Las Navidades

I've been having a really lovely time here in Ponferrada. Being in a familiar family setting has made all the difference this holiday season.
Christmas here is Spain is a little different than the United States. Christmas Eve held the big celebration instead of Christmas Day. We visited the family in the pueblo, we had a big dinner of prawns, clams, ham, cheese, bread, and salad; Finished off with holiday cake and traditional cookies, polvorones and champagne. We exchanged a few, but very meaningful gifts and preceded to sing karaoke and drink more champagne till 3 am. It might not have been my blood family, but his family has adopted me into their home and I'm eternity thankful.
The past few days have been spent watching Greys Anatomy, eating more polvorones than necessary and getting ready for New Year's Eve. This is another big celebration that the lively Spainish have turned into an all night party. We're expected to leave the house around 1:30am and aren't expected back till 9am. Everyone dresses up on their best suit and dress and its supposed to be one of the most exciting nights of the year. We'll see if I can stay awake for that long, but it's sure to be an interesting night no matter what.
I've decided to keep my resolutions simple this year as, like everyone else, they seem impossible to keep. My resolutions are to be nicer to people, to be more aware of other countries news, and to remind my loved ones that I deeply cherish them more often.
Happy New Years to you and yours
All my love XOXO

Viajando mujer

I've been traveling now for just about a week. My first stop was Madrid with a very old friend from high school and her host family. I had a great time catching up on high school gossip and getting to know her host family. Her host mother Alicia was a total doll and I enjoyed her a ton. She made me promise to come back. From Madrid I took a bus to Valladolid, I had a great stay there in a little apartment I rented a room in with a couple who were working on their masters. It was a super cute place and very close to the city center. I went to Cervantes house when he lived there, and I also got to see some great nativity scenes.

I get very lonely at times , but I'm also really enjoying the freedom of doing whatever I want. It'll be very nice to have some home cooked food and people to talk to though.
I love and miss you all dearly, happy holidays!
All my love
XOXO

If It Scares You, It Might Be a Good Thing To Try.

            Today marks the end of my first semester in Spain. It’s hard to believe that I’ve made it through maybe the most difficult semester of my life. From the beginning, I was scared to be away from home for so long, I was sad to miss my first Christmas with my family, I was missing a big leadership opportunity in my sorority, and my Grandfather’s health worried me. Life in Sevilla has not been a walk in the park; it has been a semester of growth, hardships and loneliness. My Spanish has improved, my emotional self has matured and I have faced new obstacles and have come out on the other side stronger than before. And while the rest of my program heads back to the States with heavy hearts to leave this beautiful city, I am embarking on a new, exciting and challenging chapter in my life. I don’t get to spend the holidays with my family, but I get to spend it in a beautiful country with wonderful company in Northern Spain.

            After the holidays, I will be leaving Spain for Eastern Europe to see, experience and be challenged in a completely different way than ever before. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous and anxious about my coming travels. The thought of this trip is overwhelming, I’ve never been to these countries before, I don’t speak the language and I have no permanent traveling buddy. It is a trip that doesn’t happens more than once in a lifetime, and that may be the scariest thing of it all. These final days of the semester have been stressful booking tickets, hotels and trying to learn the basics of a language that doesn’t make sense.

             I am blessed with amazing parents who remind me on a daily basis that I can do it and that it will be so worth it in the end. It won’t be easy and smooth at every moment, I’m sure to get lost, lose track of time and maybe miss a bus, but it’s in those moments of struggle that we grow and learn and become better for it no matter how rough the ride. I’m looking forward to witnessing places I’ve only read about in history textbooks, experiencing countries from my heritage, and being pushed beyond what I thought were my limits. I know that after this trip, I will be so happy to have accomplished it all by myself and so thankful for the opportunity to have had such an amazing experience.

            I’ll try and update this blog during my trip, but because I won’t be bringing my laptop, unfortunately it won’t be as frequent as wanted. I’m not comfortable posting where exactly I’ll be on the Internet. But if you are interested, please message my parents or myself on Facebook or shoot us an email and we’ll be glad to let you know where I am and where I’m headed. I return to Sevilla February 1^st.

