my slide show of my spring break pics

http://www.slide.com/r/skCnosUm6T9sn3Z32I4Wr6c-wbvUgTHM?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url

My slide show of when my family was here

http://www.slide.com/r/oOsun7Pg6z8t_mUrC3mHst3SU3TCfUnh?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url

the night after the family left, a mutual friend of David and mine from Switzerland came to Pamplona. So i got a chance to catch up with him and him, David and I went to San Sebastian one day. It was rainy and theres not much to do and see in the town if the weather is crappy except eat. San Sebastian has the greatest food in Spain. I'm not being biased, it's in books. So we ate GREAT food and then went to the aquariam. It was a nice rainy day activity.

And then last weekend was BEAUTIFUL.....weatherwise. so a group of us went to san sebastian and sat on the beach saturday and sunday....all day....so nice.

Then on Wednesday i went back to Barcelona to meet my friend Casey. She was my roommate freshman year and she's coming to europe to work in france and learn french this summer. ANd because she was flying into Barcelona i went and met her. It was so nice catching up and we went to the typical tourist stuff that i went to with the family.

casey and I...

and now the weather is rainy and crappy...hence me finally updating my blog while i sip on some tea.....now i've got to focus on finals and packing before my next adventure!

Ok.....so grams left on Monday and Mom, Charlie and Jake flew in on Friday, APril 20th, i think it was....whatever, it was the week after Grams came to see me....my dates are getting blurred....

i'm going to make a slideshow of the pictures so you can see what we saw.....

Friday, April 20th

Met the family in Madrid and we explored the city that night.

Saturday, April 21st

Took the train to Valencia to see America's Sailing Cup. Saw some great boats.Also, the town of Valencia is very cute. Then we left that afternoon on a train to our resort town of Peniscola.

Sunday, April 22nd-Wendesday APril 25th

SPent the days on the beach....eating sea food at night. We saw the castle/fortress surrounding the town. Went to the spa....swam in the ocean. Basically we perfected the art of lounging around and being lazy. The town itself wasn't so hoppin, but i suppose it wasn't ideal tourist season either.

Thursday and Friday

We hed to Barcelona. Barcelona is a great town. We saw some cathedrals and the picasso museum. Saw Parc Guell with the works of Gaudi. Absolutely amazing. Saw la Pedrera...another building designed by Gaudi. Saw la Sagrada Familia...a church that's been worked on since 1882 and was wokred on by Gaudi for 40 years.

Saturday

We took the morning train to Pamplona. Ishowed them the city and the University. It was rainy but they got to see where the bulls run and my apartment. Then that night jake and I went to my friend's graduation party. so he got to meet my friends.

Sunday morn.

said goodbye to the fam early in the morn and went back to sleep.

It was really nice seeing them. I've been so used to my life here that i've learned to live with what I"ve got but now i miss them more, of course. But i'm glad they came

A slideshow of some pics from my travels in Europe

 http://www.slide.com/r/LW9zlNJT6D8yyu0rj00q1yfavbYweAVn?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url

 Ok, Spring Break....la Semana Santa.....I'm finally updating this thing....and I hope you're reading this....I don't know who you are....but 'you' are the reason I"m writing this....so appreciate it!

:-)

Wednesday the 5th of April we all pile into two cars and start our drive around 1am from Pamplona. Our desination is Seville. A relatively uneventful night. We only got turned around once, stopped to change a tire and watch the sunrise another time and then rolled into Seville around noon on Thursday morning.

Thursday-Seville

We explored the city all day and we're exhausted by the night. however, there were some processions going on all night. The three of us girls only made it until about 1am but the guys stayed up and watched the processions until 6am. They were creepy and strangly quiet and interesting, i suppose.  But that's not really my thing. Here's a pic from the view of the apartment that we stayed at. Box row seats of the procession....

Friday-Seville

We slept in pretty late but went and saw the big main cathedral and then because it was raining played card in Starbucks for about 3 hours. That night we met up with some friends that lived there and went out dancing for a bit. She let us stay at her place so we didn't have to pay for a hostel, which was nice.

Saturday

We split up today. David and I went and collected our luggage and packed the cars while the others went and saw La alhambra. Which, from the pictures looked great. Basically it's a large palace with gardens.  Then that evening we left for Cadiz. We walked around Cadiz for 3 hours looking for a hostel. Everything was booked because Easter was SUnday. So we settled for a 4 star hotel but when the 4 of us crammed into one room, it was only 40 euros a person, which isn't bad at all. Considering how nice the place was. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of cadiz, only what we saw at night while searching for lodgings.

the hotel....

Sunday-Easter

Got up and ate the continental breakfast. The best Easter breakfast I've ever had. And it had a view of the beach, even nicer. We went to Jerez de la Frontera. There was a tradition where they let a bull roam the streets and people tease it and it chases the people, etc etc....whatever. but it was A cute little town. Actually the with the most beautiful view of Spain I've ever seen. The pictures don’t do it justice.

We had lunch there and then continued our drive to Tarifa. The most southern point of Spain, more of less. It was a cute surfing town. And we spent a couple hours walking the beach and playing in the sand. It was windy and chilly but the sun was shining and we were on the beach and super excited to be there.

Monday-Tarifa

We decided to stay in Tarifa and veg out and relax some. We the girls and I split from the guys and had tea and looked in stores, had a picnic on the beach. Napped on the beach, explored, etc.

The guys took a sunset ride on horses. Then we all had seafood together that night and played charades until waaay tooo late.

Tuesday

Reina, Jenn and I dropped David off in Malaga to meet up with his girlfriend. We continued on to Granada. The others would meet us later on there. We explored the town. It was great. I really liked the feel of it. It was good size but easily managable. Reina and i had tea and explored the city at night, saw the walls of La Alhambra. So beautiful.

Wednesday

Woke at 6.45am to get in line for La Alhambra. Waited for a couple hours. Looked like they were going to sell out of tickets by 10am. However, one of the guys in our group knew of the women waiting in line towards the front that had been there since 5am and she bought all of our tickets for us. Which was great! Considering i had to leave on a bus at 3pm, this was my only shot to see it.

