Advertisement
Avila
Beautiful tulips and flowers inside of the wall and all around Avila. Hey guys! This has been a pretty good weekend so far. I haven't done much today at all. It's gone by pretty fast but thats cause I went to Madrid yesterday to go shopping-yay- and meet up with a few people! This is my last weekend in Avila and I cannot believe how quickly it has all gone by. There have definitely been moments where I thought it would never end, but for the most part I have loved my time here. I have learned so much about myself, what I am capable, how I handle situations, being out of my comfort zone---waaaay out of it, becoming more independent, etc. The list could go on, and so I am thankful that I've had this opportunity to grow in this well as well as really experience the Spanish culture, improve my Spanish, teach, and travel. I'd say its bittersweet with things coming to an end, but I'm trying to make the most of the time I have left. I am SOOOO excited to go to Granada (I have been told its the most beautiful city/town in Spain), Cordoba, and Marbella! I'm looking forward to seeing more of Spain! And its going to
FIESTA!!!
Fiesta for Ester and Ana's birthdays.
(Sara, Ester, Rachel, me) be nice and warm-about 80-85 deg F. Its time to get a bit of a tan, even though I think I'm going to blind people at first cause its been a while since I've been in the sun! 😉
I went to Madrid yesterday, like I said, to do some shopping. I had wanted to get up around 7 am to get ready and not be rushed, take the 7:30 bus up to the station since its a HUGE uphill climb for about 20 minutes and then be there about 30 min ahead of time. Well, this did not happen. I set my alarm for 7 pm rather than 7 am, so I woke up on my own and I was laying in bed and thought to myself "It seems kind of light out to be 7 am." And its true, it was light out to be 7 am, but it wasn't 7 am, it was 7:40 am. My train was going to leave at 8:20. I flew out of bed and was running around like a chicken with its head cut off (thank goodness I had taken a shower the night before!). I threw on some clothes, grabbed my makeup and the stuff I needed for the day, and took off for the bus station. Unfortunately my plan of taking the bus so that I didn't have to climb up the "mountain" wasn't going to work...instead of taking the nice, leisurely bus ride, I took a morning "sprint" up the mountain. Lovely. Yes, I walk around here all the time, but I definitely do not run a lot, and when I do run, its on flat land, not up a mini-mountain. Needless to say when I got to the station I was pretty much wheezing and gasping for air and looked like you know what. I had about 7 minutes to go to the bathroom and calm down, freshen up, and get to the platform. Normally, I would have just decided to take the train that came 30 minutes later to give myself some more time, but I had bought the ticket the night before and didn't want to pay another 7 euros (about $8). I made it and once I was able to breathe again, all was well.
Shopping was successful in Madrid. I was going for 4 things that I had on a list. This included a Spain travel book, shoes, a swim suit, and jeans. I got all but the shoes. The Spain travel book will come in handy with recommending things to do in each city/town and little things that I might otherwise miss if it were not for the book. Emily has one and its been really helpful when we have all traveled around. I REALLY needed jeans since I have lost weight from being here...the food is just a lot more healthy, in smaller portions, and I walk every where! It was either I get new jeans or a pair of suspenders because when I walk around I'm constantly having to pull up my pants because they sag so easily! I also met up with this guy from Madrid named Miguel and 2 other girls from the States. Miguel's girlfriend goes to IU so when he was visiting her last fall, she introduced him to me. He invited me to meet up for lunch with them yesterday. One of the girls was from IU and the other was from Minnesota. They'd be studying in Florence and are now traveling around for a bit. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. It was nice to just hang out with a different group of people over here since its always the same group here in Avila (no offense to anyone from the Residencia reading this!). The day was gorgeous in Madrid yesterday, so we sat outside for a goooood lunch and then walked and got some ice cream! Yum, yum!
Do you know how on trains the seats sometimes face each other so its like a group of 4 people sitting together? Well, this guy was sitting in front of me and as I was reading through my Spain book, he took out some little box thing, held hand out in a fist shape but pointed up (does that make sense?), tapped the box and some powder came out...and then he snorted it up!!!!! I was trying to not stare, but I was thinking to myself, "Is this guy really doing drugs right in front of me on a train with lots of other people around?!" So I was trying to inconspicuously look up while pretending to read my book and see what he was doing! His eyes were watering some, go figure, he just snorted something up his nose, but I mean, I don't really know much about drugs...so I had no idea what was really going on. Later he pulled out a book called "The Psychotherapy of LSD." Hmm, interesting. So is this LSD he was doing or what? So then that got me kind of nervous cause I know that LSD really can mess you up. He basically just sat there with his eyes closed the whole time and once more pulled out the mini box, tapped out some "small pellet like brown things" onto his hand and snorted them up again! Haha! I was and still am soooo confused. I have no idea what it was...anyone maybe know? The lady sitting next to me had the same "Is this really happening right in front of me?" look, so I figure it was something that was pretty uncommon to see. You don't really ever take medications for a sickness...very interesting...
ALSO, yesterday was a big day for me because I GRADUATED from college! It's a really weird feeling right now. Definitely very exciting, but kind of sad too knowing that everyone is leaving IU soon and now it is officially over! I can't believe how fast 4 years flew by...I loved it all! Its really weird to know that I'm graduated but I didn't actually do anything to graduate..I mean, I didn't go through the whole process with the beautiful cap and gown and all that jazz. I guess it still hasn't hit me, but for the most part, its a really excited feeling! I think I'll understand that I am graduated even more when I arrive back to the States. So, to anyone from IU or any other university reading this who just graduated, congrats! 😊 I celebrated my graduation by going to Madrid!
Today has been very laid back. We had my favorite meal today, just like every Sunday-paella (rice with seafood mixed in) which is Oh so good, its one of Spain's most famous dishes. Ah, I'm gonna miss it. And now I'm just sitting around relaxing. I'm gonna pack a bit more here in a few because I know that this week is going to fly by.
Hasta luego!
P.S.- I'll try to add pics later, but its not working right now!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0323s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Granma
non-member comment
Hi
Know you are looking forward to traveling some. Can't wait until you get home. Hopefully you can come up to Young Harris to tell me all about Spain and your trip and show me pictures. Be careful! Granma