When in Rome.

On the bus in to the center of Rome from the airport we met this girl who told us everything to do in Rome. She was from Alabama and had lived in Rome for 6 months studying. She typed me up a list of the best places to get pizza, gelato, things to must see, things to skip and how to get to everything! It was so helpful! The first thing we did when we got to Rome was go into the train station and buy the rest of our train tickets around italy! It was so easy to do and so much cheaper than we thought it would be! After that we walked right down the street about 100 meters and checked in to our new hostel!

This hostel was called the Coconuts all girl hostel. It was 100 times nicer than our last hostel. There was a little air conditioning, and a nice indoor bathroom and shower! It was just over all much better. We only had two other girls staying with us in our room. They were from Northern Ireland and were so sweet!

After dropping off our bags it was time to explore Rome. We figured out the metro much easier than in Paris cause there are only two metro lines instead of 10. We took the metro to the Colosseo. First thing to do: Pizza! Italian food is my favorite so I was super excited! We went to this amazing little Pizza place right nice to the Colosseo and had some amazing Italian Pizza! I don’t think Italian food in America will ever be the same after Italy. We split inorder to save a little money, but half a pizza was plenty of food!

After our first Italian food experience, we walked over to the Colosseo and got a tour! At first we were not sure if it would be worth the money to actually go in and take the tour of the Colosseo, but now we would have been crazy not to. It was an amazing experience where we learned so much! We are now experts on Gladiators and the Colosseo. Our tour guy was really funny, he spoke with a broken accent and tried to crack jokes that were not funny and constantly laughed at himself (not to mention he looked like Johnny Bravo). Now one thing I have to do when I get home, watch Gladiator!

We then went on a free tour of Palatino. Palatino is the OLDEST part of Rome. Our guide was from Denver Colorado and new EVERYTHING there was to know about Rome and its history. Needless to say we learned so much from him. I really didn’t think I would be as interested in the History of Rome as I was, but it was really captivating. To think we were walking around nearly the oldest civilization in the world was hard to even grasp. The two tours combined lasted till around 5:30 pm, so once we were done with those it was time to go find so dinner and explore a new part of the city.

We took the metro to a stop near the Trevi Fountain. We walked toward the Trevi Fountain and found an amazing little Italian kitchen along the street on our way. We stopped and ordered the most amazing pasta I have ever had (besides yours of course mom). Angie and I had a very romantic candle light dinner. It was a very nice restaurant (the bathroom was the fanciest I have ever been in), but even the nicer restaurants in Rome are still cheaper compared to Paris. Once we were done with our relaxing and yummy dinner was kept on walking until we made it to the Trevi fountain.

There was a band there so the fountain was so crowded! We snuck up to the very front to get the best view. The band was standing right in front of the fountain playing “Rocky!” It was pretty funny and the band was really good. We watched for a while and then decided to go get so Gelato right next to the Trevi in an attempt to wait out the crowd. The Italian gelato was to die for! It is so much better than American, Spanish, and French ice cream (but not better than Momo’s homemade ice cream). The only problem was that is melted so fast! We looked like little 3 year olds trying to eat the ice cream! But seriously- people were laughing and we had it all over out face and hands. We took out time enjoying the gelato before going back to the fountain. The fountain was not nearly as crowed as before. The band had left and there were just a few people sitting around and tossing coins into the fountain. Angie and I found the perfect front row spot. We sat and talked about our trip as the sun went down and did a little people watching. There was this one crazy couple doing a strange photo shoot together at the fountain. He was taking her picture and she was wearing this gothic dress. They had to have taking a million pictures, but every single picture she never changed her pose. Ever shoot was the exact same pose- weird.

I love Angie and my nights in Europe. They are always really relaxing and always have one of the best views in the world. We just hung out for a few hours before we decided to was time to head back. But before we left we had to make a wish a throw a coin into the fountain. Of course I saved 2 of my lucky American pennies to throw in! So we both took turns making wishes and tossing our pennies into the Trevi Fountain before we headed back to the hostel.

We walked back up the street to catch the metro home, but to our surprise the metro was already closed! So we started mapping out our walk back. Luckily, right when we started walking we saw a bus stop that would take us right in front of our hostel. So we hopped on and headed home! We got off one stop before to take a picture at this really pretty square before we made it back, but we finally made it! Transportation is much easier in Rome than in Paris, I think that is one reason Angie likes it better in Rome. I did love Paris, but I’ll have to admit I think Rome is my favorite so far! When we got back to the hostel, we finally to a nice long good shower and got an amazing night’s sleep!

We woke up pretty early and got a jump-start on the day! It is crazy how fast our time goes by in each city that we are in! I wish we had longer in each place, but I’m glad we are getting to see everything we get to see. It is just exhausting trying to get everything done that we want to… but we are! We grabbed breakfast and coffee at a café right next to our hostel and then caught a tourist bus (just like Paris) to take us all around town. We saw EVERYTHING. We packed so much into one day it was unreal but so worth every second of it.

At on stop there was this guy standing outside dressed up as a Gladiator. I figured he was another one of those people dressed up asking for money that you could take pictures of, so I did. I took a picture of him. We were kind of a distance from him so after I took the picture we turned around and started walking to get back on the bus. Little did I know the Gladiator was chasing after us. He was yelling “Excuse me! Excuse me!” so we turned around and stopped. “You took a picture of me. You do not respect my profession. You need to delete that now.” A little frightened, but kind of amused. I asked why and what exactly was his profession…? He said he was a dancer…? I laughed a little and asked what kind of dancing he did as I respectful deleted one of the two pictures that I had taken of him. He rudely said, “Go! Leave!” Probably the most comical thing that happened in Rome.

We stopped and walked around everywhere in the city of Rome. I seriously don’t think we missed one thing. The Vatican was amazing! It was a holiday when we were there so we even go to watch a mass on a screen outside of the building. It is just crazy to think of all the amazing things that we got to see and do and experience. We are so blessed!

We ate lunch right across the street from the Vatican and had an amazing Greek Salad. It seems that all of the food in Italy is simply amazing. After lunch we headed over to Castel Sant’ Angelo and went inside and looked around. After that we headed over to the Spanish steps. We sat on the steps for a while before we did a little window-shopping. I emphasize the “window” part because every shop in this area is extremely expensive. Gucci, Prada, Fendi, the list goes on and on. We just didn’t feel fancy enough to actually go in and actually look around.

After a while it was time to head over to our wine tasting. Yes, our wine tasting in Italy. I was excited beyond words, Angie- not so much. We walked across the river until we got to the building. We went in and went up to the 7^th floor were the tasting would be. This wasn’t just an ordinary wine tasting though. It was more of a wine tasting/ learning experience. One of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Everyone partaking in the tasting sat at a long dining table with some bread and two empty wine glasses in front of you. We met and had great conversations with some people from all over the place. There was a newly wed couple from Norway, an older very wealthy couple from Australia, a mom and daughter from New Jersey, and three other people from San Francisco. Everyone was so fun! The lady in charge taught us how exactly to taste wines and the proper way to analyze them and find out what you like and what you don’t like. We tried 6 different wines from all over Italy (one of which was actually produced from the ashes of a Volcano in Southern Italy).  It was a great experience. Angie even liked it! She even decided she kind of likes some wines!

After the tasting we walked back over near the Spanish Steps and grabbed our last meal in Rome- pizza of course. We both ordered a glass of wine to test out or wine tasting skills! It was funny- as I was going through the process of tasting my wine (looking, swilling, smelling, slurping).. the waiter came us and asked me if everything was okay with the wine or if there was a problem with it. I laughed and said no it was great, but I can only imagine how funny I actually looked in the process of it all.

After dinner we caught the bus again. It was nice to drive around Rome at night with all of the lights and just look at everything again. We got off again at the Trevi Fountain to get one last gelato from Rome, tell the Trevi Fountain good-bye, and make one last wish before we headed back to the hostel to pack our bags and get some sleep. We woke up early and caught our train to Florence.

I am writing this blog on the train as we are heading to Florence right now. On the train view of the countryside on out way to Florence is breathtaking so it is kind of hard to even concentrate on my writing! I will let you know how Florence is whenever I can. Thanks in advance to one of my favorite people in the world, Taylor Petree, for giving me the best to-do list ever for when we get to Florence!

