The Lightfooted Chelsea

The Guiri

January 14, 2017January 15, 2017 lightfootedchelseaLeave a comment

So, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not a Spaniard.

I’m sure you’re shocked. I’ll even give you a moment to come to terms with it.

In Spain they have a phrase for foreigners or, as my conversation teacher put it, non-Spaniards, and they’re called a guiri. It’s not negative, it’s not derogatory, it just is what it is; not Spanish. I’m a total guiri. I eat large breakfasts, often skip lunch, and eat early dinners. I go to bed between 9 and 11 at night depending on the circumstances and how much caffeine I had that day. Speaking of caffeine, I drink my coffee with more coffee than milk. I barely eat pork or any pig products and I have a ridiculously bad sweet tooth. None of these things are Spanish. Spaniards do the opposite of all of those things. They eat a slice of toast for breakfast with hot milk and a splash of coffee. Their biggest meal of the day is lunch, it’s huge and it’s usually between 2-3pm. They return to work until 8ish and come home to eat a “light” dinner between 9-11pm and don’t go to bed until well after midnight. I have no idea how I’m going to survive here.

But the whole point in traveling is to put yourself out there. It’s to truly understand a culture and what it’s all about. At least that’s the point of traveling for me. It’s part of the reason why I’m studying abroad for the next four months, because I actually want to be in it instead of just scratching the surface. I want to really and truly understand Spain and what it’s all about. And from what I can tell already, it’s a pretty complex culture, and I’m loving it.

I’ve been in Spain for a little over a week now, living in a Spanish home and attending grammar, conversation, and culture classes. I’ve been exploring the city of Salamanca and falling more and more in love with each passing day. So all of my coming posts will be about my experiences here and my experiences abroad while I travel on weekends. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey as well!

In my next post I’ll talk about some Spanish customs that are different from home, but for now I’ll just post some pictures that show how awesome this place really is.

The beautiful birds flying overhead near the river

Plaza Mayor, one of my favorite places at night

I can’t wait to keep sharing Salamanca with you!

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”
― Anita Desai

We’ll talk soon.

Chelsea

Delayed flights, stress, and finding silver linings

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 lightfootedchelsea1 Comment

So, the day arrived quickly for me to embark on my study abroad adventures, and of course it didn’t go smoothly. I was already nervous; I was flying to Europe by myself for the first time, I was the only person from my school doing this program so I didn’t know any other students, I was going to be throwing myself into a life surrounded by a very different Spanish than the Mexican-American Spanish that I’m used to speaking at home in San Diego, and I was leaving an awesome boyfriend at home until he comes out to visit for my spring break in three months.

And then, the morning that I was set to leave, I received an email that my flight from LAX was being delayed from 6:30pm that night to 9:35am the following morning. Obviously this was a bit of a surprise and it messed up my reservations that I had in Madrid for the next night, but I calmly called Norwegian and spoke with a customer service rep and made sure that I had a new connecting flight from Copenhagen to Madrid, and everything seemed fine. I was even excited because my layover in Copenhagen was going to be 12 hours instead of 5, which meant that I could actually leave the airport and explore the city a little bit, plus I got to see my boyfriend for one more night because apparently I hadn’t cried enough over how much I was going to miss him. The next morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3am in order to shower, get ready, make sure everything was put together and ready, and leave by 5am in order to make it up to LAX by 7:00am.

Everything went smoothly, I even arrived a whole 10 minutes earlier than expected, but when I got to the front of the line the agent at the counter looked at his computer with a confused expression, called his supervisor over to help him understand what he was seeing, and then informed me that I didn’t have a ticket on this flight.

I didn’t have a ticket. Instead of rescheduling my flight on the phone call the previous morning, it had somehow been cancelled. I then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half going back and forth between the supervisor and customer service line and it finally got cleared up. So, instead of going through security two hours before my flight when there was barely a line, I was running to the now ridiculously busy security line an hour before the flight was going to start boarding and I made it through with only 10 minutes to spare.

The good news is, I made it. There were some major freak outs, including an embarrassing amount of crying for which I apologized profusely because I know how uncomfortable I feel when other people cry in front of me. So I got on the plane, I calmed down, I stretched, I watched Me Before You, which I hated but that’s a whole different story, and I slept. And then I got off the plane and I was in Copenhagen.

Now I’d like to point out a few things. I was super stoked that I was going to be there for so long, but I was arriving at 5:35 in the morning and knew I would have to wait a little while before it was appropriate to go out and start exploring. Being from San Diego I’m used to the sun rising before 7am… Well, in winter in Copenhagen the sun rises just after 8:30. Rats. That definitely took a chunk out of my time, but I think it ended up being a good thing because it gave me a chance to get some breakfast, enjoy a latte, and recharge a little bit.

So, at 9am I put my backpack in a locker and took the metro into the city. Man, was it cold. Like super duper cold. Like -9 celsius cold. Keep in mind that I live in a place that is pretty close to an endless summer all year long. On really rare days during very cold years we MIGHT fall a degree below freezing, but it’s rare. So my blood runs warm. I had on wool socks, a down jacket, gloves, a beanie, and a super warm scarf. And yet, there I was, cold.

But I loved it. Copenhagen is beautiful and I can’t wait to return and explore it when I’m not freezing and have a little more energy.

So, what’s the take away from this? Even if you have freak out inducing moments, just let them pass, bear through them, and try to stay positive and see a silver lining. They’re all over the place, you just have to look.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide

We’ll talk more later.

