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Writer's pictureEmery Grahill-Bland

OOPS! Belated updates!! Feb and March

Hi guys, it's been a while!!! I say that every time but this time it's super true.


So I'm gonna take a minute to catch up on everything... spoiler alert currently I am in the US again, but I haven't updated on my travels or life since FEBRUARY so I am going to start there.


Last you heard I was on a ski trip in Andorra... which was ages ago... since then:


My dad visited:

  • My dad flew in from the States after his birthday on February 15th.

  • We had a great time exploring Alicante.

  • He had a very difficult time figuring out which street was the Rambla and which one was the esplanada but hey

  • got to practice his spanish

  • hung out with Pablo

  • Dad insisted on doing cool stuff that my mom hadn't done during her visit

  • we saw the market and the museum for Hogueras, the local festival

  • took lots of siestas

  • went to the beach and the castles and clambered all over the rocks

  • it was carnival!! so we got to go around and see the streets all filled up with people

  • giant costume parties everywhere -- that's a theme of life in Alicante tbh and lots of men in dresses

  • I secretly met this German guy who was solo traveling (coincidentally named Gabriel but referred to as Gabriel 2 to not confuse my friends) at a pop up punk concert and he came out with me and my friends the second night but Dad was none the wiser

    • later bought plane tickets to visit him and he BAILED last minute!!! so I went to Berlin solo and had the time of my life and might move there next year but that's all to come in the following post/posts

  • Gabriel 2 gave me strep throat so I couldn't run a half marathon I had signed up for and was very sad

  • Dad took me to the hospital and got my meds and got better

    • I want to get my tonsils removed if anyone has doctor recommendations for Maryland

  • I think that is the gist of Dad's visit...

I went to several frisbee tournaments:

  • Sabe a Mixto

    • in Valencia again and mixed beach

    • this was so long ago omg I can't really remember

    • I had fun for sure though

    • we probably went to the same bar we always do

  • Que Barbaridad!!

    • This is the tournament at the start of March that my team hosts

    • it was completely exhausting but also so much fun

    • we were up basically all night two nights in a row plus at the fields for set up and take down

    • One night is a costume party and you have to dress like your team, see photo below of me as a viking

    • this one team basically had an orgy at the bar/club, but they were from Amsterdam so no one is surprised

    • we played okay but also were drinking all day so we didn't win anything really

    • I played well the first day but was so exhausted on Sunday I basically was useless

    • I got to be the announcer during the awards ceremony because I speak English! yay!

    • super fun, super tiring, highly recommend you go if you find yourself in Alicante in March

    • My friends Mia and Sierra joined the team around this time!!

      • Mia is American

  • La Ossa Salvaje

    • This tourney was in the end of March, and before this my cousin and brother came to visit but I'm skipping over that to keep with my category of frisbee

    • We went to rural middle of nowhere Spain in a pueblo called 'La Ossa'

    • My teammates were referring to it as "España profunda"

    • it was a grass tourney hosted by our sister team, Discachos

    • we went to the Texas Saloon!! two nights in a row, such a random little Texas and western themed bar in the middle of nowhere Spain.

    • also went to the tiniest little night club ever which was fun but I was so tired

    • played okay on my first day, and went to bed early so I could play well on my second

    • got up to play for my second day, rolled up to the field and Pablo, my friend, was there-- still drunk and hadn't slept-- from the night before at the club

      • that set the tone for the rest of the team for the day, lol

    • I stepped onto the field to play my first point, second point of the whole day, and sprained my ankle immediately on defense.

      • not sure if I mentioned the previous yet-- it was during my brother's visit-ish-- but I sprained my left playing beach but didn't sprain it too badly, just it's my funky ankle from an old soccer (fútbol) injury and it stiffened up really bad that night and I couldn't walk!

