Xquizit Link!!

Here is that link that I said I'd post but I didn't!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO_EpIn_3z4 .

So I haven't updated this in quite some time...

I have been so busy these past few months that I have not made this blog a high enough priority and for that I apologize, I also apologize for how long this post is might end up... or for how much I skim over because I don't have forever to sit here and dump every detail from the last 5 months...

So after Rome we went to Venice and Florence, which I'll give a more in depth update about later, when I have access to the notes I took each day. From there we went to Interlaken where it all fell apart...

Interlaken is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen as far as natural landscape goes. Annie and I had the best time riding rented bikes around the city and through the meadows near by. The rest of the group went off on an intense hike that I was not up for by that point in EuroTrip. The next day we got up early to go white water rafting, in FREEZING cold water, we couldn't feel our hands by the time we got back and it took forever to warm back up again. However, that would not stop be from going again if I were offered the chance, it was so much fun, such a rush. After we all dried up and re energized we all split up again for more hikes while Annie and I did a ropes course for a couple of hours before regrouping and cleaning up to go to an extreme sport video contest. There we met some really famous skiers, snow boarders and sky divers. The next day we all went canyoning... which consists of repelling down, sliding down, and jumping off of natural waterfalls in water that was even colder than the white water rafting water... sounds like you'd have to be crazy to sign up for that right? Well call the 9 of us crazy cause we did it... well we tried... only 8 of us made it to the end. On the 1st big jump, which was about 30 feet high, Annie jumped off perfectly, landed in the right position, and didn't hit a rock or the bottom or anything but managed to fracture her spine in two places. This led the two of us to spend a few hours at the Interlaken hospital, stay and extra night in Interlaken, get her a customized back brace, skip our final two cities (Leon, France and Madrid, Spain) and come straight home. Since we missed those two cities we say it is our excuse to go back! Annie had to be in her back brace for most of the rest of the summer but now she is out of it and almost has full range of motion and is taking all the necessary precautions to not hurt herself again.

The rest of the summer I spent a lot of time at the Judevine Center for Autism, that is now called Touch Point. I worked in a summer school classroom with 6 middle school boys with different degrees of autism. I learned so much from the kids and the facility, I just hope that I helped make a difference, that I was able to help the kids.

Okay so now we are at the end of August... school started! I am taking 18 credit hours... Health for Education Majors, Methods of Advanced Reading, Principles of Economics, Methods of Teaching Science, Creative Arts & Movement, Curriculum & Instruction, Methods of Teaching Social Studies and Basics of Sign Language.

Health for Education Majors - This class is such a joke, the text book is informational so we have the opportunity to learn from it, and I do enjoy reading it, however the teacher is not the brightest crayon in the box. She says things like medicine can help cure MR and that if a kids tooth falls out you should put it back in and call the dentist. Our midterm was open note, open book, fill in the blank and if you couldn't find the answer in the book she'd write it on the board. She should be paid in bubble gum balls cause that's all she's worth.

Methods of Advanced Reading - this is my most challenging education class, we spend many hours of side of class creating full lesson plans, 2 hours a week teaching 3rd graders how to read, and 1 hour a week in class on SLU campus talking about how to teach reading. With these 3rd graders we are currently preparing them for a Science Fair project that is taking place this Wednesday, we are very excited. I really am going to miss the kids when the semester is over.

Principles of Economics - This is my most difficult class over all, I spend more time working and studying for this class than any three others combined. I take this class with Amit which is nice, I enjoy having someone there to motivate me and to study with. The first test I did really well for myself, my biggest mess ups were that I was really nervous and kept thinking about how important the test is and how much time I did NOT have left to complete it. So this second test that I took on Tuesday I made sure that I had a better state of mind during it and did not freak out. I walked out feeling extremely confident and cannot wait to get it back on this Tuesday... wish me luck!!! I also really enjoy this class, I love that public service majors are required to take it, it is so interesting.

Methods of Teaching Science - this is my least favorite class because the teacher is really mean. He was a middle school science teacher and does NOT understand that how you teach a 13 year old science is NOT how you teach a 6 year old science. I think he may have been a great middle school teacher but does not know how to teach college students or elementary students. We did spend some time teaching at the same elementary school as the reading class, and that went alright... I really cannot wait for teacher evaluations at the end of the semester, this teacher yells at us, and told one of the girls in my class that she should teach 2nd graders because she is really good at acting like one. I'd rather take another class with my drawing teacher from Spain than go to one more class with this teacher.

Creative Arts & Movement - This is an interesting class because it is a 3 parter... the first 1/3 was drawing, second 1/3 music and final 1/3 is PE. We have not learned much in this class but it has been enjoyable nonetheless.

Curriculum & Instruction - I had this teacher my freshman year for my Foundations of Elementary Education course and he is amazing. We learn a lot and he really pushes us to be the best teacher we can possibly be. We hosted a field trip for the elementary school at SLU for a group of 5th and 6th graders on Friday and it went really well, the kids learned a lot and are now more motivated to get to college!

Methods of Teaching Social Studies - The teacher for this class really believes in spending as much time in the classroom with the kids as possible. At this point we have learned as much as we can for now about how to teach, now is the time to put it to practice, we won't become great teachers unless we practice. And the more we practice now the more impressive we will be when we have our first classroom all to ourselves. We also hosted a field trip in this class on Thursday for a class of 2nd graders that we have been teaching this semester and we had so much fun, but sadly that was the culmination of our time with that class, I already miss those students!

Basics of Sign Language - I love this class, it is just 1 credit and Mary (my roommate from Spain) talked me into taking this class with her for fun and boy is it ever. I look forward to this class and enjoy studying. In fact, I have had a crazy busy week (with the field trips and various performances that I will address in a minute) so I have lost my voice entirely which has presented me with the opportunity to only use Sign Language today. Who knew losing my voice could be so much fun?

Extracurricular.... my favorite part! So there is this dance team on campus called Xquizit (pronounced 'exquisite' ) it is a hip hop group and I was friends with the lead and I knew a few of the other members from Amit's floor at his dorm last year. When I tried and failed at making it into Astha, the Indian fusion A Capella group that Amit is the president of, I decided to try out of this dance team (which makes much more sense for me to dance than to sing). After the audition I went home and got a call that I had gotten in just a couple of hours later, honestly, I have never been more excited or proud of myself in my entire life. I cannot express in words how much it meant to me, being accepted, being good enough, having people want me to be apart of their group. Now we are performing all the time, getting really close as a team, and having so much fun. I performed for the first time a week ago last Wednesday, then we had a HUGE performance on this past Wednesday where we opened for Kaba Modern (http://kabamodern.com) This was possibly one of the top 15 highlights of my life so far, amazing time, we ended up hanging out with them afterwards til they had to leave for the airport, so much fun. Then we performed on Thursday for a campus talent show, to a very small audience; then we performed last night for SUFA (Student's United For Africa) and that was a blast, not all of us could be there so it was a smaller group and we looked really good, I did the best I have done yet, I was really proud. Also last night before Xquizit performed I got roped into learing the dance to Single Ladies by Beyonce to teach and perform it last night... it went all right, the audience loved it, and now because of that performance we have booked a couple more gigs with it. It is a lot of fun, totally not my style, but I enjoy broadening my horizons. Below is a link to one of the Xquizit performances and later I'll post one from the Single Ladies performance but I can't now because the room last night was REALLY dark so you can't see anything on the recording.

Anyways, I must get going to finish homework (I have about 5 reflections to write).

Love you all!!!!

