Inutil

Hi Everyone!

I woke up this morning super excited to go to school and to walk along the beach to get there. Let me tell you, the walk did not disappoint ! I mean guys, this is literally my view the entire way to school. Now there is a faster street way but I'd say the ocean is definitely worth the extra three minutes of my time. Really, how is this my life. 

Classes were great! It's just me and this Italian lawyer Sylvia. The material subjects are hard, and I'm realizing I'm missing a lot of critical vocabulary, but that's why I'm here. Literally, today we were studying the Spanish political system and I had to explain the electoral college system to my professor. Mate, I barely understand it in English, and now you want me to tell you all about it in a foreign language? It was rough, but I think I got the point across.

The teacher, Manuel, will not let me get away with anything. He forces me to read out loud and if I don't answer the question after Sylvia, he then specifically asks me for my opinion. Super good for learning purposes, but definitely panic inducing for me. I know that with time I'll get into the hang of it and my Spanish will definitely get better. However, today I totally failed. Manuel goes "what do you think about the Spanish monarchy and the role of the king in the justice system?" What does this chick here say? Me and my big fat mouth goes "Well, frankly the king doesn't really do anything for the justice system. I mean, I'm not saying my country is much better with Trump for president but at least we have got a triangle of powers with checks and balances. Whereas your king doesn't contribute to anything, he's...inutil" Guys, in my attempt to find the right adjective, I called the king of Spain useless/worthless/superfluous! Major cringe moment. Oops.

Good thing my classmate and professor were pretty chill and were like WHAAAATTT? and then after the initial shock laughed it off and then countered my point with the importance of symbolism to unify people into a community. Oh gosh, if this first day is an indication for how this week is going to go, buckle your seat belts because I'm sure this won't be my first transgression. 

Classes flew by and before I knew it I was back at home. I had to do some studying but I can't complain too much when this is my balcony view. I sat out there studying until sunset. 

Tomorrow I'm going to make sure to find time to sit on the beach, but for today, I'm content to admire it from afar. 

Love you guys lots,

Carolyn

Sunday In Malaga

Hi guys,

Today is my last day with mom and we are both trying not to be too melancholy. I'm really excited to start school tomorrow, but also super nervous. I'm living in an apartment with four other women and only one bathroom....wish me luck guys, seriously I might need it. Mom being...well a mom, decided to accompany me on my dry run of my walk to school and my journey to retrieve my apartment keys. Let's just say that I was less that amenable in the morning as I definitely did not want my road trip to end. Also mom was having a field day taking pictures, you would have thought it was my first day of college or pre-K, not my millionth time abroad lol!! Moms will be moms? Anyways, these pictures are definitely funny to look at now and you'll be able to see my school. So without further adieu:

Here's my walk to school.

My school.

Me in front of my school.

In my apartment less than amused by now. Sorry not sorry mom? Enjoy one of the many faces I'm sure you all have experienced by now...Hey, it could be worse than just a bit of sass. 

Once we got that over with we actually could explore the town a bit more. Except we forgot something really critical. It was a Sunday, and literally everything shuts down on Sundays. Not a single store was open except for cafes and restaurants. So we just walked around chatting and enjoying the architecture and the harbor. That's the best part of Spain, the country is so old that literally even if you're walking around the outside of the shopping malls, you're still looking at 14th or 16th century buildings. Do these people know how lucky they are?

See what I mean? Nothing special and yet super special at the same time. 

We then moved onto the port, which is becoming my favorite place to chat and people watch. Today was exciting because all the boats were docked so there was a lot more boat envy on my part.It was sweltering so we gelato for lunch and then again after dinner. Being an adult means that I can eat ice cream for lunch right? Plus it was endorsed by my mother, which counts for something lol! 

I don't really have much more to say since I was just enjoying having the company of a familiar face for one last day before the last leg of my trip. I was also taking in the Spanish air and all the surroundings of the city center. I'm moving a bit outside of town so I'm not too sure if I'll have time to come back here until the weekend. You can thank mom for being so photo crazy today! I promise I'll try my best when I don't have a personal photographer following me around for the next three weeks lol.

Tomorrow school begins and I'm sure I will have much more to share! 

Love you all,

Carolyn

Malaga

Hi guys! 

If you're thinking I've skipped a few days, I have. But that's because our last few days have been traveling. We had to say be to Jes and Mumma Bailey and that was really hard. Having the best of friends all over the world allows me to have these adventures and I'm so grateful. But can you all just move to one spot so that we can adventure together all the time and never have to say goodbye please? Thanks.

