“Ah Speitz”

So I am finally getting my Switzerland post up! We had an absolutely amazzzzzing time. One of the most beautiful and unique places I have ever been. (and the most expensive, but we’ll stick to the positives!). Some of this might be repetitive from one of my earlier posts right when I had gotten into Switzerland, but oh well. We got back from Morocco Tuesday Feb 2^nd ran home ate and then headed to the bus station at midnight. We took a taxi to the bus station because all of the city buses were done. On the way we kept going through green lights through all of the stop lights and chris was sitting in the front bouncing up and down cheering VERDE LUZES VERDE LUZES (which is green lights in Spanish). The taxi driver thought we were the weirdest Americans in the world probably. So we got to the bus station and jumped on our 5 hour bus ride. Then we hopped on a plane from Madrid to Milan, Italy. When we landed a trumpet song came on and then proceeded to congratulate us for flying with ryanair, and they are proud to present their 90% on time depart and arrival- ironic because on our way back they were two hours late… they didn’t play the song the second time. But anywho, we got into Milan and went to the train station to purchase what we thought were going to be “cheap tickets”, turns out they were going to be 56 euro one way to Speitz. And another 10 or so to Interlaken. But regardless, we had no choice, we had to get there somehow and that was the only way. I decided I was going to be the ring leader and buy my ticket first. I went up to the counter and asked for one ticket to Spits please. All of my group just died laughing at me. It’s pronounced Spaeitz- like flights. So the rest of the trip the ongoing joke was, whenever something went wrong someone would say, “Ah spits!” We also tried to use our ISIC cards which were supposedly supposed to get us discounts at a lot of airports and train stations, but not one of them did, but we continued to ask every single place we went and they would give us the most disturbed look, say no with an obvious glare and then we would reply, ah spits. After long hours of travel, we finally arrived in Interlaken and found our hostel very quick. It was late at night and we were really hungry so we walked around the city to see if anything was open. On one of the streets Robert (King of Karma) Tried throwing a snowball at us girls but continued to slip on the ice and fall on his back (which already has two herniated discs). I mention the king of karma because when we were in Africa, Robert laid on a tombstone, took a picture on it and then when walking away from it to see the picture, he stepped in poop. We all suffered the consequences of that one because he made the whole bus smell. – back to Switzerland- we finally found food at mcdonalds which ended up being anywhere from 12 to 17 dollars per meal, but we had never been so happy to pay for food in our lives. With all of the food from spain and morocco, it felt sooooo good to eat Mc Donalds- we called it the most satisfying meal yet. We went to bed pretty early that night because the guys were going to go to the mountain to ski the next morning. The next day (Thursday) the boys went to the mountain to hit the sloped and figure everything out so it was easier for us the next day- and us girls stayed back and had an amazing day to ourselves. We started out by walking around the cute little town enclosed by mountains- just shopped a little and took some pictures but then we went to the grocery store and had so much fun. We got lunch meat, bread, chips, wine and other snacks and went back to our hostel and made ourselves a great lunch! We later went back and got noodles and sauce and other stuff for dinner and we had dinner waiting for the boys when they got back. When the boys finally did arrive they were so exhausted but also so hungry. That night we went and saw live music at one of the pubs- but ended up losing Robert. Some guys from the hostel made him come with them to different pubs and meet new people- they said he wouldn’t have the same experience hanging out with us. We finally found Robert and when chris picked him up on his shoulder to bring him with us Robert simply yelled, “I can’t! I am becoming a man!” Robert wanted to go back in so we followed him and met a bunch of men from the swiss army- cool because of all the products of swiss army. Caitlin had a little blonde moment of her own and thanked all the men for all they did- not realizing that they weren’t fighting for our country hahaha. We went to bed pretty early that night because we set our alarms for 6 am the next morning. We got ourselves up with a great struggle but knew that what lied ahead was totally worth it! We had to go buy our train and lift tickets, rent all of our equipment and find our meeting spots before we could finally all go off on our adventure! So snowboarding was my choice of snow recreation, and I chose this on account of that fact that I had done it once before and I had never skied before. It took me a little while to get the hang of it but I found different tricks in order for me to get down the hill with keeping a steady pace and not falling every five seconds…well I still fell every five seconds but at least I was on a consistent track. Caitlin and I got to the bottom of the first beginners mountain and we decided to go to the very top-one of the highest mountains in Europe and go for it! It was literally blizzarding up there- when I say literally I mean it- they shut down the hill after we went on it. Sand and snow was flying in my face as I attempted to get down it- some guy who was a snowboarder instructor in the US stopped to give me a few tips too- so at least I made a new friend. We got to the bottom and it was already time for lunch. We were thinking ahead and had made sandwiches for lunch- we ate lunch and then decided to go down the main mountain as a group all the way down- snowboard through town and all the way down to where we rented the gear- this trip was the most amazing time of my life. The scenery was absolutely amazing- trees all around the path- it was just us going down this mountain so we just screwed around and enjoyed being in the mountains- they would all get to the bottom of one hill- wait for me to cruise by and crash-get up again- and then we would go on to the next one. When we would hit flat land the skiers with us would have to give us one of their poles to hold on to so that we wouldn’t have to take off our boards and one time chris handed Caitlin his while he was riding by- she grabbed it and the momentum of her being stopped – stopped him and he flew into a ravine. So after the most amazing day in the snow- we came back and I made spaghetti for everyone!!! The way back was about as crazy as the way there- because of our 2 hour accidental layover – so we didn’t get to the Madrid airport until all the buses and flights were done- Robert goes, “it’s okay, we’ll just stay in the airport hostel”, when we got to the airport we put all of our bags by a wall and laid down to sleep- Caitlin announced to us that she thought there was actually an airport hostel. I have ten times more blonde moments but I love when someone else shares them with me :). So after this novel- we finally made it back safe and had memories to last a lifetime.

