Os echo de menos

So, I've definitely been neglecting the blog...but, let me just say that I truly miss so many incredible people.

Poland/Italy/Berlin Pix

so get ready for a billion pix of my trip from my friends" sites :D

http://picasaweb.google.com/barzecus

http://picasaweb.google.it/brandina84/Polonia20072008


and finally i have one too :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/N.Berry.MS

Reflection

*Coruna crew :D Andrea, me, Stefano and Rafal (last night in Krakow)
*Polish vodka can be dangerous...Stefano, Andrea, me and Iza...Night #1 in Poznan Dec. 30th

*Poznan crew :D me, Stefano, Alessandro, Cecy, Iza and Andrea



So, I have yet to post about Berlin...the last part of my 18 day absolutely unforgettable trip.
But it will come.

For now...I just want to reflect a little bit on my trip (Rome, Florence, Poznan, Krakow, Auschwitz, Berlin) as a whole.

I really couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my last trip of the year. The people I was with....the hospitality I was shown...the cities I saw...

Imagine that there were like 50-60 students who got together in a village (Kornik) outside of Poznan, Poland to spend New Years Eve together. Everyone at the party was some how connected to La Coruna....either they studied abroad together in Coruna, they were from Coruna, or they were "friends of".

Stefano-
tu familia es increíble. muchísimas gracias para tu hospitalidad...que me invitaste a pasar las navidades contigo y tu familia valió mucho para mi. Tienes mucha suerte tener una familia tan amable, así cerca. Antes nunca en mi vida había visto una familia como la tuya. Estoy muy contenta que podía pasar tanto tiempo contigo y conocerte mejor antes de marcharme. Seguramente vuelvo a visitarte y tu familia en Roma. Espero que vengas a California a aprender el ingles ;). "Claro que Yes"

you're family is amazing. I can't thank you enough for your hospitality...inviting me to spend Christmas with you and your family really meant a lot to me. You're so lucky to have such a loving close-knit family like you do. I've never seen a family like yours in my whole life. I'm really glad I got to spend so much time with you and get to know you better. I will definitely come back to Rome to visit. Hopefully I'll see you in California when you come to learn English ;).

Andrea-thank you for encouraging us to come to Poznan. Really it's because of you that we came. It was sooooo cold but sooooo worth it :). It was great to see you again. I'll come to Reggio to visit and I hope to see you in California too!

Iza-you're such a nice person. thank you soooo much for all your help in Poznan. I'm so glad I met you and that we were able to spend New Years Eve and time together in Poland. You helped us out so much with everything...we really appreciated it. I hope you also go to visit in California!

Cecy-you rock for coming all the way from SD to take this trip with me and I can't wait to see you tomorrow in Coruna!

the twins: Andrea & Alessandro- it was great to meet you both. I'm glad you came on this trip with us. I hope to see you both again in California...or next time I'm in Italy.

I left Berlin this morning to return to La Coruna. Everyday, it hits me more and more that my time here is running out...It's hard to explain how it feels. Last night...we were out...Stefano, Cecy, Andrea, Alessandro and I....and it felt like I was already going to be going back to the States the next day....Like as if this trip was going to end my whole year despite the fact that I still have a week and a half left in coruna....

I guess I feel a mixture of...happy, sad, educated, motivated, emotional...It's a good feeling...but strange at the same time.

While I miss my family and friends in Cali...it's been so long I can't imagine seeing everyone again after a year....

I will also miss life here in Coruna and all the amazing people I've met. Most of all Luis, Sergio, Abel, Lorenzo, Stefano, Davina, Michael, Sebastian, Dietram, Ryanne, Andrea, Ramona... You all come to my mind first but there are many others who I'll miss as well.

Poland

So...right now i'm in Krakow and tonight will be our last night here. Today we spent most of the day visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps. It was unbelievable. I don't really think I can describe what it felt like to be there and to actually see one of the most infamous Concentration Camps where 1.5 million people were killed. Where the camps are located is just about 60km or 36miles outside of Krakow. The temperatures can go as low as -20C or -4F in the winter time. Today for example at 4:00pm it was -15C or 5F. The sun was already set by 4pm... The ground was covered in snow and the humidity was at .....through my fairly thick gloves i could feel the chill from the wind...tomorrow i'll be wearing two pairs. We walked through the unimaginably enormous camp at Birkenau and after just 20 minutes in the cold (not even the minimum temparture granted) I was already close to the point of not being able to continue the walk through the camp. Imagine what it must have been like for the prisoners who lived, worked, were tortured there for months. 1 women miraculously survived 8 months there...unfathomable. I was merely walking through...not being worked to death, not being experimented on, not being tortured, not being starved and I had to turn back after only an hour. When we learn about what happened...we don't actually realize how unbelievably cold it was in combination with the torturous conditions....

