Hello everyone!! So the last few days have been incredible. Last weekend we were invited by one of the guys in my class to come to a bar and listen to some of his music. In addition, this music of his was playing at the bar because it was an Indian holiday, he is from India, and it was going to be a huge fiesta. Indeed it was. A bunch of us from cal poly went and we were all “blessed”, red dots on our foreheads and learned how they dance in India. It was an amazing experience-and the music was GREAT

This is just one example of the diversity we are able to experience on this trip. My Spanish culture class contains people from America, India, Afghanistan, Sweden, Germany,etc. so what is cool is that when we learn about a certain custom of Spain we all then get to share our customs in our country. Can you say amazing?!?!? We then meandered of to a place called su, where you buy beverages in liters and put deposits on the glasses. (that was just a side-note). The next day we went to Segovia and saw the aqueduct, alcazar, and definite Spanish streets. These streets were what I expected to see when I came to Spain, small-barely room for one car, little shops on the sides and cobblestone everywhere. One of our friends fathers was also visiting this weekend so he was able to join us in Segovia, Philip Payne.

After a day at Segovia we came home and went to another pub to watch the Valladolid soccer game, I left in the middle though because Natalie’s dad wanted to take us out to dinner. It was yet another very great experience. Her father is a missionary from Ecuador, which was very cool because we were able to talk about Keith teaching over there and more. Myself along with six other girls will probably all remember this night because we had very intense and deep conversations. For example ponder this: what would you say to the world, if there was a universal language, and you had fifteen minutes-what would you say to THE WHOLE WORLD? I really enjoyed it because it wasn’t a question that we are used to, there is no right or wrong answer or a formula to follow but it made you think about what you really care about and what is most important in the world-what does the world really need to hear about? Sunday was supposed to be our study day so we all got together at a café, but I for some reason had a hard time focusing-we still had fun though J Now it is the beginning to another week of school-I have two papers to write, two quizzes and a mid-term so cross your fingers for me. I am feeling very lucky to be having the life I am having!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some side notes:
-our tablecloth says chicken on it instead of pollo-my parents don’t know “chicken” unless I were to point at a picture lol.
-I learned how to eat baby lobster at dinner Sunday night….its still a big confusing for me.
-I had a conversation with my Spanish mom about relationships which she had some very good insight on.
-it is raining in Valladolid and we all look hysterical trying to fit under each other’s umbrellas.

weekend in NERJA!!

WOW. what a weekend we just had. Myself along with five other girls had the adventure of a life time.side note- Aubrea, Tiffany, Hanna, Dalia, and Natalie are the girls and are seriously amazing. we have already bonded so much and we are all extremely excited about how our friendships have strengthened in such a short amount of time. I can't wait for the next few months and for the next few years together in slo town. However, this weekend-Nerja we lucked out. Natalie actually has family down there and they were the nicest people ever. Pat was from Ireland and her husband Ian was from Scotland and were hysterical. They rented us two apartments in their building to stay in that looked out to the ocean, had a huge pool, our own beds, and a balcony-can you say perfection??? We were greeted by them picking us up from the airport in a bus taxi and telling us their life story. After unpacking at about 1am we sat around the table and were given pizzas along with various types of fish. AMAZING. then next day ian hooked us up with a paddle boat....out in the Mediterranan ocean....it gets better-it was a pink flamingo!!! haha. so yes we swam in the mediterranean and it was like a dream. We were also there during one of their biggest festivals so we saw so many girls dressed like flamenco dancers, they had a huge carnival going on and we went on a rollercoaster that let us look over the city. We also went to a flee market and lots of cool cafes and restaurants along with the balcon, which is one of the coolest views ever. I am hoping to get some pictures from the girls soon becuase my camera died. we were able to see the family tree of natalies entire life which was very cool because we realized not many friends get to experience that kind of thing. We said our goodbyes and took the lunches Ian made for us for the ride( they had hospitality i have never seen). The crazy part was that this was the first time they and Natalie had ever met so it was a very very cool thing to be part of.

