Home for a week

Well, today marks a week home from Spain.  It has been a whirl wind.
My friends and I lugged 80 pounds each through the metro in Spain at midnight and finally made it to the airport with plenty of time, 7 hours to be exact.  We were planning on not running or stressing on our flight home.  Well, we arrived in London and had to run from gate 1 to the last gate 42 to make our flight home.
I feel like I have hit the ground running since returning.  Gwyneth left for camp 4 days after I returned so we had to get her ready and it's just been crazy.  In Spain there were not a lot of responsibilities.  Of course at home there are tons.  It was weird sitting on the plane from London to DFW thinking that only 7 hours before I'd been walking past Plaza Espana and living the Madrid life.  My sister Regina said enjoy every minute even though you want to go home because it will end very quickly and you don't know when you will be back.  It all seems like a dream to me, but I know it happened.
So, onto real life... hopefully with new perspective and renewed spirit.

ow... my body hurts!

We woke up after the bike tour and were SOOOOOOOOO sore.  My hinny was not happy with me.  Don't know how people do it all the time.  

After breakfast we got on the bus tour and saw lots of wonderful things.  We stopped at the top of Florence and saw the replica of the David along with a wonderful view of the city.  It was pretty warm, but not too bad.  We then hopped back on the bus and saw the rest of the tour and then went to the museum where the real David is.  We waited in line for about an hour and then Cristina and I made it in.  We saw some wonderful marble statues.  There was one in particular that had the eyes fully done and looked like it was looking at us and could just start talking at any moment.  Then we came into the area where David is.  It was great.  They had places you could just sit and admire.  So we did.  We spent on hour in line, we better enjoy David.  I couldn't believe how big the statue was.  His right hand was enormous.  We sat looking at the front for about 15 minutes and then when to the back and did the same.  We couldn't take pictures, but they wouldn't have done it justice just as many of the other places we've been.  After that we walked around a little, had some gelato and rested.  It was Monica's birthday so we went out for a nice dinner.  We have learned to find out if there is cover charge for sitting down at a restaurant. After we went to Hard Rock cafe and had a blast.

at dinner

Monica's birthday

the fake David

at dinner

The bike tour

So when we were planning our trips, Mary suggested we go on a Tuscany bike tour when in Florence.  I persuaded to of my friends, Cristina and Rosa, to come along.  It was amazing. After running, for our warm up, to get to the place we took about 45 minute van ride to a castle.  We toured the castles wine and olive oil production areas and climbed to the top to an amazing view.  Pictures really can't capture how breathtaking it was.  We then tasted wine, olive oil and a little dessert pizza.  I bought a small bottle of olive oil and a bottle of wine.  We were then fitted for our bikes.  Each bike had a name.  My was Obama, Cristina's was yo mama, Rosa - Ace Ventura.  Our professor, Dr. Rosado decided to join us and got P Diddy.  It was a pretty good size group and we had a lot of fun.  The beginning of the ride was down hill and I've decided I really like downhill versus flat or a little hilly because the rest of the ride was flat or hilly.  We stopped for lunch at a little place and I had pesto pasta.  It was delicious.  After lunch was very difficult for me and I'm grateful my professor was behind me for motivation.  Towards the end of the ride there is an enormous hill and they recommend getting in the van for it.  So we did.  Everyone who attempted it either ended up walking or getting in the van.  The last part was downhill and up to the castle.  The views were magnificent and I'm so proud of us for making it 13 miles.  We then went back and rested and then had dinner.  Our hotel was in a very nice plaza so we went out there and had a the bottle of wine I bought.  Unlike at home, you have alcohol just about anywhere.

have finished 1/4 of the ride

our group

I'm ready to go

ready to ride... at the top of the castle

wine barrels!!!

really old barrels

the view

before the tour and biking

running and biking - the story of Florence - part 1

Just a short little blog for today... Friday, yesterday, we had class and then rode the metro to the airport.  My friend Cristina found out she had the wrong boarding pass and it was a big run around the airport.  We got to Bologna and ran to the bus to take us to the train.  We didn't know really where to go and where running there so we didn't miss our train.  We found the train and got on only to have 2 hour delay.  We heard a little bit of a conversation and it might have been because there were student protestors on the tracks somewhere.  Once in Florence, our hotel is a 5 minute walk from the train station.  We went to restaurant and had yummy pizza and I had prosecco.   This morning was a myriad of going to the wrong way and running to get to the bike tour place.  But we found it.  I will do another blog on the actual bike tour, but I did successfully make it 13 miles on a bike today.  My motivation was that I had talked my friends into doing it and I wasn't getting on the van and that all the sibs would have yelled at me to keep going if they had been there.  We are now recovering and deciding what to do tonight and try to plan out the next day and a half.  We are in the home stretch to home and I think everyone here and at home are ready for us to come back.  Until next time...

