My Mommy

I have the greatest mom in the world! She inspires me each day to be the best person I can be! She is an amazing cook, a wonderful friend, and probably the greatest person I know. I feel so lucky to have such a beautiful mother, inside and out!

Mountain, Cave, Museum oh my!

9:30 - We met at Plaza de Los Luceros

9:45 - The bus left for the mountain

10:15 - We arrived at the mountain and started our climb

12:00 - We made it to the top.

12:30 - We started our decend.

13:15 - Tour of Cuevas del Canelobre (caves)

14:15 - We were back on the bus and on our way home.

My Saturday schedule sounds enjoyable/easy enough. Ha, it was actually kind of a joke. When I arrived at the bus Saturday morning, I was shocked to see so many of the USAC kids...my friend Melissa and I had made bets that half the kids who signed up weren't going to show. We figured that they'd all stick to their nightly routine (I wish I could say weekendly) and stay out until 5 a.m. and not show up for the fieldtrip. I was so excited by the time we got to the mountain..I've felt slightly sluggish since I arrived and I was looking forward to a nice, long hike. Within the first 5 min of the hike, people were already starting to fall behind. Melissa and I both have really long legs so it was difficult for us to walk the pace of everyone else. The landscape around us was beautiful! Luis, our program director, actually told us that it's only green this time of year because Alicante is desert-like.

As the hike started to increase in difficulty I felt more and more like I was hiking with a bunch of 5th grade kids...it took me back to my days of long roadtrips to Washington, "Dad are we there yet? How much longer?" I probably heard those expressions 50 times on our way up. I told my mom that I wouldn't consider myself super in shape, but this hike made me feel SO in shape! We were stopping about every 15 min so that people could catch up/take a break. I was happy when we finally made it to the top because I was tired of hearing people complain. The view was really beautiful! We had a nice little picnic on top, overlooking the ocean and Alicante.

The hike down was much more enjoyable. Only a couple of people fell, but no one got hurt. After we were done with the hike, we walked up the road a little ways to Cuevas del Canalobre "caves". I looked down as we were walking because I saw something on the road...at first I thought it was a snake --but then I looked closer and saw that it was a train of about 12 caterpillars. It was so cute!! They were in a perfect line following one another across the road.

The inside of the cave was really cool. Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures because the flash causes algae to grow on the stalagmites and stalactites.

This morning I woke up and was definitely feeling the hike from yesterday! My friend Melissa and I met at 10:00 to go to the Museo Arqueologico (Archeology Museum). It turned out to be a lot of fun and it was pretty interesting. I didn't get very many cool pictures because we weren't allowed to use the flash on our cameras. We ended up staying at the museum until it closed at 14:00. I had a great weekend and now I'm exhausted. I can't wait to crawl into my bed! I have a very busy week ahead of me, but I'm very excited!

The funny animated background--it depicted the Romans.

The "Real" ship, Melissa was so amazed!

The cool, ancient jewelry/gemstones.

I loved all of the pottery!

This was the last room we went into. We weren't sure if we were supposed to go in or not, the guard told us we could. It was a big, empty room with a beautiful chandelier and some books--my guess, the library.

In case you need a good laugh!

The other day I was browsing the Facebook "news feed" and I came across a picture of one of my good friends, Natalie. She recently took a trip to Hawaii with one of our other friends. Apparently they went snorkeling and Nat had some complications. I thought I would share this picture with you...just in case you need a good laugh.

Words cannot describe this picture...but it gets me everytime!

Chef Carly...or something like that!

Hola!

Keeping up on this blog is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I only have class each day until 12:25, but I somehow manage to keep busy...

Last week I stayed pretty busy. I had my first cooking class. It was so much fun! Every Tuesday night, at 18:00, we meet at the cooking school. The first week the chef gave us a tour and then we immediately began cooking. We divided into groups of 4 and were given all the ingredients for Parrillada de verduras (grilled vegetables), pollo a la naranja (chicken in orange sauce), and crema catalana (similar to creme brulee)...let me just say that it was fantastic! Each group prepared their own meal and then we got to eat it...the best part was, we didn't have to do the dishes. I can already tell that it is going to be my favorite class and I'm going to be sad when the ten sessions are over.

Thursday a group of USAC (the students in my study abroad program) students got together with our USAC leader, Luis and played soccer. There were only 4 girls, myself included, who played..the rest were boys. I haven't played soccer in years, but luckily my old defender skills came into play during the game. :D Luis, who is probably in his late 30s, was amazing! He was so much better than the rest of us playing. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing once a week.

On Sunday my friend from Chicago, Melissa, invited me to her host family's house to do homework and each lunch. I was amazed at the difference between her family's apartment and the apartment I'm living in...it was so much bigger! We ate a couscous dish for lunch and made plans for a trip to Valencia in March for "Las Fallas". Las Fallas is a huge festival that they have every year. Basically, it's a giant party with lots of paella (a famous Spanish dish), music, and paper mache sculptures that the people spend and entire year making...only to light them on fire during a parade on the last night. I can't wait!

