Spain Week 1: Yo Hablo Espanol!

Happy one week in Spain to me! I can't believe it's only been a week. I've learned so much about the people here and about myself in the past week. Even my Spanish is getting better! Friday we went to El Parque De Retiro. It's basically a big Central Park. Oh my goodness it was so beautiful! Trees everywhere, people rollerblading and longboarding, even rollerblading lessons! Who knew?! And we saw the missionaries there! oh man that was great. One was from Orem and we could speak English and talk about things familiar. They were still in the MTC here, so I'm sure they were happy to talk to BYU students too. The park is filled with beautiful statues and monuments. I realize I probably shouldn't have climbed up on the statue, but it made for a great photo, eh?!

Then Sunday was my first day of church here. Talk about a wake up call! Actually this whole trip has been a wake up call. You know those people in America that are trying to learn English that say things like "Pick a color" or "You like?" or "You want flower?" That's totally me here in Spain! It's hard!!! haha So props to them for getting a job speaking English. I couldn't understand one bit of church.  It was freaking frustrating! Can't a girl just get some spiritual enlightenment around here?!

Then classes started Monday. First Spanish class.... 100 question test. Failed that one! But I am super excited about my classes. I'm learning so much Spanish, even just in the past two days. Seriously being here I've never been so stretched or so happy in my life. I'm in Spain! I'm living the life!

Spain Days 2 and 3: Getting to know the cities

TALK ABOUT LANGUAGE BARRIER!!! it's so hard for me to communicate with people here. Last night our host mom was trying to say we can use the blankets if we're cold or we can kick them off.... Somehow I got we can use the blankets if we're cold or if we don't want to hear her and husband getting it on! Me and my room mate, Ali, laughed our heads off. Also, everyone looks at me like I'm crazy. But I probably sound crazy!

Yesterday we took a tour of Alcala. it's very beautiful here, but the tour was frustrating because it was all in Spanish. The university is this beautiful old building. There are pelicans everywhere. Sometimes the city here makes me claustrophobic. The streets are tiny and the the buildings are tall and everywhere. I just need some wide open spaces! But I did find Coca Cola here yesterday... it's amazing! it's so strong and delicious and just what I need on a stressful day. I wonder if this means I have an addiction....

Anyway, and then today we took a tour of Madrid. I understand what people mean now by the cold bites at your ears. We had churros y chocolate for breakfast. Basically you dip unsugared churros in melted Hershey's bar! But it's delicious! ahhhhh.... HEAVEN! The mom told us she is going to start feeding us more because we are melting away. It's already so much food! and I'll admit at times I have to gag it down. I don't know how I'm going to get used to this Spanish food. But I know I will. We took the train in to Madrid and took a tour around. It's such a beautiful city. It's like-imagine Times Square in the 1500s. oh man I know I am going to love it here.

Spain Day 1: The Quaintest Little Town There is!

 After eighteen hours of flying, I finally made it! I left Monday morning at 7 a.m. and after all the tears and good byes, I was off. Saying good bye was a lot harder than I had anticipated, but I know it will make coming home all the more rewarding. I flew to Houston, Texas, where there were seriously the cutest little cowboys all over the airport. I was in heaven haha Then I flew to Newark, New Jersery.  I had a delay for that flight so I literally had to sprint to make it on time to my flight to Madrid. By the time I got there they had given my seat away, but said I could sit where ever there was a seat. I'm just glad I made it! Add another night of tossing and turning and a couple more movies and here I am! We met in a plaza in the middle of the city where our host families picked us up. It was a smack in the face to the fact that I can't speak Spanish. My room mate, Ali, only understands it and I can only speak it. We make a good pair! In the pictures, there is my room for the next three months, the view from the balcony out my room, the table where we all eat lunch, and even our very own dryer! I didn't do so good with the first meal. My host family is so nice, but I'm struggling with the food here! We had soup, bread, tortillas and steak for lunch. Which actually is noodles, an omelet and breaded beef. Already this trip has been interesting! I can't wait to fix my Spanish and learn to love the crazy food here!

Espana: Day -1

Soooo.... I'M GOING TO SPAIN IN THE MORNING!!!! Last Summer I decided I needed an adventure in my life. Why should boys be able to leave on missions and have these incredible two year experiences while girls just stay at home? I wanted to be able to have a growing experience myself. And I know I could go on a mission myself, and I still might. But that will be a later blog! Anyway, I looked up the different BYU programs and I found this one to fit me the best. People always ask me why I decided to go to Spain. In all honesty, I won't be getting any courses done for my major and it cost me quite a bit of money. But something about Spain has always drawn me in. It seems so real and homey to me. I think Italy, France or England would be great, but I also feel like they are so commercialized.
I'm excited to be able to experience life in Spain and refresh my Spanish. I took Spanish from 3-8 grade, but haven't kept up on it. Over in Spain, I'll be taking 2 Spanish language classes, Spanish Art and Architecture, Madrid walks, and the history of the church in Spain. Seriously... can I even count that as going to school?! It's going to be like a three month vacation! We all travel on the weekends and I have one week where I can go anywhere in Europe. I'm thinking maybe Rome, but I"m not quite sure. Anyway I'm super stoked for this trip! Keep up on my blog and experience the trip with me! Adios America, See ya in three months!

The Christmas card of all Christmas cards

This year, Capella, Emily and I decided we needed to make a room mate Christmas card. But knowing us, it couldn't be just a regular smile and say cheese photo. We decided to dress up as Santa, a reindeer and an elf and make our own photo backdrop in our apartment. We hung a black sheet, safety pinned snowflakes all over it, the works. These are some of the photos we came up with!

Disneyland on a whim

So it's a Wednesday night. Emily comes running in the living room and asks, "Wanna drive to Disneyland tomorow?!" Her family was all in California and had an extra room in their hotel. The normal response would be of course not.... I have school, homework and we haven't planned anything. And yet somehow "Heck yes I do!" was all that I could say. We go to school Thursday and get all packed up. We got a late start and didn't end up leaving until about five that night. Still too excited about the trip to realize our own stupidity, we drove all night and pulled into California around 3:30 in the morning. We woke up early to get a full day's worth of Disneyland the next day. We also made a pit stop at the local Walmart to buy the most obnoxious Disneyland shirts we could find. Gotta support our Disneyland!

It was so much fun, riding all of the rides and seeing all the sites. Then around four, Em gets a call saying she needs to be in Las Vegas the next morning for work. So we leave Disneyland around eleven and drive to Vegas in histerics, once again getting there around three. We were both exhausted; I seriously have no idea how we made it to Vegas without falling asleep! Saturday morning Emily went and taught her dance camp in Vegas and I drove the rest of the way back to Provo. Needless to say, in 48 hours we drove 20, and played in Disneyland for 13. Even through all of the tears and stress, this is one of my favorite memories of this semester and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

BEST HALLOWEEN YET!

Halloween this year was quite possibly THE funnest thing I've ever experienced. First, I should probably preface with a description of my room mate, Emily. She's kinda goof ball. Exactly why I love her. We have the exact same sense of humor and laugh and laugh and laugh. We think we're funny. So we had this brilliant idea to dress up like crazies and go to dance parties around Provo. We borrowed suits from my high school dance team, bought a couple of accessories at Gen-x and set off to our parties. I've never had so much fun dancing like a psycho! No one knew who we were, so naturally that gave us permission to dance however we wanted. Something about not being recognized dancing those insane, ugly, crazy dance moves made it all the more fun! Oh gosh, who knew Halloween could be so great!