I just got back from the grocery store...do you think it's obvious that I'm American when I only buy peanut butter, pickles, mexican salsa, and gum? Surely not...
Also, the grocery store clerks don't bag your items here...they just throw you a plastic bag and you have to hurry and do it yourself..and the person behind you is always waiting for you to move and getting in your personal space...it's nerve-racking....

So my Spanish Civ and Culture class took a field trip to the Spanish Senate today....the tour was in Spanish so I can't really tell you a lot...except that it was pretty..and that the Spanish 6th graders that were in our tour group needed to lay off the sugar.

After the tour, our teacher, Isabel, treated us to coffee. She's really sweet..her English is a little shaky so it makes it easy to listen to her teach because she searches for words a lot...She has an interesting life...she sings at a jazz club in Madrid and has a little boy who is 11....her husband is a lawyer and her parents are involved with something in the government because they always get invited to events at The Royal Palace...cool, yeah? Anyway, at coffee we were talking about how we think college is the perfect time to go abroad if you're ever going to do it...And Isabel said that it's very common for Spanish kids to start traveling and studying abroad at a much earlier age--like, elementary school. Her son goes to The German School of Madrid and is fluent in German...he spent 3 weeks in Germany with a host family last summer and can't wait to go back again...it's like, no big deal that he is 11 years old. Wild, right? (Kids live with their parents til they are 30 but think nothing of moving to a foreign country when they are 11)...She said that it's much easier and affordable for Spanish kids to do stuff like that. Innnnnnteresting....

In my Women's Roles class ,we got a copy of the "Teachers Agreement" from 1923...the following are some of the rules that teachers had to abide by..I found it interesting and wanted to share...enjoy.
I, ______________, agree:
1. Not to get married. This agreement will be automatically cancelled and without effect if the teacher gets married.
2. Not to be in the company of men.
3.To be at home between the hours of 8pm and 6am, unless to attend a school play.
4. Not to be in downtown icecream shops and cafes.
5. Not to leave the city under any circumstance without permission from the Presdent of the Delegates Board
6. Not to smoke cigarettes. This agreement will be automatically cancelled and without effect if the teaher is found smoking.
7. Not to drink beer, wine, or whiskey.
8. Not to travel by car or motor vehicle with any man except her brother or father.
9. Not to wear shine-colored clothes.
10. Not to dye her hair.
11. To wear at least two petticoats.
12. Not to wear dresses shorter than 5cm over her ankles.
13. To keep the classroom clean: Sweep the floor at least once a day, wash the classroom floor at least once a week with hot water, clean the blackboard at least once a day, light the fire at 7am so that the classroom is warm at 8am when the children arrive.
14. Not to use facial powders, make-up, or lipstick.


