HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER JENA MARIE, WHO IS TURNING 11 TODAY!!!! I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
also, happy fourth of july to everyone!!
just a little record of the fabulous things of the world. drinks, food, friends, and all the things that make life worth living!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
my need to post pictures finally overcame my laziness.
jackie, anthony, melika, and heidi on the river
fab five doing it big on the river
thomas, jackie, heidi, anthony, cayla
blanca, the beautiful and super smart 2 year old we live with
we love her.
MEATBALLS AND POTATOES!
so so so so delicious, one of the best dishes i´ve had in spain.
flamenco show en una cueva
alex, jackie, heidi, cayla
overlookign the alhambra at night!
cayla and thomas
just having fun :)
paco, fran, heidi
at the botellón on her birthday!
the alhambra by day
the alhambra by night
crazy spanish people we met in granada...
an orgasmo is a drink by the way (so, so delicious)
a drink and a tapa for only 2 euro!
blanca and cayla
flamenco dancing in the living room!
heidi falling off of the cliff in portugal
just kidding :)
sunset in portugal
the beach in portugal, so beautiful
sitting on the cliff in portugal
more to come! we've already taken over a thousand pictures
Do you live in Portuguese?
So, if you had the choice, would you be in class with an air conditioner that doesn't work or at the beach swimming in the ocean and getting tan?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
So with this in mind, Heidi and I decided to skip a Friday of class and go to Lagos, Portugal with this group called DiscoverSevilla. Let me tell you, it was the best decision we have made this whole trip. We left Friday afternoon around 3 PM and took a bus. We went with a smaller group- there was probably about 25 of us from the program. It's about 3 hours because we stopped, so we got to the hotel around 6 with time to get settled...we roomed in 4 bed room with our friends Jackie and Thomas. At 8, we went to go see the sunset at "the end of the world", this lookout point (aka a cliff) where people thought the world ended before they knew the world was round. It was so beautiful, so unbelievably amazing. It is literally one of the top five images I have ever seen in my life. It was so cold where we were and we both forgot to bring jackets so that was a little uncomfortable (aka stupid on our part) but it was so worth it.
That night we went to this amazing burger place called Na Na something and it was SO delicious! And it was right in the middle of the downtown area, so we went to some bars there. But we were kind of tired from the night before so we headed back to our hotel kind of early where Jackie and Thomas decided to be scientists and spent around 3 hours working on an experiment (fail)...although it was definitely entertaining.
The next morning we got up and headed out to a sangria boat, where we cruised around, drank sangria, and went into the little mini coves in the cliffs, which was so fun! You would think that boats and drinking do not really mix, but they do! When it's sangria, anyway. We played music, danced on the deck, and jumped into the ocean. So salty! You could literally feel the salt on your body...very odd. BUT the highlight of the boat ride was when we were heading back and we saw a pack of dolphins in the water! They said that it has never happened before, ¡qué suerte! Luckily one of our tour guides had a camera on him (I didn't bring a camera in case it got wet) and was able to videorecord them! So we will try to post that sometime.
Then we just spent the next couple of days at the beach, getting tan and swimming. There were no waves at the beach we were at, which was kind of surprising! But the water was pristine and the views were so amazing. You would'nt belive how hot the sand gets though! My feet were toasted. We played some games at the beach and unfortunately, I broke one of my toes...it was pretty terrible. I was limping (yes, I was being a baby). But you know what helps that? A little bit of alcohol! Of course we went out and experienced some night life in Lagos, súper chulo! Because it is kind of a tourist town, there were a ton of different types of people there so it was easy to find people who spoke Spanish and English.
To keep the code of "what happens in Europe, stays in Europe", I won't tell any stories, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to give you a little taste... one of my friends may or may not have thought that a dog was walking on water (Jesus style), when really it was just walking in the water, and he/she may or may not have tried to call it, yelling "Jack Russell, Jack Russell" and then ran away because apparently it "caught a fish" in the water. Or maybe one of my friends had a conversation in Portuguese with several Portuguese people although he/she doesn't speak Portuguese and maybe asked a cab driver "do you live in Portuguese", then proceeding to sing Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears on the way back, apparently impersonating Lady Gaga at the same time...yes, Europeans obvi love us.
Next stop: Cádiz and some more of Sevilla!
Note: One thing I am really missing is cold milk. Everywhere we have traveled has had warm milk with cereal, hot milk with dinner, YUCK. This is the girl that drinks milk with every dinner, and lots of it. Cannot wait to get home to have a nice, juicy steak with cold milk, mashed potatoes, and some corn on the cob (hint hint Mom and Dad)!
