Spain and Paris in a Nutshell

Ola! Como Estas!
Bonjour! Parlais Vous Francais? ← (spelt this wrong for sure but don’t care)

Hey there. Boye Here.

(Picture of me)


Alas this is the long awaited blog you have all been waiting for (not really).
Many of you know why myself and my compadre Colin are in Europe, but if you didn’t know here’s the 411.




Colin and I due to the vast amount of time on our hands have decided to participate in the famous Cannes Film Festival located in the South of France. Some of our expenses were paid for due to the “Why My School Rocks” Competition that we had won (thanks to your help of course), so we decided to throw in a Europe tour to add to our adventures.

We arrive in Cannes tomorrow and we have already a week of touring completed, so let me get you guys up to speed.

First I must say the trip has been nothing short of amazing, intriguing, and any other similar vocabulary words you can think of.

We arrived into Madrid last Sunday May 2 and we were immediately blown away. I honestly believe we would have been lost if it weren’t for Ramon and Angela. Exhibit A

(picture of ramon y angela)


Thanks to Colin’s mom ( thank you Allison) we were able to meet up with some locals in Madrid, and I’m sure glad we did. We immediately were aquainted with Spanish culture, the city of Madrid as well as free food and hospitality : ). We even got to hang out with
Their son peter. Or Pedro I believer it is officially.

(Picture of Pedro.)


Can I just say most Spainiards are very nice, and their food is very rockin. So good, and so different. Have you ever had Jamon y Melon? I doubt it! Ham with Melon? It’s good! I dunno look it up on the internet or something!




Anyways so we had bomb food and for our two days in Madrid we had a great time, saw some great sites and took some great pictures and video, I can definitely go into it more in person! But these are some of my favorite pics from Madrid.






From Madrid we went to Sevilla! Beautiful city, and full of Americans. I guess studying abroad it is the city of choice. It was funny because we could definitely tell who the Americans were. The girls all look the same, it was kind of weird. Like picking out a needle in a haystack, Then I guess we decided people prolly were doing the same thing to us and felt awkward.

I mean we are 2 tourists wearing American Casual Clothing, which is wack compared to the way Spainards dress. We had lots of Cameras and backpacks. Man I felt like a dad or something like that.



You know moving along with the theme of dress. Can I just say that Europeans have the best dress style you can ever imagine? They are so avant-garde. Like you think you dress good? Come to Spain and you’ll realize you don’t. Except maybe Daniel Han I think he could fit in haha. NEWAYZ. They just have the best shoes and straight up style.

Some of it’s different too. Like I dunno if this is something the West will adopt but I noticed from time to time I saw girls wearing male Jeans so that like it was really baggy, instead of like fitted jeans, or bell bottoms or wutever girls wear. Now I know that thought of wearing baggy jeans is crazy but if you ever get to see what I’m talking about (sorry I don’t have a picture) it just works out.

So little things like that, just take my word for it.


So back to sevilla. After we had settled into our hostel. We walked the city. LOTS OF WALKING. We are too cheap to pay for taxis. It get’s kind of pricy I mean using Euro’s and everything.

Sorry I keep getting distracted.
Sevilla! We are walking down the street and all of a sudden we see Candace Cook! Out of nowhere!

Just kidding haha. That probably wasn’t funny, however; we really did meet up with her

Exhibit A


She has been studying abroad for the semeseter with her friend Joelle so we got a solid foot on Sevilla as well. So far we have had bomb tour guides I love it!

Sevilla reminded me of a college town. Very beautiful lots of people our age. Check out the pics. They be fresh, you know.

Pics of sevilla









After Sevilla we took the Ave train to Barcelona. These trains are rockin. The Trains stations are rockin. The Metro’s are rockin. Anything involving a train is just awesome.

Before I get into Barcelona I just wanna talk about some stuff that I learned and observed.

