I GOT MY PHONE!!

For all of you who know or care.. I FINALLY GOT MY PHONE!! thank the Lord!!! Spain was being a total bitch not letting it in. annoying. but after emailing them my life story and my mom stalking them on the phone every ten seconds they got a little sick of us most likely and just said fuck it and let it in. anyway, idc how i got it lol i just care that i got it. it was a looooong sad 7 days iPhone-less lol it should be illegal. i am in the process of restoring it now! hopefully all goes smoothly!! ahhhh. anyways not much else to report here, that was the major news anyway. writing some papers and planning our last days in Madrid currently.  nothing more really. pretty sure we are going to this place tonight called Las Chapandaz, its a cave bar. so literally the inside looks like a cave. we here its sweet! and they have a drink called panthers milk that comes from the ceiling like out of the cave. hopefully we can do that :) oh also, fun story here. saw a lady peeing outside standing up by a bench yesterday. that was scarring. she was ohh around 50-60, wearing a skirt and just standing next to a bench WITH PEOPLE ON IT just letting it out. i was literally starring at her like "are you nuts" like this is not happening right now. but ohhh it was. NOT TO MENTION, there is a WC=water closet=bathroom outside lol no more than 10 feet away!! and i will give the lady that its hard to find bathrooms here. and even harder to find ones that you dont have to pay or buy something. and with toilet paper. ill give her that buuuuut still, that does not mean it is acceptable to just spread your legs and pee in public. not okay. then she proceeds to sit on the bench afterwards like nothing happened. had i known about it or been able to think straight i wish i would have captured a picture or video..but i was in.shock. haha i did however capture a picture of the stain, because oh yes there is a urine stain from her that we have to pass on the daily. bringing back the horrible memories haha here it is tho:  

here is the nasty pee stain in the street.

this is the wc or water closet that is literally right there! and sorry its on its side, my bad.



miss you all. talk soon xoxox

Aqui es bien!

Hello :)
NOT MUCH HAS BEEN GOING ON HERE REALLY. JUST TRYING TO DEAL WITH MY PHONE WHICH HAS BEEN A PAIN IN THE ASS :( AND DEAL WITH SCHOOL. THEY ARE LOADING US DOWN WITH WORK SINCE ITS NEARING THE END. BUT SO NOT FAIR BECAUSE ALL WE WANNA DO IS HANG OUT TOGETHER AND LIVE IT UP IN MADRID FOR OUR LAST WEEK AND A HALF. THE LAST THING WE WANNA DO IS STUDY OR WRITE PAPERS! OBVI. LOL WE HAVE TWO PAPERS FOR OUR FOOD CLASS, ONE OVER A FOOD TOPIC AND THE OTHER OVER WHAT ALL WE HAVE LEARNED IN THE CLASS. BOTH HAVE TO BE THREE PAGES, THATLL BE KIND OF HARD TO WRITE THREE PAGES FOR BOTH, IN SPANISH OF COURSE HAHA AND FOR OUR OTHER CLASS WITH ART, WE HAD ONE EXAM ALREADY WHICH WAS SUPER HARD AND WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE COMING UP NEXT THURSDAY ON THE LAST DAY OF CLASS. WE ALSO HAVE A PAPER IN THAT CLASS FOR EXTRA CREDIT THAT I AM OBVIOUSLY DOING IF YOU KNOW ME AT ALL YOUD KNOW THAT HAHA SO THERES ALL THAT..PLUS THERE ARE STILL A TON OF PLACES HERE WE REALLY WANT TO GO TO THAT WE ARE TRYING TO SQUEEZE IN! BASICALLY WE ARE REALLY BUSY AND THESE LAST TWO-ISH WEEKS ARE GONNA FLY. THEN ILL BE HOME!! :) BACK IN AMERICA WHERE THINGS ARE NORMAL HAHA TO ME ANYWAY LOL ME AND TRICIA WERE MAKING A LIST TODAY OF ALL THE FOOD PLACES WE MISS AND WANNA GO TO THE FIRST COUPLE DAYS HOME...ANNDDDDD SORRY IN ADVANCE TO MY FAMILY. OBVI MY LIST IS LIKE 17 PAGES LONG HAHA I STILL HAVE TO GET ALL MY SOUVENIRS IN ORDER AND BUY ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO.  SO BASICALLY I HAVE A LOT PLANNED FOR OUR LAST WEEKEND HERE IN MADRID! THEN NEXT WEEK WILL BE FILLED WITH SCHOOL, THEN OFF ON OUR LAST VACATION TO END THE TRIP AND THEN HOMEEEE.

