The despedida.....

My Spanish friend, Santi, and my American friend, Julie.

I get sick of boring pictures!

Half Spanish Half American amigos at my house for my "despedida"

The group out at a club for my goodbye party

Since I am leaving in just a couple of weeks, my friends decided to throw me a goodbye party this weekend to celebrate my leaving Spain before final trips start for everybody. What was supposed to be a few friends going for dinner ended up being a huge bash...didn't know I had so many friends here! It was wonderful having all my Spanish AND America friends in one spot and obviously it was a bit bittersweet. I couldn't help but reflect on my year here when thinking of going home.....

It will be hard to say goodbye to some amazing people who I have met here. Lucky for me, some of the American friends I have made here are from UW so it will be WONDERFUL having them so close to home. If I had to sum up this year, I would call it "purposeful”. It wasn’t quite life changing like last year, but I learned a lot: about the country, the continent, the people, the city, the language, and myself. I have tried to be pretty neutral up to this point about Spain (on the blog anyways, a few of you know my TRUE feelings) but here it goes…. I suppose as I look back on it, I would give Spain a total thumbs up, Madrid a definite thumbs down. Now, those of you who know me know that I am usually a very positive person so I don’t say this lightly. The attitude of the city, NOT the country, is very….I would call it rude. Over time, I have found myself coming a little bitter towards the general attitude of the “madrilenos pijos” (posh Madrid-ians) who think that they are better than the rest of the world. A lack of customer service and general compassion for your fellow man is very obvious in the city. The hustle and bustle is not something I enjoy being trapped in everyday…..but now I know! I miss the smiles on the street corner from strangers, people giving up their seat to the elderly, the safety you feel in small town America (without gypsies!), and generally people in love with life, not themselves. At the same time, Madrid is the hub of the country; it has been easy to travel and welcome visitors, too so I am glad I was here and not elsewhere. I have learned so much and I am so glad to have realized that I am NOT a city girl! Therefore, because I have learned and grown so much, this year was a very POSITIVE year. Overall, I have had an amazing time here and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Ok. Well that’s enough of the sentimental junk, just wanted to give ya’ll my overall impressions. Now I better get some of these post-exam to-do things crossed off my list.





Si escuchas a la canción de abajo, cuidadosamente, vas a ver que hay un secreto escondido en las palabras….manana te lo dire, vale?

Exam Week

The girls at Maroon 5

With Taryn and MTV Day!


It's that time....exam week... so like any good college student I know everyone's current Facebook status and have been Skypeing all day :) Still can't tell you a darn about Spanish Literature but I still have 12 hours until my exam.

This week has been great. Friday was out goodbye dinner for all the people in my program. We had a blast and it was FREE so you can't beat that. It was a really fancy restaurant and they served us fresh paella with crab. Sounds good and fancy....when the actual dish came and there was a WHOLE crab on my plate, I freaked. Not because it still had the eyes, no, but because I realized I was super trashy and had NO idea even what part of a crab you eat (nevermind how to do it). If anyone asks, I am a vegetarian....at least that was the excuse Friday night.


Saturday, I went to the MTV Day-Madrid here and saw Maroon 5 along with some other Spanish bands. We ended up about 4th row and even got our own shout out since he could tell we were Americans!

With exams this week we have no class so I actually have off today, Memorial Day, but it should be filled with studying. Hard to believev come Thursday my Spanish schooling is over (gracias a Dios!). Hope you're all enjoying a cookout and great weather over the long weekend.

Cha-cha-changes....

all of us at dinner in Dublin

Talking with Gordon and his new son!

The gang in Africa

In Malawi :)

In Malawi :)

A pint with Megan in Guinness

All of us at dinner

Megan and Maeve

The boys and I

Megan, Ryan, and I in front of Andy and Maeve's house

This weekend sure put things in perspective a bit for me. It was our 2 year African Reunion....as many of our Malawi volunteer gang that could make the trip came to Dublin. Here's the breakdown:

Present in Dublin:
Maeve and Andy (married Irish couple who were on their honeymoon in Malawi)
Megan and her finace Ryan (engaged American-Irish couple. Megan was a volunteer.)
Me

Missing:
Maggie (Irish volunteer who I spent Christmas with in Belfast)
Gordon (my old roomie in Malawi: Scotish)
Chelsey (Canadian wonderfulness)
Mike (Canadian who just returned for the second time this month)

The trip started as I was shocked at the airport when Meave greeted me with a plump belly, filled with the new Gacquin twins due in August! Ryan and Megan flew in Friday morning and the three of us hit up the Guinness factory together. As we drank our pints in the skybar atop the factory, we talked about their honeymoon plans: a glorious return to Malawi! Can you imagine it?!? Obviously they are a perfect couple to both be up for honeymooning in Mwaya Beach :)

Saturday we spent at a piping (bag pipes) contest in the north for Ryan and Megan. Afterwards we came back to Andy and Maeve's Dublin home for a wonderful last night together: a Malawi slideshow. We took everyone's pictures, ours and those who were absent, and watched and laughed over pizza and Guinness. We even made a Skype conference call to our friend Gordon, my old roomie, who just had his first son. After Africa, he decided it was time to settle down, moved to New Zealand to be with the love of his life, and is now the proud pop of Jake! It was so strange to have all of us together but with so many changes.....babies, weddings, new countries, etc. My life sure seems boring compared to that(don't worry, Mom, I'll keep it like that for a while!). It was wonderful to see where our lives have taken us and where they continue to go. The great thing is that no matter where we go, we'll always carry little bits of each other with us as we go on our own ways.

