Pensando...

So, I have about a month and a half left here in Spain.  My mom was counting the days, but it's still over 40 days until I come home which I think is too much for her ;-).  I think it's just enough for me though.  I'm not ready to leave here yet, I still have a few more adventures to Paris, Florence, Rome, and Germany left, but I will say that I am missing home and missing my family and friends a lot.  9 months is a long time to be gone, to not be able to hug your family, and a real conversation with your closest friends over a glass (or a bottle) of wine.  Right now I am excellent where I am, but also very content that in a matter of weeks, I will be crossing back into the U.S.

It is going to be really hard to leave though.  Really hard.  I don't know how I am going to say goodbye to my students yet.  I told my 6th graders that next week is my last week.  They are the 1st class that I've told, and I think it might be because I don't really believe that I'm leaving yet.  I am in subconscious denial.  That's okay though.  I'll figure it out eventually ;).

I've definitely been thinking a lot about my experience here, reminiscing and delving into full nostalgia.  Next weekend we're celebrating my friends' Helen and Corinna's birthdays, and theirs are the last of our group of 6.  If you have been following my blog, I am sure you know what group I am referring to, but these girls have been there since the beginning, and it'll be the last time that we'll be seeing each other for a while (we WILL all see each other again!).  Anyway, having their birthday celebrations coming up reminds me of our first weekend trip to Toledo, and when they came to Granada with me for my birthday, and just how much fun we've had getting to know each other.  It's not just these lovely ladies, either.  It's the fellow Americans that live down the street from me that I've gotten close to, and my neighbors, and my friends that are from Villarrobledo, who have all become like my family away from home.   Honestly, there are too many people to mention.  Nostalgia is working it's magic right now!

For now, I have three beautiful weeks to look forward to with Lucy, my cousin and best friend!!  She arrived this morning and we're spending today and tomorrow in Madrid, then going home tomorrow night for a big dinner with my fellow foreigners in Villarrobledo and our friends and coworkers.  I am really excited for that!
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What a lucky girl I am :)

besos,
Mary

A visit from a dear friend :)

What a great past 7 days it has been! My lovely friend, Jackie, from college flew into Madrid last Tuesday morning bright and early!  Luckily I was able to get a few days off of work, so Monday night I went to Madrid and hung out with my friend Jose.  We went to this great restaurant and had delicious tapas and then walked around Madrid at night, it was so beautiful!

The next morning, I was SO excited to go to the airport and get Jackie!  I woke up, got ready, and headed over to Barajas.  I was so excited that I started running up the escalator while exiting the Metro and tripped and almost fell.  Yep, I'm that classy.

Anyway, I finally found Jackie in the Terminal 1 baggage claim!!  I was so happy to see her!  What a great friend she is :).  As I would find later, she brought me Oreos, Cheese-its, deodorant (the stuff here sucks!), AND Oberon.  Pure bliss!!  Thanks Jackie!

We went straight to my friend's house to rest for a little while, and then embarked to have some coffee, lunch and explore Madrid!

Jackie enjoying lunch in Plaza Mayor!  We had an ensalada mixta, patatas bravas, and paella...mmmm!

A new friend!

In front of the Palace

 The next morning, we took a bus to Granada, dropped our bags at our hostel, and went to explore a bit!  I had been there before, and it had the exact same magic that I remember it having in February.  It was so great to be back there again!

Loose leaf tea for sale outside of the church, it all smelled really good!

At a Tapas bar having lunch

me on our balcony

People watching near our hostel!

There was an outdoor concert one night--so cool!

 Thursday we spent most of the day shopping, eating, seeing the cathedral, and walking around Granada, appreciating it's beauty!  Friday was Alhambra day!  In the morning, well, maybe around 11 or 12, we went to a teteria (a tea shop), and had some DELICIOUS tea.  The guy at the shop gave us some hats to try on and take silly pictures with :), and also a belly dancing shawl!  We had a lot of fun in there.

After that, we grabbed some lunch at this great Moroccan food restaurant, and then headed up the hill to go to the Alhambra!  It was beautiful, just like last time.  This time around, there were more beautiful roses, and also more people!

After the Alhambra, Jackie and I had dinner--it consisted of albondigas, croquetas, and a salad.  hooray for Tapas!! We also tried the Alhambra beer, which was pretty dang good.  

My favorite part of our Granada trip was Friday night when we went to a Flamenco show!  Wow, it was SO beautiful!!  I left wanting to see more, and also wanting to be able to dance Flamenco.  Love, love, loved it. 