It didn't make it easier that mom and I had the worst Uber driver ever who tried to save us three minutes by taking the ferry and then ended up taking an extra two and a half HOURS to get us to our destination. I don't know about you, but somehow I think those three extra minutes would have been worth it mate. At least I transformed my tears in the wrath for this poor guy. 

The 5 am wake up call after a less than ideal night's worth of sleep did not have me in tip top shape. So when BOTH my bags were pulled aside for extra screening, I literally burst into tears in front of the TSA agent. Please imagine a very flabbergasted British man, who pulled out a toothpaste past the 125mL allowance which I had forgotten in my backpack and me pretty much sobbing about it. Looking back, hilarious. In the moment, I was mortified and my mother was terribly confused as I'm normally a very cool traveler. I think it was just pent up Sadness in my Inside Out brain who finally escaped her chambers and hit all the crying buttons before Joy could stop her.

Needless to say, Friday was spent taking a three hour nap and sitting at the hotel rooftop bar drinking a tropical smoothie with a very concerned mom looking over my shoulder all day. I'm fine mom, Sadness had her moment and Joy is back in control!

So, now here we are at Saturday. After a good sleep I started my morning off with cafe con leche. Man I missed good coffee. 

I forgot about good ole' Spanish hospitality...aka they hate everyone not from Spain. So you can imagine how my morning went when we had to figure out mom's train situation after hers got cancelled because of a strike. I think we got sent to three people before finally someone took pity on me. Also by the fourth person I did the tourist grovel "hi sir, I'm really bad at speaking Spanish but I'm going to try. Thank you so much for your patience, I appreciate you, you wonderful human..." blah blah blah. Well that finally did the trick and guess who got her mom's tickets sorted out with no pride in tact. It's like come on guys, I know you speak English...hello national school system, I'm speaking Spanish albeit with an accent, but fine, still give me the evil eye unless I apologize for my existence. Bah these Europeans, crack me up every time.

If you thought you were done seeing Jesus on my blog, guess again! We visited the Catedral de Malaga. Honestly it was gorgeous. Malaga is a unique city because it is one of the older cities in Europe and went through so many different cultures and regimes. Started with the Phoenicians back in 770 BC. Then it was passed to the Romans, Arabs, and ultimately ended up under the Spanish rule. So you've got a tiny port city with so much history and lots of ruins to explore, I think I'm going to love it here.

I gotta say, no one really knows how to do a cathedral like inquisition Spaniards. They were really in your face about it...but in a very beautiful way.

(that choir box was made from pomegranate tree bark imported from the US)

See what I mean? So overwhelming and yet so pretty. This is only 1/4 of the pictures mom took! she actually knew the names of the people who made this art, so most of it was lost on me. Looks like I didn't get the cultured bit that my mom has...oopsies. 

We then found the gardens and took a break in that posh little restaurant. So cute and yet the worst tapas ever! I feel like that's how it always goes, the best food is served in the hidden hole in the wall places. 

It is so warm and sunny here! I love it, even if I'm melting. I decided after you guys listened to me complain about the rain and cold for over two months, I simply don't have the right to say anything remotely negative about this warm weather. Trust me, I'm loving it, despite melting. I just feel badly for my poor mom running to any and all the patches of shade visible along our walks. Thank god I don't burn, but even with sunscreen I'm already significantly darker. Hope you all recognize me when I come home!

I took a siesta like all good espanolas do, and then mom and I decided to walk around the harbor! Is it possible to have ship envy, because that is how I feel towards this ship. I want someone to take me out on it, even though I would literally be dead weight since I have nothing whatsoever to contribute to sailing. However, I just love the idea of being out on open waters with real sails! I don't have to be a sailor to recognize that this ship is puuurrrtttyyyy. Maybe one day.

We walked from the port to the beach, and then back again. 

Needless to say we worked up a hearty appetite and stopped along one of the port restaurants for some dinner. This place served Mexican, Indian, Argentinian, and Greek food all in one space. Do you think the owner couldn't make up her mind? Or maybe he hired four different chefs? Anyways the location was perfect and just the food we needed to replenish before our walk home. 

Mom kept snapping pictures along the walk back to our hotel. 

In case you were wondering, I'm apparently highly photogenic 100% of the time...someone please cue the Miss America song. Do you think they'd take me with this as my head shot? lol 

At least we got one good one in there. 

Update you more tomorrow!

Love ya'll,

Carolyn

Pooh and Piglet Wander Brighton

Hi Fam Bam,

We've been pretty active this whole trip, so not surprisingly today we took it easy. This morning we met up at 10 am to go inside the Pavilion Henry the IV built (remember that Indian looking building I took a picture in front of a few weeks ago?). Perks of having the parents around is they pay for thing lol, so we actually went inside this time! OMG it was AMAZING. Like so decadent and ostentatious, even the kitchen had huge fake palm trees to show off to the guests. They wouldn't let us take pictures anywhere which was super annoying. So the only picture we have is Jes and I wearing our matching shirts and bonnets with a dragon in the children's play box area. If there's a play box, we will play.

