Well hello there!
So i do apologize for the lack of updates. So i have a little bit over one week left in Malaga. Seriously?! I feel like i was in my room packing, blinked, and now i'm here typing to you. But just really tired all of a sudden. Then i remember, oh right! I didn't simply blink, i have experienced EUROPE within that blink! So the exhaustion and lack of english abilities do stem from somewhere.

So last weekend Amanda and I went to London and Venice. It was really fun and quite the experience and adventure being simply the two of us. It was great. So, we got to London and continued to develop our love for public transportation. We rode a train into the main part of the city, this was kinda neat too, it was like a classic passenger train where two seats face inward to the table and the two opposite seats. Like a booth in a resturant. Then we got to our stop and it was gently raining :) And slightly freezing. So we found the bus that we needed next, and were so excited that the stop was close to a vent from a nearby resturante. We slightly felt ghetto. Then we got on the bus. Woo! So we ask the driver if it's going to stop at our stop and his obvious love of tourists he just motioned behind him with his arm. So we were like sweet! He's going that way and we don't even have to pay! Then we heard his loving voice telling us that we need to get on the bus that's going the other direction. Oh. Welp, i surely felt like an idiot. So we crossed the street and continued our waiting. Then the bus came, and guess who was the driver? Yes, our favorite man. He kinda laughed when he saw us and jokingly told us to go the other way again. Ha. After the much longer than expected bus ride, we arrived at our cutsie little hotel. (not sarcastic, it was cute) It was also classic Europe, with the five flights of steep endless stairs. Then in our room was our bed, and shower. A random free-standing shower. It was great! Just sooo funny! We decided that the theme of our lives is that it's so great yet so ghetto. I mean it's Europe! It's London! But a shower snuggled up next to the bed? I love it.

The day started with an english breakfast. So for the cheapness of the hotel, it was actually pretty good. We made some friends from Poland. Side note, i think that's been my favorite random thing, meeting people from all over. Even in simple breakfast conversations, i feel like i've experienced so much! Ok, so then we again made our way back to the public transporation, but this time we lived it up London style! In the short amount of time we were there, we became pros at the metro, or underground. And off to Hyde Park we went! It was fun, they had "Winter Wonderland" It was exciting. I love Christmas. This was about the most of the Christmas festivites we saw in London though :/ I did slightly feel like SnowWhite some when all the creatures of the park decided to become friends with us. Seriously like 4-5 squirrels and then their pidgeon friends. That's when i broke off the friendship. We walked over to Wellington Arch and were being classic tourists taking pictures with it. We had a cute old man take a picture of us, and he was precious. He wasn't sure if it took, so we took it again, and he said, "If it didn't turn up, you can toss me in the bin!" So as we were mesmorized by his accent, we turned and all of a sudden the were all kinds of official-looking men on horses! And i'm amazed that we turned just in time, because we would have got run over! It was crazy! The day continued with the classics: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, red double decker buses, but my favorite place of all was where we spent the majority of the day, Westminster Abbey. Not only was it simply stunning, but it was jut nice to stop and breathe it in for a moment. We had an audio tour guide. We saw the exact spot where Princess Diana's funeral was. We made a friend who worked there who told us lots of stories about the history and other things he's seen. He pointed out to us in the middle of everything is a more off-limits to tours place, and you can see that they use it for storage. He pointed out specific chairs that are only used for the Queen and the Princes when they come there. It was so funny! So i've seen those fancy chairs! :) We ended up coming back that night and heard the evensong of the Westminster Abbey men and boys choir. Rather magical actually. The next day we went to The Tower of London. This was great too because i remember things from it. (In 4th grade i went to England and Paris with my family, how awesome right?) But that was some of my most vivid memories from that trip that i got to re-experience. It was almost surreal walking in the spots that i know i walked 10 years ago. We proceeded to continue to get the full London experience and freeze as we sat outside and ate some fish n-chips! So overall, London was super great. Nice to be able to see things that i remember, experience new things, and completely absorb it all in.

Now the cutest/coolest/strangest part of our journey is the fact that if you previously asked Amanda if there was anywhere she could go, she would reply London. If you asked me, the answer would be Venice. Which leads us to the next chapter of this adventure...