here is me on the beach with a coconut i bought for 2 euro! yum! :)

JUST A LITTLE STORY ABOUT THIS POSTS TITLE. IT WAS A STUPID QUOTE BY NONE OTHER THAN ME. IT TRANSLATE TO "HERE IS GOOD" WHICH MAKES SENSE..BUT NOT FOR WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY HAHA I WAS FLUSTERED AND IT JUST CAME OUT SO NOW WE QUOTE IT ALL THE TIME! WE HAVE ALL SAID SOME STUPID STUFF BUT LUCKY WE ALL JUST LAUGH IT OFF. ILL GIVE YOU TONS OF QUOTES WHEN I RETURN :)
idk what else really! ill try to blog tomorrow and update you on my phone..orrrr even better! maybe blog from my new phone!! fingers crossed ;)
<3

Barcelonaaaa

Hola hola hola!
This weekend was a long weekend for the holiday for San Juan here. a big group of us went to Barcelona as you know! We left Wednesday night after a long day of cramming and then our first test in our art class...the test was hard and afterwards I was so ready for a vacation! haha the trip was amazing besides thet fact that i got my iPhone stolen on the first night :(((((( it happened in a blink of the eye, the people there are good at it. i now know the absolute WORST feeling in the eniter world is being robbed. it sucks! luckily i have the best family in the world and they are shipping me my sister iPhone 4 so i will still be able to communicate with them for the remainder of my time in Spain! :) HOWEVER, i am currently back in Madrid and dealing with their annoying pain in the ass post office who will not let my package into the country because it has food? and is a new iPhone? idk i cant understand the system or the people when they talk super fast in strong accented spanish. the language barrier is really killing me in a time like this! hopefully by the end of the week i can get the iPhone and be happy again lol if not, i will really be screwed for the rest of the trip talking to my family and then on the trip back with no music and then no phone when i land in the states...yikes :/ pray for me, please! haha other that that things are good here. the weather is unbearable considering it is over 100 degrees F and they dont believe in AC or fans here haha you are constantly hot and always wanting to take an ice bath lol i found this is the only time when i actually want to shower lol ;) bc it feels so good to take ice cold showers! we only have two more weeks left here! bittersweet. this weekend we are staying in Madrid for our last weekend here and then next weekend is the end of the program trip to Granada and Toledo Spain. thatll be fun! :) ill attach some pictures of barcelona from this past weekend!

the sagrada familia..neatest place on this earth i swear to you

me and my friends in our hostel :)

me in a cable car going up to the top of the mountain..gorgeous view!

Us on in the ocean, it was perfect

hope all is well with you all :) LOVE YOU!

examen...que???

Hola!

So this is going to be short becauuuuuse we have an exam tomorrow and i need to study mucho! I had an oral exam today and me and tricia gave it together talking about our food experiences so far! it went pretty well actually :) but we had typed up an outline that we brough with for help. we met for our exam and this old cafe that was really pretty and had DELICIOUS pastries!! we had a sampler platter and they were all sooo good! :) then a few of us went to study some..its gonna be a long night! we have so much to memorize lol and the exam is open questions so yaaa im freaking out! but after the exam tomorrow i have a busy day. we are going to barcelona this weekend!! :))) and leave tomorrow night because here thursday is some holiday so we dont have school..pretty sweet! im so excited, plus like a lot of the group is all going so it should be fun! and there is a beach :) yay! but i have to pack and do a lot of other errands tomorrow after the exam before our bus that leaves at 11:30 or so. busy busy busy. i will prob pass out the bus haha which is fine because it is 8 hours. anyway off to study and then eat dinner followed by more studying! talk to you all later, hope all is good there tho :) much love <3

