Happy Easter!

Happy Easter yall! wish I was home to eat a big reese's egg and go to church with the fam! but its ok i bought some medioker chocolate in a chino (really gonna miss those) and hung with some friends. whats new..

- family
My brother Will came to Madrid last week! It was so great to see him! We walked around a ton, went to Retiro Park, ate good tapas at this awesome place called El Tigre, did all the touristy stuff yada yada and he came to Alcalá and got to meet Abuela and Mercedes! I was sad that my little bro, Alexis was at school. I really wanted Will to see his rattail. But it's okay because Mercedes brought down the pictures of him dressed like a bullfighter with a guitar. Abuela insisted that Will looks like a man from Germany. Thanks for visiting wilber!!

our feet in the center of spain! 0 km

wilber and me and Retiro!


- travels
The weekend after Barcelona, Jane's sisters and mom came to visit. I went with them to Granada and Sevilla. In Granada, we saw the Alhambra, where the Moorish kings lived until the Catholic Kings took over in 1492. Its a pretty big deal, really cool! Then we went to Seville, another city in the south. It was hot and i loved it. We went to a flamenco show! I'll add pictures of everything one of these days. When we got back to Madrid, we went to a bull fight. I'm not sure how I feel about them. It was cool to go but at the same time I feel bad for the bulls! They kill 6 at every bullfight! crazy tradition. but anyways.

gardens of the Alhambra

Seville's Cathedral

Flamenco Show!

Bullfight!

Last night we got back from Italy, where we spent our spring break. It was SO much fun. FIrst we went to the south, Naples/Sorrento/Pompeii. The coast is beautiful like a postcard! We went to a cooking class with a real Italian man chef that had hands as big as a gorilla, perfect for kneading dough for pizza and italian food. It was a little intimidating but definitely a great experience! Came with an apron and a cookbook with all types of italian recipes.

First pizza in the birthplace of pizza! about the only good thing in Naples...

Jane and me at Mami Camilla cooking class!

Our new Australian friend making pasta dough

The pasta we made!

The scary chef!

From there we headed to Florence where we met up with our friends Nikki and Amy. We saw Michaelangelo's David, it really is like SO big! and lucked out because a lot of museums were free for culture week. We also saw the Duomo, different from anything I've ever seen! The bridges in Florence were really pretty too, oh and the gelato, loved that. It's probably a good thing I'm studying abroad in Spain, where the food isn't that special. We went up to Piazza Michaelangelo and got a really great view of Florence before heading to Vicchio, a little town in Tuscany where we went to the greatest bed and breakfaast ever. Heidi, the owner, picked us up from the train station and brought us to their house in the middle of the rolling hills! She and her husband, Lorenzo (who doesn't speak a lick of English), carted us around and let us hang out with them while we were there, taking us to markets or nearby towns and making us the tastiest meals/picnics. Heidi is like Julie Andrews. She knows everything and has the coolest accent. Lorenzo knows how to pick his wine, cheese, and honey. all important things for an Italian to know. We were sad to leave, but they sent us off with a box of chocolates, how sweet.

Florence's Duomo!

Michelangelo's David! not supposed to take pictures muahaha

Gelato.

Heidi in her kitchen!

The outside of the house!

the hills are aliiiiive

me and nikki!

I will return one day..

gotta love Lorenzo

Then we were ready for ROme! In Rome, we saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Colosseum, Vatican/Sistine Chapel, Spanish steps (of course) and all that stuff. I loved Rome, definitely want to go back one day when it isn't right before Easter/extreeeeemely crowded with other tourists.

us at the Spanish steps!

Meet Treva, our Vatican tour guide

Pantheon, obvi

oops, got a picture of the Last Judgement

Coliseum

spring fever!

Hey people! I feel like I always find myself saying, "I don't know where to start," but I mean it now more than ever!! Here's some bullet points to keep things simple.

- Officially left Pilar. I could give details, but I think I might just save it and write a whole book about it one day. For the record, I'm not proud about how things went down and I sometimes feel like a wimp for moving but it really is crazy how much a living situation can affect your state of mind! SO glad I did it, but I don't want Pdog to have any bad thoughts about us either. oohh well one step at a time.

