Home!

Well it was quite the journey to get back to the states, but nonetheless I'M HOME! I left the hotel in Madrid at 5 am on Monday morning and got to the airport for my flight which left at 9:00 AM. The problem is that the flight was late and didn't leave until about 11:30 AM and it caused me to miss my next flight from Germany to LAX. So the airport said that there was one more flight I could try getting on and they put me on the waiting list. So I waited. And waited. And waited for a good 2 hours just to find that there was not room for me in the plane and that I would be spending the night in Germany. The airline company paid for a hotel for me as well as food and transportation to and from the airport. So I can officially say that I've been in Germany! I woke up the next morning at 5 AM as well to make my next flight which left Germany at 8 am and flew to Chicago. The good news is that the airline company upgraded me to first class!! So I now know why people spend thousands of dollars to sit in first class. It is probably the closest thing to heaven on earth! I reclined my chair into a bed and slept almost the entire 9 hour flight. IT WAS FANTASTIC! I got to Chicago and went through customs and rechecked in my suitcase, then headed to my last flight to LA. That flight went by really quickly and before I knew it I was back home! So I ended up making it home, but my suitcase did not. The airline is shipping it to my house on Thursday. GREAT. Well at least I got to sleep in my bed last night. 42 hours of traveling and I'm finally back. Lots of love!

Saying Goodbye

Well graduation was yesterday and it was such a bittersweet day. We said goodbye to our professors who have been with us the entire month. Luckily, we all passed! :) That night was so sad because everyone knew that it was our last night in Valladolid. Today was even worse. My family and I spent the morning together. I gave them their gifts that I made for them and the mom started crying. I teared up a little, but the rest of my tears came that afternoon when it came time to say goodbye to my family. I have never had such a painful experience. It was so hard because I wanted to tell them how much they meant to me and how amazing my trip has been because of them, but I couldn't find the words in English OR in Spanish. So I just told them, "Tu Estas en mi corazon para siempre" which means, you are in my heart forever, and they said that I am in theirs too. I shared a few good tears with Nikki on the train and then felt a little better. I took the world's fastest train to get to Madrid and then we maneuvered the metros to find our way to our hotel. Unfortunately, we got lost AFTER we got off the confusing metros and trains. But we managed to get to our hotel safe and sound and it is beautiful. Nikky wants to get going now and this will probably be my last blog before I come home, but I'll be home soon! Much Love ahora y siempre... :)

Video of Last Sunday night...

Hey Everyone! If you copy and paste this link into a nnew webpage, you can see one of my videos from the night when Spain won the world cup! It's quite crazy... make sure your volume isn't too loud!!

Flowes for Nieves

Today I was walking home from school and decided to buy my host mom a boquet of flowers. I brought them in the door and she asked me what the flowers were for. When I explained that they were to thank her for all that she has been doing for me, she literally got giddy with excitement and gave me a hug and kept saying thank you over and over again. Now every time she walks by the table where they are sitting, she says, "Mis flores, que bonita, que bonita," It's amazing how the smallest act of kindness can go so far in someone's life. :)

Pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044581&id=1290871530&l=e3082d8573

If you click on this link you can see my pictures!!!

A Much needed update...

Sorry for the lack of updates! My computer has been extremely finicky and then it just completely died. Luckily I have an amazing friend out here who has the same computer as me and she is letting me borrow her adaptor. So... long story short, my past week went from great to horrible in the period of a few days. I was having a great time... I went to Burgos with my family and visited their sister for her brithday... (This was the great part) Then I came back to school and felt completely overwhelmed and out of the loop after only missing one day. (This was the getting bad part...) So I set out to study and do my best on the test on Friday... I got 17/55 which is a 31%... (This is the BAD) part... then one of my professors stopped me on my way out of school and said that I should spend some extra time studying because she feels like I am slipping behind in school. (This is the borrible part). SO. I just had to go home and sleep and not think about it and just try to wake up refreshed and with a better heart. I woke up and decided to go to a concert with Nikky. We went, and enjoyed the first few songs, and then decided we were bored. It was in a cathedral though... so we figured it would be slightly innappropriate to just get up and leave halfway through the performance. So we stayed... and afterwards went out to a cafe/bar. We then walked around town for a while and just enjoyed the "cool" night air. School is looking up again for me though. The whole class got a 40% or lower on their test, so the teacher is letting us retake them. I had class today and it went really well. The same professor who said I needed to spend some extra time studying seemed very impressed with my responses in class today.

