corn + small town = life

Sept 11, 2008:

I'm back at Iowa State. My 2 weeks in Eden Prairie flew by. I had a terrible 14 hours in the Toronto airport. I ended up having to buy a ticket to get to Minneapolis because when I called my travel agency a month earlier to get my flight changed, the lady forgot to click a button to make Toronto-MSP an e-ticket. Air Canada could not let me on my flight. The traval agancy also did not have anyone available to validate my e-ticket until 40 AFTER I had to check in for the flight. I cried. A lot. On the pay phone with the travel agency, after the phone call, waiting in line. I was devastated. To be so close to home. To wait 14 hours for a flight that is less than 2 hours long. I was completly out of control of the situation. I felt so helpless and alone. I saw a guy walk by with a golf bag and I just started to cry harder because it reminded me of my dad. I was so homesick and drained emotionally and physically.

Air Canada was awesome and waived a ton of charges for me so my ticket was really cheap. The travel agency said they would reimburse me, and im still waiting for that to happen. Caitlin came to pick me up and I was so happy to see her! That was a great running hug! I felt like we were in a movie, but I could careless about all the people looking at us as we were shreaking toward each other! She took me to Taco Bell on the way home and I got a mountain dew and chicken quesidilla. I spent the rest of Saturday unpacking, did all my laundry, and put away everything. It was a very productive day despite getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep that night. Better than the Amsterdam airport.
On Monday I left for Michigan. The drive across wisconsin went fast. I think I went through 7 CDs... Also, very funny because it turns out that the highway to get to the car ferry is the exact hghway my friend Molly and I took to see our friend last summer in Green Bay. I drove right past the exit to Erin's house and I've been driving past her house on that highway for almost 21 years now! So crazy how small the world is! Wow.
The Olmsteads met me at the boat-- a nice surprise! And I went on the next 2-ish hours to Grandma Scott. It was odd seeing the table not pulled out and bigger. Grandpas golf cart wasn't in the garage, neither was his hat collection. Grandma really seemed to be doing good. She said she's going to start going to church again. She needs to re-build her social contacts since she and grandpa had stayed in a lot the past few years with him not feeling well. She makes me laugh. She is such a smart, strong woman. She is a feminist and doesn't take crap from people. She told me about one of her friends and how she doesn't get along with her husband because the husband thinks grandma gives his wife 'too many ideas'. I like that grandma stands up for her friend and tells the husband that he is wrong. She told me a lot about her childhood and the silly campouts they had and about her group of friends. She was the out going, leader of the group. She told me her and grandpa used to dance, grandpa was a real good dancer. I can't imagine that, but I wish I could. She laughs away problems and drama; I love her laugh. A real hahaha laugh. We went out to dinner one night and all the staff came over and said hi, of course. I wish I could have stayed longer and heard more stories. I did ask her about dads adoption and she said they were really lucky. Of course, dad's 'her baby'.
I got to the Olmstead's in Pentwater later that week. I drove past the Ole Haus and it makes me so sad that its not ours anymore. The house next to it, 4 stories, is hedious. So, I'm gald I dont have to look at that all the time. We got sandwiches and ate dinner at the lake. It was beautiful, as usual. However, this is the first year in Pentwater that I realized how small it is. The beach is small, the channel is small, the pier and the 'lighthouse' is tiny. I felt for the first time that it's okay that I'm here and leaving in 2 days. Usually, I feel as if I never want to leave and it's perfect. I like that I am growing up in that sense. I went and watched the sunset the next night and ate plenty of Travers Bay cherry ice cream-- my all-time favorite. Jody, Kelli, Brody and Gabrielle came for the afternoon! I was so glad to see them! Brody is such a working boy and Bri is precious. I wish I could spend more time with her and give her lots of feministic ideas and keep the strong women in the family going! I know she's getting it from Kelli and Jody too! We went out to lunch and did some shopping after. I would have liked to sit down with Kelli and Jody and hang out, but time was short. I was able to show everybody lots of pictures and my voice hurt from so much talking. It was really cool for me to see all the pictures because there are so many of them that I had never really looked at past the glimpse on my camera after I took it.
The drive back was a struggle from Green Bay until Waseau. I was very very tired. Luckily, Waseau had lots of construction so that woke me up to get me to Eau Clarie. I spent the afternoon and night in Eau Clair with Sarah. It was so great to see her again. I still felt as if I hadn't seen her since she left in February, even though I saw her in May. She took me out to Torry's place and he took us on the lake/river. We swam and it was great. We cooked dinner at her place and chatted. It was so nice to be with her again. I drove home the next day and spent the next week in EP.
I was counting down the days until Kaila got home. Her fight kept getting delayed so I couldn't go to the airport. I went over to her house and hung out with the family and Summer. We went salsa dancing the next night and saw Andres for the first time in a while. It was very fun to be back. I got to see Pete, Halsch, Evan, Vinesha, Kristina and the girls. As tradition calls for, the day I left for school, dad, mom, Tank and I walked to Caribou for one last moment together. And, as usual, saying good bye was just as hard. I though as I got older and left to go back to Ames for another time, it would be easier, but it was not. I hate to see mom and dad sad to see me go and saying 'see you in a month'. Ironically, Juanes' song "hoy me voy" was the song playing as I drove down Luther, so I cried. I moved in early and got my room semi-settled. The madness of recruitment over took my next 2 weeks. We hit quota plus 1, had better return rates than last year, and took top girls away from Pi Phi, so it was very, very successful recruitment for us. School is, in fact, not very not fun. Marketing lecture is deathly boring and my teacher isn't even a professor...come on ISU. Economics is hard already and I am lost and it's week 3. I have a ton of reading for each class and my Spanish literature class is impossible. I do not have the time for school, social life, sorority, God and figuring out future plans. The constant elephant load of stress is back on my shoulders and I'm just remembering how no one understands my situation, although they try. I have 3 more months to reach my the goals I set for the house and I'm excited to get there and complete them. I'm excited to pass my visions onto the next president and I'm excited to get a part time job, have an income and join a business club. I'm excited for this semester, and although after this summer's amazing race, coming back to Ames and accepting that I live in small town Iowa is hard, I am so glad God brought me here. He's brought me to such a different place than I ever would think to live and He brought me to ADPi to show them Jesus.

