World's Best Directors

Today I was thinking about how great my directors here in Spain are, even more so than I normally do. I honestly got so lucky with Stan and Jill. They are so fun, and I love how they love to laugh. That is something I want to have in my future family, lots of laughter. One night a group of us students were just talking and asking questions and going around answering and one of the questions was what makes you truly happy. I had said laughter and I do think laughter is one of those things that I just love. I have loved getting to know the Knapp’s throughout this trip and have learned so much from them. I am so grateful for all that they did for me and our group to make this one of the best experiences of my life.

Another adult figure from this trip that I have grown to love is my host mom Blanca. Taylor and I really did get the best mom. She is so cute; she just lives alone and hosts students studying here in Alcalá. She has been doing it for over 20 years! She is so kind to us and always wants to do whatever she can to help us and do her job the best she can. She doesn’t even let us clear off the table because that’s her job. She cooks amazing meals for us each day, she keeps everything so clean, and she even does our laundry! Doesn’t get much better than that. She also lives right in between school and the train station. The only thing that is far that we go to is the church, and the bus stop is literally just on the opposite corner of where we live. I love how she talks to us and actually listens and remembers what we tell her. She is so cute, and I love how she has time for us even though she is the most popular woman in this city. She always is on the phone with her friends, having people over, or going out with her friends. I love her so much and am so glad I was put in the best place I could have possibly been put in.

Graduation in March?

Tuesday morning we graduated! That was kind of a new experience graduating after 3 months of classes. It was nice we had a little graduation with our teachers and we talked about what we have learned (in Spanish of course) and we received our diplomas and everything. Steffany made a super cute video from the trip and had on it something we all have learned from the trip, so that was way fun to see. After our little ceremony we got some fun awards. I was most likely to be the star in a Disney Channel Original Movie. Talk about dream come true haha that was a fun little thing.

After that we all went to the Argentine restaurant in Alcalá for lunch. We got some super good empanadas. Stan, our director, went to Argentina for his mission just like the boys, so he loves the Argentine food too. Then they brought out this delicious thick-crusted pizza. So good. After we were full we walked next door and tried the new ice cream shop that just opened haha while we were eating we had Vickie do a little questionnaire thing for her basically fiancé boyfriend Jonathan back home. We had him answer the questions before to see how well she knew him. It was fun seeing her all giddy and happy. Ah I love when people are cute and happy together:] We then attempted to take some group shots outside, but it was rainy and cold so that didn’t end up quite as well as we had wanted. But it was still good. Later we all met up back at the Knapp’s house to be with everyone all together. I am going to miss being with all these great people each day in this beautiful place. I’m so happy that we all go to the same school back home! Sometimes I forget that, we are in such a foreign place I sometimes forget about what life is even like back home! It’s crazy. Life is crazy:]

Scooter in Spain on Sunday

I was able to meet up with Scooter on Sunday morning at the train station in Madrid. It was so good to see her! It was a fun train ride back to Alcalá catching up on everything. She truly is a world traveler. She wants to visit 20 countries before she turns 20, and she has two left. Spain will be number 19 and she is going to swing by Portugal for the last one. Talk about amazing! It was fun showing her around Alcalá and my home for the past three months. We even experienced talking with a nice Spaniard man that showed us around town too haha. We then went to my ward here in Alcalá, which was nice. Scooter got a little exposure to some church terms in Spanish, which will be good for when she goes on her mission Spanish speaking this summer! I showed her the candy shop we always stop at after school and I had her try the candy we always eat haha We also visited Cervantes house and saw where I go to school and the rest of Alcalá. I’m so glad that Scooter was able to come to Spain! I love her and am so grateful for her in my life and what she has taught me. Being here has taught me how important the people in our lives are. People come into our lives for a reason, and we are all God’s children. When we were at Family Home Evening in Madrid a missionary couple was telling us how there are no consequences, just miracles where God decides to stay anonymous. I thought that was really cool. Heavenly Father gives us so many tender mercies each and every day. We are so blessed, and being here I have been able to realize that even more.