Lo siento mi familia

aka im sorry family haha it has been awhile since i blogged :( ive been busy! im sure youve missed me tho haha ;) anyway lets think....what did i do since ive last talked to you haha

We had art class, which turned out to be way more interesting than usual because we didn't really talk about art haha We did more of a history lecture, so I was actually interested! After class though we wanted some Sangria and tried to go to Sienna, our fav Sangria place, but it was closed. We were almost going to call Jeka (our friend who works there) and beg him to open up, but we manned up and went to another place. Terrible idea, the sangria wasn't very good, but you live and you learn I guess! haha And Sangria is a very important lesson in life hah :) After our lunch we acted like locals and got some ice cream, because all the Spaniards love ice cream!! There's an ice cream shop every two feet. Once we had some delish ice cream we went to our second class where we kind of got to walk around the Botanical Gardens, and then to some other places.

Then was my birthday J J  We went to around Retiro to Sienna (the restaurant we tried to go to yesterday) and got some delicious Sangria and bruschetta :) Our favorite waiter was there, and he gave us a little discount which is always good! We were going to go to this museum visit, but the Sangria got the best of us, whoopsieessss! It was fun anyways Then we went out to celebrate my birthday at O'Neills…an Irish bar with Euro shots!!  

oli and dermots house!

Thursday. Arte del Prado. We actually ended up getting out of class early! Which was perfect because I was going to have to leave early to catch my flight anyway. my flight was at 6 so i had to be at the airport around 4 which means leave my apt at like 3 to take the metro all the way up to the airport. plus if you know me, i get nervous and want to be ridiculously early haha so yeah i was. which was good because i had to ask for directions in spanish a lot haha their airport is confusing and gives you little information. not okay. anyway, made it to IRELAND!!!! i was literally freaking out the entire plane ride i was so excited to see ireland and surprise olivia for the weekend! Dermot picked me up from Dublin luckily so that was super nice of him! and we drove to belfast talking away and planning our surprise for Oli. right when we had it all planned out he calls her and fail. shes is not at home like we had expected she is out getting drunk with a few friends haha :) so we edited the original plan and now i am going to be standing on the street corner and dermot is going to bring her out to the car. she is just walking and talking away and isnt noticing me. i was like um hello? haha but finally she looks kind of my way and does like a triple take and then flips out!! we run to each other and are screaming hugging and crying! haha it was so perf tho <3 <3 <3 loved it!!!! (theres a video you all can see later :) haha)

so after the surprise of the century lol we went back to the restaurant she was at and i meet her friends and have some delicious pork thing for dinner and a few drinks. we then leave there and go to the grocery to pick out food so i can finally eat! haha yay! then we went back to their house and i finally got to see it! let me just tell you, fucking awesome. it was decorated soooo cute like and its super nice!!! i had my own room with a nice big comfy bed :) that first night we called home and me and oli talked to my family which was nice and i was like oh olivia is about to open her present nahya (now) haha and my dad goes did you get your present and i was like what?? no? i dont have one what are you talking about. thinking it was a typical dad being confused moment haha ;) then i turn a little and dermot goes yea ya do and he is holding a big box for me!! :) it was sooo nice! got some american food and tv, a card from danny, a purse and some wine coozies. we then went to bed and i was awoken with french toast..yummy!! :) i was so happy! it was delish. i met three of her sisters that day and they were all so nice and so pretty! :) her nieces and nephews were sooooo adorable too!! we went home after a little shopping and got ready for dinner. we went out to this reallllly nice steak restaurant, got the best seat in the place and some free food to sample! i then ordered a yummy steak that came with onion rings and the most delicious sauce ever, garlic butter. i loved it!

i also had my first real guinness here, yay me! lol and some wine. we then planned to move to the bar for one more drink and to hang out before heading home since we had a long day on saturday with olis bday..howevvverrr..we ran into bryan, the owner of the night club for the next night, called sense, and he insisted that we stayed with him all night and he would show us around...he knew i was from america haha he bought round after round of drinks there..all very good! i had a shot of coffee patron omg soooo good! and then he informed us he was leaving and we were coming with lol we went to a few clubs and bars and they were awesome!! we got right in and straight to VIP where bottles of grey goose were flown around haha it was crazy! by the end of the night we were so tired and wanted to go home but he kept giving us more drinks and begging us to stay. he was crazy btw, such a party-er for a old married guy lol! we finally made it home tho and just crashed and planned to sleep in tomorrow before our next night out for olivias actual birthday! woke up again with french toast :) then we planned to go to her house that she grew up in and meet her mum and daddy. it was soooo cool! to finally see her entire family after 14 years of pictures and stories :) :) :) and to see where she grew up! loved it :) everyone was so so so nice to me too! it was awesome.