We got up nice and early and headed to our newly conquered metro. Then the plane to VENICE! Ah! :) I think i felt like a mere child on Christmas Eve, anxious heart, excited eyes, fighting with time to actually get there. On the plane, i recieved a nudge from manders to look out the window, and what did we see? Mountains! And not jsut any mountains, no that would be too simple. These were snow-enveloped mountains! These were the stinkin Swiss Alps. From the air. Wow. Up there on the most beautiful things God has created that i have ever seen. Then as the plane decended, i saw the water. I saw the islands. Really? I was landing in Italy!!! I was in Venice! Again, i wish there were accurate words to descirbe the glory in which i was seeing, i was feeling, i was anticipating. I think i felt like i was reading a fairytale where the Princess went to the most beautiful land of all. Except it was real! (insert shout of glee here) So then we proceeded to embark on the adventure of finding our hotel. It was weird when i booked it and simply stated that the request was recieved. So we went and there was no real reservation. Not really surprised. They did have one room with one bed for 75euro a night... No gracias. So then the movie-feeling continued. Arielle and Amanda went down the hotel-filled street, entering every new possibitity. No. No rooms. 250euro. No. Dog, then no. Inglese? No rooms. Giant stairway of possibilies? Looked a bit more promising. But then her smiled resasurred our hopes. Our new Italian friend proceeded to show us to a room, down the street a bit, down creeper alley, into the building, through erie old brick archway, and once again up the mountain of stairs! We got a bunkbed. It was so cozy and almost hilarious, but precious, available, and cheap. Whew. Sigh of relief. Without the burden of hunting down a place to stay, we hit the town! Got some classic margarita super thin-crusted pizza. So warm and marvelous! We simply walked around this picturesque town and just made our way into places we wanted to. It was very restful. The beauty of the lack of cars was the accompanied lack of noise. We walked to the nearest bridge and just breathed it in. Was this for real? Yes. :) We continued our journey towards Bascilica de San Marco. It was kinda fun reading the signs. On our way there, we realized having a simple slice of pizza just did not suffice. We stopped into a cute little shop. They are all over he place but this one was different. The lady who run the place was singing to her radio like no one was listening. It was beautiful. Her little place was quite small but lack of space didn't mean anything to her. That's just it, there was a lack of space for every inch had something occupying it. Row of loaves of bread, candies, cheeses, cookies sandwiches, pictures, flags, the back walls were filled with bottles, teas, and family pictures :) She got Amanda her pizza and i thought i was fine until i saw her make herself a sandwhich. Oh the freshness! She looked at me and saw my eyes and saw past the facade that i was "fine" Then i recieved the best turkey sandwhich ever! When asked which type of cheese i wanted, i was overwhelmed with the vast amounts of choices, a through her smile she suggested brie, "como mio!" (like mine) Precious! and delicious! :) i've never been a huge fan of brie, but it pretty much completed the excellence. Ha, are you about hungry yet? So we made our way to the other side of the island to San Marco. Wow again. It was so pretty. But by now it was dark and cold. Still great, got to experience real Italy in the real winter :) Next day, took a water bus to Murano, an island famous for its glass making. We landed upon a glass-making museum. They had a couple cute little shops there, the first one we went to happened to be the best and the least expensive. This island was even more quiet than the main part. It was nice and small. Neat. :) Then we returned to San Marco, and rode a Gondola!!! :) Yes, yes that happened :) Sadly, our Goldalier, Murcio, wore just a black beanie hat, not the classic hat. And no stripes. :/ Way to crush the stereotypes there bud! He was rather quiet, told us "to the left is this important place... CasaNova lived there... " He was cute. I asked him how one becomes a gondola man. "It takes a lot to become a gondalier" (i was gently corrected) His father did it, and his father did it. Amanda asked if he enjoys it, and he responded "Well... i've done it for 20 years..." So we had an non-sterotypical gondola man all around! I would probably be tired of it as well though, so i give him props for that and appreciated his honesty. I later enjoyed his lack of desire for small talk as we silently glided across the water. If i had to describe serenity to you, this would be it. The world stood still for a moment. Air. breathe. calm. see the mist. see the water part from the front of the cute looking boat. I wish i could have bottled up that moment. Too soon the people, the shouting kids, and reality returned, but it was so great. It was funny, every time we started to verbalize the fact that it was delightfully quiet, something would break the silence for us. We evenutally chose to stop and simply enjoy it. Then again, i blinked at we were at the end. But it was lovely. :) Finished off the night with more gentle strolls through the land of magic. I guess if being arm in arm quickly walking to attempt to avoid the cold counts as a gentle stroll... :) But we didn't let the cold stop us! It was so neat to not have an agenda and go into whatever shop we felt, see whatever random cathedral we wanted and just enjoy the short amount of time we had there. (i think i'm still smiling...) To top off the night and the adventure, we went big! And by the way, my mindset in Spain/this semester has been "Go big or go home!" And well, since i'm doing the latter soon, why not revel in the first? So we enjoyed some classic, Italian, PASTA! Yippee!!! :) And this time stereotypes did not fail. It was soooooo delicioso! Oh my. Yep. So simple, yet so mouthwatering. Mmmm. And all i got was spaghetti :)

