Back to the 24 Hour Thing....

I know, I know I've talked about this... but I have two updates to add to this....

1. I've had people read this and then comment... "Hey Arielle, 24 hour time is really easy! You are SO DUMB. All you do to figure out the time is subtract 12 from whatever time it is!"

But people.... THAT's the point. There's a clock out there that you DON'T have to subtract 12 from and I'm just saying that if you like math, go and do that subtract 12 every single time you want to know what time it is. But I wasn't an accounting major in College... the reason? Math blows.

2. EVERY person I hang out with wears a watch here, it's a HUGE fashion statement.... unfortunately DIGITAL watches = lame-sauce.

So I have my booker wearing a regular watch WHICH ONLY tell 12 hour time.... tell me time in 24 hours. Let's not make this complicated.

NEW RULE: IF YOU WEAR A WATCH THAT ONLY GOES UP TO 12.... THAT'S THE HIGHEST YOU CAN GO.

Good Eats: Solo Pizza

If you love authentic, delicious, roman-style pizza SOLO PIZZA is AMAZING.

The pizzas are super healthy and good for you too, Almost no-fat and few calories (ladies).... Roman pizzas are made out of 5 ingredients and are cooked extremely thin and crispy.... The pizzas here run around 10-12 euros and in general you eat an entire pizza yourself. Most guys I see eating here have around 3. There is a huge selection of pizzas offered including Blanco Pizzas too.... They have great appetizers and of course FAB desserts. Tiramisu here is the best in the city and they have a dessert pizza with Nutella that will leave you speechless.

Pictures: 1. Logo 2. Calzone which was made special for me because it is supposed to be "solo" pizza but calzones are pizzas folded in half essentially 3. My amazing pizza 4. Great chocolate dessert with slightly bitter chocolate that is a creamy constancy and I know it looks like poo... but it's really good, especially the sauce that is layering the bottom. Yum.

Located Carrer de Enrique Granados, 108

Leo's Day 2010

I've totally put this off for a long time. I was recovering.... JUST KIDDING Grandma :)

I really wish I could upload more pictures of the party because each of these pictures is worth way more in words then I have for them....

So timeline of the party. Basically I spent like 2 days trying to come up with my outfit... Luckily besides the tights I happened to have everything for my outfit! Which is awesome.... The best part of my outfit for me or at least the thing I was most proud of was my sweet leather glove... I happened to only pack one of those black cheap-o 'one size fits all' winter gloves from home (no clue how the happened besides Jesus was thinking ahead for me) so I spent like 30 minutes cutting it up with a scissors to make it the perfect accessory....

My hair took me roughly 1 hour to do but after using at least one can of hairspray that baby was going no where.... so after using a small army of bobby pins, doing my makeup a la Madonna I was so ready to go out and party. We got there at about 9 pm. Which if anybody knows Spanish time it was scandolously early for a party. Dinner time is between 10pm to about midnight and clubs don't get started till around 3 am.... So for the first hour there was billions of waiters running around with amazing food, little desserts and an open bar for roughly 500 people. I had a couple of model friends working as roller girls.... Hint to any person who wants to be a model... NEVER do live modeling at parties.... Worst. Job. EVER.

They had to wear spandex and those 4 wheel roller skates while they had a peacock like tail of balloons attached to their butts. The pre-party was pretty fun because you could see everyone's costumes in full light and there were some AMAZING costumes. Only 2 Star-wars themed costumes which was disappointing (one Obi Wan Kenobi and one Darth Vader, who didn't come together!) but they must have bought the original suits from the movies and they totally got into an epic light saber battle in the middle of the dance floor over a roller-girl so that made up for it.

Cool detail about the party.... They had MILLIONS of glow sticks.... one guy spent 2 hours of the party sitting in the corner crafting out of glow sticks.... Comment on this blog what drug you think he was on.... Lol.