Rome

Day 1
Annie and I had most of this first day to ourselves because we decided to fly to Rome and get in around 2pm instead of wasting an entire day on the trains like the rest of the group and getting in around 9:30pm. Once we arrived, and made our way to the hostel (in an area I won't be recommending because it isn't near anything except for 1 metro stop that only takes you to the outer parts of the city) we dove out the door again to find a good Italian lunch. Power by a recommendation from the hostel worker, we dined at a hole in the wall, almost cafeteria style pizzeria with pastas and veggies. Then together we trekked on out to the marvelous Spanish Steps (which we learned were a peace offering from the French so then the Spanish and the French would be nice to each other if only on Italy). From there we wandered around the city, map in hand, in search of good Gelato. We learned that when going to a gelateria, the first thing to check out is the banana flavor... because if it is bright yellow then it's fake which means the others are fake... if it's banana colored, light brown/cream-ish, and all the gelatos are in metal bins instead of plastic, then that shows that they use all real fruits and that they are fresh! After I decided upon a delicious lemon and banana cone and Annie got a tasty frutti de bosco and mango cone, we licked our way to the Piazza de Navarro to see one of the many Egyptian obilisks, a fountain, and many paintings being sold on the sidewalk. Figuring we'd like to get showered back at the hostel before 7 other sweaty roommates showed up to take over, we headed back and got cleaned up/ read our books while waiting for the others to arrive. When the finally showed up we ended up back at the pizzaria we were at for lunch but this time for dinner and then we all collapsed early, preparing for a full morning of touring the next day.
Day 2
7am the next morning we were picked up by a minivan and taken to the entrance of the Vatican City. 6ish years ago I came to Italy with my family and in Rome we had an amazing tour with the best guide we've ever had, Ludovica, so in preparation for our time in Rome for Eurotrip I contacted her and arranged to have 2 half days of tour for the group thanks to my parents extreme generosity. So we met up with Ludovica's daughter, Flaminia, who is a wonderful lady and brought everything to life just as Ludovica did. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten from my last visit so I wrote everything down that I learned in the Vatican. So I am just going to make a separate post just about the Vatican, so keep checking for that post and my Florence post that will be up as soon as I leave the city (that is where I am right now while writting this post). After the Vatican at St Peter's Cathedral we got a very nice lunch and some delicious gelato, re-visited the Piazza de Navarro with the rest of the group, and then headed back to the hostel to take a very needed nap and get cleaned up before dinner. We got a bit to eat that wasn't amazing but then turn our night around when visiting the outside of the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain (making our wishes by throwing a coin with our right hand over our left shoulder, hoping to come back to Rome again.
Day 3
On our final day we were with a tour guide named Tony who started us out at the Forum were we stopped above it with a great view and learned so many interesting stories about what happened there all those years ago. Afterward he took us to a place that not many tourists get to see, an orange orchard that looks out over the entire city, the most amazing view. He told us that that is where Danny Divito likes to go with his Italian sandwiches every time he comes to Italy, so cool! From there we saw the embassy to the Vatican of the smallest country in the world (which no is no the Vatican), called the Knights of Malta, it is actually just 1 building but it has its own passport and currency and everything! At this embassy you cannot go into it but you can look through the key hole and see a straight pathway of a vine garden that overlooks the dome of St Peter's Cathedral, so from that point you can see THREE countries... Knights of Malta, Vatican City and Italy! After that we stopped at the Circus Maximus before visiting a small old church that has that big Truth Stone from 'Roman Holiday' (let legend is that if you put you hand in its mouth and tell a lie then you get bitten, and the guy in Roman Holiday puts his hand in and tells a lie and pretends to get his hand bitten off by putting it up the sleeve of his jacket, scarring the character that Audrey Hepburn played, thus making this stone famous. For no other reason is this stone famous). Inside this church, the floor tiling contains this rare/ very expensive purple stone that is found in many Roman churches that today, one 6x6in x 2mm tile is worth 1.5 thousand dollars!!! From there we saw a fountain created by a student of Bernini and then the statue of Moses that Michael Angelo made for Pope Judias. He was supposed to made a huge square with 20 double life sized statues on each side (total=80) but only completed the one because he worked so slow and funding got pulled. His students made the other statues that surround Moses at this monument. The differences between Michel Angelo's Moses and all the others is remarkable. Near the end of our tour we visited a church that was build on top of another church that was build on top of an ancient Pegan equivalent of a church. Only recently did they discover this so they are still excavating and it is so amazing. For lunch we stopped at a restaurant referred to as "Mickey's" which is a popular favorite for American college students as well as our young tour guide, Tony. This guy, Mickey, is so amazing that the US ambassador in Italy gave him as a gift access to this military channel that almost nobody is allowed access to, to put in his bar/restaurant so he could show American football games to the people there. This gift was a thanks for all the help and guidance Mickey has given to American students over the years!! To top off our already full stomaches we stopped at a gelateria that has over 100 different flavors to satisfy your sweet tooth! Before the day ended we swing by the panthenon on the way to the train station to head to Florence.

Nice

Day 1
We arrived in Nice exhausted (which seems to be a common state of being during this trip for te lot of us) but hailed a couple of cabs and made it to our hostel without any problems. The boys immediately went out in search of cheap French wine and instead came back with cheap Spanish and French wine, woops! We all attempted to stay up and celebrate our arrival but soon collapsed into out squeeky bunk beds in heaps of tired failure, hoping to have better luck tomorrow.
Day 2
After a late start we headed towards the rock covered beach to see the view, hills and all. Noticing a path near by we started a hike up one of the hills in search of a better view. The orange-pink rooftops accenting the plush green hills were such a site. Annie and I being hungry hungry hippos, wandered off at a stop and got crepes which we enjoyed from the ledge of a park over looking the rest of the city/ sea. From there we could see Elton John's house and enjoy a small playground. Afterwards we walked back down the hill to beach via beautiful off streets and stopped so the group could see a museum of modern art. I bought a couple of American novels that day and am flying through them like reading is going out of style. After a walk down the pier, certain hunger pangs turned us towards our hostel to get cleaned up and ready for food/ a pub called Thor we read about in one of our travel guide books. Along the walk individuals stopped at food stands when something stuck their interest but by the time we got to the pub Annie and I still hadn't found anything but noticed a restaurant with 2 person seating with a lovely view of the area that we joked about being out plan B if we didn't find food. Only after
finding Thor, and deciding upon a place to get a quick sit down meal as the two of us did we realize that we were being seated at that very table/ restaurant. At the end of the night we ended up at an Irish pub (a frequent favorite of ours throughout the various cities) before
heading home to bed.
Day 3
First thing in the morning we hit the train station to get to Monte Carlo/ Monaco. There we saw the casino from Casino Royal, many nice (under statement) cars, the sea, beautiful (again, undertatement) yachts, and a Japanese garden where we had out two loaves of bread worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwitches. From there we decided to take a train to Cannes where we stumbled upon the 64th Cannes Film Festival. There we saw the cast from the new Quentin Terantino movie which included Brad Pitt and his wife, Angelina Jolie, accompanied him. We also saw Mike Myers, the lead guy from the Twilight movies, Sharon Stone, Joss Stone, and Emil Hursh. Finally we took a train back to the hostel and split up for dinner. Caitlin (one of the 3 people from New Jersey that came for Mary/ Justin) and I bonded over Indian food. Later that night Annie and I went to a big jewelry market and shopped before going to bed, soaked up the last bits of Nice that we could since we were leaving for Rome the next day.

