Mar 13th – Day of Missing the Plane

So today I am so stoked to be going to Rome with my friend Amanda who is from Auburn and in my arte class. She’s really cool and the two of us together work really well. So I’m happy to be traveling with her and am excited for a great spring break. I can barely concentrate in my classes and before I knew it, they were over. I booked it to my host home, where Ana made me a sandwich to go and wished me a good trip as I ran down the street to catch the bus with my suitcase. I met up with Amanda at the bus station and told her we can take the buses there since I took them when I went to Prague with Rachel and it was easy and fast. We got to the area where we connect for our bus to take us to the airport but it took 20 to 30 mins to get there. Then we were going to the airport and thought it was going to take us straight to terminal one, but it only goes up to terminal two and then you have to trek it to one. We didn’t know this until the bus went back on the highway toward where we waited for the bus!! Oh no, we asked if there was a bus that went to that terminal and the driver said yes, the one across the street. I ran as fast as I could with my suitcase and told Amanda to catch the bus. Good thing she did, because it would’ve left. The bus driver was threatening to leave but Amanda straddled the door and the street as I ran up. We finally got to the airport and the Ryanair check in was miles long and they only had one open booth to check in all of their flights everywhere!! It was 15 mins until our flight and then they close the flight if you aren’t there by that time. We missed our flight…I was crushed, and I felt horribly guilty because I suggested that we take the bus. How stupid of me! I apologized profusely to Amanda and we went outside where I called Dad sobbing on the phone because I didn’t know what to do and I felt so bad. He told me it was okay and it happens. Not to worry, we can look for another flight and he would check online right now to see when the next flight out leaves. After Amanda pretty much did the same with her dad on the phone, she told me it was okay. She wasn’t mad at me, and it was just as much her fault as it was mine. I didn’t know they would be late and much of the time in Spain things work out by chance. She knew of another way, and should have said something so not to feel bad because she knew of another way just as much as I did, or thought I did. She was being so nice which helped make me feel better but I still felt guilty. Dad found a good flight leaving first thing the next morning and booked both our flights. Amanda called her host mom who had a friend that drives cabs to pick us up tomorrow morning and he may give a discount. Not to worry, we were still going and had only missed being there the first night. We would make up for it. We took the train back to Alcala, I took my bus to my host home and told Ana what happened. She said she was sorry but heard on the news there was a short clip about how today all the buses are being called in during certain times for training sessions. They are spread out throughout the day and the buses in Madrid would be running late during the exact times we needed them. Figures. I guess it is as Amanda said, Spain is sometimes run by chance. Maybe this wasn’t ours but tomorrow was going to be. I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

Mar 12th – Day of Sushi

So Olivia has decided that I am her go to person for shopping and wants my help with getting new close and wanted to go to the mall today. Of course I’d never say no to shopping, even if it wasn’t me getting anything. Plus I needed to get some shampoo so sure, I’ll come! Olivia, according to her, has lost a lot of weight before she came here and wants to keep it off because she really likes her size now (which she does look really healthy now) but now a lot of her clothes don’t fit. Plus, she doesn’t know what to look for that will look good on her now that she’s in her new body type. So, turning into a mini-mom, I pull clothes left and right for her to try on, give my opinion and help her decide what to get. She’s pretty happy with what all she’s gotten and thanked me for coming. No problem. After I grabbed my shampoo, we took the bus back and I went to my host home. When I walked in I had thought I was late for dinner and came in the kitchen about to apologize when I found my host family waiting for me. My place at the table was set up and I saw a bamboo mat for forming sushi on the counter and a huge plate of sushi rolls in the center of the table!! Oh yea!! They were huge and they were your standard salmon, rice and seaweed rolls. I started to drool until she then put my own plate in front of me with 8 or 10 pieces on the plate. I thought I might hypervenalate. Oh my gosh, this was awesome and I pretty much inhaled them! Pepe asked if I was hungry which I said yes and he laughed saying I must have been really, really hungry. To which I replied, after eating another roll, that sushi is my favorite food above everything. Ana chimed in, “more than pasta?!” and I said yes. Their shocked faces were hilarious I think because they couldn’t believe I loved a food group more than pasta and also because if I eat the massive amount of pasta that I do, how much sushi do it eat!! Which the answer to that question, if you are anyone who has taken me to eat sushi you know this fact that, I have an unlimited capacity for sushi. I don’t ever get full, maybe for the temporary 30 minutes and then I can keep eating more and more. Yes, I know, I’m an expensive sushi date and it doesn’t help that I eat them like candy. But they are so good!! I can’t help it. After I finished my plate, Pepe said that he was full and I could eat the rest, which there were 8 more rolls left!! Oh yea! As I stuffed my mouth with more sushi, Pepe told me that Ana made the sushi. Which I looked at her and she said yes, as if she just woke up today and decided to make sushi, just like that. I swear she pulls magic tricks from a hat, I never know what all she has tried of knows. But she did laugh at me because it took so long for me to be convinced that she made it.

Mar 11th – Day of Book Swapping

Today in my classes not much happened except for I met up with my friend Shannon from Arizona to make a book swap. She was saying the other week, how she has read all of her books that she brought and asked if I had any. I told her I had a great one she should read called Marley and Me, which when my friends overheard, they chimed in saying it was so great. So then she would bring a good book for me to read. The book that she brought is called Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and is about a woman who has been through a terribly painful and horrific divorce followed by an immediate heartbreak with a new love. She decides that the only way to try to piece back together her already broken soul and find herself again is to travel for four months each in three countries; Italy, India and Indonesia. When my friends heard that she brought it for me chimed in again saying it was awesome. Funny. I was eager to read it and thought it would probably be good to bring to Rome this weekend. Later in my spring break, side note, mom told me that it was supposed to be a great book that has gotten a lot of street credit. Obviously she didn’t say it like that, but that’s how I would say it. J