They also had thousand of bowls of suckers everywhere.... Two HUGE projectors playing 80s music videos.... 2 DJS on this big platform, go-go dancers, a semi-famous Rapper (who I had no clue who he was, but I was singing with him for a good 20 minutes on the stage to songs I don't even know so I had a couple people ask me for an autograph because they thought because I was with the famous rapper I was famous too) And some break dancers....

I ended up going home at around 4 or 5 am because my feet were DEAD. But I know the party kept going till around 8 or 9 am.... So I was the lame-loser who ended early and apparently I gave the entire United States the rep of not knowing how to party.... so sorry America. I just can't dance-rage for 12 hours.

Pictures: 1. Pre-party picture sample of the costumes 2-4. Pictures of the party including the light shows they had, screens playing 80s music videos, sweet glow-in-the-dark pictures of 80s icons and massive amounts of people, I wish my pictures did the thing more justice. 5. Picture during the pre-party of my friends Julia (England) and Saphira (USA born in Germany) Saphira had the sweetest purple spandex pants EVER. 6. Mr. T! and yes, that man is pointing a finger gun at the man behind him... 7. Possibly the best costume of the night because this man was 4 ft tall and liked to attempt body surfing the crowd with no success and was attempting to trade his wig to women for kisses...

If you have any questions please post :)

Photoshoot

So first photo shoot here was a LOT of fun. There was a bunch of models that I got to work with so say hello to MAKING FRIENDS :)

It was actually a HUGE production which I wasn't expecting. It was for an editorial for hair but very edgy with is great because they are a lot more fun to work then regular catalogue jobs. The job started at about 9 am so in order to get there on time I had to get up at 7 am :( BOO and I got home at around 8 closer to 9. So it was a LONG day.

Well worth it though, the staff for the job were SO MUCH fun. The makeup artist and stylists are my new best friends, thought they could never replace you Nicoletta! hehe.

They also brought in an old caddie.... SO beautiful. I'm so excited to see all the picture from the shoot :)

Pictures: 1. The final look... This is how I rode home on the metro, BEST thing about modeling, you get to walk around after shoots looking totally crazy. 2. My favorite outfit of the day, I'm a sucker for onesies :) 3. Picture with my hair wearing my giant parka :) the outfit I'm wearing is a swimsuit. UGH. 4. My Madonna meets the 1950s look 5. Sweet car

Party Like it's 1989...)

Many of you might not know but tonight is one of the biggest parties of the year in Europe. It's held at different venues all over every year and this year is BARCELONA! It is a very exclusive event which 600 people from all over the world are invited including royalty, some of the richest people in the world and celebrities. The event is called Leo's Day and basically it's just an outlandish birthday for Leo. Leo HAPPENS to bean acquaintance of mine.... so tonight I am going to this party!!! Whoo HOO! Every year there is a different theme and this year it is 1980's so it's going to be pretty awesome.

And this isn't just your run of the mill costume party. The average cost that people spend on their costumes.... 800 euros. Arielle's costume cost... 10 euros (it's amazing how many 80s things I brought with me.... seriously It's unbelievable :)).

The entire event runs around $120,000 and with sponsoring of the event it comes to about 50,000 euros OUT OF POCKET for Leo.... that is an expensive birthday party :0 So I'm hoping it's going to be out of this world.

The party is held at the W Hotel. And because Leo's event has booked 400 rooms at the W, they gave him their presidential suite for free, which is the most AMAZING hotel room I have EVER seen. I wish I was staying there :( So if anyone is interested in dropping thousands on a room, this is the place to stay :)

I'll have pictures of the event tomorrow! Very excited. Last night was the pre-party that lasted till about 6 am... it was a great time, he had a HUGE dinner, dancing, drinks, and magicians....at a club called CDLC. Food is Moroccan and Asian influence with some Indian dishes. I had Kobe steak, some excellent spicy tuna sushi rolls and a smattering of different apps, NO PICTURES :( oh and no DESSERT. It was pretty terrible, but I'll get over it.