Yesterday, we visited a museum attributed to the Jews of Galicia. Krakow is part of the western most portion of former Galicia. I believe Grandpa Brawer was from Lwow (Lvov) part of the eastern portion of Galicia in current day Ukraine. There was also some mentionings of Lwow in the museum.

Tomorrow we'll do some more sight seeing around the city and then we'll be off to Berlin around 8pm on an overnight train. We'll arrive in the morning and sight see from there.

This has been a great trip so far...I learned a lot...I've had great company...including Stefano (my friend from Rome), 2 of his friends from Rome, Cecilia (a friend who flew in to meet me in Poznan and will travel with me even back to Spain), Andrea (friend from Reggio Calabria in the south of Italy) and his friend also from RC.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Andrea and his friend and we'll continue in a group of 5 to Berlin. On the 8th I'll be flying back to Spain and Cece will meet me there on the following day.

(To be expanded upon...with pictures added)

Rome & Florence

*outside Stefano's house

December 21 to 30th I spent 9 days staying with my friend Stefano and his family in there home about 10 miles outside of Rome's city center. I met Stefano while studying abroad in Coruna last semester. He moved back to Rome during the summer, while I was in Germany. He is one of many friends who I hadn't seen since the beginning of summer when we all left (myself for Germany and others to return home to their countries).

We have become good friends and the hospitality shown to me by his family was really great. He and his family (although they didn't know me at all and him not all too well) invited me to spend a week and a half with them during Christmas time. I can't really express my appreciation in words. His mom made lunch and dinner for us every single day except for the 1 time we spent a day in Florence and a couple times we spent out to dinner with friends of Stefano's. Let me tell you the food was incredible. Even more incredible....is the amount of food the Italians eat....they have like 6 course meals on the daily during lunch and maybe a 5 course for dinner. Lunch is the main meal of the day. Both meals are eaten together with the whole family.

A day's lunch in order: homemade wine (made by his Dad), a plate of mushroom pasta, chicken (raised by his grandfather), fruit & nuts, tiramisu and espresso. All the food made by his mom. They eat some damn good food and a lot of it. I love to eat good food so it wasn't a problem. :)

I spent my Christmas with a truly amazing, warm, loving and welcoming family. It made me feel good to be in an environment like that during a time normally spent with my own amzing, warm, loving and welcoming family :). His mom was amazing and even cried when I left. I couldn't believe it. They have an apartment building basically but each section is inhabited by the different parts of his family. I stayed downstairs (a studio for guests). Middle floor- his grandparents. Top story himself, his brother Luca and his parents. In an adjacent section on the bottom floor live his uncle, his 2 kids and his wife. Everyone was together or Christmas dinner.

We did some sightseeing around Rome but not in too much depth because I was in Rome previously in May with Waleska and we did a lot of the sightseeing then. Mainly I enjoyed seeing firsthand what it's like to live in an Italian family.

The day in Florence is another adventure I'll have to expand upon as well :)

To be expanded upon with pictures added....

Barcelona with Mommy

So...October 13-15 I went to meet my Mom in Barcelona :) It was really nice to see her...I hadn´t seen her since March when she and Angela came to visit me. I´ll add pictures of our trip really soon. All my guy friends who saw the pictures saw my mom is hott...oh man....I guess there is hope for my sisters and I to be hott when we grow up lol :D

Upcoming plans

*Me & my roomie Davina

The current agenda:


November30th- Happy birthday Jan :) I´ll be flying to Sevilla with Davina (my roommate from Milan), Joel (from SDSU) and Aiga (Joel´s roommate from Latvia)

December 3rd- Happy Birthday Mommy & Daddy! I´ll be flying back to Coruña from Sevilla

December 14th to 17th- Going to Porto, Portugal :D

December 21st- Fly to Rome to visit friends...

December 29th-Fly to Poznan, Poland :D SUPER excited about this one!

December 31st-New years eve party in Poznan, Poland :P with Erasmus students from last semester :D

January 8th- fly back to Coruña

January 14-18th- Final exams in Coruña

Januray 19th- Fly back home! arrive @ LAX 11:50pm

January 21st- Drive from V-town to SD

January 22nd- SDSU starts

****Subject to change without notice :P***