Mar 10th – Day of the Strange Movie

Still on a high from the great weekend and anticipation of my fantastic Spring Break coming, concentrating in class was difficult until…we finally got our midterms back in civ. I was most nervous about this one since it was the hardest and I felt like I guessed on the majority of it. Olvido started talking about how we overall did pretty good, but not great. And I asked “Is it bad?” and she stopped, turned to me and said “actually, you did perfect”…what?! I don’t understand. She said, no there were only two people in between her class and Carlos’ class for this class that did perfect and I was the one in her class. I looked at her dumbfounded and said “Are you serious? Is this a joke?” and she said “No!” my friends laughed at me because I still didn’t believe her. And she said that she was serious and she was surprised too because I’m always joking in class and have my laptop but I must have studied hard because she thought I would do well but not perfect. Kary, Olivia and Elise turned around and gave me the I hate you look. Geez, I’m still stunned…I even look through my exam for notes or anything. Not one, all complete marks with a 100 and a smiley face at the end. Awesome! Then in my film class we watched a movie called the Bad Education; which is a movie by the same director that did Volver. It has to be one of the darkest movies other than Miracle Alley (which btw there was no miracle to be found in that movie at all) and I’ve seen quite a random assortment of foreign films from several countries. It was about a homosexual man who owns a film company and the man that was his first love comes in with a script about his life (the man, not the company owner). The man he is in love with has had a very dark life where as a boy he was an altar boy and the priest would molest him and make him have sex. I also think he was castrated because he was the highest soprano in the choir…the translation was a little strange. And in boarding school is where he met the film company owner. They were each other’s first love until the priest caught them in the bathroom together. The boy was kicked out of the school and not castrated if he promised to the priest that nothing happened and he was still faithful to him. Then it fast forwards to when he is working as a burlesque drag queen and uses all his money for coke. That’s where he, without knowing until later, meets his school love again and gets him drunk until he passes out and rapes him. Then finding out it was his school love, the film company owner, leaves love letters. The company owner decides to do the film and wants to rekindle with his old love but he has no interest, he just wants to make money for drugs. Well then it turns out that it’s the twin brother that gave the script of his twin’s life and led the company owner on. The money was to get away and to make it big in films and not for drugs for his brother. He killed his brother by giving him an overdose of heroine and tried to cover it up until the owner found out. The priest from their childhood came to the company owner and told him what happened and how they killed his love because they were getting tired of him and were falling in love. So the owner threw the brother out and that’s pretty much the synopsis of the movie. At the end of it, the entire class was just flabbergasted…not because of issues with homosexuality (thank goodness because I was worried about my friends being more conservative than they realized) but because the movie was just so out there and dark. That’s when Grant said “man, I feel great about life after the mood that movie put me in!” which made the class burst into laughter. Good thing. After class, I went back to my host home, ate dinner, and worked on figuring out what to pack for Rome this weekend.

Mar 9th – Day of Waste

By time I got to my host home it was 7:30am, so you can imagine that I pretty much slept the entire day and I didn’t wake up until 5:30pm. literally. Well, Adrian was not happy that his playmate wasn’t up earlier to play and that she was so groggy when she did wake. Old people are no fun! Haha. After watching some cartoons with him for a few hours, I went back to my room to lounge and sleep more. What, I was tired! And I don’t think my body has ached so bad from dancing so hard. I think I danced to my heart’s complete content and as if there were no tomorrow or no such thing as dancing the next day. I don’t think I’ve ever danced my little heart out so much like I did at Kapitol…maybe I really did celebrate not only my birthday during this great adventure I’m having but also my new found self.

