Día Dos: Suiza.

Day two of spring break was a complete turn-around from day one. It was so much better. We woke up in Interlaken to a gorgeous view of the Alps right out our window. We had a nice breakfast of bread and nutella, yogurt, and coffee outside in beautiful Switzerland. After eating breakfast, packing up, and talking to Texas guy a bit more, we headed out to take the 20-minute scenic train ride to Lauterbrunnen. I was freaking out all morning because of how gorgeous it was. I have never been anywhere more beautiful than Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen was even prettier. The grass is greener, the water is bluer, just everything about Switzerland is prettier than anywhere I’ve ever been. Interlaken is just on the edge of the mountains and Lauterbrunnen is actually in the mountains in an amazing valley. I didn’t even know it was possible for somewhere to be so pretty. Well we got to Lauterbrunnen and only had to walk about two minutes to get to our hostel. Lauterbrunnen is a super small town – pretty much just a street that takes five minutes total to walk down. It is so cute and everyone there was so friendly. We checked into our hostel and after getting settled, we headed out for the much anticipated hike through the valley. The hike was amazing. It was very easy since it was all flat and I could never get tired of the immaculate beauty. Of course, I was going photo-crazy the entire time. We hiked through the valley to Trümmelbachfälle, a huge waterfall that is actually inside a mountain. We took an elevator up to the top and climbed back down, seeing the waterfall twist and turn down the narrow passageway in the mountain. After seeing Trümmelbach, we sat down in the valley for a quick lunch, after which Aryn decided to turn back to Lauterbrunnen. I kept hiking to the end of the valley, where there was a cable car that took me higher up in the mountain to another small town named Mürren. It was so gorgeous being up there. The immensity of the mountains was mind-blowing. I walked around for a bit, taking photos and watching hang gliders flying through the sky before heading back down. When I got back down, I took a bus back to Lauterbrunnen, ending my day of hiking. When I got back, it was about 7 pm, so Aryn and I decided to go look for food. Apparently, everything in the town closes around 5 pm, including all reasonably priced restaurants and grocery stores. I wondered what time people ate their dinner there, because 5 pm is the start of dinner in the states and after living in Spain, we’re used to eating dinner around 9:30 pm. We walked around for a while, hoping to find something we could eat, when we found a small café that had sandwiches for not too expensive. We walked inside and ordered our food and the lady working said, “Sorry, we don’t serve food anymore at this time.” However, she did sell us some frozen chicken pies we could throw in the oven to eat. When we got back to the hostel, we discovered the hostel kitchen didn’t have an oven. Great. So we tried cooking them in the microwave. They turned out…interesting, but edible nonetheless. Since Lauterbrunnen is such a small town, absolutely nothing happens at night, so we spent the night hanging out and talking to some people at the hostel – one couple from Los Angeles/Korea, and another couple from Canada. Before bed, we just sat outside in the amazing fresh Switzerland air and chatted, surrounded by mountains and serenity. I have decided that Switzerland – specifically Lauterbrunnen – is my new favorite place in the world. It tops Barcelona by a mile. One day, I will go back for sure.

Vacaciones de Primavera: Día Uno. Trenes.

The start to my spring break included trains, trains, and...more trains. We left Valladolid on Thursday at 5:30 pm to Hendaye, France. While attempting to reserve tickets at the train station on Wednesday, we learned that in order to reserve tickets for the Eurail pass, you have to actually be in the country you're wanting to travel in. Meaning you can't be responsible and order all your tickets ahead of time to make sure nothing goes wrong. You just have to wait until you're in the country and hope the trains aren't full. And most trains need reservations with the Eurail pass. So it turned out that we had to switch our plans around a bit and go through Hendaye, France to Paris. The train ride to Hendaye was gorgeous. I wish I could have seen more of North Spain while here because it is so beautiful. When we arrived in Hendaye Thursday night, we literally had four minutes to catch the train to Paris. And of course we didn't have seat reservations yet. Luckily, they let us on the train and let us reserve our seats while on the train. So then we took the overnight Paris train, trying to ignore the crying baby while trying to sleep. Once in Paris, our original plan was to take a train from Paris to Bern, Switzerland - easy. Well obviously, we weren't able to reserve tickets when we croseed the country border in Hendaye because of needing to catch the train, so, of course, all the trains to Bern were full. As were the trains to pretty much everywhere else that made sense to go. After speaking with a train station worker for a while, he finally helped us figure out a way to get to Switzerland. The goal was just to get to Switzerland, because once in Switzerland, we would no longer need to reserve tickets. So around 11:00 am, we took a train from Paris to Troyes, France. In Troyes, we had about five hours to kill until the next train so we walked around the city, looking for internet so we could tell our hostel we wouldn't make it that night and try to find another one. We found a wifi hotspot after a while of searching, but the person working hardly knew any English and wouldn't let us order anything and told us to just leave. So much for that plan. Troyes is a smaller French city, so really, almost no one knew English outside of the train station. I never realized until then how difficult a language barrier can actually be. We walked around a bit longer and had some lunch - Aryn had a kabob and I had a French pastry. We sat around in a park for a while, watched a girl trying to learn stick shift and crashing into the curb every few seconds, found internet in a McDonalds, and eventually made it back to the train station. Before our train left, I decided to run to the bathroom quick. I walked into the bathroom and this lady started yelling something in French at me. I used my ever so useful phrase "Je ne parle français" (I don't speak French) but she would not stop yelling this at me. After a while I just left, planning to use the bathroom on the train. When we got on the train, I went to the bathroom and a minute later, some lady started banging on the door, screaming at me in French. It was probably the scariest bathroom experience I've ever had. So then once I sat back down, a kid two seats behind us started screaming - so much worse than the baby on the overnight train and so much worse than the French woman outside the bathroom door. He screamed the entire three hours, his parents actually laughing at him while he did so and encouraging him to keep going. Needless to say, Advil was an absolute must when the train ride was over. We arrived in Mulhouse, France around 8 pm and soon left for the next train to Basel, Switzerland. I was so glad to leave France and arrive in Switzerland. I was so tired from hardly getting any sleep, super crabby, incredibly annoyed with all the French people yelling at me, and so frustrated with the language barrier. So when we arrived in Switzerland, I was very happy. I already knew I would like Switzerland much better. While waiting for the train in Basel, I decided to grab a quick dinner at an "American Bakery" which I thought was incredibly funny. I'm not sure why anyone would want to run an American bakery when they could be running a French bakery or something. From Basel, we took the next train to Bern. Once arriving in Bern, we got on our last train of the night to Interlaken, Switzerland. We arrived around midnight and the streets were absolutely empty. This was so weird for us, as we're used to everyone usually being out until 4 am on Friday nights. Well we found our hostel (which just so happened to be the top ranked hostel in Switzerland), got our keys outside the building, and finally got to rest. In our room, we met a guy from Texas who was super nice and super helpful. He had just gotten released from the Air Force the day before and was just traveling and doing crazy things to celebrate. His plans for Europe included bungee jumping, hang gliding, sky diving, mountain biking, intense hiking, etc. Crazy, but very cool. We went to bed around 1 am and finally were able to get a decent night's sleep. Horrible first day, but it was so nice when it was finally over.