Looking Back

Tonight at our weekly devotional at the Knapp’s house we were talking about our experiences and having a testimony meeting. It was really great! It is amazing to hear about what people are learning and experiencing and learning from their testimonies. I am so grateful for the group of people that I have been able to spend these past three months with. Everyone is so different, I love how everyone brings something different to the group and I feel like I have learned something from each person here. Gosh I just love people. God truly does put people in our lives for a reason. I was thinking about that earlier today. Even though we will have only been in Spain, the relationships with these people are important to me and will be important to me. I think it is amazing how you can have such great relationships with people and it doesn’t matter how long you know them. It also has made me realize more and more how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children, whether they are going to school in Utah or living in Spain. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had being here in Spain and being able to learn so much academically, but just about life in general as well:]

Ultima Semana en Madrid

This past Monday was Father’s Day so we lucked out and didn’t have our Spanish classes that day! I went with the Knapp’s to the Rastro open flea market in Madrid so that was fun to go and see that again. It was the perfect day, it was a little cool but it was sunny so it was warmer. Blanca was saying how this is how the weather is supposed to be for this time of year. That night we had our Religion class with Elder Lopez and that was great.

Tuesday morning we got up nice and early to drive down to Valencia. It took us a few hours, but it was definitely worth it. Valencia is south of Spain, which meant it was warmer too!

 When we got there we walked around and looked at some of the fallas in the streets. They reminded me of Disney a little bit. They are huge sculpture type things almost, and they are pieces of art with different characters and colors and themes. When we were looking at the fallas this group of guys were near us and were listening to the song the Harlem Shake and we obviously started dancing a little bit because we all love dancing, and then when he saw that he put his phone up to the megaphone so it would be louder and we all did the Harlem Shake! Haha it was so awesome, I felt like I was in a TV show or something because of our flashmob Harlem Shake crazy dance. It definitely was a fun memory.

 After that we were able to go to some firecracker neighborhood shows. The fallas and firecracker shows were made by each of the different neighborhoods. I thought that was so cool that they did that as a community, it was cute to see them all after the shows or during the burnings and stuff because they were all so unified and it was great. Soo loud! It was a fun experience. There were tons of people around in all the streets and everywhere. After those neighborhood firecracker shows we went and got some paella. Paella first started in Valencia so that was fun eating it there. We got it delivered to us and it ended up being super yummy, I love paella:] After lunch we walked around some more and some even more fallas.

 We tried some treats called buñuelos, which were so good, especially warm. They almost were a mix between a churro and a donut. Seriously so good. We got some all together and then a few of us tried some pumpkin flavored ones, those were good too and the lady made them fresh for us, the pumpkin wasn’t too overwhelming or anything and they were so good.

The next thing went and saw was this big building and street constructed out of lights. It was really cool! It reminded me of Christmas. There were a ton of people over in that area. There was music playing over there and Katy Perry’s song Firework came on so of course we started singing really loud and dancing to it. No one else joined in, they just watched haha but it was so fun! It was a moment of pure happiness being in this amazing place, surrounded by friends and just singing and dancing together and having a great time. I loved it. While I have been here I have learned how important relationships are and how blessed I am with all the relationships I have and have formed in my life.

The burnings were crazy! They started with the smaller fallas, to get us warmed up (literally ha) for what was next. At one of the fallas they were playing some music before they started the burning so we were dancing, of course, and this older lady came over and started dancing with us. It was so funny she was crazy and just having a fun time, she reminded me of our friend Eva in Madrid. But this new lady was named Sandra and we were dancing around with her. At one point she put her jacket on the ground and we were dancing around in a circle around her jacket hahah it was so funny but so fun at the same time. It was crazy, they just wrapped the fallas in strings of firecrackers and stuff then set those off which then in turn set the whole falla on fire.  

Before and After...

 They literally just set these huge fallas on fire. All over the town one after the other! It was definitely a new experience for me. The last falla we saw was at 1:30 and we were feeling pretty exhausted at this point. But we got a second wind when we were heading back to the bus. Since there were so many explosion sounds and fires and remains of fires it literally looked like the apocalypse or something so we pretended we were in an action movie and were running down the streets and each explosion and fire was the enemy hahah I have not had that much fun playing pretend for a while. It felt so real too! The one time I actually enjoyed running.. But yes that definitely was another highlight of the night, starring in the real live action film.