Mar 8th – Day of Going to Madrid

I woke up to Rachel calling me to see if I was still up for going to Madrid today after my Soria trip. Of course I was, it was just a little weird but I was perfectly okay to explore Madrid like we planned. The main reason, as bad as it sounds, for us going to Madrid for the day was because I was running out of some of my Aveda products and found out there is one main Aveda in Spain…in Madrid. Thank goodness I don’t live in Barcelona or I’d really be in trouble! So I looked it up earlier in the week and it looked pretty easy to find, so I asked Rach to come with. We met up at the train station in Alcala to take the Renfe (the name of the trains in Spain) into the center of Madrid. The train is pretty easy to take and it takes you directly to the metro station in Madrid so it’s the best bet. Chatting away on the train and people watching we became fascinated with the interesting fashion that is slowly creeping into Spain. Remember the 90s where acid-wash jeans were cool and elastic was on everything? Okay well imagine those jeans with bunchy elastic at the ankles, so they are poofy in the legs and tight at the ankles. It has to be of the grossest fashion trends I’ve ever seen and I’m embarrassed for Spain, it’s that bad. Oh and the mullet is cool here too…don’t ask me why, it makes me twitch just the thought of it. Gross! Of all the things to translate over the ocean from the states, why mullets?! Can someone please answer this horrible riddle! Lol. Any who, we get to our stop on the train, buy our metro pass and get on the metro to a stop called Velazquez. Once we get off, the weather was sublimely warm and the sun wasn’t too hot. Good thing I didn’t need a jacket like I had thought I would! We walked up the street and the area of town we were in was definitely more posh. But it was gorgeous and filled with little boutiques, hair salons, cafes and adorable little Spanish restaurants where the most gorgeous and stylish of people were casually lounging outside at the tables sipping their coffees. I especially liked this area because there is a lot more space for cute little trees and flowers since it’s away from the center of the city. This means that there are also (bonus!) less people, which was so nice! It made it so that we could leisurely walk around the area and meander toward the Aveda store without shoving through people to walk directly there and back. Rach was noticing it too and it made us that much happier with the day. We walked over to the main street that the Aveda store was on and decided we would check out the stores around the area before going to the salon. Cute shoe stores, crazy boutiques and stores where the designers had started out with one theme of things and randomly branched out. Example, there was a store we went into thinking it has cute bags and dresses because that was what was in the windows, but on the inside it was a store of home accessories. But they were funky, modern-art accessories and appliances. And when I say appliances, I mean cute things that look like appliances but can’t be actually used. Funny. It was a cute store but we could tell that the designer started out with the appliances and then got distracted with wanting to make a couple of bags and tops. After an hour and a half of wandering, we decided that we ought to go to the place we came for. So I broke out my notebook with the drawn map given by Aveda online as well as the street name of their address and number. We wandered on the street the website map said it was at, but it was no where to be found. Aveda wouldn’t pull a mean trick like this on me, we’d had such a great relationship before! Hmm, then we decided that we’d try looking for it by the building number and the number on this street was an apartment building. Something’s not quite right. So we stopped in a Mexican (yes, literally) store that had cute knick-knacks, décor, Mexican dresses and such. I asked where the street of the Aveda’s address was and the store owner gladly told us it was just a few blocks up the way. Oh, thank goodness! I thought I for a second that I may never see Aveda…good thing we were just on the wrong street. So Rach and I started walking up the street through the quite little neighborhoods which we could tell that the price to live in this neighborhood would break your back. But it was cute none-the-less. The walk didn’t feel that long because we were suddenly on the street and to the left was Aveda! Yay! I walked in, and I’m sure I looked strange to Rach and the other people working at Aveda, taking in all the smells of the wonderful Aveda products and I immediately felt like I was back in Tulsa for a minute. Instantly, a woman came up and asked us if we needed anything (which I said no, since I always know what I’m looking for) and then offered us something to drink. Tea please. Ahh, just like home. The tea smelled kind of woodsy but tasted sweet and filling. I found my products paid and said bye to the girl at the counter. She said, see you later. Which a, she’s probably right but b, see you later is what they all say here in stores and restaurants. I think it’s nice actually and welcoming instead of wishing someone a great day. I’m not sure why. After completing our voyage, Rach and I decided to wander a bit more over to the main park in Madrid, Parque Retiro (there are more parks in Madrid, but this is the one to see). Several people were walking their eager dogs across the street toward the park and I was so excited to see so many big dogs! This is where they must be hiding! Oh and in case you didn’t know, Mickey and Minnie Mouse hang out at the park. Literally. They were walking around making balloon animals and when I took a picture of them, they waved their balloons at me. Everything in the park was in bloom; the trees, the flowers, even the street performers, haha. This park is the biggest in Madrid and goes for several miles through beautiful fountains, miniature forests and even has a lake in the center of the park. Even though we didn’t try it this time, you can rent little row boats in the lake and Rachel had an instant light bulb moment. We wanted to come back here during the middle of the day (siesta time) and bring a little picnic lunch and go rowing! At this point, we caught eye of Winnie the Pooh who decided to come hang out at the park. It was so nice and relaxing, it was hard to believe that this was in this crazy, packed, lively city that is Madrid. After we left the park, we needed to go to the center to get some postcards, and we were prepared for the crowds. Spain is constantly slammed with tourists especially in Barcelona and Madrid. But as we were coming up the stairs out of the metro stop Sol, we hear a band going crazy just outside, and I turned to Rachel and said “Do you think they knew we were coming?” she laughed and then I came out and said “we’re here!”. Haha. The band was playing ‘Tutti Fruity’ and the crowd was loving it. We were too and they broke in the song to start dancing with their instruments one at a time. It was awesome! We walked up the streets and there were tons of people everywhere, it was crazy! Finally we found our postcard shop, picked some out and lef the store to head back to the metro stop. We needed to get back since we were to get all dolled up tonight to go to the infamous El Kapitol discothèque in Madrid. Olivia was to meet us when we arrived at the train station in Alcala to come over to my host home to borrow a dress for tonight so we needed to hustle. Once we got into Alcala, Olivia came with me to catch the bus to my host home and Rach went to her home to change and eat. Once we got to my bus stop, I showed Olivia where to catch the bus back close to where she lives and we walked toward my host home. Upon walking in, I started showing Olivia around and she instantly said to me “umm, would they mind if I lived with you?! I love your place!” Olivia’s host mom lives in a small apartment, and after her seeing my host home, she informed me that I am only one of three in our program that lives like this. Suddenly I felt really lucky to have lucked into this. I didn’t know what to expect so I excepted nothing, and I don’t know…maybe that’s why I lucked into getting this. Or maybe it was good karma coming to me after such a horrible semester this past fall where my rooming situation couldn’t have been worse. It was worse and then some. So maybe it’s like they say where right before something really amazing happens, something icky happens so that you’ll appreciate it that much