SNOW!!!

Hola todos,

Yes, you heard right. It SNOWed here! Wow! That does not often happen here apparently (so my host family says). People were driving very slow (because generally everyone drives like a maniac) when the roads were wet. But yes it was crazy. I had checked the weather then night before and it said it would be 52 (F), so I figured, oh, I don't even need my scarf! Wrong! I walked outside and it was cold! I kept passing white stuff on the grass, and after I decided it was NOT paint, I looked closer and realized it was ice! Strange I thought! Then after riding the bus for a while, more buildings came into view and I saw that there was an inch or two of snow on all the rooftops! It was so funny! Apparently I can't escape Wisconsin. :) But anyway, it was very pretty and I took a few pictures before it all melted (by the end of the day). Today was cold too (it snowed yesterday), although only if you think 40 (F) is cold. Of course if I were in Wisconsin I would think it was warm, but I make the excuse now that I've adapted to the weather here, and since it's been 50's since we've been here, 40 is cold. Haha apparently I'm not very convincing though, the other SNC girls make fun of me. :) ...I just don't have my layers! I usually am wearing a tank top, long sleeve t, t-shirt, sweatshirt, coat, etc., and I definitely don't have that here!

So anyway, I realize that I've been here for about 2 weeks now, which I think is crazy! I'm really starting to settle in and feel comfortable here, though of course I still miss things from home. Still, every day I come to school I notice something new and fall in love with this city all over again. :)

Mi familia española

O.K., I know I just posted a new post today already, but I just have to say how much I love host family, they are so awesome! My "padre," Jacinto, is always singing randomly, like about the food he's putting on the table and such, I just love it haha. And my "madre" Isabel is so cool, she helps me with my Spanish so much, and I'm even helping her with her English! She actually speaks better than I thought (and she probably knows even more, but our host families aren't supposed to speak English to us), and it actually helps me practice vocabulary when she asks how to say something in English, because I have to remember what it does really mean! But anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate my "padres," I definitely got a great family, Isabel always comes in with books and pamphlets and stuff and explains all sorts of things about exhibits an movies and all kinds of things going on in the city, and she still has me help her cook, little by little. I'm starting to take over salad duty. :) Lots of veggies, fruit, and sometimes nuts, with salt, vinegar, and of course, the holy mother of all ingredients, olive oil.

Alright so anyway, I hope everyone reading these blogs has a great night or day or whatever the time zone is where you are, and I just wanted to let everybody know how awesome my host family is! I really appreciate them, especially after our little Madrid excursion...I was VERY happy to return to good 'ol Toledo and my casa. :)

...I just added 3 more girls to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around Spain, in Madrid, looking for cheap food and trying not to get robbed.

Hola! Wow, I'm not very good at this updating the blog thing, am I? :)

Well, we survived Madrid! Hooray!!!

(P.S. The rest of last week was not too exciting, just had classes, it was fine.)

So, late night Thursday from packing, then up early for Madrid on Friday! ....OH boy.

Friday morning I headed out early for the Fund, where I was meeting everyone else not living in the neighborhood of Poligono (where the majority of people with families are staying--they got their own bus). I met up with some friends, including my bus buddy, Megumi! She's so sweet. :) So, we started off on the bus all excited, until I got a phone call after a little while. It was Erin, telling me Anna and Amy had missed the bus! Oh dear! I asked the coordinators what they could do but they all said the girls would have to find their way to Madrid themselves! Scary! But luckily, they were able to do it. Unfortunately, they missed our tour of the Royal Palace (they called me while inside, but I couldn't answer it) and the bus tour, but they had made it to Madrid and were going to meet us and the group for lunch after they hung out at the Plaza Mayor. After much confusion on the phone about the location of our restaurant, el Museo del Jamon (which by the way, is the exact one we ate at for the few days I was in Madrid with my group from high school!!---the hotel we stayed at was just down the road), the girls met up with us.

After lunch, we went to find our hostel, but failed big time. After trying to call both the numbers we had about the place, we started getting really worried that we had just been screwed. However, we tried calling once more and the guy answered, and we were actually right outside the hostel. The reason we couldn't see it was because it was above a bank, in an apartment building, with no sign. Sketchy? I think so!!!! Still, there were two more people trying to find it too so we didn't feel alone, and we went inside. So yes, our hostel was some guy's apartment, but the two people we had just met said they were frequent travelers and although this hostel was weird, it seemed like the owner had the right procedures and was organized and stuff, so we said O.K. However, we wanted just to stay Friday night (we were still kinda freaked out), and he was going to say that was O.K., but then because it was less than 24 notice we would have had to pay for Saturday night either way. Boo. Whatev. So, after checking out our interesting 12 person mixed gender room, we left for Retiro Park (kind of like their Central Park) and later, a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then returned to our hostel for the night. The window was open and since Spaniards stay up so late it was very loud and I couldn't sleep, thus I got about 3 hours of sleep. Yes, Amy Sc., 3 hours!! lol

