Deniz’s Blog

Who: Katie and Deniz

What: 3-day weekend

When: Friday April 6- Monday April 9th, Easter Weekend, 2007

Where: Brussels, Belgium

Why: because it was the cheapest trip

How: with the help of money from my familia and the services of RyanAir

Katie and I decided to go to Brussels, Belgium for our last long weekend of the semester. Honestly, it was the cheapest trip RyanAir was offering and I speak the language, so we thought we’d go for it. Hotels in Brussels are VERY cheap, so we ended up staying at a 4-star hotel It was about the same price as staying at a nice hostel, so of course we picked the place where we could shower and leave our stuff in the room! The hotel was walking distance from the city center (Le Grand Place), right next to the European Commission and the European Parliament, and very near a huge park. I got to use my French, which was nice. Apparently I can acutally hold a conversation and be understood! AMAZING! I even got to do some translating for Katie Butttt we won’t go into that!
Katie and I had some great food: Belgian Waffles, [Turkish] Kebabs, [Moroccan] Falafels, and sandwiches! And for all you TinTin fans, the famous cartoon character is Belgian, and there was a store dedicated to him! (I bought a keychain) Delirium Bar is also a MUST-VISIT because it has the widest variety of beers from all over the world. It was pretty amazing Also, everything was pretty decently priced, even though Belgium uses the Euro.

Here are some interesting tidbits about the city of Brussels:

* about 1/3 of the 1 million inhabitants of Brussels are foreigners, which probably explains why Katie and I feel as though we still don’t know what a real Belgian looks like!

* it is the headquarters of the European Union

* Brussels is a bilingual city, meaning all street signs are both in Dutch AND French

Katie and I LOVED Brussels, and I would love to go back and practice my French there. The people were nice, and if you’d like to hear more about it, let me know!!

CHECK OUT THE PICTURES HERE!!!!!!!

last home game tonight. some highlights:

-zein kicked the basketball super hard at the wall because of frustration (totally understandable frustration). the refs sucked.
-zein got a technical
-kathleen’s mom’s cheering kicked ass
-i almost got a technical because all sorts of madness was streaming out of my mouth… one of the refs basically told me to shut my mouth. i told him he could go…do something to himself…(while his back was turned lol)
-80-something to 30-something I think
-coach is a douche. nothing new there.
-markus actually showed up to a game. AMAZING. I was extremely proud
-we played against a team of mothers. literally.
-one more game left on april 18th and then this season from hell is over!

ok I’m going to go pass out now because I have a history exam in about 6 hours from now. scheisser.

Scheisser = Shiza = Shit in Deutsch

We got killed in our game tonight in Locarno, but it was fun[ny]. The ref was funny, his friend who hit on Jessica was funny looking, and we played alriiiiiiight… at some points On the way back, we drove on a pedestrian path through a park– oops. Anyway, Kathleen and I got a lot of good laughs in I swear, our entertainment is superb. haha

126-18. and no, we weren’t on the winning side of this score. thank you. some girl on the other team hurt her wrist though. that was fun.

Here is the long-awaited post about my travels last weekend to Barcelona, Spain!

Who: Me, Cydnee, Joyce, Hessa, Miel, Simmy, and Mikaila

What: Long weekend in Barcelona, Spain

When: Thursday February 15th - Sunday February 18th

Where: BARCELONA

Why: We had a 3-day weekend for Carneval/Mardi Gras. It’s a big thing here, what with everyone being Roman Catholic and such.

How: Made possible by RyanAir and funded by my parents

Though we went in a big group, Cydnee, Joyce and I stuck together the whole time. We stayed in the same hostel, and except for Joyce not being a hostel-staying kinda person, we had an amazing time. Our hostel was off of La Rambla, which is the main touristic street in Barcelona. This is where all the souvenir kiosks, shops, and crazies are. At night there are creepy men who walk around trying to sell cans of beer. Random. Many locals hang around La Rambla as well because there are several bars, clubs, etc, and it has a lively nightlife! Anyhoo, before going to Barcelona, we were told to watch our things VERY carefully, especially when walking along La Rambla. We came back with everything we went with, but La Rambla, like any ther touristic place, is definitely a place to watch out for pickpockets.

As in any other big city, the metro is a cheap way to get virtually anywhere. Placa de Catalunya is the main stop on La Rambla (kind of like the MetroCenter stop in D.C.). Once you learn how to use the metro in one city, every other city is easy to figure out. You just need to know which direction you are going! Here we found out that people are extremely helpful. Most people in the La Rambla area speak English… actually, many people in Barcelona speak English. Everyone we talked to was very willing and able to help us when we needed it!

We visited the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) church, which is a must-see. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I won’t get into history right now, but basically half of the church is designed in Gothic-style architecture and the other half is completely different and modern. It really is amazing. The construction of the church is still not finished, so don’t be surprised to see cranes and such!

We also visited the F.C. Barcelona soccer stadium. Tours/to get in is about 8 euros I believe, but Cydnee and I hung out outside while Joyce went in. Joyce lost track of time and had Cydnee and myself waiting for almost 3 hours… yeah. lol

As for food, Barcelona has everything. Kebab houses, pita places, Indian restaurants, STARBUCKSSSSSS, Tapas places… it was awesome eating REAL food and having Starbucks sometimes twice a day. We really loved Barcelona, and if you want to hear stories, I’ll tell ‘em later Barcelona, Spain is DEFINITELY on my top list of cities. New York is, of course, first… but Barcelona is pushing either 2nd or 3rd I WANT TO GO BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my german is progressing.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Where: Lake Lugano

When: Pretty much whenever Tahnee and I are down by the lake

Why: The ducks [swans] do it to entertain me.

The Duck/Swan Butt sightings are a crazy occurance!! You’ll see a swan just floating on by when… BAM! It it flips over, revealing its backside. I find this to be highly amusing and could watch swans/ducks all day in hopes that they do this. Just ask Tahnee.

some avrupa yakasi bloopers

…is my friend. Last night, people from our residence and from the residence across the street (Florida), went ice-skating! Kara and Annabelle organized the trip, so we hopped on the bus around 8:30 to go to the rink. It was a covered rink but it was still basically outdoors. Now, my brother is probably the only one who knows how iceskating -retarded I am… and well, now everyone knows!

I hung on to the wall for a very long time… then I went around the rink once with Alexis, Tahnee, and Hayley without falling! yayyy I did go very slowly though. Anyhoo! Eddie brought his helmet and was pretty much terrified, but by the end he was getting the hang of it. Keba (from Gambia) obviously had never been ice-skating either but everyone was helping him get along as well. There was, of course, an annoying showoff who I wanted to smack in the face. Annoying kid. Actually, there were a few people who I wanted to smack in the face, but I won’t get into that.

So yeahhhh Keely was all over the ice (negative connotation) at first, then she got better. Then I finally left the wall and went around with Tahnee once, then grabbed a walker and skated with that. I must say, I am an AWESOME ice-skater when I have something to hold on to! hahah We left around 11 and some of us headed to McD’s because there was extra money from the little excursion to be spent. I got a McFlurry… but it was a Euro McFlurry– therefore it was tiny! C’monnnn…

yummy. here’s a picture that was taken before winter break when casey, anna, katie, and i went to the chocolate factory nearby. yes, i am smacking the cow. no more questions.