Now I have to tell you about yesterday!!! It was a saints day here in Spain and apparently they celebrate it with fireworks, fiestas and beer! My family told me they were taking me to their friends house to celebrate. I was excited because I had met this friend in the past and she is really nice. So we arrived at her house, and we just kind of stood around. I was confused as to why we weren't going inside... when suddenly this door opens up from under the ground and out pops Ana (the friend). I was shocked, confused, and just down right flaburgasted as to where she came from and where we were going. We all climbed into this stairway where she came from and when we got to the bottom, there was a table set and ready for us to eat! Apparently this was a cave back in the day... and they renovated it and made it into a little part of their house. It was absolutely freezing down there. The thermometer said 43 degrees! so we ate down in the cave and then came up and sat on top of the cave entrance and watched THE BIGGEST fireworks show that I have ever seen. I loved it! We were so close to the fireworks that you could hear the people talking as they lit the fireworks AND the ashes were falling into your hair as they fell from the sky. After the fireworks, we went to a different friend's house and hung out for a while... then at about 1 am we went out to the plaza to go dancing. We danced until about 3 am and then we headed home since I had to be up for school in 4 hours. Let's just say I was pretty tired today! So other than that, my family is still amazing. Although, I'm starting to miss home (especially my little brother... the coolest brother in the world!) Now it's off to siesta... finally!! Much love to you all!

The Typical Spanish Day

Alrighty... most of you have been asking me lots of questions... so here are some of the answers! My typical day consists of waking up at 7:30 am. I get and get ready and head out to have breakfast which is ALWAYS 2 pieces of toast, orange juice, and coffee. As soon as I am done eating, I meet up with a friend who lives in the same apartment complex and we walk to school. The walk is about 45 minutes but it is usually pretty nice in the mornings and we aren't too exhausted by the time we get to class. I am in class from 9-1:40 pm. By the time class is out, it is about 105 degrees outside, so I take the smelly bus home. I get home about 2:30 and when I walk in the door my mom has lunch ready and sitting on the table. We eat lunch around the television and no one really talks. I don't really like this because (as most of you know) I love to talk! :)Now... as far as food goes. Let me say it this way: since I've been here, not one day has gone by where I have NOT eaten ham. In fact, most days I have ham twice a day. It is the most popular meat in spain. Everything is "patatas con jamon" or "queso con jamon" or "melon con jamon" (Melon and ham is actually my new favorite!) They eat so much ham that at one store in Salamanca, I saw a shirt that says, "Donde esta mi cerveza, mis tapas y mi jamon??" That means, where is my beer, my tapas and my ham!? And at my school, there is a vending machine with ham flavored chips. GROSS. haha :) Anyways... after we eat lunch we clean up the table, my mom mops and dusts the house and then we all go to sleep for about 2 hours. All of the stores close in Spain from 2pm - 5pm so the workers can all go home and have lunch with their families. I love this about Spain. Family is placed at such a high priority and it is such a nice break from the hustle of life. At around 6 I usually meet up with some friends and we go out shopping, or exploring or purposefully getting lost (which is actually quite fun!) We head back home around 9:30 because dinner is at 10 pm. For dinner, I've learned that we have whatever we didn't finish at lunch, and a small meal. So a quick note to self: if you don't like what you're eating for lunch, eat it ALL at lunch so you won't have to see it again!! After dinner, I do my homework for the next day, I usually go out again with my friends to one of the plazas to hang out and then I get back around 12 am. I hang out with my family here until around 2 am and then we start going to bed around 2:30 or 3 am. I wake up again at 7:30 and the day starts all over! I love it! It is going to be really hard for me to readjust to American life when I get back. I think I might introduce my family to siestas!! Oh and one more thing most of you will be shocked to know... I ate fish today for lunch. Much love to you all!