Acala'

Today after class we went to Acala which is right outside of Madrid.  It was the home of Cervantes.  We also were able to see storks.  It was beautiful and historical as always.  It was a very laid back tour and we were even able to stop and all have a beer and tapas together.

I was thinking at dinner tonight that it might be a little difficult to adjust to the schedule of life when I get back next week.  Here in Madrid, we get up at 8... eat some toast leave about 8:45 for our 9:00 class (sometimes a little later on the leaving) and walk VERY quickly to class at 9:00.  We eat lunch around 1:00 and maybe a snack here or there and then dinner at 9:00ish.  We walk just about everywhere so eating that late at night has been too bad.  I would love to walk more at home, but there's really no shade and right now it's way too hot.  Everyone said it would be really hot here in Spain, but it's been at least 10 degrees cooler here than at home with a cool breeze.  Two nights ago it got really chilly in the evening the mornings have been chilly too.
We have our last classes tomorrow.  I got a certificate today for completing the course.  We leave for Florence about 4:30 our time. I plan on typing everything up in an orderly manner that I have learned and study it all the time.  Jeb and I have discussed getting Rosetta Stone for both of us and then maybe I can take some more classes as well to continue my journey of learning Spanish.  Here are some pictures for a couple of days including today.

the neighborhoods were divided by religion

we went canoeing!

the are we were in the boat

real live storks!

in Toledo - it was beautiful

my friends

these walls are from the 14th century!

the lion didn't bite me... so I'm faithful to my husband!

Don Quixote and me!

Flamenco

Today was a fun day.  School has been harder this week which is good.  I really should be studying, but I'm tired and will be going to bed soon.  After class we went to TGI Friday's!  Last night our house mom made us tacos and they were yummy but we still wanted a little bit of home.  We are about ready to come home.  We then came back to the apartment to work on homework.  I have write a diary in Spanish each day, turn it in and then once it is returned to me analysis my mistakes.  I think I'm making great progress in writing and speaking and my friends and professors agree. I'll have to practice every day when I get back so I continue to get better.
This evening before dinner, so our show was at 7:00, we saw a flamenco show named Carmen.  It was fantastic.  I really loved it and would go see it more than once if I had the chance.  I bought some souvenirs before the show.  Claudia and sped through the Plaza de Sol, where the student protestors are and got home for dinner right about 8:45.
We met our new house mate.  She is from Russia and speaks Spanish beautifully.  We had another house mate that left on Saturday from Russia as well who knows 5 languages.  There are so many people from so many countries learning Spanish.  It's so wonderful.  It's amazing to me that more people in the U.S don't know, want to know or understand why learning another language is beneficial.  Almost all the people we have met who are learning Spanish are learning it as their 3rd+ language.  They almost all know English.  I could go on and on as this is a soapbox topic for me, but just wanted to share a little bit about that.
Tomorrow we are going to Acala de Henares (?) after class which is suppose to be beautiful.  It's not very far from Madrid so I'm sure we'll have some time to look around.  Friday we leave for Florence after class.  Pray for Ryan Air to be on time as well as the airport participating nicely so that we don't miss our train from Bologna to Florence.  We are going on a bike ride of the countryside to taste wine and olives and lunch and such on Saturday and I can't wait.  We only have a week left.  As my housemate and great friend Cristina says we only have 7 sleeps left.  Not really any pictures today... I'm sure I'll have some from Florence.