Barcelona

Day 1
After we landed in the beautiful city of Barcelona (which I have been to before but was really excited to see/ experience it all again with more of an adult eye), we were forced to endure a long long walk to the bus station while feeling like mules with all our bags and such tightly strapped to our backs, following the bus we discovered that out next leg, the metro, would be impossible as it had already closed so we had to walk what felt like miles from the bus station to our hostel. I am naturally a much slower walker when we meander around the cities because I like to relax and soak up what I am seeing, so my roommates were afraid that I'd fall behind on this walk and were constantly cracking jokes about it the entire way there. When we finally arrived at the hostel we were gobsmacked when we found sitting in the lobby 5 students from SLU Madrid, only then did one of the girls remind me that she had asked for our itinerary that I had created for our eurotrip so she could get ideas for her own Eurotrip, apparently she booked all the same hostels for any overlapping cities we had. After all that physical labor we rightfully passed out.
Day 2
We woke up the following morning to find that out MIA 8th roommate was an awesome Asian kid who has no hands or feet. This kid was so inspirational because he was more capable of doing anything than any of us probably are. And he had the best attitude, which someone in his situation would need to have in order to backpack through Europe on his own. This guy was so cool and helpful with giving us ideas as to what to do during out stay in Barcelona. After breakfast, bathing suit clad, we made our way to Las Ramblas which is bout 5 blocks of different themes on each... one is a pet market, one is an accessory market, one a flower market etc etc. Then we made our way to the biggest fresh food market I have ever seen, almost overwhelming. We all bought soooo much fruit and juices and some makings for a sandwich. Then on out way to the beach, walking down the sidewalk we
encountered a completely naked man walking in the opposite direction??? Hmmm. Gross. Once at the beach we snacked, had lunch, laid out (properly lathered in the proper sunburn-preventative lotions this time) and caught up on vacation reading. After that we took a
very long walk on the boardwalk before heading back to our hostel for dinner and collapsing into bed.
Day 3
The previous night all of my roommates went out to paint the town red but I decided to be a good best friend and sleep early so I would be well rested to get Annie from the airport in the early AM. Collecting by best friend was soooo exciting! I still cannot believe that we are in Europe together. When we got back to the hostel my other roommates decided to take a long train ride to go hiking just outside the city...something jet lagged Annie was not up for so we unwound, unpacked a bit, and then slipped into out bathing suits and made our way to the beach. However, I messed up the directions completely and so it took us 4 hours to get there since we wandered through the streets, a family festival, and then I talked Annie into going to the zoo that we stumbled upon. I, for some weird reason, love love love zoos, I could spend all my days at the zoo. We saw almost everything, avoiding the fish for Annie's sake (she has an unusual fear of water-bound creatures). Once we left we finally made our way to the beach, relaxed, giggles profusely, and each got a fake tattoo drawn onto our feet that lasts like a week... I got a vine with a butterfly (of course) and she got a sparrow (of course). When we got back, got cleaned up and reconnected with the rest of the group, we all made and ate dinner in the hostel kitchen. We tried to go out to a fairy wonderland-esque themed bar that night but due to laundry and lack of energy complications, that failed and we all just went to bed.
Day 4
On our last day in Barcelona, before flying out to Nice, we visited the Sagrada familia which is a cathedral designed by Gaudi that STILL is under construction. Once built it will be the largest cathedral in the world, probably. This is the most beautiful and unique piece of architecture I have ever seen. I want to move into it and live there
forever. We also took the elevator to the top to see the colors and external architecture and the rest of the city...then made our way down the bajillion steps of the spiral taircase. For lunch we went back to the fresh food market so Annie could see it before going to the Parque Guelle that was also designed by Gaudi before flying to Nice.

Grandparents!! (&Papi)

Just as my sophomore year was coming to an end my grandma and grandpa came to Madrid for a visit!!! It was such an extra special treat because I hardly get alone time with them, let alone in a beautiful foreign country. It was also really cool because apparently in the 12 years that Ana and Juan have been host parents, not one of their students has ever had their grandparents visit them until me!
That first day I got up and met them at their hotel where they greeted me with not one, not two, but THREE BIG bags of Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!!! (And I am as surprised as the rest of u that I still have nearly 1.5 bags left for my Euro trip!!). After we caught up for a bit, while still trying to fight off jet lag, GM n GP decided it was time for lunch... Keep in mind that it was noon, and here nobody has lunch til 2 or 3, so it took a while to find somewhere that was even open, but alas we found a small tapas place around the corner from their hotel that agreed to serve us. Lunch here is nothing like lunch back home but we had fun and I thought the food was pretty good. Afterwards I got them back to their hotel where we hung out a bit more but by this point it took what seemed to be every ounce of strength and will power to keep their eyes open so I freed them of their conversational duties to relax and prepare for the next morning's tour of Madrid.
9am that next morning when I met GM and GP at their hotel lobby they were much more awake and were excited for this driving tour. Our tour guide was a very nice Spanish man, who speaks 6 languages!! We started out our tour with the bull fighting arena, seeing it from the outside and learning a bit about its history. Fortunately we all were in agreement that seeing an actual bull fight is not worth our time. Grandma didn't want to see either the bull or the matador get hurt, Javier (the guide) thought it was really boring, and I would probably pass out at the site of that much blood. After that we went to the major train station to look inside (which sounds weird, and well it kind of was) to see the plants they have that is similar to a mini-rain forest. I enjoyed checking out all the turtles that were in the fake pond, made me miss my turtle, Sharkbait, who reportedly has grown quite a bit since I left! On our way to our coffee/tea/ churros break we drove past the palace and noticed the 1/4 mile long lines that influenced our decision to not visit the insides later in the afternoon. At the churros place, Grandma and I each ordered a hot chocolate, only for it to come out as actual melted chocolate for dipping your churros into. (Btw that is how you eat a Spanish churro, it is not like the Mexican churros we have at carnivals and Disney Land back in the US...here it is a skinny churro, sans cinnamon or sugar, that u dip into hot, melted, thick chocolate... Mmmm mmmm mmmm, yummy!). Now I'm not entirely sure how this next bit happened but Javier convinced GM and GP to visit Toledo that afternoon with him, but since I still had a bit of Drawing homework left to do I was dropped off near my apartment to let them carry on for a few more hours. It seemed that Javier really just wanted the company for the afternoon since he had nothing else to do all day. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. When they came back we went to a restaurant for dinner called VIPS which is like a Red Robin and a Walgreens all in one. The only issue was that I was literally walking back from lunch when Grandpa called asking me to meet them for dinner in the next half hour. So needless to say I still hadn't figured out how to balance my eating schedule with them in town.
The next morning, Sunday, we went to the same Opera brunch that Mom, Aunt Med, a couple of my friends and I went to for Easter Sunday a few weeks prior. It was delicious and we were right next to the piano player who caught Grandma's eye. Haha. Afterwards we walked to Sol, the center of town right by my apartment, and showed them where they could spend some time while I had class the next day (my final class as a Sophomore!)

The next day, after my drawing class during which time GM and GP went shopping, we met up at the hotel to walk over for an early Spanish dinner (that I had stomach-aly prepared for!!).

9am the following day we went to Segovia with Javier... After a slightly rough start because my alarm didn't go off so I was running a few minutes behind, woops! We saw the castle that supposedly inspired Walt Disney when designing the castle for the Disney logo, or was it the Cinderella castle...? After coffee at a place that offered a beautiful view of the city we swung down to see the magnificent aquaducts before heading out of the city... At which time, again, Javier convinced us to visit yet another town outside of Madrid, Avila. We stopped to see a great view of that town before lunch and then visited the town's cathedral. I asked GM to light a candle for my Nana since I understood that since I'm not Catholic I'm not allowed to do it myself. By this point we had had a very long day and headed back to Madrid to quick meet Ana and Juan and see where I was living before saying goodbye until I visit Arizona this summer. I had such a great time with them and miss them so much. Grandma, Grandpa, if you are reading this.... THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VISITING ME!!!!