[edited 2-3-2010]

All roads lead to ROME

The girls and I got into Rome in the early afternoon on Monday the 21st. The train from Florence took less than hours. EJ was flying home the next day and the hostel she booked happened to only be a few blocks from mine. Vinesha was flying back to Spain to stay with family the next day also and she decided to spend the night in the airport. We said goodbye and then went off to see as much as they could in a day. I setteled into my hostel and found a good internet cafe. I did some grocery shopping and went back to the hostel for the night.

Tuesday morning I took the metro to Vatican City. I had no clue which direction it was when I got out of the metro, but there were streams of people walking in the same direction, so I followed them! I walked into the plaza infront of the Basicalla and it was filled with people. I began to walk to find the end of the line, and I ended up walking to the complete opposite side of the plaza the line was so so so long! It went really quicky, however, and I found my way to climb up to the dome. It was 2 euros cheaper to take the stairs all the way, and I slightly regretted not taking the elevator after i had been hiking the staris for a bit. over 500 stairs was really exausting in the non airconditioned building! The stairs took you all the way up to the top and outside of the basically. You could also stop at the balcony at the very top of the church inside and take a look down. I didnt look at the church at all before I started climbing to the dome and it was awesome to see it for the first time from so high up. Across the top part of the walls all around the church, there is latin script written and I heard a priest say that each letter was 6 feet tall! Everything is so massive and grand. I spent a lot of time looking at everything. I have a ROme travel book and it gives the top 10 sights to see in the basicalla, so I found all those and read a but about them. After the basicalla, I ate my lunch of jelly and nutella **ive run out of peanut butter and its 5 euros here! Thats like 8 US dollars!**, carrots, and water.

I couldnt find the Sistine chapel for the longest time! The Vatican City is a bit confusing. I didnt realize you had to go through this huge museum inorder to see the chapel. The museum turned out to have a big variety of stuff so it was interesting. It had old maps of Italy, rugs, marble animals, marble people, marble bath tubs, egypt stuff, and more more more. The sistine chapel is just that, a chapel. I would have walked through and just thought to my self that this church had a bit more paintings than others ive seen! There is so much to know to appreciate the chapel-- the aritsts, politics, technique, and the story the paintings tell. I did a good job of listening to tour guides throug the museum and in the chapel that I got my moneys worth!

Wednesday, today, I went to the collesuem. I chose to take a tour of the colleseum and ofPalentine Hill. The tour guide in the collesuem told us that it s black due to the last 10 years of car exaust and that the rocks should be pealry white. The collesuem has a lot missing, but at the same time its great because it allows you to see the architecture of the building. You can see all the cages that are located below what was the wood flooring where the fights took place. As I did my spanish presentation about the history of bullfightning, I learned that the romans had humans fight against bulls and this is where some say bull fightning began. The cages were used to hold those bulls and, as I learned today, lots of other kinds of animals too such as hippos, tigers, and more. The romans used sails to create shade and cover all of the 50,000 spectators from the heat which was really important since the gladiator fights happened in the afternoons, after the human verse animals fights in the morning. The also perfumed the arena with insents and liquid perfums becuase with hundres of animals below the flooring and blood and vomit and poop it didnt smell good, at all.