The king was living his best life though. There was gold everywhere, and dragons and phoenixes lining the walls floors and ceilings. One of the chandeliers was suspended by a dragon and is so big it takes 6 weeks to clean it. Yeah, when I heard that I said no thanks! You guys should google it, it really was something to see. It was decorated with a western interpretation of Orientalism, hence how you have Indian architecture but totally Chinese interior decorations. Do you think Henry IV knew that India and China were two different countries and cultures? 

Afterwards Jes had to leave us for work so mom, mumma Bailey, and I passed the day together just hopping from cafe to cafe. And when I mean we passed the day, I mean we spent about 6 hours together exploring two miles of Brighton. It was so great. First we started at the Pavilion and had phenomenal tea. Mumma Bailey got earl grey, while I got a smokey Chinese black tea, and mom got her cappuccino of course. We sat watching the birds and humans pass by whilst protecting our muffins from the seagulls. After our first chat, we walked the Brighton Lanes and picked up little knickknacks here and there. 

Deciding that we had enough shopping, we found another little cafe and this time ordered chips (aka fries, I know the British have it all backwards) and fizzy drinks. This time we had a lot of fun watching the poor humans fall privy to the seagull attacks. I think because there's no predators on this island these birds are confused. They don't know how to fish and keep snagging human food. Mom and mumma Bailey love the shade, so we were the first table just outside the doors of the cafe, needless to say, super safe from seagulls. Those closer to the beach were not so lucky haha. This one table got attacked five times before they finally asked to move. I suggested there should be a cull of seagulls.

We then took about five or six steps before poor Mumma Bailey was pooped on! This photograph was too good not to share. Good thing the moms have good humor and Mumma Bailey laughed the situation off after initial shock and annoyance. Let's just say we were well aware of our surroundings after this little incident. 

Mom and Mumma Bailey named themselves Pooh and Piglet back in the New Forest, when Jes and I told them not to get lost in the woods when we went riding. Needless to say, we made lots of Pooh and Piglet jokes because literally all we were doing was wandering Brighton with frequent rest stops. Today was the Pooh and Piglet take on Brighton edition. I'm just lucky they let me tag along...

Brighton is the city of quirkiness, so it comes to no surprise that they built an upside down house as a tourist attraction!

If you thought we were sick of tea and coffee you would be totally wrong! Here we are at cafe number three, which was my second favorite cafe of the day. The pavilion cafe couldn't be beat, but this gazebo one was playing old music like Frank Sinatra and Diana Washington. It got a bit chilly for me, so I put on a jumper and ordered a hot cocoa while the menopausal moms looked at me like I was absolutely mental. But in the photo you can see that the sun practically disappeared and the sky was more cloudy, so a hot cocoa was definitely necessary. The waitress must have given us silly looks when we did the whole "cheers" routine with a cider, a hot cocoa, and a Sanpellegrino. We were joking that we were going to drink and eat our way over to Hove, the next town over where Jes lives. 

Which ultimately is exactly what we did! From the gazebo we walked the last mile along the shore to go to the tiny Italian place for dinner that I kept raving about. After struggling to be a part of the clean plate club all week, I finally was the only one who ate everything! It was funny because the portions were always too large, I guess that large portions don't really matter when you're eating homemade pasta and gelato. I told you guys I could eat pasta for the rest of my life and never think twice about it. I should've been born Italian. Good thing I've got a true Italian godmom to teach me the ways. 

I was practically rolling home after having done nothing but walk along the beach and eat and drink all day. However, it was so satisfying to truly take a day off and not really do anything but chat. That being said, for all our wandering we did manage to walk eight miles! Go us! Someone please tell me that school isn't too close, because I'm going to miss these leisurely days. Good thing I can count on you all to remind me that life can be good and moments like these do exist when I'm in the dark tunnel of my second year of law school. Miss you guys.

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Horses, Lions, and Beaches - Oh My!

Hi Everyone!

For the first time in history waking up at 7 am was the easiest thing in the world. Why? Because today I got to go horseback riding in the New Forest to see wild ponies! Can you tell by the grin on my face that this is the best day ever?

 My horse’s name is Jessie, and Jes was on Esme. 