I am also going to add to the bottom of this blog the details of my dads visit because he was only in Madrid for about 16 hours...
Dad had a work-related event in Barcelona so on his way out he swung down here to see me before RaCiNg back to Saint Louis for Steven's 18th Birthday.
I met up with Dad at his hotel (the same one that Grandma and Grandpa AND Mom and Aunt Med stayed in so it was veeerrry familiar by this point). We had a drink with Vic and Christina (two people from Peabody that were with him for the thing in Barcelona) and then headed out to dinner at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world, where Mom, Aunt Med and I ate with Leticia. After stuffing ourselves full and having the most fun catching up, chatting, laughing etc, we went to Ana and Juans for a bit where they talked my dads ear off. I dropped off the Lucky Charms and Mac&Cheese that Dad brought me while I was there too. (We'll see how far into my Eurotrip I can make those last...). Before saying goodnight we wandered back to his hotel to had a Diet Coke, chat some more, and call Mom/ Steven. The next morning Dad swung by the apartment at 7:45am to take with him back to the US all of my luggage and a few of my friends things so I could just have my big backpack for the next 3 weeks. It was so sweet of him to do that for me so I got him, Vic and Christina each a Starbucks coffee. I said my goodbye (ending, of course, with the famous full-body wave goodbye that was passed down from my mom's side of the family, and my roommates Lisa and Mary helped me with it! Too funny!)
I'm going to have to say that saying goodbye to Dad was the hardest of any of my familial goodbyes from these past 4 months because he was gone before he even got there it seemed, I didn't get to prepare myself for his departure because I was still preparing myself for his arrival. I am really missing home right now but I am officially on my Eurotrip now, I leave for Barcelona tomorrow, and Annie joins me in 3 days so I am really excited about this trip but ready to go home!!

Lisbon, Portugal Trip

Two weekends ago I went to Lisbon, Portugal with 8 other of my friends (which was good practice for Euro-trip cause there will be 9 of us then too). We had a lot of fun but the trip had a bit of a rough start because our flight was at 7am, so we left the apartment at 5am... However I didn't realize until we got in the check-in line that I had forgotten my passport... So I quick jumped in a cab to go back and get it, but because of construction he couldn't figure out how to get there so I just jumped out a few blocks away and ran the rest of the way with my giant backpack. After I got my passport I stepped out onto the street just as an empty cab was passing it so screeched to a stop and raced be back to the airport after I explained why I was out of breath. I got there with plenty of time to wander around the terminal and get a breakfast snack, however.
We got to our hostel at around 9:45am but check-in wasn't until 2 so we grabbed our swim suits, hoping it would warm up, locked up our bags, grabbed a better breakfast, and headed off to the beach. I was nearly dead at this point because I was so tired but I shuffled along and was more than happy when we stopped at a McDonalds for a light lunch before finding the beach.
After lying out away from the water for a while, the boys that were with us decided it was unacceptable for me to not partake in the sandy/ freezing water festivities so proceeded to attack me covered in sand baring ice water filled Frisbees. While nearly painful, it was fun, but won't admit that to them. Haha
Now to preface this next bit, I have to say at 99% of the time I have a sunscreen fanatic, but for whatever reason, whether it back lack of sleep or the deceiving cold wind, I didn't think it was necessary to apply any anywhere except for my face, chest and stomach... Coincidentally enough ever other square inch of my skin got the worst burn that I've ever experienced in my life. Lesson Learned.
After escaping the beach Lisa, Liza and I found an amazing Indian restaurant that makes me miss eating Indian food with the Sood family back home. Afterwards we met up with the rest of the group and walked around the area a bit, checking out the other beaches and such before heading back to our hostel to officially check in. The hostel had the perfect set up for us, the top floor was just one big room with 9 beds and our own bathroom. That night Lisa and I attempted to make 'arroz cubana' (Cuban rice), a favorite dish of ours that Ana makes regularly for us. It didn't turn out the same but was pretty good. That night was really painful for my sunburns so I went out and bought a lotion for it that helped a lot. Not sure what I would have done without it, everything hurt.
The next day we walked around area around our hostel for a few hours, took a lot of pictures at this castle/ fortress/ tower thingy that was pretty cool until a crazy cat scratched me. just outside there was the most beautiful peacock trying to impress 2 lady peacocks, what a site. When we got back Lisa and I made some friends at the hostel and hung out with this girl who had been studying abroad in the UK and we made dinner together, simple yet delicious spaghetti
On our last day, before heading back to Madrid, we ventured on out to a town called Sintra where they have this mansion with the most amazing and beautiful grounds. There are caves and tunnels, paths and towers. We had a lot of fun climbing on everything and tossing the Frisbee around (including over a few ledges and into a gross green pond, and yes we managed to retrieve it every time somehow). Before getting back on the train to Lisbon we stopped for lunch, at Pizza Hut, haha. It was delicious though. Then we worked our way back to Madrid, sad that this was going to be our last trip as us all together. :(

Amit

I have decided that Amit should get is own blog since it seems that nearly everyone else has and since he is such a big part of my life, though I wonder if he'll even know that this post exists, not sure if he is an avid reader of my blog since I tell him everything that goes on anyways, we'll have to see....
I've really been missing him a lot these last four months, it's been hard but we have stayed strong. I figure if we can get through these 5 months we can get through just about anything that'll get thrown at us. This time away has made us stronger but I am excited to come home and be with him. Being apart has made us be creative with finding new ways to be romantic and Amit did the most amazing thing the other day, he organized it so we could have a nearly proper date! We got on video chat at the same time and I had dinner the same time that he had lunch. I wore a pretty dress and he a button up and tie. I made Liptons Chicken Noodle Soup that Steven brought over for me from the US during his visit (Amit and I tend to have that soup together a lot at my apartment) and he had something from a place called Crazy Bowls and Wraps which is where we went most often for lunch last semester. In view of the camera he set up a fake paper candle and e-mailed me a picture of a rose as if he had brought me a rose for our date. After we ate we both muted our audio and watched the season finale of Heroes that we had saved to watch together and then talked about how amazing it was after. (Back home we would always watch Heroes together). And in the end we had a cute coupled Q&A that we filled out... questions like 'what is your dream vacation?' 'What are five attributes of the other person that you admire most?' And 'describe something that you think is romantic' and for that last one both of our answers were "this date!". It was really cute. Also this date was on the 30th which is the date we started dating so technically it was out 2yr, 1 month anniversary! I love and miss you, Brown Bear! Just 1 more month!!

Mom & Aunt Medelice's Visit!!

This visit was my most relaxing despite how busy we were and how much we got done... see my Mom and Aunt Med were tipped off about this whole siesta thing we've got going on over here in this country and abused their siesta privileges... we took a very long nap every single day they were here. It was very needed. however, because both my Mom and I were sick from the beginning. Both of us had run ourselves down the week before and all my roommates were sharing the same sickness that I had hoped to dodge.

The whole trip I ended up staying in their room (they had an extra bed wheeled to the feet of their bed.. so needless to stay there wasn't much wiggle room will all the space the beds took up, but it was like a big slumber party all week!). Between my coughing, mom's coughing, and aunt med's ear plugs, my ear plugs and Mom's TV it all worked out very nicely.

