SEVILLE!!!!!!

FRIDAY!!!

we had to meet of 630 am. WOAHHO! and we ride the bus to the airport. which i fall asleep. then we get to the airport and wait for the airplane. which i fall asleep. and then take a flight on the airplane. and guess waht... i fall asleep there!! hahah then we are in SEVILLE!! whenever we arrived it was so strange becasue it looked like driving into Houston or something! then we get to Hotel Don Paco and drop off our and then go explore these BEAUTIFUL gardens in the royal palace which were amazing!!! its called the Alcazar!!! then we go eat at this restauraunt where we meet someone that goes to the Tech Campus in Seville! Crazy eh? Then we go explore the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede! it is one of the biggest in the world and is SO INCREDIBLE! oh did i mention that CRISTOBAL COLOM is buried there!? well supposedly ;) and we also climb the Giralda tower adn you can see the WHOLE city!! and after that we go home and go to dinner at this nice resteraunt and then walk around the town for about 2 hours and it was great fun!

SATURDAY!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

first off, seville is hot!!! which i am so jealous of because i am tired of the coldness hurr!

wake up early to eat breakfast and then go on a BIKE tour aroudn the city which was incredible! my bottom still hurts from the ride but it was totally worth it because it was so so fun! we saw some awesome stuff like the Torre del Oro, University of Seville, Plaze de Espana, and the Parque Maria Luisa gardens! we ended up going to this AWESOME cuban resteraunt afterward and had ropa vieja, tostones, corrquetas, and picadillo! delish! we went to church afterwards for the 5 pm mass which was incredible! it was in this place called the Royal Chapel that no one is allowed to go into, except for mass... an American Priest was there and had a group of his parishineers with him! it was insane and someone was from Alexandria, LA which is where Frans is from... not to mention that some of the Americans knew the family of one of the girls that came to mass!! afterwards we went and hung out in the plaza and all of a sudden this white rolls royce pulls up and the most beautiful bride i ahve ever seen gets out! then she walks into this gorgous church and so obviously, we go and crash the wedding for a little while and then decide its time to leave! it was awesome though! that night we go eat at this little resteraunt and go to a real authentic Flamenco bar to watch FLAMENCO! and oh my oh my it was incredible! there were probaly about 200 people jam packed into the Bar and every was so entralled! first this guy starts playing the spanish guitar and then there is another guy taht is keeping the beat clapping and with his feet and starts singing like an Arabic person but its in Spanish, so they do that for a little while and then a woman beginnings dancing and it is so hynotising and her dress is so so so incredible! she does 2 more dances and it was just so much fun! definitly something i will never forget! later that night i was so happy that i was able to talk to Frans on valentines day so that was great!

SUNDAY!!!

we woke up early again and went to a convent which was incredible! it was super thrilling but it was really nice to go. there was a nun that was about 100 years old and then there was another who had chubby cheeks and a smile that never left her face! i ended up buy some homemade dark choclate which was beyond amazing!! after that we went to El Rinconcillo which was founded in 1670 (older than the USA!!!) and it is a tapas bar! we ate there and it was so yummy! it was my first time eating tapas, which isnt' a type of food, just name for a style of eating food where the portions are like little appitizers! it was perfect! after we walked down to the Maestranza de Caballeria! which is the bull fighting ring. it was really neat to walk around and see it, though i dont think i could ever actually go see a bull fight in real life! after wards we flew home and it is nice to be home! as always!!

