I'm home and I feel lost and confused.  Aurora gave me her bracelet that she wears all the time and I was getting in the elevator to leave and then when I got down she told me I love you from the balcony. 

:(  I'll perk up after a couple of days. Today I get to see my family!

My mom and Leigh ( my sister) get here TOMORROW MORNING.  I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED.  I am going to take an overnight bus to get to the Madrid airport but i don't know if I will be able to sleep from the excitement.  During our trip we are going to Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, and Granada, then back to Alicante.  We will be here during Hogueras, the huge festival in Alicante that ends the 25th.  Yayyy! More later. Gotta go buy a cheap suitcase and spend my last day on the beach :(

More Greece pics...

GREECE (NOT Grease, like my Uncle Joe says)

Last night I got home from my trip to Greece!  It was incredible.  I went to places I never thought I would get to go in my life and saw some views and sunsets like I never thought I would.  We started in Athens and went to the Parthenon and saw a ton of ruins, went shopping for a little and bought our tickets for our ferries to get to the Cyclades, the Greek Islands! We bought tickets to go to Naxos and SANTORINI, my dream place!  So the next day at 5 pm we took off for Naxos- a 5 hour trip.  It was so pretty!  We got to our hotel and it was soooo nice.  We paid barely anything for such a nice hotel, and with big breakfast included with Greek yogurt and everything!  The guy that picked us up and who ran the hotel had a little lab puppy named Miguel and I just could not stop playing with it, i wanted to take it home and would have taken it with me to the islands on the ferry if i could have.  There were a ton of dogs on the ferries.  Anyway it had a cute little pool and everything.  I'll put up a pic of me by the pool.  

We only had about half a day in Naxos because of the ferry schedule, so then we left for another 3 hour ferry ride to Santorini at 12:55.  When we got to Santorini we got to our hotel and it was also extremely cheap and very nice.  We loved it.  We stayed near a black volcanic sand beach called Perissa Beach.  The first day in the afternoon we went to the beach then we went out for a tiny bit that night. Then the next day we rented 4-wheelers and literally went ALL over the island to all the different cities, and it was soo fun.  The 4 wheelers took us all the way to Oía, where the emblematic sunsets of the Grecian Islands are.  we arrived about 8:30 and waited on a ledge on the bleached white cliff town for the sunset.  LITERALLY one of the best moments of my life.  It was such a dream of mine to see it, and I did it.  Amazing!

Things I figured out about Greece:

Lots of volcanoes

cheap tourism (but its expensive to get there)

its not as hard as i though to get to the islands

Greek yogurt is really good with honey

there were burros with taxi signs on their heads...oh and burros are donkeys..

everyone almost speaks english

i love greece :)

I just got back from Mallorca, where I visited my teacher/friend Monica and her family!  It was just me and the three of them (her two kids, Cristina and Noah) and we spent a couple of days at their house in Palma.  They live in Columbia, MO but have a second house there in Mallorca because MOnica is from there and all her family and relatives still live there.  Although the kids had a ton of energy, it was a fun relaxing trip.  I brought Cristina (whos 5) a paper dolls book with stories in it and it kept her occupied for a long time!  She loved watching me take out and put in my contacts and of course I told her the story of how I ate my moms contacts when I was little.  She calls them my "circles." Noah is 17 months old and he doesnt really talk but he has this gaze that makes you want to say "what have I done!?" Ill show you a picture.  It was so fun being with the kids.  The first night when I got there we went to the beach and stayed for a couple of hours.  Noah went naked and Cristina and I in our bikinis tried to catch all the little fish by the shore.  Gorgeous!  Then the second day we went all over Palma seeing the city the coast and the cathedral.  We ate and then came home and siesta'd then Tini and I went to the pool, but it was freezing! We played around a little bit then we came home to eat and sleep!

Then this morning we woke up and ate breakfast and went to a little town called Valdemossa which is really cute and pretty, up in the mountains, giving me a complete other perspective of the island.  Sorry if this post is short but I am leaving in 2 hours for GREECE so I have to be quick!  My visit to Mallorca was awesome!  I cant wait to see Monica and the kids backa at Mizzou.  I will be babysitting for the baby boy this coming fall-YAY!!

I'm leaving in a couple of hours for Mallorca to see my professor/friend from Mizzou MONICA and her family (she is from there) and I'll be there two days then I come back and go to GREECE for 5 days and then after that....5 days til MY MOM AND LEIGH COME! YAY! THey get on the plane in 2 weeks.  Unbelievable.  I will be home in 25 days.  Absolutely nuts.