Their first day in Madrid, pre-nap #1, the 3 of us had a really silly time catching up... you know what it's like when you get best friends together. I'm going to be honest and say that my mom maaaay have nearly peed her pants a little she was laughing so hard. We weren't able to get into our room after we went downstairs for a bit of breakfast and then we found out that the front desk thought that Medelice's name was Brian. We all nearly burst into tears when we just think about that first jet lag, illness stricken, goofy first morning. Later that afternoon we wandered around the city with an extra jacket (was a bit cooler that week than it should have been) and picked up my stuff from where I live so Mom n Med could meet Ana and Juan and any roommates that would be around the apartment. We first ran into Mary, Justin and Brandon who were just leaving the apartment after a big Easter parade we got caught behind that they had been watching from the balcony. Then we went in to meet Ana and Juan who were so excited to meet Mom and Med. Ana shooed me away so she could talk to them about me alone with her cute broken English (apparently had some nice things to say, I think I'm her favorite! haha shhh don't tell me other roomies). Juan communicated in what little English he knows (most of which is completely random words that he strings together, eg "one for tonight together tomorrow congratulations¨) and made his usual Juan jokes. After that we went out to try some Paella which became an adventure of it's own... both Mom n Aunt Med had an idea of what Paella is that turned out to be completely false. I also introduced them to croquettes and some Madrid Mojitos that afternoon.

Easter the next day was lovely, we had a yummy Easter Brunch at our hotel with Mary, Justin, Brandon and Dan as well after going to a Spanish mass where my four friends were called up to the front to read something out of the Bible in Spanish (well done Dan!).  Afterwards we tasted some typical Spanish sweets that are popular during Semana Santa (Easter week)... the one that Mom n Med picked out was a pastry with a hard boiled egg on it, and they figured that the white sprinkles on it would be salt, but alas it was sugar... gross!!! So I picked out a Torrija for them to try which the loved (it's basically a Spanish version of French toast).

One evening we went on a tapas tour with a lovely girl from the US, we had so much fun! Lisa's mom was also in town that same time and so that night we all got together for chocolate con churros which is a favorite Spanish dessert, however they were very disappointing because the churros were cold, colder than room temperature :-(

On one of the last days Mom and Med came to my dance practice which was unfortunatly also a bust because my instructor did not have my group practice until the last 15 minutes after waiting around for 1.25 hours! But we had fun earlier that day when we met up with Lisa, Justin, and Mary for lunch at a tapas bar near school where we got to have more typical Spanish food, including my mom's favorite... tortilla espanola.   That night we went to the oldest restaurant in the world (seriously! it's called Botin! look it up!) where we ran into someone famous (you'll have to ask Mom or Med who he was, some old new caster guy) and met up with Leti. 

We had so much fun watching movies every night and chit chatting all week. I miss you guys so much!! 

Steven´s Vists!!!

The days, weeks ever, preceding Steven´s arrival I was soooo excited, it was all I could talk about. Anyone around me, English or Spanish speaking, knew he was coming to visit. He isn´t very good at calling, skyping, or responding to emails so I really had hardly talked to him since I´d left.His plane arrived over an hour late which made me miss my Spanish class (no complaints) but made my miss out on 1 hours of Laura-Steven time (many complaints). When he finally did come out I nearly tripped jumping over the barrier to squeeze the life out of him via hug. Despite our excitement to see each other we spent the first few hours at our hotel napping, then we went out so he could see where I loved, meet my host parents etc etc. Ana was so excited to meet him she scared him with all of her squealing and touching and laughing, it was rather entertaining.The week before Stevens visit I was in Leeds, England visiting an old friend. While I was there I made friends with a couple of her friends who as it turns out were going to be in Madrid the same time Steven was, so we hung out with them (Jon and Suzie) most of the time Steven was there. I drug Steven to both of my dance classes, one of my drawing classes, and one of my Spanish classes. Of course he made friends everywhere he went. Also of course Steven demanded fast food whenever possible so Burger King became a frequent stop for us. haha. I made him try some Spanish foods, however. Together we watched a couple of movies at the hotel, played games, told jokes, etc. We took Jon and Suzie to a park one afternoon and soaked up the beautiful weather and got ice cream everyday. Steven and I had so much fun but his visit was much too short, it seemed as though he was gone before he even got here. I miss him more than I can describe in words. My little Esteban!!
Also, a little update about him... he now has TWO solos in the next choir performance he will be in!! Very exciting!!!!

Spring Break

So, yes, I am aware that spring break was forever ago... I have been really slacking on keeping this blog updated... sorry!

Aside from that one train station incident, spring break with Mandi was so much fun. Vienna was our first destination and Mandi got there a few hours before I did so she had time to recuperate from her jet lag, and that first night we just stayed in and relaxed, caught up on each others lives. It was really nice because I don´t get to see her nearly as often as I´d like. That next day we ventured out into the city, unaware of exactly where we should be heading so we started walking, of course in the wrong direction, but it was a nice day so it was alright. Eventually we found our way into the center of the city and by no surprise to anyone, we went shopping. Ended up having a glass of not so tasty wine at the top of the building that gave us a great view of the rest of the city. The night we tried to go out but the place we were directed to was too busy so we just went to bed.
The next day we went to a little grocery store to get foods for breakfast and snacks which lead to how we lived off of sliced bread, challah, pretzels, peanut butter and honey for the next few days. There was one entertaining incident where we were getting on the metro but the doors closed before Mandi could get on and both of my phones were about to die so I simply got off at the next station to wait for the train that Mandi would be on, however, once that train finally got there I couldn´t figure out which cart she was in until it was too late so i just jumped in a random one and caught up to her eventually. That night we managed to go out and dance which was a lot of fun and interesting to see what night life ¨Vienna style¨ was like.
The most touristy thing we did was tour the Schrobburn Palace which was amazing and so interesting, we really learned a lot. That afternoon we went to Prague and you all know how the process of getting there went...
Prague itself, however, was amazing. Our first day there we had a 6 hour private tour with a lovely young tour guide who showed us everything we´d ever like to see. It was a bit cold that day but we had the most wonderful time. The castle was a bit of a let down because we were tired, couldn´t see that much, and the chuch on the grounds was closed for a special service, but we covered almost every inch of the major parts of town and leaned a lot about the town´s history. One of the most interesting parts was the Jewish quarters and the Jewish cemetery. Later that night we went out and were surprised to see that the way people dance in Prague is unlike anything you´d see in the states, it was very weird but entertaining.
The next day we tackled the city on our won, again attempted shopping but had no luck, but did find some great food. The best was that night for dinner when we found a sushi restaurant that served the best eel roll I´ve ever eaten in my life, I would go back to Prague just for the sushi, no joke.
My favorite part of spring break though, hands down, was that I got to spend so much time with Mandi!

Prague Train Station

I will write about the rest of my Spring Break adventures later, but right now I have to dedicate this entire entry to how scary today was.

Just for a bit of background for those non-family members who don't know... Mandi is my 22 year old cousin who came to Europe to spend our Spring Break together in Vienna and Prague.

