Paris

We went to Paris all of last weekend!!!!!! We left thursday night on a plane to Barcelona, Spain, and spent the night at the airport because we had an early flight out the next morning to Paris. We claimed an area and camped out. There was about 9 of us, so we took up some room. We all studied, or played cards. One of the boys in our group went and got a bottle of wine and about an hour later we asked him why he had purchased it his reponse was, ¨i thought everyone was getting one.¨ This struck us all as really funny because no one had once mentioned getting any. So we continued to either study because of midterms or played Hearts. We got there at like 7pm so we had about 12 hours to kill haha. Some of us slept, and some didn´t but we all got up to catch a 7 am flight to PARIS!!! We flew in and had to take a bus from the airport to the city. Once we arrived, my friend Taylor who studies in paris picked us up! We took the metro to get to the hostel that about 16 of our friends were all staying at!!! Some of our friends were studying in London, and some had come to visit from central for spring break. We got to at about 11am to learn that we couldn´t get into our rooms until 3. The girls just put their bags in Ashley and Felicia´s room and the guys put thiers in Joey and Joels room. From there our huge group went to the Sacre Coeur which is this huge church and has massive steps that overlook the whole city. There was a really good performer that was singing songs so we all sat there for about 2 hours and watched! This guy knew like 6 different languages, he would ask where people were from and then he would talk to them in their language. There was one lady that went up close to him from Russia to video him and he called her britney spears because she was a blonde- she started to dance around while he sang and then moved to taping herself dance around- it was pretty funny. His songs were mostly in english so we all sang along and just enjoyed the view. We walked around the city and got a feel of the area - there were also really good artists that we walked by that could literally sketch a person perfectly- one picture was one of britney spears so i obviously took a pic by it. Then headed back to the Hostel to take naps and then to get cleaned up. We went to the Arc de Triomphre that night- it was huge and really fun to see- from the arc we could see a great view of the Eiffel Tower and we got to see it sparkle- its always lit up but every hour on the hour it sparkles!!! That night we all went out dancing!!! -obviously my favorite part of paris. The next day we went to see the Eiffel tower close up and personal. We took a thousand pictures and then decided to hit up the Louvre. This is one of the largest museums in the world and contains the good ol lady herself...Mona Lisa. We went to see her specifically. Caitlin and I were standing by eachother staring at her, and then I turned to Caitlin and said... you know, she´s kinda homely looking. and she goes, oh! she´s real homely looking. Then I asked her if she was a real person, and Caitlin goes oh ya, I don´t know exactly what she did but she´s real. So we discussed for some time about that she probably did good works like mother teresea and that´s why she´s so famous. OOOOOOOnly to find out- she isn´t a real person at all. She´s Leonardo´s vision of himself as a female-so its like half man half woman or something. So we looked around for a little bit and then headed out to take more ridiculous pictures outside of the Louvre. After the photo shoot, we went to see the Notre Dame cathedral and we got to witness a service going on. After touring around it for a little while we went and ate at Subway...mmm eat fresh, except this subway wasn´t all that fresh-but for some reason we just love american food when we get our hands on it. We went back to the hostel and got ready for our last night there. We all got dolled up, took pics and then headed out in the POORING RAIN to go to a pub, only problem was, on the way there-both of my brand new heels broke! I turned to the group as they were laughing at me holding the two heels and i said, ¨so this is why my mom always told me to buy good quality shoes...who knew.¨ The next day we said our goodbyes to the American folk and headed back to españa!!!!