Las Médulas.

Oh, what beautiful weather we are having in Valladolid! It’s been sunny and hot! It has been in the 80’s all week and it is definitely shorts and tank top weather. Unfortunately, these crazy Spaniards don’t start pulling out their summer clothes until mid-June so these days, we have the option of looking like stupid trashy Americans or dying of heat. People like to wear shorts with black tights here – definitely not my style. People are also still wearing thick jackets and sweaters. I think I would drown in my own sweat if I wore a jacket or sweater now. Also, I haven’t had the chance to soak up the sun as much as I’d like because of all the work I’ve had in school lately. Last week, in addition to working on my 10-page paper (which I hope to finish by Thursday), I had to work on a presentation and a Literature paper. Now this week I have two exams, so with everything else going on, I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to finish my paper. Life will be good come Thursday. I’m leaving right after school to begin my two-week journey around Switzerland, Italy, and then back to Spain. Spring break plans have changed again, probably not to anyone’s surprise. I am now going with just one other girl named Aryn to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, then Venice and then Rome until next Friday when I will meet up in Seville with my parents. I cannot wait for spring break to start – I just have to get through one more week of school first.

Yesterday we went on our “naturaleza” (nature) excursion to see Las Médulas. Before this weekend, our professors had told us how intense it would be and that we would die if we didn’t wear a hat and things like this, so I was a little scared for the day of hiking. However, I made myself think, “No, I’ve been hiking in the mountains plenty of times before. How hard could a school excursion hike be? It’ll be fine.” It turned out to be a long hike up a steep hill with no flat spots to rest until we got to the top. It was extremely tiring and, of course, pretty hot out. Everyone was sweating and many people became dehydrated, including myself. I tend to have issues with always getting dehydrated. But luckily my dehydration didn’t kick in until the very end of the day. Anyway, as we were trudging up the hill, Alfredo, one of our professors who happens to be a chain smoker, admitted that he hated this excursion. At the time, I had wished he had told us earlier it was going to be so hard. However, once we finally got to the top we were able to see a beautiful view of the Médulas (not quite sure how to describe them – they’re a lot like the rock formations in the Southwest). We stayed at the top for a while, enjoying the view and perfect weather before we began our descent back down. After this, we also quick saw a cave formed from these rocks. Soon we headed back to the bus to begin our three-hour journey back to Valladolid. It was a very tiring day, and as much as I hated the uphill hiking, this was probably my favorite excursion so far. Seeing so many ancient cities can get dull after a while and eventually, they begin to all look the same.

This week, I’m going to be working nonstop on my paper and studying for my exams, so I’m not sure when I can post next. I will try my hardest to update you all on everything that goes on during spring break, but I will be really busy traveling all the time, so we’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck on yet another great adventure around Europe!

¡Salamanca!

This last Saturday we went on another school excursion – this time to Salamanca. It was about an hour and a half bus ride to the city. When we arrived there, we started out separating into groups and taking a tour with our professors. It’s always the same professors that take us on the excursions. The tour lasted about an hour. We saw a few historical buildings (I wasn’t really paying that close attention so unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you most of what we saw) and the outside of the University of Salamanca. The outside entrance of this building is so intricately sculpted, like most Spanish buildings, but everything that is shown in the building is symbolic. It is divided in thirds, the upper third representing the father, the middle third shows the symbol for Carlos V, and the bottom third representing the “Reyes Católicos,” Fernando and Isabel. While in the region of Castilla y Leon (which is Valladolid, Salamanca, and Segovia’s region), you can’t really go anywhere without seeing something representing Fernando and Isabel somewhere. They are very much worshipped here. The building is also divided vertically in two sides. The left side represents good. It displays heroes like Hercules and many other good things. The right side represents bad. It shows Venus and skulls to symbolize death and other things to symbolize lust. There is also a frog hidden somewhere on the right side and many people believe that if you can find it, you will have good luck. For example, if you find it before a test, you will pass the test. However, I just learned in my Art class today that it does not actually represent good luck, but sex. Very interesting. There are two doors, one on each side, which represent the choice to walk into good or bad.