After getting up bring and early the next day, we headed out for some churros for breakfast at a sort of day bar. We then took the Metro (which Amy taught me about) and proceeded to the Prado museum (where we got a discount with our Carnet Joven card--take that Rick Steve!), and next met up with some other girls from the Fund for lunch. We bought sandwiches (or Burger King for Amy and Anna) and ate outside (which, by the way, it's kind of cold out! I mean it is "winter" here) and then went to a Botanical Garden. Afterwards, we went to the free museum of Reina Sofia where we split up with the other girls (who, actually, loved their hostel. It was very nice and clean they said. Another group from school also really liked theirs, so I think ours was just so sketch because we booked it so last minute. Next time, we know it will be MUCH better.).

So after the museum we went shopping for a while because restaurants don't open til later, and I bought my first souvenir for myself---a purse. :) It's plain gray, but has funky designs on the top and inside. I like it. But that's the end of my spending money for a while, seriously. Seriously. Anyway, next we headed out to dinner at a cheap place where the waiter was a jerk (though service here is much less friendly here in general...it's nothing to get upset over, it's just the way it is here), but later a different waiter came and he was awesome. He practiced his English with us and welcomed us to Spain, and even offered to take a picture of us. Then he asked to take a picture with Amy haha, oh it's O.K., it was all in good fun. However, we all hated our dinner so had our good waiter bring us a piece of chocolate cake for us to split...we felt better. :) Then we went back to brave our hostel again, and I actually slept all through the night.

Sunday morning brought us to Starbucks for breakfast (I had a wonderful chocolate chip muffin) and we headed home on the bus. I took a very nice (and needed) shower at home and the my host parents came home and we had a lovely lunch. I then proceeded to take a 2 1/2 hour siesta and of course now I'm groggy and my stomach hurts. Figures lol. Oh well. Still, I'm so proud of all of us girls for making it in the big city of Madrid, and although it was VERY stressful at times, I still had fun, we learned A LOT about traveling, and we had some pretty epic kodak moments. In all, definitely an experience!!!!

Class Choices and Toledo Tour

So, it's Monday, and it kind of seems like forever ago when I got here Thursday! I think I finally have my bus route down, and two days ago I was brave and even took a different bus back to school after lunch! I knew it went to the same place, so it was fine! It just went a different way to get there.

So, Friday after we took our placement tests (which I did fine on btw, they said I was about average in the range of everyone else at the school), I went in to talk to the coordinator about my classes. I had a problem with my literature class but it was fixed today so I went to it...my first class! Also, I didn't get a "service learning" class where I'd be in a school for part of the week because it was full unfortunately, so I'm taking Archeology of the Iberian Peninsula instead. My other classes include Spain Since 1936 (history), Literature of the 20th Century, Advanced Spanish Conversation (grammar), and Jewish, Muslim, Christian Art: Toledo. I think they'll be O.K. :) Although as I said, I had my first class today, along with Erin and Anna (they were in the class too), and everyone was pretty much falling asleep. However, it was right before lunch and our professor just talked about the syllabus, so it wasn't quite interesting yet.

Let's see, what else have I done since Friday? Oh, one big thing, I got a cellphone for here! I haven't actually used it for calling, but more for an alarm clock, since mine wasn't working...I was pretty excited for the alarm on my phone, I get pretty stressed out if I don't think I will wake up on time...at SNC I usually use 3 alarms lol.

Anyway, Saturday we had a little tour of Toledo with groups from the school, it was cool! We went around the city and took pictures from the outside on a big hill (and I mean BIG, because everywhere in Toledo is a hill...seriously, it's hard, especially on all the cobblestone roads). They also took us through some streets in the city and showed us the post office, though when the girls and I tried to find it last night we couldn't again haha. We'll look again sometime. I've seen SO many cute stores around the city, though I haven't actually bought anything for me yet. Erin and I bought a few things for friends yesterday, but that's it. But something I've noticed...there's swords and knives EVERYWHERE! Really, they're just out in the open and everything, along with armor and stuff. They even have replicas from certain books/movies, like Eragon and Lord of the Rings. Oh, and Don Quijote memorabilia is everywhere too!

So anyway, also on Saturday I had lunch with my 22 year old host brother, Sergio. A little awkward, but it was O.K. And I've liked the food so far, so that's good! We had Spanish tortilla for dinner, which is one of my fav's! And after I told Isabel I didn't know how to cook, I think she's made it her mission to teach me haha. So, I peeled potatoes and cracked eggs lol, and she told me all about the ingredients and stuff. Small steps she says. I like her style haha.