It was big, it was beautiful but not as amazing as people had said. Perhaps i've just seen one too many palaces and garden to be impressed any more. It was impressive, don't get me wrong, but no hanging gardens of Babylon....

Then I took a bus to Madrid to meet up with Grams. Thursday we left for Pamplona and spent the night there. Then on Friday we took the morning bus to Bilbao. We went and saw the Guggenheim museum, the spider and puppy in front.

Then on saturday we went to the spa in the hotel. It was very relaxing. We definately enjoyed it. Then on Sunday we went to San Sebastian. A really pretty town if the weather cooperates. Which is did. So we took the Funicular up to the top of the hill/mountain over looking the bay. It was a great view but foggy.

And there was a really creepy old carnival on top. Then we took the bus back to Pamplona. i showed her around Monday morning then she had to go back to the states and me to class.

So, i've been to Switzerland. And it's my favorite country so far. Between the scenery and the towns and the transportation and the people and the language and their type of government.....so far it's where i could live if i had to choose a place.

i put the pics up on snapfish and sent the email to ya'll....however if you didnt' get the email, email me, and i will send you the link.

So day by day...like always.

Wednesday, I took the plane from Madrid to Zurich, I then took the train from Zurich to Lugano, with a stop in Luzern half way through. Very nice weather and a pretty town.

a pic of luzern. 

Then i got into Lugano around 5pm. It's litterally across the lake from Italy. So they speak Italian there and it was a good experience to practice my Italian.

I was visiting my friend Sarah. She's from Seattle but goes to school with me at UVM. THis year she is studying in Lugano. So we spent Wednesday night catching up from last May and looking at pics and having a good time.

 Thursday:

We explored the town. She showed me her university and it was really small and cute. Then she had class that day so i explored the town. I walked a good 6 miles up and down hills and around the city. It was great. Then that night we went to a conference for her school. A carribbean speaker spoke. I cant remember her name but it was interesting. Then that night we went out dancing and i met some of her friends.

Friday:

then i took the train to Zurich. The scenery was great, once again! I loved traveling through the countryside. Then that day i spent with my friend Matthias and we walked down by the water and saw the city. It was really nice out so we layed on the grass by the water for 2 hours and caught up on life. Then we went to a church Grossmunster and saw the city, which was a great view.

then we crossed the river to the other side and sat up in a park and looked at the city from the other side. Then for dinner Matthias made me a typical Zurich pasta dish. InCREDIBLE!! i loved it!

Then that night him, Arno and I went to an Irish bar to remember our good times in Dublin.

Saturday:

Matthias and I went to the zoo.  We saw a peacock trying to seduce a female peacock. it was very cool and unique to see!

It was nice, but i've mixed feelings about the zoo. But once again, it was nice talking and playing catchup. Then we walked around the city and i saw the university and more parks and whatnot.

Then that night i made 'french toast' for them for dinner.

SUnday:

I left the beautiful weather of Switzerland rreturned to the rain on the plains in spain!

Ok, wow. Just got back from 2 incredible weeks of vacation. I put up the pics

hopefully that address works: those are Paris...

http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=155076896/PictureID=3013493091/a=43430901_43430901/t_=43430901

London:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=155072208/a=43430901_43430901/t_=43430901

Ireland:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=155082969/a=43430901_43430901/t_=43430901

March 7th, 2007

Boarded the train at 6.42 pm to leave Pamplona. Arrived in paris at 7.10am the next day. Met some people on the train, passed the time reading, etc....was uneventful but easy going.

March 8th, 2007

I´m in Paris! Woo wee! Oriented myself and walked the 40 minutes or so to the hotel of Justine. She had stuff to do in teh morning so i went out on my own. Went directly to the Eiffel Tower and went up. there wasn´t a line since it was early and i got to see a view of hte town. HUGE city. Then i walked to the Cité de l´architecture et du Patrimaine. a great view of the tower from there. then i saw the Arc d Trompe (or whatever) and walked down teh main shopping street: Champs Elysées. Then teh Grand Palais and Petit Palais. They are now musums. Then the Jardin des Tuilleries by the Louvre. Took pics ofhte Louvre adn met Justine and her friends at Notre-Dame Cathédrale. the inside was pretty and we took the stairs tothe top. by the time we made it back dwon, my legs were trembling. But the views on top were nice and the Gargoyles were really cool.

then we went to the Montmarte Basilique up on a hill. Great view of the city. Walked to the Moulin Rouge. Looked like a cheap knockoff of what should have been the Moulin Rouge. I wasn´t impressed. Then that night we went up the Eiffel tower and saw the city at night.

March 9th, 2007

I got up early and took the train to Versailles to see the Palace. It was HUGE. and elaborate. But the gardens were even huger! Took me over an hour to walk from one side to the other. Then it was rainy and i was tired so i took the train back to Paris and went to the Picasso museum. I didn't realize how many works and different types of works he had. Afterwards found a nice little coffee shop and had some tea and read for while. Then i went tothe Louvre. WAAAAAY TOO BIG! First thing i did was go straight to the Mona Lisa. The place was packed and i was winding my way through the crowds of people, through the great hall adn into room 5, or something like that. saw her behind a 2 inch thick glass. Took out my camera. snapped  a picture. security came up and yelled at me in a foreign language. I'm all like "como?" and htey took my camera away and escorted me out.

ok not really, but i did get a picture and i did get yelled at.

but this place was way too big. so i power walked through the whole thing to see as much as possible. i could have spent a day in each wing and that would have been more comfortable.

That night after Justine and Sarah got back from dinner, we went out to a bar and danced a bit and made some French friends. They were nice.

March 10th, 2007

We didn't do much but walk around today. Tried some french croissants. really rich chocolate. then we took more pics at the eiffel tower.

we sat in the sun drinking wine at the foot of the eiffel tower, very french like.

Then we took the train to the airport and flew to London. That night was uneventful. we got to our hostel, very sketchy. Seriously, i stayed in nicer hostels in Morocco, but whatever, we were together and safe and went to bed.