more. But I do have to say God, last semester was a little over the top, don’t you think? Then, Olivia and I come up to my room and she starts looking through my dresses nd finds one that she likes. Then I do a little of her makeup, and at that point, Ana comes up to meet Olivia. Ana knew she was coming, don’t worry, I called in advance to make sure even the idea was okay. She liked my dress on her and wished us a good time. Then Adrian came up upon hearing that there was a new visitor in my room. When he meekly asked if he could come up, I told him I wanted him to meet my friend. When I introduced him to Olivia, she instantly said in English, “Oh my gosh, he’s so cute!” which he looked at me scared and I told him in Spanish she thought he was cute. It was so cute how he was so shy and before I knew it he scurried on out; only to show my new visitor a toy! As he showed us his remote control monster truck, Ana came up to see if Olivia wanted to stay for dinner. Which if I had a straightener so she could finish her hair, she would have but she told her maybe another time. By that time, Olivia realized that she needed to get back and I needed to eat and get ready if I were going to make the 11pm train with my friends into Madrid. After having hamburgers with my host family, I dolled myself up and caught the bus to meet my friends. Once we all met up, we caught the train and were on our way. Originally we were a smaller group going to El Kapitol only Elise, Sarah, Kary, Rachel, Olivia, Chade and i. But word got around, and so Trevor, Victoria, Dominique, Katy and Katy’s friend from back home who was visiting, came too. I’m not one for going in big groups because it’s hard to get around anywhere but hey, it could work. On the train, Kary (sitting across from me) said that she liked my dress and it reminded her of a…disco ball! Haha, she was really excited about it. Then we arrived at our train stop, and caught the metro to the area Kapitol was in. Coming out of the metro stop, Chade and Trevor (who room together in the same host home) hadn’t eaten and wanted to stop in McDonalds. Classic, haha. Once they finished, we wanted to go to a bar nearby to drink first because it’s 20 Euros to get into Kapitol and then 10 Euros for each drink inside, and there was no way we were paying that much for drinks. The bar we decided to stop in was a hole-in-the-wall place with only 3 locals inside and our big group made it into an instant party. The man working behind the bar told us he would make us his favorite shot called Sombra y Sol. Oh my gosh, it was awful!!! It was like horrible licorice and I don’t even like licorice to begin with! Ugh, gross. So then, my friend Kary decided that because we thought it was so awful to tell the bartender that we loved them, so he made us more and more. Dang it Kary!! As she giggled in the corner and our faces turned sour. Lol. Then a woman, who was wearing a massive knit sweater, loose hippie skirt, and baseball cap, decided we needed to make a dance party and she would start it. Our eyes got so wide and Kary, with her funny sense of humor for strange Spaniards, cheered her on!! That was up until the woman started to think Kary was cute and pulled her out to dance with her. Then we were laughing. At the same time, Elise was getting her palm read by another random local who said it was free, he just wanted to talk to her and the bartender was taking off his shirt and twirling it around. Spaniards are truly a whole different breed ya’ll! And as strange as this whole scene was, we were having a great time. Then after an hour or so, we were ready for Kapitol. As we walked in, the bouncers inspected our outfits and then let us pass. Reason is that if you aren’t dressed to impress enough, they will turn you away. Phew, good thing I got this dress! Then we walk into the main foyer where you pay and then to the main entrance that has two main staircases inside; one to the right, and to the left. We caught view of where the coat check was and got that out of the way first. Then we split in small groups to explore this seven story club with different themes on each floor. It was amazing! We first went on the first level which had techno music and looked like an ornate auditorium with a main stage for the dancers to be the envy of all the club goers tonight. The girls wore burlesque dresses with leathers and trains in the back and showing every curve and length; meanwhile, the guys were dressed like cowboy strippers showing off all the assets for the goggling girls sitting by them. It looked like where operas where performed because there were other smaller stages for the patrons to dance on but were tucked in the areas that would be the box seats. After dancing a little, we wanted to check out the other areas. The second story was the balcony of the main stage of the first floor. This was where the DJs where spinning like crazy to the beats. The third floor had 90s rap and was covered by white transparent curtains on the walls. The fourth was the main salsa and Spanish pop music floor. The sixth floor was another floor for older patrons to dance without the crammed atmosphere of the other floors, and the seventh was a cool lounge with couches and loud music. We decided our first floor to try was the balcony and here Rachel and Olivia met two Italians who were sleazier than I don’t know what. While we danced, I was pulled over to a guy that was wearing John Travolta’s Saturday Night Live white suit with starched black button-up. Good thing for him that he made it kind of work in Spain. But he at least taught me to salsa a little. After the salsa, I went and found my friends, we went to the rap floor to check it out. There Olivia, Rachel and I found Trevor, Katy and Katy’s friend! From there we wanted to go check out the main floor because it looked like it was getting to be a lot of fun. The music was loud, fun and crazy with lots of bass and everyone was dancing like there was no tomorrow, including myself. The best part is that the Djs synced up the music with a huge dry ice blaster. So when the beat in the song would be at a lower part leading up to where everyone would get their second-wind or would go crazy again, they would blast this dry ice down in the center of the stage on everyone and it was perfect because it would get so hot and you would tire out. And the crazy amount of strobe lights just added to it that much more. It was so fun and I have no idea how long we were there but then Kary, Elise, and Chade found us and we danced that much harder. Then around 5:30am I think Olivia had gathered up everyone and we were on our way out. The club was still going strong and I would have stayed if I wasn’t in a group…Kary would’ve too. We had the best time together, and as I got my jacket and we gathered in the foyer, I turned to Olivia and Elise and said “I feel like my birthday is officially celebrated”…they laughed and cheered me on. Kary then found that on the way out they have these suckers with K for Kapitol and so we each got one and left. As we stumbled to the metro, the cool air helped to sober us up for the train ride back, and we were all pleased with the night. Once we got on the train, we felt relieved to know that we would be in our warm beds soon. Before I knew it, we were at our train stop in Alcala and as we all said our goodbye, Rachel walked with me to wait for the bus. At this point it was 7am. Dawn starts to crack at about 7:30am and I at least wanted to get in before Pepe woke up. As we waited for the bus, we looked at schedule, the bus doesn’t start until 7:30 and we were getting tired and cold in our little club dresses. So Rachel offered to walk with me half way to my host home and I could safely walk the other half. Fortunately, she could do this because the bus stop that we waited at was right where her apartment was. As we walked in the chilly morning air, the sun was starting to come up over the horizon and we had made it to the half way point where I could walk safely to my host home. After a hug and a hoarse goodbye, we walked our separate ways to our homes. The walk to my neighborhood and through it to my host home is surprisingly safe, which my guess is because it’s further away from the center of the city of Alcala. There are less people wandering in this area because you’d have to live here in order to know the layout or where to go. I quietly went into my host home just before Pepe woke up, got in my pajamas and crawled into bed with a huge smile still on my face from the amazing day and night I had.

