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.