MONDAY.

nothing too interesting. went to class, boring and i think tomorrow we are going to book our flights and stuff for spring break! (athens, santorini, ROME for holy week!!!!)

i love you all!!!

sorry for the longness and delays, but here it is! i love you

margeaux

WEEK of feb 9 -12

HI!
so since i've been bad at posting :'( here is last week!
FEB 9!!! WINNIES BIRTHDAY!! it was awesome because i was able to watch him open presents! amazing!
feb 10 - LONG day! class and nothing else. i ate spaghetti!
feb 11- had to do a case study for my international marketing class.. then i got home and kris was sick :( and then i went to soccer! we had to do suicides because they lost... so it was tiring but i did well so thats good!
feb 12 - LONG day again! then that night we met up with our German friends and go to their flat for a littlw while and then we all end up going to this cool bar place called La Oveja Negra (black sheep) and jsut chilled there for a while. then i came home and ended up getting only like 2 hours asleep because i had to wake up at 515 to go to the airport... more about Seville next post!

end of valencia

So the next day we ended up exploring the town more... went to church that had the Holy Grail, walked around a TON!!!!!!! and here are some of the pics that you missed... nothing too exicting.. jsut that it was amazing to walk around and not have to pay money for a metro or a taxi!

love you!

nopictures yet. but here is VALENCIA!!!

i am here safely! i love and miss ya sososoos much
ok so heres my day!woke up at 6 am YIKES!!! and we got everything ready the night before so it wasnt too bad... we just had to make our sandwiches... then we go to the train station and it was sosososo easy to get to! we walked straight from the metro station to it without even having to go outside! we figure out where we are supposed to go and i was a little nervous bc we had to put our bags thru the XRay machines and i had a knife in my bag for peanut butter but it was alllllllllll good... the people never even asked us for our ids it was so so easy. we board the train and we dont sit by eachother but its ok!! im awake for a little while looking out the window and it was awesome... we are by the coast for a lot of it so its neat to see the waves then we go thru the moutains and i liked that. at one of the stops one lady sits next to me and i fall asleep and when i wake up again a new lady was ther! i was nervous at that `point bc im like oh my i might sleep thru the valencia stop! so i kwas awake pretty much after taht! so then wwe get here and we walk to our hostel and its so nice called rednesthostel.com if you want to check it out!! we we get our rooms... 50 euros for 3 nights so thats good and they even like upgraded us to a 4 person room for no extra cost so then we drop off our stuff and go walk aroundand omg valencia is beautiful! i was worrid that we wouldnt have a lot to do but i was wrong!! it is so amazing and right when we decided to go outside the sun came out and it got warm!! we went to like 4 cathedrals RIGHT next to eachother and man theyre awesome its so different from Barcelona bc Val eventything is so much closer together and you can walk everywhere and in BArc you have to take the metro put i like all the parks and flowers Val has! then we camd back after like 2 hours and took naps bc we were so tired! and then woke up and went of this street of shopping and its so weird im not even that worried that people are going to pickpocket me like i am in barcelona. maybe bc theres a lot less people and tourists! i got a shirt for less than 3 euros! and then kris got these boots shes been wanting! so then it was dark and like 730 at that point... so we came back, met our roomies... they´re italian! but they are such nice girls they invited us to hang out with them last night hahha
so we went to dinner at this incredible place that our conceirge person reccomended! and it was dirt cheap and delicious! and guess waht... i ordered a class of wine which ws 1.3 euros!! and it said 3/8 on the menu so i thought it would only be that full but it was a whole class and i obviously couldnt drink all of it! but it was ncie! and i got tortilla espanola and that is my fav food here so then we decided to go to this latino bar and we walk in and its super shady and there is like Che stuff everywhere and its not really latino so kris just gets a drink and then leaves ASAP!... then we go to this other place whee we can get free sangria and it was so goooood it was fruity! and i would eat all the pears and apples that they put in it! then we go to this other place and get free Agua de Valencia which is like the most famous drink here... made with Valencia oranges... it was ok to strong but i watered it down haah and thnwe go to this other place and kris get a drink and we are chillin and stuff then i realize i dont have my phone so im freaking out and we leave and we go to one of the places we were just at but they didnt have it and we go back to the Hostel and VOILA!! it was in between the matress and the wall hahah so taht was funny!
and then i slept and now im awake... omg it was freezing last night thoug... i was wakin gup alot ;(
kris is still asleep so im about to go wake her u`p bc its time to start exploring!
oh i meant to tell you... they were having mass ni one of the chruchs yesterday and then they had a boys choir that strated singing and i got these crazy chills.. im so excited to go to church tomorrow!!!

oops!

should be megustabcn.blogspot.com

SORRY!
thanks mare & winnie :)

FEB!!

well we have just now finished our first month here! tomorrow will be a month since my departure and my my how time has FLOWN!! its crazy!