Overall I had a great time dancing with my friends Noelia and Raoul who I met thru modeling, and I met a lot of great people last night....

I honestly couldn't believe how much people were partying knowing what was going to happen tonight, I played it smart.... unlike someone else I know who moaning and clutching their head....and still in bed at 4 pm :)

Okay Eats: Spanish Food. AMAZING Eats: Ice Cream

So Lunch today I went with a couple of my friends, Francesca (Not a typo), Simeone, Nadia, Pepe and Djimon Hounso and for those of you who DON'T know who that is, he is the co-star along side of Leo in the movie Blood Diamond. I totally wanted to take a picture but I was fighting between that urge and the need to be nonchalant about dining with famous people. And OKAY he's not the most famous but it was kind of super exciting in the "this is the best things that's ever happened to me and that really pathetic" kind of way.

We ate at a traditional spanish restaurant and if I was on the fence about spanish food, this really pushed me over on the side that thinks that spanish food BLOWS.

It can be good sometimes but between the sucking out of the insides of some weird looking creature, eating deep fried; eyes, hearts, brains and other things that simply shouldn't be eating, and having your lunch look at you with butter tears as you are munching on their body.... I am tapping out of the ring of spanish cuisine for a while.

I think it's the way I was brought up, but it's truly hard for me to enjoy eating a whole fish deep fried while I'm thinking "I wonder what part of that fish that gooeyness is"

However with that said, the not so unusual parts of the cuisine I do enjoy, like the rice part of my paella.

MOVING ON.... The picture of the ice cream is TRULY as good as it looks, no... BETTER. Ice cream in Europe is SO SUPERIOR to american ice cream it blows my MIND. Ferrero Rocher and Chocolate kindergarden are the two flavors that I am eating in this picture. YUM. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Sandcastles

One thing I love about Barcelona, is there is always some sort of action happening. And YES sandcastles are ACTION to me :)

My friend Simeone and I had lunch then went walking around and found some sandcastle building. We were fighting for a spot to take pictures in front of these with Japanese tourists so in pictures 1 you will see my cheesy smile and peace sign in honor of that. In picture 2 you will see me posed DISPLAYING the artwork with the amazing W hotel in the back.... It is important to note the W Hotel because I will be talking about that later.

Shout out to my Peeps

I just wanted to say Thank you to my WONDERFUL, AMAZING, YOUNG, ZESTY and SWEET grandparents Kay and Don for the sweet Valentines Day Card :) This is a Picture of me Skyping with them. And yes, they are very modern.... MY grandparents Skype :)

Good Eats: Wok to Walk

I'm going to try and put a variety of different types of restaurants and prices for my audience in case they visit Barcelona.

I ate at this place called 'Wok to Walk' today and it sounds like this super american touristy place but it's actually a big favorite of locals. They have only stir-fry dishes but it has a good variety to it because everything is build your own. The restaurant is very TINY, and there is only one table that spans the entire restaurant so you end up sitting next to other people. Also the place is really sanitary and all the ingredients are super fresh. For 5 euros I got a HUGE carton of stir fry and a drink. I ordered my dish 'spicy' and to my surprise they actually made it spicy. So many places have different concepts of what is 'hot' I got a thai peanut sauce dish with rice and it was SO good. I will be back there again....

Blogger n00b

So in regards to all the email and posts I'm getting about the blog and my timing I'm trying to update the blog as often as I can but it's not always very easy.... I have a life.

And I'm totally kidding about the emails. Lol, that was my own joke for myself. And kidding about the life....

BUT because I don't really post blogs everyday or consistently it's more one giant mass of posts every week.... So to solve this problem, I'm just going to pretend that for every post I write it's that day, even if it isn't.... So let's use our imaginations and pretend.... it will be fun, I promise....

p.s. Nitasha, I totally appreciate you writing me about my blog, it makes me feel good to know that someone out there cares :) lol.

The Dentist in Spain

Basically I learned that I can never be an interpreter.