Jes had a bit of struggles with her New Forest pony since Esme liked to snack and not trot. We were out in the forest for two hours, and went right through herds of wild horses and cattle. It may be July but there were four foals and one calf. So cute! Jessie was the smoothest ride in the world, I only got in trouble a few times and it was because my horse wanted to race the pony ahead of me, and I may or may not have been willing to let her gallop a bit. These guides kill all the fun, and I know I know they’re doing their jobs and keeping us all safe. But literally my guide was like 19 years old and had such an attitude, “my arab this” and “my arab that.” I was like I get it love, you’ve got an arab. Good for you, but also you telling me you totally drop the reigns and win every race across the fields doesn’t impress me at all, you don’t even know the name of your car insurance. Call me when you pay your first apartment bill. Jes and I were just giving each other knowing looks and in my head I could hear Jes go “You’ve had your license for three years? Awww bubba…” We laughed our heads off when we finally were within the protective walls of the car ride back to the Filly Inn and could really let ourselves go.

Despite the sassy escort, the ride was phenomenal, especially when we were in the forest and all we could hear were the sounds of the birds chirping and the silence of a forest. We did have a little issue where Jes tried to show off her horsemanship skills and spooked all our horses! I’m so proud of Jes for staying on! We were literally rounding a corner and before I knew it all four of the horses were running off in all different directions. Funny how instinct kicks in, within a second I had my reins pulled tight and was leading Jessie into a hard left circle so that she couldn’t pull any funny tricks and was forced to slow herself from a gallop to a walk. No clue how Jes got her horse to stay chill but was so impressed when I saw her still riding astride a few minutes later. After two hours riding, lets just say Jes and I were quite sore at the end of our ride. Our mums were laughing at our funny gaits.

Whilst Jes and I were frolicking in the forest, my mum and Mumma Bailey went to the beach! I think they enjoyed their daughterless morning.

We left the New Forest and Filly Inn for Arundel Castle. I have to say, that this by far was the best castle we have gone to! The family here is the Duke/Duchess of Norfolk. Their decorations were just amazing, architecture, not so much. We had to climb 135 stairs to get to the top of the tower.

I can't deny that the view were worth it though. 

Here’s the door where the servants threw rocks and boiling water out of the tower when they had unwelcome visitors. Mumma Bailey said that’s where the Brits got their English hospitality from, which made us all laugh.

There were so many dead animals everywhere, it was gross…That is probably something I will never understand the appeal of. Like good for you, you shot a lion with a GUN. I’m sure that was a fair fight. Now, the tribes that bring home lions without guns…I’d say fair game, you earned your pelt. Knives/Spears vs. Claws, even steven, otherwise you’re just cheating.

The castle library was to die for. I was sad I couldn’t sit there all day and read, it looked like something right out of Beauty and the Beast. (Can you tell by the number of pictures that it was my favorite room?)

The rest of the castle was pretty decadent as well. 

I love how much we played around with the props left for children in play boxes (young at heart am I right?). The bows and arrows were fastened to the walls, so Jes improvised. 

We then went out into the gardens and had an absolute blast. My mom was in 7^th heaven with all these flowers. 

She and Mumma Bailey were playing the naming game, and were so good that Jes said she’d take both of them on her team if she went to a botanical pub quiz night. Mom was so excited to see how the family kept the birds out of their gardens with their netting system, so stay tuned for that being installed into our home hahaha. I on the other hand was debating whether or not to pinch a few loquats. They’re my favorite fruit, and the Norfolk family obviously didn’t need all of them, am I right? In the end mom said it was not worth getting thrown out of the castle for, so I didn’t get my fruit even tho I’m pretty sure I would have gotten away with it.

Here are some more garden moments! We definitely took our time finding flowers and taking in the fountains.

Jes was sad that a plant was taller than her, but that sucker was taller than me! 

These next few shots are my favorite, you can just see how goofy the four of us got, climbing trees and playing around. 

The last part of our journey was a drive to Brighton (I’m sure my avid followers will recognize this name, since it’s my third visit back. I definitely love it here!). Jes took us to this ocean view restaurant about thirty minutes along the coast from Hove that had the slowest service ever. This was perfect for us, because we just wanted to sit and chat. We literally laughed so hard we almost peed. Hands down this was the best meal of the road trip. 

Not only was the food phenomenal, but also the views were gorgeous and the ambiance was perfect. Obviously the company is what made the entire night (do I get brownie points for this sap Mumma Bailey and Jes?). Since we climbed so many steps and laughed so hard, we said that this road trip had turned into an exercise program called Menopausal Mums – Bums and Tums. *cue more laughter and almost peeing our pants moments*

Today was the best day, one that I will definitely look back to when law school gets hard. This road trip was probably the smartest thing Jes and I planned during my trip to England. Tomorrow is a beach day and we all know how much I love the beach! (Almost as much as ponies.) Stay tuned for more sunny tales.

Love,

Carolyn