semana numero dos! [week #2]

my second week here has been even better than the first! it still feels like a dream to me, i don't know if it's ever going to feel real! here's what went down this week...


monday 7/5: finally changed levels today! stayed with virginia in level 5 for grammer, but after break, we switched levels. i'm in level 8 now. much better! now i'm not bored out of my mind! my level 8 convo teacher is luisa. let me tell you about luisa. she's a very loud, very opinionated, very intimidating person. but she's fun too. i have to admit, i was a little afraid of her in that first class. all my friends and i from level 5 are split up, which makes me very sad. alexa went to 7, i went to 8, david went to 9, and kathryn went to 10! ah well, i guess i just have to make new, new friends. after class, we came back and took a little siesta. we were still trying to catch up on sleep from the weekend, so a siesta was a must. on monday afternoons, we have spanish film "class". we don't have to go, but i like spanish films, so we went. we ended up watching "la lengua de las mariposas", "the language of the butterflies", which was about the before and beginning of the spanish civil war in the 1930s. it was a very interesting movie. quite sad, although most movies like that are. even though i like spanish films, this one had unnecessary nudity and sex in it. there was no point to it, and you aren't even warned! ugh. ever since fransisco franco died and the censorship was lifted, the spanish have just got hog wild. anything goes with them. it seems to me like they are in their hippie phase, like our 1970s, but with more technology, and no war to protest at the moment. everyone here smokes and drinks, and pretty much does whatever. they view life as one big party that we are meant to enjoy, in any way possible. i can almost hear them screaming "free love!" at me. my heart breaks for them. they are all looking for the something that's missing in their lives, they're scrambling to find something to fill that hole, but what they don't realize, is that it's a God-shaped hole, and nothing can ever fill it but GOD. and then there's the catholic church. don't even get me started on the catholic church. toledo is and has been known as the city of three religions: catholicism, judaism, and muslim, and is well-represented by each in architecture and style throughout the city.  sunday night, haley was telling us about the conversation she had with her spanish brother david about beliefs and religion. he was telling her how much he and his family hate the catholic church and how christians are all hypocrites. she just tried to explain to him how she believes that it takes a daily and personal relationship with Christ Jesus our Savior. she said he seemed receptive, but at the end, he brushed it off as being interested in every religion. but as we were walking home, i got the idea to have my mom send me the spanish bible that i have at home. i got it last year on the mission trip to new orleans, and i've been hanging on to it ever since then, trying to figure out who i could give it to. and almost a year later, God places that someone in my life. i don't know if because of this, their family will come to accept Christ, but God has opened the door of opportunity, and i can't pass that up, not when an eternal life is in the balance.


tuesday 7/6: had my new grammar teacher for the first time this morning! ana made me feel very welcome in her class. she told the class that no one should worry about the pressure of being right or wrong when answering a question, because people make mistakes. she makes that class fun! convo is always interesting with luisa. she just talks, talks, talks, talks, talks. haha. after lunch today, elyssa and i didn't feel like a siesta, so we went out and walked around zocodover, and we stopped in the little cafe place and had batidos, which are basically just milkshakes, not my favorite here, but i guess they're fine. around 7:00, we had our dance class. i feel like i'm not that good at it, but it was a lot of fun trying to learn it! after dinner, we were itching for something to do, so we walked to zocodover.


wednesday 7/7: today did not start off well. i started getting a headache on tuesday night, and by early morning wednesday, it was really bad. when i get bad headaches, i need dark and quiet, so i stayed in bed. it was weird not going to class, but i knew if i did, i wouldn't be able to function later. at lunchtime, i went down and ate with elyssa and pamela, i don't even remember what we ate. spain played germany tonight, and thankfully, my headache was gone by then. i don't know how i didn't have one after, or even during, that game. it was quite a game! so nerve-wracking! but i knew espana could do it! haynes said spain would never make it, well look at who's in the FINALS! after the awesome win, some of our nabraska friends invited us to have drinks and tapas, like appetizers, with them at a bar close to zocodover. it was fun, we just chilled. we were exhausted, so we decided to go home and sleep.


