happy wednesday!

welp friends, in the past 2 days or so fun things have gone done. for starters im a sick cookie across the big pond. currently on my medicine right now, which is making me a little loopy, but then again its also after midnight and we all know i dont handle late nights well. went to the doctor for the first time over seas, and that was a simple easy process. got antibiotics since im going out of town this weekend and i hopefully those will kick in. i call mom every time i get sick multiple times when im in boone, so its funny that with this google phone thing i can still call and complain just as much :) she loves me.

anywho, another reason why i probs have not improved health wise is because i sat outside in the rain all evening last night. why? well for starters i was under an awning, but because i had to go see THE cultural thing to see when in spain: a BULLFIGHT! im only going to show yall 2 pictures because, if you have a queasy tummy, you couldnt handle more. about 8 of us sat through 6 very confusing rounds, and by the end of the night we saw 6 dead bulls. fact: they kill the bull everytime. i didnt exactly know that. so it was gross, but interesting to say the least. i really dont know how else to describe it.

but today i went to the doc. all good and clear and ready for my weekend in alicante with caitlin! and to start off the weekend, why not do something crazy after spending an hour in the doctors office. so about 6 of us headed here after class today. going crazy in spainnnn!

i love hearing what people guess i did. but in fact, im not that much of a rebel. only got a little purple strand put in my hair. just for fun. why not?

grandma, dont freak out. it can be hidden very easily. promise.

but for now, its time for bed for this kid. os amo. yea thats right, using that unheard of vosotros form we never use in america. be proud spanish friends...and for all the others, just saying love yall :)

fun facts.

yes i know i just blogged yesterday, but i thought i would take this rainy afternoon to tell you random fun things from spain. sure why not. and lets be honest, we all know i love lists.

1. yesterday, while walking down the street, i was hit in the foot by a water balloon. not a clue where it came from, but i laughed really hard.

2. i filled my memory card already...that means ive taken over 700 pictures in 2 weeks. whoops.

3. whenever i see a movie in another country, it makes me feel like im at home and can walk outside, jump in the car and drive home. jokes on me, the rain was waiting, and the metro was my ride.

4. i officially know how to tell if people are american or not. for example, on the metro today, there was a guy, and i told zoey he was american by how baggy his pants were. she didnt believe me until he started talking to a friend that got on a few stops later.

5. everywhere you look people are playing music for money. i think i want to go to retiro and do gymnastics and see if i can make a few euros. it might be added to the list of goals. why? because it would be hilarious, and to see if they would give to me. if bad guitar players make money, why couldnt i?

6. a little person (aka midget) stuck his tongue out at me on the metro for no reason.

7. there are these pants that everyone wears. and i think they all look like pirates. no worries friends, i wont come home dressing like that. not sassy, just strange.

8. all i want is for my stomach to get used to the eating time differences. dont think its going to happen.

9. whenever santiago talks super fast i just to a little bledjkhku to him, since thats what it sounds like to me, and today he told me to stick out my tongue and he grabbed the butcher knife. then thought he, himself was hilarious. thats why we get along so well. we both crack up at ourselves.

10. not feeling well away from home = no bueno.

11. there are hardly any tall people in spain, so you know i fit in just fine.

12. my spanish mom and sis think im ridiculously crazy. i just embrace it.

13. pops: every car is a manuel. glad to know i could drive the getaway car here, if necessary.

14. overall: spain is incredible. 2 weeks in, 2 and a half to go!

toledo y más

welp, just finished my last official weekend in madrid (the last 2 will be out of town adventures) and it was just wonderful. friday we had field trip friday, as i like to call it, to toledo. no not ohio, but spain still, about an hour south of madrid. i love our field trip days because we always go to these smaller towns that when you think of spain, this is what you think of. it was a beautiful day and we did lots of exploring in old things (you know, churches, synagogues, peoples houses, etc).

emily and i decided we would take "jumping" pictures everywhere we went together, so here is out successful jump.

and im not sure if ive officially introduced yall to zoey: but this is my rooms!