Mar 7th – Day of Going to Soria and the Infamous Creeper

We had to be ready and on the bus to leave for Soria at 8am…I don’t want to talk about it. I slept for the two hour drive on the bus to get there but I was not a happy camper waking up that morning. But by time we got there at about 10-10:30am I was feeling much better about being up so early on a Friday. Soria is a small town that as Ana said, is not very pretty and very cold all the time. Yay! Now I’m way excited, haha. But fortunately our professor told us about it being so cold, so that we would dress appropriately and I definitely didn’t want a repeat of the trip to Segovia or should I say not Segovia. Haha; tank, thermal underwear, fleece and outer shell with jeans, smart wool socks and tennis shoes. Bring it on cold weather…bring it on. Any who, we walked through the streets where Ernesto was telling us that Soria is a very poetic city because of the famous Antonio Machado. Machado is a Spanish poet who was born in Sevilla (I think), lived in Madrid for some time and then moved to Soria where he met his wife (who was 15…yes I know, sick! And he was like 40…real romantic. Haha.), she died and he lived there until he died. In the streets hanging between buildings were Christmas lights with fragments of his poems that lit up at night. Very poetic city indeed! Then we approached the university that he taught at for a bit and sat in the infamous classroom he used to teach in! Which word to the wise: don’t try to sit in the old-fashioned desks, no matter how cute they look because if you have long legs, you get stuck! Yes, and I am speaking from experience! I walked up thinking, oh, how cute! Sat down, turned my legs toward the front underneath the desk top and realized my feet and legs were trapped and I couldn’t move. Good thing I wasn’t alive back then or I would have been out of luck! But possibly very popular…J. My friends found it funny any how. Then we walked down from the main plaza toward the bus where it would take us to the monastery of San Juan of the River. It was an open roofed monastery with beautiful Muslim-influenced arches that seemed to loop together, and while Ernesto was explaining the significance all of us became mesmerized by an adorable kitten playing by himself. He was white and black and very tiny and even Ernesto stopped to watch him. Then we walked in the part of the monastery that was enclosed and it was simple but nothing of noting. From there we walked a trail to the main walking trail in Soria…ooo, I know the trail, the trail! Haha. Well, in Machado’s case, the trail was where he had taken his sick wife (still 15 and only lived to be 17…so he cradle-robbed for only 2 years, I guess that’s okay.) for long walks and had written a great deal of poems at. It was pretty but sad at the same time and I can’t describe why it was sad because it was next to such a pretty river. From there, we walked up the trail to two churches connected because one was a cave-church and the other a normal church! Weird huh?! Literally the entrance looked normal until you walked into a cave that had stained glass and gorgeous views of the lake. I’m not sure if I had gone to church there I would have paid attention or have not frozen to death but the idea was still cool. Then we walked down the stairs to go up other stairs (I know, sounds like a dungeon, right?) to another mini cave that had a story put on stained glass. The story was about how a boy felt so overcome with emotion being there that he fell to his feet looking up at the sky…I don’t know. Seemed cool enough to put on glass though right? Then we walked into a room where services were held and there was a very ornate altar. From there we walked straight into a class picture of some middle school kids on their field trip. Haha, not on purpose though. But it was pretty funny. Although it was sunny in Soria and it is dawning on spring, there was some snow on the ground and Jessica and Trevor got in a snow fight. He lost. She’s pretty fierce. Then we trekked up the twisting, turning streets back toward the main part of Soria towards the infamous elm tree. Machado had written a poem when his wife was dying of cancer comparing her illness to a sick elm tree. And even though this was a kind of sculpture/real elm tree, it was really interesting and strange looking. Like it was sick! But the surprise hike to the tree which was at the peak of the town made my friends and I heat up because of the incline. I had gotten down to my thermal underwear even with the freezing wind there because I was burning up so bad! Once we arrived where the tree was, we all popped a squat and Ernesto read the poem about the tree. Then we went to the nearby cemetery to view her grave. The cemeteries in Spain are very different. They are kind of packed in like sardines and if it wasn’t disrespectful I wouldn’t taken a picture to show it. because it didn’t seem real. Then we finally had lunch! From the cemetery, we walked toward the main plaza and Ernesto said we had an hour for lunch and then we were heading back to Alcala. Cool, and since the buildings surrounding the plaza blocked the winds, it was actually pleasant to sit outside and eat our lunches together. Once we finished eating some of my friends and I wanted to try to find a place for candy and fruit. We didn’t find the fruit shop but we did find the candy! I got a kinder egg for Adrian and myself. In case you don’t know what a Kinder egg is, it’s a milk chocolate and white chocolate egg and in the middle there’s a toy. They are really big around Easter, kind of like Cadbury eggs. Then we went to a café to have a glass of wine and hang out for another 30 mins. All was good, between all of us we were taking up three tables back to back so we could all chit-chat. Then at some point, a man came up and said “You all are Americans?, I went to University of Miami”. Oh, okay cool. He was definitely past college but seemed alright, just anxious to practice speaking in English. Then he went on creep radar and stopped right when I made accidental eye contact. Dang it, I swear I should get color contacts, since mine seem to get me in trouble with creepers! And he said “ooo, and what is your name and where are you from?” didn’t ask anyone else their name or anything. I said Adelaide and he again with the “ooo, Adelaide” and “Do you think Oklahoma is very different than Soria?”, I replied “yes, but it’s much colder in my state than here” which he laughed. Then he proceeded to shake everyone else’s hand until he came to mine where he turned it from a hand shake to attempting to kiss my hand!! Well, apparently I must have made an obscenely awkward face because he then smiled, bowed and gave me my hand back. Close one. Then he told us about how he rode a jet ski from Rome to New York City, met Katie Couric and was on her show and we could check it out on his website www.ocean2002.com, oh cool. Thanks. And he left, or so we thought. He came back and said “Adelaide, here’s my email if you want to talk more about my political party” and then left (which he mentioned his party called UPD earlier). On this paper was his name (Alvaro), his website, his email and bonus, phone number. Ugh, creepers. Those of my friends who were there laughed and made fun of me until we met back up with Ernesto where I told him about the creepy guy. All was good UNTIL Alvaro ran up in the middle of our group (from nowhere!) and said, “hello! I thought I heard you!” and gave me the creepiest grin I’ve ever seen! Then Ernesto introduced himself and they became acquainted until Alvaro cut him off to turn directly toward me in front of the group to say “did you know that Soria was founded over 800 years ago by [some number] of houses?”, oh really? “and the only remaining house is in my family, do you want to go see it?” Oh, well I...Ernesto chimes in “yes, let’s all go!” What!!!! By now everyone is cracking up laughing and I’m not happy. Ernesto comes to me and tells me not to worry and that he wouldn’t leave my side. Whew, thanks. Then we are walking with Alvaro and we come across his political party’s office where he is on a huge poster with the president of the party. And when I asked if it was him he said yes and added an even bigger, creepier smile. Why is this happening to me!! Then we kept walking when Ernesto got a phone call from our bus driver saying he was early and at the plaza to pick us up. Thank goodness! When he told Alvaro, Alvaro was not happy and asked if we could just spare 3 minutes, only 3! When Ernesto said we couldn’t he said (in English) “this guy here says you can’t spare 3 minutes to come see my home!” which apparently him being so rude, he didn’t realize that I followed their entire conversation in Spanish and Ernesto spoke perfect English! Jackass. So then I shrugged and he said “well, if you are in Soria again and can spare three minutes (winking at me) then you should come see my house, so bye kids!” and he left. Oh my gosh!!! Why me!! Then Ernesto looked at me and asked if I was alright which I said yes and then he told me the phone call was a fake. Ana (other professor on the trip with us) was walking ahead and he texted her to call and pretend she was the bus driver. Oh my gosh, thank you Ernesto. You totally saved me from getting locked probably in the ancient dungeon in his house!! We kept walking and Ernesto, thinking he was slick, said “Adelaide, would you like to take a picture with your new Spanish lover next to his poster?” haha, funny. Rude. Then the bus came, and I’ve never been so happy to be on a bus! Joking around about the whole situation, Ernesto had said that the guy was really creepy and could see what we were talking about with Spanish men here. Then Jessica asked if that’s what always happens and I said yes. My friends were like man, you gotta be careful! I know, but I don’t do anything!! That’s the problem! After that, I slept the rest of the way back to awake to hearing we were in Alcala. Finally. I caught my bus and went to eat dinner at my host home but not before telling Ana about what happened. She laughed and thought my stories of the men here were always funny. Then I found Adrian and told him a had a surprise. He instantly lit up and I gave the kinder egg to him…he was so cute and he went to go ask Ana if he could eat it. Ana asked how he got it and when he pointed to me, she smiled and said “what do you say?”, “THANK YOU!!”, then he ran downstairs and ate the egg. I went to my room after playing a little longer with him and went to sleep. I had enough excitement for the day. For the weekend.