Me with baby dillian (michelles)

Here is coco :)

we then did some more shopping and some irish souvenir shopping as well :) i went crazy and spent like 100 pound haha and olivia and dermot bought me a claddagh ring :) i wanted one anyway and this one is sooo pretty! and i need to mention, they would not let me pay for anything over there! which was soooo annoying haha i now see how she always feels coming to America lol but it was sooo freaking nice of them!! they did NOT have to do that..especially with their wedding coming up to and all. they will def be getting something cool in return lol and oli shared all her american food with me too that she had ordered! miller lite :)) lol after shopping on saturday we went back home and had to pack and leave. the club we were going to and where dermot was dj-ing was in a city called cookstown (i think haha) and was about an hour or so away. there was a hotel connected that we were staying in that night too! i had to pack up completely and say goodbye to Coco (their adorable doggy) because we would leave the next morning and go straight to the airport. some more of her friends met us at their house and we all drove to the

hotel/club. it was so pretty and very neat! we ate..i had more steak and garlic butter! hahah :)  then went back to the room to get ready for the club. that is when i facetimed some of my family when they were all at tricia and christophers wedding. it was super cool!! and loved seeing and talking to all them and seeing the wedding reception and such! :))) dermot was on to dj at like 1130 so we headed down to the club. It.was.so.awesome. best night ever ever!! so much fun. sat in vip, got drinks constantly brought to me, hung out with oli on her bday, partied with her friends too who were a blast, and dermot even gave us some shout-outs and songs haha :)

 i had such a great time and never wanted it to end! :( lol but it eventually did and we went on to bed dreading the next day. i had my own room at the hotel but since it was my last night i stayed in oli and d's room with them! haha we woke up the next day and rushed to breakfast before it closed then said goodbye to all her friends and we headed towards dublin to the airport :( it was so sad. i know now just how oli feels every time haha i said my goodbyes and walked off crying and continued to cry on and off the rest of my travels home! i never wanted to leave ireland or leave them lol plus being there and with oli made me homesick. i was exhausted tho, and slept on the plane which is rare for me. finally got back to my apt in madrid and was excited to see my roomie!! we exchanged stories from the weekend! i had so much to do that night and wanted to sleep a lot as well. i started this blog but couldnt finish it haha it seriously takes me forever to blog and i dont even re-read or proof them! ahhh lol but today we had art class ..which we have a test in wednesday and im freaking! lol and now im about to go to my food class to make it up because i missed it last friday since i was in ireland!



Hope all is well there!! :) love and miss you all loads! xoxoxo

sorrrrry..here are the pics!

Me on the first day with some rain

After we went to the top of the mountain :)

on the beaaccch!

Crazy toe lady..you can kinda of see it if you look close enough haha

The man we paid..yeah told ya it was sketch

The sixth toe......and a lot of other weird happenings

OMGOSH helloooooo!!!