peace out

Hey hey...
Switzerland was great!
*Just a little Geneva, Switzerland background info: it was an 1 1/2 flight from Madrid....everyone speaks French there (weird, right?) and some people speak German and Italian...most people understand a little English....their currency is the Swiss Franc which is awesome if you're used to using Euros (it's pretty much double its worth)...it's really clean, really safe, and really modern.
*Sarah, Ben and I flew into Geneva Thursday night...we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant next to our hotel and it was delicioussss (nothing like a traditional Thanksgiving meal)...it was pouring rain so we went back to the hotel and just watched CNN for like, 4 hours straight. It was the first time I've watched TV since August and it was glorious. We got up early on Friday and transferred to our hostel (we had to split up where we stayed because everything was booked). You can pretty much walk everywhere in Geneva....and by then it was just drizzling...so we walked along Lake Geneva, through this park with all these weird statues, up to the European Arm of the United Nations. It was cool to think that a lot of important decisions were possibly being made while we were standing outside the building...haha...we also saw the World Trade Organization. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant..a REALLLL mexican restaurant..with like, rice and beans...chips and salsa..it was awesome. I can't wait for Mazatlan. Moving on...after lunch we went to Cathedrale St. Pierre...its the church where John Calvin preached and where Calvinism was developed. It was nice to see a regular CHURCH, not a frou-frou cathedral....we climbed to the top of the steeple and the view of the city was great. After, we went on a little boat tour of the Geneva coast and then saw "The Flower Clock"...a working clock on the ground that is made up of flowers...it was cool. That night, we ate at another great Italian restaurant. Saturday morning we took a 30 minutes bus ride to a small village in France. The only main attraction there is a cable car that takes you to the top of Mont Blanc--part of the Swiss Alps. We went up about 1100 meters...it was amazing...it was so foggy and rainy that at one point in the cable car we were completely surrounded by white..it was crazy. We walked around and stuff on the top of the mountain and it was soooo foggy...like, intense...then we hiked 30 minutes through the WOOOODS to a tiiiiny restaurant....we were the only ones there and they definitely didn't speak anyyy English...it was frustrating/fun....we hiked back down to the cable car and went back to Geneva. There was a little Christmas market going on in the middle of the city so we went there and shopped a little bit...they had all the lights and decorations up...made me realllllly excited for Christmas and got me in the holiday spirit...There was an iceskating rink set up so we iceskated for a while..Sarah used to compete in iceskating and Ben used to play ice hockey....so I looked like the "special" friend trailing behind them...trying to keep up haha...That night, we went to an Irish pub type place and then just went back to the hostel. We had Starbucks this morning (wahoooooo..oh how i miss you..) and flew back to Madrid!
*Switzerland is known for its chocolate (it was ahhmazing)
-The better your travel partners, the better the trip...all of my favorite trips have been great because of the people I've traveled with...you know how you can only spend 24/7 with certain people? Sarah and Ben and I pretty much laughed the entire time and it was great...Sarah is from Colorado and has a boyfriend back home...so we can complain to eachother about how we miss our boyfriends and not feel annoying...haha...Ben is from Pennsylvania and is just a quality guy that reminds me of guys from home....they are both 2 of my closest friends here
*I've noticed that all of my favorite trips are to places that aren't really cities..but have either mountains or a body of water close by...hmmmm....


hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving here...I guess the spaniards really have no reason to celebrate this holiday haha...it was weird to have school this morning..but oh well. It's my first holiday not being with my family...ahhh I'm getting old....I do miss being home right now, but I'm happy to be where I am. I'm leaving for Switzerland in a couple of hours...hope you are all enjoying this day! I'm thankful for you :)

Hi all!
Just got back from Granada, Spain on an excursion with my program. Granada is a town in southern Spain, in the mountains, about 6 hours from Madrid. Its a cool town...about 250,000 residents and a quarter of them are students...its not far from the Sierra Nevada Ski Resort and also close to the beach. Yesterday, we arrived in Granada around 1pm and ate lunch at our hotel. We all loooove going on trips with our program because they get us really nice hotels and always feed us well...wahoo. After lunch we went to the Cathedral and Royal Chapel. It was nice..but...I'm kinda getting cathedraled out. We are also getting a little snobby because after seeing the Vatican and the Duomo...it's hard to compare..you know? Anyway...it's still cool to see them. After that we had free time...we shopped and got icecream. We had dinner at our hotel and then we all went out to a couple of bars in the area. I love going out with our whole program...there were about 60 of us there and it's just nice to have everyone in the same place! This morning we went to the Alhambra. It's what Granada is known for and it was really amazing. Throughout history it's been "a palace, a citadel, a fortress, the home of the Nasrid sultans, high government officials, servants of the court, and elite soldiers"...today, it's divided into four areas-- The Palaces, the Military Zone (the alcazaba), the city of Medina, and the agricultural estate of the Generalife. We seriously couldn't have picked a better day for this tour...it was gorgeous outside and all the flowers were beautiful...it took us about 3 hours to walk around everything, but it was really relaxxxxing and fun. We also had a funny tour guide so he made it interesting. We had lunch back at our hotel and then headed home to Madrid.

-There were so many times on this trip when I just stopped and thought about how thankful I am for these people in my life...these girls are just so solid...it's amazing how quickly we've all bonded...it's been 3 months and feels like we have known eachother for years...its great. We all came into this experience by ourselves, not knowing what to expect or who we were going to meet...I know we've all been pleasantly surprised about how well we all get along...and we all realize that these friendships will for sure continue in the states. i'm thankful.