thursday 7/8: class today was fun. we talked about don quijote and how he was such a huge literary figure in spain. luisa, my convo. teacher asked us to come up with a literary character that our whole country identifies with. it was so hard! i don't feel like there is one literary character that our whole country identifies with. when we finally decided on one, it was huck finn. i guess that huck finn as a character, and mark twain as a writer are important parts of american literature. thursday afternoon and night, us girls got together and decided what to do for our free weekend. we threw around a few ideas like granada, barcelona, and valencia. we finally decided on valencia and started planning things. there were no hostels in valencia with available lodging for friday and saturday night, so we started looking for a hotel. we found a pretty nice hotel for about 100Euros for both nights. the only thing was, it was a 2-person room, and we had 5 people. so we decided that we could fit 5 people in a 2-person room, so we booked it. then we got online to buy train tickets. we found cheap(er) tickets from madrid to valencia on the slower train, so we decided to go ahead and get them. well, when we were purchasing them, something went wrong with the website, and the tickets weren't bought. rachel and haley had to leave to catch the last bus so they could go home. so i spent the next hour trying to figure out what had happened and if we could find other tickets. the only tickets i could find were tickets for the high-velocity train, which were double what we were going to pay for the slower train. we were really bummed, because none of us were planning on spending that much money on this trip; we were trying to go as cheaply as possible. so i left the computer alone for a little while, trying to figure out what we could do. about 20 minutes later, i got back on the website to check to see if we could get the tickets, and they were there! those tickets had not been there 20 minutes ago! so we bought the tickets, and we were back to our original plan: take the bus from toledo to madrid, 5E; take the slow train from madrid to valencia, 23E; stay in valencia for 2 nights, 20E/person; slow train from valencia to madrid, 23E; high-velocity train from madrid to toledo, 10E. and we were going to the market to get some food to take with us so we didn't have to buy too much food once we got there. it was a great plan, i just wish it had gone the way we planned. but that's another story for another time. ciao!

end of week one

the days are flying by and i've been so busy! let me catch you up on the last few fun-filled days here in toledo (and other places!)

thursday 7/1: we went to classes as usual, but during our second class, we went to one of the other university buildings to listen to the director of the cervantes institute (as in miguel de cervantes, as in the author of don quixote). it was boring, and she talked so fast that i couldn't understand much of what she was saying. after lunch, there was a big storm that seemed to come out of nowhere! good thing i was inside when it happened! we pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day, did homework, listened to music.

friday 7/2: classes as usual. nothing too exciting. virginia, my grammar teacher, keeps telling me and my three friends that we're going to move up levels, but we still weren't going to change yet! it was so frustrating sitting in class not being challenged at all. after class, we went back to RUF for lunch and a siesta. after our wonderful siesta, haley, elyssa, rachel, pamela, and i decided to do a little souvenir shopping for our people back home. we at dinner at cafe toledo in la plaza zocodover, where we had pizza. i know what you're thinking. pizza in spain, what? i thought the same thing, too, but it was delicious! and after our delicioso dinner, we got helado (ice cream) from a cute little shop and took pictures around zocodover. so much fun!