Mar 6th – Day of Finding a New Neighbor

I had only one class this morning, my comp class, since Carlos was going on another class trip and cancelled art class. We hadn’t gotten our grades back yet but I wasn’t too worried. Oh, and I just realized I haven’t mentioned how I did on the other exams! I got an ‘A’ in film, still don’t know about civ, and an ‘B’ in art (I forgot the name pinaculo for the small tower so I was two points away from the A!), but I want to do the extra credit to bump it up. I mean, why not?! after my only class, I just hung out at school until I could talk on Skype to mi familia and James. Then after I went back to my host home to eat lunch, sleep and just hung out until dinner with the host family later. From there I went to my room, put on a cute shirt and went to Cabana and Mazo’s with my friends for sangria. One of my friends from Arizona, Anne, came out with us and she’s one of the nicest people ever! The two of us decided that we didn’t want to stay out really late so we’d walk together. I thought she meant to the taxi but no, she lives just down the way from me so we could walk the majority of the way together! Cool! Tomorrow I have a class trip with my comp class to Soria, which is a very non-exciting city in Spain but it’s claim to fame for Spain (and this class) is Antonio Machado. Machado is a very famous Spanish poet who met his wife, who was only 15 years old when he was 40 (they married at this age), and lived here for so long until his wife and his death. Cabana was fun and we were having a great time, but I was getting tired and by time we went to Mazo’s, I was definitely ready to go and so was Anne. It probably was a 40 to 45 min walk, but Anne was good company. We mostly asked about each other’s schools, trips, etc. She even showed me an easier way to walk home! Sadly it doesn’t save time either way, but at least it’s easier! Then it came to where my neighborhood turn was and she kept walking the same way! We were half way down the street and she said that this was her house…she lives in a house like me, and loves her host family and living situation too! When I pointed out that at the end of the street if you make a left and walk down a bit further that it was where I lived, she couldn’t believe it either! I was so relieved to have neighbors and to know others who were happy with living here too…I always feel like an alien when I talk with others since my situation is so different! Nice to have someone to relate to! After chatting for a bit, I walked just a bit further to my host home, crawled into bed and went to sleep. I don’t know why that was so relieving to know that someone else lived by me, but it made me feel a lot better for some reason.

Mar 5th – Day of Hanging Out With the Girls

My civ class was back in session since my professor wasn’t feeling sick today, and told us that unfortunately since she wasn’t here, we needed to schedule when to have a makeup class sometime soon. Boo. Oh well, Olvido is a cool teacher so I guess it’s okay. After Skype, lunch and then siesta, I got ready to go out to one of the discothèques with my friends. When I met up with Olivia and Kary, we walked over to Beth’s apartment to meet up with all the other girls. We were meeting up with the rest of the Colorado State girls who are always fun to hang out with. After a few drinks with everyone at Beth’s we all walked over to Miga’s to go dancing and hang out with our friends from school and the other Spaniards that we knew here. We were having such a good time dancing but then sadly, Tiffany had way too much to drink and wasn’t feeling well. So I decided to hang out with her to make sure she was okay. She had gotten a major case of the spins, and anyone who’s had them knows you hate life until they go away. And there’s nothing you can do about it until you either reverse everything in your stomach, or just wait it out. Which ever comes first. After awhile, Tiffany finally wanted to go home so Leah and I walked her back and then I went home. Safe and sound again.

Mar 4th – Day of Taking My Final Midterm

The main concern today was to take my remaining midterm in my comp class. It was actually a vocabulary test so I was excited to make flash cards and memorize! The test was actually surprisingly easy and I only got confused on a couple of questions! I know I’m the nerd who loves test where I can memorize, but that’s okay…I’m okay with me being a nerd, besides, nerds are cool anyhow. I was so excited after my exam that the rest of the day was a blur except for the terrible wind bringing in the chilly weather! Ugh. Man, I’m so excited for spring to come soon though!

