city of angels.

"Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go." - Sarah Dessen

My little sister posted this quote a while ago and I loved it and I feel like it resonates with my traveling life and gypsy heart right now. Getting to spend a month at home, in Los Angeles was exactly what I needed. I didn't realize how much I missed my friends and my family and life there. And so it was good to have time with all of them. But I always wish I had more time.

The first few days were slow and really rough with jet lag. I feel like the jet lag gets more brutal each time and each way I go back and forth. Dare I say that I'm getting older. I did have a week where I decided I didn't like Los Angeles, but I kind of went back and forth all month on this decision. things that i love include: my family, my dad, most of my favorite friends, favorite places to eat including lemonade, star cafe, la cabanita, live music and how many amazing bands come through los angeles' awesome venues, the beach, outdoor movies in parks, hiking, being able to bike in la canada (i rode my bike almost every single day while i was home. i also did a lot of lying on my bedroom floor feeling like i was dying after these bike rides.), costco lunches, listening to the radio in my car, and of course going to dodger games.

things i could care less for include: traffic, the rat race, feeling stressed out, my lack of patience in los angeles, not being able to use the metro or walk everywhere, 12 dollar glasses of wine, hipsters who can't be normal

I saw a ton of friends and brunched a lot.

Maggie may and her boyfriend sam came to LA and we had lots of adventures. hiking. the getty. playing quizup. eating LA food. the beach. the santa monica pier ferris wheel.

cuties at the getty

maggie may!! 

Kays and I saw Sara Bareilles, Jack Johnson, and Fall Out Boy in concert, all of whom were amazing. Sara Bareilles was awesome - she was so honest and she's funny bc she curses a lot at her concerts or i guess in life in general. she's totally no nonsense and talked a lot to the crowd and kind of told everyone how her current album that she's touring on was about how she got her heartbroken and wrote these songs. and she kind of owned that, which i loved. because i think there is something so vulnerable about talking about being broken hearted. and i don't think that people talk about that hurt enough, i think they just bottle it up inside. i think talking about it helps you heal from the hurt. so she was great and it was the first time i heard her album. and i really believe that hearing songs live for the first time, is the way all music should be. it makes you remember why you love music in the first place.

fall out boy was a blast from the past and it made me remember every single night in high school that i blasted those songs. and riding around in cars and "going for drives" with high school friends and boys and how angsty we tried to be. they were amazing and they played a ton of old stuff which i loved. kays wore her best teenage i'm trying to be sad mad and punk at the same time outfit.

love this teenage emo kid

jack johnson was so awesome. i had been dying to see him live in concert. and he definitely lived up to everything i thought he would be. it just reminds me how talented some people are. i wish that i could play guitar or even sing. and he can do a whole multitude of musical things. i love people with such a god given talent / craft like that.

kays

I went to a handful of dodger games. I got two wins and one embarrassing brutal loss with my boys in blue. Dad and I went the first weekend that I was home and Hanley scored a walk off run for a W and it even rained on us during the game, but like true dodger fans, we endured the rain. Kelsey work, Pat, and I went and got a win and Friday night fireworks so I couldn't have asked for a better start to the weekend. Then, Joe, Steven, and Ryan and I went to the game for a Sunday funday (with a loss) but I finally got to see the new bullpen bar which was super fun and i bought a new dodger tee for this season.

sunchasing at the game w dad

short stop photo booth love

my favorite married people

clayton!! 

dodger game with these guys 

Dad and I went up to san fran for a few days to see Kim & Phil and to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you haven't been to the aquarium in Monterey, it's so worth it. And it has a ton of jellies!!! Which are my absolute favorite. While we were in the city, we also saw Tito. 

jellies!!

visiting in the city w phil and kim

with two of my very favorite / the very best people i know 

Kate, E, and G, & Matt, and I had an epic water balloon fight on one of the days I spent with them. We went out to eat a lot to souplantation, in & out, and had tons of papa john's pizza, and we also went on a lot of target trips for something to do/getting out of the house. I also convinced them to watch frozen with me 3 times within 48 hours, and on the 4th attempt to convince them, they let me take the dvd home to watch it with mom and dad.

water balloon fight day

katey told me to park here

E! 

G and matt

kate and E testing out nel's new bed/wheel chair before he got to come home

It was a really good month at home. And it was harder to leave than I thought it would be. I cried at the airport when my dad dropped me off. And I didn't even cry last September. I think I was too excited then to cry. How lucky I am to be so loved that it makes it so hard to leave.

I'm back in Madrid now and I've started the first few weeks of school. I'll have to update you in the next week on goals for this year and new things that are going on. I hope to update later this week bc this is the last week of half days for september so I still have a ton of free time. Hasta luego!

