Old enough to know, but too young to care - día número uno en españa(:

Hands down one of the longest days in my entire life. Flip.

Well, my wonderful trip began at 4:30 in the morning mountain time. It pretty much reminded me of how much I despised seminary of course. Then we left for the airport and did the normal airporty things, but then came 7:15. It was time to tell my mom goodbye and hop on a plane to Washington D.C. for a super awesome 3 hour lay over. not. The flight from Utah to D.C. wasn't too bad, but after a while, not being able to lean against something to sleep gets pretty old. And I got some pretty awesome neck pain from that experience. hooray.

So we got to the D.C. airport around 2:00 eastern time and we were starving. Bethany and I walked all the way through terminals C and D to turn around and settle for Wendy's. Not that Wendy's was bad, it just wasn't my first choice. After we ate, life became boring again. I tried to stay awake which was quite difficult. Thank goodness Bethany and I pulled out Phase 10 and played almost two rounds or I might not have made it.

So then finally we got on our wonderful green plane with mini tvs to Madrid. Awfulness. I never want to spend 7 hours on a plane again. Oh darnit, I get to do it again in about a month and a half. But I did get some entertainment from watching Tron and Chronicles of Narnia 3:) There was semi-decent food on the flight too: pasta for dinner and breakfast pastries and yogurt for breakfast. I may have taken an hour nap in total. Never 100% sure when it comes to light napping.

It was super exciting to fly over Spain though, especially after 3-4 hours of pitch black in the sky. It was early in the morning here (like 7:30) so that meant no sleep pretty much all day if i wanted to be on a normal schedule again. So we get off the plain, get our luggage, change some money to euros, and then we get to wait with our big group until 10:45 for our bus to come and get us. Yeah, we waited for that bus until 12:00 PM in the parking lot. By then I was totally losing it (Jennie&Alison: It was definitely like one of those many moments I had after waking up from a nap but worse). There were many times when Bethany had no idea what I was saying.

So, the bus finally came. Seemed kinda like a miracle. Then we went to Alcalá de Henares where we would meet our host families. For Bethany and I, our host family turned out just being a host woman. Her name is Luisa Galán Moraleda. She's pretty awesome actually. She's not a member, but she's been hosting students in her home for 11 years now. crazy. One of the best things is that she gave us separate rooms with like our own desks and everything. win. She first let us set up a little bit while she went to go buy bread and strawberries for our lunch. Lunch was pretty good. She made some amazing chicken, and we had strawberries with milk and sugar. It definitely hit the spot after having all of that airplane food.

After lunch time was what I had been waiting for for quite sometime: nap time. My intention was to go to sleep for like an hour and a half. ha. Try 3 and a half to 4 hours. bam. It felt pretty good. So then I showered and got all decent looking and Luisa gave me a snack. Before she left for her friend's house, she helped me out with the Wi-fi(: Once I was hooked up to the Internet, I finally felt connected to the world again. I talked to Rachel for like an hour and life was pretty darn good.

Once Luisa returned, Bethany and I gave her our house warming gifts. It seemed like she liked them a lot. Then, we pulled out our pictures and started to tell her about our lives, friends, family, etc. By this time it was like 10:00 so that apparently meant it was dinner time. Super late compared to my pretty consistent 5:30 dinners. So for dinner we had ham and cheese sandwiches and strawberries(: After today, I pretty sure that I will never starve here.

So i'm sure you're wondering about how the Spanish is coming. Well, it was a rough start in the airport, but once we were with Luisa, it was totally fine. Like all I had learned just kinda came to me. However, it's definitely not perfect and will need some work. Hopefully after a month and a half I'll actually be able to see progress.

Now, I am here. 12:08 AM. Don't know how I am functioning really, but I am. This has been quite the experience already with much more to come. I've got a jam packed week planned for me so I'll try to update as much as I can. Hope you enjoyed! Night(:

my closet

my bed

my desk

view from my window:)

awfulness. how am i supposed to live?!

Oh hey there.

So, as many of you already know, I'm heading out to Madrid, Spain for a study abroad program in about 4 days. Crazy. I really cannot believe it. I haven't even grasped the concept yet. But anyways, I've had many requests from my friends to keep them updated while I'm Spain, so here's a blog for y'all. I'm not quite the blogger, so bear with me. I'll try to write entries as much as possible and include lots of pictures!  


So how this trip came about is kind of an interesting story. It all started on my second day of classes during my first semester at here BYU. At 12:05PM, I walked into my Spanish 321 class. I was so excited to have the opportunity to be in a Spanish class full of return missionaries. I thought that I was going to dominate the class. Ha. I sat down at my desk and that's when it went downhill. My professor began to speak and I could barely understand her because she spoke so fast. That wasn't the only problem though. She was also European meaning that she spoke with a "Castilian"accent. Anyways, so after sitting in that desk for a ridiculously long hour and fifteen minutes, I was pretty much traumatized. I considered dropping the class but didn't after talking to my parents and my friend Bethany. However, I knew that sticking with this class meant that I had to improve my conversation skills as soon as possible somehow. At the time, I had no idea how I was going to do that. Here's where the study abroad program comes in. This was the perfect solution to my problem. 


So the dates for the Spring 2011 Madrid study abroad dates were released on the kennedy center website. I went to the informational meeting on November 4 in the HRCB and set up a time for the interview on the 9th that following week. I was so nervous and pretty much had a freak out 3 times the day of the interview. It was so important to me to get accepted into this program. So I had the interview and it was pretty chill, but then came two fun days of waiting. On the afternoon of the 11th, I received my acceptance e-mail. It was definitely one of the top ten most exciting moments in my life. 


Eventually, the excitement died down over the next few months, but then my Spain prep class began the first week of March. Each time I went to this class, the trip seemed more and more real to me. Hearing about the culture, the things we are going to do, and the history of Spain made me so excited. So now the trip is just right around the corner. I definitely have mixed feelings. I'm scared because I don't know if I'll for sure get the speaking experience that I desire, but I'm excited because I've never been to Europe before. Well, I hope that this trip will be an amazing experience and that I'll take advantage of every minute I am there. Also, thanks to all of those who have given me support and encouragement! Y'all are awesome! Hope y'all enjoy this blog! 


P.S. - Don't call me or text me because i want to use my international plan for only emergencies and to talk to my parents. But feel free to skype me! klmbj68. It would totally make my day(: