Music for The Holidays

In case you're looking for some new hits/long lost classics, these tunes are sure to spice up your holidays.

The Teenagers


Los Prisioneros


Noah and The Whale


The Dø


The Cardigans


Lauryn Hill

Bridging The Gap: Mexico/Spain

As time dragged on in Spain at a sufficiently accelerated pace, I was strangely reminiscent of California, but it was not until Wednesday night that I realized what it was that always brought my thoughts back: Mexican food.

Jen/Natasha, in a stroke of unparalleled genius decided to put on a Mexican themed dinner party.

Action shot in the kitchen.

Smoking inside, how Spanish.

The table is set.

Jen/Natasha, the architects of the dinner, complete with fargaritas(fake margaritas).

Charline et moi.

Me, creeping on Charline.

Post dinner, feeling bloated like one normally does after a feast of Mexican cuisine, we decided to slim down, the French way; with crepes and a chocolate tart.

Bringing Mexico back to Spain proved to be an infinitely greater success than bringing Spain to Mexico ever was.

"Chistmas" break, the good and the bad

This past weekend, I had the fortuity of hosting Ms. Pippa Baker-Rabe while she was on vacation in Spain. It is plausible that we slept more than anything, but that is besides the point.

Here we are pictured in the only Mosque in Granada paying homage to Allah.

Pippa happened to come during the coldest weekend we've had thus far, but the green tinge of life of the normally barren landscape of Granada made up for it.

Some moss with a building on it.

On Sunday night, some friends and I went out for a night of fine dining to celebrate my 21st.

Pre-dinner photo.

En route to the restaurant, it was snowing, and our driver Diego had to find his way there looking out of this windshield. The tacky blue light fixture hanging above the road is one of hundreds put up all over Granada to "usher in the Christmas spirit" and make any non-Christians feel excluded.

The restaurant's name was D'Cuadros, which is a failed attempt at fusing the Spanish and French languages.

Pippa was unintentionally excluded from our dinner conversations seeing as how we spoke almost exclusively in Spanish.

Enjoying some drinks at the bar while waiting for our table to be prepared.

Awkward "prom photo", my feable attempt at trying to make up for not going.

Some dishes from which we dined.

A mix of fried "Asian" dumplings and skewers.

Caesar Salad
Proof of the copious amount of snow that fell on the above mentioned night.

Bloggin Fever

I find it hard to leave the confines of my heated room/warm bed to venture out into the cold and bleak unknown. Today the sun is shining bright, and yet it is a meager 45 degrees outside. On a normal day, it is a death wish to step foot outside without wearing so many layers of clothing that you end up looking like a morbidly obese 3rd grader.

I'm currently binge eating a pack of jelly beans that arrived in the mail from California not 30 minutes ago.
The current state of my room could be described as semi-disorderly, but at least it is not bleak like the inside of my Arte Prehispanico notebook.
My roommates facebook crept me to get a picture to make this birthday card. They put my face on a disco ball cause they tell me I'm "el chico de las fiestas."

Blogging from Africa

Recently events in my life include: anti-climatic 21st birthday, 4 day trip to Morocco, and (not) going to class.

Words I would use to describe my first trip to an arab country: colorful, sexist, Muslim, inequality, and wet.

The people who I went with pictured from left to right: Jen(California), Diego(Spain), Charline(France), and me (California). I know you must be thinking about how international I've become, and on top of that we spoke solely in Spanish the whole trip.

To get there, we drove Diego's ride(Pictured) to Algeciras in Spain, and then took an hour long ferry ride to Tangers, Morocco.

We spent a night in Tangers(an ugly port city) where Moroccans constantly tried to sell us any of the following: money, hash, rugs, tea, and food.

Then we took a taxi to Alciras(a small beach town) and stayed at some random Moroccan guys house that was right on the water. here's a picture from the balcony.

and then his wife cooked us Couscous for dinner.
After being in Morocco for 2 days, I realized that every surface was wet from the humidity including: the floor, the walls, the bathrooms, the beds, the windows, and anything else that was left out.

Graffiti in Alciras. While in Morocco I walked, ate, slept, and blogged in my poofy down jacket.

The next day, we took a bus back to Tangers, and then another bus to Chaouen(a small mountain town) which was supposed to be a three hour bus ride, but ended up being about 6 hours. But alas we arrived and got a room in a hostel/hotel which I would describe as semi-janky. But I guess that was to be expected at a price of about 5 dollars a night. Here's a view from the hotel balcony.

My feet pictured with stairs in our hostel.

Here are some women cleaning their clothes at the local river.

What is out of place in this picture?

Shot of a typical street in Chaouen lined with shops and such.

Door shown to scale.

More stuff to sell to the unsuspecting tourist.

While shopping, I used my bargaining skills that I honed a year ago in southeast Asia. I got this rug for about 40 dollars, but It's so nice I feel bad stepping on it and am trying to decide whether I should hang it as a tapestry or just use it as a rug. Suggestions?

Roof top bar on our last night in Morocco. Enjoying the view while sipping on tea.

Group of Moroccan men colluding in a scheme to rip off the tourists.

We drank lots of tea, which is a mix of fresh mints leaves and a lot of sugar unless you specify otherwise.

Couscous was a staple in my Moroccan dining experience.

Enjoying the view minus me.
Moroccan woman sharpening a sharp instrument.

Us, obstructing the view of Chaouen.

Dulces Arabes or Arab sweets, I probably ate about 20 of these in a matter of 3 days.

The end... of my time in Morocco.

In other news, I turned 21 yesterday. It turned out to be not so very different from a typical day of my life in Spain. Some highlights: Pippa and Emilee made me a birthday music video, my roommates gave me a cake, my friend Jen bought me a Doner Kebab, and my other friend Ben bought me a beer. Other than that I watched the latest episode of Gossip Girl, went to one of my 4 classes, drank a greyhound, ate a spanish tortilla, talked to various people from home via Skype, and listened to the Carpenters, Belle and Sebastian, Burt Bacharach, and David Bowie. If you were wondering how I look at age 21 or what I wore on my birthday here is a brief synopsis.

Two Days in Paris

Recently, I've been overcome with a desire to forgo school in lieu of traveling. But, being the good student that I am, I try to find the balance in between.

Last weekend, my friend and I went to Paris for a total of 2 days. Our flight left early Friday morning in a neighboring city, so we ended up spending the night before sleeping in the airport.
Here is a creation we made during our overnight stay at the airport.

Arriving in Paris half-awake, we proceeded to see the sights including the following: The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, The Pompidou center, Montmartre, Sacré Couer, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, and some others.

A night at the Louvre.

Notre Dame
Here are some crafty people putting on their own exhibit at the Modern Art Museum, the French were not amused, and the artists ended up being kicked out after they put on a g-rated porn show.

It wouldn't be Paris without a slew of accordionists.
Some band in Montmartre
Some stuff I dined on during my time in Paris

Croissants and pains au chocolat.
Nutella and banana crèpe.
Quiche de trois fromages.
Organic prepackaged salad

After being in Paris for all of 48 hours, I decided it lives up to it's name, and that I want to live there sometime in the near future. How many of you will visit me?


Here are some things I've cooked lately.

Butternut Squash soup.
Pear chocolate tart.
I'm officially a legal alien of Spain.
Next on my list of places to travel. Morocco? Portugal? Berlin? Amsterdam? Stockholm? Copenhagen? all of the above? recommendations?