"What you seek is seeking you." - Rumi

"What you seek is seeking you." - Rumi

It has been an amazing year. When coming here last september, I didn't realize how much I needed this, and how much this year would change me and how much I would grow. I cannot begin to tell you what an incredible time i've had getting to travel, and really just living in Spain again and being really happy here. I've gotten to go to amazing places and do some pretty cool things. I've also made great friends who I have so much in common with. Friends who are just really good people with the best hearts and who love to travel and love to read, and are really smart. And I have just had the best time with them. I'm so excited for September and the year to come.

I think when Elli and I were on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, this past January, and I decided that I really wanted to make a video of this year. Of all of our travels and adventures. It's something that I have loved doing so here it is...  click here (this is not spam, its a youtube link)

summer!! & july travels!

"Little by little, one travels far." - tolkien 

After traveling for the past 3 and a half weeks, I am finally back in Madrid and sleeping in my own bed for a few days. It's nice to finally be home long enough to wash clothes, go to the market, run errands, and take naps!

I think this was one of our first pictures together, from a freshman rush party at TCU

My 2 week trip with Rose was SO MUCH FUN. We just had the best time. It's nice because Rose and i know each other so well because we lived together forever (in every sense of the word) we shared a room as roommates in a dorm (freshman yr of college), for the rest of college when I basically lived at her apartment too, my last summer as an undergraduate (after sevilla) i camped out in her room/shared a bed for 3 weeks bc i was in summer school and "homeless," and then i lived at her parents house one summer in grad school. So we know each other really well, and we've been best friends through a lot of different stages of our lives at this point. Anyways, I love her very much and I'm so glad she got to come and see this world, because we did some really awesome stuff and just had the best trip.

Our first night in Barcelona together! So happy to see each other. 

On top of the towers at Sagrada Familia

go frogs!! at park guell. #mytcusummer

We met in Barcelona, and Sharlar and I got to explore the city for a few days. We went to Casa Battlo (the fish house), went to a jazz concert on the rooftop of Casa Mila, spent the morning at Park Guell, ate tapas, went to mass at the cathedral, saw Gaudi's crypt (from afar) at Sagrada Familia, and went to the picasso museum.

in pamplona

On our last day in Spain, we hopped a train to Pamplona and got to be part of the running of the bulls festivities. We definitely didn't run, but it was super fun being there while everything was going on. We wore white pants, red/white shirts, and red scarves to look the part. It was so much fun, but it was cold though!

Speaking of being cold, it rained on our travel day from Barcelona to Florence and sprinkled a little in Florence while we were there. And it was overcast on our first day in Rome. I'm glad that the summer heat wasn't awful, because I was expecting it to be sooo hot.

gelato! 

the david 

the duomo

this is why we're best friends...

Florence was a lot of fun too. I had been to florence, 5 yrs ago!!, with a guy friend, but only for less than 48 hrs, so it was nice to have a different experience and have some time there to explore. We went to the duomo, the gallery of the academia (and saw the david of course), went to the Uffizi and saw medusa, went to pizzale michelangelo with a view of the city, the galileo museum, and got to eat AMAZING italian food and lots of gelato at this gelateria called Perche No!. In Florence, we had the best caprese at La Spada and had homemade pasta at Buca Mario. Shar and I had this great idea that we would eat caprese everywhere in italy and compare. It got old after a few days because it's a lot of mozzarella.

sorrento

pompeii

positano

After that we headed down to southern Italy. We spent one day doing a tour of Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano (the Amalfi Coast!!). Pompeii was fun to see, I'm glad that we did it. It's one of those things you should do in your life. also like seeing rome. Sorrento was really fun, super quaint. A lot like cinque terre but on a cliff. I think i'm partial to cinque terre though because of the hiking and cliff jumping, and i think the towns have better beaches and are more accessible. But i'm still really glad that we went to sorrento and the amalfi coast, because i've always wanted to go there. We had the best lunch in Sorrento and got to go shopping for lots of lemon goods. At lunch, we had fried zuchinni flowers w mozzarella at this super quaint place on one of the side streets, and of course limoncello to finish our meal. I'm bringing home lemon biscotti and lemon candy for dad (that's how much i miss him!!). After lunch, we went to Positano and explored. Positano was super touristy and kind of pijo (high class/snooty, for super rich old people). It was fun to put our feet in the ocean and collect sand glass on the beach though (even though it was pretty rocky).

 on the boat

that sign says no swimming in the blue grotto...

the blue grotto!!