So Thursday (I know my posts are not in order) I had to take Rosa to the dentist because she had a tooth ache. Which seems like a pretty standard task but it is NOT so easy when you have to find a dentist in a foreign country, not being able to speak too much of the language and tying to figure out how the system of payment etc. works there.

It was an experience and let me tell you... APPRECIATE U.S. health care and dentistry standards.

So picture this.

One 5x6 foot room with a dentist chair taking up at least half of it stuffed with me, Rosa, one dentist and 8 workers who all ONLY spoke spanish.... because apparently 9 people who don't speak a word of english is better then one.

And of course we are all yelling.... a lesson when trying to speak to someone who doesn't understand your language..... yelling it over and over getting progressively louder to the point of screaming doesn't make it more understandable.

So I am trying to act as interpreter between swahili and spanish, which was impossible because I only know the words "milk", "I", "no socks" and "I bought this cheese for you" in Swahili (Seriously I know those phrases) and nothing to do with dentistry in spanish....

And the whole time this gesturing, yelling and drawing is going on....YES, I started drawing.... Rosa is sitting in the chair grabbing her cheek and saying "Mamma Mia" Over and over again and making the sound of the dentist drill.... which she is pretty accurate at

Basically my iphone was the savior in the whole thing, and I am never going to the dentist again.... (as if I needed another reason)

A Map of my Area

The only bad part is this is the only cloudy day that I've been here so the picture is not as beautiful as it should be. The ocean is about 1 block more then the bottom right of the picture, the Hotel is right on the ocean where I was....

If you click on the picture you can make it bigger....

A Typical Sunday

Today was pretty uneventful, and Happy Valentines Day to those who celebrate it :)

My friends Suzy and Vincenzo ate lunch over here which Rosa made; baked pasta with baked chicken, fried potatoes.... it sounds like I eat really bad here now that I'm reading it but I don't, I SWEAR.

Then we dropped them off at the airport because they were leaving to go back to Italy.

Also went to the grocery store which is a 5 hour process and you would not believe the amount of stuff that is bought for ONE WEEK of living in this house. Rosa... basically my mama here, is an 80 year old or so Kenyan woman who only speaks Swahili (with some italian) so communication depends largely on hand gestures and smiling. I am trying to learn Swahili in addition to Spanish and Italian but it's not going very well and is EXTREMELY complicated. But anyways Rosa cooks and has to have food pouring out of the cabinets otherwise she has 'nothing' to work with.

I also got a HUGE lesson (which consisted of lots of yelling and hand gestures) on the importance of futbol to Italians as well as the rest of Europe..... by three Italians which would explain how they yelled it ;)

I also played and I am happy to say WON my first game of monopoly, which was all written in Italian and had euros instead of dollars.... It was a VERY tense game and you would not believe the uproar when I won because Francesco has been playing this (HIS FAVORITE GAME IN THE WORLD) since he was 4 or something and he ALWAYS wins....

Pictures

1. The monopoly game.... my winning pile 2. A picture of Francesco being so upset that he attempts to CHEAT.... only to be caught. 3. One of two grocery carts 4. Rosa

So that is basically a typical Sunday for me in a nutshell....

Ciao

Cool Place: Hotel Arts Barcelona

Okay so Saturday I had a wonderful relaxing day.... I got to hang out with my friend Suzy from Napoli, Italy who was staying with her boyfriend in Spain at the AMAZING Hotel Arts in Barcelona. Though it doesn't look that great from the outside the inside rooms are beautiful.... The whole decor of the places is really elegant and beautiful, it's quite the sight to see. On the very top floor of the hotel, is the hotel's spa called Six Senses Spa, which is the so spectacular.... the entire spa has a view of the Mediterranean ocean and it is just BREATHTAKING! The whole experience was great, the best part was the "uniform" for the women to wear during the spa. Suzy and I couldn't stop laughing at the paper underwear that they gave us to wear during the experience. There is no way to really describe them besides the fact that you could comfortably stretch the waistband not only around where it belongs but also up over your shoulders Borat style :)

Good Eats: Melton

So if you are ever going to travel to Barcelona you need to pay attention.