she is seriously wonderful. i lot of people have asked how it has been living with her and really, its been great. shes sleeping right now while im typing away, but shes great. one of my goals has been to have real talk with her, and the lord totally revealed some things today for us to talk about. so time for me to be a little bold and chat it up. its been incredible to see her notice simple acts of love and ahh i just really genuinely do love her. just be praying for our relationship friends :)

saturday was the most fun! we were a little worn out from history things, and looked in the kids section of the book for our play day. 2 girls that also live in the house and i went to this place called faunia. think mini zoo but you can touch almost everything. no there were no elephants nor giraffes, but i loved what i saw, and was so excited to be there.

first things first, they dont let things like this happen in the us. there would be more fences and more rules. thats why places like this are awesome in spain. this one show let and animal straight up run across our laps. hilarious. here he is: not a clue what he is.

and funniest part. you forget sometimes that being in our countries, things that are familiar to us, are strange and fascinating to spaniards. one animal brought out in the show was, none other than, a raccoon. i laughed really hard at it. my fav was this guy: as ugly as he was. he just wanted to be loved.

sunday i had church in the living room again. went to el rastro (the biggest flee market) then spent the afternoon in park near my house for some alone time reading and journaling and such. everyone needs alone time, and its super difficult here, so i did the best i could, and got quite a bit of sunshine on the skin.

sorry that i dont know how to write short amounts here. but time for sleepy.

shout out to the "four families" to end tonight. saw these guys at the faunia too. happy trails.

metro and comida.

first and foremost i would like to share that i officially have a metro pass for the month of june. a picture and everything! i feel so official. heres the fun part. you just take a picture in the photo booth at one of the metro stops then take it to the "estanco" aka tobacco shop to get an official pass. so im here for a month. who cares what the picture looks like right? thats right. so this is my metro picture...showing my initial thoughts of the metro system.

yep thats real life right there. this weeks adventures have been more just scoping out local things. tuesday i went and did a little shipping with the rooms. yall, shes rubbing off on me. sassy wedges. i will no longer be "chin" height, as we like to refer to it as, but someone embraced my sassy word and told me that the us better watch out when i return with my sassy shoes. i made the purchase and hope i have somewhere fun to wear them to for the summer :)

yesterday we had a class field trip to an art museum, and we had a guide. saw pieces by picasso and van gogh, in person, which i feel like is cool. these are some of the most famous artists in the world, and i saw stuff that they literally painted, not just the photo copy. maybe thats weird, but i think its really cool. fun fact: van gogh's works literally have so much paint on them. chunks of paint. just kind of fun. but no pictures allowed because the flash, even us breathing in the room, "damages" the pieces. understandable. some of the stuff was from the 600s. old.

wednesday night we (just smaller group) found our spot. we decided every wednesday we would come here because, check this, everything is 1 euro on wednesdays! all food, all drinks, yep. todo. thats awesome. and its like that only on wednesdays, hence it being the wednesday hangout spot. and i found my drink of spain. i dont do alcohol very much, so if i find something i like, im a happy camper. this was tinto de verano. basically a sangria, but this was wine and sprite. yum. and the sandwiches there are always fun, because i dont necessarily know every food word in spanish, so i just guess and hope what i get i like.

today has been quite a restful afternoon. i havent taken an afternoon off from exploring since ive been here, and my feeties needed a little rest, so the group i always go with decided to wait and do churros tonight after dinner. but here was my fun afternoon dessert. concha freshly made milk chocolate...aka melted dark chocolate and added milk, but it was so good, to add to strawberries. jealous? yep, it was incredible.

tomorrow is field trip friday to toledo!

thats all for now friends :)

mucho amor from españa!

tengo cinco años.

today i played like a five year old. we walked around a park outside of the royal palace, and played on in the "infant zone" literally translated. and heres what i have to show for myself.

happy memorial day friends :)

younglife!

the past two days have been beautiful in spain and its cooled off a little bit which has been wonderful. so yesterday and today i slept in a little bit, then waited for the roomies to get up so we could go play! we went to el parque de retiro yesterday and walked around and saw the rose garden. oh my beautiful, thats all ive got to say. the parks here are incredible because, lets be honest, its the only grassy areas all over the city. back yards are no existent, nor do they like you to sit in the grass that you do fund, unless its in one of the parques. but while the rest of the group stayed at the park, i snuck away (not really snuck, but just left) to go on my own adventure.