- Moved across the street (yes, we walk outside our gate in fear of running into x-madre).

- NEW FAM = SOOO GREAT. I literally feel like I just woke up from a bad dream. Old house and new house = night and day, black and white. Madre is named Mercedes! She is always smiling and just bopping around. I'm not sure what she does all day because she's been out of a job for a while (apparently the Spanish economy isn't doing so well), but she's happy and hospitable and loves to talk. Which is a nice change. I think we have talked more with the new fam after less than a week than we ever did at you know who's house. So the move is already worth it just for my Spanish skill's sake. Next we have Abuela Julia. She get's the personality award. She got sass and I like it. She is hilarious. She's the one who cooks everything and its tasty too! last night she tried a recipe that we saw on some spanish cooking network. It was like turkey wrapped around onion and then fried (in olive oil of course) with some gravy stuff on top. Pretty good! Can't forget about my new little brother, Alexis. His feminine name isn't the only thing that sets him apart from your average 9 year old, get ready for it.. rattail. yes, alexis has a rattail. Love it. Don't worry I will be posting pictures soon. This kid is ridiculous, in a good way. We don't have to worry about him being shy or anything. He runs the show around here, showing up in our rooms at unexpected times, fighting grandma for the remote, and climbing out of windows.

- This past weekend I went to Barcelona with Jane, Nikki, and Amy. Barcelona is such a cool city. I would say I wish I was studying there, except they don't speak Spanish! They speak Catalan, it's like a mix between Spanish and French. I thought it would be more similar to Spanish but it is really hard to understand. so weird! We got there Thursday night and walked around until we found our hostel. Friday we did all the touristy stuff - Las Ramblas (a famous pedestrian street market), Sagrada Familia ( Gaudi's masterpiece, still under construction!!) which was SOOOO pretty, other gaudi buildings, Park Guell, La Boqueria (food market with anything from nasty meat from any animal part thinkable to all types of fruit juices, nuts, etc). Our favorite Spanish teacher in Auburn is from Barcelona so we followed some tips from him and checked out some of his favorite areas. Saturday we went to the beach, I have never been so pasty in my life so I got my first good sunburn in for 2011. Loved Barcelona

- Now I am stressed because all of a sudden we actually have to do work at school again. There seems to be a paper and a presentation for each class due sometime in the next week or two before our spring break, which comes right before finals... crazy how fast time passes I never thought I'd say this but I'm not going to be ready to leave! so blogging will be brief but I'll do my best.

SURPRISE

guess who's moving houses!?!? consider yourself lucky if you read this.. we aren't really telling anyone yet but we went in ana's office today (she's the one who asks us how our homestays are going) just to inquire about moving (sure that it was too late and wasn't probably gonna happen) and before we knew it we agreed to get our things together and bid farewell to this side of calle gabriela mistral thursday right before heading off to barcelona. am I nervous about the school calling Pilar tomorrow to tell her we are leaving the next day? SI! am I worried she might punish us in our sleep? SI! am I excited about living with another spanish family that actua1ly wants to host students and help them learn/practice spanish without making us feel like huge burdens? YES! so there's that. say a prayer. I am terrified of the next 48 hours. p.s. we know that our new madre is a baller because we met her earlier in the semester when she was hosting 2 other auburn guys. they had to move because of her sick uncle that she was taking care of. but he died and now she needs more students. her name is mercedes and we are going to have a grandma and a little brother! wish us luck!

Northern Spain-Alcalá-Prague

OOPS sorry it's been so long, followers. It's not because I'm lazy, it's actually because I'm busy. And time is flying here, which is getting sad! Last time I wrote about our trip to Morocco, which I already miss and want to go back. If any of you ever get the chance to go, do it. Since then..

- In Alcalá. School has been pretty easy since midterms, but it's about to kick up again with presentations and papers due. Nothing too noteworthy has been going on except I'm really loving the group and new amigos we got at school in Instituto B! Got some cool places in the US to visit after all this is over. I've never been to the Grand Canyon..