saturday 7/3: this morning, we walked to meet the rest of our excursion group at the hotel cardenal. after waiting for 30 minutes for the buses in the cold rain, we boarded and were on our way to segovia! it takes about 2 hours to get to segovia from toledo, so most of us took an early little siesta. when we got to segovia, it was still raining, but that didn't stop us from having a good time. the first thing we did was go to the alcazar, which is spanish for castle fortress. MY FIRST CASTLE!!! and walt disney used this castle as a model for sleeping beauty's castle! my favorite! :D it was a little gloomy outside, but the alcazar was unlike anything i had ever seen. we took a tour of the alcazar, and it was very informative. "I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-I'M-IN-A-REAL-CASTLE" was what was going through my head the entire time. a real.life.castle. i almost peed. ANYWAYS... after the castle tour, we climbed what felt like 3456754678 tiny, narrow, spiral staircase stairs to get to the top of the turret. the view was breathtaking. there was a garden maze that you could see from the top, along with the famous royal gardens of segovia, right next to the river. it didn't rain the whole time we were in the castle, but as soon as we came out, it started up again. ugh. but it's ok, because that only lasted for a little while longer, and then it cleared up! we had lunch at a fancy restaurant next, and for dessert, i had my first spanish flan! i've had mexican before, and it's pretty much the same thing. elyssa and i got seated at the same table with these two guys from the university of nebraska-lincoln named ben and spencer. we kept them pretty entertained with our lovely southern accents. they were a lot of fun too. they hung out with us, well spencer went off with some friends of his, but ben stayed with us while we visited la catedral de segovia. after our free time, everyone regrouped and marched off to see the roman aqueducts. they were beautiful. they go as far as the eye can see. crazy to think that this was built BEFORE machines were invented, huh? i mean, manual labor, what's that? quite impressive. by this time, the sun was shining and it got pretty warm outside, but it was time to make the trip back to toledo. as soon as we got back, we went to RUF and changed into our futbol game attire. i didn't have a red or espana shirt, but they were selling them at the game, so i just planned on buying one there. we booked it back up to la plaza de toros. there were sooo many people there. and they were mostly drunk. we watched spain beat portugal 1:0, sending all the spaniards into a frenzy. you think football games are crazy? try being with hundreds of spaniards whose team has never made it this far in the world cup. talk about party. we walked home and all you could see was red, and all you could hear was the roar of the continuous cheers, "ESPANA! ESPANA! ESPANA!" what a rush. we stopped to eat dinner at a little outdoor cafe, where we ate pulgas de tortilla espanola. SO GOOD. definitely my new favorite here. we were still pretty hyped up from our exciting day, and some of our nebraska friends were telling us about the discotecas, so we decided to check it out. none of us had ever been to a club before, let alone one in a foreign country. so we hiked home and changed into something that resembles what girls wear, and took a cab to the disco. after we were dropped off, we finally found the discotecas, and we went in. they are all outside, which i think is cool, because everyone's not crammed into some building. we found out that at discotecas here, no one really dances, unless they're drunk, and then they dance very stupidly. most of them stand on the dance floor and talk. but we wanted to dance, so we jump out there and start doing our little white girl moves. it was fun, i guess. i'm glad i have that experience, but i don't think i'll go back. we got home at about 3:30 AM, and crashed.


sunday 7/4: we all slept in today, since saturday was a forever-long day for us. we slept till about 1:30 pm. !!! we had lost half a day! elyssa, pamela, and i decided to shower and go find some brunch. we ended up at el cafe de las monjas (cafe of the nuns) and had blueberry crepes. mmm. blueberries are my favorite. we went to haley's host home for make a 4th of july dinner for her spanish family. when we got there, we read scripture with each other and prayed, and had a pretty intense conversation about what each of us believes and pretty much our testimonies. then we cooked dinner and ate with haley's family. we ended up staying too late, and the buses weren't running anymore, so we walked home. it took us about 25 minutes to walk all the way home, but it wasn't too bad. by now, we're kind of used to walking everywhere.

Fiesta Brasilena!

Ok Let me catch you up real quick on the past two days. Yesterday (Tuesday) was our first day of class. I was placed in level 5 out of 10, which I don't think is right. I couldn't have done that poorly on the exam. But we have a chance to move up levels if the material is too easy. which it is. My teachers are great though, and I like them a lot! In grammar, we worked on the indefinido (preterite) and imperfect tenses of verbs. I did that a long time ago. In conversation, we talked about where we were from and why we study Spanish. The teacher talked mainly to each student individually, which got really boring after a while when she wasn't talking to me. There are three Chinos (Chinese), four Unidenses (Americans), and twenty Brasilenos (Brazilians). Well, not really twenty, maybe like 8. They all live in the same residence as my group does, so we see them a lot. After class, we came back and had lunch. I talked to mom on skype, and then I wasn't feeling well, so I took a siesta. I was going to get up for dance class at 7, but I still felt terrible, so I stayed in bed. Then I was going to get up for the Spain v. Portugal game, but I was still sick, so I just stayed in bed pretty much until this morning.