The next day we got home quite early in the morning so I ended up just sleeping in until lunch. It was so nice; I haven’t really been able to sleep in the whole time since we have been here so it was nice! The rest of the day was just really relaxed and we studied for our Sociology test. Along with Thursday studying all day. Blah. I seriously think I have studied more here than I do at home! Consecutive chunks of time at least. Taylor is just the ultimate time manager and get things done type of person along with me not having internet, works wonders. I hope she rubs off on me and I can be more like her, she’s awesome:]

On Friday after our Spanish classes we took our Sociology midterm. I think it went pretty well. I have actually liked my Sociology class and what we talk about and stuff. Changes my perspective on things, which is cool. The other students in the class and I always relate it to stuff we are doing or saying it’s fun. The test took a while though, for the essay portion we were able to use our computers and it ended up being 10 pages worth for my essays! Not even double spaced, only 1.5 space! Haha That is just a little too much for me ha. After we came home and had lunch with Blanca and the American girl that is now living with us. We met up with some other kids in our group afterwards and we went into Madrid to go to the Arab baths, which is like a spa relaxing place.

It was soo nice. There were different temperatures of water, a steam room and massages and it was just great. Afterwards I came home to drop off my swimsuit and stuff and change before heading back out again to Madrid to go to the club El Capital. It was so cool! The whole time I was asking myself if this was real life. It was huge and had 7 floors! Each floor had something different, like a karaoke floor, lounges, a terrace, R&B floor, house music and a salsa one too. It was crazy. We had the most fun on the first floor where it played just normal party/house music and we were all able to dance and go crazy. It was fun because there was a big group of us. When we were outside waiting in line we were worried we weren’t dressed enough because everyone that came in was all dressed and did up, but once we got in we were glad we were just in normal comfortable clothes, andd we were able to see how modest is hottest:]

It was such a fun big group of us and it was nice and safe, it was fun having a truly Spanish experience:]

Saturday morning, after taking a nap basically from when I got home the night before, we went over with a few of the other students to study Spanish. It was fun hanging out, andd Tatiana was making cookies for her host family and she let me partake in some of the cookie dough goodness:] definitely a plus. That afternoon our whole group met up in Madrid and we went on the Teleferico, which is like a big Gondola/ski lift lookout thing that goes over part of Madrid. It was really fun I liked it! It was cool to see the places we have been to and see new stuff too! After riding over one of the big parks over there we walked around it a little bit before we headed over to the church for a EFY dance. Little did we know that it was a ward party-like EFY fundraiser haha. So awkward. It was fun though. We got to see our girl Eva, and her daughter’s friend we call J-Wow because we can’t pronounce his name haha we have hung out with him a few times and we love that little 17 year old. It was kind of a funny yet fun experience we had. It was a nice way to end the day:]

Salamanca y León

Before we went on our trip this weekend we had a great week. On Monday after classes a few of us took the train up to the University of Alcalá. I wanted to go see what the campus looked like and we wanted to see if they had any University of Alcalá apparel. The campus was way big and pretty it was fun walking around. After asking about every person we ran into we finally found the tiny little building/trailer that had the school stuff in. It was one room, had about 4 different shirts and some for little kids, then some random school supplies. The last girl we talked to was right when she said the store is small and bad haha. So we didn’t end up getting anything but it was a funny experience and we were able to see the campus and talk to a lot of Spaniards and that’s always fun. On our way back to the train we came across this big cement structure that we wanted to get on top of but when we got closer we saw how huge it was. Nate found a tree that he could climb and get up on top of the cement structure, as he was up there walking around the security car came up and the two men got out and pulled their baton things out and asked us if that guy was with us…we debated for a second then admitted that he was indeed with us. Then one of the man proceeded to tell us how dangerous it would be if he fell down as the other officer guy was walking towards Nate. I didn’t know what they were going to do so then I was kind of laughingly told the officer that our friend is a little crazy haha he told the other guy walking towards Nate and he stopped and just told Nate he needed to get down. It was so funny, of course that would happen, thankfully telling the officers that he es un poco loco saved us! That night for FHE we played soccer in a park by the church. It was so fun we split up into two teams and just played. It was nice because we were all about the same level, no one too amazing and no one terrible so it made it a lot of fun.

