My final blog!

Hello All,

I've been back in the states for about two weeks now and I'm finally deciding to write the final chapter of my time in Spain. :)

We left Valencia on Friday morning which I believe was the 10th. I spent the night of the 9th dying of heat and packing with my roommate. We split a nice bottle of wine with my other two roommates and had a fun time recapping our stay. Adela gave us a heartfelt good bye, saying she was very sad and she even got goosebumps. She's such a sweetheart. Anyways, Friday morning was an early morning on the bus, and we drove five hours to Toledo.

Toledo - Toledo is a city that is about an hour away from Madrid and the capital of La Mancha (for all you who have read Don Quixote you might find that interesting). We saw the Cathedral of Toledo which was built over a mosque. Apparently it is one of the most important Cathedrals in Spain. It was amazing, but there were no pictures allowed in it. If you want to see a cool Cathedral though I'm sure you can google it and there would be some pictures online! We crossed the Bridge de San Martin to leave and then took a panoramic bus tour of the city. It is one of the best fortified cities in the world and it reminds me of mideival times!

Madrid - After Toledo we rode the bus to Madrid and spent the night in the same Hostel that we did at the beginning of the trip. It was so interesting comparing this night to our first nights because this time when we were staying in the hotel, we knew all of the other students! That made this time around a LOT more fun :) We stayed up all night playing catch-phrase, the teams being distinguished by toilet paper headbands or no toiletpaper headbands. I was a toiletpaper headband team, and we won :) So fun.

El Escorial & Segovia - The next day was another early morning and we drove an hour to El Escorial which is a monastery (Monasterio de El Escorial). This was a really interesting place to visit because all Spanish royalty is buried here! Also, we were able to see the Library here which reminded Michael and I of beauty and the beast. After visiting this monastery we drove about 2 1/2 hours to Segovia where we saw one of the longest, best preserved Roman aqueducts in Europe! It was so cool! We also visited the Alcazar de Segovia which is a castle thing, which is also pretty interesting. All of the ceilings were very ornate and we got a great view of the city from the top of the tower!

Madrid - We drove back to Madrid for our last night on the program, this night was filled with lots of good byes and exchanging phone numbers and e-mails. I love all of the new friends that we made :)

Pamplona - After Madrid we were on our own. The program officially ended Sunday morning. Michael, Jacob, Nick, Wally, and I began our journey to Pamplona to see the famous Running of the Bulls. We took the Madrid Metro at 7:00 to the airport and stored our luggage in a luggage locker. We carried our backpacks on the plane. When we got to Pamplona it was SO COLD! I knew it was going to be cold because it is near France, but I forgot to pack jeans (thank goodness I remembered my sweatshirt). I was freezing the entire time I was there haha, oh well. We dropped our stuff off at our hotel and then walked into the city so we could walk the route that the bulls were going to run. The city was packed with people and EVERYONE wears red and white all day! We missed the memo and definitely felt out of place! We purchased some red scarfs to blend in a little more :). The city smelled horrible because of all the trash and drunk people, but I'm sure it is only this gross once a year. We spent the whole day in Pamplona, just enjoying all of the commotion. That night we watched the fireworks and then walked back to our hotel because we knew we were to have an early morning.

We woke up the next morning at 4:30 and secured a spot on the fence by 5:00. We waited there for 3 hours before the bulls ran at 8:00. However, time flew by quickly because we were meeting more international friends. I spent most of my time chatting with a Canadian named Nadia whose boyfriend was running and a couple from Finland. When the bulls actually ran by at 8:00 it was incredibly hard to see and only lasted about 50 seconds (for what I could see)... but it was still a cool thing to say I was there for! Our flight out of Pamplona was that same day at 2:00 so we hung out in Pamplona for a bit, took some showers, and then headed to the airport.

