el mes final

Right before May started we had a meeting talking about how we need to prepare ourselves to leave. The meeting seemed so early and so stressful when we still had a month left here! We still had plenty of time to get everything done! I will say that while I got a whole lot of things done, this time has flown by like none other. My goodness its May 24th and I leave this wonderful country in 6.5 hours. No worries, this is not my last post to say goodbye to yet another thing but to look back on what all I've done and why I haven't been blogging.

Before I talk about this month in Granada, my program did take one last trip together to Sevilla, which is a little northeast of Granada. It was another prominent city in both the Roman times and the Arabic times. It was one crazy fast day trip where we spent the same amount of time in the bus as we did in the city--6 hours each. But thats alright because we did Sevilla up right. We saw the Plaza Espana where Star Wars Attack of the Clones was filmed. While that was cool and all, the actually plaza itself was overwhelmingly colorful and brilliant! Each autonomy had its own mural, there was a small river canal with pretty little bridges over it, and the railings were covered in paintings. We had yet another gorgeous day so the sun shone off everything oh so brightly. We also saw the outside of the Cathedral which is the biggest in Spain. Although I haven't seen all of the cathedrals, I'll sure vouch that it was the biggest one I had seen. Lastly we went to Sevilla's own "Alhambra" called the Real Alcazar. It was in now way as impressive as Granada's but it still was cool to see all of the decoration of the walls and everything.

This month has mostly consisted of experiencing Granada and making sure to spend the most amount of time with my family and my friends who aren't heading back to Central in the fall. I went to the beach, the mountains, the dance clubs, the bars, the Albaysin, and even part of the Alhambra for one last time. There we so many hellos and firsts that had to be done before I could say goodbye.

One of the things I had to get done on my to do list was to 'ir de marchas' like a Spaniard. This means to go out all night and proceed to still make it for churros in the morning. I'd just like to say mission accomplished. A couple friends and myself decided the best day to do it was the night we got back from Sevilla because we slept on the bus to and fro Sevilla so we had our naps in. Therefore once we got home it was dinner time and then time to get ready. We were out again by 1130. We first went up to the Albayzin to take in the Alhambra at night. That sight never gets old. From there we went to the dance club that's semi near by and danced the night away from 1:45 until 6:30am. Crazy I know. While it seems like a long time it went by pretty quickly. It was cool to see the dance floor change from the American style music to the Spanish style the later (or earlier) it got. I will admit that at 5:00am it was the worst because all these people came out of no where and no one could dance. There was just pushing and drunks all around and I was tempted to bail out then but I held strong and after about 15 minutes all was well again. 6:30am comes around and we walk down to Cafe Futbol to have our churros and coffee. It was delicious but I was definitely gone by then. The only problem consisted of that when I got home at 8:00am, I had to be back out in Granada at 10:15am to have my last intercambio at a museum. Therefore instead of going back to sleep, I got on Facebook and stayed up until I had to leave again. The museum was pretty cool with all of its exhibits (I saw a whale heart!) by the last couple rooms I was a walking zombie. Finally after lunch, I was able to take a nap at 4:00pm. Its been a long time since I've pulled an all nighter but it still was a blast and quite the accomplishment. (Mandy has the final picture of us at Cafe Futbol dead tired; I plan on having a full blog of just the pictures I missed out on)

While that was my main goal, I still went to that dance club and another one a couple more times because it was fun and something to do. I had a week off from classes between the last class and my exams (they thought we'd be using that time to study or something...) so I used those days to relax, go to the beach, and go to the mountains. Get this! I skied. Yep, it was the middle of May and I'm up in the mountains skiing. Granted the area wasn't that big nor was there much of an incline but I'm still tacking it up that I've skied in Europe. The best part of this was that the previous day I had been sunbathing at the beach. It was that day at the beach too that I took my first real dip into the Mediterranean Sea since the water wasn't overly cold. I went one more time to the beach with my host family and got the experience of diving off of a rock into the Sea. Sure it wasn't a cliff dive, but it was still pretty cool.