Morocco

Well, its been a little while since I’ve blogged but its only because I have not had time to! Not because I didn’t want to! So I’m going to start with Morocco. Morocco was absolutely amazing!!! We got on busses after taking our test to get into our classes. From the bus we drove late into the night into the very bottom of Spain to a city named Algeciras. When we got there, we split up into 3 groups and each had an American leader that lived in morocco take us to different hostels to spend the night. We had the same leader and group the rest of the trip. We got up early the next morning and went to the ferries so that we could cross the straight of Gibraltar. This straight separates Spain and morocco but connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea. I really didn’t know that much about it until we crossed it and discussed what it really was haha. When we got there, it was a lot different than I had expected. I was thinking it was going to be huts, jungle and stuff like that. Turns out Morocco is an Arab nation and it doesn’t look or act like the rest of Africa. They don’t really associate themselves with the rest of the country. The majority of people there are Muslim. We got into Tangeer in Morocco and went to the Darna women’s center. This center is “go figure” for women- and they come there to learn about their rights or some women just come to work there to make money because they are either a single mother or they separated themselves from their family and need to make a living. We toured the building and watched many of the women make beautiful blankets, quilts and other knitted materials. We went into a classroom and have a discussion with two Arab women and we had the opportunity to ask them any questions we had about their lifestyles or their Islamic culture. One of the most interesting things I learned was why they wore the scarves around their heads. I thought they were forced to wear them which is why I had a negative connotation in my head about them, but it turns out that it’s a personal choice and the significance depends on each woman and her reasoning for wearing it. Some just saw their mothers and others wear it so they wanted to, some wear it for fashion, while the majority of women wear it because it represents their faith. In the Koran I guess it says something about women needing to hide their beauty and cover themselves- so that is left up to interpretation. The next day we got to meet up with some Moroccan college students and went shopping and had coffee with them so that we could get a better idea of the culture. One of the men was a young teacher, and he ended up being a little too interested in me so we ditched our group a little early and shopped by ourselves. He did buy me a key chain though haha. (at least I got something out of it). Totally kidding. But really. Anyway, that night we got to experience a hamman. I really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into but we were told we were bathing. So we gathered our bathing materials and headed to the sight. We changed into our swimsuits and went in. It was dark and there were naked old women and screaming children pouring water over each other and scrubbing each other down with sponge things that went around your hand. It was warm in there and we were in DESPERATE need of showers at this point, so everything looked pretty wonderful!!!! So the best part of the whole trip was learning about why they only eat with their right hand. Well they wipe with their left, okay that’s fine….but sitting in the bus station going to Switzerland I learned a little bit too much… they wipe with their bare hand!!!!! They don’t use toilet paper!!!!!! I’ll leave you those words and you can create your own images. “Just some food for thought”. So the last day we were there we got the amazing opportunity to go up into the mountains and meet with a family in the country. We took an interpreter with us so that we could fully understand everything. I mean I did learn 6 Arabic words but it wasn’t quite enough to translate for everyone. They asked us questions about America and we got to ask them questions about the Islamic culture. I found out some crazy things that I had no idea of! Well for one, they have so much pride for their religion, although I do not believe or agree with what they are standing for, the way they live and take pride in their religion is admirable. One thing that wasn’t so cool though is the fact that they can have more than one wife. The rule though is that they need to support and spend time with both sets of families equally. Many men don’t have enough money to do this so it isn’t that common but very possible. They asked how many wives men in America could have and they were shocked to learn that it was illegal and frowned upon to have more than one wife. When leaving two of our girls got sick and we had to pull over a couple times when going back down the bumpy mountain. So that was a little bit of a downer but the view on the way down was beautiful!!! And looked a little more like the Africa I was picturing. Overall, it was just a great learning experience for being culturally aware and also religiously aware. In the US we get bombarded with controversy against our faith because of doubt but rarely have I been challenged on account of different faiths and ones so different yet so similar from my own. It was really fun to learn about and share my own and I would go back in a heartbeat.