pictures in random order

wine was not good

waiting for the plane

my octopus

yummy port

at the beach with just a little rain

my boo boo

one of the phone booth pictures

in the rain with new umbrella

on the boat

on the lift thingy above the city

Porto - wonderful

I'll start by saying that pictures will be up later on FB and then here, but had to get a post in about Porto, Portugal!
We got to the airport on the metro in plenty time only to sit on our plane for 2 hours because of something at the airport.  When we finally got there it was breath taking.  We rode the metro there as well to our hotel.  We are becoming metro pros.  Our hotel was wonderful... a wonderful hot shower that we could take for as long as we wanted and air conditioning.  However it was very chilly so we opened the window for little.  Our view was wonderful.  I have to the Portuguese are very nice and helpful.  They do not like Spainards and told us to speak English.  So I didn't get any practice in Spanish this weekend, but that's ok.  For dinner we went to this beautiful and expensive typical Portuguese restaurant.  I tried the octopus kabobs... they were alright... my wine was the house wine and tasted a little sour so I didn't drink much of it.
When we woke up in the morning we got an early start and headed out at 9:00 and it was sprinkling.  We got the passes for the redbus tour that takes everywhere and we can get off and on whenever we want.  We stopped at the beach and it was just sprinkling and cold.  We went out and took pictures, collected shells and put our feet in.  And then it really started to rain... I was walking with my friend Cristina and wasn't paying attention and fell of a curb.  Oh, well life goes on.  We were soaked and found the bus stop to wait for the bus. We took it down to the river Dauro to get on the boat tour of the river.  It was still really raining so we buckled and bought umbrellas.  The boat tour was beautiful and we saw both sides of Porto and Gaia (the other side of the river where all the port is.)  When we got off we were pretty much dry and the sun was out.  So we walked across the bridge that Eiffel built.  We walked on the lower part this time.  We tasted port, and went on the things lift you on wires (can't think of the name) and had a jolly good time.  We did a little bit of something for everyone.  Oh and we had delicious huge green olives.  Then we caught the red bus back to our hotel.  We had no idea we were so close to the river, but we were.  So we walked back over to Gaia on the very top part of the bridge to this castle thing.  It was beautiful and you will soon see a video of us learning to use the water fountain there.  We are a very fun, silly group of girls.  We didn't get back until 9:00. We were non-stop but it had to be that way and oh my gosh it was so much fun.
I would highly recommend going to Porto if you get the chance.  Everyone was very kind.  It was very inexpensive for buying little things (which is why I got so much!!! :))  We decided we would sleep in and just head to the airport to come back to Spain the morning.  It was a delightful and need break.  It is very hot here in Madrid today so I'm glad we were able to go to a cooler spot for the weekend.  Tomorrow I am going to class in the morning to try to get into a morning class.  I wrote to my professors and told them I really needed to, that I was missing out on things and that it is neither fun nor safe to do these things alone.  Hopefully it happens.
I might start to upload pictures tonight to facebook before I go to sleep.

Segovia is beautiful plus some other stuff

Cristina and I with our mojitos at lunch on Tuesday

lunch paella

aqueduct

The pictures are not cooperating so there here in random order... sorry.
Oh my goodness yesterday, Wednesday, was a blur. I had one on one time with both of my professors from UTA where I actually was working on some verbs in need in the future and past tense more than the easy present tense.  It was very good.  Then we all got on the bus and went to Segovia which is north of Madrid in the mountains, so everyone was wrong, it wasn't hot.  It took about an hour to get there.  And oh my it is beautiful!  Much more calm than Madrid and also a lot older.  I haven't really seen in cobbled streets here in Madrid, but in the main part of town that's all there is in Segovia.  It was past lunch time so we were all hungry.  We went to a REALLY nice restaurant and most of had the delicacy Segovia is known for, Chucarilla (I think that's how you spell it.)  It's a piglet that is at least 21 days old.  It was pretty good, pretty fatty though.  We had a good time at the restaurant and then headed out on a light speed tour since we were a little behind.  Oh and by the way, the tour was ALL in Spanish.  I am really getting some perspective on what it's like for the kids I work with.  The academic vocabulary is killing me... by the end of the day on the bus I was done with Spanish for the day.  I can't imagine being in class all day only getting bits and pieces.
Segovia is the place where Christopher Columbus finally got Queen Isabelle and Ferdinand to let him go sailing. There is an aqueduct here that is 2000 years old and is just like the ones in Rome.  Also, the Moore's where here for a long time before and during the rule of Isabelle.  There is some evidence of this in the architecture.  I have posted a bunch of pictures on facebook and am including some here, but words and pictures just can't describe how beautiful everything was.  We were walking pretty fast, sometimes running to keep up with our tour guide since we wanted to take pictures too.  We got to tour the castle and I have to say I was a little weepy.  It's just so amazing that people actually lived there many moons ago.  The castle is the castle that Cinderella's castle in Disney World is modeled after.  It was just breath taking.  I bought my first souvenirs there!  It was a very wonderful day.  I would love to go back there some day and spend time.
Today, Thursday, I'm having a hybrid schedule.  I'm getting about an hour of instruction with one of my UTA professors and then one of my regular classes.  The group is going to the Prado this early evening... we are leaving the school about 5:00.  The time is going by so fast.  Tomorrow we leave for Portugal.  I hope to blog a little tonight, but then I won't be on Facebook or blogging until Sunday when I return. 
Here are some pictures.   

the palace down the street from me

learned that the Inquisition would kill people here!

me in the park... solo

the castle

wish I would remember to rotate!

my wine

the little piggies foot

the church Isbella was crowned in

the view from the top