mi cruzero

Hola!

So, needless to say, Nice, France and Monte Carlo, Monaco were simply amazing. Many of you have heard this story, but last year when Ben and I went to these places, Ben saw Ferraris and literally wept with joy. I am happy to announce that this time was not much different. Although Ben didn’t start crying, he was pretty much holding my hand, dragging me from car to car so we could hear their engines and take pictures of them. We saw many Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Porsches, a Shelby Cobra, and even a fastback Mustang (which is unheard of in Europe)!

We also spent a few hours exploring Nice, France. There was a half marathon going on right when we got into town, so I was thrilled to see the top finishers cross the line; I always love seeing people who share my same passion on an entirely different side of the globe. We walked on the famous rocky beaches of Nice, and then headed to the incredible fresh market. Ben had been raving about this flower market for days, and now I understand why; there were thousands and thousands of GORGEOUS flowers for sale, all perfectly shaped and colored. We walked through the flowers to the fresh fruit, vegetables, spices, and fish stands. The market was held close to the city square, so we just walked around for a little while longer to get a quick glimpse of the town. I really wish we could have explored longer, but what we saw was great! I need to go back to France and see more!

One of the best parts of seeing both Monaco and Nice in one day is the ride in between. Both cities are on the coast, and the view is absolutly breathtaking. The roads that curve with the mountains were built in a time when cars didn’t exist, let alone the huge bus we rode in. The whole ride is a little nerve racking, and it gave me an adreniline rush when I looked out the window and saw the view. The water is so vividly blue, and the land is the greenest green that grass and trees can possibly be. There are huge yachts and mansions built into the side of the mountains, and small sailboats floating next to where our huge cruiseship was anchored. I think the French riviera is one of my favorite places on earth. I am so lucky to have gone there twice now!

The next stop on our whirlwind adventure was a little coastal (obviously) town right outside of Rome, Italy: Civitavecchia (you shoud hear me pronounce that one). Although we could have chose to head to Rome for the day, we opted to explore the little town instead (partly due to lack of money, and partly because we had already seen Rome). There was not a whole lot to do in Civitavecchia, but of course we found plenty to fill our day up. We walked to the beach, and found this huge replica of an aqueduct that we could walk through. It took us out to a platform in the ocean, where we could climb some rocks. I am starting to learn that climbing huge rocks is one thing that Ben and I are particularly good at. I decided that I would love to learn fundamental Italian, German, and French, because being in non-Spanish and non- English speaking countries, I have found that I absolutly despise not being able to use basic communication skills.

Naples was a blast. We climbed Mount Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for demolishing the village of Pompeii in 79 A.D. At first I was a little nervous, because this volcano is HUGE, and still active! However, the guide explained that it is not supposed to errupt for another 300 years, and that there will be many earthquakes that should warn the people that they are about to be covered with toxic gases and boiling lava. We hiked all the way to the top of the crater, and around it. We could look down to the bottom and see all the clouds of sulfur seeping out of the rocks, almost like it could explode at any second. Of course the view from the top was spectacular. We could see the famous island of Capri and all of Naples, and one of the coolest sites I have ever seen: a river of hardened lava. When I saw the lava river, it hit me that we were standing on a crater of an active volcano!

After climbing back down the most potentially dangerous thing I have ever set foot on, we got into a bus to head to see Pompeii! Basically, when the volcano first errupted, the people had no idea that something was about to kill them. In fact, archaeologists have found carbonized bread, thus prooving that even the bakers were carrying a normal routine the day of the explosion. Of course I assumed that all the people were killed by lava, but I learned that they were actually killed by the extreme wave of heat and all of the poisonous toxins released by Mt. Vesuvius. Ashes from the disaster covered Pompeii, leaving the village completely preserved. There are even bodies of people covering their faces in distress, carbonized dogs, and of course all of the ancient architecture. It was trully like nothing I have ever seen.

Well, I am back safe and sound in Alicante, and there are MANY more stories I will be sharing with you all in the next couple of days. It's too much to write in one post!

Sorry this is so long! : ) and I can’t believe a week has passed since my last post! Don’t worry, I am still alive!