Madrid

We spent the weekend in Granada 2 weekends ago haha!! First time in a while. That Friday night we went to a place called poe and they have Jamaican flavored tapas- kind of like appetizers. When you order a drink of any type you get a free tapa!!! This place had delicious ones!!! Then we went to another pub and there was a guy wearing a t-shirt that said 83th with some other english words, try saying that out loud, we were like eighty thirdth??? We of course snapped a pic of it. Then we went to a botellon, we had read about these in Spanish class so i was really excited to see what it was all about. It was a huge street absolutely PACKED WITH PEOPLE. Mostly spaniard college kids. It was a great chance for us to be embraced into the culture and practice our spanish! That Sunday we went to the Santa Maria Cathedrial to go to a church service and it is actually where Queen isabel and King Fernando were burried. This was a Catholic service so when Caitlin whipped out a lunch before she entered the pew, you could imagine the panic in my face. But I got through the whole thing pretty well, I let Caitlin and Chris kneel, sit, kneel and then sit again haha. They told me I didn't have to do all of that. But it was really interesting to go to a Spanish service. The following week we got two girls from France that were going to stay with us. The girls were really sweet and a lot nicer than most of the girls we have had from France so Caitlin and I took them out to Tapas and befriended them- but then they started to get too comfortable with us and crossed the line when they asked to wear our high heels to go out at night-we made up some excuses because the streets ruin your shoes so quickly -we hardly wear our heals!!! So anyway - that weekend we went to Madrid-which make it last weekend. We left Friday and went to Toledo first actually. This is my favorite city in all of Spain- it is so cute and clean. We got to go see where swords were made and Gold into necklaces and other jewelery. I had seen all of the same things when I had come in high school but it was really fun to see the stuff again and recognize different things that I saw. I am pretty sure the guy who demonstrates the sword making was the same exact one as 4 years ago, and I am also pretty sure that all he does is sit there and when groups come in he gets up- lights the metal, pounds it a little and once we leave he sits back down again. I need to get that job. But any way that night we got into Madrid and we all went to a disco called Joy. Coca-cola was sponsoring it so there was a ton of fancy stuff and different dancers. But the later the night went the crazier the disco got- there were people in costumes walking around in stilts and then there were people bungy jumping from the ceilings!!! it was crazy! There were dancers on different rings in the air and lot's of other stuff- it was like out of a movie so it was pretty sweet. We all got in free because we had passes from our Hotel but usually this disco is 20$ to get into. The next day we went to the royal palace where the king and queens have parties, it was beautiful!!!! Then we went to the park of retiro- which has a big pond and boats on it- gorgeous! There was a ton of entertainment in the park too! That night we went HARD ROCK CAFE- we had eaten Mc Donalds with all of our weekend money for food so that we could go all out at Hard Rock Cafe- we could not wait to eat ranch dressing and american meat!!!!!! We got burgers, ribs, and A TON OF RANCH!!!!!!!! It was a very expensive meal about 20$-30$ per person but it was SOOOO WORTH IT!!!! Then with our college group we went to a play- it was supposed to be a scary one but since they talked so fast- we couldn't understand them and it just got kind of boring- but it was still fun to go to! Sunday we went through the Prado Museum - there are a ton of famous art pieces there and has a higher concentration of masterpieces than any other museum in the world. It was huge!!!! Caitlin and Shayna were determined to hit every room- Ben and I were spent after 2 hours so we "accidentally" lost them and went to find other people so that we could leave haha. Alex (another girl from our group) and I went back to the park to people watch, got some pizza, icecream, and nuts and then went back to meet the group to head back to Granada!!! Now we have mid-terms next week so this week has and will be consumed with studying!!!! And this weekend we go to Paris!!! We actually have a lot of Central kids visiting Europe for their spring break and all of us are actually meeting up in Paris, so there will be like 18 of us I think!!!

Granada

hoooola, como estan! This week has been full of booking and planning. So we thought we were going to Italy for Spring break, but it turns out, if you wait to book your tickets- the prices get jacked up. We didn't really feel like spending 1,000 dollars on spring break so we switched up our plans a little bit. We are now going to Barcelona (a really pretty and historical city in Spain) for a couple days and then we are heading to the Canary Islands for a couple days as well. Which are islands off the south coast of Spain. We got a hostel/apartment for all 8 of us right by the beach!!! We each pay 14 Euro a night, and this place has a pool!!!! We are all so excited. But as all trips go for us, something will go wrong haha. Then we are heading back a little early to come back to Granada for Semana Santa. Which is a religious week here for the week before easter. The city I guess is all decorated and there's like parades and stuff. But I do go to school, if I haven't mentioned that yet. All of my classes are in Spanish and they are an hour and a half long EACH!!! But they are all going pretty well. Last night we went to this disco called Camborio, and it over looks the Alhambra- if you don't know what that is, google it, its gorgeous at night! I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend entails, but i'm pretty sure on Sunday we are going to this huge cathedral for church! I can't believe we are almost half way done! It is all going by so fast. Next weekend we go to Madrid for the weekend, the weekend after that we go to France, then spring break, then next month is Ireland and Italy! We go go go, it's draining but SO WORTH IT!!! This morning Caitlin and I got to sleep in for the first time in - i don't remember the last time we got to sleep in- and we woke up and were like OH MY GOSH< THAT FELT SO GOOD. I have been so drained, so tired yadayada- and then we looked at each other and were like, are we seriously complaining right now about traveling hahahahaa. and Bursted out laughing!!!!

