pictures.

and for all you non-facebookers out there: here is a link to view some of the pictures i have taken so far. and by some i mean 200 out of the 1200 on my computer :)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1903740958589.2095378.1393680174&l=95a7ffa743

enjoy!

alicante.

i think this past weekend was my favorite so far! i took a train to alicante down towards the south east side of spain, right on the mediterranean sea. um, can you say most beautiful place? yes, yes it was. i got there thursday night and caitlin and i went and got dinner, sat in a park and had real talk, and then gelato! yall, gelato is bangarang. just saying.

and that night i got to check off sticking my toesies in the mediterranean. i dont know about you, but i think thats super cool.

friday we had an interesting day. one of the girls caitlin knew was planning a "spa" day out on the beach. so she found all these online recipes for facials and hair stuff and loads more. i thought it was hilarious. but i did get my first "facial" if you call oatmeal, yogurt and some other stuff a facial. but it had the cucumbers, so you know its legit. but we enjoyed the day on the beach, then headed back to have dinner on the pier area.

that night caitlins roommate, margaret (latvia's finest) was having a going away party since she was leaving the nest morning. she says she has a tradition of burning her class notes and things from the classes she hated most each semester. so what did we do, we burned her stuff. and someone played the laud while we walked everywhere and i have not laughed that much in a long time. quite the adventure.

but i got to meet people form spain, lativa, russia, france and the netherlands that night. i LOVE accents. and i kept asking funny questions to find out new words. dutch is my new fav language. i think i would like to learn it.

anywho. saturday we took margaret to the airport then caitlin and i were ready for a nap. we took lunch on the beach and were lazy for most of the day. then we hiked up the castle (alicante's biggest attraction) and got to see the town from the highest point. i love being up high and being able to see for miles and miles.

sunday was a fun flea market excursion where we found really awesome spanish antique items. i may or may not have gotten the adventures of tom sawyer book in spanish. after spending the rest of the afternoon together, we said out sweet goodbye at the train station and i headed back to madrid.

LOVEDDD seeing caitlin and it was such a blessing to have a dear friend in the same country as me. loved real talk. loved seeing where she has been living for the past 5 months. and love even more that she will be back in the big US of A the same day i get back :) caitlin: youre seriously the best most beautiful thing!

reunited!

reunited with miss caitlin sheffield and its incredible! happy weekend from alicante :)

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!