-random...but another fact from my women's roles class... did you know that women in sweden get 96 weeks off of paid maternity leave? can you beliiiiieve that? man oh man.

hope you all had a great weekend :)
pictures will be up soon!

hi! I got back from amsterdam yesterday...it was such a good time and it was so great to see jani...I've missed her! It was just a chill weekend. A little background on amsterdam for you...it's the capital of the netherlands and one of the most liberal cities in the world...pretty much everything is legal there (prostitution, marajuana, etc.)...and they speak dutch and english. The town is just so cute...bikes are the main form of transportation..and they are SERIOUS about their bike riding...you better get out of the way. It was rainy and cold the entire weekend..apparently it's always like that...but it fits the city. There are funky boutiques, art galleries, sex shops (yikes), and coffee shops (that sell coffee AND "space cakes"-brownies or muffins with marajuana in them). On Friday, we ate lunch at a thai restaurant and then went to the Van Gogh Museum which was cool...we got coffee and just caught up for while...that night, we went to an italian restaurant and got piiizzzzaaa..then just went back and hung out at her apartment. On saturday, we walked through a little outdoor market and then went to anne frank's house..they've turned it into a museum type thing and it was really interesting...you can walk through and see all the rooms..it was kind of eerie, but cool. After, we went to a restaurant that's known for it's pancakes...Amsterdam is famous for its pancakes...but they aren't realllly pancakes..they're really skinny..like crepes..but they're called pancakes. Anyway, they were good. When we were standing in line to get in, there was a group of spanish people behind us...they were speaking in spanish and asking eachother whether they should stay and wait, or go to another restuarant, etc....they were trying to figure out how to ask the hostess how long the wait was in english...it was so weird to hear spanish people struggling for english words...one of them was like, "It's, "how much minutes we wait?"..and another one was like, "No no..."How long in minutes we wait?" Haha..I hate to say it, but it felt realllly good to not be the one struggling for words for once. That afternoon, we walked around the city..there are 6 canals that go through amsterdam and its sooo pretty...they are all filled with houseboats...cool, yeah? We went to the "redlight district"..this is where the prostitutes "set up shop"...haha..they each stand in a booth and wait for the next customer..its so weird....they're also dressed in veryyyy little. prostitution is a serious business in amsterdam...it has its own union and the girls have to pay taxes...it costs 70-150 euros to rent a booth for 8 hours...and the usual going rate is 50 euros for 15 minutes. Its crazy...very weird to see. Also in the redlight district, there are "live sex shows"..where you pay to see people have sex..on a stage..in front of you. erglaieglaiugaegraeg...AHHH! That night, we went to a cute restaurant for dinner and then went out to a bar..it was a fun...a lotttt of dutch people and really crowded, but fun. On sunday morning, jani and I went out for breakfast and then I caught my flight back to madrid. I really really loved amsterdam...like, minus the pot and the prostitutes, it's a really cool city..somewhere I'd want to retire to. Not reallllly, but it gives that kind of vibe. Also, it was so great to see Jani...so nice to have someone from home. She is meeting me and a few others in Switzerland for Thanksgiving, so I'll see her again soon which is exciting. Hope you all had a great weekend!

just some thoughts....

*if you could make any of the following people/places/things appear in my life right now, that'd be great:
text messaging, chipotle, john wells, movie theatres with american movies, pickles, brentwood united methodist church, dr. olds, chili's, something bigger than a twin-size bed, CMT, A&E, the YMCA, my dad playing guitar, my family in general, athenian room, stony river, peter's sushi, Gap, our hot tub, concord road, my car, hillsboro road, the radio, lakeshore drive and lake michigan, depaul women's acappella group, walgreens, pumpkin spice lattes from starbucks, coldstone, west end, fountain drinks, ice, a massage, chick-fi-la, carpet. more to come.....

*In my women's roles class, we had to go see the movie "Las 13 Rosas (The 13 Roses) on our own...so I went on Tuesday to a cinema near my apartment... I got POPCORNNNN and a FOUNTAIN DRINK WITH IIIICCCCEEEE! That was only the 2nd time I've had ice in my drink since I've been in Europe...they do bottles everywhere...bummer. Anyway, I felt like I was at home..ohhh Thoroughbred Movie Cinema in Brentwood, TN...how i miss you. The movie is based on a true story that took place during the Spanish Civil War in 1939..during Franco's regime. 13 girls ("rosas")...ages 20-25...were strong republicans and wrongly accused of having helped plot to assasinate Franco. They were all arrested or turned-in to the police..horribly tortured and questioned....and then all shot and killed. It was such a great film...and really portrayed how life was during Franco's regime, especially for women...just another worldddd...so sad. It was really moving, especially since the girls were my age at the time. The actresses did an amazing job as well. It was all in Spanish and I surprisingly understood all of it...it wasn't easy though haha.