After the collesuem, another tour guide took us to the Palentime Hill where there are tons of roman ruins from BC times. The hill is really sacred and a very very desired after place to have you house, so basically, the empirors took over and made their palaces and gradens and homes there. There are even parts of the original marble flooring from the empirors palace still there. **And they let you walk on it here in Italy!** There is a house on the sight that Mussalani used during WWII times that is now a museum. Apparently Mussalani thought he was an emperor. The tour guide did a great job of pointing out specific rooms and telling us what they were used for and threw around lots of dates/years that I dont quite remember. I had lunch in the gardens and went down to the Roman Forum. It is more and more ruines and buildings and colums still standing and intact. Lots of really interesting stuff there. After the forum I headed back to the hostel for dinner.

I have one more full day in Rome and then I fly out on Friday. I finally booked a hostel for toronto so I am all set for my next travels.

Florence!

The train from Pisa to Florence was a short one.

We stayed at another campsite in Florence. This one turned out to be far up in the mountains. The coach bus took an hour for us to get to the site. The secenry was awesome and so worth the cheap price to stay out of the city! We were all really glad we were able to stay in the mountains--its a part of Florence that we would never have been able to see if not for our staying at the camp site. The campsite made us all homesick seeing the families together camping and swimming and just being together.

The next morning we went in to the city and I threw up my breakfast on the bus. I think my motion sickness with coach busses has gotten worse-- thats the 3rd time Ive throw up on those busses this summer! VInesha and I stood in line for an hour and a half to get into the Gallery Accedemica too see the statue of David. The statue shocked me. My jaw dropped and I gave a little gasp. It is huge, absoutly massive, gigantic. I had no idea it was going to be so large. Michaelangelo really was incredible. He gave David veins going down his arms and into his hands, bushy eyevbrows, tendions behiend his knees. I was shocked and so impressed. It was worth the wait in line and the admission price.

After the gallery, we met up with EJ and check out the Dumo and the chpanielle. That whole church area was crazy. Id never seen a white, green, and red/pink church before! The details were awesome and in good condition.

So I threw up, the I stubbed my toe and broke my nail, then I got my ATM card eated by a stupid ATM machine. I was really distrubed and anxious for the rest of the day because I knoew my other account woundt have money until tuesday ( keep in mind it was sunday that I lost my card) and I didnt know if my credit card would let me take out money of the atm....ahh stesses of traveling!

That night we ate out dinner by the pool and then had a drink with two danish girls who were in our dorm with us. They were probably some of the nicest people Ive met here.

We got up early and took the bus back into Florence and hopped on a train to Rome. I didnt throw up on the bus and at the train station in Florence I was able to get money out--God always provides, doesn't he.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The train from Nice to Pisa, France was another long one. We were not able to get a train to Pisa until a bit later in the day, so we fianlly arrived in Pisa around 8 or 9 pm. We were starving and had pizza in Pisa for dinner at the train station. We hopped on a bus to our hostel, which to night was a campsite. None of us knew what to expect. We were hoping they would supply us with a cabin, or smething with walls since none of us had tent supplise. To ou surprise, and although it was really small, we got a really nice bulgalow for the night. On the portch outside there was a full kitchen that looked extremely new to me. We also had our own new and very clean bathroom and shower and foam mattesses! (Haha, I just read what I wrote and I realize how such little things make me happy--my own shower under the same roof where I am sleeping and no springs in my bed!) We all had a good sleep and checked out the next morning.

The leaning tower was in walking distance from our campsite, but it was so so s hot out and we found shade to cool off in as soon as we got to the tower. There is the tower and 3 other buildings that make up the whols site, area thing. The amounts of people there was overwhelmnig! Again, another perfect people watching situation. We finally recovered from the heat and were out and got pictures with the tower and did some learning. OUt f the 188 pillars, only 33 remain that are the originals. They had had to be replaced dur to the errosion and problens with the tower. The EU is helping fund the restoration on the tower that should be done in 2009. Only groups of 30 are allowed up at a time and it started being built int he 1100's! There were a coulòd of hundreds of years here and there where no on worked on the tower, but fianlly it was finished in the 1600'2 ( i think?) It was so cool seeing it and it really does look like its going to tip over at any minute! The street by the tower is lined with shop after shop and I got mom and dad a great present-- well I think its perfect, but well see! :)

Nice, France

Out train ride into Nice, France took almost 14 hours! Luckily, we had t change trains 2 times, so that helps to split up the day. The train ride was exactly what I had hoped to see and more. For the majority of the ride, the Mediterrain was on the right and mountains on the left. Ths shore of the sea is perfect everywhere. I wanted to get of the train and explore the little towns and beaches and swim the whole time! I did not expect the mountains to follow us to France. I loved looking out the window at the water and I decided that althogh traveling by train takes more time, it's worth is because you get to see so much more of the country.