One last pretty cool thing I did in Granada was have my own 'Tulip Time.' After hearing/seeing everyone's statuses about tulip time, Renee and I wanted to have our own. Since last year we went out and took pictures, we continued the tradition of going out this year to take pictures...only in Granada there are no Tulips (que pena!). There are a lot of Roses though so we called our time a rato de rosas (time of roses but it keeps the whole same letter thing going one). It was a lot of fun! We may have got some weird looks, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves.

family is family no matter pais

Hello hello hello! I apologize again for the delayed blog post. This last month I have been living life up in Granada (you will hear about in another post coming soon!) and have therefore been neglecting my blog. But alas! I am hear to tell you about my Spring Break because I finally got the pictures from my host mom and from Mandy--my camera and I were having relationship problems during Spring Break because I forgot my memory card for the first part of it and the second part of it, it decided to die and I had forgotten my charger plug. Because I have so many photos, they will be dispersed throughout. The stories will follow but they may be ahead or behind the photos.


My Spring Break was fantastic! I traveled from Cañar, Spain to Lanaden, Belgium to Maastrict, Holland to Ghent, Belgium to Brussels, Belgium to Neustadt, Germany. While it surely sounds like a lot of places, I promise it was a very relaxing trip! Mandy and I actually traveled from family to family without ever once having to stay in a hostel--that's where the title of this post came from. I was talking to a man in Canar about being with my host family and he, in his broken English, says family is family no matter pais (country). It described my Spring Break entirely. It was so nice to be with families again and to obtain that homey feeling.

My Spring Break started off in Cañar, Spain because my host family had invited me there with them because there was going to be a big birthday party for my host dad since he was turning the grand 5-0. We went to Cañar, a small pueblo and hour and a half outside of Granada in the Alpujarras mountain range, because my host dad owns two houses that he not only rents out for vacations but also has land up there cultivating different types of fruits and vegetables. It was fascinating to be in a house type of place since almost all of Granada is apartments. 


The first day we were there (Friday) I helped my host mom decorate the barn and kitchen with balloons and streamers. That night people started showing up for dinner and the party started. From then on I believe the slogan eat, drink, and be merry applies. Taking out the time for sleeping, people were eating,drinking, and conversing from the time they arrived until the time they left on Sunday. It was so much fun! It was great to not only be there but to also be included in conversations.
 On Friday night I was asked to why I was in Spain practicing Spanish if I wanted to be a math teacher. I was so happy that my Spanish vocab and capability was up high enough for me to not only explain why I wanted to but to explain how I could do this job in other countries or even in my hometown. He told me he was impressed on how much I knew on the topic! I was impressed I was able to tell him. After that I made sure to follow the other conversations because I'm almost to the point of understanding everything fluently (just maybe not speaking fluently). So I proceeded to jump in on a conversation about Facebook and its security problems when I could. 


The next day at breakfast I spoke with just some of the women who were up and they proceeded to speak a little slower for me to understand which was especially nice for in the morning my Spanish (and English) is normally shot until I've had some coffee. After breakfast, one of Fernando (host dad)'s nieces named Marina arrived and even though she was 13, we hit it off. She thought I was cool to be American and 20 and I was just glad someone wanted to talk to me and would be more patient with my lack of Spanish because she also had Spanish difficulties at time (way less than me though) because she has been living in France for most of her life. Together we helped the women make these delicious desserts called Roscas. They're similar to a cake donut in a way but soooooo much better. I lost count of how many I ate they were so scrumptious. I'm going to have to figure out how to make those babies. Anyway continuing on, the rest of the day was also spent eating, drinking, playing games with Marina, Adrian, and another cousin, and conversing. I never once felt left out. I one time was sitting off by myself (because everyone I had been with randomly disappeared) and just observing all that was going on and was so joyful to be there. About this time, a man came up to me who was a Physics professor and started examining the small fountain I was sitting by. I asked him what he was looking at and we proceeded to have a conversation about Math in Spanish! My heart just wanted to explode with confetti from celebrations! I couldn't believe my luck. About this time, Marina comes back and asks why I didn't go with them. I told her I didn't know they had left and she said well look! I look up and what do I see? A DONKEY! No joke. My little brother and older sister are riding a donkey as my host mom and host sister's boyfriend walk beside it. It was one of the most hilarious sites to see. Feliz Cumpleaños Fernando! Saturday Night was probably one of my most favorite times with my parents. At this point them and most of their friends were at least tipsy and were just grooving to the music. Soon though they actually started dancing with each other and it was one of the most precious and coolest things too seen. It was a great sight to see my host parents smiling and laughing and everything too. It was just a perfect moment. 


Sunday consisted much of the same with playing games, eating, drinking, and saying 'sup burro' everytime I passed the donkey. It was the best way I could have started my Spring Break and really gotten closer with my family. 

