In Prague!

A quick update, lack of internet lately...

Berlin=awesome. I loved: Tiergarten, the sweet hippie cafe where Florian and I ate a vegetarian buffett breakfast and all the history. What an amazingly interesting city. We saw the wall, tons of commie apartment buildings, amazing uber-modern skyscrapers and a lot of great Doner Kebaps (Turkish gyro).

Before that I was in Giessen with Florian. It has been nice to be with more people who speak Spanish! Although the Argentinian accent of my dear friends can be hard to understand :). Early on I got to see Marburg, where Florian studies, which is just north of Giessen. It has a castle and several very old churches. We had a coffee at a cafe by the river. Between the river and the castle, I was ready to spend another month just in Marburg.

Also got to see Amsterdam with Helen and Allie, though the rain and lack of planning limited severly what I got to see. We still managed to enjoy ourselves. It is a beautiful city, loved the canals.

I am currently panicking about moving back to boring old America, trying not to get emotional about leaving Florian and trying to figure out this Czech language. I want to devote my life to studying languages.

Also wondering if I could handle the winters in Berlin. I am thinking no, but will you all still love me if I run away to Europe? I am very much looking forward to coming home. I am already planning potlucks in my head. And I am in desperate need of a good dance party, so you all have to fill me in on where to go now that Shattered is closed.

Love & besos! Be home soon!

Acabo de...I mean, I just had this dream...

So. I'm starting to have epic dreams again.

A few nights ago, I was in the states and I almost missed a train back to Spain. And I hadn't packed at all. Exactly like the recurring dream I had in the fall.

Just woke up from a dream that was very blatantly about how I am not looking forward to going home because I expect to miss Spain and the Erasmus life terribly. I kept trying to speak in Spanish to everyone. Have to find a way to speak Spanish daily in Columbia! I really hope I get the Adelante (Latin American community) beat for the Missourian.

There were also performing orca & belgua whales...but I don't think that meant anything. They were just sweet.

Toledo-third time around

Florian & I took a bus to Toledo on Saturday and spent the weekend sitting in coffee shops and getting lost in winding alleyways. Poppies are blooming here right now and the view from the bus was incredible-brilliant streaks of red on each side of the highway.

We saw an old monastery where Isabella & Ferdinand were planning on being buried (ended up in Granada)-old and cool; Florian got bored somewhere during my commentary (probably at the phrase 'nave lateral') but I think at one point we were actually standing in a crypt. Sweet! We drank lots of café con leches and café solos-several in a cafe that was obviously a straight portal to 1988 (check out the couch in that photo & think lots of Tracy Chapman). My favorite part was that the cafe wasn't trying to be stuck in the 80s, it literally was.

Also ate some yummy pizza in Plaza Zocodóver and talked with a Portuguese woman who had 13 kids. Decided that was a few too many.

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!!

Back!

I have been avoiding an update this week because there is so much to say, I am a bit overwhelmed. So to avoid all the whelming, I am going to write a bit about the past a bit about the present and a bit about the future. I promise photos of my travels with witty captions in the future.

Past: My dad managed to run 3 red lights in a row in Sevilla. Luckily my family & I survived our Andalusian vacation. We slept like kings in a timeshare condo in the center of a labyrinth on a hill. We saw every major city in Andalucia as well as a few tourist traps and small beaches. Favorite thing? Kebap in Granada.

Present: Making my own kebap tonight. And strawberry shortcake! Also, just recieved an automated reply from my journalism advisor informing me that she does not advise over email and that I should stop by to make an appointment. All the more reason to give up and move to Frankfurt!

Future: Though I am not moving there(after all, I can still live up to half of the promise I made to my mom that I wouldn't "fall for some european and never come home"), I am spending the summer in Germany with Florian. We are going to hit up Prague, Amsterdam, Berlin and some campgrounds in Scandinavia. Hopefully Helen and Sarah will be involved somehow!

Vuelvo!

This morning as the plane was landing and the jet-lag was starting to settle in, my stomach flipped-with excitement! I never thought I'd be so positive about returning to Madrid.

My piso is empty because my roommates are still on vacation. It is awesome.