*The other day in class we were talking about the idea of marriage in Spain...our teacher was explaining how if you get married in the catholic church and want to get a divorce, annulment is the only option if you want it to be recognized...to get an annulment, you must write a letter to the Pope saying that 1) you never had sex..2)you were forced to get married...3) you weren't sane when you got married..if you don't get it annuled, you can't ever get remarried in the catholic church. Anyyyyyyway....the current Prince of Spain, Felipe, wanted to get married to a girl named Letizia..butttt little Letizia had been married before...so they wrote to the Pope and told him who she was..told him the situation...slid some money under the table...and he "erased" her marriage so she could get married to the Prince...like it never happened. Isn't that crazyyyy? Doesn't make any sense to me...

*Last night, a few of us went to see a ballet of Romeo and Juliet. It was really cool..a modern version, but really entertaining...I'm going to try to get in the habit of doing cool things like that back in the US...



alright that's all for now...have a good weekend :)

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
Got back from Italy a few hours ago! It was a good trip..a longgg weekend because we did so much traveling..but very fun.
-Jessica, Ashley, Tory, Anazette, Rob, Andrew and I left Madrid on Wednesday..our flight was delayed 5 hours (yes...5 hours) so we didn't get to Rome until 8pm. We checked into our hostel and ate dinner at a cute Italian place...I had spinich and ricotta ravioli..mmmm..that was when I realized I would probably gain 30 pounds on this trip. It was SO good. We then went to the Pantheon, The Spanish Steps, and The Trivi Fountain. All were really pretty lit up at night..especially the Trivi Fountain. They say to throw a penny over your shoulder into the water to ensure your return to Rome. Of course we did it...The next morning, we got up early and hopped on a bus to Vatican City. LISTEN TO THISSSSS- Alright...we got on the bus at the bus station/terminal place. We knew it cost 1 euro for one ride..so we were like sweet. We got on the bus..and the driver didn't ask us for money or anything..so we just walked on by and sat down in the back. So we're riding..riding...riding..then we stop at a bus stop and 3 like, "transit patrol" men (in uniform) get on the bus and head straight for us. They started yelling (in broken English), "you no pay for ticket! fined! fined! 50 euros you owe!"..we were all just sitting there staring...We were like umm no one asked us for money...the bus driver saw us get on...what were we supposed to do??..."You buy at terminal! We take you to police station if you don't pay us fine of 50 euros!"...I (hating confrontation/getting in trouble/afraid of getting put in jail in a foreign country) was like "Here's my money! take it! don't hurt me! I'm leaving!" haaahahaha...everyone else was questioning/trying to get out of it...but they didn't budge....so we all had to pay 50 freaking euros because apparently, we were supposed to buy a bus ticket at the terminal and then validate it on this tiiiiny hidden machine once you get on the bus...cameras on the bus had caught us just walking on and not validating our ticket. How we were supposed to knowwwww that? We're just Americans! What is this "validating" mess? Anyway...we paid 50 euros for a 20 minute bus ride to Vatican City that should have cost 1 euro. There were a ton of people there because it was All Saints day..a huge holiday in Catholic countries. We went inside St. Peter's Basillica and it was amazzzing...I know every cathedral I go to is "amazzzzing" but this one really was. We happened to be in there when mass was starting to we got to go to mass in the Vaticannnn...sooo cool. It was all in Italian...and longgg (an hour and 45 minutes)..but it was totally worth it. When we walked outside the cathedral, everyone was standing around and there was a man speaking on a loudspeaker...we look up at this window and its THE POPE. It was crazy...I guess he was speaking because of the holiday...but it was awesome. He said a little bit of something in English ("May God bless you on this special day") but everything else was in Italian. We were all in awe that we were standing there listening to the Pope speak...how many times does that haaaaappen? We had planned on seeing the Sistine Chapel next but it was clossssed because of the holiday...major bummer. Guess I'll just have to go back again someday:) We had lunch at a restaurant near St. Peter's...we were all still a little on edge from the bus ride, so we decided