anyways, we are now back in valladolid, after having to switch taxi vans and turning around and going from one train to the next-but it was so fun! our group of girls is so easy to travel with :) I think that hits the main points. I am now off to do some homework and get ready for the week. back to three huge meals a day, class class class and yet still being the most amazing thing i could ever ask for. Hope all is well.

wednesday october 7th

today i experienced my first rainstorm in valladolid and wow!!! it was awesome! :) only half of us had umbrellas and the rain wasn't stopping us from our plans at the museum. therefore we trecked it through the puddles and the car splashes and more. there is no longer such thing as a dry notebook for any of us. however, the museum was legit!!! we learned just about everything we would want to learn about the romans and their influence on spain-very cool stuff. i know have a paper to write on the roman influence due tomorrow as well as a paper about my opinion on evil. ultimately i tell you these things to express the fact that everything we are doing here is focused on our academics but it is very easy to be interested in. I am still loving my classes and our reading for the witch-hunt class is probably one of the most intriguing classes i have ever encountered. it may come as a surprise to most of you but i actually like doing the reading about various cases for that class.mom and dad, i know you guys are proud :) my mama and i had a good time today, i make her laugh a lot which may or may not be a good thing. Good because at I am making her laugh, but bad because she laughs at my lack of spanish. one of the things i had left out earlier is that the main place to hang out here at the night is called "the biblioteca" which puts a smile on all of our faces becuase it is a reminder of slo town.

other than updates on spain, i would like to say thank you to everyone who kept my family and wrightwood in their prayers. i am glad to hear things are looking up. i love you!

tuesday october 6th

Today is Tuesday. The last few days have been amazing. We went to Burgos this weekend and WOW, such a cool experience. We went into the most amazing cathedral, walked up to a castle to see the whole city and ate lunch on the castle stairs. We then explored and experienced their type of flee market….really cool stuff!!! Everything you find is hand-made, so of course I had to buy something….it’s a ring with a turquoise stone in it-BEAUTIFUL!!!! We also were able to be there during their medieval parade so we have tons of pictures of that too. We then went to the monastery after that and saw another view of the city but at this point we were a little worn out. Perhaps also it was due to the night before and the celebrations of one of the girls’ birthdays. Which, by the way, there is no such thing as sleep in this city-people are out and about until at least 5 having a good time and up by 8 or 9 ready for the day haha. Sunday we were able to sleep in though and then I went and bought tickets for this weekends adventure=MALAGA!!!! Yeah, I am so excited. I am going with 5 other girls and one of them actually has family over there so it is very convenient. Can anyone say free tour guide??? I can J other than that we have been going to school…..early morning for Spanish and late night for poly. All great classes. Side note, but still very interesting, we were able to watch policia in action too!!! Some guy was trying to get into a café and the lady told him he couldn’t come in, things began to get a little aggressive but in about 5 seconds, NO EXAGERATION, policia were there handling the situation. I found that policia also put on gloves before they touch anyone or anything in the place they are going. This is just another example of differences in cultures, but then again I don’t have many encounters with the cops so I could be wrong about them in the states. Some of the girls and I also have been talking about starting a bible study which we actually followed through on last night and it went really well. I am very excited about the support group I have here, inside and outside of the bible study, and have already created very strong friendships. I think those are the big points for now. Everything here is still more than amazing and I can’t wait to show everyone pictures when I get back. If anyone has any specific questions feel free to ask me. Love you!!

