DONER KEBABS

Sorry for the long delay. Time has really been slipping right through my fingers- figures that yesterday was my one month anniversary of arriving in Spain! And so far so good. There is so much to fill you in on- I’ll fill you in on my current life then tell you about the my past 2 weekend adventures. I heard from my Mom that my blog is becoming quite the commodity at home--- who knows, maybe I will end up on Oprah or something haha!

Well I have been doing a lot of planning. We are taking advantage of our long Fri-Sat-Sun weekends and I have trips and tickets all ready! I'm going to Paris this weekend! We found a hostel, life is good. Thank goodness for my tax refund that I got recently because that covered my flight to LONDON during my spring break! That trip will be from April 2-April 7, then we come back to Spain and book it to Seville, south of Spain for “Semana Santa”(Holy Week). We chose Seville because it is famous for its processions etc. Other sites of interest: Germany (to visit Lisa, a friend who lives there that I met while she was in the United States for a year), Italy, and Greece. Of course, my list is infinite but unfortunately classes just get in the way J.

Do not fret! I am staying at home base, Madrid, the city I keep learning and exploring. With all the traveling my mom asks “when do you do your homework” and the answer is basically, in transit (1 hour to get to my school via public transportation), and night times during the week. Its all good. Talking about family, I had a dream about the new BABYYY!!! Rosie, you’ve been pregnant too long, lets get that baby out! And mind you, my dream did not determine the sex of the child, so that is still a surprise for me J. All I know is that it was absolutely precious- obviously.

Today I got out of classes at 5, got back to my metro stop at 6, and decided to just walk. So, I walked around and didn’t realize how close Zara, United Colors of Beddington, and other stuff is to my house (I mean, its close, like 15 min walk)! I have been spending a lot of time in the city city, so now that my neighborhood and I are good friends I'm going to have to hang out here more. It was a perfect day to walk around- pants, ballet flats, light jacket. I even just let my hair air dry now and let it do its own thing (my bangs are too long to be considered bangs and too short to be pulled back into my pony tail, so I pin them back). 18 degrees Celsius, or something like that? I don’t know what that converts to… I open up the doors to the balcony in my room and its just fantastic.

Well, the pictures I put up the last post were from Granada- the trip was one I will never forget. For the good, the bad, and the uuuugly haha. Really, it’s a beautiful city and a must-see if you go to Spain, but our AYA group (11 of us) went through a bigger group of 75 students associated with ERASMUS and the trip was “led” by Erasmus Students. I used the word “led”, but really what I mean to say is that they basically organized the bus ride but not much else. The hostel situation was a disaster, the planning was a disaster, but other things went REALLY well. For example we got to see a cool flamenco show done in the gypsy fashion- it was basically in a cave! The next day (insert excited voice) we saw the Alhambra! Unbelieveable- destination wedding anyone? Or at least the wedding pictures- its worth it. Basically the trip was blind leading the dumb. Or stupid leaving the blind- you get the gist- but it’s a beautiful place. Thank goodness Concha made me a sack of food before I left- shes so cute she told me the other day that if I'm going on these weekend trips to remind her and she’ll put together food for me. Sammies, cheese curls, yummy chocolate things, fruit. THANKS CONCHA (we all remember this is my host mom’s name)!

Uugh I just love food. Currently I'm in a huge kebab kick… the kebabs here are in the doner kebab style- basically a gyro. Shops are all over the place for this delish food! And I was about to get my fill…..


[(Letting down the curtains, lights fade back on.) Intermission. Please take a 5 minute break and grab a snack. Or popcorn or something- phew this is a long epic story]


...during my weekend adventure! After a week of classes, We toured the Iberian Peninsula a little more to Spanish cities Segovia and Salamanca. Segovia is closer to Spain, so we went on Friday. We left early in the day and got there around 11 after a bunch of confusion about our train/bus situation. Jeannie Ryan and I made the epic journey! We saw ROMAN AQUEDUCTS probably one of my favorite sights so far that I have seen, and we went to a castle, Alcazar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcazar is the link if you want to read up. Basically we got to hang out with a bunch of knights in shining amour. Well, they weren’t REAL guys, but the amour was impressive!

We also went to a castle, Alcazar, where we got to go up 150 twirly stairs alllll the way up to the top of the tower! The view was very impressive and we took many a pictures there. We walked around, and a lot of stores were closing down a little early because this weekend was Carnival, Spain’s version of Marti Gras. We were SO HUNGRY, like usual, and Jeannie and I were adamant about finding a Doner Kabab in the city. Luckily we got directions from someone on the street and found one and it was probably one of the best Kebabs I’ve had here. DELISH!!! Then, we found a bakery and got dessert, because here I feel no remorse in eating chocolate mousse cake when I spent all day walking up 150 stairs and what not. we had a smooth arrival back to Madrid at 6, and got to meet up with some friends from Catholic who were visiting Madrid during their study abroad in London (makes sense?). It was super fun but I made sure to rest up that night to get prepared for Salamanca!

We got a real train to Salamanca, you know when they have the seats facing each other with a table in the middle? Tres cute. It didn’t take long and we got to Salamanca, walked around, saw the awesome plaza mayor, ate Kebabs again, met up with Katie from our program, and then spent the night celebrating Jeannie’s 21st birthday at one of the bars in town! The next morning we got our train ride back and I was back in Madrid at 11. and then another week of school….. and now I'm getting ready for my trip to PARIS!!!

Oh, and another funny thing. Well not funny, more informative- whatever. Well, we all decided to give up English for lent (minus communicating with people that don’t know Spanish). So that way we wont be tempted to use it, which does get frustrating sometimes when theres confusing stories involved, but it all works out ok in the end.
Really now, I think I have said enough. PHEW! Next time I’ve gotta write earlier so I don’t have to much to recount…

besos