Tacoma and Seattle

One of my first few tasks of my new job, was to take a trip to Washington. Of course, I was thrilled, even though it was a little 2 1/2 day trip. I had never been out farther west than Colorado/Arizona, let alone the west coast.
The whole point of the trip was for me to get to know the office staff in the Northwest office. Although I work from the Denver office, I also associate with the media in the Northwest. It was important that I meet the people I will be working alongside, as well as get to know some of the cities I will be trying to reach.
The office staff was so sweet and generous! By the time I flew in, I really only a day in the office to get to know them. The view out of their office was breathtaking; so breathtaking that I couldn't wait to get out of the office and out for a run.
I ended up running for six miles, it felt great not to be running at 4,000 feet! After my run, the NW office staff, their families, and I went out for a Thai dinner. It was great getting to meet everyone and spend some time outside of the office together.
My hotel (picture below) was on sticks in the water! It looked like a hotel from a movie, and the rooms were so nice! It was hard to get myself to leave the quaint hotel to head to downtown Seattle, but I am glad I did. Not only did I see the first starbucks, but I saw the other 50 starbucks that exist in the downtown Seattle area. Sherry, the church relations intern of the NW office, gave me a little tour of Seattle. We saw Pike Place Market, where they throw the fish back and forth. We saw the space needle (or the space noodle, like what Bob prefers to say every time he refers to it) and walked to the first Nordstrom. We also saw this hilarious live comedy show- competition comedy.
I had a blast in Seattle, and I hope to go back soon!

Redrocks, Colorado

Here our some pictures from a little hike I took in the Redrocks Park, just outside of Denver. Laura, my friend from Spain, and I went on a short 2 mile hike before we had dinner in the historical town of Golden. Although we weren't hiking for a long period of time, it was beautiful to see all the red rocks against the brightest blue skies. The rocks open up to form a natural amphitheater; there is always some concert or movie going on at the theater. Artists love playing on the stage... the Beatles have even performed there!

After our hike we went to a local Golden grill, and I tried my first buffalo burger (that I recall at least.) It was a great night, and I had to get home semi-early to pack for my short trip to Seattle.
I love Colorado. It is so pretty; although I have only been here for two weeks now, I know for a fact the view of the mountains will never get old. I still can't help but just stare off into the horizon (while I am driving even, which could become a problem.)
I will be sure to update you about Seattle in these next couple of days!

Hello from CO

Hi everyone!

I am going to start writing consistently again! I seem to have a lot to write about, now that I started my new job. For those of you who don't know, I moved to Denver (well, Aurora), Colorado a week ago! I am the new Operation Christmas Child media intern for the Northwest and Southwest Regions of the U.S.. This basically means that I send press releases to hundreds of media outlets in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Alaska, and then call them to follow-up with the release. I try to convince them to publish something about our wonderful project in their newspaper or broadcast something on their radio or TV station.

I guess I should explain the project...

Operation Christmas Child, started by Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse, is the largest Christmas Project ever created. People in the U.S. (and other 1st world countries) pack items in shoe boxes that can be sent around the world to kids who would otherwise would not receive a Christmas gift. Some items that I always put in the boxes I send are socks, hard candy, matchbox cars, stuffed animals, paper, pens, crayons, glue, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and other small toys. After a shoe box is packed, it is taken to a collection site, and then brought to a processing center where the box is checked and loaded for transportation to another country. The boxes are taken to 130 different countries; many are transported via boat, airplane, or truck, but some are brought to the countries by camel or elephant! Once the boxes are in the countries, they are handed out by members of the local churches to as many children as there are boxes. The best part about the whole project is that whoever receives a box is guaranteed to hear the gospel as well. They are given a copy of the gospel in their language, and told repeatedly that Jesus loves them. Our goal is to send 8.2 million shoe boxes this year... 8.2 million children will be smiling!

As most of you know, I got back from Spain this past May after a semester studying abroad. I used this blog to write about my adventures there. Now I am transforming it into a blog about Operation Christmas Child (OCC). I am going to update it with stories, pictures, and amazing things that happen with OCC, and the occasional story about what I am doing in Colorado. I will also post specific things you can pray for. I hope that you all enjoy it, and I pray that this will inspire every reader to GO PACK A SHOEBOX!