Viajes

WE got back from morocco and had the best time of our lives!!!! We learned once we got there that it was a muslim nation- who knew. So most of the women wear the head scarfs and dresses- but the significance of it was what blew me away. They wear them because they want to- it signifies their faith and how strong they are to their god/ala. I'll go into more detail on the villages we went to in a later blog, i only have a little bit of time right now. but a quick note, another thing is that you eat with your hands in morocco. And you eat with your right hand, it is against their culture to eat with your left. This is the case because you wipe with your left hand so you are supposed to use your right to eat. I turned to our guide lady and was like, well what if i wipe with my right, isn't that defeating the purpose?? and she just laughed and said, well with the culture you were supposed to grow up learning to wipe with your left. I also soon learned that they wipe....with out toilet paper. they use their bare hands to wipe, and then cook and eat with the same hands!!! One night we all ate supper with my host family there and there was another girl from the us staying there too, we ate out of one big bowl of veggies and chicken and she would reach her hands in, lick her fingers and then stick them back into the main dish... i didn't last long eating out of the same bowl. Then i found a hair in my soup one of the nights, so once i again i had to eat thinking that there were children starving in Africa.. but this time i was IN Africa thinking these thoughts...crazy. So i'll go into more detail later about the islamic culture and how much i've learned, which is a ton!!! - we got back tuesday evening from morocco came home, got lots of kisses from mama carmen, ate supper and then were off again! Also- when we returned to carmens there were two french girls staying there from high school- they knew like 3 words of spanish. Caitlin and i came in yelling in spanish because we were so excited to speak a language we could speak !!!!! and they just sat there and didn;t talk, and we saw them and were like.. oh haha hola! We left that night at midnight for the bus station- and we had a 5 hour bus ride from granada to madrid- then we took the metro to the airport- took a plane to Milan, Italy and then took a train to Speitz and then another to Interlaken, switzerland. We thought we were saving ALL this money by taking busses and trains instead of a plane...turned out we weren't. We got to the train station to learn that a one way to speitz was 56 euro- we had no choice but to take it at that point! so we are going to look into flights for the way back- but last night after almost 24 hours straight of travel to get to switz- thats not including the traveling from africa the day before. We got here!!!! It's gorgeous and is a small town by lakes and in the mountains!!!! Today the girls are going shopping and to the grocery store so we can make some pizzas tonight and get some food for the rest of the weekend, and the boys are heading to the mountain to ski and figure out how all that runs. We went to mc donalds last night and one meal was 15 dollars. RIDICULOUSLY expensive, and the response from the people there was, welcome to switzerland! so we are going to try and save some money by making out meals! pizza and sandwiches. Tomorrow all of us are hitting the slopes and getting a taste of God's creation!!!!