The next morning was a bit sadder as we said goodbye to our new found friend some call Venezia. This day consisted of traveling. Bus to the airport. Plane to Madrid. Bus to Malaga. Walk home. Looong day. In Madrid, we met up with some friends who are studying in Salamanca. We cut it nice and close to the time we needed to get onto the bus. As we approached the station, and realized we weren'treally sure where we were going. The 10-mintue mark occured! Ah! We asked a lady who told us where to go but looked like we were crazy, es muy pronto!! So we ran. Nothing more ostentatious than two American girls running through the bus station with their bags. It was funny, right until we hit the people-packed escalator. I let out an irritated "Por favor!!" And to my surprise, people turned around and moved some. Oh. right, i was back in a Spanish-speaking country. I felt kinda bad for being kinda rude, but yet felt awesome that i verbalized my irriation in Spanish. :) The epic 6 hour bus ride home wasn't as terrible as anticipated. They played a movie for us... Air Bud. Ah ha ha! I just thought it was hilarious! It was neat to have breakfast in Venice, lunch in Madrid w friends, then finish it up with dinner in Malaga!

So, overall, that was my simple weekend in London/Venice. No big deal really...

Morocco/Granada

Hello friends! So fret not, for i am still alive! :) it's just been a little while, but that's ok. So a lot has happened (i know you're surprised) in these last couple of weeks, so i'll do my best to re-tell :)