Friday was a fun day! i went to Montjuic and walked around! the museum there is so beautiful, it looks like a palace! but i did not go in. there are a ton of strairs to get to the top and i was determined to climb them all! i had brought a lunch so i picked out a beautiful spot and ate. nearby all the kids were playing soccer so that was nice. unfortunately the day was overcast and cold. i just want it to be spring time already!!!

Saturday we woke up early and went to the Cebrians! They made us lunch which were these meatball things and utterly delicious! we all took naps, a little siesta if you will :) and then they helped us figure out how to buy things online with our new credit cards from La Caixa! we got it allllll done and we are taking a TRAIN to VALENCIA on friday!!! and then for Kristins birthday (Feb 26-Mar 2) we are flying to PARIS!!! so that will be a very fun trip! Also, next weekend we are going to a paid trip to Sevilla! so i'm excited its free!

Sunday i tried to go to church again but the gate was lock and i was accosted by homeless people, so i gotta figure out somewhere else to go! because i need to asap. then we went to the picasso museum for FREE and it was amazing! one of my favorite museums ever! it shows all of his artwork from when he was younger and sketched real people, to painting impressionistic like Van Gogh to the cubism stuff that we all think of when we think of Picasso! i loved it! then we ate at this resteraunt and i got a pizza and guess what was on it?! lamb, cucumbers, tomatos, feta cheese, onions, and garlic and OH MY WORD! it was so sosososososoo yummy! the most random foods always tend to be the most tasty :) then we went and watched my soccer team play and they came back from 2-0 to win 3-2 so that was exciting and we took some awesome pictures by this cool graffiti! we came home, got ready real quick, and then went to this bar for the Super Bowl! we only ended up stay till about half time which was around 230 am!!! it was fun though

Monday... school, boo! it has been raining SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much here!

Today!!! i had to do a presentation about the Islams in Spain and their culture and art and i think i did very good! so cross your fingers for a good grade! then obviously 4 hours of spanish! and our class jsut made a blog and it is on this SAME site which is funny and we are going to have to post our class assigments there from now on! so if you have any desire to ever see it! it is megustabcn@blogspot.com haha so yay! i just now made dinner which consisted of potato and onions sauteed in ollive oil with some aioli (garlic oil sauce) mmmm it was tasty but now i need a little chocolate to fill me up :) i will keep you updated with what is to come!

LOVE TO EVERYONE!

hi!

well lemme see..
Monday: nothing that interesting. went to the bank and deposited some travelers checks. went to class and then went to this shop and we made dinner.

Tuesday: LONG DAY OF CLASS! booo and we were so tired that night that we just fell asleep almost immediately of coming home :(

Wednesday: the maids woke us up VERY early so we had to clean, shower, do our hair in a matter of 20 minutes... then it was class time. then we came home and i got a bit to eat and then went to soccer practice. i met one of the girls who is on the team named Mariona at a metro stop and she picked me up and we went to practice on Montjuic... and if you dont know what that is. its where the Olympic Games in '92 were held!!!! and oh my word. we were on top of a huge mountain right next to the Olympic stadium and it was so so awesome. you could see forever! we did a ton of running and scrimmaged and i was happy that i actually played pretty well that night. then i came home and it was like 1130 and didnt really feel like going out.