Monday morning I met up with Mandy and we started our journey to Belgium. Luckily travel went quite smoothly and we met Sue in the airport without any troubles. It was so great to see her there and so odd because I hadn't realized it had been over 3 years since I had seen her last. For those of you who don't know, Sue is a missionary from the Muscatine church of Christ in Ghent, Belgium. She and I not only went to church together but also worked together in the infamous Quality Cobbler. She helped us continue our travel from the podunk airport in "Brussels" to Lanaken, Belgium where the Raabs live. The Raabs is another missionary family that the church in Muscatine supports. Whenever they come back to town to visit, they always stay in my house and so it was really cool to turn the tables and stay in their house. What was funny though was that my parents had just gone to their house also when they did their big Europe travel so I was able to hear all the stories from them. They have two sons, Sean and Stephen, around my age but Stephen is in college in the states, so it was cool to hang with Sean again. After the long day of travel, we just hung out at their house, Shirley quite the most wonderful host, but that was just what Mandy and I wanted/needed. It was time to spend time with families and in houses (we had forgotten what they were like living in apartments all the time!) 



Tuesday we traveled into the Netherlands! Cross another country off the list of places to visit! It was funny we just drove right on through the border and Scott says, "there's border control." Maastrict, Holland was absolutely beautiful. We walked through a park that was full of green grass, blooming trees, and a small creek with swans. The city had its own old red light district and other historical facts that made it unique to itself. Ironic thing was how Northern Belgium looked more like Pella and yet the Netherlands had more of the feel of Pella with everything needing to be in order and in the same format. 


Wednesday, Mandy, Sue, and I got up early to travel to Ghent so that Sue could show us her town. We got to see another castle right smack dab in the middle of the city! It just appeared out of nowhere but was so cool. We toured it with this little video guide that actually told a story about what could have happened in the castle but it wasn't fully accurate in any sense; nonetheless it was quite comical! We also got to take a cute river canal tour where we were really able to take in the cuteness of the architecture. From there we walked around the city to see the Cathedral and other cool important buildings before heading to the real Brussels. We didnt have too much time in Brussels because we were invited to a friend of Sue's for dinner and a Bible study. Therefore we went straight to the main square and oh my goodness I've never seen anything look so stoic and important. There was gold everywhere and it was like royalty and importance spurred from each building. It was fascinating. After that fascinating moment it was, of course, off to see Monica Piss aka the Peeing Boy! I know, we're real classy. 


The dinner and Bible study was completely filling. The food was Mexican enchiladas! MEXICAN FOOD! I was so excited. Then it had been ages since I had actually gone to a Bible study and the man who led it was originally from Texas so it was a part of my other home there too.  We met people from all over like Canada, France, China or Japan or Korea (I'm not quite sure where some of the woman were from) and we even skyped some other girls in. It was quite the party! That night we stayed with Sue's friend in order that we could get up early and catch our next bus to Frankfurt, Germany!

I must say though before I continue. Belgium has the best typical touristy food ever. Amazing french fries and sauces. Delicious chocolate. And to die for Waffles. 


In Frankfurt, we were met by a family Mandy knew from her church pack home. This was the same family that we had the opportunity to stay with while we were in Paris. This family is amazing and so darn precious! They have 5 kids ranging from 3 to 10 all with their own bubbly, unique personality. It was so much fun to be with kids again and to be able to talk to them in English! There was never a dull moment. Everything Mandy and I did, it made it that much better because that family was there with us making the moment that much more exciting and enjoyable. The first night was similar to our first night in Lanaken of just relaxing at home and being shown around their house. They also have a small pond that is infested with all sorts of tadpoles and even a couple newts, which of course was the best catch/find! 


On Friday we spent the day in Neustat checking out their strange city fountain and then up to a castle they also had in their town. We took a really cool hike into the hills around there and was able to get this great view of all of the vineyards in Germany. Again, so much green! 


On Saturday we took a boat cruise of the Rhine river to see all of the castles that were located along it. We saw so many castles! Literally there was one every 5 or 10 minutes. It was so incredible to see. We stopped at one of the last stops on the cruise to look at the castle St. Goar. This was the coolest castle I have seen thus far! It was huge and had all sorts of rooms still in tact. There were even areas underneath the castle that we went spalunking through. The view was gorgeous too! I've decided I want to live in a castle when I get older so I hope my future husband is prepared for this expectation. 

