England

This past weekend, I met my (super) extended family for the first time! Kim and I flew into the London Gatwick Airport, which should probably be called the "non-London Gatwick airport," considering it's quite a drive from the actual city of London. When we got off the plane, we got our England stamp and headed to try to find Ruth and Jim. Fortunately, they were holding up a sign, and I guess I looked like a relative or something!
Of course, Kim and I were instantly amused by the fact that the English drive on the left side of the road. Ruth and Jim drove us to their beautiful home in an English Village. England was so green, especially compared to dry Spain! We had tea and sandwiches and caught up a bit, talking a lot about family genealogy. We went on a walk that afternoon; it was so picturesque with rolling green hills, and the nearby horse stables. We talked more to Ruth and Jim, who were great hosts... I am lucky to call them family! It was nice being in an English speaking country for a change. Kim and I wanted to just start reading every book they owned and we ended up watching Cars (the kids movie) that afternoon, in English! For dinner we had traditional fish and chips, the suggestion by everyone who knew I was going to England. After talking a bit more, Kim and I headed to bed so we could read, but all the travelling caught up to us and we decided to just sleep.
The weather Saturday was odd, but I guess it was the normal English spring day. It rained and shined and rained and shined and the weather could not make up its mind. That is quite alright though, because Kim managed to get a walk in and I went for a great run (a little hilly but a good workout). Early afternoon, Rose came over! We had some lunch and then started talking about family genealogy. It was fun hearing all the stories, and I finally started to piece together how I was related to everyone and who is the father of who, etc. It's still a bit confusing, because most of them have Richard or Joseph in their names it seems. After tea time, I met Jackie, Tony, and my third cousin, 2 year old Evan! He is so adorable, and a little shy. We all headed to go square dancing.
Square dancing was serious business! Ruth and Jim called the dances, and all the people were GOOD dancers! It was close to square dancing I have done in the past, except for the music had a little less twang, and I seemed to be not dancing well. It was fun though, I really enjoyed it.
Sunday morning was a little chilly, but after a breakfast of porridge and cereal, we headed out for another walk. We later met Rose at a local pub, housed in a super old building. It was neat to see the old wooden beams and the gorgeous flower gardens outside the pub. Lunch was amazing, although I could only eat about half of it. We then headed to Rose's house for tea and to talk a bit more before Kim and I had to leave. We somehow managed to cook up an idea of our entire Perrott family reunited on a cruise ship, or something, but the ideas just kept expanding and got a little ridiculous. Although I really think it would be great to get the whole family together some day. After saying some sad goodbyes to Rose, we headed back to the airport. On the way we stopped to see the famous Epsom horse track and a view of London city.
It was really hard to say goodbye to Ruth and Jim! I felt really comfortable and just like family in their home! It's neat to know that we are planning to see each other again someday, but it's crazy to think we live an ocean apart!

Salamanca y Segovia

Thursday, I woke up and went on an hour run. When I came back, mi madre was in the middle of making a traditional Dia del Padre (Father's Day) breakfast... Pumpkin, sugar, and flour fried like donuts, dipped in sugar. What a great post workout meal : ) I love all these festivals here!
After the big breakfast, I headed to the train station to meet Kim and head northwest for the long weekend. We had a long day of travelling, but finally made it to Salamanca. The trip really wasn't bad considering we were on a train, riding through mountains and past small villages. The scenery would have been plenty to make the time fly, but I also finished the third book in the twilight series, so the trip seemed like an hour to me. (Sidenote... the Twilight series is such a great story! I never figured I would like them, considering I do not prefer fantasy books, but once I got into the plot, they are impossible to put down!) But anyways, once our train ride was over, Kim and I made our way to where we were staying for the night in Salamanca. We actually stayed in dorm rooms, at the University of Salamanca. It was such a great place to stay; clean, located next to all the sites, etc. After ditching our bags, we headed to get dinner in Plaza Mayor. We ate our dinner and people watched, and I realized that I really liked the environment of Salamanca. Many of the population is made up of University students, and you can feel the energy in the city.
The next day we explored Salamanca. The university itself is one of the oldest in all of Europe... we toured the antique library and stood outside the entrance of the university and searched for the frog on the front of the building. It is a myth that if you find the hidden frog, good luck and marriage follow. After trying to find it for 10 minutes, Kim and I may or may not have just cheated by looking at someone's camera to see where they were looking. At least we found it!
We also climbed to the top of a gorgeous Cathedral, and saw the inside of another. I love climbing old buildings, it always requires a climb up a spiral staircase, and spiral staircases are rather uncommon in more modern buildings these days. The view from the top of the Cathedral was pretty amazing. After a long day of exploring Salamanca, Kim and I headed to Madrid to spend the night.
In Madrid, we stayed at a Hostel where we could make our own food! This happened to work out perfectly because Ben had just sent Velveta Shells and Cheese to me!
Saturday we woke up and headed to Segovia. Segovia was GORGEOUS, like a fairy tale. We even climbed to the tallest tower, and saw all the armor of both the horses and knights. The view from the top was stunning; we could see the cathedral and all the surrounding mountains. Once we were down from the castle, we headed to Segovia's main plaza and had some lunch and wine. I had spinach lasagna and some of Segovia's own wine. We spent the afternoon walking around and taking pictures of the gigantic aqueduct.
Saturday night and Sunday we spent in Madrid, but we were both pretty tired so we just took it easy. Sunday morning we made it back to the Rastro and Dunkin' Donuts, two very important things to do in Madrid!
The trip was a great start my month in a row of travelling, I love experiencing the different cultures of all these places. It's crazy how cities can very so much, depending on the region and the people. Even the actual language sounds different when spoken city to city.