I can’t thank everyone enough who has supported me thus far in this chapter in my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the love and words of encouragement from all of you.

Here’s to new experiences, new places and the adventure of a lifetime. I can’t wait to share it all with you.

All my love to you and yours, Happy Holidays and Happy New Years.

XOXO

A Thankful Expat

As the end of November slowly creeps up on me in my little bubble in Sevilla, Facebook and all other social medias remind me that Thanksgiving is upon the US. If I try hard, I can smell turkey baking already and picture my mom cooking, Dad watching football, Zeke and Olivia staring at some screen and sneaking marshmallows from the sweet yams.

Even though I will be absent this year, the typical Thanksgiving meal will still be taking place over 5,000 miles away. This is the first of a series of holidays I’m missing this year abroad and definitely not the hardest emotionally to miss. And while I wish so much to be surrounded with my loved ones on the West Coast, the world is not going to end.

Although Spain doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving (duh), my program set up a Thanksgiving lunch at a restaurant where the head chef is American, or something along those lines. Classes were cut short and there was free food. Which means I got my typical Thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.  While the food was good, it didn’t taste like home and somehow made me miss home even more. 

And while I am so far from my family and missing them like crazy today, I am oh so thankful on this Thanksgiving for all that I have. I am thankful for my Mom, my Dad, my sister, my brother, my Grandmothers, my aunts, my uncles and everyone who supports me through thick and thin. I am thankful that I have these people with my every day in my heart to cheer me on through my daily victories and console me after defeats. I am thankful for my college for providing me this opportunity to study abroad in a beautiful country. I am thankful for the ability to travel around Europe. I am thankful for the lifelong friends and soul sisters that I have and those whom I will come to meet. I’m thankful to have a life full of good health, wonder, education, excitement, heartbreak and love. I am thankful for challenges, unexpected things, happiness and sorrow. I am thankful to live in a world where strong coffee, savory Iberian jam and warm delicious bread can all be enjoyed in the same meal.

Happy Thanksgiving,

All my love XOXO

Coffee, sunshine and who cares what else.

I woke up today on the right side of the bed. 

After my weekend lounging in yoga pants, small talk with my host mother, a two hour Skype session with my little, and a free visit to the fine arts museum here in Sevilla, I was ready to face today with gusto and sass. 

And I did. I had done my homework correctly, class was interesting and my professor is a sassy old man who is a gass to be in class with. I sat through my once a week reading class and got back a test that I received 95.5% on. 

And now I'm sitting in my usual spot at my cafe Boca a Boca, filled with warm coffee, bathed in warm sunshine and ready to conquer these remaining weeks before the holidays.

Life in Spain hasn't been just siestas, ham, and good weather. I've had my hiccups and fits of tears. So I'll take optimistic moods, no matter the reason.

Here's to kicking Mondays butt and warm coffee in my belly.

All my love,
XOXO

De la Navidad

The weather in Sevilla has changed, not very much, but noticeably. Mornings bring more light, and dusk comes earlier each night even after falling back. When we leave the apartment in the morning, the air is more crisp and its even a little fresco at times.

It’s been odd to see pictures of home and especially Halloween on Facebook. While it is becoming a little more popular, the spooky holiday still isn’t a thing here in Spain for the most part. It’s the tell tale sign at home that a change is coming in the season and holiday time. In the States, you can feel the holidays coming. It starts raining like crazy and it gets cold and gloomy outside. Mom and Dad both have their happy lights on because it feels like its never going to be bright out again, and the sun may have disappeared for real this time. Christmas music starts, Starbucks cups change, and Thanksgiving and break become all you can think about. Sevilla hasn’t been like that, so November snuck up on me so fast, I still can’t believe it. I don’t know if it was distractions of moving, or Paris or midterms, but somehow October disappeared. Thank god.