Now i really wish that there were words that could really describe my trip to Morocco. I mean it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the pictures suck and don't portray anything! But it really was just so wonderful. It was oddly like a little vacation, yet not at all. We were on the bus a lot (a lotttttt) but it was completely worth it all. We went through ISA along with many other isa groups. There was like 150 of us, mas o menos (more or less:) ) so several bus fulls later, we arrived in Morocco. Malaga was conveniently the closest stop; we enjoyed reminded the other kids that :) But so we traveled down to the ferry which carried across the sea... to Spain. It was weird. Spain owns the super tip tip of Mo (my new short version of Morocco) so then we drove to the Mo boarder. As we were there, we had to stay on the bus and not take pictures of anything, because they could come and freak out and steal our cameras! No thank you. A Mo man came on the bus and had this little thing in his hand which resembled a hand gun. Ok. Then it had a laser. Alright... Then he pointed it at every students forhead! He walked to each of us with a stern look and said nothing. Then it beeped at about every kid, and he got off. What in the world was that?! Later discovered it was to take our temperatures and make sure we weren't bringing swine flu into their country. Wow. That was an experience. And i forgot, it had a little mirror thing, so i saw my reflection of this laser pointed at the middle of my forehead. Not so settling. But so then we got there and everything was good :) I'm sorry this is going to be so short and simply factual, but it's better than nothing ya? We went on this tour-esque thing in Fes, Mo which ended up being one of the longest days ever. We saw, felt, smelt, tasted, breathed, and simply experienced Mo to it's fullest. We saw all the touristy things, ate real Mo food (lots of bread-similar to flat bread- cous cous, chicken, yellowy rice w raisins, and more) Recieved lots of sale pitches for carpets (which i did not cave and get one! woo!) Had "Mo whiskey" which is just mint tea, super good. Saw where they die their clothing/leather, in giant things that they stand in. The smell was terrible, so they gave us fresh mint to hold to our noses. ALso fun :) We got to see where they made scarves and other things of the like (and yes... i did cave and get one of those) but then a man decided that brittany should look at stuff upstiars... Ok, so she just looked at me like please come with me! Ha, it was not sketch in the end, but seemed so. We just happened to be the first. A sales guy took our hands and let us try on fancy dresses. I felt like Jasmine. Not gonna lie. We also saw where they made some ceramics and painted them and such. (no caving!) That night we went to a legit Mo belly dance. It was fun, a little different but still fun :) There was a cute little band that played their drums and a man had some like ancient scissors and banged on them! They sounded really cool actually :) One girl was ok, but the other was just dang impressive! Seriously? How do you move your hips like that? ha, her hips didn't lie. Next day we went to the desert, by far my absolute favorite part. Here is where the meanings of the words don't describe it well at all. We got to ride in 4x4s (also known as suvs or jeeps) In mine was Meredith, Amanda, Brittany, Alicia, Kim and I (all good friends from Malaga) It was SOOOO fun! ANd we ended up having a little sing-a-long time.. which ended up being a bring back the 90s classics, a reminescene of our childhood. So fun :) But our poor little Mo driver... Ha. Then we made it. To the desert. THE FREAKING SAHARA DESERT!!!!!! Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brittany and i frolicked around like mere children :) :) Then we all had a little ohmygoshfeelthisrealsaharasand party :) Next morning, got up, watched the sun rise. In the sahara desert. Soo gorgeous. That God of ours is pretty creative with his colors. :) A burbur ended up taking Meredith, Brittany, Amanda and I out really really far. It was so cool. He was so nice. He wrote our names in Arabic in the sand, took us "burbur sledding" aka pulled us down the dune by our feet. Later, towards the end of our voyage back to camp, we realized why he had been so nice. With all his little trinkets and necklaces laid out, i thought Really? You had to pull that? Ugh. Ok... I guess that is their major why of getting money. Suckering tourists. A couple of us got stuff. Later in the day, once the sleep was almost gone from our eyes, we rode camels!!!!!! Yes, again, into the abyss of the sahara desert :) It was rather surreal :) Kim was my camel buddy. I tied a turbon on my head while we were riding (no hands!!) it was sick :) Then we stopped at the base of the dune of doom. And yes we all hiked it! Ah! A burbur practically pulled me up there, but it was so worth it. (really, he held my hand and helped me up, and didn't try to sell to me!) But later i learned that we could see Alergia in the distance. Sick right? I wish i would have grasped that then though :) that's ok. Then the rest of the day was kinda a free time. That night we had the best stinking dance party of our lives!!! It never ended! It was so great! There was an African band singing and playing on their drums. Senor happy (this burbur that seriously was so full of joy every time we saw him, no matter the time of day) was there and just made it so fun. We danced the night away! I enjoyed learning African dances :) They were so goofy. It was just so lovely. Then it settled down some because we had to eat, but the music continued, and you know us, the party never stops! Ha. So sitting there at our little table us Malaga girls and a couple other new friends started just kinda messing around passing a "ball" with awesome dance moves, which soon evolved into a intense dance off. Ha. It lasted so long too! It was great! This alleged "ball" became so many different things. It was great to see people's on-the-spot creativity. The end of it, it became a pizza, that we all ate... Then i brought back to life, by um, bringing back up (heck ya i danced and made throwing up look good!) and then the glorious game ended by us all avoiding the now super gross throw-up ball. It was sooo fun! The next day a friend asked me what we were playing because it looked so fun and cool. Ha, i didn't realize that we had so much attention, but i guess it makes sense. :) We slept in haibas, like tents. Really they were like thick blankets put up by some wood. It was so epic falling asleep, seeing the bright moon through the roof :) but it got coooold. But so before the giant dance party we hung out on the dunes. So i got to actually see some locals :) One was super awesoem and became best friends with Brittany and I. His name was Said. (sigh-eed). The smartest, sweetest burbur man i've ever met. He was different. You could tell he just loved life and wanted to learn. He taught us little games in the sand, and like mind-teasers. His english wasn't perfect, but he has learned it simply by listening to stories. It was kinda fun talking to some of the burburs, because the only language we had in common was spanish, hooray for practicing! Most spoke Arabic, Burbur, Spanish, English and French. No big. The next day bus ride was kinda weird. I knew we were going to reality, but then realized what my reality is. These people i just met have never left the desert. And i was returning to Spain, like for more adventures. I jsut felt so insanely blessed. It was a moment of "really? I'm doing this now? wow. " Then, we stopped on the side of the road for lunch (bread, cheese, bottled water, fruit) and kids on our trip complained up the wazoo! It's too hot, too long, bus ride, just this to eat??, etc. But there was this little family. The smile on this little boy's face seriously could have lit up New York. soo precious. I just thought, these people don't even have the luxoury to complain... Wow. Then, little smiler's brother broke my heart even more. As i stood there in the security of my TOMS shoes (btw, if you are not aware, TOMS is an amazing organization which donates a pair of shoes to a child in need. So for every pair you purchase, they'll give a pair, one for one.) i saw him running around barefoot amongst the dirt, rocks, broken glass. I felt so helpful an so helpless at the same time. There was also a man walking by with his mule, who had a broken leg, in a little sling. I saw a sad little limping mule. It was so sad! So i hope you caught a little glimpse of why this was more of a moving trip for me. So much more than a casual trip to Mo. :) Also, side note, lots of friendships happened on this trip. It was glorious. That's all. :)