Madrid - Our last night in Madrid was spent in a really nice hotel, it was a little pricey but we liked the convinience of a free airport shuttle. That night we decided to go out for a nice dinner (since it was our last night in Spain), which was about the best decision I think we made. We went to a nice restaurant at 8:30, had a course meal (which is how they serve them in Spain) and split some bottles of wine. We were there for about 3 1/2 hours just talking about our trip, it was really a great way to end our stay in Spain :).

Our flight home the next day was pretty uneventful. I had the best airplane food of my life and watched three movies and played two games of battleship (our plane had individual TVs for each seat with a touch screen so you could do whatever you wanted it was awesome!) We had a delay in Newark, but still made it to MN around 11:30 that night. Jacob's parents picked us up and we stayed at his house for the night. The next morning Mrs. Christy made us a breakfast to die for before Michael and I took off for Fort Dodge.

Ever since I've been back my conversation has been filled with Spanish words that just won't leave my head (Bueno.. Gracias... stuff like that). They have also been filled with this phrase a lot... "I haven't had this in 6 weeks!" Some examples of things I went without for the whole summer (that I didn't notice until I came home) were any type of salad dressing, fast food, popcorn, pepsi, laying on a couch.... haha lots of really random things.

Adjusting back to US life hasn't been too much of a challenge, and I'm over all of the jet lag and all that jazz. I'm glad to be home, but I will never forget my amazing summer on the Mediterranean. :)

Thanks all,

:) Kristen

Last Day of Escuela

Today was our last day of school and I am super pumped that classes are over! I am, however, a little nervous about my grades as usual. I won´t really know until I see it on my transcript so... I´ll be crossing my fingers. Hopefully everything went well! I had to hand in a final paper today for my Spanish 321 course (Spanish Civilization and Culture) and take a final oral exam for my Spanish Conversation course (303A). I was a little worked up and nervous but I think it went alright.

Quick catch up on some of the happenings this week: Tuesday night Wally and Nick through a good bye party thing at their house (their hostmom is beyond sweet). She fed the group of us and we had a few drinks. Wally and Nick even hung up some decorations. It was cute.

Yesterday I went to the beach for my second to last time (pout pout, sniffle sniffle) and got some sun. Then we went to a nice restaurant in the city center (can´t remember the name) for a final group meal that my sweetie pie roommate organized. For 15 euros we had sangria, bottled water (yeah!), calamares, salad, bread, two different types of paella (seafood and chicken), and tiramisu. I was really excited because I got a refill of sangria, as much water as I wanted AND a refill on our bread basket for free. Unheard of. Afterwards everyone went out but I didn´t feel like it because I had that oral exam. I went home to study but actually ended up spending the night looking at Adela´s daughters wedding album with Adela. It was funny, Adela was pumped about it. She´s been married for a few years now. My additions to the conversation was basically ¨The dress is pretty¨ ¨The church is pretty¨ ¨Your daughter is pretty¨. Things of that like, I was too tired to form more interesting sentences but I think Adela was just pleased that I found everything so attractive. I told her I was really full from the restaurant and she rubbed my bellly and laughed. Oh yes how we´ve bonded. :) haha.

Oh yeah also another distraction from studying is I now have a dog (I´ve had one for a few weeks now). The dog isn´t the exciting part though (although he is pretty sweet). The fun thing was that I also have a bird. The bird sat on the dogs face and sang - it was crazy. They played with eachother like they were best friends and it was really fun to watch. If I got a bad grade on my oral exam I am blaming it completely on my host family ;).