Mar 3rd – Day of Not Much

Coming back into the routine of classes and a new week, as it usually happens after a great weekend, not much happened today at school, except for my first class was cancelled since my teacher was sick. So I just hung out at school until my next class came. Pretty simple day that would just passed on by until when I came to my host home, Ana told me there was something in my room! My birthday was already over, so I ran up to see what it was…it was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from James! Somehow they mixed up getting them there on my birthday and they came later but I love flowers either way and the ones I got from mom and dad were dying so I felt like I was getting a new supply of beautiful flowers! They were so big that it reminded me of the pageant flowers that you see in Miss America Pageants, but instead of roses, a mixed assortment of native flowers. I actually had to put them in a pitcher since they couldn’t fit in a normal vase! I don’t think Adrian was too pleased since he tried to distract me by bringing toys to show me. He’s so cute. Afterwards dinner, studying my flashcards for my exam tomorrow and then sleep.

Mar 2nd – Day to Return

Rachel and I were up at 4:30am to finish packing, get ready and eat a little before we left for the airport. Our flight was at 7am, so we left Geoff’s apartment by 5:15 to get there at 6ish. Nixon happily trotted with our bags while trying to eat our feet and we checked our bags, said goodbye and went to our terminal. On the first flight back to Munich, we both slept. Then on the last flight to Madrid, well…I slept. When I woke up, it was to the sounds of the German tour group on the flight buzzing excitedly about seeing Madrid for the first time. Funny how being a tourist looks the same regardless of the culture! But it was so nice to finally go back to where I could understand the people and what was going on! Once we got our bags from the baggage claim, we got on the bus and headed back to Alcala. Stepping off the last step and getting my luggage off the bus, Rachel and I couldn’t believe that we just went to Prague this past weekend! It had to be one of the most relaxing weekends I’ve ever had and we saw everything! Normally if you are relaxed and going at your own pace, you don’t get to see everything…but we did, and we had such a great time exploring the city on our own! So, saying goodbye and see you tomorrow at school, we went our separate ways…completely happy. I arrived back at my host home to find a very anxious little Adrian who missed his playmate this weekend! We watched cartoons for a bit, ate lunch and I unpacked my things. I pretty much slept the rest of the day and night after I unpacked. Great weekend.

Mar 1st – Day of Random Excursions around Prague

Waking up at 10am, yes we actually got up and out when we said, Geoff decided that after we make a little breakfast at his apartment we’d go get some native Czech lunch. With Nixon in the car, we headed off to the outskirts of Prague to a monastery. Inside the monastery walls there was a great little restaurant that Geoff thought we would like going to. When we got there, the monastery was white and gave a lighter atmosphere, which was a nice change from the old, dark, and gothic architecture in the main part of Prague. Once Nixon was connected to his leash, we walked in the walls surrounding the monastery and to the right of the church was a tiny restaurant just like Geoff said! The monastery is still functioning and if we had more time, Geoff said you can see the monks walking around the grounds praying. Cool! Inside the restaurant, it was very old and familiar. It looked kind of like a tavern with wooden floors, walls and ceilings. There were even old farming tools on the walls and there was a set of beams above us holding old shucks of corn…or maybe it was wheat. Either way it was cool. The waiters were dressed in flannel shirts and pants while the waitresses had a similar shirt but with long skirts and aprons. Nixon was a huge hit everywhere we went and today was no exception…the waitress and people sitting around us would come to pet him and she even brought him a bowl of water! I had the ‘Monday Mixture’ which was cabbage, meat and dumplings in a skillet, Rachel had a similar dish but with duck and bread dumplings as well, and Geoff had a potato bread which looked like a huge piece of meat. My dish was okay, the taste of the food has more of a vinegar taste and reminded me of sauerkraut. But I was proud that I still tried it, but maybe Czech food isn’t for me, J. After we left the restaurant, Nixon was feeling very anxious since his visit to the vet; he has worms and got his meds, so now Geoff was on a countdown until they either came up one way or the other. Since Nixon is so young, Geoff has to make sure that he does get them out and, as gross as it sounds, not re-ingest them…if you have dogs you are very familiar with this concept. I walked him out and he immediately started chowing down on grass…poor thing, his tummy must have been aching. Then, while Rachel and I waited in the car since it was frigid, Geoff took Nixon to the nearby lake for his first encounter of the water and the ducks. He was so pooped from investigating the ‘funny looking white things that quack’ that he slept in the car. From there we went to the electronic store to get my new camera! Thank goodness Geoff was there because I can’t even begin to understand what to choose or look for in electronics, let alone understand it in Czech. And I love my new camera! Side note, thanks again Geoff! I’m still getting used to it though. After the department store, we went to have desserts in old town square for my belated birthday. I had what looked like an apple pie of some sort while Rachel had a carrot cake. My apple ‘cake’ was like ground beef, or I mean how it is shredded like ground beef, but apples! And had a cream cheese icing on top. It was pretty good…can’t take the place of a real cake though…can’t believe they don’t exist here! Then Geoff needed to run an errand before dinner and we wanted to investigate more of old town square, so we were off. Nixon was not happy that he was not coming with though and made quite the fuss. Funny. We went by a shop and got pashminas (scarves that are really warm) and wandered more around the streets with the natives. Then by that time, Geoff was coming round to pick us up and go to a Mexican restaurant…yes I know, but it’s really good, authentic and we were both missing tex-mex like crazy! We ordered a couple of drinks and our food, and I have to say it was pretty good! I had fajitas, of course, Rachel had a gordita and I can’t remember what Geoff had. After dinner, the four of us headed back to the car and went back to Geoff’s apartment. While Geoff went to sleep, we watched more movies and then took Nixon out to walk before we went to sleep. He went happily and then raced back to the apartment…it was cold and he wanted to be in his bed! Once we came back up, I cleaned off his paws and we went to sleep.