Paris.

The first day we got off the plane at an airport located about an hour by bus north of Paris. When we first got off the plane the weather was so cold! We were very worried that we didn’t pack warm enough (since we were used to 90 degree in Spain). Sp we hope on the bus to take us into the city- these two hippy girls in combat boots helped us figure everything out, We could tell they had done this a time or two. The bus ride wasn’t long at all. We were in Paris before we knew it. The question when we got off the bus- where to now? If you know Angie at all, then you know she was super stressed out at this point- not knowing exactly where we were or how to get to the hostel. We walked over to the metro (saving about 20 Euros by not taking a taxi). We had the metro pretty figured out. We knew when stops to get on and which to get off to make it to the hostel. After a slight adventurous metro trip (or stressful in Angie’s opinion) we made it to our hostel.

The 3 ducks hostel was… interesting.  The 3 ducks hostel is rank in the top 5 most famous hostels in Europe. We got there and checked in at the front desk, which is the cash register at the bar. We got there at about noon and everyone’s rooms are locked from 11am-4pm (for cleaning) so you cannot get into your room until after four. So we checked all of our valuables at the front desk (bar) to be held safely behind the bar.. The next awesome thing I noticed was that there were flier on the bar with Buddy Holly’s picture on the front! At least we had another good-old west Texas boy staying at the hostel with us… We then put the rest of our luggage in the room called “the luggage room.” It was basically a giant room piled high with everyone in the whole hostel’s bags. Unsure if this was safe or not, we decided we had no other choice but to leave it.

We ended up leaving the hostel right away to go grab lunch. We walked down the road from the hostel and found the cutest little café. The service was unreal how slow it was (even compared to Spain-and that is saying a lot). But once we did get our food it was amazing! Everywhere in Paris is ridiculously expensive, so after paying our high check we headed off to go find everything.

The Eiffel Tower was only a 15 min walk from where we were staying, and to get there you walk down the cutest little street with tons of cafés and bakeries and shops- it was a good walk. Once we got to the Eiffel Tower we decided to do a little more exploring… on foot. Paris is a bigger city than I though, and it takes a lot out of you trying to walk everywhere.

After walking to the Eiffel tower we walked up the street all the way to Arch de Triumph.  The cold weather when we got off the plane was just a tease. The weather we SO hot by this point. I’m sure you will be able to tell from our shining faces in our pictures. We took some pictures and walked down Elyss-champ street. This street is amazing. Wonderful shopping! Don’t worry dad, we didn’t buy anything. One, because it is too expensive, and two, because we can’t stuff anything else in our backpacks!

I think my biggest issue in Paris was the communication. I didn’t think to try to use English when talking to people, but I am so used to trying to communicate in Spanish I forget that they don’t speak Spanish here- they speak French. Good thing we took 2 years of French in Middle School…. Wish I remembered some of it! I kept answering people with “Si” and then remembering that the was wrong said “Yes and then remembering that was wrong said “wee” … finally. We went to get a drink at a Pub after walking around for too long. I was craving a water and Angie wanted to order a beer. So I go up to the counter and say to the lady “Uno agua y uno cervanza por favor.” She laughed and shook her head. Me, not knowing what I had done wrong, asked if that was okay. She laughed and said “you’re an American trying to speak Spanish in a French speaking place.” That about sums up most of the communication in Paris.

After that we headed back to the hostel to rest our feet for a bit, relax, and check on our bags. Remember- we had been up since about 4 am the morning before to catch our flight. When we got back to the hostel we checked out our sheets and towers and headed into our room. Ourrrrrr room- now this could be an entire blog in its self. Our room had 8 beds (4 bunk beds), the shower was in the room, the restroom was outside (yes- like in outhouse), no air conditioner, anddddd Co-Ed. When we first walked in to our room, there was a half-naked rather larger boy sleeping in the bunk next to mind. In the bunk on the other side of mine was a really skinny boy snoring rather loudly and talking in his sleep- in French. The room smelt like dirt feet and their luggage was everywhere. There were also 3 girls from Argentina staying in our room, but we didn’t see them still the night before we left. It was a good first impression of the hostel to say the least. They guys woke up when Angie and I were putting away some of our stuff. We ended up talking to them for a while. They were actually nice, a little weird, but very nice. I guess I just don’t like sharing my room with a couple of smelly boys! But they kept to themselves and didn’t bother us- we actually hardly saw them at all after this.

We didn’t stay at the hostel too long, it’s not exactly a place that I’d choose to hang out at rather then being out in this beautiful city. So we left and went to a little market. The market had fresh fruit and all kinds of different foods! We bought a few things to have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower! Best decision ever (and we saved money). We got to the Eiffel Tower just as the sun was starting to set! It was beautiful. We spread out our little blanket in the park right in front of the Eiffel Tower and started to make ourselves the best little cheese and crackers I have ever had! You should try this at home: We had a little cracker, spread a little brie cheese on top, put a little piece of salami on top of that and then toped it off with a green olive! Amazing! Best dinner yet. We then played some cards- rummy of course. We had a bottle of French champagne and just relaxed. It was the best night ever. We sat close to some people from California. One guy had brought his guitar. He was playing the most beautiful music- it was the perfect background music for our little picnic!

The Eiffel Tower at night is amazing. When it gets dark around 10 pm, the entire thing lights up!  At about 11 pm there is a light show, where the lights just flash and it looks like a giant disco ball! I’m so glad we stayed to watch it! We didn’t stay out late. We were exhausted from out long day, so after lounging by the Tower for a while after the light show we headed back to the hostel and went to bed!

The next morning we woke up early to get a jump-start on our day! This was our last day in Paris and we still had so much to see! So we got up at 8 am, grabbed out free breakfast, and headed out the door. The first thing we did, of course, hike up to the top of the Eiffel Tower! It was quite a hike! But so worth it! The view was fantastic; you could see the entire city! They next question- how are we going to see everything else we want to see in this city with our killing our feet! So of course we got super touristy- we road the double decker tourist bus. I never thought I would be that tourist, but you know what, it was the perfect way to see everything we wanted to see! Plus, you could get on and off at anywhere you wanted and hop back on another one whenever you show it. We ended up getting off at everything and walking around and then just taking the bus to the next big thing and getting off and walking around. We took roughly a million pictures. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Norte Dame, the Louvre, Arch de Triomphe, Champs Elysees-Etoile, the Opera house,  Cham de Mars, Musee D-Orsay, Grand Palais, Trocadero,Jadins du Palais Royal, and some other stuff… We did a lot and saw a lot! It was a full day and by the end of it we were exhausted! It was a packed day of being a tourist! But we saw everything that we wanted to see! I could write about every single one of the things we did and what we saw, but then this would turn into a novel and I don’t want to bore you for that long!

We grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the hostel to try to take a shower while no one was in our room! My hair takes longer to dry so I went first. Took a quick shower (in our hostel room-like no bath room, just a shower with a curtain in the middle of the room) and as I was getting out (in my towel of course) in walks a new roommate- a nerd guy just dropping his stuff off. Now that’s an awkward greeting. He drug the conversation out far too long, Angie waiting for him to leave so she could shower, me waiting for him to leave so I could get dressed. Needless to say I’m glad our next hostel we will be in a room of just two other girls. And the rest of the time it will be just Angie and I in hotel rooms. But I guess we got the true hostel experience!

We did a little research on our trip to Rome while our hair air-dried and ended up meeting a couple of guys in the garden of the hostel. Now the only reason I’m blogging about this to guys is because it was the weirdest encounter ever. One of the guys was from LA. He was 18 and he had been traveling Europe alone for a few months. We asked if he was going to go to college and he said maybe, but what he realllllly wants to do is join the Israel army….? The other guy was from Moscow. He tried to talk politic with the other guy. He told us he was a communist. It was an interesting conversation that Angie and I decided to remove ourselves from quickly. Then we quickly left the hostel and headed back to a market to get more picnic food and head back to the Eiffel Tower. There is no better way to say bye to Paris than to sit in the park next to it with a some olives, cheese, crackers, and some wine. It was the same as the night before- perfect and relaxing. But this night we made some friends! They were the happiest people I have ever met and we had a blast with them! They shared their food with us and taught us some fun tricks that you can do with a bottle. We also took about 100 pictures (mostly jumping pictures) with them! It was entertaining to say the least. 