I have eaten at this restaurant a 4 times already and I have

been utterly BLOWN away each time I ate there.

The Chef's name is Daniele and he is an Italian man who studied at a cooking school in France. It is Italian food but there is somewhat of a french essence to it which makes it magical. Really. MAGICAL.

So.... the best parts of it.... The only steak they serve there is Kobe, which if you know anything about that meat (google it) makes it already an outSTANDING place to go. Everything there from the pasta like ravioli or linguini with clams, to the appetizers like fried eggplant or the calamari with fried string zucchini, the amazing kobe steak with potatoes.... and BEST of all....*drumroll* the Desserts.

I can't say enough about them. One night I was lucky enough to convince Daniele to server me not one, not two but FIVE of his best and I was not disappointed. Tiramisu, Fried crepes filled with apples and carmel with ice cream, chocolate cake, a citrus ice cream with cookies and the best dessert I have ever had in my life, the chocolate soufflé with frothed banana and sugar surrounding it.

This man is single too ladies, haha.

I also put up a picture of me eating the dessert, so that is my hair for all of those who haven't seen it.

And the address for Melton....

C/ Muntaner, 189
08036 Barcelona, Spain

Adios

The Weather

Being new to this blogging business I've been trying to find my way around and I noticed at the top of the bar when you are typing there is a "Comment Moderation" button. I went into it and put high restrictions on the comments because I thought it would be funny for the 2 people who comment (thank you dad, grandpa) to have to edit their comments because they were deemed inappropriate... look at me, 3 days into it and already loosing friends, followers and family.... but that's the sacrifice I make for a cheap laugh, (for me?)

....

BUT ONTO the topic.

It's like 60 degrees here. Which not to brag or anything but to all you MN peeps.... HA. And that one Canadian (you know who you are).

The reason I mention this, is that to me, 60 is getting pretty warm, especially when it's sunny I get to just walk around with a tee-shirt on and it's great (there is a point to this besides rubbing it in) which is reasonable enough right?

Well not to the natives here.

They walk around with these HUGE puffy winter jackets that rival the ones in MN with scarves, gloves, hats, boots.... the works. Running around to get out of the cold. STOMPING their feet to try and get them warm. Breathing into their hands to try and warm them. It's SO unnecessary.

And they STARE at me with daggers in their eyes because they HONESTLY think I'm crazy for thinking it's warm instead of the second coming of the ice age. Like I'm this FREAK for not wearing 18 layers and long underwear because it got below 55 today.

Really people.

The Bidet

I'm going to try and approach this topic with as much class as possible, but honestly it needs to be talked about.

The infamous Bidet.

I'm not sure why I needed three pictures. Really.

The first one really encompasses my first encounter with the Bidet. Me turning it on to be funny and then water spraying all over my pants. Then walking around for 3 hours as the American who pees their pants.

The second is what I assume use of the bidet in general looks like (or not use). This is a picture from the first flat I lived in when I was in spain. (And yes that is a giant hair-ball in the corner from one of my roommates, nasty but I felt that it really gave that particular picture flair).

And the third I feel really shows what happens when western cultures meets the Bidet.

Before you ask, No. I have not used the Bidet.

I'm not sure why. I think there is a couple reasons.

ONE, I find it intimidating. I'm not really sure how you go about REALLY using it, especially in the proper way because I'm not sure how to straddle this bowl or do you sit? Where I would grab onto.... because of the nature of it I don't really want to be touching the wrong parts and I don't really want to grab someone and have them show me how to use it (the awkwardness doesn't really seem appealing enough) I suppose that's an excuse too because there is always wikihow and the magical internet (http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Bidet)

TWO, I honestly didn't really think that anyone used it. Well I didn't before I came into the living situation where I am. I'm not REALLY sure that anyone uses it, but the maid that comes to clean the house washes it, so I'm assuming.