Also, shout out to our sister Jena, thanks for the postcard, it was so cute...we miss Fillenwarth! and you too, of course :)
Love you all!
Yeah, that's what I thought.
So with this in mind, Heidi and I decided to skip a Friday of class and go to Lagos, Portugal with this group called DiscoverSevilla. Let me tell you, it was the best decision we have made this whole trip. We left Friday afternoon around 3 PM and took a bus. We went with a smaller group- there was probably about 25 of us from the program. It's about 3 hours because we stopped, so we got to the hotel around 6 with time to get settled...we roomed in 4 bed room with our friends Jackie and Thomas. At 8, we went to go see the sunset at "the end of the world", this lookout point (aka a cliff) where people thought the world ended before they knew the world was round. It was so beautiful, so unbelievably amazing. It is literally one of the top five images I have ever seen in my life. It was so cold where we were and we both forgot to bring jackets so that was a little uncomfortable (aka stupid on our part) but it was so worth it.
That night we went to this amazing burger place called Na Na something and it was SO delicious! And it was right in the middle of the downtown area, so we went to some bars there. But we were kind of tired from the night before so we headed back to our hotel kind of early where Jackie and Thomas decided to be scientists and spent around 3 hours working on an experiment (fail)...although it was definitely entertaining.
The next morning we got up and headed out to a sangria boat, where we cruised around, drank sangria, and went into the little mini coves in the cliffs, which was so fun! You would think that boats and drinking do not really mix, but they do! When it's sangria, anyway. We played music, danced on the deck, and jumped into the ocean. So salty! You could literally feel the salt on your body...very odd. BUT the highlight of the boat ride was when we were heading back and we saw a pack of dolphins in the water! They said that it has never happened before, ¡qué suerte! Luckily one of our tour guides had a camera on him (I didn't bring a camera in case it got wet) and was able to videorecord them! So we will try to post that sometime.
Then we just spent the next couple of days at the beach, getting tan and swimming. There were no waves at the beach we were at, which was kind of surprising! But the water was pristine and the views were so amazing. You would'nt belive how hot the sand gets though! My feet were toasted. We played some games at the beach and unfortunately, I broke one of my toes...it was pretty terrible. I was limping (yes, I was being a baby). But you know what helps that? A little bit of alcohol! Of course we went out and experienced some night life in Lagos, súper chulo! Because it is kind of a tourist town, there were a ton of different types of people there so it was easy to find people who spoke Spanish and English.
To keep the code of "what happens in Europe, stays in Europe", I won't tell any stories, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to give you a little taste... one of my friends may or may not have thought that a dog was walking on water (Jesus style), when really it was just walking in the water, and he/she may or may not have tried to call it, yelling "Jack Russell, Jack Russell" and then ran away because apparently it "caught a fish" in the water. Or maybe one of my friends had a conversation in Portuguese with several Portuguese people although he/she doesn't speak Portuguese and maybe asked a cab driver "do you live in Portuguese", then proceeding to sing Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears on the way back, apparently impersonating Lady Gaga at the same time...yes, Europeans obvi love us.
Next stop: Cádiz and some more of Sevilla!
Note: One thing I am really missing is cold milk. Everywhere we have traveled has had warm milk with cereal, hot milk with dinner, YUCK. This is the girl that drinks milk with every dinner, and lots of it. Cannot wait to get home to have a nice, juicy steak with cold milk, mashed potatoes, and some corn on the cob (hint hint Mom and Dad)!
Also, shout out to our sister Jena, thanks for the postcard, it was so cute...we miss Fillenwarth! and you too, of course :)
Love you all!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Apparently security is pretty tight in Spain.