Case of the Mondays

Last night we went to an irish pub named paddys to watch the vikings game! We showed up and im pretty sure every single american in granada was at that pub! i didn´t see one spaniard! So anyway, the game didn´t start until midnight here, but we were all in for a long haul because i reeeeally wanted the vikes to make it to the super bowl. So we all squeeze in and about ten minutes later someone goes, Maggie! I look and it is Alise Carlson! (a girl I played volleyball with in highschool). but how random! in the same town and same pub in spain!!! So everyone was super into it, then 3 am rolls around and the owner has to kick everyone out because of some rule or something? so anyway it got right up to the end and i didn´t even get to see the end! but its okay cause it probably would have ruined my night. I was so pumped during it though to tell everyone i was from minnesota cause was a true minnesotan cheering for the vikes there! (keep in mind this was like the second game ive watched all year-but it was still cool). So then this morning we had to get up at like 9 and had a class at 10- then i had the afternoon to myself to go get much needed school clothes- i really didn´t realize how much of the bare minimum i had brought for clothing until i found myself rotating between like 3 shirts everyday. I got lost and found some really cool parks, one i had seen before but didnt get time to walk through it, it has leafless trees all over growing in the cement, its really cool. When i got back to the school for evening class students kept asking me if i saw the accident? i was like, what accident? i guess a woman, (still not sure of age or any other info) got hit by a bus and was lying inthe street and was guessed to be dead- we are not 100% sure of anything but pray anyway! alot of my friends saw the woman laying there with blood everywhere so they are having a hard time with everything. - and then we walked extra careful back from school. you should see how fast these buses go though, i get scared just standing on the street when they go by! noone would stand a chance against one of those things. So......for a little comic relief after that depressing story- tonight i sat down to eat supper and it was a plate full of like this potatoe thing, i lifted it up to tear it, and a hair of my host mom was creased into the bottom of it. i just pulled it out, threw some ketchup on it and thought to myself over and over again about how there were starving children in africa.

La Ahlambra

Friday night was our last night with our host brother :(. He brought a girl from school to eat supper with us. I thought she was from spain because she looked like it, so I was like Hola! She’s from New Mexico. Anyway she was really sweet and she lives here on her own in an apartment so she was really excited to get a home cooked meal. When she finished eating my host mom asked her, fruta o flan? (fruit or this pudding type dish). The girl was like oh, no gracias, I am full. My host mom looked at her and said with a strong voice, Futa o flan. It was so funny, she didn’t realize that it wasn’t optional. Also that night, mama carmen’s friend Conche made us the flan for dinner. It was the only thing I haven’t liked since I’ve been here, awful. I love the flan in the carton, but this stuff was weird! My host brother asked how it was, and we can talk in English and they have no idea what we are saying so I told him he would have to see for himself. He took a bite and responded; well it’s just not really a consistent texture. After dinner he asked us to help him pack because he was short on time, we had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. We walked into his room and it was like a tornado had gone through it! (think of my messy-times like 10). We rolled and folded everything and surprised ourselves how much we could fit into his one suitcase! He couldn’t fit it all coming here and then he also bought a ton of stuff! He peaced out while we packed his stuff by the way. After we were so pumped about our accomplishment, I opened up one of his drawers and realized there were still clothes in all of them. We repacked and then Caitlin and I both sat on the suitcase and we zipped it up! The next day Caitlin and I got to experience the food we had been worried about since our arrival. The shrimp for lunch still had the heads and legs on it. Keep in mind black eyeballs staring at you while you rip its head off and then head juice squirting out. I took off an eye ball and through it at Caitlin and mama Carmen and Conche laughed really hard. For supper we had a different treat. They looked like skinned minnows sitting in oil. Caitlin mouthed to me that she refused to eat it. Mama Carmen wasn’t taking no for an answer from either of us. It wasn’t too bad actually, just very fishy tasting. Yesterday we also got to go to the Alhambra!! It was soooooo pretty!!! There is one room that you whisper in one corner and someone else can hear it in another (the room of secrets). I knew this ahead of time because I had been there before when I was in high school so I was really excited. I walked over to one of the corners and told Caitlin to go to the other- our guide guy came in and started talking super loud into the corner- I turned to Caitlin and she goes… I can hear him from hear without the corner… I think that defeats the purpose. After that we went back to our houses and took a 3 hour much needed nap. Last night Carmen went out for a night on the town haha so we got the house to ourselves! We played music and took hot showers!!!! My first one since I’ve been here. The showers are only warm at night and we always take them in the morning. Then we got ready and went out for tapas again and then to the disco!! Granada diez- if you put your name on the list on facebook you get in for free!!! We got to sleep in and it was wonderful!!! A lot of families make the kids wake up for breakfast and then they can go back to bed, not Carmen she shut the shades so that we could sleep longer! I started to tear up last night because they day before Carmen saw Caitlin and I looking at these picture/paintings around her house, there were 3 really cool ones that we took pictures of- anyway last night while we were getting ready we noticed that Carmen had put all the pictures on the walls of our room. Tonight we booked our flight to Italy, and then we are taking a train to Switzerland and just staying there an extra day and doing London a different weekend. And then at Midnight tonight we are going to a sports bar and watching the VIKINGS GAME!!!!