- Northern Spain. Last weekend Jane and I went to Northern Spain. They call it "Green SPain". It's so beautiful!! I feel bad admitting this but I didn't really think Spain had any pretty landscape like that. I always thought, leave it to Ireland or Scotland or somewhere like that. But I'm tellin you this place looked like the Sound of Music plus a beach. We stayed at a place called Posada de las Mananitas. The owners were like the host family we never had! haha shh dont tell pilar. but really, they were SO sweet. They made us the best breakfast and real american like coffee that weak but never ending. They even drove us to the Picos de Europa, a mountain range about an hour and a half from there. We stayed in Cantabria, but the mountains are in a region called Asturias (google image it, my pictures don't do it justice). ALl of northern spain is known for it's dairy products. HANDS DOWN best cheese I've ever had, got it straight from the monk who made it. Or did whatever to the cows to get it. Going to the north really made me appreciate Spain in a whole new way! I love Spain, it's got a little something for everyone! Really, though. I miss the Posada people.

- PRAGUE. I can't believe I went to the Czech Republic! I never really thought I'd make it to eastern europe for some reason, and all I ever thought of when I heard of it was the Bourne Identity movies or weird stuff like that. So I really wasn't sure what to expect. I went with three other girls from the Auburn group-- Amy, Jane, and Kristina. My favorite thing about Prague has to be the architecture. The buildings are SO old and the cobblestone streets are so neat. The old town square really feels like fairytale buildings or something. Charles Bridge is famous, too, and so beautiful. It links the Old Town with the Prague Castle. There's statues of a lot of influential people along the sides of the bridge, sorry I don't know who they are. We also walked to the Lennon wall. This is a wall full of graffiti inspired by John Lennon, and the other beatles too, that was created in 1980 or 90 something going against communism. Anyone and everyone can write on the wall, I think you could go one day and back another and it look completely different. We met some great hippies at the wall (had to be in their 50s at least) who insisted we write a Haiku about peace. Haha very interesting. A little history lesson- the Czech Republic was a communist country until 1989- pretty recent! Some people we talked to reassured us that that could be the reason Czechs weren't all too friendly. They were pretty rude honestly, which made me spain-sick. I was ready to get back to Spain! When I first came to Spain, I thought the people were a little cold. But I tell you what, compared to the Czechs they seem way more open and approachable. Don't get me wrong, I did love Praga though. We tried goulash, almost like a stew with beef, potatoes, and onion. I liked it a lot! But our friend Nikki claims that HUngary takes the cake as far as goulash goes in eastern europe. We also got Thai massages- they are really cheap and all over Prague! Next stop-Thailand. Who's with me? Overall, Prague was great! I consider myself lucky for being the only one out of us 4 who didn't get sick... Was it the water? a germ? there must be something in that goulash..

ذهبنا إلى أفريقيا

So now I can say I've been to 3 continents! Morocco is in northern Africa, very close to Spain. Last Wednesday, my parents, Jane, and I set out to explore a new land! We flew with RyanAir to Morocco (I think my parents really enjoyed the nonstop 2 hr sales pitch for perfume and snacks). When we got there we went to the hotel, which was like SO awesome. Nice recommendation, preach, we owe ya one. That night we hopped in a cab and asked if there were any good restaurants around. Our cab driver proceeded to dump us in a sketchy alley where he promised a typical Moroccan restaurant that we'd love. Where do I even start? We walked up some steps and came to a long hallway lined with dancing/chanting Moroccans. was it scary? a little. did i feel like a vip celebrity? absolutely. they're really good at making everyone feel like they have just been twiddling their thumbs until the tourists arrive. It's like someone picked us up and threw us into the most "Moroccan" habitat ever. They had all kinds of entertainment like a belly dancer, a lady balancing a tray with candles on her head while doing the splits and being creepy, people playing music and singing, etc. After 3+ very interesting hours and wayyy too much food for 4 people (none of us speak arabic or knew how to order Moroccan cuisine) we headed back to the hotel.