I am happy to announce that Ben and I are on our cruise ship as we speak, despite the stolen passport and crazy transportation systems. On Monday morning, we arrived at the embassy at 8:05 A.M.; we were aiming for 7.45 since it opened at 8.30, but of course the Madrid Metro system was difficult to deal with. There were about 5 people in line in front of me, but I was in by 8.35, and starting the whole process. It was actually pretty easy, and on any normal day it would have felt quick and simple, but it was super stressful with the constant worry of missing the flight. So I filled out a bunch of paperwork, and got my picture taken and printed (thank God they had a machine there or I would have seriously been out of luck, and probably running to find the nearest photography store, and standing back in line, etc). So the whole process took around two hours, and poor Ben was standing outside holding all of our luggage in the dreary Madrid weather. But that gave us a little over 2 hours to make our flight! We had time to take the metro to the airport, saving us 30 euros, and made our flight with 40 minutes to spare. The flight was great; TAP Portugal is probably the best airline I have ever flown with. We had leather seats, plenty of leg room, and we were given a meal on a 1 hour flight! This came in handy, because with all the running around Ben and I tend to forget about food until we can barely think due to our hunger. When we got to Portugal, we headed right to the cruise ship via taxi. Taxis in Lisboa are considerably cheaper, and at this point we felt the need to just be at the Royal Carribean dock. We made it, stood in line, and finally proceeded to check in. Of course, there had to be another problem. For some reason (Ben swears he did not intentionally do this, and I really do believe him), it appeared that my age was 21 in their system but only 20 on my passport. Plus, the lady was so confused that I had just got a new passport, and it apparantly looked like Ben and I had something up our sleeves. She talked to the royal carribean people and came back apologizing that I couldn’t drink! The whole time Ben and I figured, “Oh great, we make it here and they think we are lying about my age so we can’t get on the boat.” Everything was fine, and she just kept apologizing that I couldn’t order a drink. She even went as far as to say, “Ben can probably buy you a drink, they usually don’t check anyways.” We had to convince her that we really didn’t care, we were just happy to be on the boat.

So, the cruise is amazing, of course! It is such a change of pace… American food (good desserts and red meat!), a lot more English, and so relaxing. So far we have been to three cities in Spain: Cadiz, Malaga, and Barcelona. Ben and I opted to just explore them ourselves verses taking one of the excursions offered by Royal Carribean. After seeing how small Cadiz is, we made the decision to just try to follow the coastline around the entire city and see what we could find. Sure enough, we ran into some beautiful things: an old castle, small colorful fishing boats bobbing in the water, an art museum, and some SWEET rocks. We first saw this huge bridge leading out to the middle of the water, and of course our adventurous minds insisted on an investigation. Turns out, it was low tide and there were huge rock like structures made of tiny pieces of shell and coral from the ocean. Some rocks had huge holes and all of them were covered in green algae. Between the rocks were puddles of water with tiny fish, red floating algae, and crabs! We climbed all over the rocks until the higher tide started coming in. It was such a pretty site to see the water splashing against the huge rocks, so close to where we were climbing. We spent the rest of the afternoon finishing our lap around the gorgeous coastline before getting back on our boat. We also learned that Cadiz is the city where Christopher Columbus sailed from when he discovered America!

Ben and I have this new thing for scrabble. Since we have been on the ship, we have played it 7 times, and full scrabble games between two people take awhile! So between playing that and eating, we keep ourselves entertained. Plus, there is so much to do on the ship! FUNNY STORY (that many of you will trully appreciate): Last night Ben and I competed in a Salsa dance competition, and in the middle of our turn at dancing we broke into Ben’s signature Ben dance. We didn’t quite win, but we were close and the crowd definetly thought it was funny. I figured those of you who have seen Ben’s dance and know what I am talking about would maybe find that a bit hilarious.

Our day spent in Malaga was fun. Between the pretty parks with exotic flowers and the small town shops, we had plenty to keep us busy. Malaga is the birthplace of Picasso, so of course Ben and I were thrilled to see where he grew up.

Today we spent the day in Barcelona! Although Ben and I vistited Barcelona last summer, there was still plenty to do. Picasso, Picasso, Picasso…. Of course we went to his 2000 piece exibit, we couldn’t miss that! If I didn’t already like Picasso before Spain, I sure do now.

I absolutly love Barcelona; it has its’ own artistic vibe. We had such a great afternoon just walking along the boardwalk and soaking in the culture. There were people creating sand sculptures, complete with functioning chimneys and waterfalls. Between the skateboarders, rollerskaters, and bikers fighting for a spot on the boardwalk, we barely had walking space. I took out my camera and got some great pics of the sailboats and all the subtle art displays.

Well, Ben and I have a great week ahead of us... four more countries to visit! I'll keep you posted : )

Happy Easter!