Again, as soon as the light show was over we headed home to try to get some sleep! I wish we could have stayed in Paris longer (like we did in Spain) to get a good feel of the culture, but there just isn’t enough time. I think we did Paris right with the little time we had there! We had a great time and made some amazing memorize that we will never forget. If you ever go to Paris, have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower (at night). It is one of the most amazing things I have ever done! We left our hostel at 5 am this morning and caught a bus to take us back to the airport. We are heading to Rome now! I will keep you updated on how Rome is!

Madrid and saying bye to Spain.

When we got to Madrid (Wednesday) we put out bags up and explored!  We Madrid is a lot like New York. It is a BIG city! I love it! I can’t decide if I like the small of big city better, but I know I love Madrid. Maggie and I when and looked at tickets to Los Miserable and decide we are going to go on the 24^th! We also might go see a ballet! We walked around for a while and decided it was time for dinner

We went to this place called “The noodle king.” It was amazing! Best Chinese food I have ever had! Dr. Stratton told us to go there and get the number 50 (which is what I got) and it was the best thing ever. At this place they make their own noodles! We even got to watch them make the noodles! It was very impressive!

After we left there we walked back up the street. We sa Dr. Stratton and I pretend to “pick-pocket” him since he had been giving us speeches all day on how to be careful about it. It was funny. We talked to him and his wife for a while and then headed into town a little further. We found a few fun places and danced around- not really caring how dumb we look but just having a good time. We went some Italian ladies who spoke didn’t speak English or Spanish- so it was pretty entertaining switch back and forth between the languages before I realize they didn’t know either.

We found this place called Tupperware. It was a really small place but it was so much fun! We were literally the only people there but we had a blast dancing around. They had these little microwaves with action-figures in them for decoration and had paintings of people and action figures and whatnot all over the place. They ever had a TV with cartoons playing. Sounds a little bizarre but it was great! After that we found this place called Angie’s, everything was very expensive there so we didn’t stay long, just long enough for Angie to take a picture!

After that we went to this place called 31. There was this awesome room with tons of lights that looked like stars on the walls. Again, we dances around and just acted stupid. The best part about this bar was the bartender. The bartender was a good-looking young guy so we were talking to him for a little while. We asked where he was from and how he ended up in Madrid. We told him we were from the USA. He asked us if we liked the Backstreet boys since we were from America….? We kind of laughed and and said yes and then started singing some Backstreet boys songs. Next thing we know the guy is showing us his tattoo on his arm of some Backstreet Boys Lyrics (“Show me the meaning of being lonely”). He was dead serious in his passion of the Backstreet Boys so we asked who his favorite Backstreet Boy was…. With out a hesitation, as if he had already been thinking about this question, he said “A.J.” …. Of course. At 31 Katie saw friend of a friend who went to Blue Valley West in Kansas. We all had a few friends in common and she was a Chi O at KU! Small world!

After not too long we started heading back to the hotel area. Our hotel is right next to the Plaza De Espania – so Maggie, Chelsea and I when and sat on the fountain of the Plaza d Espaina for a while and just talked! It was a great way to end the night.

Woke up early the next morning (Thursday) and headed to beautiful French castle not far from Madrid. It was huge and the inside was beautiful! This castle had the most beautiful chandeliers! My favorite part was the gardens though. The garden was enormous (4 square miles) and was beautiful. It had very large decorative fountains and the landscape was unreal. I would have looked to spend an afternoon exploring it and having a picnic, but we were only there for an hour.

After this castle we headed to the city of Scadovia to spend the rest of the afternoon. Scadovia has one of the oldest, most impressive Roman aqueducts in the world. The bus dropped us off at the aqueduct and we had the afternoon to do whatever we wanted. Scadovia is famous for its “suckling pig.” Suckling pig is basically an entire pig just cooked and you just eat it, face and everything. John Wayne has even came to Scadovia just to have the suckling pig. My first thought was- “If John Wayne did it, I’m doing it.” Then I saw a picture of the suckling pig. I have a problem with eating anything that has a face, so my second thought was- “nevermind.”

We grabbed lunch at a tapas place instead. I have been craving a good salad so I ordered the most amazing salad ever! We walked around the city for a while and saw the Cathedral, which was a lot like the Cathedral in Sevilla (just smaller). We then headed over the castle. This castle was the inspiration for the Walt Disney castle at Disney World! So what do we do? Sing Disney songs on the way there, of course. We decided we were the Disney princesses and took a picture outside the castle. Angie- Ariel; Maggie- Snow White; Shaina- Jasmine; Katie- Bell; Chelsea- Sleeping Beauty; Me- Cinderella. We walked around the castle and then took the tower all the way to the top. The tower’s stairs were the steepest, smallest, longest spiral staircase I have ever seen! It was the scariest thing trying to walk up and down them! But when we got to the top we ahd the most amazing view of Scadovia!

After grabbing ice cream (to reward ourselves for surviving the staircase) we headed back to the bus. In the spirit of Walt Disney we got the entire bus singing Disney songs all the way back to Madrid! It was our last bus ride as a class and the best bus ride yet! Its so weird that this was the last time we would all be together in a big group- very sad..

When we got back to Madrid our teacher rewarded us with like 50 Euros that we all had left over from the program. Angie saved her Euros. Maggie and I decided we really wanted to go see the musical the Los Miserables! Madrid is considered kind of the New York of Europe by some people, so of course we wanted to go see a “Broadway play.” So we headed over to buy tickets! We were going to go out with our entire class that night so we wanted to by them for the next night. We got up to the counter to order, paid our money, and then looked at our tickets. We bought them for the wrong night! Oops- I think we were a little tired! We waited back in line to exchange them but apparently you can exchange. Luckily these sweet ladies behind bought them from us. So Maggie and I got back in line for the third time to buy tickets for the right night.

We headed back to the hotel, got ready for the night (Thursday night), and then went to eat at this amazing Mexican restaurant. It made me miss Lubbock Mexican food! Angie and I split some of the best fajitas I have ever had. They even had chips and salsa!

After dinner we headed over to Plaza de Espania. So many young people just hang out on the benches and grass in that area around a fountain before they go out- so we joined them. Maggie brought our flute out tonight, so we decided we would play it for money. Maggie played and I did interpretive dancing. We paraded around the fountain several times and made good friends with this older man who videoed our awesome dance moves. At one point Maggie was even playing the flute on my shoulders while I danced around, but we still did not make any money.

After hanging out there for a while we caught a cab to a discotech called Kapital to meet up with the rest of our group. Kapital is 7 stories with different music and atmosphere on ever floor. My favorite floor was the top floor. It had awesome lights and was very chill. I asked this guy from New York if I could have his fedora (hat), so he let me where it for a while- even did a New York style goofy photo-shoot- funnnnnny times.

The next people we met where two girls. One’s name was Maggie and the other’s name was Amy. They saw us and came up to us and asked Maggie and I if our names where Maggie and Amy and if we were the girls in the fountain next to the Cathedral in Sevilla….. yes, yes that was us. They had been at the fountain that night and had seen us and overheard our names- crazy! We left the top floor and went to expore the rest of the place. You could spend hours upon hours there, and still not see everything. It was ridiculous, but we really cut loose and had a blast!

Friday we went to the Prado museum and Riena Sophie museum. The Prado had so many amazing painting! I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy an art museum as much as I did. My three favorite painting in the Prado were The Deposition from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden, Las Meninas by Diego de Velázquez, and The Garden of Delights by Hieronymus van Aechen Bosch. I say that those are my favorite, but it is hard to say. There were so many painting that I like. I spend forever at the museum! I really liked the Deposition from the Cross the first time I saw it in Granada, but seeing the actually original painting is breath-taking. It was really beautiful; the contrast of light and dark was perfect. I really enjoyed have the chance to we Las Meninas as well. It is the most famous painting in the museum and was very complex. I feel like the more you look at the more you discover and find out about the painting. And last I really like the Garden of Delights mainly because you never get bored of it. You could sit there for hours looking at the painting and find something new about it every second. I sat next to in older British couple who were discussing this painting for a while and it was interesting to see what all they had picked out and how they interpreted it compared to what I had see and thought.

