hello to all. we are currently in barcelona and we are TIRED! mandy´s not feeling super and still hasn´t exactly recovered from traveling. we have spent the day getting settled and we have seen several important sites. we went to the picasso museum, which was cool and it´s about to rain outside which is wonderful. we left the HOTEL purposely with our hair wet and were glad we did when it rained the first time. we have many many new friends. on our overnight adventure we met carolina from argentina who is doing her residency here in barcelona. right now we are traveling with a new friend, kami from utah, who is here by herself, CRAZY, and knows zero spanish. mandy slept very little on the train and amazingly enough, kate slept well, even snored (according to mandy who we all know occasionally lies. i´m working on her jay). i did definitely get a full night´s sleep but right now mandy must have a nap. the great news is that we aren´t anywhere close to our hotel. we checked out a hostal, the one we had directions too, and after encountering the sheman who would let us have the terrific room (dripping with sarcasm) for only 60€ a night. we opted for the cleaner and safer hotel for only a few euros extra. (mom and dad you have mandy to thank for my safety,)
we also have a little surprise for you all... mandy and i might have done something a little nutty. we fit in a little better now with our somewhat slightly darker hair. eek! professionals, really cute professionals in sevilla took care of us. mandy´s is only somewhat darker, whereas mine mmm mucho... you´ll see pictures soon. i´m sorry i keep promising them but the computer, internet situation has been altogether accomodating. we are going to try and see a couple more things today so that tomorrow we can see olympic park and hang out at the beach. thursday we will catch a train to gerona, then the flight to rome. we LOVE you all and if you want to talk to us and don´t mind paying... it´s free for us to receive calls and we can talk as long as you´re willing to pay. the number is 01134. 662.136.557 and also if you don´t have cell one service you can text us!! hope to hear from you all soon. mom thanks for updating me on all that is going on. glad the reunion was fun. love you.

Back in Sevilla where mint icecream tastes like donagel.

ok so i made it back today to sevilla and i´m exhausted. last night we didn´t sleep because we stayed up until 3 when we went to watch the final game between the spurs and the pistons. i was half asleep watching the game but we made it back to the hotel this morning in time for breakfast. right now it´s 9 at night and i just took a nap for 3 hours. i feel a little better but i´m already ready for bed. tomorrow i have to make sure everything is prepared for mandy to come. we´re currently building onto the apartement so mandy will have a room. we want to treat her like a queen. i´ve been planning our trip today and i´m sure this puts everyone´s minds at ease, taking into account my incredible ability to trip plan. i met this really nice guy in madrid who is a pilot so needless to say i´m trying to make a good impression... free flights anyone?
oh i just remembered another spainism... apparently here the movie credits are part of the movie. hilda and i went to see a movie in madrid and right after it ended, we like good moviegoers, gathered our things and stood up immediately when the credits started rolling. we exited the aisle quickly only to notice that no lights were coming on and no one was moving. we stood for a while on the side of the theater, which you will see a picture of soon (very small), until we decided we should sit back down. we proceeded to laugh a lot but we feel good about knowing who the second stuntman was.
well, right now i´m about to unpack my suitcase. hello to all the new commentors. will do better in the future responding and taking part in the comments section except for next week i´ll be off seeing the countryside again so my presence will be sporadic. love you all.

toledo and madrid

today we are having a free day in madrid so the first priority was to find an internet cafe. this one is operated by a japanese couple i think... they could be chinese but i'm unsure. this morning i explored the royal palace with aaron, kurtis, dr. stratton and donna. continue to think dr. stratton *who the kids call silver fox* is one of the coolest trip coordinators ever. he showed us today how to glide up royal staircases. all it takes is a slight knee bend apparently. we just ate lunch at a spanish fast food restaurant which serves tiny bocadillos, little sandwiches, for really cheap. we ate there last night too. i think we are about to go explore for the day because tomorrow will be et up with guided tour after guided tours. they take FOREVER!!!!!! i'm pretty good at reading all of the provided signs that accompany each exhibit. it's this crazy new skill i've started to acquire here in spain. must go for now. will send more pictures as soon as i make it back to sevilla. love y

new pictures... with me!!