Lets just start this off by saying I am glad to be alive and I love America!! Its the best place ever. haha youre probably wondering why i say this and well ill tell you!
(just a for warning this is going to be a looooooong blog)
So this weekend as you all know me and six of my friends went to San Sebastian, Spain. We arrived around 6:30 am Friday morning. we needed to waste some time until check in at our first hostel so we wandered around trying to find open cafes and hopefully some wifi. we found a few little places but with our luggage and all it was getting to be a pain. we just decided we would go to the first hostel and see if we could leave our bags there and go exploring until our room was ready. This is where we met Skip. he was around 45 years old and from australia originallyso he spoke english haha the best part about him was he was wearing a pair of denim jeans that i so conveniently noticed we darnished with a large poop stain on them. it was lovely. hahaha the next funny thing about skip was that he was a liiiiiiittle off on the information he spouted out to us that morning. he told us everything was 30 minutes away, if we dressed cute we could get into clubs for free, the bus closes at 11:30,  yada yada. we found all these to be completely false! we walked for a good hour and were nowhere near the beach, dressed real cute and got denied at the club, and saw someone taking the bus home at like 3 am. haha ohhhh skip! the best was when we asked him his name finally after talking to him for a long time. he goes "well......(long pause) ...around here....they call me skip" hahaha okay, skip it is! so funny. skip with the skid mark. his hostel was SOOOOO nice tho! like better than a hotel room! it was amazing and we were so happy and shocked! (especially once hostel 2 came along) we all unpacked and got everything ready, took a small nap since we had been traveling thru the night, then woke up and went to explore ..at this point thinking we could walk everywhere in 30 minutes, oh AND it was raining hahaha we found out real fast we could not walk all the way there after stopping for a map and umbrellas. we finally wandered to the aquarium which was the plan for the day because of the drizzling rain. it was sooo pretty and very cool! we did some souvenir shopping and then decided we wanted to order pizza and get ready for the night. the delivery service there was interesting haha but finally we got served pizza! yay! altho it was uncut? at that point we didnt care and dove in like voulchers haha went out that night to a few bars and had fun :) no complaints really. BUUUUUT here is where it gets interesting..
We woke up the next morning and four of us had to move to a different hostel since skip did not have availability saturday night. the second hostel was closer to the beach so we were excited. we take the bus to the area and get off. we have the address, phone number, and directions to this place.
(oh sidenote, in san sebastian they have there own language and do not speak a lot of spanish soooo that was fun haha)
anyway we go to the address listed quite easily and were like sweet, perfect! however there is no sign for the hostel and no answer. so we are like shit what do we do. we ask around for a while and people either dont know, are mean, or cant understand us. we find a tourist info center and go there to ask for directions and they too were mean. so we are like hmm what to do? we just wanna get to the beach asap! haha we decided to go to mcds to use internet and check to make sure the info we have down is correct. a few of us go and a few wait with all the luggage. then some super weird lady comes up asking if we need a hostel and talks to us forever. long story short she has a hostel we can stay at and a number for the hostel that we have booked already so we follow her to call the original hostel owner. things about her tho.. she smells like hell, is wearing a wig, AND has this pinky toe the size of my head that is completely hanging out of her shoe and walking on the ground in unison with her feet. i didnt listen to half of what she said for this exact reason. anyway, somehow we go meet the hostel owner and he tells us our hostel is getting painted or under construction or something? and that we are walking across the street ... TO THE CRAZY TOE LADY HOSTEL! super super sketch. we all about died and are like hellllll noooo! they show us the room and then they begin to fight over our money. we all looked at each other and were just like omg. plus why would the crazy lady (we named her ursella) have this dudes phone number but not know where the hostel was? and why did she give us a number and send us off to meet some guy only to return back to her hostel? like it doesnt make any sense what so ever! Ursella gave us this whole tour of the hostel and let me just tell you this was no normal place. very gross, dirty and eery! tons and tons of old creepy dudes with tats staring like we are pieces of meat and making obscene gestures. she shows us the kitchen where we can "cook" and there are dudes in there smoking weed. um no thanks? ill eat out haha idk what else..just a weird ass fucking place. we try to ignore it and go to the beach all day! it was super close to the hostel and a beautiful day and such a pretty place!! we laid out and relaxed for a while. me and my friend ran into the ocean, altho it was freeeeezing! i was proud tho haha and then we packed up and set off to mount Igueldo..a big mountaint there that over looks the city! we rode this weird train car up there and when we got off, i got goosebumps. this view was magnifiscent! breathtaking like wow. we took a ton of pictures, got a snack and then went to go back down. the day was so much fun! :))) then we come back to and realize we have to go back to this sketch place and shower. um not happening. we make do and get ready to go out. we all eat dinner at this seafood place (i got steak) and then are exhausted from the long day at the beach and mountain. yet none of us want to go to bed because that would mean in the hostel of death. at that time all the panic that has been hiding in all of us comes out and we freak and are like we arent going back there! no way!! never! so we sneak into the first hostel with the other two girls and sleep 6 in the room. i can say i have never loved a person more at this time than skip. i was so thankful for him, his hostel, and his poop stain lol we were quiet all night and snuck out in the morning. perfect :) Sunday we went to the beach again for a while and then a few shops but had to catch the bus back to Madrid around 5. It was a great weekend!!! minus the crazy toe lady and her sketch hostel lol