Las Fallas

This past Wednesday was a huge day here in Espana... LAS FALLAS! We travelled to Valencia where the festival took place. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, and in my opinion it is more modern than other cities. Of course, there were so many people there because of Las Fallas that it was hard to tell what it would normally be like... I am planning on visiting again before I return to the states.

All of the locals were dressed up in the traditional clothing, even the kids. They paraded through the streets to the beat of some marching bands. It was quite entertaining.

Las Fallas is actually a competition amoung Valencian pyrotecnic; who can create the best firework show. The difference between this firework show and others is that the point is to create the best sound and rhythmn. We heard all the fireworks and their beats, but we saw very few actual lights like normal fireworks. The whole city was covered in smoke, and for about 4 minutes we could not breathe without breathing smoke or see without seeing smoke.

At the same time this competition is going on, there is another victory being fought for.... who can make the best 30 foot tall ceramic structures. These float type objects were HUGE, and all so colorful and weird. At the end of Las Fallas, all the losing entries get burnt to the ground except the winner´s! My friends and I pretty much spent the entire day walking around looking at these off- the- wall structures. The picture of the one I put up on here is actually the winner for this year, so it is the only one that will be saved to display at next years festival. This particular tradition is really similar to a festival in Alicante that takes place the second week of June. In fact, Alicante actually has a museum of a bunch of these weird looking floats things, or at least replicas of them.
I cannot wait to visit Valencia again!... maybe next time I will focus more on its´amazing architecture, art and science museums, F1 tracks, etc etc.

Nothing to do but Chill all Day...

This weekend was quite the weekend of nothingness, but in a good way. Friday, I went to the beach. Saturday, I went to the beach. Sunday, I went to the beach... and I guess there was some stuff in between : ) But this weekend was absolutely gorgeous outside, almost hitting 80 every day. My friends and I spent all of our time at the beach... playing volleyball, listening to music, occasionally jumping in the water (which is freezing cold still). It was the perfect end to a long week of studying for my midterms. Alicante is gorgeous!!! Plus I get my midterms back today, and did well on them, which means despite all the chillin on the beach, Iam learning!

Some highlights from this weekend... beach volleyball, a random parade of sweet cars that we watched from our taraza (porch/patio), the dog getting ahold of the rabbit my family skinned...

On Sunday, I joined my family again for another trip to their casa del campo. This week, my friend Kim joined us. She got to experience mi familia loca. In fact, she experienced it all... there was another rabbit skinning, a trip to the beach, twenty people gathered around a table for eight to eat, etc.
I absolutly love the typical day spent with my family here. They are all so easygoing, and Sundays are always absolutly hilarious. Of course, all of my cousins think the time we spend together is the perfect chance to teach me some slang that I probably would´t be learning in class. Plus, the food is amazing. Every week we eat chicken, veggies, potatoes, all cooked in their brick oven over an open fire. Each week we have different apetizers too... these are the things that I prefer to just try a bite or two of... for instance, this week we had salted ham and a sauce made from dates on a pizza like crust. Sounds gross, but I really liked the mix of sweet and salty. Every week their is some different sort of seafood; I tried Octopus this week for the first time... I liked it a lot! Sundays are the day to relax here. We all wear sweatpants and tshirts, and just bathing suits when it´s hot, quite a change from the usual dressed up days of the week. I really look forward to Sundays, especially because I am feeling more and more comfortable around my family every week, like I am part of the fam : )

FIXED COMPUTER

Hola! Que pasa?