Traveling was smooth. Due to my penny-pinching creativity, Anna and I had the most complicated and ridiculous travel plans ever. Her amazing parents drove us to the train station at 4 in the morning. When we arrived in Chicago, our amtrak train took us right by stations we would see again soon. We took the amtrak all the way into Chicago, walked three blocks through the city, climbed three flights of stairs to the above-ground metro (remember all this is with about 100 lbs of luggage-plus whatever Anna was carrying), and rode the orange line back out of the city. Chicago is beautiful! Wow! The waits in Midway and the Atlanta airport are still blurred in my mind. Highlights? Reading OK's exclusive interview with Jamie-Lynn Spears, an amazing berry smoothie and pizza!

The flight to Madrid felt long. I had been traveling since December 28th at 5:30AM when Mom woke us up and we left Dallas. So between the 28th and the 30th, I was in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia and Spain. Let me just say: I have had enough of all this sitting. It is nice to be done traveling! And I am so glad to be back in a country where I have to speak Spanish.

America!

On Friday night, I left Sol around 4AM, was in bed by 4:30 and then this happened: 2 hours of sleep, met Anna in the metro, a 10 hour flight, delays for rain and snow, a 1 hour flight, 3 hours in a car lost in Chicago with my huge suitcase on my lap, savored time with dear Nancy, 2 hours sleeping on her couch, a taxi that almost didn't show up, a taxi that sped just enough to get us to Union Station on time, a 5 hour train ride that lasted 7 hours, 5 hours of sleep sitting up in the train, meeting Anna's family and the best BLT of my life, sleeping in the car to Columbia, loving on my family, slightly surreal (due to lack of sleep) Artisan Xmas party.

Highlights: sleeping sitting up, meeting Nancy's family, talking in English, stealing a pack of cloves at the Artisan gift exchange.

Mostly I am jet-lagged and wondering what I am doing here in Missouri. Home feels weirder than I thought it would.

Tomorrow: Artisan, Lakota, Kaldi's, Main Squeeze. And then repeat.

Mi amor: Barcelona

Highlights of the week:
1. I realized Rick Steves is not some lame dude my Grandpa swears by, he actually knows his stuff. For 15 euros a night we stayed at Hostel Malda in a huge room in what appears to be a really freaking old (and therefore sweet!) building.
2. In the midst of being lost, the metro conductor closed the doors so fast that Patrick and I got stuck on the train (Anna might say we left her at the station, this is a bold falsification). The group of Barcelona kids drinking rum and cokes out of plastic bottles behind us thought it was hilarious.
3. I woke up early one morning to explore and get breakfast alone. No one was in the streets. It was so peaceful to walk through the tiny, old, clean alleys in silence. In the States, this peacefulness only exists around 6 in the morning. It was almost 9. Maybe I can be a morning person in Spain.
4. From the ancient-feeling stone alleys of Barrio Gótico to the wide streets on the hill by Parc Güell to the colorful, narrow alleyways to the beach, there wasn't a single place I wouldn't want to live forever.
5. One word: bicycles.
6. I speak Spanish. Barcelona speaks Catalán. Therefore I must speak Catalán.
7. Washing off our feet as we left the beach, an older woman opened up to us. She cried about the power of God but never lost her composure. She opened up to us. Her favorite things in life: coffee, the beach and God.
8. Drinking the cheapest beer in Spain and watching FCB win a game!
9. Pat's pasteurized milk. I had forgotten how much I love that stuff.
10. Collecting beach glass by the water and thinking about how I get to see my Grandma in a week or so. I wasn't happy on the beach-I was content. Much better if you ask me. I wasn't excited about Barcelona like I was about Paris, but I did feel like I had found a potential home.

Fall wouldn't come to Madrid so I had to go find it.

Paris is humid, cold and rainy. Of course I fell in love, what other choice did I have?

The weather was different every five minutes, just like in Columbia. It seemed more modern than Madrid, but the sunken steps in Notre Dame made me fantasize about...well, honestly, being a gypsy like Esmerelda. The whole city was absolutely enchanting. I found hummus in the first grocery store I found. I lived mostly on croissants.