here they are mom!

almost done with class!!! woohoo!!

yes there are five exclamation points in the title. i´m extremely excited that we are about to be done with class. i really don´t mind it that much but i feel like the kids are getting tired and worn down from hearing spanish all the time and i know how exhausting it can be. we have a review today because our exams are tomorrow. i have to give 9 oral exams that are 10 minutes each and then i have my exam tomorrow as well. for all of you who were wondering if i had seen the light and changed my ways with regard to procrastinating... i haven´t. i have several hundred things to do today but i´m not sure how well i would function if i didn´t procrastinate. today after class my housemom has invited my friends over for lunch. that should be fun... she´s been cooking for a couple of days now. apparently everything can´t be prepared in 20 minutes. what else?... oh, one of my everyday happinesses... there are coffee vending machines here, fully equipped with every option i need except a sweet n low button. for only 40 cents i get a cup of decaf coffee, sometimes with sugar sometimes without, depending on how many extra packets of sweet n low i´ve got in my bag, with milk. mmmm... i wish i hadn´t already had mine this morning because i´m already craving it again. maybe i´ll bring a couple of these vending machines home with me as presents. i´m sure they weigh under 70 lbs. hope you like coffee!! ok everyone should comment and let me know how you are doing!!!! much love.

weekend at the beach

hola a todos. this past weekend we didn´t have any crazy trips planned to explore spain so we went to house families beach apt. we went on friday after we got home from seeing the port from which colombus set sail. we got to see replicas of the niña, the pinta and the santa maría, which by the way, the santa maría is the biggest of the three. i was unaware of that fact because the santa maría was in the middle of the other two so when you see them you naturally think that the pinta should go in the middle. anyway, we also went to a monastery and to a medieval castle where we saw a disgusting display of torture devices. really, i thought preston was going to be disturbed for the rest of the day after reading every one of the explanations of how the torture devices were used. ok so back to the beach, we got there (san lucar) late friday night and stayed until yesterday evening. hilda, the girls (alicia and lindsay), house mom, lola, two of her cousins and i stayed in a cozy apartment about a 10-minute walk from the beach. yesterday it was really windy so we stayed at the beach just long enough to get sand in our crevices. house mom cooked the whole weekend, so needless to say, this wasn´t the beach food we´re accustomed to. well, right now i have to prepare class for the next three days and do my homework before i go to class. in theory it works better to do your homework before you go. i´m going to test the theory today. i´ll let you know the results. hope you are all doing wonderfully. love you!!!

more pics

check snapfish, there are more pictures.

granada

hello to all from granada. we got here yesterday in the morning and walked for three hours in la alhambra. everyone can ask lindsey to explain just exactly how huge this building is. it took us the full three hours to see everything, i´m not even sure we saw everything. then we went to a cathedral in the afternoon that was incredible. this morning we went to a cloistered monastery (the nuns enter and never leave). needless to say i CANNOT imagine living there. it is a beautiful building but i think i might go nuts not being able to leave. the women living there make lots of handmade stuff though and sell it in the little shop at the entrance. after leaving the group, hilda and i and a couple of our friends went searching for this famous poet´s house and we walked for a really long time only to get there and it was closed. we weren´t too upset though but then we went to this mall where everything was closed because it´s siesta hour here. we decided to sit down and eat some icecream in one of the cafes that was open and there was a group of men staring at us from the time we entered until the time we left. hilda was about to get something else to drink when we realized that they had stopped talking and were just staring. like the idiot that i am and a little fed up, we got up and i raised my voice slightly and let them know that we knew what they were saying and could they just please stop. i think we´ve decided that lola´s influenced me a little. i didn´t say anything really harsh or ugly but it was really ridiculous. after i said my few words, i sat down and got all of their phone numbers and email addresses so all of my friends back home can have hot spanish boyfriends. i hope it doesn´t matter that some of them were really old and missing teeth. hehe. well, right now i´m about to go take a quick nap before we explore some more of the city. love you all!!