After the Prado and a quick lunch we went to the Riena Sophie Museum. This museum was much more contemporary. The Prado was just a classic, amazing experience of art. When we went to Reina Sofia we experiences the complete opposite kind of art than we did at the Prado. This museum was full of Picasso and Dali. It was so fun to go see and compare the two different museums! There was also exhibits of a few modern artist today that were very… interesting. All of this one girls art looked as if it had things growing on it. It was bizarre.

We left the museum and had very little time to get ready for the play. Maggie and I just changed really quick, grabbed some coffee so we could stay awake the entire play and then went to Los Miserables. We made friends with a girl and her grandma that were from Brazil. They where sitting right by us. In Brazil they speak Portuguese, (which is very similar to Spanish). The girl told us if we didn’t understand what they were saying in the play to just ask her and she would explain.  She was eating a piece of candy and offered one to both Maggie and I. We took one not knowing exactly what it was. Turns out it was a cough drop….?  We had great seats for the price. We sat in the top balcony but on the second row. We watched the play and at intermission we asked our friend what exactly was going on. We were a little confused on the characters and plot. The girl told us that she couldn’t even understand that was going on. There was know hope in us understanding everything. The music was beautiful though, and the acting was great! I just wish we could have understood the language a little better! At the end of the play (curtain call) the main character came out and everyone went crazy… Maggie and I didn’t even know who the character was. You see, we were planning on researching the play a little bit before we went, but we spent too much time at the museums so we didn’t have time!

After grabbing dinner with the rest of the girls at Noodle King.. again… I went back to the hotel and looked up the plot. It makes a lot more sense now! But it was still a great experience and I’m so glad we went! That night we packed our bags and rested. We stayed up with Maggie til about 1 am just talked about our trip before we went to bed. The next morning everyone was gone! I’m really excited to travel around with Angie now, but I will miss the rest of the class so much! We all had an amazing time together!

On our last day in Spain, Angie and I packed and got organized. We did some more research on Paris and the other places we were going and planned out our trips! After that we went to the airport to go ahead and store our big bags in long-term lockers! (We are only traveling around with our backpacks) We only got one locker (meant for one big bag) and stuffed both of our huge bags in there! I wish you could have seen it! It took us about an hour to stuff both bags in there, but we did it and saved about 60 Euros! We when to bed early because we have to leave the hotel at 4 a.m. to make it to the airport on time.

The airport this morning was crazy busy! We waited in line for a while to get our passports checked and then went through security. Luckily our bags were small enough that we didn’t have to pay 40 extra Euros!  When we were going through security though, One of the security guards grabbed me after my bag went through. They had my bag and told me that I had a knife in my bag so they needed to go through it… a knife…. I was trying to smuggle a knife on to the plane…? So they dug through my bag and found a wine bottle opener… oops!  We grabbed a little breakfast and coffee and then caught our flight to Paris! We just landed at the airport and are now taking a shuttle into the city!

I will try my best to keep y’all updated on this new crazy adventure we are starting, but be patient- I don’t know how much access to internet we will have… or how much time I will be wanting to spend on my computer! We have so much that I want to do and so little time!

Traveling to Madrid.

We got up early to catch the bus at 6 am. Since we didn’t get home til 4 am, we did not get much sleep. But being tired on the bus was very worth the night we had. We all loaded up the bus and headed out of Sevilla. I was a really pretty drive to our first stop Calatrava la nueva (a castle). On the drive we were heading straight in to the sunrise. It was really beautiful- the rolling hills, green grass, and tons of sunflower fields everywhere with the sunrise in the distance.

After watching the sunrise I fell asleep along with the rest of our class. When we woke up we were at the Calatrava. The knights of Calatrava build the castle. They were monks who were “defenders of the faith.” The bus ride up there was so steep for our bus and the road was so narrow! It made me verrrrry nervous! The castle was on top of the hill so that they could see two days in advance if someone was coming to the castle. It was built into the natural rock of the hill and was really neat to see. There was a little church in the castle as well. The best view was at the very top! You could see for miles!

I walked down from the bus with Dr. Stratton’s wife and asked her how her and Professor Stratton had met. She told me the cutest story of how he was a big shot basketball player in college and all of her friends were in love with him. She was kind of shy so one day he took all of her and her friends to a dance. She sat in the back while all of her friends flirted with him. But he turned his review mirror so he could see her and kept winking at her- her friends had no clue. They have been together ever since. It is hard to image Dr. Stratton as a buff basketball player, but with his energy and spunk I can completely see it. They are the cutest couple! I am so glad I got to know them both so well this trip!

We walked around the castle for about an hour, learning from Dr. Stratton and taking pictures, before we head to Almagro. There is a very old theater in Almegro but it was being renovated so we didn’t get to see it! But there is a really neat store that they hand-make silk! We rehydrated with some agua and walked around the small city for a little bit. We were in the city of Almagro for just an hour and a half before we headed over to the windmills of Don Quixote. The view was breathtaking- with the windmills and rolling hills and blue sky.

Migeal Cervantez’s book Don Qixote is about this old guy who reads a lot of stories about knights and decides he wants to go on a knight adventure. He was ridding the world of evil for the love of his life. The significant of the windmills- in the book Don believe they are Giants and goes to fight the windmills. It was one of his first missions and he was obviously defeated- The song “The impossible dream” comes from this. The book is about realism vs delusion. It was one of the greatest of the first modern novels written.

We hopped back on the bus and started heading to our final destination for the day- Toledo. On the bus ride there our class decided that we would come up with some cow jokes in honor of Professor Stratton’s love for them. Erica and Laura came up with 5 really funny jokes! We have such a fun class!

Toledo is a town on a hill. There are lots of museums and churches. We basically had the entire day free in Toledo to do whatever we wish. It is a great town to just walk around. When we got there we went shopping and bought… yes some swords! And some jewelry from some shops in the center of town. Toledo was beautiful! It is a medieval town that reminds me a lot of a mix of Granada and Corbada. The town was all decorated because they are going to have a festival to Corpus Christi later in the week.

After shopping we grabbed some amazing pasta for dinner. “I feel like it is always us and a bottle of wine.” We walked over to a street next to a huge drop off that over looked the city of Toledo and the river. It was beautiful. We sat down on a ledge and just watched the sunset. It was a perfect way to take in the city and relax. We stayed up late the night before telling Sevilla good-bye, so we turned in early for the night. We went back to the hotel watched a little Disney channel (in English), took a long nice shower, and went to bed!

We woke up early went down for breakfast, and then Angie, Dr. Stratton, Mrs. Stratton, Erin, and I all went to Mass at the Toledo Cathedral! The mass was one of the only masses that still has its services in the original language (Latin) so it was very interesting! I’m really glad we went! I could not understand much, but I do now know The Lord’s Prayer in Spanish and Latin as well. After the service Dr. Stratton snuck in to the big part of the church with us so that he could show us around! We are rebellious! The interior was amazing! We saw this one area in the ceiling of the church that had been cut out and decorated for the sun to shining through in the most extraordinary way! It was decorated with angles and was really breath-taking. We only got kicked out twice before Dr. Stratton decided that we should go ahead and leave.

After mass we headed over to some shops that Mrs. Stratton wanted to show us while Dr. Stratton went and bought us all a piece of “mazapan.” Mazapan is a little pastry that is very popular in Toledo and taste like a very heavy sweetbread with a dab of almond. It was really nice of him to get that for us.

After our little snack we walked over to a museum to meet the rest of our class and see this one painting. The painting was called “El Entierro Del Senor De Orgaz” (The Burial of Lord Orgaz) by El Greco. El Greco is a famous Toledo painter and this painting was one of the two most important paintings in all of Spain. The painting was huge and absolutely beautiful. It was the first time that anyone had ever painted the soul of a person being ascended to Heaven. The bottom of the painting was the earth and the burial of Lord Orgaz, the middle was angels the soul being delivered to Heaven, and the top was the soul being welcome into the Kingdom by St. Peter, Mary, John the Baptist, and Jesus. I would start naming off a bunch of fact about the painting but I don’t think it would be as interesting to y’all as it was to me.