Today since I´m done with classes and dancing and smiling :D I think Meagan, Jacob, Michael and I are going to buy some Doner Kebabs (some kind of lamb sandwich) instead of eating our usual packed lunch and then head to the beach for our final day at the ¨Playa¨. That is so sad. After that, we are eating dinner at our house for the last time with Adela. She bought some champagne for us :). I am going to miss her! After dinner I have to pack AHHH because I have to leave for the bus by 6:15 tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we pack the bus at 6:45 and head off for Toledo (5 and a half hour drive). We will spend the day touring Toledo and then spend the night in Madrid. Saturday we wake up early again and head to Segovia and then return to spend the night in Madrid. Sunday our program is officially over! Michael, Jacob, Nick, Wally and I have other plans though :). We are flying from Madrid to Pamplona on Sunday, spending the night in Pamplona and then waking up early to watch ¨El Encierro¨also known as... THE RUNNING OF THE BULLS :D . Jacob and Wally are planning on running, the rest of us are planning on taking lots of pictures. I can´t run because ,while girls are technically allowed to run, it is kind of frowned upon and some Spaniards don´t like it. I figure the bulls would be dangerous enough, then add some people that are mad at me for being there and its a pretty dangerous situation. I wouldn´t run even if girls were allowed I think, but its just FYI that girls aren´t really supposed to do it. After pamplona we are heading back to madrid, spending the night in a hotel that is close to the airport and flying home Tuesday at 1:05. We´re flying in to Minnesota and we´ll get there around 11:00 something. Michael and I are going to spend the night at the Christy´s again and then head back to Fort Dodge the next day. Crazy crazy!!

Well, pretty sure I won´t have access to a computer for awhile so I might be bad about updating. I´ve been kind of bad about updating anyways, sorry! :( Wish us luck with our travels and I can´t wait to see you all soon!!

PS added more photos to this - hope you like!

:) Adios,
-Me

It´s been awhile!

Wow I apologize, it really has been awhile since I have updated my blog! Life here has been SO crazy and it is just bareeelllyy slowing down! A lot has happened since last time so I´ll do my best to do a quick catch up.

The rest of the time with Jackie, Roxie, and Caitlin went well. We had a blast. Last I wrote was the 23rd so I´ve got a lot of catching up to do.. let´s see. The 25th was my friend Nick Hodne´s birthday (he came on the trip with me) and his host mom made dinner for about 16 of us which was really fun and very cute of her to do. Let´s see, then mom and dad got here and they overlapped a night or two with Jackie Roxie and Caitlin. On the 29th (Sunday) we went to La Albufera (largest lake in Spain) with mom and dad to eat the best Paella around (so we hear) at a city called El Palmar just next to La Albufera. It was a great lunch. Jacob´s parents (Shelly and Randy Christy) got in to Valencia this day too but they lost their luggage along the way, bummer. Anyways Sunday night was an absolute blast because SPAIN WON THE EUROPEAN CUP IN SOCCER! They won and the rest of the night consisted of yelling Espana and jumping for joy in the city center with about everyone else in valencia. It was definitely a highlight of the trip and something I will never forget. Hmm We went to the Oceanografic (largest aquarium in europe) with mom and dad, the christys, nick and wally... that was interesting as well. There was a really cool dolphin show that had TWELVE dolphins going at the same time!

My host mom Adela got to meet mom and dad when she took us all out for a Late Kristen´s Birthday celebration. It was really cute, she liked them a lot. She ordered all of the dishes and everysingle one of them was seafood. Never in my life have I eaten sea food and enjoyed it, but that night I was all about it! It was delicious! My Adela is such a cutie, I´m going to miss her.

Basically having mom and dad here was the life. We got air conditioning and nice meals and it felt like a vacation inside our ¨vacation¨(study abroad). It was so fun to see mom and dad - now when we talk about places that we loved in Spain, they can relate! After mom and dad left the christys were still here for a day or two and we got to enjoy the hotel a little more. It really was a beautiful place. Jacob´s parents were really fun to be with too so that was nice. Our parents are so cool. Yeah! This is really just a very vague recap of the happenings. I´m skipping over quite a lot and apologize but I have a lot of days of updating to do!