day 4

DAY 4
The day is only partially over but I doubt tonight I will have time for another update. Today we woke up ate our daily toast, cocoa, and crackers and headed to school. Started with our grammar class for two hours and laughed for at least half of it. We still have plenty of language barriers but a lot of the time it just makes it funny. For example today we were trying to explain how we drink coke in the states but she freaked out a bit and thought we meant coke like the drug haha. Then switched over to new professors for our culture classes. It was a bit more stressful than yesterday but that is why we are here right? School and Spanish and school and Spanish and trust me we are doing plenty of both. Then it was time for almuerzo with the family, the biggest meal of the day which consists of about three huge meals and then some. Today was our first siesta experience…but it only lasted for about twenty minutes and we were off to meet some of the girls. We are now sitting outside the law school building, gorgeous, on the grass using our computers and waiting to meet up with others to go find some boots-it is said to rain all next week. After that it will be dinner time and tomorrow is one of the girls birthdays so we will be going out to celebrate. Tomorrow is our day at burgos so hopefully we wont be out too late. The weather is still perfect here and I am meeting so many wonderful people. I absolutely love the culture!!! Our parents are starting to lose their patients with us as far as not understanding what they are saying but I think it will all come with time. I love you guys!!

day 3 in valladolid-sorry i missed a few days

DAY 3
We are now in Valladolid!!!!So today was our first official day of classes. I had Spanish in the morning, two separate classes with two separate professors, and it was amazing. However, when the day began I had a slight panic attack. This was because I was expecting to be placed in a certain level, where most of my friend ended up being placed, but I was put in one higher. Yes, I should have been excited because apparently I know more Spanish then I thought and did better on our placement test then I thought. But, it was still a bit scary. The world didn’t end though. My first class was Spanish grammar and my professor was Christina Garcia. She is a very sweet and funny lady although she knows how to speak pretty fast. Everyone in the class is very supportive so it ended up being great. The next class I had was my oral class and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. This was mainly because the class is filled with students from all over the world and the only way we can communicate is to speak SPANISH!!! I made some friends from Taiwan in class too. SIDE NOTE: last night we went out and I met about ten new people from all over, germany, Italy, London, france, Sweden, and then Wisconsin. Long story short, Spanish classes are going to be a challenge but they are divertido (fun) so they will be perfect!!! After class we came home to have lunch with our families, we have breakfast dinner and lunch with mi madre, mi padre, and su perro “Beethoven”. Then we went early to class and checked e-mails, talked to mom and dad ( you guys are adorable) and headed off to class. So our Spanish classes in the morning are at centro de idiomas but our night classes with cal poly are in the law school building which is amazing!!! Not many students are even allowed in the building I guess so it is unbelievable that we get to study there. It is a huge building with old, what I believe to be renaissance architecture, and pillars and stairs that split in the middle like palaces do. Kelsey, my roommate, and I are lucky enough that we can walk to both locations whereas other students in our program have to take the bus to and from everyday multiple times. Classes tonight were very interesting as well, I am taking a culture of Spain class as well as the with-hunt in Europe. In addition to these classes we have another two unit class but that will be completed on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The two unit class consists of a lot of sight-seeing and paper writing I believe. All in all we have about 20+ hours of Spanish classes a week, home in time for lunch, then back to school until 8, making our cal poly courses about 8 hours a week. Sum it all up, we have a very busy schedule but it doesn’t put a damper on us having a good time at all. Tonight we might join some friends for an exchange of international students and go from “café” to “café”. However, we are pretty loaded with reading and tarea so we will see how much we get done first. This weekend we are going to burgos with our cal poly group which is very exciting so hopefully I will have more pictures to show you guys soon.

Our house: it is small but great. We have 3 bedrooms but one they don’t let people use haha. So Kelsey and I share a bed large enough to fit two beds, a mini closet and our bodies standing up J we have a bathroom that we share with our padres and then a living room (we aren’t supposed to go in unless our family is already in there) and a kitchen (which we cannot cook, clean, or do anything but sit and eat in). we are allowed showers of five minutes and must wear socks everywhere in the house but no shoes allowed. Our mom is extremely anti-germs. After our shower we spray down and clean the walls too. Our room stays clean, bed made and all, and we are allowed a load of laundry once a week. We don’t have internet in our house but we also don’t have much time to use it anyways. We have four other girls in our program that live in our building so we have been going to and from places together a lot.