Thursday: again my LONG DAY! 2 hours of Art then 4 hours of SPANISH! yikes! here a detailed account of yesterday (it's fresh on my mind!!)
so i woke up and then i rode the metro and was real tired and then i go to school and my art class... wasnt super interesting today. the thing is we are talking alot about architecture and like mini statues... i want to look at some dang PAINTINGS or drawings or something like that! so did that. was pretty bored most of the time :/ but everyone has to do a presentation this semester and me and my partners is next tues so we gotta figure out all that stuff... im just happy to be getting it over with!
then it was lunch and i had a delicious sandwhich apple my banana was nastay and a mandarine! so then i went to 4 hrs of spanish. it was good today, my teacher has been making it fun so thats always nice. there are jut a couple of kids in there that just dont pay attention and thats annoying... im becoming really good friends with das germans... they funny and nice and not so 'american' lol so thennnn we wwent on the metro and i was going to go shopping for this jacket real quick. so kris went home and i found it and it was 20 euros and its so awesome an di LOVE it!! then omg i dont know if you ever saw the pictures of the soccer field like right next to our house, (ive posed infront of the field a couple of times) but today they were filming a movie there and there were all these christmas lights and stuff and it was so crazy! i ran to the market real quick and grabbed some bread, water, and mandarines.
come back. chill for a moment... and then take a shower and get ready! lets see oh and i looked super cute ps. i wore black leggings, my cute new boots, and my yellow barca jersey with the barca scarf and the new jacket! it was perfectly cute :) we get to the game and you can feel the excitment! its so awesome. If you didn't know, FC Barcelona was playing the OTHER team in Barcelona, Espanyol... so it was awesome and it's called a City Derby (prounounced dArby though hahah and obviously both these teams are huge rivals!!) we get there and its kris lali and the gma... the stadium is hugely filled! like last night there were 47000 and this time it was like 80000 and it was such a fun game! we got these barca and catalonia plastic flags! and the game was so intense!
THEN the game was awesome. barely won 3-2. then afterwards. we plan on going to Las Ramblas to go to a bar or something. we have to let 3 metros pass us before we can get on one bc they are so packed... then we go there and its not too bad. we go to a place called My Bar and then my german friend calls me and theyre all on Las Ramblas so i tell them to come hang with us. we only stay there for a little while and then go to this other bar called La Ovella Negra or black sheep... and its huge and international and its pretty cool i guess no music but we stayed there till 2. kris made friends with some spainards who seemed pretty nice! and then the bar is baout to close so we leave and go to this other club where we can get in free.. me and this kid Konstantin become like BFF and his favorite band is Kings of Leon also and so that was really crazy!! and we go to this club for free but the guys have to pay 12 euros but they get 2 free drinks so im not really sure how it worked haha and its a very european club with house techno music and stuff it was alot of fun!! we stayed there for a while and then we're pretty tired and then came home around 430!!!

WHEWWW!!!
that was alot! i hope you are not too overwhelmed! Last night was definitly are most exciting night so dont worry that i didn't post earlier in the week because there really wasn't that much to say!
i love you all and hopefully i will go on an adventure today!
LOVE LOVE

WOAH!

hello ladies and gents!
well yesterday was quite an adventure! i woke up and went walking around the city for about 3 hours. it was great just thinking and walking and taking everything in. i went through the central park, by the coast, near Cristoph Colom, and walked all the way up Las Rambles! it was neat going to all the shops and stuff.
i really like Las Rambles because there are all the stands, flower and animal shops and artists! yes, it's very touristy but i enjoy walking along it!

later we went to ANOTHER FC BARCELONA GAME!!!!!! and boy was it amazing! there was alot more passion in the air. Many more chants and yells and whatnot. we ended up winning 4-1 so that was incredible!!!

afterwards, we went home real quick (1am........) and changed clothes and met up with the girls on my soccer team! They are SO SO SO nice! I am on a new team now, but can't remember the name of it... but i will let you know soon! we went to 3 different clubs and were dancing and it was so great! this one girl said i have to teach her english and she will teach me spanish, so i said Si! obviously :) then we went took a taxi to another club called Jambori and kristin and i danced by ourselves for over an hour.. it was awesome the music was great and so much fun...
we got home past 5 and passed out immediately!!

it's 2:46 pm for us right now and someone (kristin haha) is still asleep!

