Well!
Welcome to the new decade folks! I can’t believe we’re here and I have officially lived through three decades, two centuries, and two millennia, huh? And I’m not even 25!
Anyway, I know it’s been a minute. But December was honestly a pretty wild ride, start to finish so this blog post may be a bit of a doozy.
I started the month with a lovely little Christmas trip to Vienna and Prague with Skyler and his family. I had never been to Central Europe before and it was really incredible! I — of course, with my luck — was super sick with a pretty nasty cold that I caught just before leaving for the trip. I also had my Uber stolen at the airport and had to submit a claim to get my money back! Bad luck was kind of a theme for a lot of this last month.
But some highlights from the trip include going to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna and getting to see Klimt’s The Kiss in person; finding a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant with Skyler that had these weird calzone-esque foods and yummy beer at a grad student budget price; getting to try mulled wine at two different Christmas markets in the two cities (which was kind of horrifying and mainly just reminded me of hot church wine); going to a museum dedicated to one of my absolute favorite artists of all time, Alphonse Mucha and buying the fattest stack of postcards to share with the world; taking an amazing train ride from Vienna to Prague and trying the original Pilsner beer: Pilsner Urquell; and trying a roast duck and cabbage dish in Prague that seriously made me reconsider my choice to go to university in Barcelona.
Much love and so many thanks to Skyler’s parents for giving me such a wonderful travel experience, one to rival the trip to Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca that we took in 2017-2018. I am so incredibly lucky to have such an amazing family!! Also, a big thank you to my beautiful Czech friend in my grad program, Jan, for teaching me a few words in Czech to show off to the locals and recommending some amazing sights and foods!
It was really so great to take a little break from school right before my final week of classes and get to hang out with my favorite Knapp’s/O’Brien’s!
Speaking of finals, I feel as though I ended the semester strong, with a final exam in my research class that I believe went fairly well and a few final papers that I also feel good about (though I still do have one final, persuasive essay due for my public policy class that isn’t due until the 20th of January). I also had a meeting with my thesis advisor — finally — who gave me a lot to think (and read!) about before I begin working on my own thesis. I’ve started to question my initial plans. We’ll see what the future of my research holds, huh?
A lowlight from the month was getting my iPhone stolen near Las Ramblas in Barcelona which was an inevitability honestly but upsetting nonetheless. Luckily, I had insurance on the dang thing!
On the 23rd, I and my roommate flew to Almería for my two week- and her month-long vacation in Andalucía. So far, it has mainly consisted of a lot of relaxing, with a few exciting interruptions.
On Christmas, we had a lovely English Christmas dinner with Ana’s English neighbors, which was exciting though not exactly Spanish — but the cava we all drank definitely was! We also took a 10 km hike through an area called Andarax a few days ago, which had fresher air than I think I’ve breathed in my entire life?? It was really heavenly.
New Year’s was plenty fun, featuring the twelve grape tradition they have in Spain (involving eating twelve grapes in the final twelve seconds of the year in order to bring you good luck for every month of the new year), cherry and strawberry Romanian sparkling wine, and a trip to a club called Maraú.
Needless to say, it’s been a very exciting end to the year. I’m glad that I got into some shenanigans after a long semester of working very hard.
I am very much looking forward to what the new year — and new decade! — has in store for me and us all. Cheers!
fakestginger 