HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

love you mom!.... xxoxoxoxoxo

This is the first time in forever where I have slept in past 9:30… its about 12:20 and I woke up and hour ago and it’s a glorious day outside… I'm planning on visiting the palacio royal and some Egyptian stuff in some park somewhere…. Ill let yall know how that goes. I'm currently enjoying the new Kelly Clarkson CD- my host bro Pablo sent me a link for this cool itunes like program called Spotify where you can listen to music, basically anything you want, you just cant put it on your ipod L.

I haven’t updated!! Tisk tisk…. School is, well, school, and I think I like the US grading system better than here. I’ve only gotten a few grades here so its too early to tell how the semester is gonna finish up, I'm just gonna try to get some stuff done in advance. The 2 past weekends have been awesome, first Lisbon then Germany.

I went to Lisbon the 13th-15th, near the beaches and whatnot. We stayed at the most amazing hostel EVER you walk up 2 flights of stairs and you walk in and theres a huge common floor and its decorated by local artists…. Every night they offered 8 euro full dinner with soup, main course, and dessert and basically everyone took advantage of the food and company. We met other Americans from Texas, we met someone from india and her friend who is teaching in Madrid, we met Germans who were doing their senior project for their degrees, a really nice French girl and someone from Tokyo! English was the common language- thank goodness, I don’t know Portuguese or French and lord knows I cant even tell one word from another in German. We walked around Lisbon and got around on their tram system. We visited the monument to the discoverers, the belem tower (the workers were on strike so we couldn’t go in but it was cool ahah), the main square (figueira square), the Lisbon cathedral, castle of saint george, and others. Oh and the cream custards, famous in the area, are delish. Food, my favorite topic. My favorite day was Saturday when we took the train to Sintra, a UNESCO world heritage site for its romantic architecture. (don’t worry, I just looked that up on Wikipedia ehehe) we didn’t see the famous Pena palace, HOWEVER we saw Castelo dos mouros which was AMAZING you could see the whole world … ive got video ill post later. And this really cool creepy palace with lots of awesome gardens and little nooks and crannies and turrets everywhere called the “Quinta da regaleira” a summer residence of the monteiro family built in the neo-manueline style. Hehe, good thing I hold onto all the random pamphlets they give us. This was all in mountainous area and we took a bus to get to the places and let me tell you, they are CRAZY drivers! It was like an amusement park ride… Then we went to Cascais by bus where there was a small beach and people surfing and we got to touch the Atlantic Ocean! the next day we took a ferry to the really big jesus statue modeled over another famous one in.... well i forget but it was really cool. Beautiful place, good company, overall wonderful weekend topped off with a tan. Shoutouts to Ryan and Jeannie, my amazing coordinators and experts in public transportation.

the beach!! there was sand on the other side..

the castle... we met some canadians while we were walking around (whoops we didnt wear our sneakers for this hike!)

the cool house we went to... its sorta off the beaten track and im sooo glad we went!

the jesus statue! i think its a copy of one in rio de janiero...

the three of us

the castle that we watned to go into but the protests... oyeee

i liked this huge map that was on the ground... the US seemed so close, yet so far

the hostel... AHHH SO COOL! see the floating table? and the chairs where we ate dinner? so classy

germany post is next...

video documentary

this is a small clip of a fab thursday in madrid. it speaks for itself. really though, it was one of the best.

home base...

Ive gotta make this quick because i have homework that i havent done for class at 130 and its 10...

so this week was a madrid week, last wednesday was my first test here (in lengua) and it went ok minus the fact that it was REALLY LONG. we'll see how that goes. but anywho, it was a great week because it was Catholic's spring break, so there were a few people who made the journey to europe. My friends mimi and jess traveled here and we got to hang out a few times (sorry i never got to say bye!!!), and then Ashley and nick came over too. it was nice to have familiar faces around, and from the sounds of it they had a great time here. this weekend i was in madrid but that doesnt mean that there was no action. saturday our culture studies class had a2 field trips. we went to the sofia reina museum and saw picasso's famous "guernica" amongst others, and then later on that day our class got on a bus and hiked it 45 min to "valle de los caidos" a huge monument/church where franco is buried. it was gorgeous... its in the montains so it was nippy, but it was a cool thing to see. (i didnt have my camera with me but the entire class was taking pics so im sure i can get my hands on some) yesterday, sunday, our spanish teacher from school was in madrid and jeanette, kara and i had a coffee with her, and then we headed over to our director, patricia's, house via bus to have a cooking lesson. we were late because of our coffee date, but i now have recipes and expierience making: spanish tortilla, spinach salad (cooked down with pine nuts, raisins, tomatoes, red and green peppers among other things), sangria, and arroz con leche. it was sooo good and we were so full for the rest of the day!

next weekend is lisbon, portugal, which should be amazing because its next to the atlantic ocean and its been hovering around 65 degrees here, so i cant imagine how gorgeous it will be there. i will leave you with a little clip from paris, enjoy!