I am very happy, my computer is FINALLY fixed! Which means I can communicate better with everyone. Today my Spanish family met my real family on the web cam... I was so happy that they were able to see each other.
This week has been very busy... I have midterms this next week, so I have been trying to master all these irregular verb forms and when to use them. I do not know who decided it would be smart to have to choose between 3 different tenses when you want to say something in the past, and 3 different tenses when you want to say something that could maybe happen. Ah, so much information en mi cabeza! Then throw in having to learn all the musical instruments... I could label a full band and orchestra in Spanish (which might become useful in future Music Travel trips). All this Spanish is making my English horrible. Today I said "wroted" instead instead of "wrote" when talking to my Mom. Originally I was thinking I would come home speaking two languages, but now I realize I will come home not being able to speak. I guess I'll just have to act things out, and all my friends know I am so great at charades.
Things here are better than they were 2 months ago. Two months ago things were great, which means now they are really great. I haven't gotten lost in awhile. I am now brave enough to carry on a conversation with the homeless people who live outside my apartment. I know that I might as well order a coke in a restaurant, because water is never gonna be free. I have learned that I have to act like a Real Madrid fan, unless I want my family to not speak to me. I am ok with accidentally swallowing a fish bone or two, cause at least I didn't accidentally eat the skull. All in all, I am learning more about another culture than I knew was possible. This beats all the sociology classes I have taken in the past.
This past weekend was fun, more family time! On Friday, a couple friends and I went to Elche, a little city about a half hour train ride away from Alicante. It is a pretty town, most famous for having the largest palm tree park in all of Europe. There were so many Palm trees, most of them taller than the ones here in Alicante, which are double the size of the ones in Florida; so that puts it in perspective. On Saturday I spent the day with Kim and her family because they were throwing Kim's seven year old sister, Ariadna, a birthday party. Her parents own a bar here so they simply closed it for the day to host the party. We spent the morning blowing up balloons, setting up the decorations, etc. After an interesting tuna, bacon, and egg pasta dish for lunch and a long walk on the beach, we headed back to the bar and the kids (and their parents too) started showing up. Before we knew it, the bar was full with around 20 kids and 20 parents, running around and screaming. Ariadna was gooning the whole day... it was a fun experience.
Sunday was an absolutly gorgeous day. The sun never went behind the clouds. I went on a 5 mile run to start off my morning, and then spent the day with my family at the beach and their country house. I saw another slaying of a rabbit. I met about 7 more relatives. I love huge families. I miss mine! I feel blessed to have a huge family both here and there!
I am very happy, I finally found a cafe here that doesn't leave my clothes smelling like smoke. I have been going there for a little bit each day to study for my midterms. I have two huge exams and a paper due tomorrow. So, although I do spend most of my time running, going to the beach, exploring new towns, I do spend time studying, occasionally.
This coming weekend is my last weekend here in Alicante ( I think) for the rest of the semester! I am headed to explore northern and southern Spain, meet family in London, and hit up a few more places in Europe. It's so much to look forward to, and I am trying to focus more on the day to day verses constantly thinking about all the exciting things that I have planned.
This next week there is another festival close to Alicante, in Valencia. It's called las fallas and it's basically the whole town getting together to have a parade and then burn down the floats afterward. I am really excited about that!
I hope that things in Los Estados Unidos are looking more spring like and less blizzard like! Hopefully, with my newly fixed computer, I can blog more!
hasta luego!

Mi Abuela

As many of you know, my Grandma Lu passed away this past week.