So far this week has been pretty eventful. My intensive language course is definitely intense! We have our first test on Thursday, which will cover the topics that would have taken a whole semester to learn at BSU. On Monday I signed up to volunteer at an elementary school twice a week, to help teach English. I can't wait! Yesterday we went to the school and got to go into one of the classrooms. The 6 and 7 year olds were so cute! They said 'hello' and the sang "Jingle Bells" to us in English! It was so cute! I also found out that my class of Spanish dances starts next Monday. That will also be 10 sessions, I'm a little nervous but also very excited!

Last night was my second cooking class. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first....we had a different instructor and therefore he didn't do things the same. The menu last night consisted of Fideua (basically a pasta dish with all sorts of seafood), Tortilla Espanola (delicious!), and Torrijas (day old bread soaked in milk, then egg, then deep fried). This time we just split into 3 big groups and each group worked on one dish. I was in the tortilla espanola group....I successfully made it, however it wasn't nearly as delicious as my host moms.

Tortilla Espanola

Fideua

Torrijas

Basically the main ingredient for these dishes was oil. Good thing we have about a 20 minute walk to the cooking school! That is one of the many differences that I've noticed about the cooking here, the excessive use of oil! Not to mention that they don't really drain the oil off there food before they serve it either...it's a mystery to me how they all manage to stay so thin, oh wait, it's because they all smoke! So contrary to what I first thought about losing weight while I was here do to the smaller portions, I'm not about to pick up the smoking habit, so maybe I will end up gaining weight...

I'm going to be better about staying on top of my blog because when I do get around to it, I feel like I could write forever...but I need to get busy studying for my exam tomorrow!

Buenas dias! (good day)

Finally!!!

I've been using the term "finally" at least once or twice a day on my trip...

"Finally my the BA desk in open so I don't have to carry around my luggage in the Seattle airport for 4 more hours!"
"Finally I don't have to wait in line for 8 more hours for another flight!"
"Finally our 1 hour tube ride is over and we can go our hotel!"
"Finally we found the actual hotel we were supposed to stay in!"
"Finally we have a flight Madrid!"
"Finally we are in Madrid!"
"Finally my luggage is here!"
"Finally I have internet!"

Although I've gotten really sick of the word "finally" and I was frustrated by having to wait so long for everything to fall into place, waiting made me realize how truly lucky I am. Everything is different in Spain compared to home. The apartment I'm living in now is smaller than the one I lived in last semester. It doesn't have heat. Or the internet. Limited hot water. Little privacy. Paper thin walls. The most annoying dog in the world....and although it may sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to be here. But it's not just that, I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a nice home with good food, supportive parents, heating/cooling, hot water, internet, etc. Those things are all a luxury for the people here and unfortunately something that I've always taken advantage of. So thanks mom and dad for everything! :D

There are other things that are different about this place. For instance, I have probably eaten about 15 different meat parts in the week and a half that I've been here. I've gone against my personal religion and eaten 2 eggs - over easy. I have faced the challenges of buying books, clothes, food, etc. by using Spanish to the best of my abilities. On Saturday night when I was walking home, there was a man standing on the sidewalk peeing. People here smoke constantly...before meals, after meals, during meals. Speaking of meals, they have the strangest eating habit. People here eat very little for breakfast, maybe a piece of toast and coffee. Then, they don't eat lunch until about 3. Dinner is around 9 or 10. And did I mention that they don't eat snacks, thanks to the smoking. Needless to say, my eating habit has changed completely. I told my dad the other day that I probably will lose about 15 pounds while I'm here just from changing my eating habits. It's just a completely different way of life. Instead of being completely disgusted and annoyed by all of the differences, I just laugh and wonder how people in the United States would react...

To the Castle!

My first week here in Alicante has been a success! I am enjoying my "intensive" language class because it is just review so far. I am hoping it's not going to get too hard, too fast. My professor, Lourdes, is wonderful! She is incredibly animated and helpful. The University of Alicante has a main campus which is a 30 minute bus ride from my homestay. My classes are held at the main campus Monday-Thursday. I love the orange trees on my campus, I am so tempted to pluck one of the delicious oranges everytime I walk past one!

On Fridays, my class is held at a university building downtown...the classroom has a beautiful view of the ocean. Today after class, I walked with one of my classmates down the "Explanada" to the beach. It was such a beautiful day today in Alicante, I can't wait for beach season!

"Explanada"

Ocean! :D

The Port

After a delicious lunch with my host mom and sister, I met the USAC students in La Plaza de Los Luceros for a hike. We walked about an hour up a mountain to one of the castles "castillo" in Alicante. The hike to the top was a great workout and definitely worth the view, once again, incredible!