Chocolate y Churro

Today Caitlin and I went on a hunt for towels. We walked into a travel agency to ask them and they all tried to tell us where we could get them. So much, that they were all fighting so A. we couldn´t hear or understand them, and B. they were yelling at eachother at the same time. So ni the end, a customer took us out of the store and showed us how to get there. On the way we found a shoe store that was 5 euros for every pair! We also got to have chocolate and churros today, its basiclly sugared bread dipped in chocolate-very famous here. Chris, brett, caitlin, stephanie and I (all kids from central), sat down, ate them and discussed our trips we will be going on. So far we go to Morocco next weekend until Monday, then we leave that night to catch the morning flight to switzerland, then that friday we leave from switzerland to go to london, and then back to spain that monday. My host mom made me toast again for breakfast, this is different than the toast in america though. its thick bread in a weird toaster thing, and then she puts butter and this marmolade stuff that is amazing on top. its kind of like honey but different. And as always we drink colacoa, pronounced cola-cow and its just hot chocolate but everyone drinks it here for breakfast. For lunch mama carmen made us soup with spinach, potatoes and some other stuff- then we had crocates, which are breaded cream things that are actually meat- i still actually haven´t figured out exactly what they are. We always have soup or a salad before our meals. The salad always has vinegar, oil and salt i think? they don´t have salad dressings here. but the salad is soo good!

Settled in

Now that we have been here for a couple of days things are getting much easier. I learned how to get to the school and back all by myself the first day- this was huge for me because i still dont know my way around pella all that well. Carmen my host mom still makes great meals, but tonight her friend conchi made pizza for us, and it was amazing!!! Two nights ago like 15 girls in our program, caitlin and I all went out to get to know eachother. The other girls didn´t know their way around the city yet and i´ve been here since thursday so i got to lead the pack around. The girls were all very nice and it was just fun to get to know some of them before we started classes with them. Yesterday morning caitlin asked me if her blowdryer and straightener would work with the converter in the outlet and i said... hmmm i don´t know- my straightener broke when i tried to in highschool but you can try it! she held up the plug in and said ¨well! momment of truth!¨and then plugged it in. As she plugged it in, the lights went out hahahaha. she had to go tell mama carmen that she blew a fuse! last night we all went out again with some different friends than before. our host mom asked if they were the same kids as before and i said no, different ones, we are just so popular! she thought this was pretttty funny. we didn´t get back until 5 o clock in the morning!!!! we didnt have class today until one though so i was going to sleep in. at 8 am i hear, buenos dias chicas!!! chicas, a que hora tienes las clases. I was so out of it i couldnt respond, and caitlin mummbled one! she laughed came and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek and said ¨dios mio¨which is like o my gosh!!! then she pulled the blinds and we went back to bed! when we got up we showered and ate breakfast that she made for us. this all sounds great except for the fact that caitlin didn´t bring a towel and i only brought one, so we have been sharing the same towel since friday... we need to either wash it or buy some tom. haha just kidding, we want to buy some but we can´t find any! we are going to search again tomorrow. Another really funny story, today in class we got these sheets in spanish that had different things on them like ´has animals, or has only sisters´and then we make our own question and have to go find people in our class that match that discription. My friend chris was like´why did the teacher give me a weird look after she read mine? I read his question and it was ¨who lives in a pinaple under the sea¨´ looked at him and said... spunge bob square pants_???? and laughed and laughed. he misunderstood the assignment and thought it was just who questions and other people had to answer them. If you are a follower of the cartoon and the song, you will appreciate this story. Tonight we are staying in and going to bed!!! we need to catch up on our sleep. Oh and next weekend we go to Moroco!!!!! i dont know who to spell it, but we go next weekend!!! I am so excited!!!!