Our train pulled through Cannes and funally into Nice. Our hostel was close by and off the main road. There was a guy from Brazil and another from London in our room who were incrediable nice and funny. They had been traveling together for a while, so I truly enjoyed hearing them pick at one another like brothers!

We went out to dinner--pizza-- and then found an internet location. Everything in Nice was notically more expensive and it was depressing. Usually you can get an hour of internet for one euro, but in Nice, the loweest we could find was two euro-hour.

We got up the next day and expolred the city and the shopps. It was a big but small town. They had a tram and all, but really only two main roads. One led the the beach and we spent the later afternoon there. The beach had no sand, and instead gray rocks. It was surpirsingly not that uncomfortable and I really liked it. The sand I have expeeinced this trip has been a huge variety from Valencia, very soft and fine, to Barcelona, heavy, to the rocks in Nice. The water had the most pefect fade from the dark blue to teals and into white as the waves crashed onto the shore. We enjoyed Subway in the main plaza and had some great people watching.

Hello Barcelona!

After all of us Iowa State students left Valencia we went back to Madrid. That weekend we took days trips to the cities of Toledo and Segovia. LOVED Segovia. We got down pured on right when we left to walk arcoss the town to get to the castel! Figures! It was fun. The castle was awesome and Vinesha and I, beling the rebels that we are, snuck into the group with the English speaking tour guide. Our brain hurt from all the spanish of our tour guide. Also, the majority of our friends were in the engligh group!

Vinesha, EJ, and myself left sunday the 13th for Barcelona. Our youth hostel in Barcelona was way up on the side of the mountain. We had to take the metro, then a bus, and then walk another 10-15 minutes until we gt there! Unfortunately, as we were walking there, the main strap on the ruck sack backpak ive been traveling with broke! I had to buy a roll suitcase and move all my stuff in there. The suitcase is a pile of crap and not all th e wheels work, so anytime we have to change locations, it has been quite the work out for me!

In Barcelona we attempted to take a walking tour around the city, but in true Spanish fashion, no one showeded up to give the tour! So, we made Vinesha be our tour guide because she was in Barcelona last summer. She brought us to the old city wjere we spent most of the afternoon and we ate lunch in a fountain, literally. We walked down to the port and watched a few curise ships pull in, fed the fishes, and napped. We also saw this huge staue of Christopher Colombus pointing out t sea. Later, met one of Vinesha's friends who works at this super classy hotel. He brought us up to the roof top pool and EJ and I were in heaven hanging out by the roof top pool ver looking the city! We were experiencing luxury for the first time since we left in May!

Our hostel had a kitchen so we cooked us up some pasta the 2 nights we were there and had wine on the terrace looking at the moutains. Beautiful and soooo relaxing. We went to the beach the next day and enjyed our last day in Spain.

las ulitmas dias

*** I WILL ADD more pictures later this computer is way way way slow. LOVE ***



My last days in Valencia flew by!

The last 2 weeks I dont really remember what happened. They were fulled of running errands, finishing a project and giving a presentation for my Spanish class, packing, and saying goodbye to the city.

For the 4th of July a bunch of us Americans went to the river park and shot off lots of fireworks. Vinesha and I had bought some super small fireworks and some sparklers. The the police pulled up and told us that you can only shoot off fireworks during this one fiestival in April...who knew! The the man stepped over this huge $30 firework and took my sparklers from me!! It was soo funny and the rest of the night and week I was getting so much crap from friends about how I keep doing illegal things and getting in trouble with the police with my sparklers! It was a realy fun night, but quite different from being in the US. *the picture is of Vinesha and our friend Kaite with our sparklers before the Police came*

On the last saturday in Valencia Vinesha and I went to Ciudad de las ciencias...city of the sciencias. It is in the river park in the middle of the city. It is by far the most stunning modern buildings I have ever ever seen while in Europe. There is an opera house, iMax building, museum, and the biggest aquariam in Eurpoe. The science museum was really interactive and we spent a lot of hours in there playing!