Mis amigas y amigos

The View

Alicante

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of being my friend on Facebook, you have not yet seen the many status updates with regards to my crazy trip to Alicante. I have been through so much just within a week. My adventure to this place was completely crazy, but almost kind of worth it. I started out in the Seattle Airport and flew the 9 hours to London. I slept some on the plane and enjoyed the free wine with my dinner. It wasn't until the London airport that I met my new friends...Lauren, Carrie, Haley, Melissa, and Mary. We started out adventure by taking a bus to our terminal. Once in the terminal we had to go through security..that took about an hour, only the find that our flight had been cancelled due to the 5 snowflakes had fallen at London-Heathrow. The kind gentleman with British Airways told us that he would do everything he could to get us on our flight ot Madrid. The make this long story a bit shorter, we ended up waiting in line for about 8 hours. The line moved 2 feet/hour. We finally arrived at the front of the line and were told that there were no more flights going out that night and that they'd have to get us a hotel. The process of changing our flight and finding a hotel took about another 2 hours. The nearest hotel was an hour Tube ride into downtown London. So we started our next adventure. The Tube ride went quickly and we arrived at our destination around midnight. We were so happy to finally be at the hotel. We walked through the doors in complete awe, the hotel was amazing. Well that quickly was taken away when the bellman informed us that we had the wrong hotel. He gave us directions, we failed to find it the first 4 times, and then finally an hours later..found it. We got about 4 hours of sleep before we had to get back on the Tube and find our way back the the London airport for our 8:40 flight...only to be informed that the flight had been cancelled once again. We stared at the British Airways line that was about 6x's as large as the one the night before. Luckily, Sue, a kind BA employee was able to help us and put us on standby for the next flight.

Luck was finally on our side as we boarded the 9:15 flight to Madrid. The flight didn't actually take off once we were on the plane for 2 hours because they had to de-ice the plane. We arrived in Madrid, finally!!! And yet again, luck was taken away from us. They didn't have any idea where our luggage was. The 4 day tour that we were supposed to go on had already started, luckily we didn't miss the trip to Sevilla or Toledo.

The day trip to Segovia was really great, besides the fact that it was really cold and I had been wearing the same clothes for 3 days. We were able to see a aquaduct from the 1st century which was incredible. The original structure is still completely standing and although they don't still use it, they could. Did I mention that there was not cement used in building this structure, it's just stones.

We also had the opportunity to walk through the streets of Segovia. I love the little apartments all over and the attention to detail that is put into everything. We took a little break for coffee during the day tour, I must say I have never tasted coffee so good! It was simply, cafe con leche, or coffee with milk...I didn't even have to put in any sugar. There was a beautiful church in the center of the city. We eventually made our way through the twisted, narrow streets to the castle. The castle was very beautiful, but nothing like what we were able to see the next day!

Church in Segovia

Entrance to the Castle

View of the Castle

The next day we went to Toledo. It was absolutely incredible!! The city of Toledo sits up on a hill an is surrounded by a wall. I could get lost in the ancient streets and rich history forever! We went the the most amazing cathedral I've ever seen. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside and the outside pictures don't even begin to do justice.

Overlooking Toledo

The Holy-Church Cathedral

The Apartments

A gorgeous building in the town center

I loved Toledo! I definitely want to go back there when I have more time. The girls and I went out to a nice dinner our last night in Madrid. Unfortunately they all went on their way the next morning to San Sebastian. I'm bummed we didn't end up in the same place, but at least I'll be able to go visit them!

I am finally in Alicante and I started school today. My professor, Maria Lourdes is incredible! Although I'm doing an intensive language course, I have a feeling that this is going to be a really challenging/great semester with her. The lady that I am staying with Chari and her 19 year old daughter Maria are wonderful! They have made me feel so at home which is wonderful! I will take pictures of Alicante in the next few days and try to keep this updated. I am going on day 7 without luggage...and without dryers, my clothes are starting to get stinky. ha ha

Finally!

After 48 crazy hours of travel, 1 ´tube´ride, a night in London, 2 cancelled flights...I am finally in Madrid.

And So The Adventure Begins...

It has been ten days since my first post and the time completely flew by. I didn't end up packing until two days before my departure, that was fun. I successfully packed five months worth of clothing and life into one bag. I had a difficult time deciding what items were the most important to bring, but I did it. It has definitely been hard to be excited for my trip beings I have had to say so many goodbyes...everyone keeps telling me that the five months will fly by, but I will miss a lot of people!

I flew out of Boise this morning at 10:45. Adam and Whitney took me to the airport. Both of my parents had to work and I figured that it'd be a lot easier to say goodbyes if there were only two tearful ones instead of four. I am now sitting in the Seattle airport listening to the birds chirp and fly by overhead. I always find it strange that there are birds in the airport. I am already missing people from home, but the time will fly and I will meet so many new friends and experience so much! I am excited, if only my flight weren't nine hours :

Seattle---London---Madrid, Spain here I come.

Adios :D