So all parents and friends were gone from Spain on the fourth of July. What better way to spend the fourth of july then lighting off Fireworks in spain? Haha. A group of about 25 or 30 ISU studnets went in on some fireworks and we lit them off in the River Gardens. The police came and took our sparklers while leaving us with our huge artillery shells of fireworks (hilarious). During our finally we sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was definitely a fourth of July I´ll never forget.

Saturday we went to an Imax movie called the Alps at L´Hemispheric (part of the city of arts and sciences) It was worth the 6 euros just to sit in air conditioning for an hour. My room is so hot I can´t even begin to explain it. No air conditioning, no fans, no open windows (we dont have screens and the bugs will get in) and heat that is in the 90s for the better part of the day. I really really really can not explain to you how hot it is.

Sunday was just a hang out day for me. Me and my roommate watched two movies while trying not to die from heat :). I also got caught up on sleep this weekend (during the day that is).

Today I have class at 5 instead of 9 in the morning because our teacher wanted to take us site seeing so I had some extra time at the computers. I´m getting sad because I only have the rest of today, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday in valencia. I leave friday morning at 7 for Toledo and Madrid :( Sad! I could live here for awhile longer that is for sure. It´ll be good to get back though I suppose, I mean I do miss everyone! It´s also kind of stressful this week because it is finals. Not the best way to spend my last few days here :P.

I want to get a little more beach time in, get as dark as possible :).

Other than seeing everyone again, here are some of the thigns that I can´t wait to get back to:

Air conditioning
Free Interenet
FREE REFILLS!!
Mexican Food (Taco Tico)
Diet Mountain Dew
Did I say air conditioning?

:) Love you all,
see you soon,
Kristen

Time is flying!

I cannot believe June is almost over. Loco loco loco.

Jackie, Roxie, and Caitlin made it to Spain with no problems and we have been having an amazing time (as you can imagine :) ) We´ve been going out the the beach, celebrating birthdays, and things of the like. My favorite thing however is one day the four of us were in the Turia Gardens (the river that is now filled in with a park) and Caitlin and I were basically asleep in the shade. Jackie and Roxie told us they were going to go on a quick walk but they would be back soon. About 5 minutes later Caitlin and I were awakened by about the most obnoxious horn i have ever heard, and lo and behold - it is Jackie and Roxie pedalling at us on a six person bike buggy. It was absolutely hilarious. We called Michael and Jacob to join us and we spent a half hour steering clear of little dogs and pedestrians while going crazy on our bike buggy. Too fun.

On my birthday we all went to a Bull Fight which was pretty gruesome but very cultural and interesting. 5 bulls were killed, and one actually got set free because it wouldn´t die so the bull technically ¨won¨. That doesn´t happen often I think. We got seats in the sun because they were cheaper, but very hot. It wasn´t so bad once the sun set though. :) We had second row seats. Very cool, go big or go home I guess :). In other news, Spain won over Italy last night which was a really big deal. They play Russia Thusday and then if they win that it will be the first time they have ever been in the finals for soccer (I´ve heard). So it is a pretty exciting time. Also, June 22nd is (was) a cursed soccer day for Spain (go figure). Every other time Spain played on June 22 they lost the game in penalty kicks. The game went to penalty kicks last night but Spain broke the curse and won! yay!

My swedish roommate moved out, I now have a Belgium roommate. She is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Irelandesa (irish? gaelic? I dont really know). Everything is going well here, I´m keeping up in my classes and getting some good beach time. Jackie, Roxie, and Caitlin left for Barcelona today and will return on Wednesday. I´m gonna use the down time to get ahead in a few of my classes so that I´ll have more freetime when they are around. It´s been so nice having my three best chicas here. I love em :).

Mom and Dad are coming on friday and I am sooo thrilled. I can´t believe it is already time for them to be here, when we first started the program it seemed like the day they would get here was so far away. Once again, TIME FLIES.

I miss Brian.