Sarah

despues Espana

So I remember thinking 1 month ago that when I got back to the U.S. I would continue to blog, and I would write tons of follow-up blog posts about differences between the U.S. and Spain, and how I adjusted back into the culture, etc. In reality, I have been doing nothing these past few weeks. Yes, I have a job babysitting, and I have been hanging out with friends and family, but it took me a full three weeks to get adjusted to the point that I would want to write. The weird part was, that it didn't happen slowly but surely, as I figured it would have. It just sort of hit me; I was readjusting, readjusting, readjusting, with the vivid memories of Spain, my Spanish family, and my Study abroad friends in the front of my mind. Then, one day, I went hours without thinking about speaking Spanish or of the past five months.
I guess I am fully readjusted, with random lapses when I recall laying out on the beach all day, or being challenged in one constant flow verses solid chunks (I'll explain that in the next paragraph). Being back in Indiana makes me realize that I love Indiana. I love driving and riding in cars. I love cooking my own food, and eating pancakes every day. I love texting (hate to admit that I still text as much as I did before, despite being without it for 5 months). I love spending time with my family and friends. I have enjoyed watching my brother and his team play numerous baseball games, and making it to state. There are so many great things here that I love, and there are so many great things there I love.
As I mentioned before, I miss constantly being challenged. I miss mi madre correcting my Spanish and being forced to study if I wanted to communicate. Now I have gone back to speaking English (thanks to my family labeling our entire house in English words, just in case I had forgotten them) and I feel like my Spanish might slip away. Of course I try to speak to Ben in Spanish when I can, but we always default back to English. I miss being challenged daily. Things might happen here that challenge me, don't get me wrong. These things are very different though; they happen all at once and I have to just deal with and move on verses seeing it as one huge 5 month long challenge. It's ok though, because me maintaining what I learned in Spain through studying, reading, and talking Spanish is something I am fully prepared and wanting to be challenged with.
I miss siestas though; I think the U.S. should try siestas out for a week. Wouldn't you all like a 1 hour nap after you eat lunch every day? It would make the U.S. and healthier, happier place... maybe we should try it.

....

As many of you know, I have yet another adventure coming up soon! I am moving to Denver, Colorado for an internship through Samaritan Purse's Operation Christmas Child. After the application and interview process, I was asked and I committed to working a full six months with OCC, helping out with their Public and Media relations. I cannot WAIT for this job. I am going to grow in my faith, I just know it, not to mention I will learn more about the Communication field then I thought possible.
Since I am going away again, I will maintain my blog. I need to warn you all though, it will probably be a little boring without my European adventures and pictures to spice things up. Then again, maybe not, because I decided to take up rock climbing....

Last Blog from Spain... only 2 weeks late!

Well, this is it… my last few hours in Spain. I am sitting in the Madrid airport writing this post, but by the time I put it on my blog I’ll already be home. I had to say goodbye to Alicante this morning when I left at 6:35 AM, but what a way to say goodbye! The plane took off as the sun was rising over the mountains, city, and blue sea, and I waved goodbye to my home. It’s crazy to think about how my semester here has flown by, yet I don’t feel as if I have wasted one moment of it. Everything I did has helped me learn something; obviously I have greatly improved my Spanish, but I think I also improved myself.

This week was a long one because I was the last of my friends to leave Alicante. Therefore, I was the one who ran around saying goodbye to everyone. I am going to miss everyone; my friends are the only people on the planet who will truly understand what we all went through, good and bad, in Alicante. I was starting to get worried when I hadn’t shed a tear, but then I went to the country house with my family on Sunday.

It was such a perfect way to end my stay here. Everything was just so normal, and my family was my family even though I was freaking out about having to leave. We swam in the newly finished pool (which they built by hand!), ate lunch (best food EVER!), and of course talked about everything in Spanish (Proving that I have improved greatly!). When it came time to say goodbye, I lost it. Maria Jose turned to me and said that she and her husband needed to leave, so we needed to say goodbye. She tried to give me the normal dos besos (a kiss on each cheek) but I just pulled her and gave her a huge American style hug. Although we look like polar opposites, she is the closest thing I have to a real sister. I started balling, and dos beso-ing and hugging everyone only became more difficult. After about 20 people, I seriously couldn’t catch my breath between crying and trying to speak broken Spanish; I cannot remember the last time I cried that hard. I said goodbye to Maria Carmen, Fran, Claudia, and gordito (Kay… gordito literally means “little fatty,” his nickname). For the last week, Kay has been running around saying, “Sarah! Guapa!” He just mastered saying Mama, Papa, and a few other words, one of them being my name. I don’t care what language you speak, if a little kid who just started talking can say your name, it makes you feel very important. I will miss that for sure.