Since returning from Paris, signs of the holidays, aka just Christmas have appeared in Sevilla. In place of platanos and plums in the produce section, holiday candies now fill tubs with their bright wrappers and sweet scents. Unlike frosted sugar cookies in the States, the staples of Holiday sweets have a little more tradition and culture here in Spain. Three cultures in the history of Spain remain prominent in the culture and traditions of holiday sweets - Muslims and Jews and of course Christians.

None of the following pictures are mine!

This semester, I took a Spanish cuisine class at my school. The teacher is a kind and giggly woman in her mid forties. We explored the popular items of Spanish food, as well as the Mediterranean diet - foods staples including olive oil, ham, cheese, wine, and holiday sweets all from Spain.

Every week was interesting and exciting. But the sweets weeks was especially interesting because of the culture and tradition wrapped in those shinny papers.

Polvorón de Avellanas are crumbly shortbread cookies, made with flour, sugar, oil and nuts. They are solid but crumble in the paper if dropped. These are special to the holidays, and can only be bought at this time of the year.

Polvorón and Mantecados are related in the manner they are made, their ingredients and their textures. The main difference being Mantecados are made with fat of an Iberian pig (YUM) in place of oil like Polvoróns. They are solid, but as soon as you bite into them, they crumble and melt in your mouth. These are available year round.

Roscos de vino are sweet ring shaped cookies of sugar, wine, sweet anise and vanilla. They crumbled in your mouth like the first two, but didn’t glue it shut. These were my favorites, if I had to choose.

Alfajores are an Arab biscuit with honey, lemon, flour, almonds and vanilla. They have a hard outside of sugar, and the insides reminded me of a hard, lemon flavored Fig Newton. These were my least favorites, hands down.

Mazapán de Toledo are an Arab and Jewish soft candy made with almonds, lemon, sugar, eggs, and water. They had little designs and drawings baked into the top of them. They were similar to a soft cookie, but very chewy when you bit into them. The sugar used in these isn't fine, so the little sugar crystals are very evident when you eat one. I didn’t enjoy these ones because of their texture.

Turrón comes in three different varieties. The first, Turrón duro is a compact, hard brittle made with almonds, sugar, honey and egg. It's like break your teeth hard, but it's not overly sweet. I love this stuff!

Turrón blando is made the same but with the addition of oil, making it more of a paste or cream like candy bar. I thought this one was too sweet for me and it was mushy, so the texture and flavor together threw me off.

Turrón de chocolate is obviously made with cocoa butter, nuts, and eggs. It had the texture of a chocolate bar with almonds, but the cocoa made it much richer. Unfortunately it's so rich, you really can only eat very little at a time because its so rich in coca. 

Tres Bien Paris!

I can't believe it is already November 5th. I don't understand where October went and what I did. I can't believe I've been in Spain for two whole months, and that I only have 7 months left here. Time is just flying, and I'm excited and terrified by it at the same time.

Last week, we had mid terms and our fall break. Emily and I had planned a trip to Paris for the long weekend, so after moving houses in Sevilla (another story) and the stress of tests and papers from Midterms, Thursday morning we jumped on a plane and less than 2 hours later we were in France.

The weekend is a blur now of subway rides, wine, French bread, museums, churches, art, coffee and walking around Paris and rain. But it was all so wonderful and such a dream, I had such a wonderful experience in France.

Thursday we got to the airport and took a bus to a metro station and rode the metro to the apartment we rented for the weekend. We were staying just outside of Montmartre, in an area I can only describe as Little Africa. We were literally the only white girls. Usually this isn't something I notice for the most part, but in Sevilla, its only Spaniards and tourists. There is zero permanent immigration to Seville from outside Spain, so I’ve become accustomed to it for the most part in Spain. Paris is so much more international and diverse that I expected. Nonetheless, We eventually found the place, but our Spanish phones didn't work in France so we couldn’t call the couple, so we had to wait for someone to go into the building, then we had to knock on doors to find the apartment because the apartment number wasn’t listed in our information, and it was just one thing after another. But eventually we did find it, and they were a super laid back, interesting couple. 

