Update!

Well, since moving back to the States in May of 2007, I have graduated, gotten a Masters and started teaching Spanish in San Antonio! I've been busy but Spain has never been far from my mind! I miss Madrid and all the wonderful people I met there...not to mention the food!

While I love what I'm doing right now, I will hopefully be heading back to Spain soon...even if just for vacation. Though that won't really do anything but whet my appetite for more... One day I'll go back to live!

Here´s a video I put together of lots of my pictures of Spain that bring back good memories!

Besos y un abrazo muy fuerte para todos...

More Pictures!

Here are pictures of me and Mom when she was here!

Las Fotos Prometidas!

Here are some of the pictures i promised!

GALICIA

The view from my hotel room...like how they are bulldozing the sand?!


Me and my Corral buddies, Beth and Alexa being adventurous on the rocks!


La Torre de Hércules which is actually the oldest functioning lighthouse in Europe or the world...I don´t remember!


Kate, my Galicia buddy and me!


The view from the top of La Torre de Hércules


María Pita...the heroine of A Coruña


some bag pipe players..random...


Us and the Marías of Santiago de Compostela


Me and the Cathedral


Kate and María Jose (I think...)


A huge azaela for my marmee!


María...


sunset on the beach


hanging out on the beach


more chilling on the beach!


Ramón Valle-Inclán, a spanish writer (the bronze one), and my professor, Ricardo (the live one)...wierd huh?


Nuns and the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela...I´m so artistic...



CONTRA CORRIENTE

My crazy friends trying to camp on the stairs...very unsuccessfully...


Will, Bernie and I. Will is American and Bernie (or Belo) is Austrian. His real name is Bernhard...so cool!


Abi and I before a presentación.


Shati, Chaz and I at their Master´s Commission booth.


Will and Bernie


Me and Belo at lunch


Chaz, Shati, and Laura at lunch!


Carlos writing out his new song that he wanted us all to sing but we left him hanging...


Bernie, Will, me and Ana (kind of) at the concert!


Friends from Amistad!

Mom in Europe

Oh my gosh I´ve been such a bad updater lately! So sorry I´ve been MIA! Life´s been crazy and I´ve just been trying to make it from weekend to weekend! But, my spring break was the week before Easter and I went to Paris with my mom! Well, really, I met her in the airport in Paris... Anyway, a friend who lives outside of Paris came in and picked us up from the airport (which is a good thing since I´m not sure how we would have dealt with all the luggage!) and drove us into Paris to her parent´s flat where we got to stay! It is right next to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs de L´Elysees (pretty sure I spelled that WRONG!) Anyway, we spent 5 days in Paris and we saw a lot and did a lot of shopping! We also spent a couple of days with our friends that live in Amiens which is outside of Paris! So, I got to see Charlotte and meet her family! We went on the boat tour with them and had a lovely day! Plus, we had fantastic weather!

Then we came back to Madrid for Easter and a few days so I could go to class. Mom stayed in my room at Pilar´s and I slept on the floor in the living room. It was so great to have her there and she got to meet my Spanish family: Pilar, Alvaro, Marucha (aka Muffy b/c Mom can´t say Marucha), Mavi, Pepo, Pablo, las niñas, Paloma and I think that´s all. Anyway, it was fun and I did lots of translating because Pilar speaks no english and Mom speaks no spanish...always a good match. Mom did learn one word: agridulce. That means bittersweet. That is what it will be when I leave in May.

Anyway, after Madrid, we headed for Rome! On the plane, Mom made friends with this cute Italian boy while I slept and he told us about Naples which is where he´s from. So, we decided to go to Naples and Pompei our last day of the trip. So we spent 2 days in Rome and a day in Naples and Pompei. It was great and once again great weather! Except when we finally got to the beach in Naples, it rained...but that´s okay! We had a great time and saw everything you are supposed to see in Rome except St. Peter´s Basilica. That just means we´ll have to go back!

Then, Mom left...tear. :( I went to back to the real world and to school. Then I went to Galicia (the north bit of Spain over Portugal) with IES. We went to A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela which is the 3rd largest Christian pilgrimage site in the world. It´s and incredible church and Galicia is a wonderful place! Our hotel was across the street from the beach and we had a fantastic view! I made some new friends and we had a good time!