This afternoon Mandi and I took an afternoon train from Vienna that got us to Prague a few minutes after 8:00pm and all was fine until we got off the train.  It started out with a creepy guy stalking us for a few minutes while we were trying to find our way from the train to the main part of the building where we could hail a cab to take us to our hotel.  Merely seconds after we lost him another man came up to us asking if we needed a cab ride or a place to stay.  After declining his more than creepy and inappropriate offer we began to notice how dirty and unorganized this train station was. Mandi had survived the station a few days prior when getting from Prague (where she landed from the US) to Vienna and remembered where the cab dropped her off so we wandered up there, dragging our unnecessarily heavy bags up and down the stairs, and steering clear from the many other sleazy individuals that prowled the station.  When we came close enough to see where we thought we were supposed to find a cab we turned back because it was literally a dark ally with no signs anywhere.  Still determined to find a legitimate cab, we trekked back down the stairs to the main level and ended up within eye shot of a larger road but still there were no cabs and the curb was too far away and too scary that we didn't want to venture out there alone.  At this point, being thoroughly frustrated and scared we decided to call our hotel to ask for help, maybe the name of a legitimate cab company but they were not answering the phone which makes them seem unreliable and not like a place we would want to be going.  So I found a few police officers that were patrolling the station (rather poorly I might add because there were too many suspect individuals for it to be an okay situation) and asked them where would be the best place for us to find a safe cab... and on the mention of 'safe cab' the police officer actually laughed at me, but then pointed us back up to where we had originally thought to go.  So we figured we'd try it, so up the stairs we went, again, and out into the unlit ally that was being soaked by the the frigid rain... A man came up to us wearing a TAXI cab hat and asked us if we were looking for a cab, so we thought he might be legit because of the police officer's guidance and followed him a few feet.  He moved a gate across to reveal the trunk of a car that he opened, ready to put our luggage in.  We then saw that there was no taxi light sign on the top of his car and so asked him what the cab number was, he was confused so we asked again and he said '4' with uncertainty.  Cab numbers are longer than that.  We realized what was going on and quickly turned around, to avoid being kidnapped.  Once we got back inside I noticed that the man had followed us and started to pick up the pace, we were nearly ready to break into a full out jog before he finally stopped following us and I am sure he only did because we were more in a public area once we got through the hall way.  I fear that he would have actually kidnapped us had we gotten in his car and we would have lived our own version of 'Taken' (that movie that recently came out about someone being kidnapped by a fake cab driver in a foreign European country).

That was the final straw, and it honestly took everything I had to stay relatively calm.  I proceeded to call my parents to ask them what to do, we had no idea how to get out of the train station and to our hotel, basically alive. While calling both my parents and the hotel we followed the police officers around to stay safer.  Honestly the ratio of creepy people to non creepy people in the nearly abandoned train station was about 4-1.  My mom was THANKFULLY able to help us out, and more than we could have ever imagined, she called another hotel that she felt was a lot more reliable and booked us a room there and had them send a driver to pick us up.  And not merely pick us up, but find us in the station so we wouldn't have to wait outside all alone and in possible danger.  My mom got it arranged so we had to wait at this specific well lit area inside the station that the hotel concierge knew of after giving a description of what we were wearing so the guy could spot us, and when the guy did come he had a sign with Mrs. Boyce written on it so we would KNOW he was the real deal.  I have never been more excited to see my name on a piece of paper.

Now Mandi and I are SAFE and about to go to bed in our new, SAFE hotel after eating a good, SAFE meal in our SAFE robes and watching the results on my computer for last nights American Idol.  :-)

While we got off to a rough start with Prague, I still am confident that we will have an amazing rest of our trip, we have a personal guided tour in the morning and cannot wait to write all about it and the rest of our (much more positive) experiences.

I'm Sick, and Homesick

I'm sick, have been sick since Saturday... and this is my 4th time being sick since I've been here

1) was sick right before I left and couldn't stop coughing for weeks after I got here cause of all the smoke so it took a while for me to get better

2)food poisoning from expired yogurt (never eating foreign yogurt again)

3)was sick 2 weeks ago, aches, fever, bla

4)started out on Saturday with what I thought was food poisoning again this time from Chinese food, but a friend got the exact same thing and he didn't get sick, and the sickness didn't go away so I figured it was the stomach flu, which  I still think it is, but I also think I caught something else too cause I don't think the stomach flu is supposed to last this long

Now I just need to be all better cause Spring Break technically starts for me at 5:45pm today because that is when my last class for the week ends!

But on top of that all, being sick makes me want comfort foods and comforting people and such and so it is making me homesick!!

Speaking of homesick, it has led me to create this..

Countdown

I am abroad for 147 days...

March 9 is the date that I'll have been here 2/5 of the time...(also my first full day in Vienna with Mandi!)

March 24 is the 1/2 date (Steven arrives!) (also 6 days before Amit's and my 2 year anniversary!)

April 7 is the 3/5 date (3 days before Mom and Aunt Med arrive!)

April 17 is the 2/3 date (Mom and Aunt Med leave)

April 29 is the 3/4 date (1 day before Grandparents arrive!)

May 6 is the 4/5 date (1 day before my final exam, yes singular)

May 11 is the 5/6 date (Dad visits, hopefully)

 

But I am thinking that this homesickness will be easier because... in 1 day I move in with Leti for the weekend...

Then I go to Vienna and Prague with Mandi...

8 days later Steven comes in town...

2 weeks after he leaves, Mom and Aunt Med come to Madrid...

6 days after they leave, I go to Lisbon...

3 days after I get back, Grandma and Grandpa come to visit...

5 days after they leave, Dad might come and visit...

1 day after he leaves, I start my Eurotrip and Annie is coming to join in on it 3 days in!! (And maybe Amit too, but only maybe maybe maybe, probably not, hopefully, maybe maybe)

3 weeks later, I'm home!

Drama a la casa

At the beginning of this week there was a lot of drama here at the Anton household... as you know there are 7 girls living here, but there is one, Boyana, who most of us have not learned to like.  She is one of the girls that goes to the other school, is a freshman, but a very immature freshman, very selfish and rude, etc.  

So what happened was, as it turns out, Boyana ate some tuna in her room a few days before the drama happened (keep in mind we are not allowed to eat in our rooms in the first place) and the oil from the can spilled on the floor  and since she didn't know how to clean it up off the floors (old old floors) she just left it there.  The room started to smell like fish so her roommate told Ana about it and then they discovered the spill that was a few days old.  Ana had to wash everything in that room because everything smelled like warm, rotting fish.  So this discovery happened when Boyana was not home, so when Mary and I came home from the gym Ana was yelling and banging things around in Boyana's room and complaining to anyone who would listen.  Then once the mess was cleaned up, Ana came into the room where all the rest of us girls were together talking about how angry Ana was and how inconsiderate Boyana had been. So Ana was talking to us about the situation and how Boyana was either stupid or insensitive.  Then she found out a lot of other stuff that Boyana has done over these past 6 weeks... she steal our food all the time and does not pay us back (ate my entire jar of peanut butter in one weekend while I was in Valencia) and steals our food off our plates at dinner, is really snotty, says mean stuff behind Ana and Juan's back to us in English so Juan cannot understand, is really loud in the middle of the night and keeps me awake because I sleep on the other side of her wall, etc etc, the list goes on.  This only made Ana more mad to find out all of this stuff and wants to kick her out... then Boyana comes home... after Ana was done with her we had dinner and it was a really awkward meal. 

Now if Boyana has one more slip up, Ana is going to talk to the housing director at Boyana's school and ask to have her relocated.

Drama, drama, drama

So I'm not a teenager anymore.. and some other stuff

I've been 20 for 2 weeks now and I'm still really excited about it.  I feel like I've accomplished something bug, like I've worked my butt off to get to his point and know that I deserve to be here. :-)

My birthday was a lot of fun, almost everyone remember it (haha) and one friend here gave me a Justice League puzzle and about 15 feet of bubble wrap!  I also got some Reeses Cups from my roommate (my favorites!). Unfortunately the BEAUTIFUL flowers my  parents, Steven and Windsor sent me have died but I dried the roses which now hang in my room over the window.

I was Mary's (my closest friend here/roommate) birthday on the 2nd as well and we got all dressed up and grabbed our friends and headed out to our favorite bar, Moores (which is basically our McLaren's for all of you know know HIMYM), and celebrated for a few hours.

I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes and thoughtful gifts and cards!  I love and miss you all!!

 

I also have a few more updates but I don't want to have to make a whole separate blog post for them...

1) My drawing teacher is still driving me crazy

2) Despite said teacher... I am really proud of my work thus far

3) Just got back from the Bask country (northern Spain), the food was delish but the trip was kinda awkward because it ended up being a Society of Jesus retreat, but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot!

