted to leave the states: on the highest note.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to talk my cousin Ali into applying for the program I am in this year, I want her out here with me soooooo badly!!  Fingers crossed she applies!  Of course she’ll get in and then we will be ruling Spain together :)  I got to the airport early with Kyle, mom, and dad after some pretty hard goodbyes and we B-lined it straight over to the Wendy’s in the airport to get a last minute frosty.  So great!!!  I finally had to say goodbye to my parents and Kyle and headed for my gate and waited for my plane.  After a 2 hour ride, I touched down in Atlanta, made way to my gate and waited for the plane.  We finally boarded, I found my seat, settled in, and heard the welcoming voices of the Españoles all around me.  Funny thing about it: hearing spanish all around my felt a lot like home.  After 9 hours and 3 movies later we touched down.  IM BACK IN SPAIN, BABY!!!

D is for Dentist

I got back into town just in time to head over to my dentist appoint and to my lovely surprise I was in need of not 1, not 2, but 3 freakin fillings and they would have to do them the following day.  Feeling like crap the only logical thing to do was to ride over to the quilt shop with my mom and do some damage.  I always though that my mom and I were pretty different individuals and to my dismay I am slowly realizing that we are EXACTLY the same!  The good news: the older I get, the cooler I think she is.  Now, at 50, my mom is cooler than ever and I am soo pumped that I have that in my future.  My mom and I would sew for days on end if we could and the quilt shop is our little home away from home where we spend hours looking at different fabrics and finding a million new projects to start on at once.  The following day, the last full day I had in America, I spent in the dentist’s office getting shop up with novacane and getting huge holes drilled in my teeth.  Awesome.  After the torture was done and I was freed from the chair my mom and I went over to target and sipped on slurpees while we made our last minute purchases for my departure.  I also got to go bowling with my mana and papa (grandma and grandpa)  which was just perfect.  Kyle, dad, and mana and papa and myself tore it up on the lanes.  Not to toot my own horn, but....... TOOT TOOT.  I’m sick!  I haven’t bowled in at least 10 years and I cot about 8 strikes.  I had some major competitions with my pro bowler papa but we all did pretty well.  Well, almost all of us.  God bless my mana, she is the sweetest lady you will ever meet in your life.  But seriously, the SWEETEST lady in the world.  However, let’s just say if I had to guess from whom I got my athleticism from, she’d be my last guess haha.  She had fun with us just the same tho :)  We also had a great goodbye party at my house with my awesome godmother and of course Auntie Joyce and Uncle Bill (the most super badass old people you will ever hear about.  When they are gone books will be written about them.  They’re epic), My aunt Tracy and her almost husband ROB (all caps for a badass) and the rest of the fam.  So good to see my Aunt Tracy, she’s so happy all the time, can’t help but be in a good mood just thinking about her.  I am beyond excited about her wedding with ROB because he’s the greatest guy and she doesn’t deserve anything less.  Unfortunately I will miss their wedding in May but I can’t wait to see the pictures, she’s going to be a total babe in her wedding dress :)

Party in Portage

New Years day I spent 5 hours ridin’ solo in my Jetta up to Michigan (vomit) to see my beautiful older sister for a few days.  I hate the fact that we don’t get to see each other more BUT at the same time I completely understand.  The world would be in trouble if we were together all the time.  OOOo the trouble we could get into :)  For those of you reading this that don’t know about Erin Flynn, I’ll fill you in.  She is just a bit funnier, more clever, prettier, and all around better person than I.  That’s right guys, there’s 2 of me.  me. and then the turbo version of me.  She took me to a few parties in Portage, great places to eat, and we hung out with her friends for the whole weekend.  We did a lot of things that for legal reasons I should not discuss on here but I can tell you that we were non stop action the whole time we were together and I loved every minute of it.  On the way back into the great state of Ohio from the armpit of America (Michigan)  I stopped in Toledo one last time to spend the evening with my Gram and Bompa and get my last donut in in the morning on my way out of town.  Chocolate donut with chocolate on time.  can’t beat it.  EVER :)

New Year's Eve!!!

Over the past few days all I have been doing is meeting up with old chums and spending time with the family and the pets.  Nice leisure time never seemed to go by so fast in my whole life!  I went out and met my cousin Bryan at his bar for one night thinking we would just have a quick beverage and head home 2 nights before new year’s eve.  Not surprisingly, it turned into a gongshow.  I’m not really sure why (probably because we are wicked awesome and we are the only ones that lived in columbus) but the Balemians and the Flynns have always been a close bunch and when I was little all I wanted to do was hang out with the older kids (I was the youngest in the group) and as soon as I was old enough to party, we have had a super kickass good time :)  Bryan and I are pretty tight and the fact that he owns a bar works to my advantage like no other.  Our “quick” outing turned into about 4 hours and many many many many shots and cocktails that I have no recollection of.  Kyle met us out and had to take me home.  Great guy, huh??  The next day I had to wake up hard core early with a raging hang over and meet my cousins up at the lake to go snowboarding.  It was rough, but I managed to drive the whole way without having to stop and puke on the side of the road.  We hit the slopes and after my hang over passed I was able to enjoy some much needed family time with the younger cousins that I never get to hang out with.  It was a great day in the snow and surprisingly we all came back in one piece.  The following day I slept in super late and hung out with the pops.  He’s awesome.  Like, the greatest guy ever.  I actually feel bad that I have the greatest dad ever because it means that everyone else has to settle for something just a bit not as great as me.  Lucked out super good with Tim Flynn for sure :)  And when the evening came around we got ready in our Jackets get up and headed out to the Columbus Blue Jacket’s NHL game.  