Favorite things I didn't expect:
-They have a seemingly sweet bike rental system on the sidewalks
-Amazing international food-ate the best Japanese food ever on the steps of the Louvre.
-Excellent espresso, best I've had since Gimme Coffee in Brooklyn.
-Huge beautiful trees on the sidewalks and plenty of rain to keep them happy

...all things to keep in mind when I decide whether or not to move there. In love.

One of the coolest things about our visit was couch surfing. Pat figured it all out, but essentially we used the website to meet up w/ these French guys and stay with them for free instead of in a hostel. The first two nights (including Pat's B-day), we stayed w/ Nicolas and Pierre in a really sweet old apartment. We didn't get to hang out with them much, but they made us coffee, gave us a futon (three on one bed...it was a challenge, but warm) and a set of keys. I was amazed by their trust and generosity. I start to believe in crazy concepts like world peace when a complete stranger from another country will invite me into his home. Pierre & Nicolas had had 35 other people stay on their couch in the last 2 months! And the second night we were there, one showed up! A girl from Hungary who had stayed with these guys before came and we got to talk to her until Pat and I went out to celebrate his 21st with a Hoegarden beer.

The last half of the weekend we stayed with Freddy & Felipe. They lived right around the corner from the Eiffel Tower, and since we were with them on Saturday and Sunday, we got to hang out with them a little more. They took us to a friends for dinner and we drank wine and watched a boxing match and then went out together. Pat bought me a crepe in the middle of the night, and I spilled jelly all down my jacket. Lame! Anyway, I thought Freddy was hilarious and he seemed to think I was too, so we pretty much laughed the entire weekend. Sunday night they took us out to a restaurant down the street. It was such a blessing to have them, the only way I know how to order food is to point and ask "How much?". I can count my French phrases on one hand, which is more than I had before I got on the plane. Freddy and Felipe walked us through how a French meal works (cheese is very important and coffee is at the end-no matter how bad Anna wants espresso).

We spent the last day revisiting places we couldn't get enough of, and taking a billion more pictures. Now I'm in bed on San Bernardo wishing I was riding a bike along the Seine river or hanging out with Freddy and hoping I can find a way to fall in love with Madrid too.

Jet Lag Ramble

It's almost 7PM in Madrid and I just woke up from last night's sleep. I feel like I stayed up all night at a sleepover or something. But I'm here. Finally.
I made it through a 2 hour drive to St. Louis with Mom & Ranch where I freaked out about how much luggage I packed and tried not to cry. Then Ranch & I overcame the coldest car on the train for a 27 hour train ride to Penn Station. Trains are lovely. No rules. We handed out cookies to strangers and drank hot tea. Then we were in NYC where I got steadily more anxious and excited. Excited to live in a big city, terrified to leave home. Shawn was calm and steady and took me to the airpot where I made a fool out of myself crying and had to spend the next half an hour conjugating spanish verbs to keep from breaking down again.
JFK was so calm and quiet compared to LAX. It made me feel even crazier. The lady who checked my bags couldn't read military time any better than I could and for about half an hour I thought I was going to miss my plane. I'm the worst traveler. I turn into this unreasonable sobbing mess. Anyway, by the time I got onto my Irish Aer Lingus flight and bought a glass of shiraz, I was settled again and reading and feeling so lucky to be on a plane full of funny accents and teal colored stewardesses. I'm used to flying Southwest, so Aer Lingus was freaking amazing. So much food! I got to watch Sex and the City.
Just as my eyes were drying out, I opened the first present from Dad (he labeled all these little packages for me to open at certain times on my trip-the first one said 'open halfway across the Atlantic'). I thought it would be a CD, so I had my CD player out all ready to switch over music. It turned out to be this book from my childhood called 'Jesus Loves You' or something, which I still knew all the words to. So of course I started crying again. My dad, somehow, KNOWS me. I'm tearing up right now thinking about it.
This year I need that kind of love, familiar love, God's love, Sarah & Nancy love. Leaving home was hard, and I woke up many mornings this summer wondering if I could live with myself if I backed out and didn't go. I woke up at Shawn's wondering why I even wanted to go to Madrid. But as I was leaving Columbia and NYC, everyone poured so many good wishes into me that I think I will be able to ration them and make it through the whole year.