Thursday afternoon we ate a late lunch from a supermarket, and went on foot to Montmartre, which was maybe 4 blocks from the house. We went to the Sacré Coeur and gazed at it for a while before we decided to go ahead inside and see it. The inside was even more gorgeous that I ever expected. There was a mass or something going on, so song and chatting filled the entire room. After stealing a couple pictures of the inside (not allowed), we walked around Montmartre to find some crêpes and a little wine. We made out way back, without getting lost, to the apartment to collapse of fatigue and figure out our lives for Friday’s Parisian adventures.

 

            Friday morning, it was raining. So we went to the Louvre and accidently spent 3 hours inside. I enjoyed it, but it is a ridiculously huge museum and it was hard to navigate, it was super crowded and we got lost and we were tired and hungry. But we did see the Venus statue and Mona Lisa so it wasn’t a complete loss. But it definitely was not my favorite museum I’ve ever been to, by any means. So when we finally got out, we headed to find lunch. 

We found a pizza place a little ways a way and I got a salmon and cream cheese pizza (YUM) and after lunch we stopped by the Opera house for pictures. We headed to the other side of the river and walked along it for a while. 

There was a cute place with crêpes and coffee we stopped at before trying to go into D’Orsay, but the line was ridiculous, so we backed out and headed for Notre Dame instead.

 Notre Dame was one of my absolute favorites. The front architecture and the inside were both so gorgeous. The clergy had a service or concert or something, so as we walked around the church, the smoke and incense filled your lungs, and the songs of God filled your ears. I lit a candle for everyone and no one at the same time.

I’ve never experienced god like I have in Europe, but Notre Dame was an experience on another level. 

 After we had done our rounds inside Notre Dame, we attempted Sainte Chappelle, but it was closed and the front was under construction. It had started to rain again, so we went on a wild goose chase for a Starbucks for wifi to look up a cinema. But chance and dumb luck, we ran into one not even a block from Notre Dame.

Our little Cinema 

Onion soup!

Without much hesitancy, we bough tickets to the next movie playing and ran inside from the rain. The movie was called Alabama Monroe. It is a movie made in Belgium, it was in Dutch, with French subtitles. Naturally, I didn’t understand everything. But thankfully, there are quite a few words in Dutch that are the same in English. And I can read French to a certain extent. Either way, it was a terribly moving, depressing and absolutely wonderfully done movie. After balling our eyes out, we jumped across the street to a small French restaurant. We had beer and onion soup to warm up while chatting about the movie. 

After the soup, we felt a sudden urge to go to the Eiffel Tower, at night, while it was raining. The metro in Paris is awesome. You can go anywhere, from anywhere, and we bough 3 day unlimited passes for like 25 Euro, and easily rode the metro far more than 25 Euros worth. We went to the Eiffel Tower, only for a long enough time for us to both gaze in awe and giddiness that we were actually in Paris, until the rain started stronger, and we had to retreat home.

            

Saturday we got up early so I could go the D'Orsay Museum. Emily didn't want to go, so she walked around for an hour while I went in. Their Impressionist and Post Impressionist galleries are both extensive, and really amazing. I think it’s so cool how I studied these works just a year ago in McMinnville, Oregon. And now I’m in Europe and I can catch a 2-hour plane and see them. My favorites, and the ones I was most excited about were Courbet’s The Origin of the World, Manet’s Olympia, Degas’ Little Dancer, Renior’s Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, Cezanne’s Apples and Oranges, McNeill Whistler’s Portrait of the Artist Mother, De Toulouse-Lautrec La Toilette, Seurat’s Circus, Van Gogh’s Self Portrait, and Monet’s Haystacks, Portrait of a Woman, Cathedral of Rouen, and Water Lilies. 

Pretty much it was like the best thing ever. After the art history high wore off, we tried to go to an outdoor food and flea market that we had read about the day before online. But directions the weren't great and we couldn't find in, and instead of getting lost, we stopped close enough to the metro and found a little supermarket with a good to go / ready to eat section and bought lunch. All the cheese and bread I tried in Paris was wonderful, and as someone who never forgoes a chance to try new bread and cheese, we got some for lunch with our sandwiches. It was just our luck too because a rain shower had just started, so we adverted it, and ate before venturing on through Paris.