March 11th, 2007

Got up early and walked around. We're near Notting Hill, so a 10 minute walk puts us in some nice areas. We walked through Kennsington Gardens and Hyde park, saw The Peter Pan statue and searched forever for hte Princess Di memorial fountains. We walked by then without realizing it, only when we looked at the map did we realize we'd walked by it without knowing. Then we went to the changing of hte guards. watched about  an hour of it, got boarded and left. it's over rated. Saw BIg Ben and Parliament. Then walked along the Thymes river to London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Justine went into The TOwer of London. Sarah and I waited outside for her because we didn't want to pay the 13 pounds. fricken expensive. THen we walked back along the river and saw Piccadilly Circus. LIke times square but not as wild. Got some Thai food and went back to the hostel to sleep.

March 12th, 2007

Walked through Notting Hill to go to Portabella road and take pics. Went to Westminister Abby but it was closed to tourists. the queen was having some sort of invite-only service. so we went tothe guards palace and took pics with the horse guards and fed the horses carrots. Then we went to abby road and took pics. THen we went to a jazz bar that night and met up with some of my spanish friends who were in london that weekend.

March 13th, 2007

Got up early and took the bus to Stonehenge. Very cool. nothing special. but the scenery was beautiful.

Then we got back onthe bus and went to bath. The town was very posh and beautiful. I would have loved to spend more time there but we only had 2 hours or so to explore the baths and the town.

March 14th, 2007

Arrived in Dublin around 4pm and met up with our group at the hostel. It was David, Carlos (from Puerto Rico), Justine, her roommate Sarah, me and 3 of david's friends from Switzerland (Daniel, Matthias, and Arno.) we had a very excellent group of people.

We explored town a bit and got a beer at a cool pub. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready to go out. We all went out together to a couple bars and went home early. We were all tired from traveling.

March 15th, 2007

Got up at 5am, dont' know how we all did it and took a bus to Belfast to take a tour up to Northern Ireland. THe scenery was beautiful. Saw 'giant's eye. and 'giant's causeway'

and balleycastle and balleymoney and everything that started with bally. then went to the northern most tip of ireland, saw scotland across the water. went up to derry adn explored the town for 3 hours or so. it was a nice sunny day and we all had a lot of fun together. Then we had dinner at an Indian food restaurante for Dani's birthday adn went to bed.

March 16th, 2007

GUINNESS FACTORY!

 It was cool. I heard it was overrated but i actualy liked it. There was live drummers inside and live music and beer and snacks on every floor. and it was very informative and there was a 360 degree glass bar on top with a view of the city. Very cool. Then that night we went out dancing.

March 17th, 2007

GOt up early to go into town and get traditional Irish Breakfast. yuck, i knew was it was so i strayed away. Then we saw the Parade at noon. It was cool. Not a typical American parade with floats with with dancers and people in elaborate costumes, etc.

Then we danced in the street at an outdoor music festival with traditional irish music, very cool. lots of people of all ages dancing adn having a blast. We were there until 5.30 ish then we ate dinner and went to a club adn stayed there all night dancing. When it closed at 3.30 we got a bus back to the hotel adn Justine adn Sarah had to catch their fligth.

March 18th, 2007

Today we took it easy. Got some breakfast around 1pm. Actually more like lunch at this point. Fish adn chips the boys got. I settled on soup and a salad.

Once again,  i knew what fish and chips would be. Then we went to Trinity College and Saw the Book of Kells. interesting. Then a thunderclap and it was hailing....not peltin us with ice balls. then it started snowing. then it cleared up and was sunny. then it was windy. then it was FREEEZING. and all within a 2 hour period....oh ireland.

We went to an irish bar to hear some live music adn ended up talking and playing cards there until midnight. we got some food, danced at a club for a bit. and then at 2.30am we had to find a taxi to our hotel to get our luggage. we didnt get aroom, since we had to leave so early in the morning. figured we'd pull an all nighter. however, in ireland, during st. paddy's festival, and on sunday, there are no night buses. adn only 10% of the taxis are employed. meaning we waited in line in 30 degree weather for 2 hours for a taxi. when it came to be 4.30am we NEEDED taxi, so we bought one off the meter for 60 euros to get to the airport. but it was cheaper than missing out flight.

and now i'm back in pamplona. it's cold and been snowing for 3 days straight. but on the flip side, i'm heading to zurich next week to visit arno and matthias as well as see some of switzerland.

This past weekend I went to salamanca and Segovia with 3 girlfriends. They are beautiful towns! We went to Salamanca Thursday and explored the town. Very picturesque....we checked out some churches and basically explored and took pics of everything.

and as it is a college town, we went out at night. And it was soooo much fun. The night life was amazing. All the bars were incredibly decorated and there wasn't a cover and drinks were cheap and the music was good to dance to.

Then we repeated Thursday on Friday. Only it was rainy so we spent a couple hours in a coffeeshop playing a board game.

ThenSaturday we went to Segovia off of 2 hours of sleep. But we surprisingly did well. We saw the Catedral de Segovia. HUGE! and beautiful. Then  we saw the Sleeping Beauty castle...i think it was called Patronato del Alcazar de Segovia. And we counted the 152 steps up the tower....they were steep. but the views were beautiful.

and there were storks all over in those towns. All making huge nests in trees and balconies and towers and in churches. i have plenty of pics. i will put them up later when i get all the photos from the other girls as well.

this weekend, i may go to Zaragoza....and then on March 7th....PARIS!!!!!!!....followed by London and Dublin!

yea, weather still about 68 or 70....AMAZING!

next weekend me, Jenniffer and Suzie (from Scotland) are going to Salamanca and another town on the western coast of Spain, near Portugal, supposed to be awesome cities and good night life...Salamanca is a college town. I think I've got my class schedule figured out.

Product Strategies, Organization and Admin. of Companies, Marketing, Spanish and Waterpolo. Maybe i'll look for one more class, but it's nice because once again, i only have classes Monday through Wednesday, which gives me time to travel!! woo wee!!