Feb 29th – Day of Relaxing and Touring Prague

So the initial plan was to wake up at 9am, to get dressed and be ready to go tour by 10am or so, when what actually happened was that we woke up at 10am and finally got out noon or so. Which with my parents, I know they are thinking ‘Not surprised’, but in my defense, I have been doing well with getting up earlier and being ready to take the day. But I guess the relief of staying with my family, made me sleep more sound than I have in Spain all together. Not that I don’t sleep in my host home, I love my host family and feel very safe with them…but there’s something about staying with your family that settles everything out. Geoff, Rachel, Nixon and I went to go have lunch at a restaurant near his apartment called Baang! And in the Czech Republic, they are very dog-friendly, so Nixon can come in restaurants, metros, offices, pretty much anywhere. The waiter will even bring a little water bowl for the dogs! Cool! Geoff served as our translation of the menu since it was all in Czech…which was a different experience in itself, because this is the first time since I’ve been in Spain that I haven’t been able to understand anything! Strange since the last time I felt this way was my first day in Spain and probably up until the rest of that month! Most don’t know English here and if they do, it’s because they work or live in more touristy areas of Prague or they are my age. Once we had heard on the menu that there was rump steak, we both jumped at the chance to finally have some beef! Didn’t think I would miss it as much as I do, but I have been craving to sink my teeth into a good steak! Rachel and I both ate ours so fast that we didn’t realize how fast we ate it until we looked over at Geoff and he had just started eating his meal! Nixon was snuggled up around my feet dreaming away, and it was so cute! At some point he had a nightmare and shook himself awake, which I think startled him. But he just looked up, and then snuggled into my feet again. It’s hard being so cute all the time! Then we ordered dessert…gosh, I’ve been craving sweets! I had vanilla ice cream with warm raspberries in a raspberry sauce…yummy. And Rachel had a chocolate mousse with cherries. Then we got a mini tutorial from Geoff as to how to get to the places we wanted to see, how to use the map, our local cell phone, and then we went to the tram station so he could show us how to understand it. Good thing, since we would’ve been clueless without him!! Then he had to go back to work and set us on our way to head up to the Castle Prague. It’s one of the biggest castles and is even in the Guinness Book of World Records…or so James told me. I could see why too, because it was HUGE!! You can see it from the river, and it’s up on a huge hill…too steep to trek, unless we really wanted too. Even though Geoff had told us how to listen for our stop name, when it came to practice it was completely different! It didn’t sound the same and was probably twice as hard to catch what was being said! Slovak languages are so hard to understand and are not close to any correlations in English at all! But Geoff did help when he gave us the golden rule: follow the crowd. He was so right! Walking up to the castle, it was amazing…a mix of gothic architecture and color schemes appealing to the Czech people. Whites and reds on buildings, as well as whites with lavender…weird. The castle is surrounded by a city wall, so once we walked through and toward the cathedral in the middle it was breathtakingly astonishing. The amount of detail and usage of gold with the dark stone in the gothic architecture…it was wonderful. Then we followed the crowd down the hill in the castle walls to just outside the city wall. A spectacular view of all Prague…gorgeous, and accented with a beautiful overcast/sunset…I say both because it would be a sunset for a bit, then pretty overcast. Outside of the city wall were two guards, who seemed to make quite the commotion as they are like the guards in England outside the palace. They can’t move and must remain motionless as much as people taunt and take pictures of them. We were about to walk down then hill, as the map said to head toward Charles Bridge, but we realized this wasn’t the exit from the castle we needed to take. So we trekked back up the steep hill in the castle walls, past the glorious cathedral, and through the entrance of the castle; which we didn’t see when we first got there since we came through the side. Good thing we made this mistake because when we got to the front, we were just in time for the guard change for the night! It was pretty cool, and they were very nice with letting people take pictures of the whole procession. After we saw the entire view of Prague that Geoff told us we would recognize on site. It blew the other site we just saw out of the water. Taking a deep breath, we then trekked down the hill, following the group, to see the Charles Bridge. History note from James, Charles Bridge is one of the oldest standing bridges left from the century birthed. The others have been long since gone and it should’ve gone a long time ago, but still stands and is completely safe. When we made it to the bridge, the sun was setting behind the castle and the ambience of the lighting from the sky, the lights, and the reflection of the river made it such a gorgeous picturesque moment we walked into. It almost didn’t seem real and I felt like I was literally in the pictures I see of Prague at this time, or even the paintings. It was then that I realized that Prague truly doesn’t get the credit it deserves because it is more beautiful than Paris. Yes, I said it, and I’ve been to Paris. It is gorgeous and well worth the trip, but Prague blew it away. I was stunned and at the same time happy that it doesn’t get the hype it should since it was take away from it. Painters, tourists, and natives were all over the bridge in awe as we were. I think we spent probably half an hour to 45 mins on that bridge alone. Once we finally left, we followed the crowd toward old town square. A section of Prague that has the clock tower that everyone hears about, several old buildings and is the remains of old Prague. It’s basically a plaza in Spain context. Seeing Prague at night was beyond anything I could have ever imagined and I loved every minute of it…I was actually happy that we got such a late start to the day because I wouldn’t have gotten a glimpse at this beautiful sight otherwise. From there, we were starting to get a little hungry but knew we were having dinner with Geoff soon, but we had to get a snack. We stopped by this place called Half and Half to get a hot chocolate and a slice of pizza. When we asked if the cashier spoke English to order, she immediately yelled for another girl to come speak to us. Funny. After the slice I wanted to eat the whole pizza but I knew I needed to wait, so we left shortly after. But not before we had finished what was hot chocolate pudding in a cup. That’s literally what the hot chocolate was like there and when we told Geoff he nodded and knew exactly what we were talking about. It was weird, but really good. Figuring out navigating the streets with our trusty map was surprisingly easy and I was doing really well…we didn’t need to call Geoff once for help! Once we got to our tram stop, we boarded and were on our way to Geoff’s apartment where he was coming to meet us. I couldn’t believe how much more safe I felt here in Prague. No awkward staring, no sleezy guys…none of that. I was nice! But it was winter in Prague so we were tired, cold and ready to snuggle up and get warm back at the apartment. For some reason we felt like having pasta and since Geoff wasn’t feeling too good, we pre-ordered from a place that he really liked. Once we went by, picked up the food (with Nixon of course) and came back, Geoff was pooped and went to sleep. We ate, watched movies on his t.v. and then before going to sleep, took Nixon to go pee. Funny how dogs can tell if you know their tricks; because Rachel tried to walk Nixon and he was all over the place and made it very hard for her to get him to behave. However if I walked him, he stayed close by, followed direction and knew I was on to him. Always two steps ahead pup, I’ve seen it before! Once we brought him in, I cleaned off his paws and we went to bed.