I am having the time of my life still and am so excited for this experience. It still soaks in more and more everyday but I can already tell that I am learning Spanish quickly. Thank you mom and dad again for being so wonderful. Brother, if you read this I would love to hear about how life is going in south America. I miss you all. I love you!!

it may be a little overwhelming reading this e-mails jumping around, i am sorry. hopefully next time i will have more time to explain it all. i love you guys!thank you mom and dad you are wonderful. We made another video about our day today but i figured i might as well write in case we don't get them up soon. so...we woke up this morning about 6am our time and showered, got ready and ate breakfast in time to walk to our pick up station at 7:30ish. our bus took us to another bus and we started our DAY LONG tour. It began with Windsor which was absolutely incredible!!! we saw so much art and architecture along with very unique fun facts. my favorite was seeing a doll house that was the same layout as windsor castle and when i say same i mean gold plates, jewel room, completely furnished identically. we have plenty of pictures onces again and then were off to Bath. we were all a little unsure of what to expect here but it was beautiful. the drive was pure greeness...hills, trees, and then lots of cows. also, tiffany, one of the girls i am with knows everything about milk so that opened a pretty good convo. the bath's were great-hard to explain but really cool. They are like hot springs-we were able to drink water from it too. :) they held really interesting stories within the walls and made us all want to see how it would have been back in the day.then we had massive heart to hearts on the ride to our next destination-STONEHENGE!!! And wow, I know it sounds cool, but to actually stand there and jump in front of it, do cartwheels, and pretend to kick, hold, and kiss the stones is amazing-yes we did all of that. It was such an incredible feeling. We then came back and when we got off the bus we walked to a pub called “alberts” and picked up dinner-some fish and chips and beverages with a side of tarder sauce and a seared lemon haha….it was delicious with the exception of the skin they left on half the fish….but don’t you fret we still ate it  after that the guys working there told us we only had about 6 minutes to catch the last underground so he pointed one way and we RAN….but didn’t see it so we asked some girls and they pointed the other way back toward alberts so we we RAN again….and then some guys pointed another direction and we RAN yes again. When we found it, it was closed  so then we went next door and asked for a map to find our way home when we came to find that the guy at the restaurant was joking and the underground had hours left….that one stop in particular was shut down haha. How funny is that!! Lol. Then we finally got home, made our recap video and discussed our schedule for tomorrow. So tomorrow we have in store for us, dealing with our flights for Thursday morning, the changing of the guards hopefully, walking to the gardens, grabbing lunch and then going to the tower of London. Which will be followed up by getting dressed up and going to dinner and a play. Thursday morning we will be waking up and leaving our hostel at 5:30 and London by 9 to hit the Madrid. What a life huh??? We were thinking today how lucky we are- I mean cal poly starts classes today and we are inside castles and laughing on world known destinations. It is absolutely perfect and we are sad to leave but excited for our next stop!! I love you guys!

So now we are in Madrid and it has been fantastic. The last couple of days we have seen just about all of Madrid, Toledo, el Escorial, and the valley of the falling. We have encountered a variety of foods which has been a blast…some delicious and some not so delicious. We have done a lot of walking and getting to know more people in the group. We went out for the first time last night and it is crazy how late this town is alive. We saw people up and about until 3 to 4 am….not just kids but guys in business attire and others just out to have a cup of coffee-I have never seen anything like it. The last few days have been very full and long. Today we were up by eight and just got back…it is a little after eight pm. We have an hour or so of nap time or whatever else we want to do and then dinner at 9:30. Tomorrow we are going to go try to get a phone plan so the students in the program will be able to stay in contact when we go to Valladolid. When we get there we will be living all over the city and may or may not have any classes together. Anyways, I will do my best to keep up with updates here and there but it is going to get a little hectic when we leave Madrid. I love you all and would love to hear what you have been up to 