 There are a bunch of new foreing exchange students so it's been fun meeting them! David's new roommate is from Germany, and he's sooo much fun. We've been having a blast lately, lots of dinners and dancing!

oh yea, and the other night, ie. last night....i cut Jenniffer's hair. It looks great. Especially because EVERYONE and i mean EVERYONE here has long hair. And then i had Reina cut my hair.

Then then dye it.....yea, pretty coool.. not used to it yet but it's different

me and reina.....

So, it has been great here! Today was about 60 degrees, I"m done with finals, life is good. I start new classes on Monday, Not sure what yet so i'm going to sample about 10 different classes between Monday and Tuesday to see what I like best. I'm definately taking my spanish classes again and a gym class....probably archery this semester.

I don't know my grades on all my finals yet. Basically i hate the system here....all the other foreigners agree with me. How they do it here, is basically you have a final and that's your grade. but it's not as simple as that. You'd think that ok you need to know everything from all semester so you just need to know a broad outline of everything...NO.....you need to know every little thing about every little thing. As in, the people here study 2 weeks straight, 8 hours a day for a final. It's insane. I don't understand how someone could cram to the point where they just memorize everything for a 2 hour exam....i'd forget it all prompty after, plus it's irrelevent to remember every little detail.

Ok, now that i'm done complaining about the Spanish system. i know i got a 9 on my Spanish final. A 3 on my history, which was a huge surprise because i nailed everything on it and walked away feeling confident....and so now i'm scared to find out what my other two exams are going to be. Whatever, at least I'm learning Spanish and traveling and having the greatest year of my life!!!

seriously, this post is only to say how fricken happy i am here in Spain. My friends rock, travelin is great, life is good!

because it's finals we all have free time and so we've been going out dancing and i haven't danced in sooooo long. and it's soooo much fun!!! I put up some new photos of me and my friends....

YEA! I'M IN SPAIN!!!!!

check em out!!!

we've got more snow, it's fricken awesome! we even went and played in it last night and had a snow ball fight!

also, i dyed my hair a shade darker, i think i like it. don't know if i like it more than blond but i've never been really anything but blond....so it's cool.

here's a pic of me and David

and here's a pic of me and Lisa

finally! we have snow here in Pamplona, I woke up this morning to the snow coming down. However, because it was still 2 cel. it didnt' stick and soon turned to mush. however, it stuck in the mountains, and it looks great!!!!

ALso, my history exam last Friday went great! If it was in english i definately touched on 80% or 85% of all the points i was supposed to. but if i get marked down because of my spanish, i don't think i will get lower than a 7 (out of 10).

THen today i had two spanish exams. My first was SUPER easy and then i took the exam for the next level higher to see if i can place into the higher level. It was a bit difficult but only because there was grammer that i hadn't yet learned because i wasn't in class. however, if i had taken the class, it wouldn't have been hard. so i'm going totalk to the professor because i know i'll do fine in the higher level, i need to be challenged, the other class is just waaaaay too boring.

that being said, i hvae 2 weeks until my next exam and some people are starting to leave that were only here for first semester so i'll probably be going out alot this week and saying goodbyes adn then start studying next week.

ok, photos are up, be sure and check them out. they are a little hard to explain them all but basically thye go in order from ardrossan scotland and surroundings to sterling to glasgow scotland to amsterdam to milan.....

scotland was definately the most beautiful. however, amsterdam had some great buildings and so did milan. Il Duomo in milan was amazing! the people in scotland were really nice. milan, they were kinda stuck up.

New Years:

we went to Edinburgh for New years. we were supposed to go to a concert but it got canceled because of weather :-( so we went out to bars adn drank and celebrated the countdown in the streets. I ended up gettin glocked in a closet at a bar while i was looking for a bathroom. yup, i'm pretty talented when i'm drunk, but they shortly let me out after i pounded on the door for a bit.

Then, amsterdam.....beautiful. went to museums. smoked, of course. went to the Heineken brewery. awesome! free beer AND a cool museum. saw the Van Gogh museum. so HUGE! too much to look at. saw the Anne Frank house. Really hard to bear at times. saw the cannabis museum as well as a torture museum. explore the red light district at night. crazy but not as crazy as i expected it to be.

Then, milan. Beautiful city. Il Duomo, the hugest cathedral in europe, was beauitful!! we sawa  line at Dolce and Gabbana....seriously, after taht, we'd seen it all. They only let in a certain amount at a time of shoppers to there was a HUGE line of people waiting. We also saw all the big shops like Louis Vouttain (you can tell i don't really know these brand names because i can't spell them) and Gucci adn Armani, Prada, etc....it was surreal.

We also tried to see the Last Supper painting but it was sold out until the end of January!! but we saw a cemetary with famous italians that were buried there. the most amazing and elaborate cemetary i'd ever seen! the tombstones were insane!

then comes Saturday night....we want to go out to a dance club. but we're not really dressed for it. we have jeans on. and this is Italy...and we're told it's hard to get into clubs. so we go to dinner and decided we'll try to get into a club but we'll probably just head to some bars.

well here the story begins.....

during Dinner, Lynn, notices 2 old men in the corner keep staring at us. so of course i look, and when he smiles at me, i wave. then he asked the waiter to ask us if we'd like to have a drink with them after dinner. of course we think it's harmless, whatever, we'll have a free drink with them of course. so we have some really good wine with them. they dont' speak english, lynn and kristi dont' speak italian....so of course i'm left translating between everyone and my italian isnt' very good either. but i'm doing pretty well... so we ask them where we should go to dance and they tell us where. then one of the guys calls a club and gets us a table! sweet, we think! then they tell us it's on the other side of town and they'll give us a ride and come with.....uhh....okay....we think....so lynn and kristi get a ride in a BMW as i hop into a Mercedes-benz....we rolll up to the club, everyone is looking at us in our nice cars. i guarantee they're all thinking "golddiggers". but whatever, we got invited, we dont know anyone else and it's not like we're going to lead them on and head home with them. So we bypass the line that goes around the block, go in the VIP entrance,....meet the owners of the club....then get led to the VIP section, they pull back the velvet rope and lead us to our table. The guys hand a waiter $200 and he brings backa bottle of gin and some tonics and lemonade and a fruite place. We've now just managed to pass the 3 hour line, the $20 cover and teh price of booze, not to mention we're in VIP. So we dance with the elders for awhile to be nice, then we move on to those more our age and dance with some Italian younger men. I think the elders got upset because they left eventually. but they'd have to be silly to expect anything from us. We were just being nice.