After viewing the painting for a while we left and decided to go visit the El Greco museum. The museum was a replica of El Greco’s house in Toledo and was full of art by Greco himself and by some of his students. My favorite paintings were the 13 portfolio’s of the 12 disciples and Jesus. Each painting was different and in someway had a symbolic reference in the painting to the individual disciple’s life. The other painting I really liked was “The tears of St. Peter.” The painting portrayed St Peters acknowledging his guilt and begging for forgiveness for having denied Christ three times. It was a beautiful painting.

 After the hotel was grabbed a quick lunch and heading back to the hotel to get on the bus. As we left the town of Toledo our bus driver took us out of the city along a route that gave us a panoramic view of the city. It was the perfect view of the city. Professor Stratton surprised the entire class with a little piece of mazapan to try! So nice of him!

We drove for a couple of hours before we got to The Monastery of El Escorial. The city reminded me so much of Colorado: the set-up of the city as well as the weather- perfect. Made me excited for the rest of my summer in Colorado.

The Escorial Castle was a very large, but simple castle. Pictures were illegal so I didn’t get many- but I did get a couple! The view from the castle was beautiful looking out into the garden! In my castle one day I’ll have that pretty of a view to wake up to! We saw a beautiful church with in the castle as well was the tombs’ of many King and Queens of Spain, and a really pretty library! My favorite part was being about to hear this beautiful choir practicing through a window on the third floor as we waited to enter into the church- beautiful!

After touring around the huge castle for a while we headed back to the bus and then into Madrid! 

Last day in Sevilla.

We woke up early for our oral test with Dr. Stratton on Monday. The oral test was basically we went in to the classroom at individual times and spoke with him about our time in Spain… in Spanish. It was pretty easy and very quick. After our test, Angie and I went and printed off some of our tickets and other information we need to travel around with.

When Katie and Shaina were done we all decided we would do one last shopping-spree in Sevilla (with is smart- because everywhere else we go in Europe is going to be crazy expensive). We walked around to some shops over by the cathedral. No one bought much- Ang and I just a dress or too to go travel around in after Madrid.

After shopping we decided to go grab lunch together at Colonialist. It was good, except the kitchen was not open so you couldn’t exactly get a “meal.” So we had very cheap little tapas instead. After that we headed over to starbucks. I thought a cup of coffee would be necessary to help us stay awake the rest of the day! No siesta on our last day in Sevilla! At starbucks I struck up a conversation with three girls in line behind me. They were asking how to order a coffee in Spanish. It is pretty obvious you have not been in Spain very long at all if you do not know how to order a coffee. So I taught them: “café con leche/americano/solo, por favor.” Knowing that they must have been new to the city, I asked them how long they had been in Sevilla. It was their second day. I told them that today was our last and gave them a little talk like my South Carolina friend had given me on his last day/my first week in Sevilla.

They asked what all they should do while they were here… Now that’s a loaded question… Do it ALL, everything you can think of! So I gave them a list of everything they “had” to do (an “Amy’s favorite things” list)…

Go to Plaza de Espana at night. Have a Picnic in Maria Luisa park. Even if you don’t like museums- go to as many as you have time for. Flamenco dance in the most random places even if you look stupid. Experience a Discotech. Go take a picture in the sunflowers in the countryside. Go to Cien every Wednesday. Go to Alfalfas. Go to Calle Betis. Go to Long Island and experience the Texas-once. Have a bottle of champagne on the steps of the Toro de Oro. Walk up and down the river at night. Buy a fan. Ride on the back of a Vespa. Visit the Cathedral in Granada. Go to a bullfight. Marvel at the Sevilla Cathedral at night- for hours. Get in the fountain. If you miss nachos- go to Phoenix. Experience a Flamenco dance. Soak in the culture. Write everything down. Pretend you are from England and use an accent. Dress like a Spaniard. Visit Lagos. Make your own bucket list and don’t make any excuses for not accomplishing everything……

I could have gone on for hours telling them about everything they had to do and see… but they wont understand anything I tell them and how truly amazing everything is until they step-up and experience it for themselves (so I just gave them the basics). They have no idea what is in store for them.

After starbucks Angie and I headed back toward our home. We stopped near Nervion Plaza to run a few more errands. We went into Corte de Ingles (a huge store) and as we were leaving we saw a man talking to an older lady. The man was in a motorized wheelchair and we both made eye contact with him so we both gave him a big friendly smile… I will forever rethink who I smile at from now on… not really, but this man apparently took the smile in someway we did not intend (like a “hey follow me for miles” kind of way!

We left the store and the man in the motorized wheelchair followed right behind us. At first I wasn’t sure if he was “following” us or just heading in the same direction so I took a weird route to the direction we were going. He was undoubtedly following us. So we both started power walking. And he sped us motorized chair up as well. We were extremely uncomfortable so we both started running. The man sped up. We ran into a mall that was on our right and hid out in a store for a while. We shopped around for a good 45 mins before we left.

As we were leaving we joked around about what if the man was sitting outside waiting for us… We walked outside, looked around.. no man. We started heading back toward our house. With in the first few seconds of our walk I turned around and the man was right behind us! So we started running again! It was the WEIRDEST things! Thank goodness we lost him at a red light! But we continued to run the rest of the way home just incase!

When we got home we were dying from the heat and from our little work out! We both drank about a liter of water and then finished packing! We got cleaned up for the night and then went to meet up with Katie, Maggie, Shaina, and Chelsea. We all met at Cien (one last time) and had a little appetizer before heading to dinner at levies. 

After levies we met a few other people from our class at the Irish Pub by the Cathedral. We laughed about all the funny things that have happened on this trip. We went through each thing that we had crossed off our bucket list and re-lived all the amazing stories. We only had too more things to cross off: Get in the fountain by the Cathedral and write our names somewhere. Before we could go accomplish these last two things we had to make a NEW bucket list for our week in Madrid (of course)! We spent a good while constructing the PERFECT list with the help of our “almost” professor Austin. I’ll just say it should be a very eventful, interesting, and fun time in Madrid!

After that it was time to go cross off the last two things on the Sevilla bucket list. First- the fountain. We took the most amazingly awesome/funny pictures in the fountain by the Cathedral! It was so much fun- possibly the most fun thing we have done. We pretended to be statues in the fountain and then we danced in the street and showed off our Flamenco skills. Second- we wrote our names in a secret place somewhere in-between the Cathedral and the Alcazar gardens!

The last thing I wanted to do before we left Sevilla was just hang out by the Cathedral at night…and ohhhh did we hang out by the Cathedral. It was the perfect goodbye to an amazing city that I will miss greatly! We literally stood in awe of the Cathedral for at least two hours before we even thought about heading home.  We just talked about how amazing this experience has been for all of us and how it had changed our lives for the better… Words really can’t express those few hours. I think for once this trip we were all speechless (and that is saying something with this group). Tears were shed and we said a long goodbye to the Cathedral and to our home the past 6 weeks- Sevilla, Spain.

The last week in Sevilla.

In the last message i forgot to mention we had to run after the bus to try to catch it home because the buses stopped running after that bus left! Luckily the driver stopped for us, which NEVER happens! It was a great work out and we saved about 6 euros that we would have had to pay for a taxi ride.

We got ready for thursday with no one home for the first time. Our mom had left early to go out with friends so Angie and I JAMMED out to my Ipod.. i forgot how much i love dance and singing around while i get ready! We had dinner at the house and then went and met up with the whole Tech group at the Toro de Oro (the river).

At the river (which is one of the most beautiful places at night) we all just sat at the steps of the Toro de Oro and had some wine. We took lots of pictures and laughed. I even rode on the back of someones vespa just up the river and back again (check that one off the bucket list). It was Jen's birthday so we all decided that we were going to go together to Buddha (our first disco-tech experience)... I've not too sure what to say about Buddha.. It was fun! Lots of dance (and I mean lots) and LOUD music. I'm not a huge "club" person.. but this was a great experience and I'm really glad we at least tried it out once!

The next morning (friday) we woke up a little late for class. Today was our LAST day of really class! It was great! We hardly did any work at all. We had a "end of school" party with our tutors. We had cake and just stood around and talked. Dr. Stratton pied Shaina in the face with cake- it was awesome! Dr. Stratton also told us all about what we would be doing while we were in Madrid and I am really excited about it!