Anyway, after the tour, we were let go for three hours of free time, during which my friends and I ate our lunch, then ice cream, checked out a really neat bar, and hung out in Salamanca’s famous Plaza Mayor and soaked up the sun. While sitting in Plaza Mayor, we saw many very interesting characters. We probably saw ten bachelor/bachelorette parties, most of which the bride or groom was dressed in a full costume. There were also just a lot of random people dressed up. We also saw a marching band type thing parading around there and much more. It was really interesting. We noticed that Salamanca has a much bigger younger population than Valladolid. Both Salamanca and Valladolid are college towns but it’s much clearer in Salamanca.

After a while, we were due to meet back up with the group. When everyone was there, we went and had a tour of Salamanca’s Cathedral. I feel like I’ve seen twenty cathedrals since I’ve been here, and the only one I can clearly remember was Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia. Right now I’m a bit cathedraled out. Spain, though, could never get sick of its cathedrals. There are probably a thousand cathedrals in this country. So, I’ll probably see a few more before my time here is up. The outside of Salamanca’s cathedral was pretty cool. I was a bit unimpressed with the inside, though. It’s probably because of how many cathedrals I’ve seen now. After the cathedral, we had 45 more minutes of free time, during which we got more ice cream. There’s definitely no such thing as too much ice cream. Later, we met back up at the cathedral and got on the bus to head back to Valladolid.

Salamanca was not quite as great as I had hoped. I really think they need to pick more interesting cities for these excursions, but oh well. It was still a fun trip. In two weeks, we will have another excursion to somewhere naturey. That is really all they’ve told us about that excursion. They still haven’t told us where it is. I’m hoping for a national park or something but knowing Castilla y Leon, it could easily just be looking at fields or something boring. I’ll keep hoping for the best, though. I’m starting to get a bit of cabin fever since I’ve been in Valladolid for three weekends in a row and will be here still for the next two weeks, not including the excursions. I think, though, that once spring break comes around in three weeks, it’ll be an explosion of traveling. I’ll be traveling for two weeks for spring break, then the next weekend we have an excursion to Santander, which I’m really excited about, then the next weekend is the weekend before finals, and then Latvia! I can’t wait!

We only have two months left now. I feel like time is flying by way too fast – it’s slipping right through my fingers and before I know it, I’ll be back home. I really don’t think I’ll want to go back home in May. It’s kind of a scary thought. I’m making the most of my time here now. I don’t want to leave Spain with any regrets.

Mi cena para Dioni.

Last night, I cooked dinner for Dioni. I told her it was because she does so much for us and I wanted to do something for her, which is true, but it was really mostly just to get away from Spanish food for a night. I made scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, green peppers, and onions and salad. She loved it! She was so happy she could have a night without cooking dinner or buying food. And I was happy to have a non-Spanish dinner. Win-win situation. Dioni said she loved my meal and even asked for the recipe. I´m hoping now she´ll let me cook again someday.
I don´t really have much else to talk about. This week has been pretty dull. Last weekend most of my friends were traveling so I didn´t do much then. It was nice to have a weekend to relax, though. This weekend I am going to Salamanca for another school excursion. I´m hoping this excursion will be a little more interesting than the last one. I´m confident it will be, though. There´s not much to see in Valladolid´s province but Salamanca is a bigger city so I´m sure there will be more to see and do.
Spring break is coming up so fast. Only three weeks now! And after spring break is over, there´s just two weeks until finals and then Latvia! This trip is going to be over before I know it and I feel like I just got here! Time is flying way too fast right now.
Sorry this post is so short! This week just hasn´t been that exciting. I´ll write a better post after Salamanca.

¡No más examenes por favor!

This week has been full of studying, studying, a little homesickness, and more studying. We had “finals” this week, which were actually midterms. Our semester is divided into two trimesters (the first trimester was in the fall before we arrived) so these were our finals for our first trimester. A little bit of homesickness has been creeping up on me this week as well, but I think that might have to do with the fact that I couldn’t really skype with any friends or family because I was constantly studying. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal next week. Anyway, for the next trimester, I will no longer have Culture class and may possibly be getting a new class? Not entirely sure. Now we are just starting to work on our “Trabajo Monográfico,” which is a 10-page term paper on some sort of aspect on Spain. We could choose from many cultural topics, like bull fighting or flamenco, historical topics, geography, literature, art, even grammar, in which we could talk about the past tenses of Spanish for ten whole pages. I don’t even think I could write one page on grammar. Yuck. My paper will be on the National Parks of Spain. I haven’t yet started researching, because we only just got to choose our topics, but I’m hoping to finish it before spring break. I think it’s due around three days after we get back from spring break and I don’t want to come back from two weeks of traveling to have to worry about finishing my paper.