During our first week in Spain, we did the usual, tested into classes (Heidi got intermediate, I got advanced) and started classes. Our earliest class is at one, so we have definitely taken advantage of nightlife in Sevilla, to say the least. We basically have class from 1-8 pm every day, so we unfortunately cannot take much advantage of siesta here, which is the saddest thing. However usually when we come home from school we sleep for about an hour before we eat at 9:30 PM. Then we go out, and so far we have been coming in around 4 am every night, sleep for 5 hours, get breakfast, sleep for another 2 or 3 hours, and then head to school to sleep more to study. If it sounds like it is tiring, it is, AND I cannot believe I forgot to mention this, but Heidi and I have not bought any coffee since we have been in Sevilla. None. Zip. Zero. We get a baby cup of café con leche in the mornings, but that is it. How are we surviving? No sé...but now that I am talking about it, I am really craving some. Maybe I will have to go to one of about 3 Starbucks in all of Sevilla and treat myself to something yummy. :)
Our first weekend in Sevilla, we had an excursion to Córdoba and Granada. We went to Córdoba first to see the Mesquita, which was so impressive! All of the architecture in it was so amazing, especially the red arches that could be found throughout the whole of the building. Also, we went into this room that was filled only with silver and gold, and I'm pretty sure our tour guide said that room was worth more than my life (so apparently it must be worth more than everything in the world combined, because you know I'm priceless! Wink wink, I know you all miss my humor). The only thing that was not fun was the heat- I was sweating so much my face was shiny like I had just dipped my face in water. N-A-S-T-Y! And the gypsies - or los gitanos- were incredible there, so many trying to give you rosemary "as a gift", and if you take it from them, you have to pay for it! Luckily Heidi and I were able to get by without any close encounters (they were probably scared of approaching Asians).
Side note: on our way to the bus in the morning, Heidi's shoe broke. No, I'm not talking about a strap, or a buckle, no. Heidi tripped and broke off the ENTIRE HEEL. How does that happen? Well, that's what she gets for buying crap Miley Cyrus shoes. Oh well, she can just wear the other pair of...nope. We thought we'd be "smart" and only have one pair of shoes each so that we could save baggage space. Did we have time to run back? Haha, since when do Heidi and I ever have any extra time? So we thought, we'll just buy a pair of shoes when we get to Córdoba...except that we were forever away from any shopping areas. For anyone who knows Heidi, she cannot handle being uncomfortableever for very long, so I decided to wear the shoes until we could find them, which was only 9 HOURS later. No big deal, my feet didn't burn/turn black from the burning hot stones at all...(Heidi owes me. Big.)
Heidi and I walked around after our tour with our friends Angelique and Elaina, where we saw people coming out of a wedding- so cute! Can you imagine getting married in a church that is hundreds and hundreds of years old??! All of the women wear headpieces, whether it be a huge headband, a hat, or one of those baby hats that you put on the side of your head. All of the men were wearing tuxedos, but FASHION ALERT: some men were wearing white shirts, black jackets, and colored pants. What? Yeah. By colors, I'm talking like coral-colored pants. If the men wearing them hadn't been so hot, I'm not sure I would've been able to keep myself from laughing. Can't wait til that trend hits the States...
After our visit to the Mesquita, we rode the bus to Granada, where we saw an amazing flamenco show in una cueva. One of the women was like 80 years old and danced with the castañuelas and it was beautiful! They danced with such grace, but also so much passion. We saw a night view of the Alhambra, which was crazy because it looks so huge against the night sky and all the stars...but it was a serious walk up to see it. Of course that night we went out and had a great time because there are free tapas with every drink you get in Granada, so yummy :) we had these little baby hamburgers with steak fries and these toasted bread pieces with potatos and meat...literally one of the most delicious things I have eaten in Spain. We watched the USA vs. Spain soccer friendly in a bar- needless to say, the Spanish were basically laughing in our faces and it was slightly embarassing. There was this group of handball players at the bar who were singing and dancing and being totally out of control trying to talk to us and get us to hang out with them. Um, no gracias. Then we went to this discoteca which was basically an ISA party with 1 Euro Sangria, yumm! Around 3, we headed to this last discoteca that apparently doesn't get anyone until 4 AM, and I had one of my more memorable Spanish conversations with the bouncers at the club...apparently I thought I was fluent (why does this seem to happen only when I am drunk?) and was holding a seriously loud conversation about liars...yeah. But got back to the hotel around 5:30 AM, luck was apparently on my side that night.
Heidi had to drag me out of bed aroun 8:30 AM (yikes, don't ask me how I was feeling) and went to visit the Alhambra in the light, which was just as huge as it looked at night. So many different types of architecture, which these really beautiful gardens full of orange trees. The view from the gardens overlooking the city was seriously breathtaking (yes I realize I am cheesing here but that is literally the only palabra I can think of to describe it). My friend Anthony, who was in a worse state than I was if you can believe it, definitely stole an orange from one of those trees...rumor has it he also tried to sneak into our tour group and got caught at a security point with the guards running up to yell at him not to pass... no big deal. :)
We grabbed some more free tapas at this cute little restaurant by our hotel; I tried the lasagna but was kind of disappointed by it, sadly. That is the one thing I am looking most forward to in Italy- the pasta!! So then we headed back to Sevilla after lunch, where Heidi and I passed out for about 14 hours. Oh, living the life :) But now we are getting so close to getting caught up!! Next post, more Sevilla and our trip to Lagos, Portugal!!