We stopped on the way back into the heart of Paris at Bastille, where the Bastille Prison use to stand until the Storming of Bastille and it's destruction between July 14, 1789 and July 14 1790 during the French Revolution. The July Column commemorates the July Revolution. And while I would like to say I knew all of this when visiting, all I knew was that it commemorated the French Revolution and it happened to fall one Zeke and Olivia's birthday. No matter that, it was still interesting and just another interesting monument I got to see!

While looking at Bastille, we found a sign that said that Victor Hugo's house was near by. We followed the signs, which lead us to a lovely little pastry shop along the way. We stopped and got a couple macaroons for a decent price. 

The French are super touchy about taking pictures inside their stores and of their pastries, but I got one good one before she yelled at me. 

We took our macaroons to the park and looked at Hugo’s house, then headed back towards the complete other side of Paris to Champs Élysées and Arc de Triomphe. 

Champs Élysées could have been any major street in any international city. It had the typical European shops, and the typical ones you can find in the states, such as Nike, Sephora, Gucci, you name it. But it did have the Arc de Triomphe at the very end. We walked down Champs towards the Arc, taking our time and snagging pictures whenever we could. When we got close enough, we grabbed quick photos in front, in the middle of a cross walk. Then found a tunnel to get to the Arc itself. You could try and cross, but the roundabout is huge, and there is no walk way and the cars don’t really stop, they just honk. It was literally extreme frogger, but I'm not a frog, and I'm not sure I would have made it. So we decided not to take our chances, and walked through the tunnel right there on Champs to get up close and personal. We had decided before the trip, that the view from the Arc and from the Eiffel Tower are very similar, and you had to pay for both, so if we were going to pay for one, it would be the one we were a little more excited about, aka the Eiffel Tower. 

The weather was decent on Saturday, very cold and windy, but not raining and when the sun was out, it felt super warm on our backs. We made a quick decision to go to the Eiffel Tower because of how clear it was. We thought we were the only ones with this brilliant idea. It was like 3 pm on a Saturday, who else would be in line? Evidently all of France, because it took us an hour to buy our tickets. And then the wind had picked up so they closed the very very top. It was one of those things were you just had to do it though, I mean how many time do you get to go to Paris? We waited the line out, and went to the second floor. Which was high enough for me. I was pretty sure I was going to faint or throw up in the elevator on the way up, it was quite the sensation. It was a gorgeous view but sooo cold and windy. We did photos real quick, and then went back down for one more picture session in front of the Tower.

By this time, it was 6 pm and we were super hungry and tired, so we headed back into the center of the city, around Notre Dame and got dinner. There are specials all over the center of Paris for tourists, at a reasonable price. And since everything is expensive in Paris, we couldn’t help but go for the tourist places and their semi decent prices. It wasn’t terrible,  I had mussels and fish and rice and chocolate mouse all for 14 euros. And a free glass of wine - so I can’t complain. After dinner, we trekked back to the apartment for more wine, more planning and the always needed sleep!

            Sunday we went to Versailles, and after getting lost and turned around on the metro, which is a pain in the ass in Paris, we made it. Unknown to us, Sunday it is free to get into most monuments in Paris. So we got into the palace at Versailles for free. (YAY) And we saw the Hall of Mirrors, and the royal bedrooms, and the dinning rooms and the Hall of Battles and only part of the gardens, because they were huge. It was just so extravagant, and overly decorated. It was an odd feeling, like you were so impressed with how gorgeous it was, but at the same time, France was going through a famine when Marie Antoinette was living there, and you get why the French people were so upset at Louis and Marie Antoinette. It was definitely a bit of a fan girl moment though. I mean I've read books about Marie and I even dressed up as here one year for Halloween, thats how serious it was. And to see where and how she lived for the most part was spectacular. It was gorgeous and so pretty and so decorated. We really wanted to stay more inside the palace and gardens just to see more, but we really didn't have the time because it was our last full day and we had a list of things that we needed to see and get done before we left the next day. So we grabbed lunch at a little sandwich place in Versailles. I had a delicious panini with mozzarella, tomato and jam - it was super yummy! After lunch we headed back into Paris to finish off the day.