sidenotes: This story is way better and person! it is almost impossible to type. i left a lot out and its confusing i bet haha so sorry. but dont worry you WILL hear it when i return. with all the details and all the pictures hahah
also: dont freak out, dont worry i am smart and safe! we were probably overly safe by freaking out so much.. but oh well better safe than sorry
and: dont let the crazy hostel experience fool you, i still had a GREAT time in San Sebastian!! it is honestly so beautiful and i loved it :)

SAN SEBASTIAN

Hola!

Not much to write about but ill go ahead and write before i leave bc i probably wont again until sunday when we return. i dont know how much internet access ill have this weekend :/ but we are leaving tonight at 12:30 at night on the bus and arriving at San Sebastian around 7 am. Im so excited :) we are staying in two different hostels bc they do not have availibility both nights. hopefully they will both be nice tho!! we will be there all day Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday :) the pictures look gorgeous so hopefully the weather is nice (there is a chance of rain friday) and we can do it all.
Other than not nothing new here really. went out last night to a place with 1 euro shots which was awesome. it was a lot of fun! then two classes today that were the same as always lol weve only been here like 10 days but it feels like forever! haha its so weird!!
thats about all i have tho. hope all is well with you all! love you and miss you! ttyl xoxo :)

Shopping es muy divertida :)

Hiya :)

So yesterday it was rainy :( so we made it to and from class and then took a much needed nap! perfect bc it was rainy out anyway :) then we did a lot of research on our future trips and such and fun things to do here! that was about it for yesterday, but still an overall good and productive day. Today we woke up and went to class, kinda boring lol and then came home for lunch. we even had time for a nap yayyy! we had our second class even though it was kind of rainy. we walked around this beautiful area and then stopped for some food and desserts, yummy! after class a lot of us went shopping and walking around. it was so fun! they have H&M's everywhere here!! all the spaniards are obsessed its hilarious haha all you ever see are H&M bags. but we finally went to one today, it was pretty cool. very cheap compared to everywhere else here so that is good! THEN i knew we had to be in the area close to our apartment when we come back in December so i went exploring to find it. Tricia went with me and we found it!! yay us haha it is in a GREAT area!! very very pretty and close to lots of stuff. its awesome! :) we went inside it was beaut. :) under construction tho so hopefully that will be done. Then we came home and ate dinner, had some burrito type thing that was fried with cheese and sausage inside of it, but not american sausage this weird sausage from here that tastes like chicken lol and then an omelet with eggs and ham, then of course bread! it was pretty good :) now about to go to bed and get ready for tomorrow! we are going to class in the morning and then back to Retiro park to hang out, lay out, and hopefully rent boats on the lake type thing! yay! :) oh and we still havent had churros with chocolate yet! its like famous here so we need to get on that!! cant wait

area around our hotel in december

Lobby of our Hotel for december

Adios for now! love <3

Una semana - one week

Hellooooo all!

Sunday we woke up early (altho we were very tired) to go to this thing called Rastro. It is a huge market with tons of stuff for you to buy! obvi i was allllll in haha we got there around 11 am and it was PACKED! we thought we'd have trouble finding it and had directions ready, but ha no! it is allll thru the streeets and there are tons of people. it was chaotic but awesome at the same time! i had my hand on my purse the entire time tho.  we walked around trying to shop but were so overwhelmed haha i did lots of shopping for you all, so youre welcome! haha i spent around 100 euros in total which is kinda of a lot, but i also got a lot of good deals and some really cool stuff! i wanna go back but not sure if ill be here another sunday to go (since it is only open sunday mornings).
After that we came home to change and get ready for the Real Madrid soccer game.  We met up with our friends and all went to joshs apartment (graduate student here to help) to hang out before the game. He lives pretty close to the stadium.  The stadium was reallly cool! afterwards we were all starving and went to TGIFs hahaha we somehow happened upon it and were like why not lol the thing i normally get at home for like 7 was 11 euros! its a freaking appetizer too! it was very very delicious tho!! :) it was a fun day overall :))