That about wraps it up. I´m gonna do some homework now, head home and eat ¨la comida¨(lunch) at my house at 2:30. Then mosey around with my roommate in the downtown area. I would hit the beach again, but between the beach and the bull fight yesterday I´m about sunned out. Adios muchachos, I miss you all!

:)

London!

London went just about perfectly! We fit so much into our little weekend, it is loco. I´ll try to give you a (brief) recap of our London endeavor.

Thursday:
Our flight was delayed by about an hour, but other than that no problems really. We arrived in London at about... 8:30 ish (London time, an hour ahead of spains) at night. We took a train from the airport to a stop very close to our Hostel and got checked in no problems. The train took about a half hour I´d say.. something around there. Our hostel was surprisingly really great, we shared a room with 12 other people but really it was comfortable for the most part. This night was pretty uneventful: just a quick walk to the local sausage shop (haha), enjoyed a sausage, and then had a drink in a pub and headed to bed. We were tired peoples and new our next day was going to be big!

Friday:
Up at 8:00, Breakfast at the Hostel

Visited St. Paul´s Cathedral (8.50 pounds) walked to the top of it and had a great view of the city. 350some stairs - no bueno. haha In the crypts of the Cathedral was interesting as well. The tomb of Florence Nightingale and Admiral Nelson were there. Another cool thing in the Cathedral was an area of it dedicated to the American Soldiers who gave their lives in WWII.

Crossed the Millenium Bridge and visited Shakespeare´s Globe Theater

Walked to see the London Eye (largest ferris wheel in the world)

Ate a full english breakfast for lunch at a place called Enough food for an elephant (or something)

Walked to Big Ben and Westminster Palace - sat in on a session of Parliament (they discussed the expansion of the heathrow airport..) Very cool architecture and very free (me likey).

After parliament we wanted to get inside Westminster Abbey, but it cost a lot to get in (12 ish pounds I believe) So we hung out for an hour and then attended an Evensong service (because they don´t charge you if you attend a service, granted we couldn´t take pictures or anything but hearing their choir was amazing - we made a good decision)

Ate dinner at our hostel. A burger, ¨chips¨(fries), salad, and a pint for 5 pounds. Love it. Then we popped across the street to a grocery store, bought a few drinks and enjoyed them on the roof of our hostel with many Aussies, Kiwis (apparently what people from New Zealand call themselves), Canadians, and fellow americans. Headed to bed around 1:30

Saturday:
Up at 8:00 again, breakfast at the hostel again.

Visited the London Tower, 14 pound entrance fee (ouch. FYI 2 dollars = 1 pound). However, once inside we decided we were glad we paid to get in. We got to see the crown jewels and some of the biggest diamonds in the world (Cullinan I and the Koh-i-Noor were two of the biggest I think) Also got to see some torture devices and things of the like. We spent from 9 till 1 here, lots to see.

Crossed the Tower Bridge (the cool bridge in london, the actual London bridge is nothing special) Got lunch at a place near there, got free tap water (bonus! seriously.)

Went to the British Museum (free) and saw the Rosetta Stone, lots of Mummies, and artifacts from Sutton Hoo. We all really enjoyed this place it was awesome. We ended up staying there till 4:45 ish and the only reason we left is because we wanted to see the National Museum before it closed at 6:00.

We got to the National Museum (free) around five fifteen, and in just under one hour we saw Da Vinci, Monet, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Valezquez. Our favorite piece was the Madonna on the Rocks by Da Vinci (mentioned in the Da Vinci code).

Grabbed a Sammie at a little dive for dinner and headed to Buckingham Palace. The palace itself was not that impressive, but its grounds were pretty cool. Lots of huge British Flags. Saw the Wellington Arch after the palace because it was really close. On top of the arch is one of the largest bronze statues in Europe.

Took the ¨tube¨(the famous London Underground) to KINGS CROSS STATION and took a picture by Platform 9 3/4s. Yes Harry Potter fans, THE platform nine and three quarters. It definitely was a trip highlight and we just kind of did it on a whim. Loved it.