So, that was that crazy night in Milan. Now i'm in Pamplona, i needed a day of rest but i go and join my 2 friends in Madrid tomorrow. I hope to take pics of the stuff that i had on mycamera last time before it got stolen.

all in all, traveling is good, but, believe it or not, i'm started to get a little tired of it. it'll be nice ot just relax and study for finals and chill out in Pamplona. Although i say that now........

Christmas:

we had a big ole lovely christmas dinner and it was great. It was quiet and calm. That night we watched 'gladiator' with friends. the food was delicious and not typical scottish . thank god.

a pic of the servers......my first view of traditional scottish attire!

dec 26th.

during the day we went on a drive and explored some towns and castles...

 Dec 28th

Lynn and kristi were flying in at 7.30am.....so we thought. we get to the airport at 7am. the plane comes in. we wait. and wait. and wait. they don't come in. we wonder what could have happend to them. it was a direct flight. so we're thining elaborate stories. we wait until 9ish. then we decided to go to glasgowto pass teh day and wait for them to call...or something. finally around 11am, i look up the numbers of the girl's parents and call them. turns out they don't come in until the 29th. yea, so we just explored glasgow.

dec 29th.

we headto glasgow again. and the girls flight is delayed but by 9.30am they are here and dressed and tired but ready to spend the day in glasgow. So we go to a science center and explore like little kids......

it actually took us a while to find the building. we were at the next one over, called the armadillo.

 finally we found the correct buildings...

we went to the planetarium in the space center. then we walked to kelvingrove art museum. adn we saw a rainbow! it was great.

 Then they were tired after not sleeping for 36 hours or so, so we take a bus back to Ardrossan and head to bed early.

Dec 30th.

Today we went to Stirling and went to the Battle scene between tthe Scots and the English.....if yu've seen 'braveheart'....that movie. We saw the tower that was built abovethe battle scene then the Castle of Sterling.

and we saw another rainbow! after it stopped raining of course, but there was actually two bows!

Then we went back through a Loch (well around)

and now we're sitting around. Resting up for hte festivities that tomorow brings....we're heading to Edinburgh in the wee hours of the morning to explore the city. then we party all night! It's going to be a long day/night but fun. It's supposed to be rainy and windy and snowy....thus far there hasn't been any snow here....so we'll see how long we last.

so i left on wednesday morning at 8am on a bus to zaragoza, spain....got there around 10.30....then found another bus to the airport.....got there around 11.15. the ticket counter opened at 11.30. my bag only weighted 14.5 kilos, the limit was 15kilos without having to pay more.

so far, so good.

then comes the waiting game....waiting waiting waiting....airplane is late, waiting, waiting waiting.

i get into london late. at 3.10pm to be exact. the ticket counter closes 40minutes before plan departs. plan departs at 4pm...not looking promising. i get through customs and get my luggage in pretty good time, considering typical customs and london during xmas season. however, 4.40 is too late. i've missed checking into my flight. the next flight is for 6.25pm and cost 100£....for those of you that speak euros, that's 170 euros. For those of you that speak |US dollar, that's $212.00.....yea. so after stressing out for a short while and shedding a few years, i realize i really have no other options, except to bite the bullet.....and then drink a beer.

so i sit in the airport, drink a beer, find some free samples of a rum promotion (made the waiting period much better). the flight is delayed....again....due to fog...again....and i leave around 7.30. and get into scotland around 8.30. Tara is there waiting for me....thank goodness. Scotland, i have arrived.

However, the two people i'm visiting are sickly, so it's been mellow while i've been here. but i've met some of their friends and they are really nice people. on friday night i went to a party in a castle thrown by the Lord of Glasgow. I met the Lord and the Son of the Lord. (funny thing is, only Tara and i think it's funny....must be cuz we're americans). then we went out to a bar that night. and things are soooo expensive here. it's insane. a beer is normal price of 5 but with the exchange rate, it's more like $10 a beer, that's insane!

yesterday we made Christmas decorations, i made snowflakes....they were getting awesomely impressive by the end....we decided the make the biggest most beautiful snowflake ever!... check it out

today i explored the town, Ardrossan, and it's nothing impressive. not really pretty nor much too it.

Tomorrow is christmas and we're relaxing and having dinner tomorrow night. My friends come in Thursday morning so we're spending the day in glasgow. Then friday or Saturday we're taking a boat to an island to spend the day and hike. Then sunday it's Edinburgh for New Years.

in between, probably gonna take a bus to a town whose name i can't pronounce and hope i see something cool. But the weather has been foggy and cold here. check it out....the view of Ardrossan....every day.....

 but i did some exploring of ruins on the top of  a hill

Merry Christmas!

ok, because waaaay too much happened for my birthday week, i'm only gonna put a brief summary here. but i did put up some pictures:

Monday: we played pool

Tuesday: we made cookies and cakes and watched Disney movies until 4am

Wednesday: We went out to eat for my birthday. Amazing food. Did shots at midnight. Then we went to a bar for a couple drinks.

Thursday: I made cupcakes and brownies during the day and relaxed. David made me and my roommates dinner and then my friends came over. We talked and drank then went out to a bar. I was kinda drunk for this night.

Friday: David had a party at his apartment and we showed these Europeans how to play beer pong. If you're not familiar with the game, don't worry. You are probably over 30 years of age.

Saturday: I was pooped. I went to a Christmas market downtown. Then went and saw 'the holiday' with friends. Then watched the OC with a couple girlfriends. We had a sleepover.

Sunday: A relaxing day with the girls. Went to a christmas concert at a church that night then to the movie "the illusionist" that night.

and that was my birthWeek in a nutshell.