The next day, we took a ferry to Capri. We got to the island and ended up doing this boat tour around the island. The first thing they told us was "there's no blue grotto today because the tide is too high." Sharla's immediate response was "I've waited 10 years for this." (she's waited longer than that really, beefa got to swim in the blue grotto when sharla was 10 so rose has probably waited 15 years).... We ended up doing the island boat tour anyways, because what else were we gonna do? The island boat tour basically just took you around the island. So we did like 45 mins of the boat tour and then end up at the blue grotto and our italian boat driver mutters something in itali-english and says that they are letting people in and that we have to wait a while. We ended up waiting like 1.5 hrs on the boat bc rowboats have to come get you and take you into the actual blue grotto. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. my sister had said the blue grotto wasn't that great. SHE LIED. and kelsey is sometimes a hater. if you ever have the chance to go to the blue grotto. DO IT. it was one of the coolest things i've ever gotten to do. basically you are in this amazing cave that the water is lit up by the light coming in and it is SO BLUE and so clear, it's beautiful. and our rowboat guy was super cool and let us jump out of the boat and swim!! when we got back to the island, we kind of just hung out, shopped, and layed on the beach. there was a really fat italian baby that kept trying to lay on sharla's towel next to me, sad day.

at the top of st. peter's basilica (the vatican)

throwing money into the trevi

bike riding

when in rome, eat cesear salad at hard rock cafe

After being in southern italy, on Sunday, we headed to rome on another train. Sunday was really busy. We went to the vatican and climbed to the top of the basilica and let me tell you, they have warnings like if you have heart or health problems don't climb it. Pay attention to the warnings. It's definitely a endurance climb with lots of steps, small stairwells (definitely in Four's fear sequence - bc of heights and small spaces, yes divergent reference). OH and we also saw the pope give his blessing from the window at noon. that was fun, bc i've never done that before and it was fun bc sharla is catholic and wanted to see the pope. He did not however do a mass on Wednesday morning which was a bust - bc it's summer and apparently he just doesn't do them every week in the summer. SUCH A BUMMER. and the Trevi fountain and the spanish steps were under massive construction. like the Spanish steps... me da igual (i could care less about). they are great but they aren't the trevi. i was really disappointed about the trevi fountain. it was completely drained. and it is one of my FAVORITE things in the world. so i was bummed. Rome was beautiful like it always is and it was so much fun to be back there again. Rose and I did super fun things like we went on a bike ride through villa borghese and on our last night in rome.... we saw the lumineers. the concert was at a horseracing track, so it was a pretty big venue / stage. but bc the lumineers were once a really small indie band and used to play for like 50 people, they were like oh at our bigger venues we like to come out into the crowd to make it more intimate. and then they were 2 feet away from me. and it was life changing. i mean every time i see them in concert, it.is.life.changing.

honestly, i saw them almost 2 years ago at the fonda theater in LA and i hadn't listened to their whole album yet. and i was in a bad place, broken hearted, and just having a rough time. and bails had an extra ticket to their show and asked me to go. and they were AMAZING. it was the first time i had felt myself in a long time. and that's how music should be, it should be healing, and intimate, and pure joy, and it should just make you feel alive and yourself and healed. anyways, i had been dying to see them again. and rose and i just love them. and they were just as amazing. it was the best and most fun way to end my trip with sharlar. it was such a fun memory, like some day when we are old and best friends still we'll have to tell our kids about our spain/italy trip and what awesome things we got to do.

tommasi cantina 

verona bridge

in the colosseum in verona

arona

From there sharla went home on an early am flight, and i woke up and wondered if it had all been a dream. and the next day I headed to Arona, Italy, where one of my friends from grad school lives, Elizabeth Gates. Arona was so fun, and so green! and had a lake in the middle of the town. It was so pretty. It is about an hour outside of Milan and Elizabeth and her husband are there while he is working as an engineer for an American company and she is raising their daughter. I got to hangout in their town, eat gelato, play with their daughter Julia, and eat amazing italian food for a few more days. On Friday, we drove to Verona (near Venice), which is the town that Romeo and Juliet is based on. We went and saw Juliet's house, the colosseum, and just explored the town. We also went to the Tommasi cantina (wine cellar / store) which was super fun. There is a Tommasi red wine that Elizabeth and Tyler love, that I actually really really liked. (I don't usually drink red wine.) After that, we went back to Arona and I had one more day with them in Arona. Elizabeth taught me how to make mushroom risotto and eggplant parmesan, so now I will have to practice and cook more things for myself in the coming year. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with Elizabeth, Tyler, and Julia.

Finally, I headed home to madrid. I was literally in Madrid for less than 24 hours. I basically just dropped off my bags and packed a new one (with clean clothes) and jumped on a bus to sevilla the next morning. I was in sevilla hanging out with Manoli (love my manoli SO MUCH) and elli, and eating my favorite foods for the weekend and finally headed back to madrid on Saturday evening.

It has been a really busy month and whirlwind. I've been in Madrid for the last 3 days and will hop on a really long plane home to my dad and my family on Thursday morning. I'm ready, I miss them a lot. Things I can't wait for: to hug my dad, to eat at gringos / la cabanita, to eat at lemonade, to drive, to see my mom, to go to dodger games, sister concerts, to go to target, to listen to country radio in my car, to go the beach, and to go to movies in the park.