4) Dinner at my host parents is more amazing everyday, I am starting to write down recipes.

5) When we (Lisa, Mary and I) got back from our trip we saw that Ana had rearranged our rooms to an extent... which is weird because she took a HUGE shelving unit out of Lisa's and Mary's room and put it in mine... now there is not enough room for me to get into my room without getting behind the desk to close the door first... and I dont need this unit at all cause I have a good sized closet... and Lisa and Mary were using it... so we don't know how to nicely let her know that we don't like this new arrangement and that it would be better if the unit went back into their room.

6) I have a Spanish midterm tomorrow that I need to be studying for... so off I go!

Valencia

This past weekend I had the most fun I've had since I've been here. A group of 7 of us (Mary, Lisa and Maria (my 3 favorite roommates), Justin (Mary's boyfriend), Dan and Andy (2 of Justin's roommates)) went to Valencia, Spain.  On Friday morning we had to get up at 4am to get the airport for the 7am flight and we all stayed up pretty late the night before packing and being excited... so needless to say Friday was a long day.

We sat on the runway waiting to take off for about a half hour after we were supposed to have left and we could hear someone sawing something on the plane, very unnerving, and then we finally took off.  Once we got in, got our bags, got to the hostel and got checked in it was not even 11am yet and we were not allowed into our rooms until 1pm so we locked up our bags and went out to explore the town.

The architecture in Valencia is out of this world, almost literally, its futuristic looking and everything is so beautiful.  we were about to walk over this bridge to head towards the beach but decided to go  below the bridge instead cause its over this huge long long park.  Our first stop was at this big rope climbing thing that was so much fun, it looked like a pointy spiders web, I have a lot of pictures on facebook for everyone to see.  After that we saw a lot of fountains that the boys decided to jump over, orange trees that had sour, lemon tasting oranges (apparently it is not recommended to eat those, woops!).  After that we found a  huge climbing thing with ropes and slides and stairs and it was actually a plastic man so it was like we were little mice running all over him, it was a lot of fun. After that we walked around the pathways of the beautiful park and then went to lunch at a small little place in a corner with great great food.

After that we made our way to the beach and then headed back to the hostel for a long nap before dinner at a Chinese restaurant (i know i know, we go all the way to Valencia to have Chinese, but it was really good and really cheap, haha). After that we were all so tired still that we went back to bed so we could get up early the next morning.

On Saturday we got breakfast (where I made a promise to myself to face my fear of sharks... it'll make since in a minute) and then headed out to the museum area that we had passed the day before down by the beach, it was a rainy day so it was perfect to indoor activities.  We first went to what was basically a big science center.  It was pretty interesting, learned some new cool stuff, saw a baby chick hatch, learned that I cannot jump very high, saw a three legged rooster, built an arch, and passed out in Captain America's arms.  Then we went to Europe's largest aquarium which was awesome, saw just about every water animal I could think of including beluga whales, walruses, flamingos, penguins, sea horses, eels, sharks, etc etc.  Speaking of sharks.. I am violently afraid of them, to the point where when I saw them on Saturday in the tank that was surrounding us I ran out crying (pathetic, I know, but the story has a happy ending), but then a friend came out to see if I was okay and helped me work up the courage to go back in to face my fear  which I did and I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of them and followed one around! So proud of myself! Whoo hoo!!!

That night we found a lovely little restaurant that served great wine and the best paella I have ever had, it was amazing, and worth the number at the bottom of the bill (so glad we had saved our money the night before at the Chinese restaurant). That night was a lot of fun, we stayed up at the hostel telling jokes and laughing all night.

We slept in that morning before having to check out at noon, but our flight wasn't until 9:40 so we again locked up our bags and went out to explore.  We were all really tired but walked around all day, trying to stay dry, had some oranges (regular this time around) which is what Valencia is known for (oh my goodness they were delish!).  That day was pretty relaxing, went to a different Chinese place for lunch and then headed to the airport early which ended up being a really good idea because our flight was canceled but they put us on an earlier flight which ended up being perfect.

Valencia is hands down my favorite part of Spain I have been to so far, if anybody ever visits Spain, you have to go to Valencia. Amazing!!!

Oh I almost forgot to say that this trip was in celebration of mine and Mary's birthday, (Mary's birthday is actually also February 2nd... what are the odds??).

Things I Miss... in no imparticular order

1) Steven

2) Mom n Dad

3) Amit

4) Annie

5) All the rest of my friends and family

6) Windsor Baby!

7) My big bed at my apartment

8) Pasta

9) Hot sauce

10) Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

11) Smarties

12) Snow days

13) Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

14) Chili

15) Mexican food  (its really interesting how in America you can get just about any type of food you want no matter where you are, but here, finding Mexican or Italian or American food is nearly impossible.  It's Spanish food all the time, which, don't get me wrong, is yummy, but I'm used to changing it up)

16) Movie theatres

17) Crazy Bowls and Wraps

18) Lucky Charms

19) St. Louis in general

But no worries, I'm NOT coming home! I love love love love it here!

Toledo

So today we went on a trip to Toledo, with some kids from school, and we started out driving around in a bus with the tour guide explaining the history of Spain (with the Muslims, Christians and Jews) which I had already studied do I was really interested in seeing where it all took place.  There are so many beautiful bridges, churches, cathedrals and castles everywhere. After Madrid became the official capital of Spain everybody from Toledo started moving there and somehow (it was hard to hear everything the tour guide said) that lead to just about every building being given to the church and turned into another cathedral or church or something which made for some pretty interesting times back in the day.

Toledo is hands down the most beautiful part of Spain i have seen so far, I will snatch some pictures from my roommate Mary and put them up when I can (I'd have my own but my camera battery died, need to charge that tonight).  After the bus part we got out and walked around to see all the churches and such for a few hours and it was raining the entire time.  I was really glad that my mom bought me a dorky pancho and that I brought it as well as my umbrella, cause I stayed so dry and I helped keep my new friend Andy dry too who's shoes and socks and jacket were basically soaked for a while there.

So aside from the cold everything was amazing, we ate some marzipan (yuck in my opinion, but everyone else loved it) which is something Toledo is known for and then saw some MORE churches and then an old synagogue... at the entrance to this synagogue there is an x-ray machine for your bags, and it was already a convoluted experience trying to close my umbrella, take off the poncho, and then take off my bag but to top off my goofy-looking-ness... My scarf (unknown to me) was wrapped around the handle of my bag and pulled me into the x-ray machine for a second, yes, I'm a doofus.

From that point on we were all pretty much just set free to do whatever, we saw El Greco, found some lunch, a big, scary, evil, barking dog scared the living daylight out of me and caused me to jump over about ten people, ate some more marzipan, and then finally got back to Madrid in time for dinner.

So I have a Spanish quiz in the morning so I'm going to go study for that now...

Love you all!

p.s. make comments so I know people are actually reading these!

Art class vent...

So I'm going to take this opportunity to vent about my art class... more specifically, my art teacher...

So this guy is really skilled and nice and what not, speaks no English but I like that because it forces the class to use Spanish the entire time...

BUT...

he is starting to drive me crazy.  He is really specific about how he wants us to do some things which are really individual and not fair to make us do (metaphor: making someone tie their shoes the bunny ears way when they are used to the standard shoe lace knot which works just as well and makes no difference what. so. ever) and then he DRAWS ON MY PIECES!! I cannot stand it, its not right, its not okay, he needs to stop.  He likes to take pieces during class from us and show the rest of the class how we're doing, what advice to give, what the next step is if we are ahead.. and normally I am ahead cause I always get right to work to try and get it over with.. and he'll start drawing all over my work, and I need to figure out a way to handle this guy before I flip out. haha. so any suggestions would be grand  ;-)

Segovia, el Rastro y Leticia

Segovia...