Plans are starting to come together for spring break. The first week, before my parents arrive, I will no longer be traveling to Greece and Italy, but instead Switzerland and Italy. Greece is at a really poor economical state at the moment and has stopped running their trains. We’re using a “Eurail” train pass to get around to all our cities and would need to take a ferry to Greece, which could take around 29 hours. I’m kind of short on time with having to meet up with my parents so we decided to change it up and they will continue on to Greece after I leave. I’m super excited to take photos in Switzerland. It looks gorgeous. I also wasn’t too crazy about seeing Greece anyway, but that was their plan so I had to go with it. Santorini would’ve been cool but I didn’t really care about seeing Athens. I am liking the new plan much better. I also have bought my plane tickets home from Riga so it is set in stone that I am going to Latvia for sure! I cannot wait to see the country my family comes from. I think it’ll be a great way to end the semester.

Not sure if I wrote this already, but I did finally talk to my host mom about the food a couple weeks ago. Kelly wasn’t there and Dioni commented, once again, on how I didn’t eat very much and I told her in the nicest way possible that I just have not adjusted to the food. My body isn’t accustomed to this type of food and it’s really different for me to eat fish every day. I think I might have hurt her feelings just a tiny bit, but she listened. She sat down and we talked about the types of food Kelly and I like and it’s been a little better now. She makes chicken and pasta a lot more now, which we like, and we still have fish often but not every day. So now the food is much more tolerable.

Not much else is new. I’m about halfway done with the semester already. I can’t believe how fast time as been flying! It feels like I just got here a few weeks ago! I’m definitely not ready to go home yet. I think I have changed a lot here, though. Living abroad has made me feel so much more independent in every sense of the word. I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself better here and I’ve made so many new connections. I really am living the life I always dreamed of having right now. Traveling and going on adventures and doing things completely out of my comfort zone; this is what I dreamed of when I was a kid. I never thought I’d actually be able to do something like this. I think I’m getting old.

¡Londres!

This week, I went on yet another wonderful trip, this time to London! London was very different from what I was expecting. In my opinion, it’s very overrated, but we were presented with many disappointments that hindered our experience. It was a fun trip, and I am so glad I went, but it just was not as great as I was expecting.

We started out our trip on Sunday afternoon. Jess, Newly and I took the bus from Valladolid to the airport, and then flew to the London-Stansted airport. Once we arrived, went through customs, and exchanged our money, we quickly learned that the London-Stansted airport is actually a two-hour bus ride from the city of London itself. So, we took the bus to London, then the metro to our hostel, arriving around 9pm and not having a chance to see any of London on Sunday night. Once we got to the hostel, which turned out to be in a horrible location for nightlife, we had to wait for half an hour for the two people ahead of us checking in. We were not very happy about that, because when we checked in, it only took them five minutes. We ended up staying in a 12-person mixed room. This was the first time I’ve traveled in a group too small to get rooms for just us, so the 12-person room was quite a different experience for me. The beds were uncomfortable and not the cleanest and one guy always came in late and turned on the light, waking everyone up. It was lovely. People staying there also didn’t seem very open to meeting new people so we didn’t get to meet anyone.

On Monday morning, we got up around 8:30 and headed right out. We started our day in Hyde Park, which was right across the street from our hostel. The park was HUGE, and very pretty. There were so many dogs there! I loved it! Once we made our way through the park, we headed over to Buckingham Palace, but before we got there, we met a really nice lady who gave us some pointers on things to see and where to go. One constant thing I noticed was how incredibly nice British people are. They were so polite and so happy to talk to you and help out in any way they could. After we talked with the nice lady, we walked over to Buckingham Palace, where there were TONS of cops and a million people. We were wondering what could be going on because this was definitely not just a bunch of people wanting to see the palace, so we stayed and eventually the policemen started moving people out of the street and organizing everyone. It turned out to be the changing of the guard! It was a huge production and I cannot believe this happens every day. It was crazy! Unfortunately, we were across the street from the palace so we didn’t get to see what was happening inside the gates but it was still pretty cool. After it was all over, Jess and I made it our mission to get a photo with a policeman and his funny hat. Once we got our picture, we headed over to Westminster Abbey. On the way there, we saw people feeding a squirrel right out of their hands!! Yuck! My mom has definitely passed the squirrel-hating trait on to me. I was so freaked out by this. Anyway, we made it to Westminster Abbey, which was very impressive, but we only saw the outside. I can only imagine how much prettier it was on the inside. Later, we headed to Trafalgar Square, wanting to feed the pigeons. On our way there though, we found a huge bookstore and obviously had to go in. Being the bookworms we all are, we spent about an hour and a half there. It was super exciting to have such a wide selection of books in English! If you go to a bookstore in Spain, there is only one bookshelf of books in English, if any at all. After the bookstore, we crossed the street to Trafalgar Square, where we were shocked to find that there were no pigeons at all. Apparently, they don’t allow pigeon feeding anymore there. We were super disappointed about that. However, they did have four statues of lions, which was super exciting because I am obsessed with lions. Obviously, I had to get my picture taken with them. We didn’t stick around Trafalgar Square for too long and next we moved on to Covent Garden. Once we got there, we were under the quite false impression that Covent Garden was actually a garden. So we kept walking around looking for the gardens only to find that it was just a big shopping center! We felt so dumb, but were excited to see all the shops. It was a very fun atmosphere. After we saw everything around Covent Garden, we went to a Japanese restaurant my friend recommended to me called Wagamama. It was delicious! It felt super weird to go back to the normal eating schedule after being so used to eating late in Spain. One thing about London, it is SO expensive! The dollar is very weak there now, so everything was incredibly expensive. The dollar is also weak to Euros, but not as bad. I am now discovering why foreigners love shopping in the US. Also, we loved the British accent. I think it is so funny listening to everyone speak with it all the time. I had so many urges to just speak in a British accent all the time, but I figured the natives would not appreciate that very much. The thousands of tourists might’ve believed it though. Also, it was so confusing having to walk on the left side of the path all the time. London is so full of tourists, and many of them still walked on the right side, so we never knew what to do. The cars driving on the left side of the road always got me, and often I would look in the driver’s side of the car and freak out because there was no driver there, only to realize the driver was on the other side. Anyway, after Wagamama, we walked over to where we could see the London Eye at night. It was lit up in dark blue, so I didn’t get any clear pictures of it. After that, we went back to the hostel. We were going to make Monday our night to go out to a pub, but we were so tired and I had an awful headache, so we stayed in and rested, figuring we’d need our strength for another jam-packed day.

