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!

First Update

Hola amigos y familia!

I apologize for two things, first that it has taken me so long so send and update and second that it is a very lonngg update! There is so much going on and limited internet access, I´ll try to summarize as best I can :).

Our first days we spent in Madrid and Salamanca. Madrid was a very busy city, but a fun place with great night life. I think we were out until 3:30 one night.. and we were going in EARLY. The highlights of Madrid include visiting the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which is the second largest in Europe, the Museo Prado, and the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art. We got to see works from big names like Valesquez, Goya, and of course - Picasso.

Salamanca was interesting as well. We visited the University there (third oldest in Europe I believe), some amazing cathedrals, and the city square which is the setting for some movie but I´m not sure which one. All in all our visit there was nice.

Now we´ve started school and are living with our host families. As far as classes go, my first one (Spanish Civilization) is a complete bore. I get lectured to for an hour and a half completely in Spanish. Not fun, however my second class which is Spanish conversation is really fun! Both seem like they are going to be pretty hard though. Getting everything figured out is pretty...overwhelming? It´s like the first week at Iowa State all over again, but you have to mix in the fact that now everything is in a foreign language. Very crazy.

On to my housing situation: the apartment is really nice, small-but nice.My favorite part, however, is that I´m basically one block away from the coolest buildings in Valencia. I love having the Opera House of Valencia (really cool you should google it) be my landmark that says I´m almost home. I live about a 30 minute walk from school, and a good 50 minute walk from the beach. My house mom, Adela is a nice woman and her food is always good or atleast interesting. My roommate is a sweetheart as well, her name is Meagan. She is 23 and has been married for four years. Crazy crazy. The funny thing about our living arrangement however, is that I live with three other girls as well! One is from Texas, one is from Kansas, and one is from Switzerland! We all get along and have lots of things to talk about - especially differences between the US, Spain, and Switzerland. We used to say Adela had a little cult of girls but we switched it to calling ourselves a sorority. Thought that was kind of funny.

Other snippets of news: I am pretty sure I am travelling to London next weekend with Michael and Wally... tomorrow is Jacobs birthday so that will be fun... we watched Spain vs USA soccer in a bar (US lost, surprised? haha Spain is very into soccer)...I have a cell phone here now with free incoming calls but the rates to call to the US are pretty high so Mommy and Pappi have to call me... Jackie, Roxie, and Caitlin are coming the 19th... Exciting things :) OH YEAH, and there was an oil spill right by our Beach :(! We can go to the beach but not get in the water.. but I did walk into the sea a bit just to say that I had officially been in it.
Funny things about Spain: 1. No clocks. Anywhere.
2. Street signs are on buildings
3. Valencia speaks Valenciano, the Spanish we learn is Castellano. The street signs are in Valenciano and the street maps are in Castellano. Why? That just freaks us out.
4. Mostly everything has its own store. For example, if you want fruit you go to a fruit store... vegetables are in a vegetable store... my roommate and I went to a towel store to find beach towels... we found that funny.
5. The thing that gives us away as americans is shorts. Shorts? Isn´t it hot here? Yes.. but Spaniards wear long pants EVERYWHERE and almost EVERYDAY! I don´t understand! That would suck! I decided I would just look American everywhere.
6. Our house has a bidet. Just cracks me up.

Thats about all for now! I´ll post when I have more interesting things. Adios!