Sunday morning we woke up to Easter Baskets! I'm 20 years old and I was still ecstatic to have gotten an easter basket--it was hidden somewhere within the house and everything. That afternoon we went to their friends land on this hill for a barbeque and easter egg hunt. Get this! The two families we joined also knew Spanish and so we had at one point 3 languages going on of English, German, and Spanish. We were even able to have Spanish salchichon and chorizo for appetizers. It was actually really cool to have that piece of 'home' there. Mandy and I helped the dad's hide the easter eggs while the kids ate and then while we ate they went on the search. There was so much squealing and pure joy! After they had collected all the eggs and candy they attempted to divy it up evenly but that was a disaster with there being 8 kids there, all starving for candy! One of the moms brought another easter basket for the kids and these consisted of water guns. You've got to know where this story is going now. 8 sugar high kids and a hike to find water to a water fight can be found. It happened that just a couple minutes past the fountain was another castle. 

So Mandy and I went along, sat a good 10-15 yards away from the fountain and within in minutes we are the object of their desire, the aim of their water. We were innocent bystanders! We had no guns! And yet here we are running around like crazy people giggling up a storm. It took much convincing to get a water gun from someone and after it was returned you were still one to be gone after. It was a BLAST! We all looked like a mess as we walked up to the castle and saw the view from there. I know we got more than one strange look our way. 


Monday was our last day in Germany so that morning we stopped by a cool park before heading to the airport in Frankfurt. This park was quite the park--I'm not sure what of it would have passed American safety standards but my oh my was it cool! I saw wolves, petted a boar, and went on an attraction ride where there was no staff (don't freak out mom, as you can see I've survived). I saw the coolest playground area ever and got to go down those carpet slides again with the kids like I did when I was their age. I took the kids into some bumper boats and I'd say we were the best drivers/bumpers out. Lastly before we left, Mandy and I went on this luge/bobsled track thing that definitely was something else. Not only did it not look safe, we couldn't read any of the signs telling us what was about to happen. For all we know we were riding our life away! But thats what made the ride that much more adrenalin rushed and fun! We survived and now we have a great story to tell. 


We arrived back in Granada safe and sound Monday night, unfortunately having class the next day. Spring Break was my last big trip anywhere for now it was time to experience Granada in all of its glory. 

I don't see a river...

The final adventure I went on with my parents was to the infamous London! (It is even more infamous now that I'm writing about it after the Royal Wedding. We were there the first weekend of April and the wedding decorations were already underway.) We only had 2 days there and it was definitely not enough. I'm not even quite sure if a week would be enough time to see everything. But, we saw at much as we could and had a blast doing it!

It was fun to have a 'Huddleston' vacation again of go go go! It was also nice to be able to relax and enjoy the vacation more since they obviously speak English in London and none of us knew where we were so I didn't have to be the tour guide and translator. I arrived later to London than my family did so we were supposed to meet at the London Tower Bridge. Sounds easy enough right? A bridge and a river should be easy to spot right? Wrong. I get off the train and all I see are buildings--everywhere! I walk ended up walking in every direction but the direction towards the river. As we were calling and texting back and forth they just kept asking me where is the river or telling me to walk towards the river--I don't see a river was always my response. Finally though we met and after walking through 1-2 blocks of buildings, a river is found! The first day we mainly walked around from the London Tower Bridge, to the London Tower Castle, to Kensington Palace, and on. We also all at some point during the day, had some good ole fish and chips! Yum yum yum!


The second day we rode the double decker red buses in order to see all of the city and decide where to hop off to get a closer look. London is such a fascinating city! Without knowing their history, its hard to pinpoint where they got their influences. At times some of the buildings looked Roman but they definitely had their own flare. It was fun to see all of the random government buildings along with the known ones like Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey (when I was watching the wedding I kept thinking in my head--hey I've been there!). Big Ben and the Parliament seemed so stoic in their gold colors and intrinsic architecture. The pictures really can't capture their beauty. They both seem to protrude power. From the governing part to Buckingham Palace where the flowers and decorations were already blooming. What a grand place that would be to live in! We also hopped off to actually go inside the London Tower which was where all of England's big torturings and punishments were which was (oddly) really cool to see. We had a tour guide that pretended to be from that time period and gave the area extra life. There were museums inside that had the crowns from all the royalty to the type of armor they wore. My favorite part of the day though was when we took our included river cruise. We got to a point where on one side was the old part of town--the part with all of the history--and the other side had the newer more metropolitan area. It was almost an abrupt change but it still showed the history England has gone through.