The next day we went into Madrid to go check out the Thyssen Museum, but when we went to get our tickets we found it wasn’t free. Lame. That is the only museum that isn’t free! So we ended up not going in because no one was dying to go see it we just wanted to look around inside since those types of things are free for students. We walked back down the Paseo del Prado and found a few little souvenir shops and ended up talking to this crazy man. We talked to him for a while and we ended up talking to him about our religion and a bunch of different things. He was a little sketchy but it was fine. He kept asking us things and saying things about how our parents made us be a part of the church and all this stuff so we proceeded to tell him how it isn’t like that and just some other stuff like that. When he was talking I thought about how that was probably an example of how some missionaries get responded too. I have talked to tons of people about our Church but no one has really reacted like that so that was interesting, we left not too much longer after we got there. That night Taylor and I indulged ourselves and we watched the Bachelor finale! So good.

The next day after class we went and saw the Archaeological Museum in Alcalá. It had a lot of neat things in there I really enjoyed it! That afternoon a few of us went into Madrid to do some Karaoke with Eva again, which consisted of us looking up songs on youtube with lyrics and singing to them in her living room haha. It was so fun she was so cute she got us snacks and drinks and was just really cute about everything. She invited over one of her daughter’s friends so he requested some of his favorite American songs and showed us some good Spanish ones. It was a lot of fun and of course we ended up dancing in her living room again, with Eva you always end the night dancing it seems haha. It was a lot of fun though I am glad that we went and did that. 

On Thursday when we were driving to Avila, we drove through the mountains and they were covered in snow! I hadn’t seen that much snow in a long time, it was fun to see! Especially from within the warmth of the bus:] 

 Avila was a cute little city completely surrounded by a city wall. We were able to walk up along the city walls and through the city. Good thing the city wasn’t that big because it was way cold while we were there, almost Segovia cold.

For one of the stops the bus driver had to make, we stopped at this really cute medieval city. We had a little bit of time to walk around and explore. The buildings were all cute and made out of stone with pretty green and blue doors. The cobblestone streets also added to the effect. We found the cutest and softest dog there so we naturally took some nice family photos with him. 

 Thankfully when we got to Salamanca the sun was shining and it was a lot warmer. We met our tour guide in our hotel and we first went and saw the old cathedral. It looked like a typical cathedral and was under some renovation. After that we were able to go see the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest one in Spain. I really liked seeing that it was cool! Out front of the University on the façade there is a frog hidden on it, and story goes that on the first day of classes they would bring the freshmen there and if they could see the frog they would have good luck for the duration of their University experience. Lucky for me I saw the frog and am looking forward to the luck it will bring me. We then went and saw the new Cathedral. It was pretty big; a dove painted at the top of the dome in the middle had a wingspan of 10 feet! From where we were standing it looked tiny. After looking around inside our tour guide took us out to the side of the building and showed us how this Cathedral is the newer one and we know it because the architect put an astronaut in the decoration on one of the walls haha We ended in the main Plaza which was a nice plaza that reminded me of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. After the tour we wandered around the streets, which was so fun. There were a ton of jovens walking around the streets and out for a big party that was going on, so everyone was dressed up in costumes it was kind of fun to walk around on the town and see everyone.

 The next day on our way to León we stopped at a Chocolate Museum. It was fun to see the different machines and tools used to first make chocolate and see the progression of the process. Everyone’s favorite part was the samples at the end. I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate but I thought the orange chocolate was pretty good, it didn’t even taste like chocolate! 

After we got to our hotel in León we walked around the streets and met up with our tour guide. We first went into the Pantheon where there are almost as many tombs of Spanish kings as El Escorial has, and they have the most! After that we went to see the Cathedral. After Chartes Cathedral in France, the Cathedral in León has the second most stained glass in Europe. It was beautiful in there! After that we all went out and got some yummy pizza and explored the town. I love how so many people are out and about at night in the cities here. It is such a fun environment and I really enjoy just walking around and taking it all in.

On our way home back to Alcalá we stopped at a pretty big castle. It was fun to see minus the fact it was raining pretty hard and a little chilly. It was a lot of fun to see though I’m glad we went. The bus ride home was great I loved it, the rides never seem to be long enough.