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!