Chelsea

The stress leading up to the travel

December 13, 2016December 13, 2016 lightfootedchelsea2 Comments

So, I’m a planner. I like to have my stuff figured out. Especially when traveling. Especially when traveling abroad. So right now I’m three weeks away from leaving to study in Spain for four months, and I’m feeling ridiculously unprepared. Normally by now I would have a hostel booked for the days that I’m in Madrid before I need to be in Salamanca, I would have my bus ticket and I would have already started thinking about what I need to pack. But have I done any of those things? Nope.

I’ve decided that these next four months are going to be spent trying to be a little more relaxed about how I go about things. Normally if I’m visiting a city for a quick weekend, I pack my days with everything I can possibly do in such a short amount of time and I walk away exhausted. I’m going to try to not do that this time. If I don’t see it all, it’s not a big deal.

So, I’m going to make goals and I’m going to try to meet them, but I’m not going to kill myself trying to do and see everything.

So here are my goals for those four months in Spain:

Visit Barcelona because I loved it and I can’t wait to step into the Sagrada Familia again
Explore Andalucia because I didn’t make it down to southern Spain while I was there in the summer of 2015
Visit Bilbao and go to the Guggenheim, I’m a super big fan of Frank Gehry
Visit Morocco- try for the Blue City
Weekend trip to Amsterdam – yay van Gogh museum
Weekend trip to Prague
Weekend trip to Budapest
Weekend trip to Bucharest
Weekend trip to Krakow
Weekend trip to Vienna
Visit the south of France
Weekend trip to Florence

It turns out that I can’t wait till the last minute… While I was writing this post I booked my hostel for the two nights I’ll be in Madrid before meeting up with my group in Salamanca. Old habits die hard I guess.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

We’ll talk more later.

Cheers, Chelsea

Why travel? Well… food.

November 14, 2016November 14, 2016 lightfootedchelsea4 Comments

For me, it’s hard to understand when a person asks me why I like traveling so much, why I enjoy going places that give me such bad jetlag, why I like to spend all my money on something that doesn’t last that long. But I think it’s hard to understand why I wouldn’t want to go somewhere, why I wouldn’t want to do those things.

Travel is so much more than just going and getting to look at something cool. Travel is so much more than getting to hear a funny language. Travel is so much more that checking something off of a list and getting another stamp in a passport.

I absolutely love seeing how different cultures work; the people, the language, the food, the music. I love talking to people, or when I’m in my non-talkative moods, I like people watching and seeing how they interact with each other. It’s always so interesting to me how people in different cultures interact with their foods. In some places food is so incredibly important and such an essential part of who they are, whereas in other places it’s really not that big of a deal.

One place that I’ve been where food is such an important part of the culture is Peru. So so so so SO good. I loved everything that I ate while I was there. The pride that goes into making those meals and the flavors that go into them is incredible. Plus, there are so many fusion foods because Peru is becoming more and more multicultural. I was in heaven for the three weeks that I was there.

Here’s some photos of the awesomeness that is food from Peru. Let me tell you, always order el menu del día, because I guarantee whatever their special of the day is, it will be better than what you would have picked for yourself. Everything in Peru is delicious, including the drinks! Also, please order a pisco sour. If you’re in Peru and you don’t get one, you’re just doing it wrong.

Also we had some fantastic desserts… I’ll let you decide on whether or not you think we enjoyed this passionfruit cheesecake that disappeared in about one minute.

Anyway, food is such an awesome way of getting to know a culture. Also, local festivals, traditions, and music are great ways to throw yourself into a new place. I’ll talk more about some of the exciting traditions that I experienced in Peru while I was there.

If you’re visiting somewhere new, be all in. Try the food you would never eat otherwise, do the things that you would never do otherwise, talk to the people that you would never think to engage otherwise. The whole point of visiting a place is to really be there, not just to experience it from afar which you can do at home from your computer.

“The gentle art of gastronomy is a friendly one. It hurdles the language barrier, makes friends among civilized people, and warms the heart” – Samuel Chamberlain

We’ll talk more later.

Cheers, Chelsea

Rivers and Roads

November 13, 2016November 14, 2016 lightfootedchelseaLeave a comment

Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers till I reach you…

It’s one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. I know, that’s a lot of favorites. But part of the reasons why it’s such a favorite is because it reflects my life pretty well. I always think of the rivers as being the part of life where you’re really just at the mercy of whatever comes your way. You know, the rough times. The times when you keep getting hit while you’re down. I’ve been through a few of those. And the roads are more of the times where you are in control and behind the wheel. The times where you work like hell to make up for all the crap that happened while you kept getting kicked down.

So what’s my point with all this? Well, along with my faith, travel has become my road to a healthier me. I lost myself for awhile there. I let life keep pushing me further and further into a deep hole. And then I woke up and realized that I couldn’t let life keep kicking me and making me dread what else was left. I started turning my life around, returned to school full time, and then a year into my new college career, I walked past an advertisement to do a summer study abroad in Spain. And things really started to turn for me.

I didn’t know anyone who was going on the trip. At 28 year old I was the type of student who went to my classes, took notes, and left, never really making friends with my classmates who were much younger than me. But then, I went to an information meeting and it turned out that a girl in my class was going on the trip, so I went out of my comfort zone, took a leap, and made friends. And that’s what the rest of my travel story is about, taking leaps.

So, this blog is going to talk about my experiences abroad, wherever they may be. It’s going to be talking about pushing my boundaries, seizing the moment, and finding myself. And then, just because I want everyone to be able to experience the growth and freedom that travel provides, I’ll be talking about what this all looks like when you’re operating on a budget.

And just for fun, here’s a photo from that first experience of travel and all it offers. The freedom, the friends, and the hope.

I’m the one who’s laughing like crazy right above the “Real” in Real Valladolid

I’m looking forward to our journey together.

Cheers, Chelsea