Today we just had class and it was raining some so we came home for a much needed nap! it felt great haha we may go shopping here in a little again for more souvenirs. we also have been working on our trip this weekend and it is officially booked! we are taking a bus which takes about 6 hours to get to san sebastian, spain. its a beautiful city with a beach! we leave at 12:30 thursday night and arrive around 7 in the morning Friday. hopefully the bus is comfortable enough to sleep on haha so we will have all day Friday, Saturday, and part of the day Sunday. we leave there around 5 and get here around 11 at night. we are super excited!! :) its me and tricia and then hope, ariel, kara, and taylor (some friends from the group) we also booked a hostel for the two nights well be there. the bus is around 30 euro there and back and then hostel is around 30 a night. the total will be around 140 which is awesome!! some places are much more expensive unfortunately. just a random fact about Spain.....THANK GOD for hand motions. i feel i am more studying sign language than spanish hahaha they are all about the hand motions to help you understand things which is great because otherwise I'd be so lost haha we have started using them now too to get our point acrossed. its quite funny lol

Anyway im off. love you all xoxo

Follame

Que tal? :) (Whats up)

We went to segovia today on a day trip in a bus. it was a cool bus ride with amazing scenery, pictures couldnt even begin to capture it.  we walked around the town and the ancient buildings and streets. we got a few tours, one of a huge cathedral that was so beautiful! we got a break for lunch and some wander time of our own which was filled first by food obvi at a hamburger place! it was delicious. then we wandered around taking pics, exploring, and shopping.  it was so much fun :) we had to meet back up to go on a few more tours. one was of this old church right on the edge and here they told a story about the bodies that were killed there and then buried underneath. however, a few days later it rained a ton i guess and all the bodies moved and shifted and made the stone move as well. it was a crazy story. they told us that you can find teeth and bones all outside so keep your eyes peeled.  i think, no way! its been decades most if not all are gone or have been taken by past guests. welllll we walked outside and almost right away a guy from my group goes "Heres a tooth" i laugh thinking hes kidding and he picks it up and shows me..it was def real! haha how cool!! Then we took the bus home. Segovia was so amazing!! took a ton of pics (ill add some) and i loved it because today was def a people picture day. meaning that we were actually in a lot of the pictures today compared to just buildings and streets and stuff at times since we dont have people to take pics all the time.  I wish i had a personal photographer to follow us around and capture us in the moment constantly haha! me and tricia then walked around for a little and ran a few errands and made it home to research! as i said yesterday were trying to plan a beach trip next weekend but need to book it asap! so were trying to find the cheapest best option :) i think we have decided and are going to book it tomorrow! tomorrow we are also going to Rastro, which is a huge market here that is only on Sundays.  i guess it has everything you could ever want, and for good deals too (well i hope anyway lol) so i am super pumped for that!! i love shopping in general, but especially here because things are so different and cool! the thing that sucks it how expensive everything is :/ and with the exchange rate. wahh sucks! and im trying not to spend much money so its hard but im hoping the market will be cheaper and we can get good deals! YAY! ill let you know how it goes :) then we will be going to the Real Madrid soccer game that is here tomorrow with most of the group! that should be a cool experience :) then home for some much much much needed sleep! ahhh! something that is lacking here in Madrid still lol

The ancient tooth we found!!












well talking of that, im off to sleep now! big day tomorrow

Love you ALL :)

KAPITAL!