Then we went to the aquariam for the rest of the afternoon. We saw the sweetest dolfin show and the trainers would have the dolfins push them underwater and then swim up to the surface and shoot them into the air. The trainers were doing flips in the air and it was true entertainment! We saw penguins, walruses, coral, this seahorse that looked like a tree, sharks. There was a long tunnel with water on all sides and it was super fun fun fun!


On the last week of class our spanish professor took us to a city/area called Albufera. We climed some hill and talked about how important tourism is to Spain and how the errosian of the beaches is a huge huge issue Spain is having right now. I was really tired of Spainsh that day and I gave up on trying to figure out what he was explaining to us. My head hurt. Later we took a boat ride on this man made lake that was massive!! The sun was setting and the weather had a slight chill. I could have been on Lake Minnetonkan in Minnesota and it was the first time in almost 2 months of being in Euproe that I truly felt homesick. The boat ride was very realxing and it was a great end to a fun day of seeing more of beautiful Spain.

After the field trip, Vinesha and I went back to our favorite Chineese buffet for one last time of delicious food!! yum!

JUANES! MI AMOR!

Juanes is a Colombian singer/rock artist. He is the Justin Tmberlake for the latin world. Grandparents, that means Juanes is very very popular, top of the music charts. I first heard Juanes in a high school spainsh class and since then I've just been in love and have listened to his music. He doesnt have an english album and he doenst tour in the US. I never thought that I would get to see him perform live, so when Vinesha and I heard he was coming to VALENCIA in July 1st, we bought tickets! The concert was in the bull ring. I would say there were about 1,000 people there. It was nice to be in a smaller arena and no matter where you sat, it was a good view and location. It was a GREAT night!!

Soy Espanola!!

The EuroCup happens every 2 years and the last time Spain won was 44 years ago. Spain defeated Russia and moved on to the semi finals against Italy. Spain won in penalty kicks and took on Germany in the final. Germany is a strong team, and I think most people were thinking that Spain would lose. However, Fernando Torres (cute!) kept pressuring the German goal and finally scored in the first half!
Some friends and I went into the city to watch the rest of the game and I am so glad we did! After Spain won hundreds of people gathered in a plaza to celebrate!! There were fireworks, flags everywhere, people hanging out of cars, singing, cars honking, drums and a trumpet (seriously!). We must have spent another 2 or 3 hours in the plaze celebrating with the spainards. One of the chants said "soy espanola" which is I am spain, or a spainard. I felt like I was a true spainard that night! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

I also noticed from this night the different attitude Spaniards (Europeans in general) toward their flag. They want to represent their country and, like in the picture above of the dog, its not disrespectful to have it tied to a dog and have it touching the ground. The US is so protective and conservative and are always ready to jump on someone who's 'disrespected the flag', I like the Europeans way of thinking better.

Mi Vida en Valencia

Here are lots of pictures of Valencia, my life, etc....
These speakers here in the alleyway were PUMPING the techno music and woke me up from a great nap! Grr! The streets are really noisy and I thought I was use to it, but there are still nights when I will wake up a couple of times to people talking or car alarms or these teenage boys (picture on the left) who chose to sit in our street that has a terrible echo! I wish I knew how to yell at them in Spanish!

Vinesha and I take the bus to school everyday. It's about 20 minutes. The we'll take the metro to the beach which is about a 30-40 minute travel. One day it took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to take the metro home from the beach. Another day we were lazy and wanted to be at the beach asap, so we took a cab and it took us 9 minutes. Again, my Turtle-like Life.

FESTIVAL DE SAN JUAN

What a night!

Our professors told us last week about this festival called San Juan. They told us its a huge tradition in Spain to celebreate the beginning of summer (last monday) and everyone goes to the beach to party. The traditions are to party from sunset until sunrise, make 3 wishes, and then jump over 9 waves in the sea. Vinesha and I took a cab to the beach, but ended up walking for blocks because so many of the roads close to the beaches were shut down due to the festival. Once we got to the beach we were SO shocked! Literally, EVERYONE was there on the beach. The news paper on tuesday said that 130,000 people were on the beach in Valencia! There was a huge stage set up with DJ´s, dancers, and a singer. The croud infront of the stage was pack with people dancing to the techno music and socializing. ISU people all put our stuff together and started a bonfire. We all made our wished and jumped our waves so our wished would come true. A friend and I decided to go swimming--despite that I was fully clothes. I forgot that my camera was im my pocket, so it came swimming with us too. It is ruined and I lost my pitcures of Valencia so far, the bull fight, flmango dance performance, and pictures from that night so far. I am going to take other peoples pictures and put them up here so you all can have a visual. Anyway, we went swimming down by byt rock wall/peri thing. All of a sudden I realize that I cannot touch, the waves and bigger and going over my head, and I looked at the shore and we had been pulled really far out! I started swimming with my perfect breast-stroke from from FoxJets, but I wasnt getting any closer to the rocks. Eventually we made it to the rocks and I saw 2 other people get into the same situation as us. I heard her yelling for help and we went down to the rocks to pull them in. It was a few of some of the most terrifying seconds of my life. The waves that night were some of the bigest ones I´d ever swam in and it was so fun! I stayed on the beach until the sun came up around 6am. I got back to the apartment and went to sleep. I skipped my first class and as punishment, the ISU directors made everyone who missed class due to San Juan write a paper about our San Juan experience. I thought it was a great assignment and I hope they enjoy reading about all of our nights!