Dr. Stratton is seriously the BEST teacher ever. This being the last day of class he gave us a really sweet speech. He talked about how great our class was and how much fun we all had together. He said it is really amazing how you can put this random group of individual together and everyone get along and like each other so well. And it's true- we are all extremely different and unique. I think one of the biggest highlights of this trip was meeting and getting to know all of these people. There is no way we would have all met each other if we would have not come on the trip together- and I am SO happy each and every person came because everyone is so amazing! One thing Professor Stratton said was that he believed that if you picked out any three random people from the class and told them they had to go have a good time together we could. That shows you how great/fun/awesome the people here truly are.

Another thing Professor Stratton remind us was that this experience is a once in a life time thing. No one can take away from us what we have experienced here and the relationship we have made. It is something that we will never forget, but is hard to put into words. I encourage anyone who is even considering studying abroad or traveling to DO IT! It will change your life and open your eyes to so much!

Of course with all of this reminiscing and thinking about HOW amazing this really has been for me- I was the girl crying of course. And you know how girls are- one starts crying we all do.

The last thing that Professor Stratton told us was that we did not have a test on monday! He said he didn't want us to be worrying about studying on our last weekend in Sevilla! He wanted us to take advantage and experience the culture! So instead of a test we were supposes to go visit 3 culture places in Sevilla and write about them! Now that is my kind of test!... Seriously the BEST teacher ever.

Originally we planned to stay in Friday night a study. But after finding out there was no test- there was no needed for that! We all meet up at Plaza de Espana! It was ABSOLUTELY beautiful at night! I can't believe we waited so long to come and see it! We headed over to the Alfafla area (the first place we ever went out to) and found this Catholic Bar that one of my friend (shout out to Luke) told me we HAD to go to! So we did! I have to admit- it was a little creepy! But i'm seriously so glad we went! It was an experience that I don't think any of us will ever forget!

After that we headed over to to meet up with our tutors and the rest of our class. We just kind of hung out in the street and talked with everyone and told the tutors bye. It was great to hang out with them one last time. They are all seriously SO amazing and we were SO lucky to have them teaching us! The 6 of us girls kind of ventured off from the rest of the group and went and sat near this little play ground area. We all talked about the trip and how much it had opened out eyes. We are so lucky that we had such awesome people to hang out with on this trip! We are all soooo different but we all click so well. We will for sure have to have "Cein" Wednesday night reunions at least once a month.

We left the Alfalfa area and then just walked around town heading toward Calle Betis. It was a LONG walk. but the city is SO beautiful at night! We got to the river and just walked and talk by the toro de oro then walked across the bridge and then walked on the other side of the river. We didn't go to any bars, just walked and talked. It was seriously so beautiful.

We got home really late! So we slept in on Saturday! We woke up and our mom had made us sandwiches to go! So Angie and I headed to Plaza de Espana to have a picnic! It was SO HOT- but really pretty! We sat on a bench in the shade and talked about all the things we have to do before we leave Sevilla- which is a lot!

We met up with Katie and Shaina and headed over to Casa de Pilatos. Basically this place is a Palace (now a museum) that a very rich woman use to live. She decided that she wanted to make her home in to a museum so she started buying very important/expensive things from people and decorating her house with them. It is a really beautiful casa. It is adorned with things from the old city of Italica with is very interesting. We walked around there for a while. All decided we would not mind living in a Palace that had beautiful terrace and gardens like this one. We ever threw a penny into the fountain and then headed to our next cultural destination.

We walked from the Casa back to the Plaza de Espana. In the back of Plaza de Espana we found the Plaza de Americas and went to the archeological museum! After that we decided that our feet were hurting SO bad from walking around the entire city that we would head home and have dinner.

Saturday night was our last "real" night out in Sevilla. So of course we went to my favorite spot- the Toro De Oro! We had some champagne on the steps of the Toro- over looking Calle Betis and the beautiful rio! After that we headed to International Cerveceria and then to Lonestar. We met up with our German friend at a bench outside of the Cathedral. If you have a bucket list, put this on there: See the Cathedral in Sevilla at NIGHT. It is as "majestic."  But seriously it one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It is not like I have never seen it at night before, but I feel like I have taken it for granted while we have been here. I seriously could have sat there all night and just looked at the Cathedral.

We headed over to Alfalfa after that.. basically we just went to EVERY single place we had ever been to in Sevilla! After a while of walking around we realized how late it was and decided to go home! We said bye to our friends and caught a taxi.

We slept in again today (sunday) and got everything packed and in-line for our travels!

Tomorrow is our last day in Sevilla! It came way to quickly! I'm so sad to leave but so excited to travel around Europe the next 3 weeks!

The last cien night. Facial. And the bus.

Last night was our last night of Wednesday night tutoring and our last at Cien Monteditos! It was really relaxing night, and kind of sad saying good-bye to our usual wednesday night routine (my favorite night)! We saw our UGA friends there. The first time we met them was at Cien our first wednesday night and our last time to see them was our last wednesday night at Cien (kind of crazy). We didn't say long, just long enough for our usual baby sandwiches and a little reminiscing. I think I will probably miss wednesday night at Cien the most out of anything in Sevilla- exect maybe the Tore de Oro.

Today in class we had the usual routine- grammar, homework, tutors... But half way through tutors some girls from the cosmetology school (local Sevillans) came in and asked if a of the girls in our class would like to have a facial. The girl that was supposed to get the facial did not show up and they HAD to have someone so that they could be graded on how well they preformed.. Free facial? Heck yes.. I raised my hand and off we went! The girl had to have gotten an A cause she did an amazing job. I got scrubbed, steamed, got a mask and a massage.. top of the line. Not to mention it was much needed! I also got to miss 2 hours of class.. not a bad trade-off for a free facial.

I caught the bus home alone cause the rest of the class was already gone. When I got home Angie was slightly freaking out. She didn't realize facials took as long as they do and, again, thought I was abducted. She had "facebooked" the entire class by the time I got hope asking if they had since me.. what a caring sister!! I think that was the first time we have not been side-by-side this entire trip..... Except for the first week- when we did not know our way around the city AT ALL: Angie didn't get off the bus quick enough and got trapped on while I was already off. She had to go a couple of mile on the bus before it stop- me running behind it in fear that Angie (with her awful directional skills and no phone) would never find her way back to where we were. The bus was a bit fast for me so I walked back and sat in front of the school hoping she could find her way. She did luckily. I didn't tell that story the first week in fear that mom and dad would be worried the rest of the time we were in Sevilla.

After class, we both got a little studying and homework done and tonight we are going to go to our first/and last Disco-Tech (Buddha).. It is our friend Jen's birthday and basically our entire program is going to go hang out at the Tore de Oro (the river) and then head over to Buddha together.. should be a fun/interesting night! I'll keep you updated soon!

The beginning of the last week in Sevilla.

It is the beginning of our last week in Sevilla. The past couple of days we have just been catching up on some rest and trying to study a little. We have a big final exam coming up on monday that we have already started studying for. We hope since we started studying early we can actually enjoy the last weekend that we have here. The test is monday and we leave tuesday for Madrid! So we have to fit in a lot of "lasts" this last week.

On monday Angie and I did a little souvenir shopping for our family and found the best gifts! I'm not going to give it away on here, but they are awesome- I am very proud of our purchases! After dinner we just went and met up with our friends for dinner and then headed back to the house to study a bit and do homework.

Angie has been sick the past few days (along with half of our class and half of Sevilla) so we have been taking it pretty easy in hopes that she will feel better for the rest of the week/weekend/our test/and the rest of our travels.

Not going to lie, the thought of already leaving here kind of makes me tear up. Yes, I miss my family, friends, bed, cooking my own food, my car, and a pedicure, and parts of my miss my phone, talking in english to everyone SO MUCH- but I'm going to miss this place like crazy too. 6 weeks here is not enough. I've said it before, but I really am just starting to get the hang of everything feel completely comfortable. It is going to be a bitter-sweet departure..