I'll be back next week to tell you all my tales!

Love you all!

The past week I have been working with my friend Julio at the bar he where he works, called Havana.  Its on the Rambla at the corner of where the Barrio begins.  I first worked Mon and Tues morning putting up posters all over the UNiversity with him then Tues and Wed night I worked from 11-3 passing out drink special flyers on the Rambla and basically walking around the Barrio and getting my friends free drinks.  It wasnt bad but the hours are a little crazy! Dont worry though, I am only working this week filling in for the girl that normally does it thats on vacation.  And I get paid.

I just got a new host sister on Sun.  Her name is Dylana and she is from Long Island, New York.  I love her!  we have become really good friends in the last couple of days, and get this...she leaves before I do!  she leaves the 25th of June.  She has really caught on to my group of friends which is wonderful because they really like her and she likes my friends better than hers :)I'll post pics of us soon!  Anyway, all is well and I am getting ready to go to Mallorca on the 2nd!  One of my best guy friends, Ravi, left this morning so I am a little bit sad.  Luckily last night after work we were able to go out for a little while and say goodbye.

Hasta luego!

Photos from recently!

We got together the other night and had a dinner to say bye to everyone.  My first close friend Robbie leaves tomorrow, then throughout the weekend almost all the ASU and Erskine people will be gone :(

My time in Alicante comes to an end very soon, I just realized. I come home in 5 weeks.

My friends from Arizona and South Carolina are all leaving this weekend, so it will be just us Mizzou kids. Last night Aurora went out the Barrio with Pedro to have a drink and when I went out with all my friends we saw them sitting there at Austin's. It was so fun.  I had ALL my Alicante people in one place :) :)

 I ended up spending the night at Xenia's because I dont like to walk home alone from the Barrio and we were both tired.  I sent Aurora a text message saying I was staying over and she sent one back that said "Me encanta que te diviertes sin beber mucho con tus amigos. I love you."

Which means..I love seeing you have such a great time with your friends without drinking a lot (probably because everyone else in the Barrio was drunk!) and I love you...in English! I am gonna miss her more than anyone when I come home. 

It scares me to think these next few days may be the last I will ever have with some of the amazing friends I have made here.  We have arranged to meet tomorrow after Armando's class to take a group picture, so we can remember everyone before they leave...

hmm.. sad. Well, I'm gonna write a paper so I gotta go (YES! SCHOOLWORK!) Love you all!

And I hope Deb had a fun birthday party!!

For more info about the significance of the Camino and the signs and symbols that guide the way (the shell):

http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/

El Camino

The Camino de Santiago was absolutely AMAZING!  I think I enjoyed it more than any other trip I have taken in Europe.  We walked from Orense after taking the night train all through Spain and we walked a little over 100 kilometers over 4 days, then spent one day in Santiago getting our certifications and such, the took the night train and then another train back to Alicante.  It was quite a trip but we had such a good time.  I was lucky and finished with only a hurting right ankle and a toenail that is about to fall off.  Others ended up with NASTY blisters covering their entire feet that they had to get sewn up.  I thank my wonderful Asics for getting me through it.  The group that went was an awesome group of friends of mine from Mizzou and Arizona, and I can't remember a moment that we weren't laughing throughout the whole trip, even when we had 5 km straight uphill.  All we ate during the day was bread, chorizo, cheese, and wine, then at night we got a hot meal.  Wine on the trail is a bit much and makes the hills more difficult, but more fun.  Almost all the water in Galicia is potable, so we drank from fountains along the way.  The first night, we slept in a gorgeous 12th century monastery and used the monks showers..the second through fourth nights we slept in Albergues, which are pilgrim shelters, and they were actually pretty nice.  My goal was to never get in a bad mood and I didn't the entire time..Even the 3rd day where we hiked 33 km with the final 5km uphill in the pouring rain.  Finally making it to Santiago de Compostela, seeing the cathedral, and going to the pilgrim's mass there was incredible.  The priest personally welcomed our group during the mass and Armando, our director that went with us (and who sang to wake us up every morning) was a lector during the service!  It was amazing.  I will try to post the video of Armando as well, but it may take forever.  The pictures will tell the rest of the story.  Enjoy!

I'm leaving in an hour for the CAMINO! I have my backpack all ready and packed with my stuff..wish me luck! See you Wednesday! If you look closer at the map, we walk from Ourense to Santiago de Compostela.  Ourense is toward the south east.