Last but not least, being in London it is a must to find some things that relate to Harry Potter. Had we had another day we would have gone on the Harry Potter filming tour, but alas our time did not call for it. We did happen to find Platform 9 3/4 and even got in a red phone booth--to the ministry of magic please!

mi familia me visitan

After many weeks of skyping, facebook chatting, emailing, and scheduling, it was finally time to see my parents! I was so excited for them to come so that I could show them also just a small piece of my world here. I was ready to show off Granada and my Spanish to them. I was ready to have my two families meet and to travel again the Huddleston way. (p.s. I had left my camera in my room so my parents have all the pictures and have yet to send me any...cough cough dad when you read this; luckily Dustin took some that I have obtained)

Day 1: I met my parents in Algeciras after an intense day (or days for them) of traveling. It was almost like the typical movie scene of me having to fight through the crowds to finally see my parents step off the train with all of their suitcases. A part of 'home' had finally arrived. I walked them back to the hostel pretty smoothly since I had already gotten lost once that day.Next was dinner,which we accidentally walked more than we needed to since the restaurant we were going was right outside the hostel door and I had us walk a couple blocks and back...opps! But as the Spaniards say, no pasa nada. From dinner to bed for my mom and to the bars for my dad, Mary, Dustin, and I to watch the Spain vs. Czech Republic game (which was actually being played in Granada!).



Day 2: AFRICA!! It had been on my sister's list of things to do to go to Africa so we were off to Morocco. It was quite the morning having to translate between the coordinator and my parents but everything went as smoothly as it could and we arrived to Morocco, by ferrying across the still beautiful Mediterranean Sea, mid morning. In Morocco we had quite the humorous and energetic tour guide that showed us some of the cool sights and streets of Tangier. Even though I had been to Morocco before, my excursion only spent 3 hours in Tangier and it was in DARNA, not the actual city.


The coolest part of the tour for me (I mean carpet stores and herb stores are neat and all buuut...) was walking through the open air market and walking through one entry way to see a fish still alive and flopping! The market started slowly with just olives but grew with intensity of color fruits and vegetables, to dead cleaned chickens, to finally millions of fish staring at you! Quite the sight.
The funniest part of the trip was when we were offered to ride camels (camels!!). My dad's words were quote 'I'm riding a freaking camel!' It was hilarious to see the little boy in my dad reappear. Another funny site, regarding my father of course, was when he tried on the traditional Moroccan clothing of the full dress and hat. I'm sure he makes my mother proud.

Day 3: Back Home! Okay not really but for me it's home--Granada. It was even better being able to show them after Algeciras because that town just doesn't have quite the same character as Granada. We arrived and the weather was beautiful so we walked down the two main roads of the center, stopping for pictures and history buffs. They saw the parks, the Cathedral, my school, my house, and everything in between.

We ate at this great ice cream place that turned out to have amazing food too! It was so good, we went back again for lunch the next day. I'm sure we made our waiter's day each time. Sunday we also conquered the Albayzin in order to look out all across Granada and marvel at the Alhambra from a distance. It was another hectic day fill with fun, food, drinks, ice cream, and coffee.

Day 4: Alhambra! I love how my family is such history buffs because I knew they'd really enjoy seeing the Alhambra inside and out. We got tickets to see inside and I was so stoked to see the inside again and be able to marvel at all of its intricateness. Unfortunately I had this lame thing called class right in the middle of our tour so I had to deck out early, but nonetheless it was really cool seeing their faces light up as the entered a room and tried to take in everything there. I was able to show off the knowledge I had learned about the palaces, temples, castle, and gardens. It was spectacular! Later on in the day, my family met my host family for some coffee and desserts. It was insane to try and translate back and forth--I guess I didn't have to translate the whole time because my dad used the 20 (...5) words he knew to communicate with my host mom and little brother so that really (really) helped. For everyone else, its luck that smiles and laughter transcend through every language. After coffee time, my parents headed to Barcelona and I was back to the world of classes....until London the following weekend! (stay tuned for the next blog post)

el novio =)

March 13-19 I was luck enough to have Josh, my boyfriend, use his spring break to come visit me! Not only was it exciting to see him, but I loved being able to show him around Granada and Madrid. I was just able to show him my way of life. I was able to show him my school the CLM, the Albayzin, the La Alhambra, the Cathedral, etc. I was able to tell him the history of the city and be able to make some of my stories come more alive for him. My host family wanted to meet him so one afternoon we came here for lunch and I was the fun translator between them all. We even discovered another cool lookout from the Alhambra that oversaw the entire city. It was fascinating!