This past weekend, I went to a National Spanish Youth Conference called Contra Corriente with my church. It was in Priego de Córdoba which is also known as the Middle of Nowhere and is about 5 hours from Madrid. We took a bus there and camped in this park for 2 nights. My host sister´s friend lent me a tent which I lent to a friend who didn´t have one and I shared with three other girls...the four of us in one tent became good friends really fast! :) But, we had lots of speakers and music and activities! The theme was missions and worship so they had a Worship Tent where there was someone leading worship 24 hours a day! It was a fantastic way to start and end the day! I love singing worship songs in Spanish! So, I made some new friends and spent time with not-so-new-but-not-quite-old friends!

This Tuesday and Wednesday are fiesta so I don´t have school. Unfortunately, my program decided to have class on Monday so I have to go and then am just going to hang out in madrid on my days off.

Today begins the 20 day countdown until I come home. I´m not quite sure how I feel about it except that I know I´m pumped to see my friends and family but not to happy about leaving Spain. Definitely agridulce! I will add pictures to explain things better soon! Right now I´m at my internship so I don´t have access to pictures that are on my computer at home. But, soon, I promise!

Everyone take care!

update

Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I've changed the settings on my blog, as you can see, but it's still me! And, I've changed the settings so that now anyone can leave a comment...it took me a while but I finally figured it out! So, leave me comments! Hope everyone is well and Happy Easter! I will update about my trip to Ireland soon! and a sneak peak at my life: My mom's coming in 3 days and we are going to Paris!! HOORAY!

Granada - Retake!

So, last weekend I went back to Granada with my program. I went last semester with Lauren (see other post) and loved it so much that I wanted to go back. Plus, IES trips are always fantastic so I wanted to aprovechar! We left on the bus on Friday morning and got to Granada mid afternoon-ish. I roomed with Lisa and Katie and I'm pretty sure we had the biggest room in the hotel and the biggest bed in the hotel! We totally lucked out with a great view of the city from our balcony as well! Amazing! So, once we got settled in we went walking and everything started coming back to me! We were very close to the cathedral and the amazing plaza where the best ice cream shop is in the world! So, we headed that way and got some lunch and then went shopping in the mercado. Afterwards, we went to the cathedral and the Capilla Real and I loved them both as much as last time! Then we headed back to the hotel to meet the group.
We met up with the tour guides and my guide was my favorite, Carmen! She's the best! So, we went on a paseo through the Albacin which is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) in Granada. We made it to this great lookout called the Mirador and had an amazing view of the Alhambra at sunset with snow covered mountains in the background and possibly the most amazing sky I've ever seen! God was doing some incredible artwork that night! Then we headed down to the Arab baths!
The Arab baths are incredible! There are 7 pools of water that are all different temperatures and you go from pool to pool. There's also a 30 massage that was incredible!! I need that more often! And they have Moroccan tea for you to drink. We were there for several hours. There are 6 warm/hot water pools and the 7th is freezing cold. I almost couldn't breath one time b/c it was so cold! But it was so nice to relax in the water and sweat out all the impurities. I feel like it was very cleansing. I don't know that it is good for you body to go back and forth from hot to cold like that though. But in any case, I had the best back massage of my life!
After that, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes. Some of our friends from Morocco that are studying in Granada invited us over to their apartment which is actually pretty close to our hotel so Lisa and I went with a couple of other people and hung out there. Then we headed home b/c we were so tired!
On Saturday, we got up and ate breakfast in the hotel. Then we headed off the the Alhambra!!! Hooray! It is definitely my favorite place in Spain and is actually up to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world. I hope it wins! Anyway, we saw everything again and this time I actually got to see the Generalife and the Alcazar from the top of which we had an amazing view of the whole valley! And we got to go through everything with Carmen as our guide so we learned so much more! Our small group was really fun but we went really slow for some reason and ended up being late for lunch...oops! But, after walking about 500 miles in the Alhambra, all the way down from there, back up the huge hill to the Albacin and back down the length of the Alhambra, we made it to lunch and what a lunch it was! Atleast 5 plates they brought out...it was basically amazing!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel and then went back to the mercado so some girls could get some stuff. Then we went back and met up for the IES Madrid vs IES Granada soccer game! It was so fun and of course, we clobbered them! Actually, I think it is the first time Madrid has one so that was exciting! But yes, we won 7 to 2. Hooray! We had fun cheering on our players! After the game a group of us went and got amazing icecream from the best place ever! and it was just as beautiful as last time! Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the flamenco show! We went to a cueva where they have a flamenco tablao and watched some authentic flamenco that was really good. I was a little too tired to completely enjoy it but it was amazing. Then we went home and went to sleep. On Sunday morning we got up and headed back for Madrid on the bus. Goodbye Granada...forever...or atleast until next time... I'll add pictures soon! Or you can look at the other post!

Tea and Camel Pictures...and so much more!

Here are pictures from Morocco as promised!