Tuesday morning, we got up at 8:30 again and took the metro to King’s Cross Station to see the ever-famous Platform 9 ¾. Jess and I were so psyched to see the actual place where the train station scene was filmed, especially since we had been uncontrollably referencing Harry Potter the whole trip. Newly is not really a Harry Potter fan, so she couldn’t share our sparking enthusiasm, but that did not get in the way of our excitement. Little did we know, though, this would be the biggest disappointment of all. We got to King’s Cross, which was under major construction, and followed the signs to Platform 9. Once we got there, there was no Platform 9 ¾ to be found. I’ve seen pictures of it and known people who have seen it so I knew it was real. When we were walking out of Platform 9, a lady asked us, “are you a Harry Potter family?” so we said “Yes!” and she directed us to Platform 8. Fully confused as to why it would be located in Platform 8, we followed her directions anyway and once we got there, we still couldn’t find it. We walked up and down the platform, so determined to find it, when we finally came across a tiny little corner where people were taking pictures. We found Platform 9 ¾. It was just a backdrop of a brick wall with a sign that said “Platform 9 ¾” and half a cart in the wall. Apparently they no longer have the real platform because of all the construction that was going on. We were so disappointed but took tons of photos anyway, making the most of what we had. After we left the station, we headed over to the Tower of London and London Bridge. The bridge was super impressive – it was so huge! Once we crossed it, we found a cute little cobblestone street and were so happy because we finally found something that was close to how we had pictured London. We ate lunch at a pizza place there and then walked down the cobblestone street along the river heading for Globe Theater. After a long walk, we found a building that said “Globe Theater” but was obviously not actually the theater itself. It was a building that surrounded it. So we went in, and discovered that only people possessing show tickets could go out and see it from the outside. Just one more disappointment to add to the list. However, when we walked back out onto the street a little ways further, we found that we actually could see the theater very well and got some good photos of it. While sitting outside by the river, we met a really humorous lady from Boston who was now living in London. She told us to go and see the Tate Modern where there was an exhibit of over 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds that an Asian artist had decided to make for the museum. So we went and saw it, and it was very impressive. After that, we took the metro over to Piccadilly Circus and guess what… it’s just like Covent Garden. There’s no circus there! This was not as much of a surprise as the garden situation, but we found it funny how misleading everything in London is. We hung around London for a while, checking out shops and buying gifts for family and friends. Once dinnertime came around, we knew that we had to get fish and chips. I was originally not going to get fish and chips because of how sick I am of fish, but I did anyway, figuring I’d probably never go back to London. It was good, though. It’d probably be better if I still liked fish like I did before I left for Spain, but I still liked it. After dinner, we didn’t know what else to do, so we took the metro back to the hostel to rest before hitting the pub. Once we got in our room, however, I noticed my sleeping bag was missing! The hostel workers left a note saying they took it because they didn’t allow sleeping bags. I was so mad! I use my sleeping bag at hostels because one, the beds are gross and two, I just got it for Christmas and I love using it because it is so small! So I went and asked to have it back, expecting them to tell me I couldn’t have it until we checked out. I showed the note to the girl working the reception desk and she looked at it like she didn’t even know they had that rule, and then started searching. She searched around for about five minutes before telling me she couldn’t find it and I should come back later. They took my sleeping bag and then lost it! Arggg. Anyway, we hung out in the lounge for a while and watched the movie that was playing in there and I went back to the reception desk an hour later. Luckily, they found it, and she gave it right back to me. So I used it when I slept that night. Pretty dumb situation in my opinion, but whatever. I’m happy I got it back. Later, we headed out to the pub, because obviously we had to see a pub in London. We got there and ordered drinks, but the bartender asked for our IDs and, of course, I was dumb and forgot mine. We NEVER get carded in Spain at the bars, so I was just used to not needing it. So, we ended up not drinking. It was a pretty lame pub anyway since we were in such a bad location for nightlife with young people. So we went back to the hostel, got ready for bed, talked for a while, then went to get some sleep before we had to get up at 5 am the next morning.

Wednesday morning, we got up at 5:30 am to catch our flight. We took a double-decker bus to the bus station, had some stress trying to find our bus but caught it just in time, took the bus to the airport, and flew home to Valladolid.