Wednesday i'm off to Scotland for 2 weeks. then amsterdam for 2 days. then milan for 3 days. Wish me luck!

thus far, it's been a good birthday week. not as big a deal as if i was in the states, but that is fine by me.

tuesday night we made cookies and watched disney movies. which we've been wanting to do for awhile. plus we'd been singing all the alladin songs when we were in the sahara so we'd been wanting to watch that.

then wednesday night i went out to dinner with my closest friends here. it was great.

then thursday i made brownies and cupcakes and chilled out all day. then at night, david made me and my roommates dinner then my friends came over and we hung out for a bit before going out to  a bar.

(see above, the yummy yummy dinner that we made)

above is me.....of course...kinda blurry.....but you'll have that....someone else was using my camera...

and tonight (friday) david is going to have a birthday party for me....

ok, photos are up, check em out....and here's the info on my 2 weeks in Africa!

http://picasaweb.google.com/shoey21

So, Morocco, whatta trip. It was great. I’ll try and remember everything and do it day by day but first, some things I noticed. For example: cats. There are cats everywhere!!! I’m trying to think of an animal or thing that we have in the states that I can compare it to….but I’m at a loss…simply picture cats running around like they owned the world….and that about sums it up. Also, I didn’t get a picture of this, which I should have….but there are only men in restaurants and cafés. Seriously….every table is full (especially when a soccer game is on) with men. And when I walk in, they all turn and look at me. Especially in Tanger, when we went out to a bar one night….i felt like an animal on display in the zoo. But none of them were inappropriate or anything, just all turned and looked. Also, the ONE bar in Tanger was almost the only bar we found. Since the Muslims don’t drink, it doesn’t make sence to have bars. However, we went to one in Tanger and also one in a hotel in Marrakeck. In addition,

the toilets:

toi·let (toilt)

um...in morocco....hole in the ground

toilet paper

yea, that was a fun experience in Tanger for the first time wiping my own butt. But I feel closer to my body than ever before. and you bet that whenever we went to a restaurant with normal toilets (i say normal loosely) and toilet paper, i stole the paper for next time!

Also, not many people speak Spanish in morocco. So my Spanish didn’t do me any good. But David speaks French, and that saved us.

Day 1 and Day 2-Traveling in Spain and Tanger

Ok, after packing and buying a camera and food, we’re ready to go. Dave and I catch a taxi to the train station and take the train to Madrid. It’s a short ride, about 4 hours or so and we pass the time playing card games and talking. Then in Madrid, we looked at the list of trains we could take to the south. And there was only one, leaving in 30 minutes from the other station. So it wasn’t hard to decide where to go from there. So we took the metro to the other station and hopped on a train to Algeciras, Spain. However, the train was packed and the guy gave us tickets in two different compartments. And mine was CROWED, full of people. And I’m not going to spend 9 hours in an overnight train trying to sleep while sitting next to 5 other strangers. So we took a room with 6 empty beds and crashed there. When the ticket collector came, we just paid the different for our own private room. And the 9 hours went pretty fast. But it’s amazing how there is no time in the little rooms. The door blocks out sound and the yellow, consistent light from the halogen makes it seem more like a prison cell, but without time passing. But finally we arrive around 9:30 in the morning and walk 10 minutes or so to the ferry station. The ferry ride lasts about 2 and a half hours and it’s sooooo sunny and nice out and absolutely beautiful. It’s a wonderful feeling being between 2 continents with the sun shining. Then we arrived into Tanger and there was a bunch of men asking if we needed taxis or blah blah but we walked from the station to the main square 10 minutes away and asked for where our hostel was. It was nice enough and cheap enough (about 4 euros a person a night) and then we set out to explore the city. It was a big industrial, port city. And not very nice. And this was the first time that I encountered the bars full of men. It was weird to see and I definitely felt a lot of eyes on me as we were walking down the street. Then we ate dinner at a nice looking restaurant. We ate spaghetti, sorry to say we didn’t’ get traditional Moroccan food yet. Then we consulted our lovely guide book (which we never went anywhere without) and found a bar called “dean’s bar”> apparently a lot of famous people had gone there, but we weren’t impressed. We had a beer or two, played some cards and went back to the hostel. However, in the bar, David got hit on by a really drunk Moroccan. It was quite funny for me, because I thought something like that was going to happen to me. Then we head back to the hostel early-ish. Around 11:00pm. And as it was my first night in a strange country, I was a little intimidated to be walking at night through alleys back to the hostel but luckily I was with David, otherwise there is no way I’d go out after dark, being a women in a macho country. But the hostel was cheap (about 5 euros and so was the food, about 5E a person)

Day 3-Xauxen

            After having breakfast, we take a bus for the next city on our list: Xauxen, a city in the mountains. This city was my favorite. It was so beautiful! Kinda touristy and so there was always people asking us if we wanted to buy drugs or pushing us to go into their restaurant to eat. But it was calmer and better than Tanger. The food was delicious. Couscous and tagine are the two main dishes. Tagine is like couscous but mainly only veggies and/or meat without the couscous. The walls of the town were painted blue with a special paint to keep flies away. It was sooooo pretty.

Day 4 and Day 5-Fes

            Today, we tried to go to Rabat, but the bus never came. So we took one to Fes. This morning there was a parade in Xauxen for the king. He was in town. People waited and lined the streets for HOURS just to get a glimpse…and after 2 hours of waiting (which we didn’t want to do, we only wanted to get to our hostel to grab our bags and leave the town, but we couldn’t cross the street because of the barriers!) he drove by at about 60mph and I tried to at least take a pic but I only got a pic of the front of his car. Yea, not that thrilling. The people here are really patriotic. They all had flags and pictures of him, etc etc.

            I liked Fes. It too was touristy but also traditional. The market here was HUGE and like a labyrinth. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in it after dark. But we wandered the market for about 6 hours.

Day 6-Casablanca

            An industrial city. I wasn’t impressed at all. We went and saw a huge masque, which was cool and extremely impressive. And we went on top of a cathedral on the roof. Something you couldn’t do in Europe or the states. In the market there, I ate 2 snails. Disgusting, actually tasted like mushrooms, but the idea of it was disgusting. The snail looked like it was trying to escape from it’s shell.