Spain in playing Russia in the semifinal soccer game tonight. Some of our friends know of this bar that plays the game on a huge projecton screen so we are getting there an hour and 45 miutnes early in hopes of getting a seat in the bar!

Beatiz--our host mother here-- fed Vinesha and I rice, beans, and SQUID and PRAWNS last ngiht for dinner. I tried them, but the smell gets to me so badly that I just can´t eat them, even though the taste is not that bad. I had a hard time gettting past the tenticle things poking out too. I hope toight its just rice and chicken because I am hungry!

p.s. sorry for my typos. This spainsh computer doesn´t do spell check for engligh and I am too lazy to proof read and fix them. LOVE LOVE! ALSO-- you can DOUBLE CLICK on the pictures I post to make them BIGGER!

The Rains in Spain....

The rain has finally stoppped. For the last two weeks the weather has been perfect. I taught Vineshea how to convert celsius into farenheit, so one day on our way home from school I had her practice converting it. She was doing the math outloud and said 89 degreees....wait no 98 degrees! Oh my gosh its 98 degrees! We did the conversion a couple more times to make sure, but she was right, it was 98 degrees. On the way to school today it was 90 and it was not 10am yet.

Last weekend was the most exciting weekend is Valencia so far. On friday, we went to see a FREE flamanco dancing performance. It was amazing the way the women moved their hands and bodies in super tight long dersses. It was a fun performance to see and Flamanco is what you think about when you think of Spain, so I am glad I got to see it!

On Saturday some Iowa State students and I went to the southern region of Andulucia and climed a mountian. There were also a group of older professors and non-traditional students with us. We had to climb many super steep hills of this tiny town to get to the beginning of the montain trail. One of the older men fell/collapsed on the street and they called an ambulance and I believe were doing CPR on him. We were about 30 minutes from the top of the mountian when one of the leaders of the hike caught up to us and told us that man who fell in the street had died. We tracked passed the word around to everyone on the mountain and well began to climb down the mountian. The rest of the afternoon consisted of a lot of waiting and gathering of our group. The mountain was beautiful and the views were awesome and I really liked the hiking part of the day.

I was exausted and really weirded-out by the occurances of the day and I just wanted to get home. I have become so aware of how precious life is with Grandpa passing away this month, a week later my best friend Maggie lost her Grandmother, and then this man from the hike. It was really difficult to not be able to be with my family in Michigan and be at his funeral. I am thankful for all the time I was able to have with him and being able to write a little something for his funeral was helpful for me to feel like I was there in a small way. I am really looking forward to getting back to the States and being able to go to Michigan and see family.

On Sunday I went to a bullfight. The bull ring stadium thing--called Plaza dr Toros in Spainsh-- is less than a 15 minute walk from my apartment. I walk past it almost every day here in Valencia and I was so excited to finally be able to go inside of it! The bullfight started at 7, but of course it was still 90 ourside so I was sweating. The the bad or cheap seats are the ones in the sun, and of course our were int he sun so I was dying of heat for a bit! The beginning of the bull fight startes with the madadors all walking out, some guys on horseback and traditional stuff. I really liked it and they outfits were so traditional and just as I had imagined them! Then the bull fight started. Each bull fight has 3 madador and they each kill 2 bulls. Sometimes if the bull is too aggressive, they send it back and send out a different one. The first bull was very difficult for me to watch. I was peaking though my fingers for most of the time! A couple of madadors attract the attention on the bull and get it to run around and tire it out. Then, a man on a horse comes with a stick in his hand that has a knife on the end. The horse man stabbs the bull near its spin and it justs bleeding and bleeding. FINALLY, the great and brave madador comes out to kill the bull--keep in mind its already really tired and it´s been stabbed and is bleeding alot. The madador does some cool moves, though. There was one madador from Mexico and he was my favorite. He did a really good job of making it entertaining and showing off. The madador takes a sword and stabbes the bull next to its spin to its heart. Then as he is celebrating that he killed a bull, some other guy stabbs the bull in the head to make sure its dead. OK, so I´m being biased and a bit negative, but it so unfair to the bull and the madador doesn´t even fight it full strength. I am glad that I went and staying the whole time.