It was a really tiring weekend full of random disappointments, but it was worth it and I’m so glad I went. We really did have a great time, even though it wasn’t what we expected. Now I’m glad to be back in Valladolid and resting. We have mid-terms next week so I’ll be studying hard all weekend. Then possibly Morocco the weekend after? We’ll see.

Also, it is FREEZING in London. It's warming up here in Valladolid, though. If the weather stays like this, I no longer need my jacket when I go outside! Definitely not laughing at all of you in Minnesota. Nope.

Sorry this post is so long! Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

Esta semana y comida mala.

Not a lot has happened in the last week, but I figured I should give you all an update anyway. Today, I have been here for 7 weeks, which means 13 weeks until I’m back home! It’s blown my mind how fast time is flying! The semester is already a third over. It feels like I just got here a few weeks ago! I think once the semester is over, I will not want to go back home.

The weeks here are really not too exciting. Just going to school, going out after siesta or after dinner, teaching English, and skyping. My best friends in Eau Claire and I have arranged to skype every Thursday night, which I love. It’s so nice getting to still see them and talk to them. I try to skype with Alex as much as I can, which usually isn’t much, but it’s alright. I have been doing A LOT of reading here this semester. I’m on my seventh book of the semester now. Not having internet at home has really limited what I can do when I’m bored. Teaching English has been fun so far. Irene is a completely typical 14-year-old girl. She goes shopping pretty much every other day and hangs out with her friends all the time. She also REALLY wants to go to New York. That is her dream. However, she is so advanced in English that it’s sometimes hard to figure out what to do with her. We’ve been working on advanced vocabulary and at the end of the hour we play an English game. If anyone has any ideas for games that entice conversation or just learning English, let me know. We are playing MASH next week, for those who know what that is.

The only thing that I really don’t like here is our host mom’s food. Both Kelly and I hate it. We have fish every single day, without fail. I came here liking fish and now I hate it because I’m so sick of it. When we’re not eating fish, it’s usually still pretty gross. I’ve had many times where I just cannot eat the food. I try everything, but rarely like it, so a lot of the time I just go with a few bites of dinner, some fruit, bread, and a snack later. Or sometimes, I’ll just eat it super fast and force it down my throat. It’s not my ideal situation, but it’s alright. I’m really glad I have a nice host family and a good roommate. Like I said earlier, my host mom does so much for us, and I am so grateful for that. A few people here have had to move to a new family because theirs were so awful. I would absolutely hate to be in that situation.

One night this week, we had shrimp at dinner with the heads still on, of course. Our host parents usually leave us alone at dinner so it’s just Kelly and me. So, I took a shrimp and ripped the head off like I was supposed to, but all of a sudden it squirted this brown stuff at me and I screamed. The shrimp was attacking me with its brains or something! Then Kelly tried to do it for me and it squirted the brains out at her too, and at that point I just couldn’t eat it. Of course, at this point we were laughing so hard, and slightly shocked that our host mom didn’t come in to check to make sure we were ok after I screamed. Anyway, I couldn’t eat the shrimp anymore because all I could think about was the squirting brown stuff, so… we threw a couple out the window. That was probably the funniest thing that’s happened at dinner so far this semester.

Anyway, I’m getting super excited for London this weekend! We are leaving on Sunday and coming back on Wednesday, since we have Monday and Tuesday off and flights are WAY cheaper that way. I’m so excited to see London. It was definitely in my top five places I wanted to see in Europe this semester.

So, I didn´t want to post tihs earlier because it wasn´t for sure and set in stone, but now I think it just about is. After my program ends here at the end of May, I am planning on staying a week longer to go to Latvia! I am so excited - I never thought I´d actually ever be able to go! I´m about 99% sure that I´m going. Yay! Soo yah, that´s my big news!

¡Lisboa!

This weekend, I traveled to Lisbon, or Lisboa, Portugal. We left on the train at 3am and arrived at 10:30 on Saturday morning. When we got to Lisbon, we walked around the city for a bit, but it was raining miserably. So we decided to check out the Oceanario Aquarium. It was pretty cool. They had really cute otters that we realized resembled three people in our group. After the aquarium, the weather had gotten better and the rain had stopped. We decided to take a ride in gandalas over the ocean.


Then we headed back to the area near our hostel. Some of the group went up a huge hill to find a castle, but Andrea, Alie, and I decided to walk through the city and sit and talk by the beach. Alie and I put our feet in the water to say we´ve been in the Atlantic Ocean! This was my first tme seeing the Atlantic! It was so nice, though, just sitting by the water at night. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Once everyone else caught up to us, we headed back and checked into the hostel. This hostel was amazing. It was rated the third best hostel worldwide in 2010 and for good reason. Super cheap, really nice rooms, places to lock our stuff, free linens, free internet, free breakfast. Fully stocked kitchen, bar, parties every night, and free shots at 11:30pm. The staff were super nice and helpful and we were able to meet some people from all over the world. Perfect hostel. I´ve found from Barcelona and now Lisbon that I kind of like hostels better than hotels. I know I´ve been lucky so far, though.