I went to Segovia this past weekend for a day with about 50 other students from SLU Madrid and I put up pictures from it on facebook so go check them out.  Since Segovia is more south than Madrid it was really cold, I couldn't feel my fingers for most of the afternoon, but it was worth it because Segovia is absolutely beautiful.  We visited the castle that inspired Walt Disney when he created the Disney logo and it looks a lot like the castle at the Disney parks.  my other favorite site in Segovia is the aquaducts, the Romans were in Segovia when they were basically taking over the world and built this aquaduct that brings fresh, drinkable water through all of Segovia.  For lunch we found this little restaurant that had the most amazing food.

El Rastro...

Also this weekend I went with my roommates to el Rastro which is Europes largest flea market.  It is crazt there, we were there for a few hours and still did not manage to see everything.  You can get just about anything at this flea market.  We each got a new hat and I got a new pair of boots, total = <20>

Leticia...

The pest part of my weekend was seeing the girl who stayed at my house for a few weeks as a foreign exchange student 4 summers ago.  She is from Madrid and her name is Leticia, or Leti.  I brought two of my roommates and she brought her best friend and the five of us went out on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed catching up with her.  I think I'm going to be hanging out with her a lot while I am studying here.  This coming weekend I'm going to her house so her parents can meet me, they really want to make me a 'thank-you-for-having-our-daughter-at-your-house-four-years-ago dinner'.

Gotta go now, I have a lot of spanish homework due tomorrow and I'm not used to having a class every day so I have to do it the night of, basically right after class.

Love to everyone!

p.s. I got to talk to most of my family (2 grandparents, 2 parengs, 2 uncles, 2 cousins, 1 aunt, 1 brother and 1 kitty) last night on Skype and I really really enjoyed it! I miss you all tons!  Everyone needs to get Skype so I can talk to you all more often! Facebook or e-mail me your Skype names, please! ]

Mis Clases

So now that I have had all of my classes I can tell you all about them...

1st off my class schedule this semester is pretty easy, all the teachers, students, administrators, everyone says to take study abroad semesters easy...

I have Spanish Monday through Thursday every morning at 10am and I really like it, there are only about 15 people in the class so we are going to be a close, tight-knit group, the teacher is a lot of fun and there is not a lot of homework because it is an oral class but that means that there is a lot more responsibility on ourselves to learn and practice everything, but that's okay since we are actually in Spain and are practicing all the time anyway.  I have also made a few friends in the class already so I'm really excited and like it a lot

I also have a drawing class which I think will be interesting... however my first class was actually freezing because they had yet to install the heaters... the teacher does not know any English so if I get lost I am worried I will just stay lost, but the class should be fun if I can get my head into a more creative state.

My last class is dancing, which I absolutely love, this class is also entirely in Spanish but am not worried about it because I already have a background in the Salsa and Merengue and can move my hips! haha

No I am not only in 3 classes, I am in two others but they are online, one public speaking class which is not difficult but very interesting, and the other has yet to start for me because my professor messed up and did not register me for the class (for SLU online classes the teacher registers the students) so he is trying to fix that now, hopefully I will be able to do some work tomorrow.

Okay, so since I don't have class tomorrow I am up late, but should be getting to bed.  Goodnight!!

Cure for the Cough

I really don't want to over load this page with too many blogs, at least I don't want my postings to be too frequent, but I just have to share this...

So I was sick all last week and all I have left of it is this stupid cough, which normally isn't too bad but sometimes it sounds like I am about to hack up a fur ball or maybe even an entire lung... which scares my host parents, so tonight after dinner my friend Mary comes in to see if I'm okay, and as she's walking out my host mom walks in with two clementines (sp?) and says that they will help my throat, and as see is walking out my host father walks in with a bag (I assumed they were couch drops) but they were really those small peach candy circles and when I asked if he thought they would help he said (in spanish) "they help everything!"  and later he came back in with some chocolate for me, so cute!

I love my host parents!

By the way, yesterday there were 3 other girls (students) living here besides me, and as it turns out there is supposed to be a total of 7, and one of the 3 missing girls showed up today finally, she is really sweet, a freshman, but I cannot remember her name.

And I love my other roommates so far!

I Love Ana and Juan

I could not have had a better welcome into my new home...

I got a taxi from the airport with my two large (read: overweight) bags, my carry ons AND pillow and got dropped of at campus (where I ran into an orientation group that I was supposed to be in but was 3 hours late for because of the airline mess from yesterday).  I looked like a fool with all of my stuff trying to haul it into the Student Life building but finally made it (feeling rather alone and confused) and was shoved into the last hour of an orientation tour.  They were then re-grouping and heading out to a 5 hour tour of somewhere in Spain, but I knew I would never make it so one of the Student Life administrators helped me call my host family (Ana Anton and Juan Velmazan) and get a cab to my new home...

So I pull up to the front of the building and I am not even out of the cab yet when a woman comes rushing up to me almost in hysterics she is so excited, and it is my new host mother, Ana, she is absolutely wonderful.  Wearing a big green fuzzy hooded coat she grabs my overweight bags from my hands and rushes me up to the elevator, talking so fast (in spanish) (but I hung on and understood what she was saying, yay me!) and hugging me every chance she got.  Then we get up to the 5th floor and standing in the doorway is Juan, this adorable bald man in a fancy suit with a hot pink shirt with white cuffs and collar and a black and pink tie.  He wrapped me up in his arms and gave me a tour of the apartment, which is so unbelievably charming (I will take and post pictures as soon as possible).  There are 2 doubles and 1 single room, so my friend Mary and Lisa are in one room, Maria and another girl are in the other double, and I have my own room. It is very small but it is perfect for just little me. 

I figured I would update you all with my excitement and let you know I am safe in Madrid.

Off to take a nap now  (this bed is so comfortable!)

Official 1st Post about Spain...

... or rather the Chicago airport....

I was supposed to be going to sleep in about a half hour, in my new bed for the next 5 months, in Spain... but no... i'm in the Chicago airport...

Yesterday I get to the StL airport, all ready to go, half of me filled with excitement and the other half, sad to say goodbye to family and friends.  Then my 10:20am flight was delayed to 11:15, then canceled all together, so I got moved to the 12:40 flight, that got delayed to 2:25, then canceled all together, along with all other flights into Chicago that day... So I got my bags and went home.

Today was like the movie Groundhogs Day... if you have not seen it, Bill Murey is a reporter or something and is doing a report about Groundhogs Day but he's basically a big Groundhogs Day scrooge and so the universe basically makes him repeat the day over and over and over and over again until he learns his lesson to be nice... So it was a huge de ja vu (spelling?) this morning when I re-did everything.  Only this time I DID make it to Chicago...

But I get here only to find that my flight to Madrid is delayed from 4:45-5:55, not too bad, and I made a friend which makes this lay over less boring.   This girl I met, also named Laura, is also going to SLU Madrid and was on my flight yesterday that got canceled.  So we have been hanging out this entire time and she is a lot of fun.  Yay friends!  haha  She is a Psychology major and Spanish minor, very cool.  And as it turns out we are in the same dance class in Spain!

Okay.. going to get a bite to eat before boarding the plane to Madrid... 8 hrs that I need to spend sleeping so my sleep schedule is not messed up when I land at 9:00am spain time (2:00am StL time)

List of Things I Want To Do Before I Leave for Spain

Have lunch with Annie at Oishi

See Marley and Me

See Bedtime Stories

See Bride Wars

Build a snowman

Go sledding

Go shopping with steven

Watch an old black and white movie

Make Salse

Shopping girl day with Annie and Allison