younglife is such a small world. really it is. so i worked when i worked at malibu club, i met fun friends and its always fun to have a reunion! so, got on facebook, and come to find out my friend david was in madrid, and he told me that younglife had club saturday night. so what did i do? i went to a spanish younglife club in madrid! SUPER COOL. it was a small club, thats for sure, but it was so awesome just to see that its here, the lord is so present in it, and yep. i was really happy. fun fact: they sang both english and spanish songs. firework by katy perry or course was on the list. another one of davids friends came, because he is a wyldlife leader in birmingham. after that i met up with their friends to watch the barcelona vs manchester united futbol game and just catch up on life. come to find out a bunch of guys play football for samford (who is in appalachians conference for sports) and they were talking about how awesome it is to play in boone. then there was some trash talk about how they expect to win next year. no worries: i put them in their places. but it was a fun adventure to meet other estudiantes americanos.

today, me and 2 girls from another university, in indiana, went back to retiro and walked around a bit then ohhh my. there was a lake (just a baby one) where you can rent boats and go paddle on around. most hilarious adventure. got my arm work out for the month. and might have crashed into a few other boats. and since i forgot to bring nigel, we WILL be doing it again. i love paddle boats in madrid.

new goal to add to the list: i want to become a "regular" at a place, yes, here in madrid. this will be a tad bit difficult. also, i believe going to a bullfight should be added. so many fun things in spain. love it hereeee!

thats all for now folks :)

catching up.

oh boy where to start! ive only been here a few days and i feel like i have so much to share and catch yall up on. wednesday we had our orientation for the program and basically, i will have classes monday through thursday from 930-115 then home for lunch and the rest of the afternoon and evenings are free. so clearly that means i like to go on an adventure everyday. so far we have only ventured to this one section of town puerte del sol and the plaza mayor de madrid. its basically a downtown area with way too many shops and all the sorts. but whats also kind of cool is that the country just had elections and now there are people camping out in sol as protests to the ways people are elected and saying the government is corrupt. so its really just interesting because as soon as you step off the metro, you see thousands of signs. encouraging note: i cant read most of them and understand them :)

so with these fun little adventures we, a group of chicas, tend to do a little shopping. now yall know one of my goals was the learn to dress like a sassy spaniard, and its a little difficult. but i started the process yesterday and bought some sassy sandals. ill try and rock em in the states, but we shall see.

today we took our first class field trip. i decided to call them field trip fridays. and todays adventure was to segovia spain. it was about an hour bus ride from madrid and literally this town has so much history. we went to an a castle which was a summer home for most of the kings and queens, climbed the town and saw all sorts of fun things. i also met a boy. his name is juan, he loves holding my hand and hes my charming knight, but he doesnt talk much.

meet juan. ok, ill stop with the punny jokes. im laughing at myself, because we all know i think im hilarious.

we also went and visited this gothic cathedral. i dont know much about what a "gothic" cathedral is, but oh my this place was huge and full of so much old stuff, actually the bodies or previous priests and basically monuments to each of them. it was beyond beautiful, and what was really cool is that it opened up the religion topic with some of the friends. so, needless to say, that was a bit interesting.

another fun thing i checked off the list today in segovia, was my cross! i had been looking in shops in madrid for a cross, and jokes on me, the only one i found was 423 euros! um, no. but i found an incredible, i guess its iron, cross en segovia for only 7, so thats my official cross from spain. i love how different this collection is going to be.

so this is just a bit of what i have done so far. and i guess now i can just share my randomness. i like lists, so ill just use a list.

1. i can use the metro, no fear. that didnt take long

2. early mornings, coffee, and sweet time with the lord start me off everyday.

3. chocolate crescents. YUM!

4. overseas coffee dates are wonderful.

5. concha (my spanish mom) cracks me up! yall, she is a little sassy. and cant pronounce the z sound in zoeys name. hilarious.

6. im obsessed with skype.

7. they all know im american, so i quite trying to fit in and embraced my inner tourist.

8. no a/c when its 90 degrees = sweatyyyy

9. I GET TO SEE CAITLIN SHEFFIELD IN TWO WEEKS! FREAKING OUTTTTT!

10. i feel like i live in the future since im 6 hours ahead.

11. someone requested being added to the "goals" list. heres your shout out. i have a goal to chat with you mucho. duh.

12. my pup back home is officially naked! (summer haircut of course.)

thats about all thats on my mind for now. sorry for my randomness and super long post and any bad grammar and such, its just 3 in the morning here. but ill try and do better, promise. love yall!