London

So we just got back from LONDON!!!! We left last Thursday bright and early!!! Caitlin and I got up at about 6:45 got everything together, ate breakfast, said our goodbyes to mama Carmen and flew out the door by 7! We caught a city bus outside our house to take us to the main bus station which took us to Madrid to the airport. While on the bus we coincidentally ran into Steph Brammer who was going to meet us at the bus station. All three of us got on a 9:00 am bus to Madrid, got on a plane and headed to the golden city of London!!! Naturally our flight was delayed, ryan air- once again the one with the stupid jingle with the congratulations for riding on the flight with the highest percentage of flight arrival times. So we were delayed and got into an airport outside of London at 7:15 pm- we pushed and shoved our way out of the plane and sprinted through the airport- and when I say sprinted I mean like 6^th grade 50 yard dash sprinting- I had a layer of sweat all through my body. We were going through customs by 7:25- our bus was set to leave at 7:30. We sprinted left, right, up and down and for some magical reason we made it to the bus by 7:30. We are notorious for giving ourselves a ton of time when planning ahead and then when actually traveling things go wrong and we always end up in a jog-a-thon. (And on occasion a sprint off). So as we were putting our bags in the bottom of the bus, Caitlin sadly realized that she had left her journal on the plane! That put a downer on the hour bus ride to London. But we bounced right back up when we got into London and smelled that sweet British air. We walked around trying to find the bus station – where our friend Kiley from college that was studying abroad there, would be picking us up get- because once again the bus we rode on dropped us off on some random street. It turns out that it’s a lot easier to ask for directions in English than in Spanish though. Fancy that. Any who, so we found the bus station and found Kiley!!!! Kiley worked us through the tube (metro) all the way to Vanden House- which originally is like 100 pounds to stay a night there, but we got to stay in Kiley’s room for fifteen pounds a night! Right when I got there I jumped right on kileys bed and proclaimed to her that I was sleeping with her that night! She realized later that night that I was serious, and we got to snuggle all night! We didn’t have enough beds in the room so two of us were going to have to anyway haha it wasn’t just because I wanted to… but really I did want to- I missed her! We got to Vanden House and went to see some other central kids that were studying there!!! We also met up with the boys from our program in Spain that were there in London that we usually travel with. All of us got ready and went to a club called Tiger Tiger. We all just kind of danced as a big group and watched Chris- our friend in our program in Spain and goes to central- go up to random girls and shimmy on them and watched the girls either get creeped out or was loving up on it haha. After Tiger Tiger we went back to the house and made grilled cheese sandwiches!!! We got to eat grilled cheese, oreo cookies, all you can drink milk and so many other things that aren’t available in Spain!!! We were loving it!!! The next day we woke up pretty early to go on our first day of touring. (PS in London, they drive on the right side of the car and the opposite side of the road as well!!! Sooo strange.) We really wanted to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace so we started off our day with a little bit of guard watching. We got to the palace and it wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be, which we thought was great because we could see better that way. Some Asian guy yelled at Chris, WHERE IS THE CHANGING OF THE GUARDS!?! And once we figured out what he was saying, he just pointed forward and smiled- it was pretty funny but it might have been one of those “you had to be there” kind of things. We watched the guards walk back and forth for about 45 minutes and finally someone pointed out the sign right in front of us that said, CHANGING OF THE GUARDS- TOMORROW AT 11:30. We had all seen the sign but subconsciously assumed they had just forgotten to take the sign down from yesterday since the changing of the guards is every other day. Well it turns out it was right and the changing of the guards was on Sat, not Friday. So we left Buckingham palace and headed to go get some hot chocolate because it was really cold outside! On our way to get the hot chocolate though we stopped at These HUGE lions in a plaza that we could climb on and take pictures. We had to hoist each other up- which was no easy task and the process was way funnier than we could have imagined. After the lion pics, we went and got delicious hot chocolate!!!! From there we went to some plaza where they were building sand volleyball courts for the 2012 olympics!!! We took pics there and moved on to take pictures with cool horses and guards near there. After we took pictures with the horses we read the sign next to us that said “HORSES MAY KICK OR BITE YOU- THANK YOU”. Good to know. So we then toured around the city, went to Big Ben- Ben, one of the kids with us, turned to us and said, “you know, when I was little they use to call me big ben.” We just bursted out laughing and took a pic with him and the clock. We also went and saw the London eye, which is the largest Ferris wheel in the world. From there we also went to Parliament, St. Margaret’s Abbey- (MARGARET!!! I took some pics), Westminster Abbey, and a couple random places. We walked through St. James park and there was a squirrel balancing on a fence, eating a peanut. There was also a bird man that would feed the birds and then when he would walk, all of the birds would follow and sometimes sit on his shoulder. Then we went and ate at McDonalds which we finally got use of our ISIC cards. When we went to Switzerland we asked everywhere if they took these for discounts and everyone just gave us a weird look and said no, in London we got to use them all over the place!!!!! It got us a free cheeseburger, thing of ice cream or there were some other choices. Later that night we made spaghetti and then got ready for……..Wicked the play!!! In the process of getting ready though I was blow drying my hair and I heard a fire alarm so I stopped only to learn that I had set off the fire alarm!!! My hair dryer was sparking and smoke was coming out of everywhere haha. I ran down stairs and I saw the whole group through a window in the kitchen and I pointed to myself and mouthed “that was me!” They all laughed and Kiley went and talked to the lady at the front. The lady told Kiley that the outlet shouldn’t have done that and that it was complete rubbish.