Saturday morning we headed back to Villarrobledo on a 5 hour train ride from Granada.  We rested for a little while after arriving, and then headed out to meet all of my friends here for dinner at El Ruedo, a restaurant in town.  We all shared tapas, wine, and had a great time!  I was so glad that my friends joined us to meet Jackie!  We went out afterwards so that Jackie could experience the nightlife of Villarrobledo (it is surprisingly good considering the size of our town), and eventually went to sleep.  Eventually.

Some of my friends at El Ruedo

 On Sunday, Krista made us a Bermudian breakfast--codfish, potatoes, frittata sauce, avocados, bananas (not for me, ew!) and...I forget, something else?  but it was delicious!  We were all stuffed, and decided it would be in our best interest to talk a walk.  We showed Jackie around Villa, from the cemetery to my favorite park (el parque de los patos).

On Monday, I took Jackie to school with me.  My students were, for the most part, pretty well behaved...although I think their hormones are going crazy with Spring in the air, so some of the older boys acted a tad bit...like hyenas.  They were fine for the most part though, they asked her questions in English like "What is your favorite color?", etc etc, I was pretty proud of them :).

Sadly, Monday night came quickly, and Jackie left on the train to go to the airport.  I had such a good time with her here and am so so thankful that she came to visit! It was wonderful to have someone from home come here and get a peek into my life in Spain.

Spring Break in LONDON!

Wow. Wow, wow, wow.  London was SO cool!  SO COOL!  I absolutely fell in love with it--wish I could have been there for longer.  I don't know what it was about that city, but the whole time I had this great energy pumping through my veins and was totally recharged by the city's life! Maybe it's just because I was on vacation, or maybe because the Royal Wedding is coming up and the whole city is excited (haha), or maybe it was because they had some of the best weather that they've had in months, but something about London just drew me in.  I didn't even care that it was expensive--it was absolutely worth it. 

I loved the people there, they were so friendly and helpful, and the atmosphere that I felt the whole time was just cheery and upbeat.  I saw so much culture in London's markets, people and goods from all over the world.  I saw beautiful historic buildings like Big Ben, the houses or Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc., etc.  I ate the best fish & chips I've ever had.  I saw the beautiful Tower Bridge at night.  I rode the London Eye and saw the city from up high.  I even got to please the Harry Potter geek in me and dragged my friends to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station (thanks guys :D).  All in all, amazing trip.  It really re-energized me, and it left me with the desire to live in London someday (sorry mom!)! I hope that I get to. 

London has been floating on the top of my list or European cities to go to, and I'm psyched that I have it checked off. 

So, Saturday night, I arrived and went straight to where I would be staying for the week.  My friend Tara knows someone who lives in London currently, and she so graciously let us stay with her for the week!  A big thanks to Marisa if you're reading this!  My friends had a later flight, so Marisa and I chatted while we waited for Tara, Jose, Ana Rosa, and Mamen to arrive.  That night we just went to sleep with plans to wake up early in the morning.  

The next day, after being on the tube for 2 hours due to constructions because of the upcoming olympics, we finally started our day at Camden Market.  It is a huge outdoor and indoor market (there are many of these in London!) with food from all over the world, clothes, jewelry, and the coolest vintage and antique stores.  They really have just about everything there.  

That day we also went on the London Eye--an enormous ferris wheel type of ride that takes you up in the air to see all of London, it was awesome!  They put you in a glass bubble and you get to rise and see the entire London skyline.  So cool :)

Cool view from up there!

Tara and me in the London Eye

We later walked around a little big more and admired Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and the general London skyline before heading over to Liecester Square to have dinner.

Me in London at night with my friend, Big Ben in the background!

After a good night's sleep, the next morning we woke up, met up in Hyde Park with coffee, and then went straight to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  We didn't get there early enough to get a good spot to see anything, but I did get to see some stuff, and best of all, I got to see my good friend, Helen, who is from England and has been living in Cuenca, Spain this year!  

After seeing the changing of the guard at the palace, Helen and I went to go have Indian food at a restaurant in the Covent Garden area.  It was delicious!! I had a great tasting curry, I really enjoyed it.

Helen with her curry

Me with my curry!

After lunch, we did some shopping around Covent Garden, headed to St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and back over to the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey area where Helen and I parted ways.  There happened to be a service going on at Westminster Abbey so I went to that (that's how you get in for free!), it was a beautiful choral service and the inside of the church is beautiful too!  

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Classic tourist picture, hehe!

Westminster Abbey!

After Westminster Abbey, I met up with my friends again and we walked around and saw some other sites at night again.  Beautiful!

The next morning, I was so excited because it was FINALLY time to go see Platform 9 3/4!! Woo hooo! And I got to meet up with Natira, another one of my friends who lives in Cuenca right now.  She loves Harry Potter too, so we were super excited to get there :). 