In continuation of the updates, this last weekend we went to Granada. Ah!!! Loved it. It was cool, being there (i had thought about studying there instead) but it was great to see, but i don't think that i personally would want to live there. Malaga is more my style ;) We got to adventure, have tapas, kabas, see fancy pants places. Like Capilla Real where Fernando y Isabel are burried, so yes, i've seen the graves of the people that allowed a man to come and discover my beloved country. That's pretty cool. :) Also, i'm in this history of arte class, and we've talked a lot about the architecture of buildings, so it was cool to actually see lots of it. I felt so nerdy though :) We got some good shopping in, i got Aladdin pants! So there is a lot of Mo shops there (ah ha ha and you thought you were done w the Mo stories!!) but it was so fun. Then that day we had a little dance party in the hotel in our awesome pants :) Shakira happened to be on tv... so we took advantage of that! Ha :) so fun. For siesta, Kristin, Brittany, Amanda and I had a giant snuggle party :) :) it was great. I woke up insanely confused, it was so funny. I was expecting to be in my bed at home (maybe i had a dream??) then remembered i was in Spain, got it. malaga. room, not malaga. confusion continued. it was great. well, not in the moment. Anyways, we had a lot of fun. :) Iker and Heidi (our directors) had a little surprise for us, and wouldn't tell us at all. :) I loved it. :) it was cute. We walked around Granada at night and climbed up the cobblestone streets to see "El Mirador" also known as a super awesome view of La Alambra. Then we went and saw some Flamenco!!! It was really neat. :) It wasn't exactly what i thought it would be like. I guess i didn't really know what it would be like. Their voices just are so mesmorizing. I really wish i could sing like that. How do they not kill their voices? I recommend youtubing some Flamenco if you're not familiar w the sounds i'm talking about. Camaron is super super famous. You should have some luck finding that. (that's not who we saw, he died, but just captures the essence) We also went and saw La Alambra, made by Arabs (i really had to think past the word "Musulmanes") :) but it has lots o pretty gardens :) We were there for 3hours, which just skims it.

So one-words to summarize both trips, Morocco: moving Granda: FUN!

Thanks for keeping up with my thoughts :) Hope you enjoyed, see you soon!

Luegos!

Five fast facts

So i went to Morrocco this "weekend" (in quotes because it was rather long...) So more info to come, but 5 fast facts for you...

1. I'm in love! With the world and how huge it is. And really just in awe of it all.
2. God is soooo huge and ridiclous and completely in Morrocco and just plain great. :)
3. I've discovered there is immense truth in the quote "The more places i go, the less i know"
4. I feel so insanely blessed! I met people in the desert (yes, the Sahara desert) that have never left the desert. That would be like me never leaving Arvada... which i have many many times. Example, i returned to SPAIN from Morrocco. And this isn't even my first time in Europe... I'm a lucky lucky girl.
5. I chose five facts really for alliteration purposes and now think that "four" works just as well....

♥

New blob :)

Well hello there!