Hello again :)

We are learning all about Madrid :) its so pretty and wonderful!! Im getting confused on the days and everything is running together haha but we have been to an art museum that we will actually have class at once a week, a ham factory thing with lots of different ham, and lots of different beautiful streets and such! Everything is so gorgeous :) We are getting to know everyone in the group better. They are so awesome!
We went to Kapital, a seven story nightclub, for a girls 21st birthday last night. It was the coolest club ever. Every floor had a different theme so it was cool..except it was very very expensive. 6 euro for one shot! ridiculous! lol but it was so much fun so worth it haha
Today we wandered around a few different places and then ate at an american restaurant called "hollywood" or something haha we needed our American food lol I ordered a big thing of nachos :) muy bien. we are so tired always but so much to do. there is never anytime for sleep. tomorrow we are going to Segovia in Spain on a day trip with the group.  we are all taking a bus and we have to leave at 8:30 in the morning ekkk :/ lol it should be fun tho! and then sunday we are all going to a futbol (soccer) game for Real Madrid.  There is a party before at the grad students house so everyone can hang out before so that will be fun as well. Then another week of "school" starts lol
We have been planning some different trips with the group. we are thinking of going to a beach can San Sabastian next weekend because have it off and want some sun and la playa (beach) haha :) we can take a bus or train for very cheap so a bunch of us girl probably will! im excited.  I know i am also for sure going to IRELAND!! to see oli and dermot in June. i cannot wait. i cry just thinking about how excited i am to be reunited haha :) and just to see ireland, its always been a dream. <3 how lucky am I!?! Also the whole group planned a trip to Barcelona when we have this Thursday off school in June so we are going there for like 4 days :) im excited for that too. i had so much trouble booking the bus tickets haha 1.) it was in spanish 2.) i am not used to it because my parents always do it haha i am spoiled lol i was very stressed haha but i got it all settled so i feel much better! :) on top of all those, we have a goodbye trip with the whole group in July to Toledo and Granada Spain. sooo much to look forward too in the future!! and much more pictures to be taken haha its overwhelming how many pictures i already have and it hasnt even been a week.  me and tricia were going to come home today from our tour thing and nap for a while but messed with organizing pictures all afternoon! it was redic but good thing to get taken care of. going to finish this blog and go to bed soon hopefully!
Hope all is well with you all! :) love youuuuu.  ill write again soon!
Oh here are some pictures:

BREATHTAKING :)

 "Finger Pollo" hahaha chicken fingers lol

P.s. i am sitting here writing this and watching a tv show in Spanish! lol it is a crime show too, how perfect :) plus i am actually understanding a lot of it. its easier than i thought and much easier to understand actors than actual people here haha

Pollo, Pollo, Pollo

Hello all!! :)

I am sorry i could not write yesterday, i had a really busy day! I am writing now before class about yesterday and then i will write about tonight tomorrow most likely. we are going to Kapital which is a 7 story bar here tonight for a girls 21st birthday! we are all sooo excited!
ANyways,
Yesterday was filled with fun events :) We woke up showered and got ready like usual and went to class at 11:30. we have to get up at like 9 tho and leave by like 10 so its annoying. but anyways after that class we were starving but needed to look for flats for today too. So first we took the bus (for the first time) with some other girls to back by there place for a mall haha it was so weird because there were a lot of American stores in the mall lol no luck on good spanish flats there tho :( then me and tricia to the metro towards this park but wanted to stop for lunch.  we found our way there and found a restaurant that was muy muy bueno right by there! we were so proud! lol it was kinda like an italian restaurant, we had bruchetta and pizza and a big thing of sangria. it turned into like 7 things of sangria haha because our friends met us and thennnn we also met these two cute really old guys who loved us so were buying our drinks obvi lol they were singing to us and everything. we also meet a really nice waiter there who was working on his english so we helped each other with both languages! it was sooo cool!! then we wandered around Retiro park again, its so pretty.

We had to go home for cena (dinner) after that.  Puri made us fetticine pasta and it was very good! we had to rush out of the house after that to meet our group to go to some bars around Sol (the downtown area) they were pretty cool and Josh who is the Graduate student from Purdue who helps with this program came out so that was cool! We had to leave kind of early to catch the Metro and because we were wiped from all this no sleep and lots of walking.  but hey im not complaining! i can sleep in America when i get back haha

Well we have to leave for class now.  The crazy maid lady is here again so me and tricia wanna get out ASAP hahaha which btw we found she doesnt really clean much? and talks with Puri more haha she doesnt clean the shower or toilets ever either idk its odd. me and tricia are about to just clean them haha  but ADIOS for now

and sorry if this is a mess haha i had like no time to write it :( and no time to add pics either but more to come later!

Love you all! :)