Steve made dinner for us again Saturday night. He made amazing pasta. Such a good cook! He had a bit too much food, though, so we shared with some other people at the hostel and it was a big hit.
Sunday morning we got up and packed up our stuff and headed out. While trekking through the city, we saw a street performer who had two absolutely adorable puppies! The people here who look for money on the streets are smart. Lots of them have puppies, which I bet makes them most of their money. Anyway, we stopped and I got to play with puppies for the first time since I´ve been here! It was great. Even though I see dogs all the time, I can´t pet them or play with them, so I´ve been missing dogs a lot. And these puppies were so precious. I was a happy girl. After this excitement, we went and saw the ocean again, then took a tram to a famous monestary. It was pretty cool. We realized it looked a lot like Hogwarts, which was pretty exciting. After the monestary, we went across the street to a street market. We spent a while there, shopping, until we had to start making our way to the train station. We took the metro to the station and, with little time on our hands, we got into a panic about where our train was supposed to be. We figured it out, though, and made our train, ready for the seven-hour ride back to good old Valladolid.


Some random things about Lisbon:

• It is a lot like San Francisco. It´s super hilly and also has cable cars. It is said to be San Francisco´s cousin city.


• We were never really sure what language to speak, or what language other people were speaking. I think most things were in Portuguese, but we weren´t always sure. And some people spoke English, some Spanish, some, it seemed like neither.


• ¨Obrigado¨ is ¨thank you¨ in Portuguese, the one word I was able to learn.


• Barcelona was better, but Lisbon was stil cool in its own way.

Overall, great trip. Two weeks until London!!

Mis Viajes.

Yesterday we went on another excursion with the program. We just went around the province of Valladolid, though (basically the county of Valladolid). Honestly, it was a really boring excursion. We saw a museum of an ancient Roman village, then tried wine from the Roman times – oh my gosh, the wine was horrible. It tasted like meat – absolutely disgusting. There were only a handful of people in our huge group of students who actually liked it. Then we took the bus to see a big castle, which was probably the most exciting part of the whole day. We took some stairs way down underground to see a well where they used to keep prisoners. Then we went back up the stairs to go up more stairs to a tower with a nice view, but compared to the view in Segovia and the views we saw in Barcelona, it was really not much. My legs are very sore now, though. Then we drove to another town which was completely empty and we just kind of walked around there for a while. Very boring. They had even told us that this excursion wasn’t going to be fun before we left. But, luckily, that was supposed to be the worst one, so now it’s over. I’m really excited for our last excursion in May to Santander. Santander is on the coast and it’ll be nice and warm in May so that one should be cool.

So it turns out that I’m not able to go to Paris anymore. The train ended up being way too expensive and on top of hostel and food costs, and the concert ticket, the trip would’ve been too expensive to be worth it. I was super bummed when I found out I couldn’t go, but now I am going to go to Portugal this weekend and I’ll probably be able to see Madrid too. So I guess the two new trips make up for it. Enrique will miss us, though. Portugal should be really fun. I’m not quite sure what we’re all doing, but it’ll be a great group of people and Portugal is supposed to be really pretty. I, as always, am really excited for the photos I’ll take. We also booked our tickets for London yesterday! People have been needing to buy my tickets online for me because I no longer have a credit card to use, which is a pain, but hopefully I’ll have my new credit card soon. I’m so excited for London, though. There will only be three of us for this trip, but it’ll still be amazing. I absolutely love being able to travel so much here. For the rest of the semester, I only have three weekends where I’m not traveling. Thinking about that makes the semester seem like it’s going to end so soon! Time has been slipping through my fingers here, but I’m loving every second. I’m not feeling incredibly homesick anymore, thankfully. Of course I still miss everyone a ton, but the homesickness is no longer lingering. Now, I’m just so happy I’m here. I have realized that right now, I’m living the life I’ve always dreamed of – traveling the world and being independent, learning so much not only about Spanish and the culture here, but also about myself and the world. This really is an incredible experience for me and I feel so lucky I was able to do this. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Well, I think that’s about all I have for now. When I’m not traveling here, life is starting to become a bit mundane. Not boring or anything, just repetitive and normal. I’m getting used to living here and everything is now becoming ordinary.

Oh, I forgot this last photo in my Barcelona post. Here’s a photo of some authentic Spanish food. Makes you hungry just looking at it, right? I bet you’re all drooling right now. ;)

¡Barcelona!

This weekend, I went to Barcelona with six other people from my program. It was such an amazing trip! I loved the city so much and everything was so fun. Barcelona was definitely one of my favorite trips ever, even if it was just for a weekend.

Our journey started out in the airport in Valladolid. Everything ran smoothly getting to the airport and getting on the plane. The plane ride was only an hour long and before we knew it, our adventure had begun! I was traveling with six other friends named Andrea, Steve, Lisa, Alie, Emily, and my roommate Kelly. We got to the Barcelona airport around 11:30 pm on Friday night. We then took a bus to Plaza Catalunya and found our hostel, named Hip Karma hostel. It was such an incredibly nice hostel! The seven of us were in a room for twelve. The hostel was modernly furnished with a kitchen, really nice private showers, computers with free internet, and comfortable beds with curtains around them. This was my first hostel, so it could be dangerous that it was so nice because now my expectations will be set high for the future. It was very cheap though – only 11€ per night. On Friday night we were so exhausted from traveling so we just went right to sleep.