nasty seats

rock on jackets, rock on

We have the greatest season tickets and the game was insane!!  That night 2010 drew to a close and signified an end to yet another year that has gone by waayyyy too fast.  That and another NYE down where I didn’t get a good luck kiss for the new year.  i’ve never been kissed for NYE for year!!!  ooo well, there’s always next year...well THIS year :)

Toledo with the Browns

My mom’s side of the family is a very unique breed of characters.  At first glance you might see that my immediate family are the only ones who indulge in alcohol while the cousins, aunts, and uncles do not.  Next, you might notice that my immediate family are the only ones who use vulgar language just to get our points across while our cousins, aunts, and uncles do not.  However, do not let this uptight facade fool you.  These people are some of the funniest and crudest people you will ever meet.  Mainly because 90% of our conversations revolve around bodily functions and racist/homophobic jokes.  HOWEVER, the Brown’s are no haters.  They seriously are some of the greatest people you will meet :)  Christmas with the Brown’s means so much to me especially after we were informed of my Bompa’s (grandfather’s) lung cancer.  He is absolutely incredible.  I have never heard him raise his voice a day in my life and is such a happy little bugger.  I really appreciate the time I spend with him and the whole family.  Christmas with the Browns was the same as every other year.  Grandma started by saying that we couldn’t get a present until we told a joke.  That soon came to an end when someone said a joke she didn’t approve of.  Gift paper would get balled up and thrown at blinding speeds at the faces of cousins through out the house and soon that too would come to a close after Adam took it juuuuust a bit too far.  And of course we ate as much as possible and Gram made her famous christmas cookies that were gone before dinner was over.  After the party came to a close my family went back over to my grandparents’ house and spent the night scattered through the familiar bilevel on Valley Stream BLVD.  The next day I accompanied my dad and Bompa to the donut shop.  Let me preface this with the explanation of the donut shop gang:  My Bompa has been going to the same donut shop with the same group of old guys for the past 20 years where they gather round the bar with a cup of coffee and a donut and discuss the world’s problems.  These guys are freaking hysterical.  They go in and are automatically greeted with a cup of coffee the exact way they have ordered it for 20 years and the same donut they have ordered for the same amount of time.  They talk about of shit, tell a bunch of jokes, look out for one another, and above all else...it’s just a place to go to either get away from their nagging wives for an hour or hang out with their friends for an hour because their nagging wives have passed away.  They take great care of my Bompa and I love them all like my own :)  I send them post cards and they return the favor.  Great little relationship!!  My time in Toledo came to a close and I said my sad goodbyes that have become all too common in the recent future and I left the town in the dust.  Great visit, I even got to see my Aunt Theresa who I just love to death.  My dad has the greatest 4 sisters in the world and a hilarious little brother that I just love to pieces.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see all of them while I was home, but having Aunt theresa meet me out at the donut shack was a beautiful surprise.  Are you all sick of hearing about how amazing my family is yet??  Jealous??  I can’t help it.  I am just soo blessed to have the greatest family and so thankful to have people in my life that mean so much to me :)

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

oh christmas tree :)

Christmas day has a well known schedule in the Flynn house hold each year.  First, Kyle runs around and wakes everybody up.  Second, Dad passes out presents while we each open ours one by one, first being jealous that one of us got something awesome, then coming to the sweet realization that we all got it in a different color or size.  After we are finished opening presents, the animals open their presents (seriously, santa had his elves wrap presents for the more furry Flynns as well).  

stockings from st. nick!!

This is how Marley opens his presents...

this is how murphy opens his :)

The prettiest kitty in the world opening her presents!!!

total destruction of the living room after we opened all our presents 

Flynn kiddos happy with all of our WICKED gifts <3

Third, we eat either marshmallow puffs or roll-me-ups depending on the mood of Mom.  And lastly, we all get washed up, put on one of our new outfits, and head out to the movie theaters for a Christmas day movie.  All of this was exactly the same this year as it was every other year and this time around we decided to watch Little Fockers.  Holy Toledo that show was sooooo funny!!  I mean, I wouldn’t recommend it if you were in the mood to watch an educational film, but this movie did give me quite a few giggles to say the least.  Christmas evening was spent with all the Flynn kids and Mom and Dad eating a nice big Christmas dinner of ham and turkey and all the fillings in between.  Kyle got a kinex (no idea how to spell that) for his wii and we spent all of christmas night acting like fools playing stupid games on the wii.  I don’t think I’ve seen Erin move that fast in years.  If you haven’t played this game, I suggest you stretch a bit before doing so.  The sibs and I were quite sore the next day.  Christmas is a great day just for the simple fact that you get presents and stuff your mouth with as much amazing food as you want, but being at home with the family on Christmas day just makes things really feel like Christmas.  It’s far too little that we find all 9 Flynns (4 kids, 2 parents, 2 dogs, and 1 cat) together and it’s just one of those amazing moments that we’ve really come to treasure.  I love my family :)  We’re freakin awesome!!