i love you all so much and cant wait to see your smiling faces again!

oh and if you want to write me, feel free to do it!
LOVE!

no school!

whewwwwwwww!!
that was one hard week! but guess waht! no school EVER on fridays! so that's nice! today we woke up and we were going to go to the Sagrada Familia with our friend Phil... but we got there and the sky was all cloudy which would have made our pictures not very good, so we decided to just wait and go a different day! we went down to the coast becasue we hadn't been there and since today was kinda hot... we wanted to go to the beach!!
and boy was it beautiful!! we walked around aimlessly for a very long time just on the docks and it was so fun. ate at this litttle italian place and it was great! then we walked around some more and found this little grove that had like 10 mandarine trees! so obviously i picked one but i haven't eaten it yet, so i hope its delicious!
it was such a fun day, just walking around, with no where in particular to go to. these types of days are my favorite! i love finding new things and experiencing new things as well.

tomorrow will be eventful too! dont you worry.
till then...

mmmm

well kristin and i just got home from a long ole day at school!!
i had to leave extra early to go to the Sant Pau campus in order to get my ID made. i arrive at Sant Pau this morning at 9:45 a.m. thinking it is going to take 20 min to do. all i do is sit there and they take a picture and voila! i am done. so i was happy that i had a very long time to make it over to the Sarria campus. i go to my Spanish Art class this morning and it was so great. we learned about Pre Historic cave paintings and stuff and it was actually way more interesting than it sounds! problem was, we watched a movie for 45 min and i was quite tired so my eyes were closing a bit :(
after i went to the cafeteria, because we have an hour for the next class and thats where everyone meets. it is always nice to just hang out and talk with evryone. i think we are going to Grenada next weekend which will be very exciting. Espanol for 4 hours was next which we always dread, but once we get in there its never as bad as you think it will be. i say 'we' because both kris and i have spanish at the same time but OBVIOUSLY not in the same class :)

now we are tiredddd. just ate some pan y tomate and it was delish! time to watch last night's episode of lost! hooray!
much love yall

6 days, AH!!!

well I ahven't posted since last thursday but honestly not a ton of huge interesting things have happened!
Friday: hung out with Carlos. walked around and then came home. awesome eh?

Saturday: i got up early, walked around alot. went to this really cool park near us, watched some little kids play soccer for a while by our house, they were SO cute :)
and then...
DUN DUN DUN!!!! we went to our first FC BARCELONA GAME!!!!!!!!! and oh my it was beyond amazing. the stadium was so huge. i walked in and literally taken aback by the sheer magnitude of the place. you could feel the passion and excitment. i was shaking because i was so ready and that it was FINALLY happening! they won the game 5-0 and it was so awesome. i had brought my mega-camera lens so i got some pretty decent pics! that night we hung out with these Germans who are pretty cool

Sunday: i woke up early and went to Alex's soccer game. it was FREEZING but once the sun came out it was so much better. i was oging to take pictures but had forgotten to charge my camera from the night before :/ then i went to church which was a really cool church. it was kind of hard to understand because it was in Catalan not spanish, but i knew when they did the Our Father as well as peace be with you's hahah came home that next day. got everything ready for SCHOOL BAH!

Monday:we first tried to get our student metro tickets but had to fill out with paper and get something from our university. then we went to this massive mega store calleld El Corte Ingles. imagine the NYC Macy's but 20x bigger... yah its that huge! we got SPIRALS and PENS! you know i'm all about some good school supplies :) then we went to one of our universities and didnt' get the paper filled out bc they were so busy. ate lunch which was 2 euros and then went to the OTHER campus which is about 40 min away by metro. we got there an hour before my class. searched ALL around this area. asked about 20 people if they knew where it was and they said it didnt exist so that was helpful... i started freakin out because i was already late and we couldnt find it. so we hop in a taxi and we are like please take us to this place FAST... and guess what. he makes a LEFT turn and we are there. the cab cost was 2.05 euros and taxis have a 2 euros flat rate. so our trip was .05... bahaha so that was a good story. we went to class. it was International Marketing for me and it doesn't seem that hard.. i have it again in acouple of hours!! we came home... made SPAGHETTI!!! which was oh so delicious!