After the bull fight we went over to a bar and ordered some food and watched the second half of the Spain vs. Italy soccer game. Right now is the EuroCopa. It is like baseballs world series, but a tourment for the soccer teams in Europe. It is so exciting because everyone gets really into it! There are signs everywhere telling people when the game is and all the bars are full of people. People will yell at the TV just like Dad yells at the TV when someone missed a putt or dropps a football pass!:) Love you daddy! The game went to over time and then into a shoot and and Spain won!! Our goalie stopped TWO penatly kicks! He was rocking! Walking home from the game lots of the cars were honking and people were yelling out their windows. We also saw soem guys running the streets with a Spain flag tied as a cape!

Going to class is my least part of the summer; they are super boring. I had a test in my Management class today and I think it went alright. Luckily, our professor has already told us he is going to curve our grades it alot. He is such a suporter of study aborad and he thinks we are all really great students and people becuase we are on this program, so he gives us a break!

Vinshea and I have been going to the beach and hanging out with kids from Iowa State. There is such a great group of people here from Iowa. Everyone is getting along really well and we all have a great time together. For those of you who do not know Vinesha, she is a good friend from high school. We went to Eden Prairie together and we went to the same chruch. She attends the University of Minniesota. We had talked about studying abroad together even before college, so we kept eachother updated with the programs we were looking into. I told her about ISU´s program here and Valencia and she decided to come! We are roommates here and are having zero problems. I am so happy she is here and that I get to experience this once in a life time trip with such a good friend. She is half Malaysian so thats why she has such a super sweet name! I love her! And I love telling people she´s from Malaysia! Haha.

These three pictures here are a smapling of the photoshoot we had one night in the apartment before we lef t to hang out with people...it happens that you get kinda board waiting until 11:30 or midnight to leave so pictures happen a lot !

My Turtle- Like Life

I´ve been in Valencia for a week and 3 days. I have lots of stories of transportation issues and mistakes Vinshea and I have made while trying to nagivate ourselvs around the city! The busses and the metro system here are not user-friendly, in my opinion. One day while on the bus to go to school, our driver got off the bus at a stop, went into the cafe for a bit, and came out finishing his donut!! Life is slow here. Everything takes 2-3 times longer-- transportation, waiting to cross the street, eating out, waiting in line, service! The service here is almost non-existant. In America, you are tought in ever yjob that the customer is the number one priority; you drop what ever task you are in the middle of to make them happy. Spainards could care less! It´s frusterating, but I am getting more and more used to it and I know to expect it now, also. I am getting used to living like a turtle.

Oh, and a bird pooped on my favorite--and only CLEAN pair-- of jeans.... :(

I thought it happened often becuse you dry all the clothes outside, but my host mom just laughed and laughed when I showed her... I took that as a sign that its not as common as I thought...

It has been raining a lot here, but i have 2 classes to go to every day. I am taking a class about Spain today and the other is a Management class specializing in Entreprenuership. Class is not super exciting, but my Management class did take a field trip to the Port of Valencia, which is one of the main HUBs in the world. It was really interesting and we got to ride on a boat for part of the tour and they served us wine and mussels. I, of couse, passed on the mussels this time!

Beatriz, our host mom, introduced us to her friend´s son, Phillipe, who is our age. He took to to his church´s youth group last friday and it was awesome! The worship music was so great and I recognized a couple of songs, except they were in Spanish. The people there were incrediably nice to Vinesha and I and welcomed us and chatted. We hung out with them a bit that night too, but it was really difficult to follow what they were all talking about becuase they speak SO fast and with a lot of slang. Vinesha, Beatriz, and I went to the same church last Sunday and God has just really answered my prayers so clearly with this church here, Phillipe and his friends, and with Beatriz being a Christian, too. Vinesha and I feel really lucky to have some spainsh friends and we are looking forward to seeing them again.

ESPANA--FINALMENTE!

We FINALLY arrived in Madrid on Thursday May 29th after traveling since May 12th! EJ and I were TIRED and sooo looking forward to first, warm weather, and secondly being in the same city, in the same bed for 6 whole weeks! yes! Madrid is the typically besutiful city with lovely plazas with old statues and building right next to a modern glass building. There were always people out on the streets. You'd see high school kids to grandparents out on the town at midnight going to eat or to a bar. Loved it! We went into the Pardo Museum and had some free time on Friday.