So, I'm not feeling my best, so i apologize for the lameness of this in advance. But i'm trying! :) But so this weekend... I got sick like thurs? fri? Not sure. I know friday for sure i did not feel well. AT ALL! I came home and zonked! Woke up and was soo weak. I had a bit of a fever too. Teresa (my host mom) made me take some ibprophen (sp) and gave me a cool wash cloth, and wouldn't let me wear my sweats to bed, "demasiado calor!" But it was cute seeing her make sure i was taken care of :) I felt loved. But so then saturday i felt lots better. Still not great, but good enough... to go hiking :) I still went at my own pace, so don't fret, but it was soooo great! And i'm SO glad that i went! We went to El Torcal, which is about an hour drive away. It wasn't a terrible hike at all. Just a nice stroll in the rocks :) So pretty! Ah! It made me feel at home a little bit, not gonna lie. Adam and Christina (who are also from CO) reminsced w me a little bit. It was fun. But so we went on a hike w a tour guide and took pictures here and there. But by far, my favorite part was our free time. We had an hour to eat and Adam had the idea of hiking a little further to where he believed would be a nice view. So we went for the adventure! It was kinda fun because Adam didn't really know where he was going, but still went for it with all his heart. Kristin was feeling a little hesitant and kept questioning, Kate and I were just fine with the adventure. But all of us became rather breathless when we made it... Seriously, i wish there were words that i could insert here to describe to you. Even the pictures don't do justice at all for the majesty which preceeded us. Seriously, God enjoys showing his majesty. It was just soooo marvelous. And we got to enjoy our lunch there :) Then, to top all that off. Adam thinks he sees Africa. Crazy right?! Now i was the skeptic. Then some Spanish locals walk by and point to the same mountains in the far distance between the clouds and say, "Alli esta Marruecos..." (there is Morrocco) ya, no big deal. I saw Africa from the top of a mountain. Ah! :D In the picture i put here, Africa is in the left. Doesn't really show it so well here. But omg, soooo amazin :)

So to continue with the weekend adventure, sunday we went to the beach (yes, the beach in the end of october) and... buildt a sandcastle!!! :) It was so fun :) Kristin and Brittany helped me. Amanda helped in spirit :) ha, it was pretty great. Then that night Amanda and I went to a English Cineforum. She met this very sweet boy in her intercambio (language exchange) and he was having a english movie party, so help them improve their english, so we went to help even further! :) It was great! And just so precious! We watched Wall-e. Probably not the most vocal of movies, but still fun :) Juan Antonio was so prepared and cam up with games, and questions in english, and had signs up that you'd be kicked out for speaking spanish :) We're going to do something here soon to help our Spanish. He is just a very thoughtful person. Really just the whole night was precious. Kyle, Kate, Amanda and I were the American kids, and we all finally didnt feel intimidated for once. When we did speak spanish with them, we felt more comfortable, becasue we know they know our pain :) ha. But it was so much fun still :) And it was neat simply riding in a car to their flat. Besides a casual taxi here or there, i haven't been in a car since home. Sorta weird. I miss Jack. But so then i started feeling sicky again; just really tired. So monday (yesterday) i couldn't really see out of my right eye. It felt like it was going to explode!! Teresa put some eye drops in it for me :) then i slept... allll afternoon. Twas lovely :) Today i feel better, but still not 100% So if you'd like, you could pray that i'll feel better before my next voyage to Morrocco, which is this friday. Thanks! I'm pretty sure you're caught up to speed now :) Hasta luego! <3

I made a blog!

Well hello there!!

So I am studying abroad this semester in Malaga, Spain. Since i'm almost a month into it now, most of you know this, but it's the beginning of a blog, so why not just explain it all?? So i have recently decided that writing this would be a good idea, seeming that 1. i enjoy writing, 2. i'm in Spain, and 3rdly it just makes it so much easier to write it here all the adventures, because i tend to forget who i told what to. I apologize that i am just now starting this. It probably would have been a good idea the whole time, but better late than never ya? I still will post pictures on facebook, but as we know, i tend to take an over abundance, which results in being overwhelmed w soo many! Translation: I'm still going to post pictures, but with also do this. :) With all that said... Welcome to the lovely world of Arielle's adventures :)

Disclamer: I'm speaking spanish up the wazoo... and my english skills have been lacking lately. So if there are mistakes and whatnot, i'm sorry.