The play was absolutely amazing!!!!! The character, Alphaba- the wicked which was the best singer I have ever heard!!!! We all went back and stalked her on youtube. Later when we got back we all just hung out in Kiley’s room and watched youtube videos and chatted. We called my family on skype too and talked to all of them haha! We just ended up staying in because everyone was pretty tired and we wanted to get up early so that we for sure made it to the real changing of the guards!! So we got up pretty early and we actually had extra time, so we decided to hit up Knotting hill before the guard show. So we hopped on the tube and went to Knotting Hill, it turned out to be pretty lame so we hopped back on the tube and headed to see the Guards!!! There were different groups of guards that played different songs with instruments and marched around. There were tons of people this time!!!! After the changing for the guards we went to the London tower – where they use to keep a lot of prisoners- next to there was London Bridge, the tower bridge, and the millennium bridge (which happens to be in the latest Harry Potter movie). We also got to see the Globe theatre which was where Shakespeare’s first plays were performed-they still don’t have seats in it, it has basically kept its originality but is kept up. The next thing we saw was St. Pauls Cathedral. This is actually where Princess Diana got married! Then one of our last stops of the day was the British museum which was pretty cool but we were all so tired from walking by this point so everything started to become a little less cool as the day progressed. But one really cool thing we did get to see was platform 9 and ¾ which is in the Harry Potter movie as well.

Another cool thing that we got to go see was Abbey Street- this is the crosswalk where the beetles had one of their album cover pictures taken. And the studio where they recorded it was right next to it. What wasn’t so cool was the tsunami that we had to walk through to get there. Everything and everyone was completely soaked!!! But we did get a picture walking across the cross walk. We got everyone ready and all the traffic had stopped so that we could walk across and kiley could take a perfect picture of us… right when she was about to snap the perfect shot- some random guy walks right in front of her and across the front of us so that we couldn’t take the picture- it was really funny and really frustrating. That night all of us girls went out dancing while the guys bailed on us and went to bed. We did have to get up at 4 am but we just decided not to sleep. We couldn’t find the right bus the next morning, so we were basically running all around London at 4 am- trying to find a bus. But we found one and we made it back in one piece! Over all, the trip was a complete BLAST if you couldn’t tell already. Kiley did an amazing job at being tour guide Barbie and we all came back with a lot of memories!