Claudia gave me a huge kiss and said, “No te preocupes sarah, nosotros vamos a visitar tu y benito en los estados unidos, claro mama!?” That translates to, “Don’t worry Sarah, we will come to visit you and ben in the U.S., right Mommy?” At this point, the whole family proceeded to tell me that they insist that not only I marry Ben, but have the wedding on the beaches of Alicante. They continued to create the whole wedding, including the reception which would take place at their country house. Of course we all laughed when they mentioned how many ovens we would need to cook chicken and rabbit for their family and my family. At this point, the laughing mixed with the crying produced some snorting, and I had 30 people hugging, kissing, and laughing at me. Only with family can you do all that in front of, and walk away not embarrassed, but missing the people who laughed at you.

I know that many of you are going to ask me what my favorite part of studying abroad was. That is an unfair, ridiculous, and loaded question; however, I am probably one of the few who can answer it. I mean, there are about 20 different parts that I could say, but one that I could mean with all of my heart. The beach, Semana Santa, Las Fallas, Paella, Palma Mallorca, my cruise, learning Spanish, my teachers at school, beating my half marathon time, the Valencia region, cooking classes, drinking wine, getting to know some awesome people I will never forget… yeah those are all highlights. But, my family, they were definetly the ones who made my trip the best. I would say 80% of my best memories include my family. They are the ones I laughed with the most. I told Maria Carmen that if she ever didn’t want Claudia or Kay, I would adopt either one of them. Of course she thought I was joking, but I am so serious, I love them like my little brother and sister.

The best way to describe my madre here is to say that she is exactly like my madre at home. How on earth do I have two awesome Moms? Amazing cook, loves everyone, genuinly kind to everyone, a little crazy at times (in a good way), always carrying conversations with me, and a great friend. Saying goodbye to her was extremely difficult. She insisted that I come back to visit, and I promised her that I would without hesitation. The last thing she said when I walked out the door at 4:45 this morning was, “Remember Sarah, we are your family 100%. Not just me, but you will always have 10 more aunts, more cousins than you can count, and a niece and nephew who love you like an aunt. Let me know when you get home or I won’t be able to sleep. And I love you.”

I am going to miss my Spanish family as much as I miss my American family. Yes, I am thrilled to be coming home and I have learned a lot about myself through all of this. But above all, I somehow gained another family, which I never thought was even possible. And I love them all.