While I enjoyed showing him Granada, being in Madrid with him was another adventure! Although I had been in Madrid the weekend before with my program, there was still so much to Madrid that I hadn't seen yet. I showed Josh what I knew of the Puerta del Sol and of course the awesome spiderman at Plaza Mayor and the we started walking along the parks near the Palacio Real. It was in one of these parks where we spotted this tall fountain in the distance. We still had a lot of sunshine to burn, so we started walking in that direction. We ended up walking through this huge park with running trails, biking trails, trees, and grass everywhere.
It almost seemed like what Central Park feels like in New York--like you're not even in the city anymore. The path in the park led us straight to the fountain. And what did we find at the fountain? Row boats! You could rent a row boat for less than 5 euros for 45 minutes so we did! What a steal it was! It was so unreal and so pretty with the scenery and the fountain--which created so many rainbows! It was the best way to (unfortunately) end the week since he was off the airport the next morning.

el mejor Spiderman

The 2nd weekend in March, our school program took a trip to Madrid! Now while I've been to the Madrid airport countless of times, this was the first time I was actually going to be able to spend actual time in Madrid.

First stop-Toledo.
Toledo is another one of Spain's cities that holds a lot of history from the Fenician time to the Muslim reign to the Catholic return, and to today. It has a lot of cool history to look out and is located within the valleys right outside of Madrid. We visited the Medina or the older part of town which was so high up on a hill that we had to take 7 flights of giant escalators. It was insane! But I must say it was worth it. One interesting thing about Toledo is they have these fake paintings drawn on the walls of windows, people, molding, doors, etc. Our tour guide was just fascinated with showing them to us.

In Madrid we stayed right on the Puerta del Sol. This Plaza is crazy! There were so many people because there are shopping stores and places to eat in every direction. I must admit it was quite intimidating at first for this Iowa girl. But soon I learned to figure out and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the square. There was always something going on in the square whether people selling balloons, walking around in spongebob and patrick costumes, or my favorites, mariachi bands!

The first night we were there, some of my friends and I got onto this famous American craving of--buffalo wings. We had heard of this place that was just a metro ride away...What we didn't know was that it was a 30 min metro stop away plus a 30 min walk in the RAIN away. But no worries we had so much fun laughing about it all and we did finally make it there and have some wings. They were no buffalo wild wings but, they were wings nonetheless. We even got creative with our wings and did a CUI in hopes that we'll win the photo competition next year!

My favorite part of Madrid was visiting the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). This place is the most elegant place I have ever seen. I wish we could have taken picture of the inside, but because of history and preservation, I was unable to. Each room had a different purpose whether it was a maid's quarter, woman's powdering room, business room, dining room, etc. Each had its own theme throughout the room too--certain colors, fabrics, and moldings. Almost every room had an incredibly detailed ceiling too! We were on a guided tour so I wasn't able to fully stay in each room as long as I wanted (or pass through the less detailed ones), but I wish I could have stayed much longer in one room particular--the throne room. It was so...majestic. Royalty emitted from the walls and carpet. I couldn't do anything but stand in awe and try to take it all in. The biggest thing I realized was that I was standing in a throne room--a real one. The whole scenery reminded me of God's throne room in Heaven. If this one one earth was able to have such a strong feeling of royalty and elegance, how much more will His emit and of glory and power. It is definitely a more humbling experience to realize, this is only a small glimpse of what I really will bow down to. Fascinating. I've added a picture online I found but it doesn't give it much justice.

After our tour, we had free time to roam around Madrid. One of the places suggested was the Plaza Major. So we walked towards there and what did we find? Lots of people of course, and lots of street 'performers.' They ranged from a creepy Asian man mermaid to Mickey Mouse, to headless people, and to my favorite, Spiderman. Now this was not your typical Spiderman, but Spiderman after years and years of saving people and getting fed of it. This Spiderman was chubby, smoked a cigarette, and had a lovely hole in his crotch that you saw when he posed for pictures. I think he was such an unrealistic Spiderman that it worked for him. We all stood in shock of such a man.

Last but not least. During one of our free times, a couple friends and I went to a contemporary art museum. It was definitely strange and pointless at times, but my heart was filled when I saw a piece of art with the Fibonacci's sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,...) in it. Now there's true beauty.

de marzo de locura!

Hello followers! I'm terribly sorry for the delay that has happened this past March. I have gone from one thing to another with barely any breathing space.