Side note.

Typical Jillian situation.

Jill just woke up 15 minutes ago and hears a buzz from the kitchen. Shes heard that buzz before and has always been a little confused about it. Over time, she learned that that buzz means that someone is outside, downstairs, and thats the "doorbell" for them to get in.

Jill had problems with her credit card, for some reason there was some security code someone accessed and, anywho, her credit card company told her they were sending her a new card and that it should arrive in 3-5 days. So, Jillian tells her host mom and Jillian doesnt quiiiite understand what concha is saying about the mail man but she smiles and nods anyways. All she knows is that she is going to get a new credit card in the mail soon.

Well, concha has work early in the morning at the hospital, and pablo has school now, so when Jillian wakes up and hears that buzz, what is she supposed to do? ignore it, of course. it could be someone she doesnt know, and she would like to avoid an awkard situation in her current just-woken state of mind. but that buzz just wont leave her off like that. so she lets it buzz 3 times before she starts to panic. WHAT DOES JILL DO? well, she picks up the phone, attached to the buzzer, and says Hola?. Well, someone replies back, in spanish of course, that "Jillian Olson has a package from the United States". Now what does she do? He says to let him in so that he can drop it off. but Jill has never opened that door before so she has no idea. KATIE???!! poor thing, she was half awake but Jill might have startled her a little bit. she tells me that the button is on the phone. DUH. (it looked like the little button that the phone pushes to recognize to hang up.) So now Jill is waiting for the mailman to drop off her package.

He comes to the door DING DONG.... Trufa, stop barking! She goes to open the door, and realizes that she doesnt have her key. the door here keeps giving her trouble- the key is used to lock the door from both sides so she says "un minuto!", Katie lends her the keys, and finally Jillian meets the mailman, who is probably now thinking "Crazy americans". He was really nice, and Jill had to sign the pin pad for her express packaged visa debit card. at least she knew how to say "sorry, i didnt know how to open the door".

To think that all happened within the first 20 minutes of her day.

Dear Violet...

HI NEW BABY COUSIN!

Welcome to the world! I am so sorry I couldn't be there.... and im sorry that its going to be a few months until i meet you. Its that im studying abroad in Spain this semester, and i get back on June 8th, which seems to be so far away. You are such a cutie-pa-tootie! You were probably not aware of the pictures taken of you while you were sleeping, but you had quite a few visitors! Leslie, who you met, sent me pics. Your cheeks are so chubby, and youre so cute!! You didnt beat me though, i was 10 pounds 10 ounces. I hope your letting Mom and Dad sleep a little... im sure you are well behaved. You see, your lucky to have such awesome parents, your going to have the BEST time. When i get back i promise to hang out with you a lot. You live close to me, and we can play dress up if you want.

WELLL you wont believe where I was when you were born! see, I dont know what you have seen of the world yet, probably the hospital and your cute house, (i heard its snowing there. its not always that cold, dont worry). The world probably seems so big. Well, the more i travel around the more i see how small the world is. I was in PARIS!

one day you will watch Madeline and see what its like. I went with my friend Jeannie, my translator, navigator, and historian. We left on a thursday night straight from class with our backpacks all ready for the flight at 9PM and we got into the city by midnight. Jeannie is very afraid of flying, but the flight was smooth and relatively fast so she handeled it like a pro. We got a bus nearer to our hostel and found our way on a road called Gobleins (these are going to be my attempts at french words. see, they speak french in France. figures that in different parts of the world people speak different languages. it does create a problem sometimes with communication. you and i speak english, and french is a little different so im not that good at it). Well we checked into our hostel, a shared room with a bathroom. we were exhausted and fell right to sleep, ready for a full friday.