Day 7 and Day 8-Essoquira

             Beautiful fishing town. This and Xauxen were my favorites. Sooooo great with gorgeous sunsets. A calm town, more or less. We met some Australians here (actually we met them on the bus that broke down for 2 hours on our way to the town. Besides the bus never really being on time they were pretty much reliable)

Day 9-Marrakech

            A modern city. The most European I’d say. I liked it. It was good size and the people weren’t really pushy at all. There was a film festival going on so the main square was hopping and full of people. And there was a really cool market in the middle with about 50 different stands of food. All of which had the exact same thing. But just the same….We met up with 2 more of our friends, Victor and Carlos this day and spent all day seeing EVERYTHING we could possibly see. Victor and Carlos were really excited and wanted to see EVERYTHING. So we saw markets and museums and bath places and gardens…and basically it was a lot of walking. here's a pic of the main square with all the people and the film festival

Day 10-Zagora and desert

            Took the overnight bus to Zagora. The city on the outskirts of the desert. David knew a girl whose boyfriend was a tourguide into the desert. So we go the hookup. It was nice. Once in Zagora, we washed and changed and ate and talked to the tour guide Akmen….and that night we took an hour long jeep ride into the desert to a camp of the Barberes. It was a circular setup of tents but the 5 of us were the only ones there for the night (I say 5 because we met an English guy on the bus that trailed along with us). The silence was incredible and was loud…if that makes sence. The sand was soooo soft and beautiful and it was a full moon the second night. And there were so many stars. That night was had AMAZING food, I was surprised. And played cards and talked.

Day 11 and Day 12-desert

            Riding camels. What an experience. They are really high up there. I felt like I was riding a dinosaur. Actually, they reminded me of dinosaurs. We all named our camels and wanted to race them. But the camels had another idea. Basically,….walk walk walk…..Mine was called Charles Bradley Goodwin III but the Barberes (the nomads of the desert and our guides) called him Bu-tar. Close enough.

            At night in the desert we played games in the sand dunes and had races and there was a full moon the second night. SOoooo huge and beautiful. Basically after watching the sunset (which was the 2^nd best thing I’d ever seen in my life) the moon rose on the other side of the desert behind us about 5 minutes later. And it was just as big as the sun!

            The next day was our last day in the desert and we went to an oasis and while the barberes were making lunch we played in the sand and make sculptures and 2 little cities and had a ‘war’. Yes we found it was possible to entertain ourselves without TV. While this was going on, The barbers made bread. It was awesome. They put stones in tight circle and lit a fire over it. Then when the stones were hot enough, they brushed the fire off and put the dough on. Then they lit another fire of straw and put that on the bread. Then they put sand on that to keep the heat in. then lit another fire on top of that. 50 minutes later, we had the best bread I’d ever had in my life! I was simply amazing. And by the end of the trip, we barely even notices the sand we were eating with our meals. But I was seriously impressed at the quality of food we were eating in the dessert. That day was probably one of the top 2 meals I’d ever had in my life!!

            And then Carlos and I walked on the dying, hot coals left over from lunch. No intelligent reason, except to say that we walked on hot coals while in Africa. It didn’t hurt all that bad but I still have a couple marks on the bottom of my feet.

            Then that night we continued back to the first camp of tent with the Barberes and sand songs and chants and tried to race the last 50 meters…basically us encouraging our camels with ‘anda anda’ and them still just walking along. But it was really nice to get OFF the camels. It’s not all that uncomfortable but my legs were sore after 2 days straight of 6 hours more or less.

Day 13-traveling

            Boy was I ever tired today. And in a horrible mood. Just tired and had a headache and basically I wasn’t all that nice to be around. So the boys gave me the front seat of the taxi while the 4 of them crowded in the back. And these taxis were not big. They were freakin tiny. They were supposed to seat 7 but I have no idea how that was supposed to happen. This night was got back into Marrakech and showered and continued on to Rabat.

Day 14-Rabat

            The capital of Morocco. Not bad. A bigger city. We explored and went to a ‘Hamman’. A bath they have. Basically you get scrubbed down by someone for 30minutes or so and they wash your hair. But it was amazing how much dirt we carry on our bodies. So I felt very clean after that and especially after being in the desert for 3 days. Afterwards, I got surrounded by 5 women while I was changing and they were trying to talk to me in French,….after I told them, in French, I don’t speak French. But they wanted to find a way to communicate and figure ‘something’ out about me. I don’t know what they were trying to tell me. Something about ‘visa’ and ‘ telephone’ and they eventually gave me the phone number of the place and one of the girls tried to kiss me, and that’s when I left….trying not to run….jeeeese….

Day 15-traveling

            We continued onto Tanger and took the ferry across to Algeciras. On the ferryride we were watching the water when I thought I saw a spout of water from a whale. However when I told the guys they didn’t see it. But not wanting to be proving wrong, I INSISTED I saw it. And then David said he saw one, then carlos too…then we saw about 8 whales swimming together, migrating south. Then 10 seconds later, another group. And this continued for a minute or two. We saw about 35 whales in total. It was the most amazing beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life!!!! (remember the sunset and moonrise was number 2^nd). Then there wasn’t a bus to Madrid so we took one to Sevilla to see what we could take there. Sevilla was a great city. I would love to go back and I think I will during spring break (easter). There’s supposed to be a festival there. Then we took a bus from there to Madrid. And got in around 1am. The boys stayed because they wanted to go out dancing. I, instead, took the 1:30am home to Pamplona and arrived at 6:30am into Pamplona on Sunday. After traveling, almost straight since Friday night. I was tired. Slept all day Sunday and not here I am!

hey ya'll

 here i am in morocco, on the internet (this message brought to you by the wonders of globalization...i have a computer at my fingertips and a Pizzahut across the street).... 

just an update. i'm in morocco. i'm alive. haven't been sold into slavery. nor have i been traded for camels. no one has offered to buy my body. all in all....good thus far.

we're in xauxan, or something like that. it's in the north of Morocco.we were in Tanger yesterday. dirty town. this town today is gorgeous. in the mountains.

well i'll give a MIR-AC-U-LUS  description when i return. day by day..get excited.....

so thanksgiving was a success!! My pumpkin pies were a hit, because a lot of people hadn't had it before and they LOVED IT. in addition, i created a chocolate chip cake with some chocoalte candies melted in that people absolutely LOVED as well. Also, blueberries aren't that popular here so some people had blueberry muffins for the first time and the banana nut and cornbread muffins that i made. Made me feel good giving people american food that they really enjoyed!