Week 1: Birthday Week (20 baby!)
Week 2: Boyfriend Week (woohoo!)
Week 3: Midterms Week (gross.)
Week 4: Family Week (yippee!)
Week 5: Shoot! It's already April!

Therefore I'm having to make up for a lot of lost time and so the blogs will be long but will be out shortly.

la vida normal

So I've recently realized that while I've written many posts about where I've been and what all I've seen, I have yet to explain what I actually do during the week. So here's the big news: although I told my parents I was going to "study abroad," it was really key word for "backpack across Europe." So thats what I do during the week. I hitchhike, couch surf, sing for a little extra money, show some skin, and sleep in the oddest of places.

Completely kidding (don't freak out mom).

A normal week for me consists mostly of classes: 3 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, 2 on Thursday, and 0 on Friday (hello 3 day weekend every weekend!). I am taking seven classes here totally up to be 16 hours. Mandatory classes are Phonetics, Grammar, Granada Seminar, Tutorials, and Production, Oral, and Writing. Since all of those sound like oh so fun! I'm also taking 3 classes of my choice- History of Spain, Islamic Culture in Spain, and Arabic. The classes that I have chosen are definitely the classes I enjoy most because they are more sit, listen, and learn as opposed to nitty gritty stuff (which is also good to have considering I'm in Spain to learn and speak Spanish). Well, actually Arabic is not a sit and listen class but a sit and have your mind go in circles class. It is so hard to triple translate. I'm being taught Arabic by a Spanish speaking teacher which I still translate in my head to English. Lets just say some classes, I go in a college student and exit a kindergardener since I'm relearning my letters, numbers, and words. After my first Arabic class, all I wanted to do was twirl in circles I was that brain dead. Its crazy hard but I know in the end it'll be neat to say that I know Arabic. My favorite class of all is probably my Islamic Culture class because I am finally getting a background in the formation of the Muslim religion and Islamic government type while learning more about Spain. The teacher is pretty laid back too and has some of the oddest cartoon drawings.

Also on Tuesdays, I have service learning at this place called Faicem. Faicem is a place for adults who have mental problems like schizophrenia, bipolar, and others of the same ordeal. I lucked out on my free time because when I come, its actually their English class so I'm able to help them with their pronunciation and spelling and everything. Its absolutely wonderful! The first time I went, I left feeling so good about myself because they were all so inviting and nice and they actually smiled! People don't necessarily smile at each other unless they know each other. Otherwise, as I found out one day, if you smile to man, it means you're interested...like real interested if you catch my drift. Back to Faicem, this place has been a get away from my normal life and brings extra interest to it and more relationships are being built. They're really patient with me when I'm trying to learn Spanish just as I'm able to be patient with them as they learn English. Although I have yet to experience a break down from one of the adults there, I'm sure I will be able to handle it and continue to love this experience I'm being offered. Its a great getaway from the stress of school and family life and where I'm able to laugh and relax in my Spanish to build more confidence. (minus the time where I mixed up the spelling of the word comb in Spanish and actually spelled penis..that was real embarrassing but we all laughed it off!)

My weeknights are nothing too exciting either. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Arabic goes until 10pm--brutal night class- so that only leaves Mondays and Wednesdays to really go out and they're not much of going out night types. Some Wednesdays, I and a couple friends go to a Teteria, which is a tea/cafe Moroccan or Lybanese influenced place, and spend a couple relaxed hours there catching up on life.

Therefore that leaves the weekends for traveling! If I'm not traveling, I'm in Granada getting to know its night life, whether thats going to a Tapas bar, going to a park, going to a movie, going to a futbol game, or going dancing. Its a beautiful city at almost anytime of day and always has something to do.

He explorado, soñado, y descubrió

disneyland millor que

Barcelona was dream making. It was a poster of Barcelona at night I saw 4 years ago that started this dream of being able to go Spain--Barcelona specifically. And this trip seriously made this all so much more real for me. It was so much better than I could have hoped or dreamed. Although it was a hassle to get here (seeing as I fell into one of the stupidity categories for booking the wrong flight day), it couldn't stop me from getting here. Plus! I had decided by this point that this was my birthday gift to myself--a trip to Barcelona. This blog is called better than Disneyland because not only did my dreams come true but also when we first arrived I saw Mickie and Minnie balloons everywhere! It just completely added to the effect, as humorous and odd as it was.