Saturday morning, Steve got up early to make us breakfast. He offered us a deal this weekend that he would cook meals if we paid for ingredients – he loves cooking, so it worked out perfect for us! He made delicious French toast with nutella along with fruits and juice on Saturday. On Saturday and Sunday, we decided to be stereotypical tourists and get a two-day tourist bus pass. My dad would probably be disappointed. But it turned out to be a very cheap form of transportation for us and stopped at all the places we wanted to see. We also loved sitting on top of the bus. Saturday we took the bus to meet up with Andrea’s friend Sarah who lives in Barcelona and saw Mont Juic, the 1992 Olympic stadium. It was huge! It was a pretty cool sight to see. Then we got lunch and wandered Barcelona. Lisa and Emily split up with us to go and see a Barcelona soccer game and Sarah took the rest of us to the harbor. So pretty. Eventually we headed back to Plaza Catalunya and checked out Barcelona’s enormous Corte Inglés. Then we went back to the hostel and Steve made us some rice for dinner. We decided to have a chill night that night after a long and busy day.

Sunday morning, Steve made us scrambled eggs with fruit and toast. Again, his food was amazing. We really saved so much money from him cooking for us instead of going out to eat. What a nice guy. We then headed to Plaza Catalunya to catch the bus, but first fed the pigeons. That was really cool. I only fed them a little bit because I didn’t buy birdseed but being surrounded by them was really neat. Then, we took the bus to see La Sagrada Familia, a colossal church that has been being built since the 1800’s. It is still under construction but almost done. The expected date of completion is 2020, I believe. Sagrada Familia was so cool. The size and detail of it was mind-blowing and it was so pretty inside and out. After we saw Sagrada Familia, we met up with Sarah again and went to Parque Güell, a huge park full of art by Gaudi, a famous Spanish artist. The park was super pretty and had some incredible views. It was very cool. After we were done exploring Parque Güell, we headed back to the hostel and Steve made his best meal yet – pasta. He is seriously such a good cook. After dinner we hung out for a bit and got ready for the superbowl! We got to see the superbowl in a huge bar with hundreds of other people our age from all over the world – mostly from England and America. It was such a fun time. The game didn’t start until 12:30 am in Barcelona so we were out pretty late. It really was a blast, though.

Monday morning, everyone was exhausted, of course, but we had to check out at 11 am so we got all our stuff together and then headed to go and see La Rambla, a massive street of shopping, with street vendors and street performers and the like. La Rambla is where the weekend turned for the worse. We had been hanging out, walking around and checking out the street. We then started heading toward the beach when I realized my wallet was not in my purse. I frantically searched everywhere but it was nowhere to be found. So, we went back along La Rambla, back to everywhere we had stopped, but it was nowhere. La Rambla is very well-known for having many pick-pocketers so I think my wallet was stolen. We were directed to the police station to file a report, where we spent probably at least an hour filling out paperwork. I think it’s highly unlikely that I will get it back, but I figured it was still worth it. At first, I was seriously panicking, but my friends helped me calm down and I talked myself down. My passport and debit card were not stolen, so I was still able to get home and I’m still able to access my money. My dad cancelled my credit card and ATM card. I did have about 100€ in my wallet, which sucks that I lost it, but it is just money. So many worse things could’ve happened. I didn’t get hurt and I still have the really important things. So all I really lost was the 100€, my driver’s license and some other IDs, insurance cards, my house keys, and my keychain my friend got me last year. I know it’s a bad situation, but I’m staying positive, because what’s done is done – nothing is going to change, and I can either sit around and complain about it or accept it and move on. I choose the latter. Anyway, after we finally got out of the police station, I left to find that my friends had bought me some ice cream. That definitely helped to make me feel better. After all the craziness, we made our journey back home.

Some random things about Barcelona:
It is so warm!! It was sunny and in the 70’s all weekend – so beautiful! Also, everyone thought we were from England. That was a nice change – people not hating us for once for being Americans. Apparently it’s hard for them to distinguish the English accent from American ones. We barely spoke Spanish at all, unfortunately. Everyone there spoke English, and also, Barcelona’s actual language is Catalan, which is a mix of Spanish and French, so we wouldn’t have understood the language at all anyway. I would say that most of the people we saw in Barcelona, though, were tourists – hence everyone speaking English. There were American chains everywhere, like Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, etc. Barcelona is beautiful. It is much more modern than Valladolid, and also way bigger, but there were so many things that were just incredibly pretty. I just loved everything about Barcelona, except the pick-pocketers, of course. I honestly really want to go back. I’m missing it already. This was such a fun trip, and a great start to the many trips I’ll be making this semester!

Unas Cosas Pequeñitas

This week has been crazy! I´ve had trip-planning meetings almost every night in addition to studying for the three tests I have this week and getting an English teaching job. I have no time for sleep!

Well, as I just mentioned, I finally got an English teaching job. I´m teaching a 14-year-old girl named Irene (pronounced ee-ray-nay). She is so sweet as are her parents. However, she´s been learning English since she was 3, so she´s already fluent. We´re just having conversation classes so she´s able utilize her English. She´s very polite and kind of shy so I was having trouble coming up with things to talk about. Oh, and she also knows French! So cool!

I have officially decided that I hate trip-planning. It takes such a long time and it´s so complicated. I know it will be worth , though, when I´m actually there. At one of our trip-planning meetings, we were in an internet cafe and the bartender decided she hated us enough to turn off the WiFi. The next night when the group went back there for another meeting, she turned the music volume up super high so they couldn´t hear each other. We don´t go there anymore.

Yesterday, I finally got to check out Campo Grande, the huge park in the city here. There are peacocks everywhere there! I took tons of photos but I don´t have them with me so I can´t post them quite yet. But it was really awesome!

Now, I am getting ready and getting very excited for Barcelona tomorrow! Look forward to a blog post all about it sometime next week!