LONDON!

This weekend I went to LONDON with my friend Lauren.  We had a great time!  The first day, after a slight mix up in our hostel, we basically explored London by foot, the best way.  We didnt yet want to buy an Underground pass or anything so we walked all day.  We went to Hyde Park, Notting Hill, and a bunch of different places.  We ate traditional English food for lunch that day-Fish and Chips! Chips being fries.  The menu had all stuff like cottage pie and shepherds pie--sausage sandwiches and peas!  Peas! Peas with everything!  We saw the Big Ben clock tower, and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (the queen WAS there!), but there were soo many people there that we almost got pushed!  I had to throw a few people off me with my elbows :) It was wild but very cool.  Very traditional.  I loved about London that they had everything--mostly in terms of food, Thai food, Indian food, American food, English food, Chinese food, natural food, organic food, juices, smoothies, salads, everything!  It was great!

The second day we conquered the Underground and went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone and soooo many other neat things and went to Soho and Covent Gardens, two really cool zones of the city.  We walked all around Picadilly Circus and looked for cheap tickets to see either Lion King or Wicked the following day or that night, we finally found tickets for a mere 19 pounds!  I hate pounds!  But...we bought them and went to see WICKED the next day in LONDON! How cool!  The show was great, but it was different with British accents. I liked the Fox better, butttt....still, it's London, and we saw a MUSICAL there!

The last day (sat) we did the changing of the guard and we got there at 10am.  It happens at 11:30.  At 11:20 all these people started to push their way through so I had to get a little serious with them.  I told them the truth, that if they had wanted to see and get a good spot, they should have also arrived at 10:00.  I didnt let anyone in, but then this lady come up with her son using him as an excuse to push their way through, the 8 year old kid walked up and climbed the fence so he was standing in front of all of us.  I said something finally and proclaimed how that was not right and that he did not have the right to be there since he had pushed his way through at the last minute.  Despite being pushed by Australians, Germans, Asians, French people, Russians, and even Spaniards, we decided it was time to get out of there..we saw what we needed to see.  I was astounded because the changing of the guard happens EVERY DAY, but there were probably 2000 people there.  It was WILD.  Such a tourist attraction.  

We saw a couple more things then went back to our hostel after eating in Soho at this Chinese buffet which was healthy, don't worry (i'm not kidding!). Then we prepared our journey for the next morning (3:50 am) and our flight took off at 7:15 am this morning.

 We made it home in time to spend the day on the beach--a weekend well spent.  

Today is Mother's Day in Spain, so Feliz Día de Madre to all the MOMS!

GERMANY!

I loved Germany!  It was so refreshing seeing an old friend from school and being able to just chat about everything!  Plus Germany is so beautiful and so green.  But the bus costs 2Euro each time!  Sometimes I dodged paying, because you just get on then buy a ticket, and Calley already had a ticket!  We ate so much good German vegetarian food and breads!! Tubignen has a precious river running through it, the Neckar, and it is soo pretty.  Check out the pics.  We went to this Spring Festival in Stuttgart, and it was basically a German beer festival!  We had fun dancing with all the German natives to their national drinking songs.  Of course, I had to try a big beer (after all, they only came in one size and I aaam 21!)  We had a great time, and don't worry of course we went home on the train.  Calley lives in a dorm building with a shared bathroom and kitchen.  It was really nice and she is lucky to have her own room.  We were a little tight trying to fit both of us in the bed, but we figured out that we could both JUST fit if we laid on our backs.  We went one night over to her friend Erins to make dinner and we walked by a farm with all these animals on the way over (something I would NEVER find in Alicante!)  The last night, we made ourselves this typical ravioli-type pasta with sauce...yummmm.  We went for a long two hour hike through the forest and fields and even to the next town over on Sunday, the day before I left.  It was soooo gorgeous, and wonderful to get some exercise and a hike with Cal!  I am very glad I went.  We were lucky to have great weather.  Germany is very different (AKA everything even the bus is on time, to the MINUTE!) but I enjoyed the change.  I kind of missed speaking Spanish, however...I didnt understand a single thing of the very complicated German.  I saw lots of my friends last names on buildings and stuff and it makes me realize how many Americans are of German origin.  And I also saw Molls and Zeit(er)s.  It was great!  I leave for London WEd. night, I am a busy girl.  I started classes back up this week, though.  Ahhhh...don't know if I'm ready for that.  Enjoy the pics and LOVE!