So Spain for a long time has been Roman Catholic. Recently however they have basically become a socialist liberalist country, and it seems to be working for them. Well kind of. I don’t know how and why, but most people just have all this money hanging out. We come here and stuff is expensive yet I see kids our age droppin the same amount of money. But get this, THEY DON’T WORK. It seems like their parents will support them till they are out of college. This isn’t foreign to me, because it seems like every country except for America operates like this. It just kind of makes you think.

Healthcare is free. Transporation is easy and simple. Everything is rockin. I almost want to move to Europe! The only thing though is I feel a lot of people have no hope. I see it in their social life. At least in Spain. The essence of life seems to be centered around the party. Or fellowship. To me this seems empty. I’ve had some sweet talks with some people. Even with the languae barriers so I’m hopin to see their future thoughts on the matter.

Soooo this is the typical day of a Spainiard of any age. Wake up around 7ish, so far so good. Go to school an hour or two later. By 2-4 everyone is done with their work and they take an afternoon nap, called a siesta. And then adults go back to work. They get home around 9 eat dinner, and then stay up very late. I’m takin super late, and then repeat the cycle. It sounds a lot like a college kids with the late dinners and afternoon naps.

I mean so if you want to nap forever come to spain!

Well Back to my adventure I guess. This I think has been the highlight thus far. Barcelona! Beautiful place. I almost don’t even know where to begin.
Yesterday was our biggest day. We decided to take a bike tour and it was the best decision of our lives. We biked around a lot of Barcelona, saw the sties, learned the history and ate the food. Did some beach action. It was spectacular, and we had the best tour guide ever. He was like South African and spoke four languages. Everyone speaks at least two languaes here it’s crazy!

Anyways so we did that whole thing then we went to Parc Guell to see the Gotti Architecture. I hope you all remember Western History and Art so you know what that is. I sure didn’t even care until I saw it! Anways the location we were at overlooked all of Barcelona which made for a beautiful site, NBD.

From there we saw Star Trek with Spanish substitles. Best Movie Ever. Most def go see it! That’s all I have to say on the matter.

I guess I kind of cut that trip short but I feel like this is getting too lengthy. I am on the train to Paris currently, and I basically stayed up all night so I’m kind of tired too.

Now it is this night before we go to Cannes. We got to hang out with Clement and his family friend. It was awesome. We rented some bikes, and biked some sites today, like the eiffil tower, and notre dame. Biked at night in sprinkling rain in Paris. Best ever.

So yea night before the infamous Cannes Film Festival. Getting prepped up and ready to role. I'm trying to figure out how I can best come out of this experience positively and not dead after all the fatigue. But hopefully it's all gonna work out great!

You know one thing I have noticed so far after being in another country. Is just kind of putting life into perspective. I am basically on the otherside of the world. And even though things are so different. Things are still basically the same. In Europe there are children, people have families. People work. People Party. There are the popular people, the awkward people. The sick, the poor, the wealthy, the criminals. Houses, cars, boats. Free Wi-fi. Do you get the picture? All I’m saying is that there is something that ties all of us together here in this life. For everyone to be so different yet so alike must say something about our existence. I dunno it just makes me think, I hope it makes you think as well.

Basically though, Europe is awesome, I suggest everyone come over here. Lots of walking, new food, new sites, cultures. Experience life please and don’t just stay stuck in the city or region you grew up in for the rest of your lives because you are afraid to leave or try.

You only live once, and I say that one life you live matters.

Hopefully more to come in the next day or two, if you pray keep us in your prayers, if you don’t pray, talk to me, haha anyways have a good one. I hope things are going well with you, more soon!


oh and P.S. I guess I have a sort of limit on photos because my pics were starting to act all wack soooo instead go check out colin's photos on the whole gig. pretty marvelous.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1858064&id=504356199#/photos.php?id=1279200064


oh and here is some legit new music!

http://www.myspace.com/parissocialclub

http://www.myspace.com/thelastshadowpuppets