Pascua Feliz! Happy Easter!
Wow, has this past week been quite the roller coaster. As you all know, Ben is here for almost all of April! He arrived safely, which is great because I realized thirty minutes before his train got in that we had not talked about any back up plans for if he missed flights, etc. Obviously, we were thrilled to see each other, and I cannot put into words how happy I was that I was finally able to see him face to face. I missed him before, but once I saw him I realized how much I had really missed him. It took us about 20 minutes to start walking because we would not let go of each other.
I spent the next four days showing Ben everything we could see in Alicante. Of course we climbed the castle and went to the beach, and I loved showing Ben all the random things that I spent the last 3 months telling him over the phone. It was a lot of, "Remember when I told you I was here, well here it is..." After my Tuesday class, Ben and I headed to mi casa for him to meet mi madre and mi familia, and of course, have Paella! Mi madre LOVED Ben, and he was able to communicate great. In fact, I think it surprised mi madre a little bit how well Ben could talk in Spanish. We had great chicken Paella, different types of cheese, salad, bread, wine, and coffee and cookies for dessert. It was a HUGE meal, and a great way for Ben to try very local food. Kay was there the entire afternoon, and Maria Carmen, Claudia, and Fransisco ended up coming home in time to meet Ben. Mi madre was so generous, and she just kept telling Ben that he was like a son to her, it was sweet : )
My birthday was GREAT! I had a test that morning, but it was over quickly. After spending some more time with mi madre, Ben and I headed to the beach to play some volleyball and meet my friends for some ice cream sundaes, eaten out of my trophy! Everyone brought something different... ice cream, cookies, whipped cream, sprinkles, strawberries. It was like one huge, never ending bowl of ice cream. What a great compromise for the lack of ice cream birthday cakes in Spain! I was so glad Ben got to meet all of my friends here, especially before everyone headed off to different parts of Europe for our spring break.
ALmost all of Thursday in Alicante was spent with mi madre and getting ready to head to other parts of Europe. Before we knew it, Friday morning had arrived and we had to be at the airport at 5:45 A.M.... and then things went downhill from there...

The Ryanair folks kindly informed us of their 15 kg weight policy that clearly was not working well with Ben and I's plan of throwing all of our stuff in one bag. After the lady told us we would have to pay over 115 Euros in extra baggage fees, we opted just to take a train. It was awful, but not the end of the world, other than we were VERY tired at that point, and the sun was just coming up. We took a bus from the airport to Alicante, and bought our train tickets. We had coffee at mi casa, and said goodbye to mi madre yet again. Everything went smoothly, and we both slept well on the train ride to Madrid. We thought that our long, frustrating morning had turned out well after all. Then we got back to the hotel and I found that I didn't have my wallet. Of course, I immediately realized that I had been robbed. Hind sight is always 20-20... I remembered the walk to our hotel and a woman and her daughter getting really close and brushing up against me while we were walking. Looking back on it, I remember thinking it was odd because they had tons of space on the sidewalk, and I even looked at the woman and made eye contact with her. I would bet everything in my stolen wallet that it happened at that point, but I guess I cannot be 100% positive. But whatever did happen, I lost my passport (goodbye sweet Africa and Spain Visas ), 215 Euros, 2 credit cards, a school ID, and a memory card. Of course when Ben and I realized this I was panicking and pacing and crying and not knowing what to do. Luckily, my boyfriend is amazing and really smart when I am dumb. In the middle of all my hysterics, he was telling me what to do. I called my Dad, who helped me cancel the credit cards, and Ben got the numbers and directions to all the different places we needed to go... the police station and the American-Spanish embassy. It was a long next few hours, and of course as we were running through busy Madrid, it started HAILING, no joke. It was very hectic, and I felt awful because there was no way Ben and I could make it to Lisbon, Portugal the next morning, since I didn't have a passport. My parents were great, and helped us find and buy a new flight, and figure out what to do. The whole day was a disaster.

Things started looking better the rest of the weekend. We formulated a plan for Monday (tomorrow, please pray!), and hopefully I can walk in and get a new passport and take our flight to Lisbon, and make it to our cruise on time. We have to be there at 3:30 P.M., so tomorrow will be a race against the clock, if anything fails to go perfectly smooth.
Madrid was great though, for what we did get to enjoy! We went to the Reina Sofia and the Museo de Arte Thyssen, and walked around the town a bit. It was a hectic, stressful weekend, and I am lucky Ben is with me, and that he didn't decide to just go on ahead to Lisbon without me! We both decided we are very fortunate though, and to be optimistic about the whole thing... 1. At least nobody got hurt. 2 We happen to be in the city with the U.S. embassy and 3. We would rather be stuck here together than be in the states apart.
So everybody pray that things go well tomorrow! and have a very Happy Easter!
Oh and Ben says, "Hola Amigos!"