 

After a quick nap on the metro, we went to Sainte Chapelle, for free again. It was gorgeous and the ceilings and stained glass was so elegant. They are in the middle of reconstruction right now, but they're doing a good job of making sure you know what it looks like while repairing a lot of the glass work that has been damaged over the years. I loved the way the light streamed in, and it wasn't super bright out when we went in, so I can only imagine how it looks when the sun is shinning bright.

When doing research about Paris, I found their Holocaust museum website and added it to the list. While it wasn't one of the most uplifting or exciting things we did in Paris, it was a different perspective and an overall well done museum. Obviously any Holocaust museum isn't the best, or most fun thing in the world, but it was entirely from the French point of view rather than the US point of view in which I learned about the Holocaust. While the body of the information wasn't different, they presented the Holocaust as how it affected France particularly, which I had never honestly thought about before. Overall, a good experience.

From the museum we headed to the Pantheon, and we just missed the last entrance time for the day, but we got pictures outside. This as well is under construction at this moment in time, but fortunately you can't see it too bad in the photo!

the Seine

Around the Latin Quarter

We headed back into Montmartre for dinner and one last look at the Sacré Coeur. We had enough time before it got really dark to make it to Moulin Rouge. It was cool to see the building, but a little uncomfortable. French men don't entirely understand what sexual harassment is, and yelling and gesturing at you is very common. The men were especially aggressive in the area around Moulin Rouge. Probably because it was like Aurora in Seattle, but even skankier. There were sex shops and weird people and not my favorite thing but it was cool to see at night with all the lights on. On the way home, we grabbed our last crêpe, jumped on the metro and headed back to the place for an early ish night as it began to rain again.

        

    Monday we got up early and headed back to the airport. We had bought jars of Speculoos, a Belgium cookie butter. And we tried to get them through security, because they were sealed and they aren't liquids. But the French, being French, took them. And they weren't nice about it. It’s not the end of the world, but now I've begun a mission to find the cookie butter in Spain.

We caught our flight and got home around 1 pm. We unpacked, and around 3 pm our new, wonderful señora got home and we had lunch all together. We spent the rest of Monday not walking in the rain, but lying in bed watching Game of Thrones. It's funny how coming to Sevilla feels more and more like my home every time I return from not being here. I'm in an odd place right now where my home isn't one place, it's Sevilla, it is McMinnville, it is Seattle, it is Spain and the United States. I'm all spread out, but not in a bad way, rather in a connected way.

I had a marvelous time in Paris, and I'm already planning on going back for a little in December/ January for my winter break to see the few places I want to return, and maybe to see some of the not so touristic parts of it.

            In regards to the new señora and the house change, it came about after a series of incidents in the old house. The old parents didn't have jobs; their income was the money we paid to stay with them. We had differences in personalities and there were four international students in the house so it was more like a hostel than a home. For those and a couple other reasons, Emily and I decided to move. And we were eager to stay central in the center of Seville. Our program directors were wonderful in finding us a new home. They were hesitant to move us because they had never worked with this new woman before. But we insisted in the location. Our new señora Amparo, is a doll. She works as an interior designer and wedding designer. So she makes good money, and we aren't her sole source of income. She is divorced, with four sons, all of who are married and out of the house. She has only had 2 international students before us, so its not like we're just randos for the semester who she will never talk to again. She wants us there for her company and so she's not alone. I absolute adore her, and I feel so much more comfortable in her flat than I did in the other house even just a couple nights in. I look forward to getting to know her more, and to living with her for the rest of the semester, and possibly the year.

We only have six weeks left in this semester, and fewer days of class because we don't have classes Fridays. It's unusual that a lot of people here are getting ready to leave, and I'm getting ready to stay for the long haul. But there isn't much I can do about it besides try and figure out what I'm doing with my life for two months in between semesters. 

I promise not to wait too long in between posts again! It was a crazy two weeks!

All my love

XOXOXOXO