Well, Sunday was a pretty relaxing day, our first free day to sleep in...I slept til 11:20 am...a record for me :) . Nothing really exciting happened except that I had paella for the first time....AWESOME!!!! Later in the afternoon I went into town to walk around a bit, but that's about it, and like I said, today I had class.

Erin, Anna, Amy, and I have been talking a bit about where we want to travel to, it's very exciting! Though we haven't really decided yet... :) I think we're definitely doing Barcelona and Costa del Sol/Morocco, but other than that we have decided yet. And this weekend we're going to Madrid with the school (on Friday) and we may stay the weekend, we'll see (we still need to chat about it).

So, things are going pretty well, and I'm even not really worrying as much about all the germs I'm exposed to! Haha like on the public transportation and restrooms, no liquid soap in my house (only bars), and how a salad at dinner is a sort of communal bowl where you eat some of your main dish and just take out salad with your fork when you want haha. It's O.K., I'm getting used to it, it's just weird for me! lol

Greetings from Spain!

Hola! I made it here in Spain! It was quite a journey...but I even achieved the seemingly impossible...I got all my things in just one 50 lbs. bag and a backpack! Go me!!!!

(Btw, most of my blogs will be much shorter than this, but I'm just starting this one out a little longer...sorry :) )

So, I left my house Tuesday afternoon for Minnesota since my plane left Wednesday, and this way my parents wouldn't have to drive all those hours in one day. The next day, I got to the airport around noon for my 4:10 plane...I know, I like to get there early, but I met my roommate and friend Erin there, so our families ate lunch together after we checked in (before we went through security). After a while, Anna joined us and we chatted about how nervous we were. :)

After the plane ride to Philly, we started our journey to Madrid! 7 1/2 hours that flight was, and I didn't get up once. Let's just say I've never seen my feet so swollen before! They still haven't gone back to normal completely. Well anyway, of course I only slept about 20 minutes on the flight, and when we got on the bus to go to Toledo, I wanted to look out the window instead of take a nap. Probably not my best move.

Anyway, we got to Toledo, and they loaded our suitcases on these crazy little trucks since the roads are so narrow and there is no way at all our bus could have fit through there...so, we walk. A lot. But I haven't minded yet. :) So, next we had lunch in the cafeteria of our school, and then had a little tour, and then we were told a bit about how to interact with our host families. I of course was SUPER nervous, since at that point I was so tired I couldn't really think straight. I think everyone was pretty out of it though...everyone would just nod their heads at everything the coordinators said and didn't say anything.

Next, we met our host families. Oh boy. I stumbled through the conversation as best I could, though my "parents" know when I don't understand, and they try to help. It was definitely not the best night ever, as my stomach was feeling very bad and I just felt so out of my comfort zone in someone else's house! But still, my parents are very nice and they'll help me out a lot. They left for a while so I did some unpacking, but that was definitely a super lonely time. Plus, I really wanted to sleep but I waited until the dad got back at 10 for dinner. We had, can you guess? ...ham! Haha, it was fine though, just like deli ham but saltier. We also had this sort of rice salad that I wasn't really a fan of but it was too bad. Unfortunately, though, I barely ate anything since my stomach hurt. But a good thing, I have wireless internet in my room, which is awesome! So I checked my e-mail and FB, and I felt a bit better. I also took like a 3 minute shower, and that was GLORIOUS! lol It felt so good! So after dinner I went to bed around 11:30 pm, after being up for about 30 hours...woot. :(

So I woke up this morning, 15 minutes after my alarm was SUPPOSED to go off...FML. But it was fine and I walked to the bus stop, and luckily my "mom" came after work (she works nights) and took me to school, thank goodness because I thought I'd have to go by myself! I'll still probably get lost getting home tonight though...oh boy. So we took placement tests this morning and now I'm off to an oral interview...wish me luck! I'll write back maybe later this weekend, since we have a tour planned for Toledo tomorrow. Adios!

Counting down the days...

So, I'm starting my first blog ever...here goes!

As the days count down to my semester in Spain, let's just say the nerves are starting to set in. The prospect of having to speak Spanish for ALL of my communication is quite terrifying, but I know it will be a fantastic learning experience! I've just started packing, which I'm finding is a lot harder than I thought it would be. :) I try to make lists, but somehow I keep thinking of more and more things I'll need (or more like, things I want to bring), so I've been to Target about every other day lol. I think for now I'll put off going again until a day or two before I leave, that way I'll still have another week to pack and think of any last minute things. However, I'm sure I'll forget something anyway, I just wonder what?

Well anyway, I'll say goodbye for now, but I'm going to try to use this blog to share all my amazing adventures, so I'll try to update often! I can't wait for this journey, and I hope this blog helps you experience it too!! ¡Ven conmigo!

Thank you to all of my friends and family for your love and support!