You know me; (first) class, class class

The perfect meal: Mellow Mushroom and Magic Hat #9

Once I arrived at the Madrid airport I found my check in desk with the large DELTA sign all star spangle bannered out in the very patriotic red white and blue logo, I quickly realized I was no plain jane.  You see there is this funny little thing we like to call "status".  Some people aspire to have it, some work their entire lives to get it, and some have the greatest dads in the world who get it for them.  I, being in the last category, saw on my boarding pass the 3 magical little letters that would altogether make me feel like a complete rock start and never want to ride economy on airplanes again.  These three little letters?? B.U.S.  That's right folks, this little chica realized, with much delight and confusion, that she would be riding first class on the long ride from Madrid to JFK.  Holler back, youngin  whoop whooop.  So, I side stepped the huge line to check in and made my way over to the line of men in business suits and high class toúpees.  I was greeted with a very friendly, "Oh yes, Miss Flynn, we've been waiting for you.  Let me take your luggage.  We are here to make your stay with us as comfortable as possible.  Please make your way up to the Delta lounge and enjoy complimentary drinks and snacks with luxurious sofas to relax in while you wait for you flight."  Wham, Bam, thank you ma'am and I was out of there with no questions and on my way to mojito heaven.  Naturally i walked up there as composed as I could be (even tho deep down all I wanted to do was take a picture of myself in front, inside and all around the lounge) and ask for a mamosa.  I briefly struck up a conversation with an investment banker that was also on my flight and things were going great until he realized that I was both not interested and still in school.  After I struck up conversations with exactly three other semi unwilling first-classers, it was time to get to the gate.  Due to the crazy amount of traveling I have done in my short life, I have a certain way I like to do things and getting to the gate early is on the top of my "traveling alone" to do list.  I got to the gate to be yet again greeted with fake smiles and promises of making my time with Delta as perfect as possible and was told that the boarding would begin momentarily.  I waited until the plane arrived and all the people getting off the plane had disembarked before I saw the crazy spaniards starting to line up (those of you who are unfamiliar with the line situations in spain, I'll give youa  very brief overview: THEY SUCK AT WAITING THEIR TURN HERE.  They line up an hour before the are supposed to and ther eis absolutely not an ounce of structure to go along with it.  one of the more comical things I have noticed about their culture thus far) and decided for the heck of it that I would not partake in their silly queues just this once.  This was to my advantage.  While all those people were waiting in a "line" the loud speak came on with a polite "we would like to welcome all of our business class elite passengers at this time.  Please step around the line and board the aircraft at this time".  Now, I have grown used to all the people looking at pointing at me like a circus animal when they hear me speaking english with my friends around Madrid, but the stares that I was getting when I was boarding were all together different.  Judging eyes were all around me as I walked past them to the front of the line with the other business elite members.  I gave them a nice "o yeah man, I am waaayyy better than you today" smile and walked on and to my seat.  Before the other passengers even started boarding I was offered a refreshing mimosa and was almost about to passout with delite when i was shook back to reality when once again all the coach riders walked past in half disgussed as I was sitting there, mimosa in one hand, gummy bears in the other :)  During the plane ride I went thru about 7 more mimosas, 3 cartoon movies including Despicable Me, 2 first rate meals, one snack, and one very delicious sundae that was made just for me in front of my own very eyes on the plane.  I also got out a book by Devid Sedaris and polished that off while the old "grown ups" all around me watched more intelligent films such as Inception and were all reading a mandatory copy of The New York Times.  Also, while the others were sleeping during the long voyage across the Atlantic, I was busy playing with my seat.  For those of you not prive to first class seat knowledge, I'll be the first to tell you that those things are as big as a bed and do things I have never seen a chair do before.  Extending, reclining, up, down, and even equipt with my very own microphone that went directly to the flight attendants in the off chance that I might need something extra.  After about 8.5 hours, we finally touched down in JFK and I was catapulted back into mainstream society.  After a quick layover I boarded my second plane and within 2 hours I was touching down in beautiful, snowy, dark, and cold Columbus.  I got off the plane and sprinted (with my carry and backpack weighing me down) to the exit.  I past the threshold and there they were.  My family.  My WHOLE family.  Mom, Erin, Sean, Kyle, Briana (honorary), and my Dad...holding a dozen roses.  Could my life be any more perfect??  Well it turns out ladies and gents, it can and within the hour it did.  We went directly from the airport to Mellow Mushroom to get the best pizza in the world and my favorite beer on tap.  Complete nirvana.  I had a slice of Kosmic Karma pizza in one hand and a cold Magic Hat #9 in the other and was surrounded with the only people in this world that I could never live with out.  I love Spain so much but I wouldn't trade that moment for anything in the whole wide world.  I was home, the family was whole again, and all was right with the world :)