Baptismo y Palma Mallorca

Hola!
Well, a week from today I will be home! As much as I can't wait to see my family, eat Mexican food (I know, weird), and sleep in my own bed, I also don't want to leave. I also can't believe Joey is graduating in a couple of weeks, which also means I am a junior in college!
This past week has been a good one. I took my huge Spanish final, which I had studied a lot for, and I think I did well. In fact, even if I get an 85% on it, I will be fully content knowing that I know 85% of the irregular verbs in the Spanish language. (If you have studied a foreign language, you know exactly what I am talking about.)
Last Sunday, I had such a neat opportunity, that turned into one of the best days yet with my family. I was invited to go with my family to Claudia and Kay's baptism. Before the ceremony, Fran and I drove to get the cake, which was made by the same lady I took tapas class from back in February. (Small world, even on this side of the world.) After we successfully carried the wedding sized cake up to our 5th floor apartment (and that is just as hard as it sounds), we made our way to the ceremony. It was held in an old Catholic church, complete with all the decorations, stained glass windows, and huge ceilings. Claudia and Kay looked beautiful in their little white outfits, and I was surprised when we arrived that they ran up and kissed me. (man I am gonna miss these kids). The ceremony was short and sweet, and I understood a fair amount of what was being said. Afterwards, the whole family headed to a restaurant for lunch... just imagine 70 people at a restaurant. It was a fun afternoon; we were served a four course meal which took around 5 hours to finish. They really take their time with meals over here. When we were done around 6:00, Claudia and Kay's more immediate family and I headed to a local carnival and the kids rode some rides while we all had coffee. It was such a great day, and I am so lucky to be considered a sister in this family, therefore an aunt to these kids.
The week flew by, probably because it was filled with exams, projects, and of course la playa (the beach). On Friday, Kim, Tessa, and I left for Palma, Mallorca! If you know anything about Spanish geography, we went to one of the three islands to the right of inland Spain. Our flight was only 30 minutes long. Once we arrived in Palma, we took a bus from the airport, and headed to the city to have breakfast. We tried ensaimadas, which are the sweet pastries that Palma is so famous for. We met up with Chris and Quinn, who both had a later flight. It was hot and the beach was gorgeous, so we opted to go straight there. On the way, we ran into a fresh market, so we bought some bread, cheese, and fruit for lunch. The water was crystal clear, and perfect for swimming. We swam REALLY far out, I felt like I was in the middle of the ocean. We ran into random sand bars where we could stand, and then we would hit deep spots. We had a blast swimming, and I never felt like I would get attacked by huge animals because I could see my feet because the water was so clear.
Saturday morning, we went the Cuevas del Drach. We actually rented a car and drove all the way across the island. That definitely went smoother than we figured it would. We went on a tour of these huge caves, which led to an underground lake! There were tons of stalagmites everywhere we turned. When we got to the bottom, we watched a 10 minute classical music concert, played by musicians who were floating in boats on the underground lake. The music sounded beautiful, because we were in caves, and afterwards we actually got to take a 5 minute boat ride across the lake!
Once we were out of the cuevas, we bought another picnic lunch and sat on some benches while to eat. We safely (thanks to Tessa's amazing driving skills... ) made it back to the other side of the island. As soon as Quinn mentioned that we had done great, not got lost, not crashed, etc., we tried to park the car in a spot, on a hill. After nearly crashed 4 times, we ran inside to ask the owner of the hotel to park it for us. We all watched as he banged the front and the back of our precious rental car into the other parked cars, but at least no damage was done. We decided not to press our luck any further, and walked to the beach leaving the car where it was parked for the rest of the day.
Palma was so fun, and I think that might be my favorite little weekend trip we did all semester!

Crazy stories

Well, this past week in Alicante has flown by. I had two very big presentations that I had to prepare for, and they both went well. I feel more and more confident in my Spanish; I was comfortable enough to get up in front of the class and talking about gastronomy in Spanish for almost 30 minutes. It was a bit hard to speak Spanish with mi madre right when I returned home, just because I was a little out of practice. However, I already feel like I am right where I left off, which is encouraging.

Well, I have more to share about the end of our trip… I am sure most of you have heard the stories… but Ben and I had quite an adventure, thanks to my stupidity (or “mistakes I have since learned from”). The last day of our cruise we stopped in Split, Croatia. Croatia was very different from other European cities, especially since they only recently became a country. There are many historical sites to see, but not many that Croatia can call their own. Ben and I had an excursion booked through our ship to go see Krka falls, supposedly the tallest falls in all of Europe. The 1 ½ hour bus ride to get to the falls was great; we got to see so much scenery that we would have missed if we had stayed on the coast. Croatia is pretty, and a lot greener than Spain. We made it to the falls and went on a 2 hour hike up and around them. There are little bridges built over some of the smaller falls so we were able to actually go over them and see some gorgeous views. We also saw water mills and other ways they use the falls to obtain energy. On the way back to our ship, we passed a huge Croatian palace and the city of Split. Croatia is so different, but I really enjoyed my time there.

Of course our last night on the ship was spent playing scrabble, and going to the last dinner so we could say goodbye to the people we ate with every night. It was a great experience to live on a boat for 13 days, but I was a little tired of it by the end, so I was glad to be going back to Alicante. Little did we know, when we got off our ship and headed to Venice, that was when the adventure started.