I felt somewhat better this morning. My throat is still scratchy [it better not be strep HANNAH PERCY or so help me, I'm going to come across this ocean and get you.] I went to class and it was still too easy. But our teacher, Senorita Virginia Barbero told me and the other 3 Americans that she thinks this work is too easy for us, so she's going to talk to the prof. in a higher level to see if we can go there. It all depends on the class size. They don't want it to end up with like 30 students in one class and 4 in another. So we'll see in a few days I guess. Our second class was canceled b/c they took us all as a group to the Ayuntamiento, which I think is the city courthouse. They packed us all into the main hall and gave some speeches, which I couldn't really hear, but they were about Toledo, and then we were free after that. We had a little while before lunch, so Haley, Elyssa, Rachel, our new friend Pamela, and I got some helado, ice cream, and did a little window-shopping. Then we came back and had lunch- primero was something spinach with maybe cheese and bits of ham in it? I'm not sure, I didn't eat much of it. And segundo was chicken and mashed potatoes. They have something potato in every single meal! Then Crystal and I hung out and talked in my room for a while and decided to do a little shopping along the street that leads to la Plaza Zocodover. We found Elyssa on the way and she joined us. I got one gift, I think, but mainly I just shopped for ideas for gifts for people. We made plans to go to la Plaza de Toros to watch the futbol game on Sat. night. Apparently, they put a big screen up at the arena and everybody goes there to watch it. I just hope we get back from Segovia in time. We're taking a day trip up to Segovia on Saturday! It's not that fat, and we're leaving at 8:30 AM, and the game isn't until 8:30 PM, so we should be back in time. TONIGHT was la fiesta brasilena. SO.MUCH.FUN! I tried to learn how to dance some of the Brasilena dances, but I don't know how well I did. I tried some kind of Brasilena drink, I have no idea what was in it, but it was good! I also tried "calimocho", which is a Spanish drink that is just half coca-cola and half wine. Easy to make and very tasty! We danced and we danced, and sang songs. It was so much fun! Who knew that I would come to Spain and go to a Brasil fiesta?!

El segundo dia y la fiesta

Well Monday didn't start off well. My alarm clock didn't go off. We were supposed to leave the dorm at 9 to walk to the university, la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, to take our placement tests. I woke up to Dr. Baldridge knocking on my door at 8:50. So I threw some clothes on and ran out the door. When we got there, we couldn't find the group. We were at the place we were going to take the test, but they had gone to another building first. While we were walking around to find our group, we found Holly (one from my group). She was late because the family she is staying with dropped her off late. So it's good that we found her so she wasn't wandering around alone! The whole group finally came to the building where we were and we took our placement test. It wasn't too hard. After that we were given a tour of that building, la Plaza de Maria la Blanca. The other building that most of us would be taking classes is la Plaza Padilla, which is just down the road. After the tour, we had pretty much a free day until the fiesta. So we went back to the dorm, la Residencia de Universidad Feminina (RUF), and had lunch and took siesta. Primero was a mixture of scrambled egg, zucchini (I think), and something else green, and segundo was some kind of fish with an red-orange kind of sauce. Primero wasn't half bad. I mean, I wouldn't have put vegetables and eggs together, but it was ok. The fish was fish. Not great, but not bad. After siesta it was time for the welcome fiesta. So we dressed up and walked up to la Plaza Padilla. Upon entering the courtyard, we were lei'ed with red and yellow lei's. I was a little confused since we aren't in Hawaii, but oh well. La Fiesta de Bienvenidos began with a few speakers from UCLM, followed by a flamenco band and dancer and a little spanish play. I couldn't understand all of it because they talked so fast and they were far away, but what I heard was funny. La fiesta ended with an exhibition of medieval fencing. It was so cool! The swordsmen wove in and out of the courtyard and even let some other people try it. After the fiesta, we were tired, so we came back to RUF. I walked in and the Brasil v. Chile World Cup game was on, so I watched the end of that with some of the Brasilians in the dorm. It was quite entertaining!