      • so this tourney was my first time really playing in a couple of weeks and my ankle was better but not 100%

      • and then I went and sprained the RIGHT on immediately on this play

      • so bad, Fermin had to carry me off the field because I couldn't walk

      • immediately had a tennis ball on the side of my foot-- Juan Vi said it looked like a ham

        • later it turned so purple it was awesome

      • Fermin propped me up on the sideline in a folding chair with the scoreboard

        • some cute guy from the Invasores de la Mancha was injured too so he gave me a foot massage and brought me beer and tickled my toes

          • honestly not such a bad outcome after all

    • so anyway these were my last tourneys for a while because clearly my body was breaking down

      • after the second sprain, because I was putting all my weight back on my left to walk, that ankle started to get worse again and I just hobbled around everywhere lollll

Carson and Julia visited:

  • Carson is my brother and Julia is our cousin

  • Carse came for a week and Julia for a few days in the middle of that week

  • at this point I had sprained only one ankle which we discovered when we went out to our favorite cocktail bar, Oculto, and I couldn't walk home so Carson had to half-carry me back

    • this was okay because I got to take the next day off work and I could walk as long as I didn't let it stiffen up too much so I hung out with them

  • I took them up to see Villajoyosa at some point

    • we did a tour of the chocolate factory which was awesome

  • We went to the palmeria which is a big palm tree park!

  • Carson really loved this pizza place Papizza that all my friends go to when they're drinking, we went twice in one day once

  • We saw all the Alicante sights

  • Carson and I got matching tattoos which he has been on me about for years! it's sign language for 'I love you' which my family has done ever since we learned sign for babies

  • Took him to the fancy gym with the overlook of the water and he liked it

  • Carse and Julia both met the personal trainer that Hanna was going out with at the time who was a totally wacky gross dude

    • I did not and still do not like him

      • he is aware of this fact

  • We also got two really good cakes for Carson's birthday, which was right before he came to visit on March 5th

    • they are famous for their cheesecake which Carson and Hanna both swore was fantastic

  • Carse and I went out to Thai Corner which has really good Thai food

    • we got a big bottle of wine to share too

  • it was a great visit and Carson swears it was one of his favorite trips but when I asked him about it now to remember what he did he said "Papizza" so I guess that was his favorite bit

Miscellaneous other events:

  • Hanna's mom and Grandma visited, and so did Hanna's friend Molly!

  • It was so nice to have everyone

  • Hanna's mom and Grandma took us up to Guadalest to see the beautiful lake up there which was awesome

  • Hanna and I got matching tattoos I don't know if I mentioned that earlier or not

  • My friend Paola got a dog named Plátano, which means banana and I love him


Okay, so that about carries us through February and March, and in April I went on a bunch of cool trips out of Spain, so I will write about those in separate posts soon :)


Photos!




As for my current situation, I did not, unfortunately, get into a PhD this round. But, that's a-okay, life happens and I wasn't sure I wanted to come back to the States yet anyway.


I have a placement to go back to Alicante and work at my same school next year, if I want. I'm waiting to hear back from two master's programs in planetary science (in Europe) still. One is the University College of London where my good friend Amelia from Alicante is going next year for her Masters next year. The other is the Freie Universität of Berlin, which would be awesome because I LOVE BERLIN. More on that later though. Hopefully I will hear back in the next couple of weeks, at least from Berlin...


I got a job (or three) in the meantime to hopefully bail myself out of debt from traveling. I'm waitressing, etc. back home in Maryland until fall comes and I head back across the pond for one reason or another :)


Also-- I am back to my American phone number now so if for some unknown reason I have been ignoring you, likely I just didn't get your texts--try again!!! But, if you've been blocked and you know it-- don't reach out, please and thanks... you know who you are and if you found my blog... yikes.


I will check in on the form situation on my next post <3 love you all so much and miss you lots.

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Katryn Heine
Katryn Heine
Jul 30, 2023

Where is the google form

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Katryn Heine
Katryn Heine
Jul 30, 2023

YAYYYYYYY

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