We woke up early, got breakfast downstairs (baguette, croissant, cereal, coffee), and we headed off! we walked a LOT of paris. Jeannie had sit down earlier that week and drew out an agenda of "things to do" and ordered them and estimated times and such, so we were able to see Notre Dame, a very famous cathedral, the Louvre (Mona Lisa, Venus etc- it was fantastic), some famous Egyptian obelisk, the Arc de Triumph made up by Napolean, the entire famous street "avenue de champs elysees", across the oldest bridge, nappleans grave, and of course my favorite time of the day, FOOD. Violet, im sure you love food too. well, we had paninis and i got a crepe with nutella, which was heaven on earth, but expensive. here are some pictures:

this is Notre Dame Cathedral- so pretty!

this is me in front of the Arc de Triumph. it looks small in this picture but it really is a whole lot bigger

this is a really funny sculpture that is in the louvre. i could have posted my pic of the mona lisa but everyone knows what that looks like already. this guy on the other hand...
it took us a little while to realize that the entrance to the louvre was IN the pyramid!

a really old, really pretty bridge we got to go over

we walked back to our hostel and i went to take a shower and it was clogged :( it was gross, but it was really funny. i guess you get what you pay for, haha. the guy at the desk downstairs gave us a plunger to try to fix it, and i laughed, attempted to fix it, then gave it up 2 minutes later. Jeannie and i went downstairs and they gave us a key to another room that we were able to use for showering. it happens to be that it was the most beautiful room with a balcony and awesomeeee shower. So, jeannie and i no longer stunk and we were happy, except our feet hurt and we were sore from a long day of walking. your going to learn how to walk later, your still very little so your lucky that people just get to hold you all day. My sister, Laura, sat on my moms lap until she was 10 years old... she was a little crazy. She still is a little crazy haha.

We woke up the next day, got the same breakfast, and got our train tickets to versailles. (thats probably misspelled). its a very pretty palace that marie antoinette lived in once upon a time. not many people liked her because she wasted a lot of money that the French government needed, but she left behind a really cool estate. we were there 11-6 touring the main palace, her private quarters, the gardens etc. It was awesome! we also got these fun audio tour guides that were fun to use. After a long day there, we took the train almost all the way back but stopped at the EIFFEL TOWER!!! we got off the metro and the sun was starting to go down. we didnt hop in line quite yet because we were hungry again and we found a cafe nearby to have dinner. after that, we got in line for tickets because we really wanted to go to the top- jeannie says its in the book "100 things to see/do before you die", so i figured it was worth it and i knew i would regret it if i didnt know. i got jeannie to finally go to the top with me (scared of heights) and it was amazing!!! did you know that the eiffel tower glitters/blinks/sparkles for a minute or so on the hour??? it was so pretty! well, after that adventure, we went back to home base again and slept and woke up AGAIN for our last day in paris.

the PLUNGER

probably the most famous room in versaillais- hall of mirrors

hanging out in marie anoinettes backyard
i took this piture while it was blinking!!

my camera died at this point, which was kind of sad, i had fogotten my charger, so i made sure that jeannie took a lot of pictures on her camera. we saw some really famous building whose name escapes me (sac decour? french- ahhhh) and i found a pin to add to my collection! then we went and took pictures outside the moulin rouge, which did not remind me of the movie at all. who knew that it meant "red windmill?" crazy french. i dont know how jeannie convinced me to go to some crazy catacombs after that. its a 1.7 kilometer walk under the city of paris that houses a ton of perfectly stacked bones and skulls. it was spooky, but i didnt get nightmares luckily. it was definately an experience. after that, we went to the luxumbourg gardens where we parked it for a few, sitting in some chairs near a big circular pool with a big fountain in the middle. there were a lot of kids who rented little boats to put in the pool- they take sticks that come with the rented boats and push them off into the water, it looked like so much fun! after resting for a little bit we walked back to the hostel to pick up our things and made our way back to the airport. we made sure to get another crepe before leaving, and i think that they put almost a half a cup of nutella in ours, it was overwhelming but wonderful.

the flight back was a little delayed but i got back home in my bed at around 1 ready for class the next day.

funny to think im taking "weekend trips" to places like paris. i have tickets also to lisbon portugal, dusseldorf germany, and london england too!! its such a thrill. 3 months till i get to meet you! tell your mom and dad i say hi!!! keep sending me pics too. love you so much!!!

your (favorite) cousin,

jill