Sevilla/Cadiz

I went to the famous Carnival of Cadiz last weekend. The Carnival of Cadiz is very very famous in Spain and I soon found out why. Last Friday I got on a bus at 3:30 and traveled all by myself for a 3 hour bus ride to Sevilla! The girl who sat next to me was a teenager from Granada and was so sweet. We sat there and talked for a while and she helped me with some Spanish homework I had. Conversing in Spanish is getting a lot easier and it was really challenging and fun when I couldn’t talk in English all of last weekend. I spoke in English maybe twice and it was helping others with their English. I slept the rest of the way and when I arrived Elena was right outside my bus waiting for me with her friend Anna. (for those who don’t know, Elena is the girl I stayed with when I went to Spain my jr. year of high school. She now studies at a University in Sevilla which is about an hour from Cadiz. When I got off the bus she had a kinder bueno waiting for me in her pocket, which is only the best chocolate bar in the world!!! Her friend Laura picked all of us up from the bus station and we headed to her flat. We got there, showered got all ready and sat down for supper. Laura’s boyfriend made us all supper, we had Spanish tortillas and these really good sandwiches which were like two pieces of bread toasted together with coleslaw type food on the inside. Then we went out to a disco called SOHO. This place was super packed, and for the first time no one stared at me like I was an American. I didn’t see any other American there so it was nice because no one thought I was, people would come up at start talking to me and then once I opened my mouth they figured it out but other than that it was nice. Another nice thing was when creepy guys would try to talk to me, I would just say I didn’t understand them because I was American, (in Spanish), and Elena would say she was American and we would start talking in English so that they would leave haha. Something I noticed was that guys loved to dance with guys and girls with girls but rarely did I see guys and girls dancing together, but if you want to see guys dance- spain is the place to be. They straight up get it on the dance floor in like a goofy 80’s dance sort of way. We stayed at the disco till about 7:30 a.m. and then headed back to laura’s hous/piso. We woke up at 12:30, packed up and then headed to Cadiz. We got to Elena’s house/apartment and her parents were so excited to see me! I was excited to see them too and hold a conversation with them as where the last time I talked to them all I did was respond with “Si”. So after we showered and got ready I noticed that there were a lot of people coming over to her house. I was really confused because literally her living room was packed with people, turns out her niece was having a birthday party there…who knew. She probably told me but I wasn’t listening- if I don’t know to listen- the Spanish just goes one ear and out the other. So anyway her niece turned 3 and was the cutest little Spanish girl I had seen yet. She had brown curly hair and eyes that could melt ya. All of the guests were family members- cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma. Some of them I had met before but I got to meet a lot more this time! All of the kids dressed up in different costumes and ran around while the adults talked over coffee and hot chocolate. I was sitting on the couch with Elena and Anna, and all of her little cousins would surround me and try to show me the English that they knew. One of the little girls was 4 I think and started rambling off in Spanish and then goes, 1,2,3,4,5 in English and gave me a great big smile. Her aunt really made a conscious effort to talk to me throughout the whole party and did a great job of asking me questions that I knew the answers to and could elaborate on! It was really fun to experience a Spanish birthday and see how they were similar or different from ours. That night we dressed up in all black, wore red sweaters, red hats and held cardboard guitars. We were tio pepe, it’s a famous wine bottle here that wears a coat, hat and has a guitar. (you can image google it if you’re insanely curious) We got to the carnival and it was crazy!!!! The best costumes I had ever seen in my life! It was Halloween on steroids! In the US girls just kind of want to look cute in their costume and everyone just kind of does something at the last minute, not here! It looked like people spent all year on their costumes!!!! There were Avatar characters with the apparel, hair and then blue sparkly skin. There were sims characters, every animal you can think of, A table with a table on his back with a table cloth, food, drinks, and silverware pasted to the table. The amount of people there was so overwhelming too! People dancing in some of the streets, performers, just different stuff going on everywhere we went. I met a lot of people there and actually ran into some Americans and I learned that one of the girls’ there- her boyfriend goes to my college! I didn’t know who he was but it was still pretty cool. We didn’t leave the carnival until about 7 that morning too. Needless to say, the next day on my 4 hour bus ride back, I slept the whole way!

“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.