to eat cheap for lunch haha...Ashley and I split an eggplant dish..it was deliciousss. After lunch we took a bus (we bought a ticket before we got on..har har) to the Colosseum. It was just as I had studied...huuuuge and olddddd. We didnt get to go inside, but the outside was awesome. It's so weird to think how long it has been around and all the things that have gone on inside of it. After that we took a little "siesta" at the hostel and then met up with a friend of Jessica's who lives in Rome. Flavio (yes...his name is Flavio) grew up in the States but is full Italian..he moved to Rome for college and lives there currently. He was great...he took us to this place that had 32 different types of spaghetti. We had some wiiiine and I had artichoke, cheese and tomatoe spaghetti. AMAZING. We had gelado for dessert (icecream...Italy is known for it) and then he took us out to some of his favorite bars. It was a fun night and I'm glad we had someone to show us around!
-We got up early on Friday and caught our 7:45am train to Florence. It was about a 2hr ride through the Italian countryside...it was beautiful. We checked in our hostel in Florence and met up with another one of Jessica's friends...she's got friends all over! Martin is a friend of hers from school who is studying in Florence for the year. There were tons of people there (I'm guessing because of the holiday still)....we stood in line for the Ufizzi Museum for an hour before deciding it wasn't worth it...we went to the Duomo (a cathedral...a smaller version of the Duomo in Milan..which you'll hear about soon) but couldn't go in because of the long line. That's the bad thing about going to so many places in such little time..you have to choose what you really want to do wisely. We saw the "Gates of Paradise" which was pretty cool. We then went to see "The David" sculpture by Michaelangelo. It was crazzzzyy...way bigger than I expected. It's so wild to think that he was carved out of one solid block of marble. How is that possible?! It was awesome to see. That afternoon we shopped at the street market. A lot a good stuff...I got a wallet and "weekender" travel bag made of real italian leather...Ashley got a great leather jacket too...the stuff there was amazinggg...it was probably best that we were only there for one day or I could have done some serious damage. That night, we ate at this outdoor restaurant...lasagna. incredible. Moving on...we were all pretty tired from getting up so early so we called it an early night. Florence was by far my favorite city that we visited :)
-We caught our 8:30am train to Milan the next morning and got to Milan at 11ish. Martin and his friend Erin decided to come with us so that was fun...they were great. We checked in our hostel and had pizza near the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele..it's a huge shopping arcade with shops like Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton...I'm telling you, everyone in Milan was decked out...clothes, jewelry, makeup..the whole deal...just walking around the streets! A lottt of beautiful Italian men :) After lunch we went to the REAL Duomo. It's the largest gothic cathedral in the WORLD. It was awesome..so biiiig! It was so intricate, too. The inside is filled with paintings and beautiful stained glass windows. We climbed to the top (156 steps..ehhh) for an incredible view of the city. We walked around the edges of the roof and took lots of pictures. We got some gelado (I'm pretty sure we had it every day)...and then Ashley and I ate at...brace yourself...Burger King. I know..who eats at Burger King in Milan, Italy?!!? That whopper just looked so good. It was worth it. That night, we just walked around the city...National Geographic was doing this photo exhibit...pictures all set up down the street..so that was cool. We had coffee at a little cafe and then a few of us went to a bar for a little bit. It was a fun night! When we got back to the hostel, we met the girl who was in our room...(it was a 6 bed room and there were only 5 of us..so they threw a random in there)...anyway, her name was Kate and she was from NY. She had just graduated from college and had spend the past 2 months backpacking through Europe by herself...isn't that wiiiiiild? Just her...and a backpack...for two months. I could never do it...but more power to her. It's fun meeting different people from all walks of life.
-We got back to Madrid late this afternoon...I'm glad to be back! It was a good but tiring trip...pictures should be up soon. I'm going to Amsterdam next weekend to see Jani (my good friend from DePaul)...I'm so exciiiiiiiited. Have a good week :)