I can´t begin to explain to you how big of a decision I was faced with when asked if I wanted to come home. Of course my first instinct was to hop on a plane, but once the emotions backed down a bit I was able to see things more clearly. After thinking long and hard about things, I realized, death and funerals are the end to a life well lived, and there are plenty of other ways to celebrate a person´s life, other than to physically be at their funeral, or see them in their last few days of life here on earth. So, I did the best I could think to do being thousands of miles away. I ran a half marathon and dedicated it to my Grandma.
Here are some of the things I thought about during the half marathon.....
1. Grandma Lu had ten children. If she can have ten children and survive, I can run 13.1 miles and survive.
2. I really admire my Grandma´s faith. Even when she came to Indy to visit, she always went to church even being far from home. But then I got to thinking (13.1 miles is a long time to think, I had a LOT of thoughts), faith is so much more than going to church, etc. Looking back on Grandma´s life, she is such a great example of Jesus´s love, in the way that she loved so many people. No matter what our crazy family was up to, Grandma Lu constantly loved us all; what a great example of faith.
3. While I was struggling to breath and keep running, I thought about what a fighter Grandma Lu trully is. Of course it´s so easy for me to see that now, when all these medical problems came into play. But even before that (or so I have heard), she was a great Mom to all my Aunts and Uncles. I have heard stories about my Grandma in more of her Mom stage, and it sounds like she was a great Mom, always fighting to be there for her kids.
4. While I was running, Grandma was in the hospital. It was so hard for me to be here knowing that I should be there. I just kepting lifting Grandma up to God, and allowing myself to accept that whatever happens is His will.

I will never forget my Grandma Lu. It´s neat to think that we share the same faith, and someday we´ll be reunited. I am praying constantly for my family, because death is so much harder for the ones left behind, than for my Grandma who is chillin´ in Heaven.
I love you Grandma Lu : )

MADRID

Hola!
This past weekend, I visited Madrid with CIEE! It was quite a contrast from Alicante, being the capital of Spain. There were tons of people, both Spaniards and tourists, and the city had a completely different feel than Alicante. There was so much to do, and we pretty much spent the whole time doing something. Not that I minded, I had plenty of coffee to get me through... and I may or may not have found a Dunkin Donuts.

After Friday´s six hour bus ride, we had a couple hours to explore the city on our own. Some friends and I headed to the Real Jardin Botanico, home of 30,000 different plant species. Of course, I am sure the garden is a little bit better later in the season, farther away from their recent snow storms. After our stroll through the park, we met the whole group at the Museo del Prado, Spain´s most famous art gallery. Velaquaz, El Greco, Ribera, Goya, and many more artists have their most famous paintings there. It houses more of the classical themed paintings completed by Spanish artists. After the museum, we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out for the night. I went with a group of people to have Tapas... Calamari, Jamon, Gambas, and different samples of Spanish foods, and wine of course. After talking awhile, we headed out to some different places to dance and explore the Madrid nightlife.
The next morning was quite a drag, considering we had a 2 hour tour of the Palacio Real at 9:30, and most people had stayed out until nearly 4 or later. The Palacio Real was amazing... it´s a huge Palace with more than 2800 rooms, and home to the world´s largest armor collection. We had a tour of it in Spanish, and learned all about which rooms are used for what (because they still use the Palace today) and the reasons behind why things were designed the way they were. After our tour, we had a few hours to walk in the Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and past a few famous monuments. I also took a quick nap and got a cup of coffee so I´d have enough energy for the afternoon and night. The whole group met back up again to head to another park, famous for it´s glass building and beautiful trees and greenery. After a couple hours in the park, we headed to Madrid´s famous Reina Sofia museum. Looking at these pieces of more contemporary art was seriously the highlight of my trip. I counted over 50 different Picasso pieces, and his famous (and MASSIVE) work Guernica is housed at the museum. There were also works by Dali, Goya, and a number of more abstract painters. I bought a Picasso matching game that I am stoked about playing, because it´s a lot of Picasso´s works on tiny little cards, and a challenge... it´s like a matching game for adults. After the museum, some friends and I ate dinner at a little Italian place near the museum, and I had some very good Pesto. The rest of the night was spent hanging out with friends and exploring Madrid!
It was difficult waking up Sunday morning, considering the hotel beds were so comfortable, and I was so tired. I eventually managed, and met my other zombie looking friends down in the hotel lobby for breakfast. We got ready and headed on our city walking tour. My head was not entirely comprehending our Spanish tour guide´s words, but I managed to get most of what she was saying about the history of some of the most famous buildings in Spain. We then headed to the rasto, a HUGE flea market that is held every Sunday in Madrid. It is a pick pocketer´s paradise and easy to bargain for a good deal. It was fun looking at all the different things people were trying to sell. Some were just mass production souveniers, and some were things straight out of people´s houses that they were trying to get rid of. The last picture on here is of our feet in the very center of Spain, where all the streets are measured from! It was quite a lot to pack into one weekend, but well worth the visit. Now I have to write a paper about my trip (the only downfall to taking a trip led by your school) so I better get started!




Hasta Luego!