Granada and Denia

Hola Todos!
This past weekend I went to Granada, it was SO beautiful. It's very different from most of the cities I have seen in Spain, because it's in the middle of some of the highest mountains in all of the country. In fact, from our hotel we could see the Sierra Nevada Mountains. When we arrive in Granada, we headed straight to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is this gorgeous castle that is so different from other castles in Spain, because it is 1. Christian based and not Catholic and 2. islamic style and not gothic (I wish I knew i wish more of what that actually meant). The insides were carved with ancient writing and symbols and the ceilings all represented different things. After a complete tour of the inside, we headed to see the gardens and many fountains and ate our lunches.
We then took our things to the hotel, which could not have been any better located. That night we went to see a live Flamenco dance! That was probably my favorite part of Granada, because it was in a cave and very traditional. These dancers bang their clog like high heals on the ground to make beats while the other women dance, clap, and sing. It's very different from other dances and it sorta keeps you interested because of all the loud noises and beats being made simultaneously.
It was a quick trip to Granada, we were gone for not even two full days. I loved it though!

Sunday morning I ran another half marathon! Manolo, his friend George, Chris and I all ran in it, all with slightly different goals. Mine was to break my best time, which I had been trying to do for 3 years. Out of all the races I have ever run in my life, with the exception of maybe my full marathon, this one had the prettiest scenery. We ran along the beach so if we turned to our left we saw water, birds, sand, and people and if we turned to our right we saw mountains with fog spilling over their highest points. This continued for probably half the race and the other half was through the hilly little town. We winding our way through narrow streets and past all these bright colored houses. Maybe that is why I got my RECORD TIME! 1:48:36. and I won my age division... I walked away with a 2 foot trophy and two tickets to Spain's best amusement park.
It was quite a morning.
After driving home, showering, etc., I headed with my family to the country house for an awesome meal! Oh, and I would probably have slept really well Sunday night, if I didn't wake up every 10 minutes thinking about how Ben is going to be here so soon. Only three hours now....! So I should probably study for my two tests I have this week before I have an excuse (other than the beach) not to study. Hasta!!!

April Fools!

I just had a successful day, despite the dreary Alicante weather we have been having. It was one of those days where I just felt motivated, and everything was making me laugh and making me crack jokes in Spanish. I am sure I think things are funnier than they really are, but I love laughing with mi familia, because it reminds me of my family at home. I tried to explain April Fool's day to mi madre, and she just said she was glad that Fransisco didn't have an entire holiday that he could dedicate to tricking her. Come to think of it, I am thankful for that too. He is the kind of brother who would put a fake spider on my pillow and say "April Fools."
Today I got my haircut! I was very fearful that it would turn out to be just like the most popular hairstyle in Spain... the mullet. But no worries, it turned out normal. And Mom, I have bangs (kinda)!
I decided to go ahead and post some pictures of the American party we had 3 weeks ago at Mi amiga Vicky's house. Better late than never right?
I might have briefly mentioned this earlier, but Vicky invited 10 people, which ended up being about 20 people, and I invited 2 of my friends, which ended up being four, and we had quite a party. We cooked what we thought are the most typical American foods, hence the high carb, high butter, high sugar foods that follow. We made a spinach artichoke dip, macaroni and cheese, celery with peanut butter (whoops I forgot to buy the raisins!), PB&Js, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Sloppy Joes, and Cookies and Brownies for dessert. The one request Vicky had was that we made punch, because they thought that punch is the drink of Americans, because it is apparently in a lot of movies made in the U.S.... I have never noticed that, but I guess her and all of her friends had.
We were quite a site to see in the tiny kitchen. Ben told me to mention to all my friends about my cooking habits, which consist of cooking at triple the speed of any other human while never cleaning up after myself. At least my bad habits (which I think is more of a skill really) came in handy. When you are cooking for 25 people and every recipe calls for melted butter, a lot of speed is needed. We ended up serving the food in rounds, and explaining the significance of each food as we brought it to the table. It was interesting cooking with Spanish ingredients. The differences between what ingredients are sold here verses in the U.S. are endless. In the cookies alone we substituted granulated brown sugar for regular, couldn't find baking powder (or soda maybe?), brown eggs vs. white, sugared vanilla vs. liquid vanilla, whole wheat vs white flour, and cut up chocolate bar vs chips. Those were just the substitutions for one recipe. So needless to say, the sloppy joes did not taste at all what my Mom's sloppy joes usually taste like. But, the Spaniards didn't know the difference, and they loved it all! The only thing that really didn't work out well was the punch, because we couldn't find sherbert and had to use lemon ice, and that just wasn't the same, but it looked close enough.
After we ate we played charades for awhile... that was an interesting experience because even if I knew what they were acting out, I usually couldn't put it in Spanish words.
I really am glad I found such a great group of Spanish friends! Vicky is in the picture of me with the brownie mix.
Well, I need to get some sleep, I have to get up at 6:00 tomorrow morning so I can make it on a bus to head to Granada. Adios y Hasta Pronto!