Pannadora Radio ©

I've had my fair share of the classic Student Abroad Syndrome. SAS is a real condition, go look it up. I was going to explain it by saying it's like a roller coaster, but that analogy is much too cliché. But it really is like that, so you'll just have to hear it one more time: It's like a roller coaster. Being thrown into a new country with a different culture and language allows for swinging between extremes of "Oh crap what am I doing here?!" all the way to "My life is so awesome!" and back again. What do you do when this happens? You listen to music, thats what! For your enjoyment, I whipped together two playlists to indulge these highs and lows.

The first playlist is when you want to wallow in your own loneliness and homesickness. For when you feel like you don't have friends, possess the language capacity of a mid-level Dora the Explorer viewer, and get served a whole baby squid on your plate for dinner. This perfect mix of self-pity and melancholy won't let you down. Here's the pity party playlist:

1. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

2. All by Myself - Celine Dion (This is about as low as it gets. Only turn to Celine in extreme circumstances.)

3. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (also "Sweet Home Chicago" by the Blues Brothers is optional for all my trin-munity's enjoyment.)

4. House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert

5. Father and Daughter - Paul Simon (Classic missing dad song.)

6. Carolina on my Mind - James Taylor

7. Breathe - Taylor Swift

8. Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin

9. Homeward Bound - Simon and Garfunkel

10. Vanilla Twilight - Owl City

11. Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters

12. I Miss You - Blink 182 (This selection is not complete without nasally yelling along to the first line when Tom DeLonge comes in.)

But then after sucking it up (perhaps after the pivotal song of "Big Girls Don't Cry" thanks to our friend Frankie Valli), you realize you are in Europe! And you aren't that bad at Spanish. And you made tons of friends and you get to do stuff like take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and sleep in the Barcelona airport. So this playlist is for when you are with your new friends from all over the place and you want to  sit around and soak up each other's awesomeness. Here is the "Spain Rules!" playlist:

1. The Adventure - Angels and Airwaves

2. Rocketeer - Far East Movement

3. Dog Days are Over - Florence and the Machine

4. Why Not - Hilary Duff (Yeah, that's right, I said it. Hilary Duff. Take a crazy chance.)

5. Wavin' Flag - K'naan (¡Campeones del mundo!)

6. Brand New Strings - Miranda Lambert

7. 21st Century Girl - Willow Smith (I really am a 21st century girl. I do what I like.)

8. Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks

9. A Whole New World - Aladdin

10. Loca - Shakira (Yo soy loca. Pero te gusta eso.)

11. Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac (I know this was Bill Clinton's campaign theme in the past, but I'm a big believer in redeeming things for higher purposes. The whole Abraham Kuyper thing.)

12. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall


**Update - Rudi Gesch, tied for first place for the best brother award, has created the playlist on Youtube. So ch-ch-ch-check it out.**

Enjoy. 

Just call me DJ Jazzy Gesch.