I was talking to one of our tutors yesterday about how we are here for such a short period of time trying to learn so much spanish that it all doesn't stick in your mind (unless all you do here is study-but we want to experience Sevilla!). Before I came on this trip, I looked at this experience as "this will be a fun/easy way to get these last 6 hours of foreign language credit"- which is true. But it's become more than just that. After experiencing Spain and living in the culture you really start to feel this strong appreciation for the language and the culture- I actually WANT to learn the language and be able to communicate, but there is SO little time here to learn everything I want to learn and to do everything that I want to do!

When Angie and I were walking home yesterday we realized how well we actually new the city now. Even when we think we are lost in the windiest little road, we find our way. We know the bus system- when 5 weeks ago the buses were one of the scariest thing about this city. We can walk about anywhere in-town in about an hour and know exactly where we are at all times. It is just crazy thinking about how comfortable we are now and looking about to our first week- lost constantly, confused, taking the long routine, riding buses for hours cause we didn't know where they went or which side of the road to get on them. And now we are about to leave it all! It's sad..

I went to the coffee shop on my way to class today and the sweetest man who works there already new my exact order and my name- just like home.

I remember back to my first week here- talking to the crying guy from South Carolina on his last night in Sevilla and him telling me to live everyday to my fullest because this day would come so quickly. I believe we have done just that- live each and everyday to the its best! We have had so much fun out and about as well as experiencing the culture, looking at buildings, learning history and language. He told me that this place would feel like home- and it does now!

Before actually coming to Sevilla 6 weeks sounded so long! But not now- 6 weeks is way too short of time here...

Its wednesday and we are going to do our regular wednesday activities! Class and then tutors and Cien tonight!

Lagos, Portugal.

This could be a very long blog!! I wish it was more specific but it was a very long weekend and LOTS happened- I just can remember everything!

Thursday morning we woke up early and caught the bus with the rest of our class to head to Rabida! La Rábida is where Columbus stayed between 1491-92 waiting for financial backing from the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for his voyage to the New World. We saw the sight where Columbus left to begin his explorations! It's a pretty cool thing to think about- we were standing in the place were Columbus sat sail to make the single most important discovery in history. It kind of gave me the chills. 


After walking around and exploring that for a while we visited the Río Tinto estuary, the Muelle de las Carabelas (Harbour of the Caravels) is a waterfront exhibition with life-size replicas of Columbus's three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María. There was a little play ground out front where Chelsea, Kyle, Katie and I played on the see-saws before we went in to see the ships! We goofed of for a long time and took some awesome pictures in all of the ships. 


After a long session of silly-ness at the ships, we all loaded the second bus at head to Lagos, Portugal for the weekend! On the bus Chelsea and I decided we were going to act really confused about where the bus was taking us. "This bus is going where? Portugal? where is Portugal? Is it in Spain? I though we were all going to Dinsey Land?" We actually got people pretty confused.. It was classic (but maybe you had to be there). 


On the bus ride we decide it would be a brilliant idea to sing songs like we were on a camp bus! So we obnoxiously turned up my ipod and all started to sing whatever songs we could think of- Usher, Justin Bieber, Dixie Chicks, Wagon Wheel. We sounded beautiful! I believe our friend Mike enjoyed the singing the most our of anyone (sarcasm). 


When we finally arrived in Lagos we caught a cab and headed to our hostel! The cab literally stopped in the middle of this tiny street and helped us out. The hostel looked like a little hole in the wall. My first thought was- where the heck are we? My second thought was- I hope we make it out of here alive.


The hostel was called Escape. This was all of our very first hostel experience! We were pretty creeped out at first, but when we went inside, it was GREAT! Some of the other people in our group stayed at a nice hotel on the beach about 15 mins from the center part of town.. but I think we had a MUCH better experience in the hostel!


The service we great! Everyone we so friendly. It had a very "Zen" atmosphere! I loved it! Very chill. The first thing we did was go out to our tiny tiny room with 3 bunk beds and put our stuff away! The second thing I did was go sit our amazing balcony/roof top and take advantage of the free coffee! 


Once everyone got settled in we took off to explore Lagos! We literally just walked around for a couple of hours and got a feel for the city. We found out that our hostel was right in the middle of the center- where EVERTHING was. We found a few beautiful beach (very close to the hostel). We found shopping and street music! This one couple was playing the flute and this interesting metal drum instrument. They were SO good! I wanted to buy their CD so bad but decided to be stingy with my money!


We met this man wearing a sailor hat that gives boat tours and talked to him for a while. He was passing bye us and I liked his hat so much I said "ohhh i like him!" I forgot that people in Portugal can speak english- I was so use to Spain were no one understands me when I speak in English! So of course he turns around and tries to tlak us into going on him boat tour. We didn't go, but he was a funny little guy! 


When we were walking back to the hostel to get ready for the night, we saw this guy who looked EXACTLY like Prince Harry. The only reason I mention this guy is because we ended up seeing him every day and every night in Lagos. So of course I had to ask if he was Harry- which he wasn't! But everytime we saw him from then on we would just yell "Hey Harry!" I think he hated it! But it was funny.


We then went back to our hostel and got ready for the night! We ate dinner at this fancy Italian food restaurant! It was amazing! We ate a lot of pizza in Portugal! Our waiter was a cute little old guy! He gave us a free house wine (which I though it was because he liked us- but found out he does it to everyone!) He accidentally spilled a little on me when he was taking a funny picture of fake pouring wine in my mouth (I guess he didn't get the fake part of it). We also saw a like 13 year old boy at the table next to us having a drink and smoking a cigarette with his parents.. 13! Not okay!


After dinner we decided to go buy a couple of bottles of vino verde (green wine). Green wine is only made in Portugal so I though we should all try it out! While we were trying to make a decision on which bottle to get I noticed this family and the owner of the store laughing at us. It is a pretty usual thing for our group to be laughed at, so I said out loud "Hey I think we are getting laughed at again." Forgetting again that most people in Portugal speak english. So immediately the mom said "no no we were not laughing at you!" This started the beginning of a good 30 min conversation between me and this woman. She is my new best friend. She told me she was from Ireland and had just bought a second home in Lagos. She said she had traveled the world but the only places she ever cares to go back to are Ireland and Portugal. 


I told her we were from the United States and she said that the U.S. was too fast for her. American's need to slow down and think about their priorities. She said in Ireland, family is always the number one priority and in American that is not necessarily the case. She also told us this funny story about her staying with this wealthy family in Alabama and the mom of the family pulled out a gun and asked he what kind of gun she carried. It was a pretty funny story! 


I told her that next time she come to the U.S. she needs to come to Texas and stay with me. She told me that there was no way she was ever going anywhere else but Portugal and Ireland. But she did say that I was welcome to come stay with her and her family whenever I wanted and for however long.. for free.. It was her "gift from the heart to me." She also said that she would let her daughter come to Texas as long as I took care of her. Maybe I should take a semester off and move to Ireland? We exchanged numbers and emails so that we could stay in touch!


After our long talk, we headed back to the hostel to have a glass of wine on our roof! We walked the sunset and just talked before we went out. 


Everyone in Lagos is either from Australia, New Zealand, or England. All of the accents are very similar and can get confusing! There were SO many people we talked to with accents- it was hard to not start talking in an accent as well! Drew: "I can't stop talking in a British accent!" 


We went to Redeye and played darts, and then over to the Irish Pub for karaoke and then over to Inside Out to meet up with everyone else from our group! I think we walked around the town about 6 times back and forth to different place before we decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel.


Friday we woke up and went on to our hostel's roof for a free breakfast! The people who worked at the hostel were making everyone omelets and they were amazing! I'm extremely sad that I didn't not get to see my dad on his birthday but I hope you had a great one Daddy! Can't wait to celebrate when we get back! After breakfast we got ready quick and headed to the smaller beach closer to our hostel! At the beach we were bums. We all just laid out and listened to music together on our speakers! We had grilled cheeses and milk shakes for lunch right ton the beach! The milk shakes were not that great though! I forgot that they don't really use much ice in Europe so the milk shake was more like just really cold milk and sugar! 