Other disclamer: I tend to write my thoughts... This will prob result in very random fragments, and usually very long posts about things that probably didn't deserve so much explanation (yes, kinda like this) but it's me, and well, i just hope you enjoy it :)

So we went to Ireland this weekend, which possibly was one of the most amazing weekends of my life! Sooooo lovely! Omgoodness! I really wish that i could describe it to you fully and in great detail, but it's Ireland. Ah! Ya, i'm in love. We got there (Kirsten and I... Amanda had an earlier flight) and couldn't really find the hostel, and walked around quite frustrated, no joke, for an hour and a half! And yes, it was right there. But, for the record, was super hidden amdist the pub it was right next to. It was super neat and cute. The people there were great. So i give it 2 thumbs up, especially for my first hostel experience. On saturday we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Dublin. So great! We got to do the cutsie tourist stuff and see places, yet enjoy the ones that we wanted to. We spent a lot of time at Kilmanham Gaol (a jail). It was really neat, yet extremely sad. Our tour bus driver was really funny, so we decided to stay on again.. It was so great! We learned a lot of random facts about the city. Like there is a giant monument thing, and no one really knows why it's there. Really.

But it's still neat, no? :) What else... Ok so same driver. (btw, the driver spoke into a microphone so we had live commentary) After we passed the Guiness Storehouse (where they make it and you can take tours) the driver pretended that he went on the tour too, and that he was drunk! He was hiccupping, and then we went down a road (correctly down a one way) and he swerved alllll over the place! We were sitting on the top (of the double decker!) and in the front, so we had full view of the buildings coming towards us! It was soo crazy! I haven't laughed that hard in so long. And i laugh a lot, so that's saying something ;) :) But it was so fun. That night we were kinda exausted so we just kinda laid low, ended up going to a close resturant, whcih was Italian in Ireland.... :/ but for lunch we did have some delicious real irish food, don't worry! I had a bacon buttie (yes, a butt-y) pretty much a delicious sandwich. Ummm, sunday was excellent! Def my fav part! We went to the countryside!!! Sooo many shades of green! Oh it was glorious :) we got to see parts of where P.S. I love you and Braveheart were filmed. We went on a baby hike up to a breath-taking lake. The water, mixed with the hills and the wind.... Amazin. Yep. Then that night we ran into some new friends from our hostel and went to Porterhouse Brewery (a local pub) we made a friend with an Irish boy, who ended up spending pretty much the rest of the night with us. He works there, just wasn't at the time. It was kinda funny, a girl kept convinceing him to bring new samples, new shots... It was funny, but kinda sad seeing precious little drunk Irish man falling into the traps. He was a total sweetheart though. But ended up having a crush on me.... and told me so. Ha, i gently mentioned "my boyfriend..." and he later told me that he really appreciated that. We had semi real life chat, and i barely knew him! Overall the Irish people were just soo sweet! Monday we went to a wax museum. Not my favoritte, started out neat, but then the coolness factor greatly decreased. still fun though :)

Ok so i feel like i should mention a bit about Spain while i start to wrap this up... I mean I do live here now and all... :) It was interesting getting re-adjusted to Spanish culture. In Ireland boys were sweet and respectful. Here you recieve cat calls, whistles, dark barks, "Ay! Que guapa!", and others allllll the time. No joke, every time we walk anywhere every guy checks us out and we get at least one "que pasa..." or "guapa." Not so flattering. Guapa means like good looking btw. Amanda (my lovely roomie) and i were talking about how when we return home, we're gonna not feel so pretty since we won't be constantly told that we are... hahahaha. It's really not that great. But it was so funny because we just had gotten off a plane, then to the train, then to the 40min walk home... We did not look pretty! And EVERY guy made some comment! I just thought it was hilarious :)

I have 4 classes, all in the same room, all with students from ISA. Two differnet teachers who switch off. They are Antonio and Cristina. They are great! They speak really clearly, and have patience for when we just don't get it. I enjoy them both :)

Update of today! We went and played soccer with a couple local guys (Yes, I played soccer). But it was soooo fun! I decided to accept the fact that i had no idea what i was doing, but go for it, and that is what i did! It was so great! Seriously, anyone that knows me, if you saw that you would have been so proud :) i mean, i wasn't afraid of the ball, and was rahter aggressive. :) And we won! That was a nice perk :)

But love you all, and i hope you enjoyed this :) hasta luego!