Hung out Saturday night until 2:00 when we needed to start heading to the airport.

Sunday:

Long story short we were told the trains would run at night and that we could catch a train to the airport at 2:30 in the morning. Wrong. We ended up having to pay a 44 pounds for a private hire (a person with no taxi license that has a deal with our hostel) to take us to the airport (which is way better than 100 POUNDS which is what you have to pay most taxis!) Holy Canoli. The flight home was uneventful and I was in my house in Valencia at about 10:30. (Our flight left at 6:00, took two hours, plus one hour returning to spain, a half hour metro ride, a half hour walk... etc)

All in all London was MUY bueno. We had great weather and great times. There was a ton of stuff to see, and I think we did an alright job squeezing so much sight seeing into basically two days! Once again I apologize for not having pictures on this, and I apologize for the length of my ¨brief" update!

Nevermind I think I got a picture to work!

Hope all is well!
-Me

Here we go...!

Wally, Michael, and I are travelling to London this weekend! We leave today at 6:00 and return Sunday EARLY (Happy Early Father´s Day by the way!) Wish us luck - I´ll write more when we return from our journey!

Rain here too!

The rain here is cutting into my beach time, no me gusta. Granted, it is nothing compared to what I hear is going on in Iowa... but still they said it would NEVER rain here. I still am not going to cave and buy a paragua (umbrella). Yesterday I got soaked on my way to school, but I am still being stubborn. Weird, huh? ;)

Nothing really new is going on here, I had my first test in one of my classes yesterday. Oh yeah, and today my teacher just decided to not show up so that´s actually how I´m using the computer right now. We waited for him for about 45 minutes before giving up. I´ll be really sad if they make us make up class. So now I have about another 30 minutes to burn so that is pretty exciting that I get to be on the computer this WHOLE TIME :) hoot hoot! That´s about all I have for class updates. Classes are going well. I´m already stressing about grades... (another weird, huh? ) haha.

Housing situation is still going well. My roommate and I get along great, which is fun because she is my first random roommate! We were pretty bummed about the weather but then (this really excites me) our other roommates Laura and Kim gave us the idea for how to use my laptop even though we dont get internet... Watch movies!! (Laura brought some with her from the states) Meagan and I watched Juno last night while eating Spanish chocolate bars and drinking Coke Zero (we ran to the grocery store earlier that day .. hehe :) ). So that of course is very exciting for me because now I don´t feel it was a waste to bring my computer. Huzzah!

London: Flights and hostel are booked. Mom I´ll send you the info once I get in from Michael so that you´ll know where we are. I´m pretty excited. We leave thursday night and get back (EARLY) sunday morning. I have a feeling it will be an expensive weekend... the pound is going to hit us even harder than the euro.. with the 2 to 1 exchange rate. Yippee :)

Valencian/Spanish news: (Dad you´ll find this especially interesting) While the oil spill is all cleaned up we have another problem brewing in valencia. All of the truck drivers went on strike the other day. I mean all of them just stopped on the highways and are refusing to drive, they are trying to lower gas prices. Of course now there is no way to get into Valencia by car (or truck) and no food can be delivered. Food prices are expected to soar the next couple days, and the grocery stores are filled with people. They say the strike should be over today or tomorrow. I feel bad for the people who are stuck in their cars on the high way behind them... hope nothing like this happens in the States! Other european news (I read the paper now for practice..) someone bought a baby for 500€. What?! haha.

I think that about covers my bases here. I would love to hear more news from everyone - my email address is ksandvig@iastate.edu. A side note is I probably won´t be sending out postcards here until the end of my stay (if ever). Lo siento (I´m sorry). I just don´t really feel like walking to a post card store for post cards, a stamp store for stamps, and then an hour to the only post office where I can mail out of. Call me lazy but hey.. :).

That´s all for now folks! I hope happy weather comes your way!