Off to Hogwarts!

We made it!

After that, my friends and I went back to the covent garden area and relaxed, had some food and dessert as well.  We had a great time over all in London, I can't wait to go back (whenever that is!).  

Well, that was a long one.  Thanks for sticking through with me if you did, it was an amazing trip and I am so glad that I went.  Viva LONDON!

Here are some sweet misc. pictures:

Hyde Park

Soho Park!

Well, hope you all enjoyed this!  I'll be resting the next few days, that's for sure!  The next big thing is JACKIE'S VISIT! WOO HOOO!!  

-Mary

Portugal Trip!

So, last Thursday, Ashly, Krista and I departed for Madrid to catch our flight to Portugal.  Although traveling took a really long time, the flight was only about 45 minutes long! So short.  It is in the Iberian peninsula with Spain though, not super far away. 

We flew into Porto, Portugal, a northern coastal city in Portugal that is famous for it's Port Wine (sweet and strong!).

After arriving at the hostel and freshening up a bit, we decided to explore Porto on foot.  It's a small city, so everything is relatively close, but there are a lot of steep hills, so my calves got a great workout for a couple of days.  

Porto is a really beautiful city mized with very old and very new architechture.  I thought it was a neat contrast, and also really enjoyed the area near the river.  

We slept in a little the next day, exhausted from traveling the previous day, had some free breakfast at our quaint hostel, and then left for the day again.  The first place that we went to was a bookstore where J.K. Rowling was allegedy inspired for the architecture of Hogwarts and for the wizarding world with the winding staircases, tall book shelves, etc etc.  Needless to say I was really excited and made Ashly and Krista go there with me first before we did anything else haha.

After a cheap (and delicious) bacalao (codfish) lunch, we walked around some more--this time to the University area, which was one of my favorite places.  I thought it was so beautiful!

We rode a trolley around until Helen arrived, then we went back to the hostel and met up with her!  We rested for a little bit, and then went to the grocery store to get food for dinner.  We are cheap and poor so we ate out a few times, but we tried to cook for ourselves when we could!  It was super easy to do at the hostel we stayed at.  It was like a family kitchen feel, everyone was cooking stuff and sitting down at a big table to eat dinner.  It was really nice!

There was a pub crawl going on not too far from our hostel, so to aquaint ourselves with the nightlife, we joined up!  I was hesitant because we had to pay, but I am really glad I did because we met some really great people and had a lot of fun.

While Thursday and Friday were beautiful days to walk around, Saturday wasn't.  I mean, it wasn't all bad, but it rained all day pretty much.  We walked around while it was sprinkling and decided that the time had come to try to famous Porto sandwiches, the Franchesina.  The Franchesina is a sandwich, well actually our waiter told us it is not a sandwich...so, the The Franchesina is a non-sandwich with 3 types of meat between 2 slices of bread, a fried egg on top, with melted cheese covering the non-sandwich, and a gravy poured over the non-sandwich.  It. Was. Delicious.

Franchesina--traditional of Porto!

I ate the entire thing and didn't even regret it.  Although I am 100% positive that it will be the only one I eat in my lifetime because I think my arteries will be unclogging from this non-sandwich for the rest of my life.  Not really, but one was definitely enough :).

We walked around in the rain some more, found a cute artisan store and bought jewelry, and then met up with Helen and Hugh to go wine tasting-  Unfortunately we were too late for a tour, but we got to taste Taylor's port wine, which was really good!  I had tried a different type earlier and didn't like it so much, but Taylor's was really nice and not too overpowering.

Ashly, Me, Helen, and Hugh at Taylor's Wine Cellar

We all went to dinner later that night at a WOK place, which was a little sparse on food, but I thought it was tasty nonetheless!  I had sushi, which I hadn't had in forever, so that was really nice, and it wasn't terribly expensive, so that was great too.  It actually wasn't that expensive of a trip.  The biggest thing I splurged on was an earlier train ticket back to Villarrobledo from Madrid because I felt ill due to my 2 hours of sleep and many hours of traveling back to Spain.  I couldn't even leave the train station to get a bocadillo de calamares--que lastima! haha

Ashly, Krista, and me walking back to the hostel on our last night in Portugal!

Anyway, it was a really lovely trip, I enjoyed it so much!  Portugal is a beautiful country, from what I have seen at least!  

My next big trip will be London during Semana Santa (Easter or Spring Break), with some of my friends from Villa--I am pumped!  I'm saving up money because I know it is going to be expensive, but also totally worth it!  

More later!  Hope everyone is doing well, and a special shout out to mi prima, Rachel who just arrived in CHILE for a couple months of interning--Good luck and ENJOY every minute of it!! :)

Mary