A Rough Week Followed by an AWESOME Weekend!!

Well, the last couple weeks were a bit hard because I bought a computer that didn´t work. Then I spent hours on the phone with Spanish-speaking Dell people who were all crazy and could not fix my computer. It led to a lot stress and a 45€ phone bill because there aren´t toll free numbers here.  All these stressful hours were draining and led to my first culture-shock experience where I missed Taco Bell and my mom´s chocolate torte.  Finally, on Thursday UPS came to pick up the computer and take it away which was a huge weight off my shoulders.  This is why I haven´t been writing lately because there was just nothing good to say for awhile there.

This week at school it was my turn to plan the lesson for the Infantil age group which is the 3-5 year olds. I had to teach them clothes such as: trousers (British English of course), shirt, skirt, hat, shoes, and dress. I came up with the idea of making a little girl on a big piece of paper. Sally helped me decorate her clothes. Her name was Lucy which is coincidentally the name of our dog, and (how embarrassing!!) she came to school without her clothes!! Haha, the kids had to help by sticking her clothes on and saying their names.  It was a lot of fun, and I was impressed with myself because I'll admit I'm not the most creative person.
This weekend, FOR MY BIRTHDAY :), I went to Madrid for Mexican food with my friends and it was a blast! It was great to eat some awesome food and just kick back with the girls. We got all dressed up and had a good time. Two new friends came with us. One girl from Mexico (hence the Mexican food) and one girl from Poland (who can actually pronounce my last name. Go figure!)  I got to practice a lot of Spanish because the Mexican girl can speak English fluently, but its easier for the Polish girl to understand Spanish.  It was a great birthday party.
Yesterday, Alfonso, one of my Spanish teachers, took me to a store near Madrid with Anja to help me buy a new computer. This was SUCH a blessing! I don´t know very much about computers anyways let alone enough to understand the guy telling me about all the specs in Spanish.  Alfonso explained everything very slowly and in terms he knew I would understand, and after some thinking and testing, I bought a really good computer its an HP with a screen so big I have to sit a little farther back. It was a good birthday present for myself.  After, he took Anja and I to Ávila which is a historical town about an hour from San Lorenzo.  He ended up spending his entire day with us; he´s so nice and it´s great to have people like this in your life especially in a foreign country where I don´t have my own car or the knowledge of these places. Ávila is up there with Paris in the most beautiful places I´ve seen. Of course, Paris and Ávila can´t really be compared because they´re beautiful for completely different things. Ávila is a city that was built around 1085 so it´s almost 1000 years old and it´s surrounded by castle walls. You see castles in movies and pictures and storybooks, but to see one in real life was the most amazing experience ever! The wall still stands in it´s entirety and there is a beautiful cathedral that still stands inside.  We tried different sweets that the city is famous for and enjoyed some great tapas. We went into this place where there were things used by a famous saint which happened to include one of her fingers with a ring on it!! I´m sorry my Catholic friends, but I will never understand the significance of keep someone´s intact bodypart.  I really didn´t think I could handle much more because I was overwhelmed by all these amazing sturctures, then Alfonso drove us to a lookout a little outside the city after dark to see the entire city and walls all lit up. It was absolutly breathtaking!
Today, when I got home from church, we celebrated my birthday with a special dinner. Stephen made some awesome jumbilaya and Marina made a beautiful birthday cake with 21 candles on it. It was so nice and I felt right at home.  They even got me a present which was a case for my new computer. The case they bought was for the little computer that I just bought and Marina told me she bought this case then came home and I said I was returning that computer haha. She kept the receipt though so I´ll just exchange it. I´ve been so blessed to have a great family and friends here, and I´m getting better at my Spanish all the time. So things are going great just in time for my birthday tomorrw. I´m sure I´ll always remember my birthday in Spain! :) Happy Birthday to me!! 

P.S. These last two pictures are especially for Hud and Dad. The first for Hud because we had been talking a lot about the Lord of the Rings since we had been around castles and all and then we went around a corner and this reminded me of a slightly chopped version of the White Tree of Minis Tirith or Gondor or where. I thought you, of all people, would appreciate it. The second is for Dad. You would have gone crazy with all the awesome roads through the mountains we took to get to 'Avila. There were motorcycles everywhere and it made me think of you :) Enjoy!!

Paris

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written and so much has happened. My computer broke a.k.a I dropped it and had to buy a new one. So, since I've been limited in my computer use, I haven't had time to fill everyone in. I'll just write about my trip to Paris though because it was by far the most exciting!

I skipped school on Friday to head out early. Don't worry this is totally fine :). We got to see sooooo many historical sites. It was amazing and exhausting. Luckily, everyone speaks English so we had no problem communicating even though I speak maybe 10 words of the entire French language. My favorite food was the crepes that we could buy pretty cheap  on the street. They also sold good panini's there :). All the architecture is amazing and old and beautiful. The most amazing building, however, was Notre Dame. It was absolutely breathtaking both inside and out. I took pictures because it is impossible to even attempt to describe how magnificent it is. The Eiffel Tower of course was a necessary stop on the itinerary. It's one of those places that you can't believe you're actually seeing in real life. It's always just been on tv or the internet or something, but to be able to stand beneath it and view all of it was an incredible experience. Another marker in France that I thought I'd only ever see on tv or movies or internet was the Mona Lisa.  It's so familiar and so simple, but so elegant and surreal.  You've probably already noticed an unusually large amount of descriptor words so I suppose I should just stop trying, but every landmark we went to see was beyond words and I'm so excited to have had the opportunity to see them all in real life. On Saturday, we met up with my cousin, Alexzandra, and she took us to a famous little cafe where Hemmingway used to go. The coffee was great and she took us next to try some amazing macaroons which were really expensive, but they were worth the experience. Another memorable stop was to a little cafe where Alex's guide book said we could find the best hot chocolate ever. It turned out to be the most expensive hot chocolate ever, too. Ringing up at 7 euros, we enjoyed the thickest, chocolatiest cup of deliciousness I've ever brought to my lips. We only ordered 2 because it was a fortune, but the lady was really nice and brought us 3 anyways.  We were lucky enough to see several plazas and famous squares and building in the city. They were all spectacular and our feet were begging us to stop seeing more. I had to massage my feet at the end of each night because they wouldn't stop throbbing.  We went to the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down the Champs Elysees and one of our final events was seeing St. Champelle which is a small church with the most amazing stained glass windows in probably the entire world! I'm sure my pictures will speak for themselves and I'll have all of them posted on facebook really soon! I'll be sure to fill you in more frequently on what's going on here.