day 2

thank you mom and dad you are wonderful-soon i will have time to send these myself but we are on crunch time for internet.I LOVE YOU!!!! We made another video about our day today but i figured i might as well write in case we don't get them up soon. so...we woke up this morning about 6am our time and showered, got ready and ate breakfast in time to walk to our pick up station at 7:30ish. our bus took us to another bus and we started our DAY LONG tour. It began with Windsor which was absolutely incredible!!! we saw so much art and architecture along with very unique fun facts. my favorite was seeing a doll house that was the same layout as windsor castle and when i say same i mean gold plates, jewel room, completely furnished identically. we have plenty of pictures onces again and then were off to Bath. we were all a little unsure of what to expect here but it was beautiful. the drive was pure greeness...hills, trees, and then lots of cows. also, tiffany, one of the girls i am with knows everything about milk so that opened a pretty good convo. the bath's were great-hard to explain but really cool. They are like hot springs-we were able to drink water from it too. :) they held really interesting stories within the walls and made us all want to see how it would have been back in the day.then we had massive heart to hearts on the ride to our next destination-STONEHENGE!!! And wow, I know it sounds cool, but to actually stand there and jump in front of it, do cartwheels, and pretend to kick, hold, and kiss the stones is amazing-yes we did all of that. It was such an incredible feeling. We then came back and when we got off the bus we walked to a pub called “alberts” and picked up dinner-some fish and chips and beverages with a side of tarder sauce and a seared lemon haha….it was delicious with the exception of the skin they left on half the fish….but don’t you fret we still ate it  after that the guys working there told us we only had about 6 minutes to catch the last underground so he pointed one way and we RAN….but didn’t see it so we asked some girls and they pointed the other way back toward alberts so we we RAN again….and then some guys pointed another direction and we RAN yes again. When we found it, it was closed  so then we went next door and asked for a map to find our way home when we came to find that the guy at the restaurant was joking and the underground had hours left….that one stop in particular was shut down haha. How funny is that!! Lol. Then we finally got home, made our recap video and discussed our schedule for tomorrow. So tomorrow we have in store for us, dealing with our flights for Thursday morning, the changing of the guards hopefully, walking to the gardens, grabbing lunch and then going to the tower of London. Which will be followed up by getting dressed up and going to dinner and a play. Thursday morning we will be waking up and leaving our hostel at 5:30 and London by 9 to hit the Madrid. What a life huh??? We were thinking today how lucky we are- I mean cal poly starts classes today and we are inside castles and laughing on world known destinations. It is absolutely perfect and we are sad to leave but excited for our next stop!! I love you guys!

DAY 1

DAY 1
hi parents- i am here safe and sound. we are having a wonderful time!!! we are making videos of us recaping on our first day and hope to continue it....we will be putting them on youtube so it will be easy access for you guys :) today was going to be our mellow day but we were too pumped!! we haven't slept since we said our goodbyes-the plane was sweet, movies, chatting, and more.for example, lots of food, socks, sleep masks, toothbrush, toothpaste, and seriously the largest amount of options as far as movies, tv shows, music and sports.when we landed we exchanged money, easily got our bags and were on our way. We walked forever trying to get to our hostel. we had some great experiences on the tube which i would love to tell you about soon-and you will hear about in the video. Then we walked to catch a free walking tour which ended up being really cool!!!!!! it was a young guy, a senior in high school, and he rocked it. it lasted about 2-3 hours and we saw all the important stuff. we went out to dinner at this nice italian restaurant and all of us girls bonded really well. they are all amazing and we get along wonderfully. people in london are either really nice or really rude but so far we have encountered many more nice ones. london is absolutley gorgeous lit up at night and we walked down the side of the river to watch street performers; mimes, musicians, painters, the usual. some funny things are that we are at the hostel, which is pretty cool-we each have our own bed and the five of us share a shower and a toilet however we were unaware that we didn't get towels so we have no towels to shower with at this point becuase we refuse to spend 10 for a towel for a night lol. anyways, that is a brief catch up on our day. i hope you are having a great day!! i love you and you can write me whenever you get a chance and i will write you back when i am back on (we were supposed to get free internet but now they are changing companies and say we have to pay, but being girls we used some magic skill to talk them into otherwise tonight. lol. if you would like to send this message to others that would be cool becuase i have limited time but don't feel like you need to( except for keith and kell, please send this to them). i love you family!!!