After lunch Maggie and I decided that we needed to go kayaking- of course! We were pro's. We were totally in-sink the entire time. We kayaked pretty far alone the coast by all of the pretty rocks until out arms got tired! We decided to take a little break and just float for a while. We got carried away talking and didn't realize how far off the waves had carried our kayak, until we notice a boat pass us and the people looked at us like we were crazy. Then we realize just how far we were and began our long row back to the shore! It was fun!


When we got back we laid out for a little while long and an airplane pasted us with a long steamer message that said: Skydiving call 55555555555. The rest of the time on the beach I was trying to talk anyone into going skydiving with me. There were no takers.


So we left the beach a did a little shopping around the center of town. I didn't end up buying anything except for my mommy a little present (which I wont give away!). We grabbed a little ice cream- of course- and headed back to the hostel.


It is hard getting ready in a tiny hostel room with 6 girls, so I got ready really quick and then we again sat on the roof and had a glass of green wine! Once everyone was ready we headed out to Casa Rose (the restaurant where power hour was invented). We had the most amazing nachos and burritos ever! We made really good friends with our waiter and he ended up sitting with us for a while and telling us his life story on how he ended up living in Lagos! Really cool guy! They actually had a MLB game on TV so I was loving life (Cincinnati v San Francisco). After an hour of power we when back to redeye and then to a new place called 3 monkeys! We made so many friends at 3 monkeys it is unreal. Our entire hostel was there and we all talked and hung out and became great friend. One girl was from California and was a little crazy and the two guy were from Australia and were super hippy vagabonds. They just hostel hop. We talked to all them for quite a while. We all had a great time singing and dancing and being silly. We headed back to the hostel not long after!


We woke up early again on and then got ready for the day and headed back to the beach. We stopped for some food on the way to the beach (grilled cheese again), and then decided we wanted to take a boat tour of the coast of lagos!


The boat tour was perfect. It was absolutely beautiful! We weaved in and out of the rocks and through caves. The water was SO blue! We got to see all of the beaches (big and small) along the coast. Words can't really describe how beautiful it true was and looking back at my pictures- those don't even show how extremely beautiful it was. If you are ever in Lagos you have to do the boat tour. The rocks were all in shapes of different things (the titanic, king kong, and eagle, ect) and our tour guy would point everything out to us with the limited english that he new. Our tiny boat took us in to little caves- it was unreal! After the tour was over our guide dropped us off at a little beach that we had not been to yet! It was really relaxing and nice. We just laid out and listened to music again for the rest of the day. We reviewed our bucket list and realize how much we had already crossed off! We still have a lot to accomplish this week though! Once things started to get loud and not as relaxing on the beach we decided to head back to the hostel.


On our way back to the hostel we ran right into NahNahBah's (the 30th best burger place in the whole world) and knew it was a sign that we had to go back for dinner that night. We continued on out way to the hostel and realized that we now knew the entire town of Lagos. Every course we turned down we were saying hi to some new friends that we had met during the weekend. (including Prince Harry)


After getting ready at the hostel again we headed back to eat at the burger place. It was the best burger I have ever had. It was HUGE but amazing! We saw some more of our new English friends at the burger place and talked to them for quite awhile. And then left to go buy some more green wine. 


This time we headed down to the beach to drink our wine and watch the sunset. This was by far the best thing I did in Lagos. The sunset was beautiful! We all sat around in the sand and laughed about anything and everything. Shaina sang some ridiculous coffee song. We made up songs and raps about the most ridiculous things. Kyle went streaking and yelled like a chicken. We made up goofy games. We all told secrets that no one else know- hilarious secrets. I wrote a message and put it in the wine bottle and threw it our into the ocean! This was defiantly one of the best nights of my life hands-down.


After it had gotten pretty late and too dark to see each other we decided to head back up to the town and tell the rest of our favorite places good-bye! After redeye and Joe's Garage, Katie and I headed in for the night. After we were all ready for bed and had a nice long chat about life, we heard Kyle yelling downstairs "Amy, Katie! You can go to bed! Its the last night in Lagos!" Katie and I decided to go back out for a little bit. We weren't out long at all when Angie and Maggie ran into us when we were on our way to come meet back up with them. Apparently they had went to the hostel to drop something off when they noticed that Katie and I were not there anymore. They though we got kidnapped or something and were franticly search the city. Katie and I felt really bad but we were not planning on staying out long and were coming to find them anyway so we didn't think about them coming back to the hostel before we found them. We felt really bad, but looking back it is really funny to all of us!  


We all called it a night and woke up early the next morning to pack up our backpacks, check out, grab breakfast/lunch, and head to the bus! 


It was the most amazing weekend ever! Lagos is hands-down the greatest place I have ever been in my whole life. It was hard for me to get on the bus and leave there to head back to Sevilla! But I will go back one day! Maybe I can win the lottery and buy me a house there one day! We made it back to Sevilla and headed back to our house to see our mama! It is CRAZY to think that we only have one more week left in Sevilla! It makes me sad- I feel like I'm just getting used to everything here.

A typical wednesday night.

Before tutors yesterday Angie and I decided it would be a great idea to go get a little ice cream before we went to the school. So we stopped by this fancy ice cream shop on the way to school and sat and had the most amazing ice cream (I always say "the most amazing ice cream" because it is ALL amazing here.) We decided to walk the rest of the way to class after ice cream and ran into some of our tutors! We walked with our tutor Alberto and his friend up to the school. Tutors are a good chuck of our grade in spanish so I ask Alberto if he was grading us well in tutoring. He said that I was lucky he liked us because all we do it talk to him in english! Which might be kind of true- but in my defense, be only talks to us in english so I'm not going to respond in Spanish! He called me his "black sheep"- not quite sure why...? He ended by saying that we didn't have anything to worry about so that makes me feel better!

When we got to tutors we strayed to the end of the line so that we could be pair with the tutors at the end of the line. We worked it out in class that we would get with Mar and JuanDiego (they would get at the end of the tutor line) so that we could all go to Cien together and have dinner! It worked out great! We all headed over to our typical Wednesday night spot and ordered drinks and motidios (little baby sandwiches). We all got our usual number 41 (chicken and alli-oli) but decided that we were going to all try something new for our second sandwich.. kinda scary! I ordered a pepperoni, guacamole, and spanish salsa sandwich. It sounds so random and kind of gross, but it was absolutely amazing! I feel like they have very weird combinations of food here, but it is all usually great!

We talked to Mar and this other guy (that i don't remember his name) for a good 2 hours in broken spanish for our tutor session. Mar is fluent in English as well so as soon as the 2 hours were up she said we could switch to english and the conversation was much better from that point on. The other guy sitting with us didn't know any english so once we switch languages he decided he was ready to go home! We hung out at Cien for quite a while with Mar and just talked. Mar loves to talk in english because she is fluent and loves practicing! It was a relief and very fun! Mar told us she was going to leave and go to Cervazaria International to go tell the other groups she tutors good-bye because they were leaving in the morning! She invited us to go with her so we decided- why not! We are all about trying new places and doing different things! There is no way we would have found this place without Mar either!

We talked to Mar for a long time about her boyfriend. It is the cutest story. He is from Michigan and we studying abroad in Sevilla when they met! (she is from Sevilla). They met whenever he was JUST about to leave for the U.S. She had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend. But they emailed, skyped and wrote letters back and forth for 6 years! About 3 years ago she they started talked about how they really liked each other but had no idea how it would ever work out. So Mar started applying for study abroad programs in Michigan! She didn't tell her boyfriend, so when she got in she surprised him (as a Christmas gift)! They started officially dating when she got to Michigan. She spent a year with him there and then had to come back to Sevilla. They have been apart for a year now- both finishing up school! She is planning on moving to Michigan soon though! It was a very romantic story! I think this boy is the main reason she learned her english so well! We are so lucky to have such awesome tutors!

When we go there we met a bunch of guys an girls from the North (NY, NJ, Michigan). I'm kind of getting tired of meeting new, great people who are leaving 24 hours later! I feel like everyone I meet here is so great! I think it's just cause it takes a special kinda of person who want to study abroad (really awesome people!). The place we were at was really different then anywhere we had been before. It was still very American (lots of Americans), but it was really different. Very chill atmosphere which I liked!

We didn't stay too long though. We have to catch a bus here in about 15 mins to head to Lagos Portugal! I'll keep you updated on our adventure when we get back monday from Portugal!