Our first weekend in Sevilla, we had an excursion to Córdoba and Granada. We went to Córdoba first to see the Mesquita, which was so impressive! All of the architecture in it was so amazing, especially the red arches that could be found throughout the whole of the building. Also, we went into this room that was filled only with silver and gold, and I'm pretty sure our tour guide said that room was worth more than my life (so apparently it must be worth more than everything in the world combined, because you know I'm priceless! Wink wink, I know you all miss my humor). The only thing that was not fun was the heat- I was sweating so much my face was shiny like I had just dipped my face in water. N-A-S-T-Y! And the gypsies - or los gitanos- were incredible there, so many trying to give you rosemary "as a gift", and if you take it from them, you have to pay for it! Luckily Heidi and I were able to get by without any close encounters (they were probably scared of approaching Asians).
Side note: on our way to the bus in the morning, Heidi's shoe broke. No, I'm not talking about a strap, or a buckle, no. Heidi tripped and broke off the ENTIRE HEEL. How does that happen? Well, that's what she gets for buying crap Miley Cyrus shoes. Oh well, she can just wear the other pair of...nope. We thought we'd be "smart" and only have one pair of shoes each so that we could save baggage space. Did we have time to run back? Haha, since when do Heidi and I ever have any extra time? So we thought, we'll just buy a pair of shoes when we get to Córdoba...except that we were forever away from any shopping areas. For anyone who knows Heidi, she cannot handle being uncomfortable
Heidi and I walked around after our tour with our friends Angelique and Elaina, where we saw people coming out of a wedding- so cute! Can you imagine getting married in a church that is hundreds and hundreds of years old??! All of the women wear headpieces, whether it be a huge headband, a hat, or one of those baby hats that you put on the side of your head. All of the men were wearing tuxedos, but FASHION ALERT: some men were wearing white shirts, black jackets, and colored pants. What? Yeah. By colors, I'm talking like coral-colored pants. If the men wearing them hadn't been so hot, I'm not sure I would've been able to keep myself from laughing. Can't wait til that trend hits the States...
After our visit to the Mesquita, we rode the bus to Granada, where we saw an amazing flamenco show in una cueva. One of the women was like 80 years old and danced with the castañuelas and it was beautiful! They danced with such grace, but also so much passion. We saw a night view of the Alhambra, which was crazy because it looks so huge against the night sky and all the stars...but it was a serious walk up to see it. Of course that night we went out and had a great time because there are free tapas with every drink you get in Granada, so yummy :) we had these little baby hamburgers with steak fries and these toasted bread pieces with potatos and meat...literally one of the most delicious things I have eaten in Spain. We watched the USA vs. Spain soccer friendly in a bar- needless to say, the Spanish were basically laughing in our faces and it was slightly embarassing. There was this group of handball players at the bar who were singing and dancing and being totally out of control trying to talk to us and get us to hang out with them. Um, no gracias. Then we went to this discoteca which was basically an ISA party with 1 Euro Sangria, yumm! Around 3, we headed to this last discoteca that apparently doesn't get anyone until 4 AM, and I had one of my more memorable Spanish conversations with the bouncers at the club...apparently I thought I was fluent (why does this seem to happen only when I am drunk?) and was holding a serious
Heidi had to drag me out of bed aroun 8:30 AM (yikes, don't ask me how I was feeling) and went to visit the Alhambra in the light, which was just as huge as it looked at night. So many different types of architecture, which these really beautiful gardens full of orange trees. The view from the gardens overlooking the city was seriously breathtaking (yes I realize I am cheesing here but that is literally the only palabra I can think of to describe it). My friend Anthony, who was in a worse state than I was if you can believe it, definitely stole an orange from one of those trees...rumor has it he also tried to sneak into our tour group and got caught at a security point with the guards running up to yell at him not to pass... no big deal. :)
We grabbed some more free tapas at this cute little restaurant by our hotel; I tried the lasagna but was kind of disappointed by it, sadly. That is the one thing I am looking most forward to in Italy- the pasta!! So then we headed back to Sevilla after lunch, where Heidi and I passed out for about 14 hours. Oh, living the life :) But now we are getting so close to getting caught up!! Next post, more Sevilla and our trip to Lagos, Portugal!!
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