On Saturday, we went to a city called Salamanca and I saw my first California Red wood tree-- in Spain. The US gave the city and church in Salamanca the tree back in the day, and its HUGE! I didnt take many pictures because it was raining and we spent most of our day in side the univeristy there and in two churches. We walked through a wedding too! It was a beautiful city and I wish we could have spent more time there. On the drive home, the storm clouds were leaving and the sun was trying to get through as you can see in this picture ont he left.

The next morning, Sunday June 1st, we left Madrid for Valencia!

Amsterdam: a city of learning, not experimenting..

Amsterdam was a good time. Our hostel was close to the Dam Square, which is the main area in Amsterdam. We arrived on a Sunday night and the streets were bustling with people. We ate at the most delicious asian resturant called Wok Walk--wow my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Yum! We met some fun girls at our hostel--from Costa Rica, Brasil and Argentina. They were all super friendly and social and very interested in the US and comparing our countries. Two of the girls were only 18 but they were so educated and aware of political and social issues.

EJ and I did a lot of learning--and not experimenting :)-- while we were in Amsterdam. There was a free city walking tour given, so we, of course, went when we heard the word FREE!! Our tour guide was actually from California. She studied abroad in Australia and fell in love with a Dutch man and that's how she ended up in Holland! She took us to the oldest church in Amsterdam which is, and always has been, located right next to the Red Light District. We took a stroll down one of the many, many streets of the district. She explained to us how the Dutch view prostitution as just something that happens--its normal and no big deal to them. She said that the Government had always tolerated Prostitution, but that they choose to make it legal in order to regulate it and make it safer for the women. In summary of that topic, I'll just say the sights were shocking.... Next she showed us some buildings that have been around since Amsterdam was first a city and explained what they were used for, she showed us the smallest how in Amsterdam--see the picture-- The Dutch are taxed on how WIDE their house is, so in order to avoid some taxes, they all built tall, skinny houses. However, the houses are too skinny to carry anything us the stairs to the top floors. These ingenious people then built their buildings slightly tipping forward and placed a large hook at the top which is used for a levy-pully system. The house tips forward so that when they are pulling furniture up the side of the house, the furniture has not way of breaking the windows on the way up! Again, Ingenious!

The tour guide also gave us a bit of drug history: Marijuanna is legal, along with mushrooms, because they are viewed as 'light' drugs. In the 1960-1970's Amsterdam had 70,000+ junkies living in the city. The government then choose to focus their attention on the hard drugs and ignore weed because it doesn't cause as many problems. No one has been arrested for smoking a joint in Amsterdam for 31 YEARS.
Oh, she also showed us the smallest house in Amsterdam--it´s the red one on the left!!

We went into the Anne Frank Museum after our walking tour. Here is a picture of Otto Frank's actual store front door--ignore the bars, the building is under construction. The museum was shocking, amazing, unreal, and inspiring at the same time. All over the walls in the building where the Frank family and the 4 others lived were quotes from Anne's diary. They (the museum) did such as excellent job of explaining where you are in the house, who lived in this room, how the rooms were used, the pictures and newspaper clippings Anne used to decorate the bare walls....incredible. They had interviews with Otto Frank and with the people who helped hide the families. They had papers and documents from Aushwitz with Otto's name listed, hand written grocery lists the families wrote and gave to the the people helping them hide. They had so much authentic, detailed papers, writing, concentration camp papers that it was unreal. I was so shocked to see all that. Of course, the musuem also had facts, pictures, and film about the Jews and the concentration camps. I cried for those people, for their families, for the rest of the world and how long it took everyone to respond and stand up to Hitler. Our tour guide told us a story about how a few Jews in Amsterdam attacked and beat up a some Nazi soldiers. The next day, the soldiers went into the Jewish neighborhood and killed 425 people. In one day. You learn about WWII in school, but you don't hear about the little, local stories like that, it makes it so real and stomach-churning.

We spent some good times in Dam Square people watching and eating PB&J sandwiches. We rented bikes for and afternoon and it was stressful! I feel like I could conquer biking downtown Minneapolis now with my experience from Amsterdam! We walked past the flower market every day. They had some really cool cactus and I wanted to buy some!


Our last day in Amsterdam, which was a Wednesday, was grueling. We had to check out of our hostel at 10AM, but our flight into Madrid wasn't until 7am on Thursday... We hung out on a park bench--heres a picture of me below at our home for the day-- and we found this HUGE sign saying I AMSTERDAM and took lots of pictures. We slowing walked ourselves to the train station, which then took us to the airport. We arrived at the Shipol Airport at 7 PM and flew out at 745 AM. I didnt do much sleeping--only about 2 hours actually. Not exactly the best day of my life, but it was an experience! :)