We made it!

We made it safe and sound into Toledo! We left on Saturday morning at 9:50 from the Nashville airport to Philadelphia. We had a six hour layover in Philly, then we left for Madrid. We arrived in Madrid at 8:20 AM Spanish time and took a bus down to Toledo. They dropped us off at Puente de San Martin, a bridge into the city (buses aren't allowed to drive into the historic district because of the narrow, cobblestone streets) and we walked to our dorm, We checked into our rooms, showered (finally!) and went to find someplace for lunch. My new friend Holly and I found this little restaurant not too far from our dorm. Lunch for the Spanish is the biggest meal of the day (in the US, it's dinner). Most places will serve two courses for lunch. I had gazpacho (a cold kind of tomato soup) for my primero and pork chops and vegetables for my segundo. After lunch, we decided to explore a little bit. We went back down toward Puente de San Martin and walked around there for a little while. It started to get really hot, and it was almost time for siesta, so we headed back to the dorm. I'm in a room by myself, which is ok, but I'm kind of sad because I was excited about sharing a room with someone. But it's ok. That means that I have the closet to myself. :) I took a 3-hour (much-needed after barely any sleep on the plane) nap. Then Dr. Baldridge and I went to go find something to eat for dinner. The first thing I've learned in Spain is that gazpacho gives me heartburn. So for dinner, I turned to something more familiar: McDonald's. It's very different here. Your included beverage can be beer. Weird. People smoke all over the place here, but they can't smoke inside public places, which I'm very grateful for. Well, it is time for bed, I am exhausted! Can't wait for another exciting day tomorrow!

Only One Week Left!

Hola mis amigos!

Only one week left until I hop on a jet plane and fly halfway around the world! I keep having all kinds of crazy dreams. Like the one I had last night. I dreamed that we went to the Chattanooga airport instead of Nashville to meet my group. Talk about freaking out! I've had several dreams like this over the past few days. I guess I'm just really nervous! Haha. Anyways...

My refund check from school finally came today! Woo-hoo! The check I was expecting was supposed to be for $2,802 which meant that I would still owe $110. But the check I got was for $2902 meaning that I only owe $10 more! Praise Him! There was $100 extra that I hadn't calculated. I had done the calculations many times, but I only ever got $2,802 in refunds. I don't know where that other $100 came from, but I'm not complaining!

I've been following the World Cup. I'm not much of a soccer fan, but I was reading about it in Sports Illustrated, and they predicted that Spain would take the cup. Since I will be in Spain while the World Cup is still going on, I figured that that's all the locals will be talking about, so I better know what's going on!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! I can't believe that there are only seven days left! I've already packed twice. I have almost everything I need. Now I'm just getting kind of restless, I'm just so ready for it to be here!

ONE MONTH!!

So...big news today! I got my award letter from financial aid. It turns out that I am able to receive two loans, one for $1,000 which covers my Mayterm class, and another for $2,750. Both of these will be applied to Mayterm since that's the only class I'm enrolled in this summer. Since the total amount of the two loans is more than I will need, I will be getting a refund check for about $2,850. Refund checks will be available [at the earliest] on Friday! The outstanding balance for my trip is $2,912, so my refund check will cover almost all of it! What an answer to prayer! God never ceases to amaze me!!! We sang a song at church tonight, and it just sums it all up. 

"GOD is BIGGER than the air I breathe, the world we'll leave. GOD will save the day, and all will say, 'My Glorious, My Glorious!!'"

So all in all, my God is bigger than any obstacle thrown in my path. 

aaaaaaaand...Spain is BACK ON!!