I suppose it's my western mind that if I don't have a bidet in my house SO I don't need it SO no one else needs it....

Also in the US you don't really encounter them, here almost every single house has one.

Which is uncomfortable.

For Example. I meet some cool people. We start talking about fascinating topics, The weather.... current events.... people in the news.... why I speak such bad english. They instantly become enamored with my charm, and we form a relationship and become fast friends. They invite me over to their house, I deny a couple of times but of course they beg me enough so I pencil them in. We eat, hang out, chit chat. Everything is going great then I need to "freshen up" in the bathroom. I walk into the bathroom.... and then I see it. I try to ignore it but it's touching me (small bathrooms in my scenarios). It just is looming in the background. Watching me.

Then my mind starts going.... Do they use it? Does that mean they expect me to use it? Will they think I'm weird if I use it? What if I don't? Do you think they can hear me use it? Are they listening? What if I use it and something goes wrong? How do I use it? What if the water is too hot? Too cold? What are the pre-conditions to using it? What if I use it when I don't NEED to use it, then they'll think I'm weird. Is it rude? Is being from the US a reasonable excuse for not knowing about this? Should I go out there and explain why I'm not using it?

So then I sit in the bathroom WAY too long and become so stressed out that I run out of the bathroom and burst out with an explanation of why I didn't use it. And then there is an awkward silence and after about 10 minutes of us looking at each other I tell them I need to leave and show myself out. I never call them again. They call me a couple of times but I always press ignore. It's too painful. I mean SURE I think about them, especially when I'm lonely, and at night or when I hear that song by Tal Bachman "She's so high above me".... they always did love that song...

But it would be awkward to call.... it's been too long.

Time and Spain

So as many of you know, Europe does that whole 24 hour time thing, and I am having the worst time with it.

I was talking with Michaela and she asked me a SIMPLE question "What time is it there?"

So I look at the clock, and what does it say? 18:07. Great, not only do I have to turn my head and look at the clock but now I have to do math (I'm joking) but seriously it's not an easy thing for me because for some reason it always seems SO much later when its 18 o'clock. or 22 o'clock.... I seem to break out in a cold sweat because it just doesn't. make. sense.... there are only 12 hours in a day....

Also there's the problem that I don't know how to say it right.

Person A "What time is it?"

Person B "It's 2" or "It's 3 o'clock"

The problem for me is it sounds dumb saying "Oh, it's 18..." or "Oh, it's 18 o'clock..."

But maybe, it's just me.

Pictures

So today I had a casting for a woman's catalogue, my first casting and I am happy to say that I got the job:) I was trying to take a couple of pictures around on my way back home.... The casting was right next to the Sagrada de Familia.... The other pictures are the park that is right next to my house and the street that I'm living on.... I almost got close-lined by a pigeon so don't say that I don't risk it all for the sake of entertainment. And that topic is for another day, how pigeons in cities have no sense of manors....

Day 1 - My Very First Blog

Okay, so this is me starting a blog to make a record of all the boring things that I do throughout the day. This is like twitter but way longer and more boring. I started this because of Emily.... Look at me, 3 sentences into it and already name dropping.

I tried to start this sentence with "Okay, so... "again" I'll have to watch that. I'm hoping that this blog will help me to remember english because I realize that when I hang around non-native speakers of English I start speaking in broken English as well....

Ex: While talking to a guy from Cincinnati that I happened to meet yesterday. I said the sentence "Ah, you are from the USA, no?" I had to explain to him I was also from the great land of the USA and that I had been in Spain for a whole 5 days so you have to forgive my terrible english.

Alright, for those of you who don't know my current city is Barcelona, Spain which sounds like BarTHaLONnaaaaa. I was here this summer but the second time is best for sure.

I was contemplating doing a video blog so all you loyal fans stay tuned! Right?! All 2 of you, thanks mom, dad..... wait now mom left me..... JK!