Thursday morning we walked out of our hotel to walk to the market. We were followed by a man, abdul or somehting, that claimed he wanted to guide us. We told him thanks but no thanks. He kept saying, but really I dont want your money I just want to show you. We literally couldn't get him to leave. He did have some good information though.. Should we be surprised that we followed that parasight around for 4 hours and we ended up giving him money? They really know how to get ya. My parents nicknamed him paraSIGHT because he wouldn't go away but he did have some good information and take us to good places, i guess. The market is like nothing I've ever seen before! It was probably my favorite thing about Morocco. There are hundreds of souks full of different things, anything you can think of. You can walk down one street and end up in some maze and have no idea how you got there or how to get out to find the main square. The square is really cool too, its called Jemaa el Fna. There you can find anything from snake charmers, street performers, monkeys that do flips, and LOTS of fresh squeezed orange juice. Another thing about the market is haggling. Gotta be aggressive in those souks! Usually you can talk them down a good bit, shopping for things is more fun when you feel like you struck a deal.

Friday we were picked up by a friend of a friend who drove us to the mountains. We called him Abdog for short, and he is a Christian that lives in Morocco. He helped with the translation of the bible into the Berber language (the Berbers are the indigenous people-they live in the mountains and don't speak Arabic like in the city of Marrakech). He took us to a missionary's house that we know through friends. From there we went even higher up and went to a real Berber home! The family invited us in, the girls went to the kitchen where they were preparing food for us. It was like nothing I've ever seen! These people really live off the land. They were boiling water over burning firewood in their clay oven. We got to see them make the bread, too. It's so good! Although it would have tasted better if I wasn't so worried about the lack of hygiene. What they did was take the firewood out of the stove and wipe the insides clean and then slap the dough onto the sides of the interior of the stove! the bread cooked there, and it was tasty yum yum. Qué rico. that's what pilar would say. her influence lives on with us during our weekend trips.They also gave us olive oil to eat with it which they pressed from olives that grew on their own olive trees! I could go on but I won't. It was quite an experience though! Then we went to a restaurant where abdog told us his story. We had to be kind of hush hush since Islam is so prevalent there (hence the nickname and lack of picture of him) It's so crazy that people are still prosecuted for their beliefs. He's such an inspiration!

Saturday we went to Essouria, the beach. It is roughly 2 hours away from Marrakech. Amy and Kristina, two of our friends that go to Auburn, came with us! It was a really pretty drive. It seems like Morocco has every type of landscape there is: desert, beach, mountains. It's a beautiful country! Saturday got pretty crazy. We haggled in the market, saw goats standing tree branches, rode camels, the usual. Jane and I rode Jimmy and Kristina and Amy had Blanco. Couldn't get the parents to do it but maybe one day we'll go back to Morocco for round 2 with the whole clan and hit up the Sahara.

Sunday we came back to good ole Alcatraz. Just kidding, I love Alcalá. Seriously, though. Jane and I brought my mom to Alcalá Magna, the mall in our hood. We love it! We went to VIPS to eat dinner (it's got american food and I think dottie was ready for that). Dad must have eaten a little germ in the berber house because he wasn't feeling too well. I stayed the night with them in their hotel and then sent them off home Monday morning! It was sad, but we had so much fun! Thanks for coming to see me parents! Don't cry mom, I'll see ya in 2 months!

What else, what else? We watched yet another disturbing movie in film class. Last night we met some friends at Casa Roja, our favorite tapa place, and all went to Media Pinta together! Love Tuesdays with the Instituto B peeps. Here are some pictures of this past week- I don't have many and I had to borrow from Jane because I used mom's camera in Morocco!

Dinner on the first night!

te amo!

dad gets rubbed down in a spice shop (we can thank parasight for bringing us there)

monkey in Jemaa el Fna!

the "water men" - apparently they're typical moroccan icons or symbols FYI you gotta pay to take pictures with or of anyhting cool in Morocco

berber homes!

goats in a tree!

Jimmy and Blanco!