Venice was great; it was our second time there, so we had no trouble navigating our way through the city. I really like Venice; I think it might be my favorite city in Italy, so I was thrilled to go back. Although very touristy, it’s so different because it’s all on water, and I just love all the boats and that the city has one constant blue tint to it. We went to a very local pizza place, found out that we still don’t know any Italian, and made our way to the main square. We had 6 ours in the city, and managed to find our way to the airport no problem. All was going well, until we realized that we were at the WRONG AIRPORT. We should have researched it a little more, but now we know that Venice has two airports, one that was basically built just for the airline we were flying with aka where we were supposed to be. Fortunetly, the problem was easily (yet expensively) fixed, and our 70 euro taxi ride allowed us to catch our flight to Barcelona. We though that we were on track, until we flew into Barcelona (trying to catch our next flight in 65 minutes) and realized that we were in the WRONG AIRPORT. Of course, I felt very dumb at this point, and really regretted that I didn’t take the time to mapquest these airports. This is what I learned: Just because the airport name has the main city name in the title, doesn’t mean that it is remotely close to the main city. We found out that 1. The airport we needed was 2 ½ hours away on a good day 2. A new plane ticket would cost 300 Euros, Each. 3. A car was the best option. Of course I was upset and was feeling stupid and helpless, but I could see the thrill in Ben’s eyes when we decided to rent a car.

Our goal was to make it back to Alicante by 11:00 AM the next morning, just in time to head to the country house with mi familia. By the time we left, it was already almost 10 at night, and we were literally a 30 minute drive from the French border. If you have seen a map of Spain, you understand that we had basically the entire East coast to drive in 13 hours. Nonetheless, Ben and I proceeded to get directions, and were advised to follow the coast, and stay off the A-7 tollroad. My favorite part of the entire 3 weeks with Ben in Europe was this car ride. I hate to admit that I am thrilled that our mistakes led to this. We drove (we may or may not have drove fast) and follwed the coast. We stopped at a McDonalds (with fear of every source of food closing in the next few hours), ate dinner, and got 6 burgers to go (just in case we got hungry, you never know). We were doing fine, until Barcelona. I would love to be able to say that getting lost in Barcelona for 2 hours was frustrating, but I loved it. We seemed to be going in circles, but at the same time, we got to see all these famous sites from such a new perspective. After asking for directions, messing those directions up, getting more directions, messing those directions up, and getting more directions, we were on the road again! We drove until 3 AM, until we decided to stop and sleep in our car. Ben really wanted (and in my opinion needed : ) ) a shower, so we decided to stop in Taragona and see if any hotel would let us shower for a few Euros. Maybe it was because it was late, or maybe because we couldn’t find any non-ritzy hotels, but the kindest response we got was (in a thick accent), “You just want to shower?” We decided that we needed to rest, so we parked on the side of the road and took a two hour nap. Don’t worry though, I was very hesitant about this part of the trip, so we picked the safest spot we could possibly find. At 5 AM, we got back on the road, stopped for Red Bulls, and continued our journey. We drove on all these roads that swerved through the mountains while the sun was rising. It was breathtaking. My eyes kept shutting, so it was a good thing that Ben was wide awake. We passed through Valencia, and all mountains of eastern Spain. We passed the fields of windmills, the town where I got my best half marathon time in, an amusement park, the rock of Benidorm. We basically drove through all the towns I wanted to show Ben. We made it to Alicante and mi madre generously offered Ben a shower, and after we were both clean, we headed to the country house with mi familia!

It was such a relief that we had made it to Alicante, and the afternoon made every trouble of the trip worth it. Mi famila ADORED Ben, and Ben definetly spoke better Spanish than everyone expected. We played with Claudia y Kay, gave Ben a tour of all the houses, ate an amazing oven cooked meal, went on a walk, and spent a great day with mi familia. My Spanish family invited Ben to stay in the extra room we have here, so he wouldn’t have to stay in a hotel. It was already quite an honor that they invited him to the country house, but the fact that they invited him to sleep at our house meant that they considered him family. The next morning, I went with Ben to the airport, and although we were both sad to say goodbye, we were thrilled that Alicante has only one airport, and we definetly got that one right…

So needless to say, after all that adventure, Monday afternoon I took a 5 hour nap. Tuesday was a busy day, and I was still recovering a little. Wednesday I had my interview with Operation Christmas Child. It went fairly well, and I will find out within a couple of weeks if I get a second interview. Although I REALLY want this internship, I also realize that I will end up where God wants me. But, everyone keep praying por favor!

I can’t believe I have only about two weeks left here in Alicante. I am a little homesick now, but I know I will miss Alicante one I am home. It’s weird having two places that I call home now. But I will see you all very soon! May 18^th!

¡Adios Amigos!

¡Tened un día bueno!

¡Disfrutad vuestro tiempo primavera!

¡Y cuando yo llegare a Los Estados Unidos, mi gustaría pasar mi tiempo con todos de vosotros!

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!"