Tuesday: went to class at 11... luckily i found it easily this time :) it seems like an awesome class. it's called Spanish Art and Cultural History. We go to Musems all the time, learn to analyze art in depth, and have a final art project we have to make. So needless to say, it's going to be really great. Then i tried to go to our Programs office in between classes, ended up getting lost was freaking out because i thought i was going to be late to a class AGAIN but got there on time. then i had Spanish for 4 hours... yup 4 hours... it was intense! well my class wasn't... we did letters, and numbers hahah but hoepfully it'll get harder :) and it was nice because he gave us breaks every hour so i guess that was good! Class was over at 5:30 we didn't get home until 615. I had soccer at 7:30 so i had to rush to get ready and leave. plus grab some food! i go to soccer... wait in the cold for like 30 min because practice was running WAYYY late. then i play and the girls aren't as good as the other team i was on so that kinda stinks. so whatever... i am going to give it another shot on thursday so we'lllllllllllll see!

oh my that was alot!
we were thinking about going to valencia this weekend... but we ahvne't been too organized with it, plus we're going to Grenada i think next weekend! so cool!
i love you all and will be better with posting everday! who knows maybe you'll get 2 in a day today!
lots of love.

oh ps. i dyed my hair dark brown thursday night if you didn't notice!!!!!

happy day!

so today was awesome because kristin and i were able to go to Park Güell which was absolutely beautiful! we spent a long time there taking picutres, but i know both of us wish we would have been able to spend more time there!
after we went to this little cafe was delicious and CHEAP! which is always a plus :) we came back and kristin took a nap while i went adventuring around our home, which turned out to be really fun.

i still am shocked that i am going to be spending 4 more months in this amazing city. i'm always flabbergasted by all the beauty around me and i am just so blessed and am not going to take one thing for granted.

all my love!

all moved it!

well since the last post, we stayed in this awesome hotel, Hotel Husa Barcelona, for 2 night and have finally moved into our Residencia! It's so nice to be finally out of suitcases and living in a real place! We've visited the Sagrada Familia, seen our Uni, been on Las Ramblas, shopped at a market, and I even asked for directions in SPANISH!!

so alot has gone on in a week! it is crazy how fast time flies! we were going to try to go visit Madrid this weekend... but I think we are going to stay here and really immerse ourselves in Barcelona. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful, plus the Cebrian's are a gift from God!!! Oh I also figured out which church we are going to go to and the times that it begins! (though there were 5 homeless people lurking at the door...)

We are about to go exploring so it should be awesome.
We love yall so much!
t'estimo

we. are. here!!!!!!!!

WELL... WE ARE HERE!!!!!!! HOORAH!
right now we are both sitting in Sant Just which is not exactly Barcelona, but right outside the city! Kristin has been here for a while and i got here a couple of days ago.... We've been in Rupia this whole time which is little village about an hour from here!! it was awesome. we have been staying with the Cebrians and all of their family!! There were 17 of us at one point! all eating around the table! Yesterday was el dia de los reyes! which is the day the 3 kings came, and is liek their christmas... you put one shoe out in the rooma nd then the 3 kings come to visit!!!! its awesome and we got some cool stuff for our room like towels, socks, candles, blankets, candy, and shoe divider and this nativity statue. it was so sweet of them but way to much stuff!! we had gifts for them so it was perfect! we also watched mama mia! and a barca game!!

soccer starts tonight!! hooray!

i only got a few pics up ill try to add more soon!!
love to everyone!

ALMOST!!!

well here we go!
i leave in 2.5 hours and am SO ready to be there!
kristin is already there safe and sound and has fallen in love with the city already. i can't wait to see her and just finally be in spain!

i love you ALL and can't wait to see you after this fabulous journey