THe feast was probably one of the hugest I"d ever seen!! There was so much food it was insane! Turkey, lots of types of potatoes, salads, a spanish dish (tortilla con patata) which is basically a huge fluffy omelet with potatoes but much better, stuffing, gravy, all the works

and so we're all standing around the table, wanting to eat, wanting to eat, but not everyone was in the living room....so then FINALLY we're all there...everyone standing around with plate in one hand and fork in the other.....staring at the food and drooling...but then we're thinking 'do we say a prayer' ? Well there are muslims, jewish, cristians, and who knows what other religions so we'd have to be careful what to say. Jenn and I volunteer to say something..but what? "thank you pilgrims for killing the indians that helped to save your life?" yea, not all that good, so we decide to have 15 seconds of silence in which case all can think/pray to whatever they want to pray to....however....everyone is so excited about the food that no one really shutsup....and then someone starts a countdown....10, 9 8, 7 SIX, FIVE, FOUR THREE TWO ONE!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

and then we all dig in....it was if these people hadn't eaten in days (and in all honesty i was fasting the 2 days before....i wanted to realllly enjoy the food)

Then after we stuffed ourselves silly we had deserts (mainly pumpkin and apple pie)

Then Reina (another UVM student) decided to help our food digest by doing yoga. Which the guys got a kick out of. Some of them hadn't really seen yoga before. So of course they got pictures. (pics will follow after i get copies from friends)

Then instead of going out and partying and dancing (because we were all super full and tired) we played cards until about 4am. I tought them BS and the latin americans taught us 'mistake' .

It was a lot of fun. A thanksgiving i will definately remember!!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!

So, today there are about 25 of us having a Thanksgiving FEAST!! We are all making a dish and of course I'm making the pumpkin pie. (with help of my mom sending me pumpkin spice and canned pumpkin) and for my first two pies all by myself...i did pretty good. they are GREAT!

I also made a chocolate chip cake and muffins.

We're going to eat at about 10pm...typical dinner time for Spain and we're going to have everything. well minus corn and cranberry sauce, but no one really cared about that.

On Saturday I leave for Morocco for 2 weeks, so you won't hear from me until I return.

ok and two of my good girl friends from UVM are coming to visit me in scotland for new years!!!!

then on january 3rd we head to amsterdam. on the 5th we head to milan, italy. on the 8th we head back to pamplona and we're going to check out cities near by. on the 11th they leave....so i'm pumped for that...going to do a little traveling with some buddies from back home....makes me reallllly excited that things worked out and they actually followed through!!!!!

Love to ya'll!!

ok, so on friday we didn´t have school. a university holiday. because of a grand celebration called ¨la carpa¨. i don´t know the history behind it or how it got started but basically from 8am on friday until 6am on saturday it´s a nonstop party.

in teh morning there are games and gambling. during the afternoon just a lot of drinking...in the night music, dacning adn more drinking...then after 2 or 3 it starts to die down.

so my friends and i had lunch together and showed up around 5ish...we danced until 12ish...then we went and ate at a freinds house adn returned...then danced again and ventured out into the masses....of 19.000 people...insane...it didn´t look like that many people to me...but there were a lot of people outside and in teh parking lot and well i suppose everywhere.

then we left around 3 or 4 and slept on saturday.

observe the picture...i´m somewhere in teh middle...the blonde one with that one shirt...can´t you see me??

and if you speak spanish or at least can read it...here´s the link to the article

then on sunday night we went to the teather...a tennessee williams play..kinda boring....couldn´t understand it all..but i love theather so it was great.

and on saturday i leave for morocco for 2 weeks...so you wont´be hearing from me for a while.

but my 21st birthday is coming up when i return...feel free to send money....cuz then i could travel more and see more of this wonderful continent and become for mature and cultured and maybe learn another language.....

so i went to madrid this weekend.

we took the 1.30 am bus in and got inaround 6am....we took the metro downtown and ended up finding a cheap hostel right away...we couldn´t check in but we were able to leave our bags there until later. and so we explored the city.

we saw the huge statue of don quixote  and thehuge building that used to house the kingand queen. and some beautiful gardens and the main plazas...basically just everything one could look at in the city.

then that night we explored all the shops...i got my camera stolen...:-(

and we went out that nigth...it was fun but at one club they were jerks...they wouldnt´ let us in...they asked for passports but we knew they were just being jerks because we looked liked foreigners andweren´t super dressed up...so we went to another club and danced all night.

then saturday was museum day...we went to museo del prado...there was some good work there. actually great work....some goya and  picasso and other artists that i enjoyed....and then i bought some scarves in teh park. they are so cheap adn i´m really starting to love the scarf style.

then jenn caught a lady trying to get into my bag....and yelled at her and scared her away..seriously i must scream tourist...but now i´m much more careful of having my bag in front of me and holding it at all times...

then we found an AMAZING organic vegetarian restaurant that we ate at.

saturday night we saw goya´s ghosts....great movie...sad though...but really provided insight into some of his paintings and drawings.

sunday we went to museo de reina sofia....there was a lot of picasso there....also some modern art with technology and tv´s and sound...another very interesting museum...and free on sundays...which was even better to college studetns.

we then went to el rastro....a HUGE market in madrid...supposedly the biggest in spain...but it was starting to close up when we got there...we got a chance to walk around but not really buy anything...probably just as well..

and so, unfortunately i dont´have any photos of madrid... but i planon gettinga  new camera...especially because of all my trips coming up.

ok, updates