I don't even know where to begin there were so many cool sights, funny stories, and great memories! This is just going to be an excited combobulation of everything. =D For starters, those involved in this awesome trip were Mandy, Renee, Katherine, Amy, and myself (of course!).

 After we all met, we ventured toward our hostel which was just conveniently located by the FC Barcelona stadium! Even though Barcelona wasn't playing at home that weekend, it was still so cool to see the stadium! On Friday night we were lucky enough that the place where we had dinner had the game on. Barca won 3-0! One part of my gift giving to myself was a David Villa (who scored the night before!) FC Barcelona jersey. So here I am doing the typical goal scoring awesomeness run right outside the stadium!


After we rested from traveling, we ventured to the city to apparently see this "cool" fountain. That was a complete understatement. It was AMAZING! I seriously sat there in shock most of the time. It was like a fireworks show with water and music. So much color, so much movement, so much fascination. I have a video of it, but it is in no way comparable to being there yourself to see it. This video has the first show in it and had a variety of music varying from Arabic sounds to complete orchestras and symphonies. We even heard one show with all Disney music-again, Disney!With all of our excitement afterwards, we took a lot of fun pictures. Mind there water spots--there was mist everywhere!

This moment and the moments to follow seriously made up for all the chaos it took to get here. As we ventured up the stairs, continuing to pass more fountains, not only were we able to see those fountains from the top, but we were also able to view the entire city! We walked around the gardens at the top until we forgot to take a turn and ended up at an overlook of the center and port of the city. It was a million times better than the poster I had first seen in Mrs. Anderson's class. It was all so much for me to take in, that I kid you not, a tear was shed it pure joy and beauty.

The next day we took the on the city and basked in its sunshine! We started the day off at La Sagrada Familia which is a church/temple that has been in the making for over 150 years! The artist who designed it is named Gaudi and this was one of his last architechtural structures that he made...well attempted to make. It has been such a grand structure that it is taking more money than they have to build it completely. Therefore, it has moments of mass construction and moment of awkward not construction.

They say that it should be finished in the next 30 years so I guess this gives me another reason to go back. The outside structure is completely creepy (especially at night! it looks like a giant eerie spider) but also very intriguing. There is produce at the top of some of the towers, doves in a tree, and faces. Its...art. Unfortunately the line was too long on Sunday so we were unable to go inside, but we saw postcards of it and it looked spectacular! Maybe next time...


After the creepy church, we headed to my next favorite place after the fountains--Park Guell. This giant park is filled with nature trails, lookouts, bands, columns, trees, vendors, park benches, art, and lime green birds! Everywhere you looked there was something new that caught your senses! We had so much fun here taking pictures and running around like school children. It was still mind boggling for us to even be in Barcelona, one of the best cities in Spain (even the world! at least for me). We had lunch overlooking the entire city and it was so relaxing and so calming even in its grandness.

It was beautiful. After the nature part of it we finally walked down the the colorful, artsy park area and saw all of the artist Guell's handiwork in all of the tiling. So much color! Mandy, Amy, and I decided this would be the inspiration for our future kitchen or bathroom backsplashes. Then! Right at the exit (or entrance) there were these two houses that looked like they could've fallen right out of the story Hansel and Gretel...except they weren't really houses made out of candy. False Alarm. Take a look at the pictures!

After all of the excitement and craziness from the park, we decided to tone it down and do some sight seeing. We saw the Cathedral of Barcelona and the outside of the specific Guell Museum and works. It was closed when we arrived so we were unable to go inside, but it was still really cool to look at. 

Last stop of the day was the Torre Agbar. We had seen this "bullet" or "lava lamp" looking thing from a distance the previous night and we really wanted to see it close up. It was a really strange sight to see in the middle of the city, but still pretty funny. We got there a little early, so we had to hang around this cement hill that had many etchings about who had been there and what else the building could look like. When we were starting to get bored and give up on it turning on, Amy started singing (like from Elf) "I'm in Barcelona and I'm singing and I'm waiting for this to turn ON!" And walah! It lit up! It was hilarious!

We finished the day, exhausted but happy. We couldn't believe how much we had accomplished and how much we had seen in one day! Therefore, the next day we took it easy and walked along the Mediterranean coast. It was a little chillier 

(I would know, I got bombarded with a wave! I was drenched waist down) there than when we were in Portugal, but it was still a pretty sight. I forgot how blue the sea is!

favorite trip yet =)

He explorado, soñado, y descubrió

for more pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/105145268312455361621/BARCELONA?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPv5cKEoYazwQE#