Anyways, it just makes me thankful that all of our paths crossed at one time in our lives and that we still cherish the bond we formed together no matter where life takes us.

Portugal and Spanish Nights

Here are some more pictures from my Portugal trip and some random Madrid nights.

Tonight, Katie and Alex and I all went to a Karaoke Bar we found....it was run by an Asian couple and some of the songs were in Chinese. I also saw a woman with a sixth toe on top of her foot and it was sticking out of her flats. I would clasify tonight one of the most random in a long while.

Basque Country and Portugal

Santander Beach

Spanish Tapas

Michael and I at the beach

Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao (Basque Country)
Even if you're not Catholic, in Spain you at least love everyone who is because it's because of this wonderful religion that we get "puentes" (bridge weekends). When one of the 20+ saint days falls on a Thursday, Spain decides to take off the whole weekend and thus you get a four day weekend. This week was GREAT as we had TWO puentes....one on Tuesday and one on Thursday so therefore it was only Wednesday that we had class. The first part I spent in Bilbao and Santander Spain (in Basque Country) with my friend Michael. We spent four great days on the beach and exploring the towns. I was shocked at how nice Biblao is. It is very unique as it is both part of the Basque Country and very modern due to the addition of the Gooogenheim (sp?) Museum in 1997. Santander is a great little beach town on the North coast of Spain. We got super sunburned and loved every minute of it!

I flew back for a few hours to Madrid and was soon on a bus to Lisbon, Portugal with my good friend Katie Sheahan and two other new friends I met here. We spent a few days exploring the town and other small cities outside of Lisbon. We even spent one day at a small beach town and we just had a blast. I have never laughed so hard in my life! Highlight of the trip: one of our friends told us about this GREAT burger place called "Barbus Burger". She told us the burgers were as big as our head and sold out of the back of a cart. Of course we were on a mission to find them and we asked EVERYONE we could where this place was with the huge hamburgers. After about 20 people who had no idea what we were talking about, we got a little suspicious. Everyone would laugh at us and point us to McDonalds if we wanted a hamburger. Turns out, our friend did this as a joke so and there is no Barbus Burger!!!! haha we had a good laugh but were REALLY sad we would have to wait for our burgers. Typical Americans!

Anyways, back to life and reality here in Spain. At least for a week and a half before I got to Ireland! Here are a few pictures and I'll post more later!

God totally reads my blog...

My last blog I was complaining about how stressed I am with all these papers and stuff coming up. God must have been reading this thing because I just found out I got into the School of Education at UW (#2 in the country!). It's pretty competitive as a World Language major so thank goodness I got it. I feel like a huge load is off my back since I'd have to fail 4 of my 5 classes to not be let in come fall... haha doubtful that will happen. (knock on wood). So I am officially de-stressed in a matter of minutes...and it FEELS GREAT! Might go out to night with the girls to celebrate! Why not....it's Madrid and it's totally socially acceptable here...better do it now before I'm a teacher, right? Hope you all are having as good a day as mine. Isn't it great how God sends those little blessings just when we need them?

un poco de "estres"

So I can go for pretty much years being stress free....the problem is when it hits me, it HITS HARD. I don't know why all of a sudden this week has been so terrible. I actually skipped class today because my stomach in such knots I was doubling over a bit in pain. So bizarre...I'm sure it will pass. I have been sleeping terribly dreading these 8 papers I have to write in the next two weeks so I think this afternoon I'm taking off and going to try to sleep it off a bit. I think it's my body’s reaction to the coming abuse of FAR too many trips, little to no sleep, and lots of work to be done in my last 50 days in Europe.

However, don't think my tossing and turning is going to stop me from being pumped up. No way. I am super excited today that my cousin AnnMarie and her husband Nick legally became the parents to their newest son from Ethiopia. With that and my other cousins who are prego right now, I am already getting pumped to meet all these new kiddos when I come home!

Fun story of the week: Was at the local pharmacy here today to pick up my contact solution. **Note: there are no over the counter drugs in Spain. Everything from Tylenol to contact solution has to be bought from the pharmacist.** I had my hands full with my grocery bags and my contact solution as I made my way to the glass doors. I stood there for about 10 seconds before I realized they were not automatic. I had been waving my foot, etc. trying to trigger the sensors and must have looked like a TOTAL fool. Automatic doors are practically non-existent in Spain and here's the weird American dancing in front of the doors. The worst part is, I’ve done that once before at a restaurant!