Adventures with Matt, Pt. II

Here we go. Once Matt and I arrived in Paris, it was a whirlwind of adventures. I’m not quite sure how much I can expand on…because we might be here all day.

So to start, we found our hotel. Praise the Lord! It was a cute little joint, but the shower was down the hall. It was about 30 minutes to an hour walk from any of the main sites, so we got a fair share of exercise in that week.

We first visited the famous cathedral of Notre Dame... yes where Quasimodo used to ring the bells. What an incredible church! All the stain glass and high ceilings (although the cathedral of Sevilla is really incredible too). We also got a chance to climb to the top.. to see the bells and the famous gargoyles. That was maybe my favorite part of the whole trip. But, while we were waiting to climb.. we bought our first crêpe, with sugar and butter. I’d never had a crêpe before.. and it was delicious! Once at the top, we looked at the bells. The biggest bell, is over 400 years old and takes at least ten men to move it. Wow! Plus, at the top of the tower.. was a beautiful overall view of Paris.

 

        At the top!                                                            Notre Dame

The Gargoyles.. that overlook the city

Afterwards, we intended to visit another church…but apparently things close early in Paris, so we weren’t able to go. Thus, we decided to make our way towards the famous Eiffel Tower. Along the way, we stopped at a beautiful park, the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe…and then proceeded to the Eiffel Tower. Though it was getting late, I just KNEW that it had to be close.. since I could see it. Matt wasn’t quite so sure…but we continued. About 45 minutes later, we finally arrived. Matt made sure to let me know…that though I can see something, that does not mean it is close. =)

But wow, what a beautiful site! I never thought in my life that I would see the Eiffel Tower. It’s always something that you hear about. It’s way more beautiful in person too…especially at night because every hour, they do a light show.. and the tower lights up and sparkles!

The next couple of days, we did a lot of walking. We visited the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur, which is another beautiful church that is situation on a hillside and of course the famous art museum the Louvre. Matt LOVED the Louvre. He’d never been to art museum as such before and he’s not super into art, but he really enjoyed seeing Napoleons’ apartment—which is basically like the inside of a palace, where everything is…or seems of Gold. Of course we also the Mona Lisa and the armless woman statue, because they are also situated there.

Also, did you know that there is a statue of liberty in Paris? It's the sister statue to the one we have in New York.

Sacre-Coeur

The Louvre

Napolean's Apartment

Famous armless lady. What's the actual name? Anyone know?

We all know what this is. It's actually REALLY small

A real Egyption mummy inside of the museum

Arc du Triomphe and Eiffel Tower off the the right

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

We had intended on going to Disneyland Paris. For those of you who know me well,  I LOVE Disneyland. In fact, we spent a portion of our honeymoon there…so that must mean I really like it, huh? =) Unfortunately, we ran out of money…because everything is Paris is expensive and Matt didn’t get paid as much as we were anticipating.

So though Paris might seem like a really romantic place, it was a different kind of romantic…because we didn’t have money, therefore we didn’t eat out. In fact, most of what we ate was pastries from a bakery.. and loafs of cheap, delicious bread. And we didn’t get to do a lot of the activities we were hoping.

Nonetheless, we still thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to return someday. We visited the Eiffel every night..and sometimes during the day. The street venders there are CRAZY. There is thousands of them.. and they all surround you and try to sell you mini Eiffel towers and toys and everything you can imagine. So when they see you...and even if you dont want to buy anything...they will just drop the price lower…and lower..and lower. It’s kind of ridiculous, because they are bartering with themselves.

So the last night, I decided to take advantage of their little…price lowering game. I really wanted to buy an Eiffel Tower, but only had 7 euros. Most of the Eiffel Towers..are like 20+ euros in the stores, so I had to get the price down quite a ways. So he started his price at 15. I tried to tell him six..and he would lower it one euro at a time and hand me the Eiffel Tower. Then, I would say six..and give him the tower back and he would lower the price again. Finally, it got down to 7. Woo! Job done. =)

Very proud of my new Eiffel Tower purchase

Gosh, the rest of Paris is a blur. We were only there for three days, which is not very much time. Afterwards we headed back to Sevilla and hung out for a couple days until Matt left. When we arrived in Sevilla.. we practically had no money and weren’t quite sure what to do, since we needed somewhere to sleep. The couple we stayed with originally had other people staying with them… so we just went with the flow and didn't really know where we would stay. We considered sleeping outside, but we just left it in God’s hands.

Sporting his blazer gear in front of the
Giralda, which is part of Sevilla's Cathedral

Churros.. they make them fresh for you.
You're supposed to dip them in hot chocolate..that is almost like pudding.

Immediately, we headed back to my host family’s house to put our stuff somewhere. Most of the time, Spaniards are really weird about letting strangers come in their house, so I wasn’t quite sure what would happen. However, when we arrived...my host mom was super excited to meet Matt and invited us in…and made us dinner. =) Then she proceeded to tell us that we could both stay in her house until Matt left. WOW. That never happens…and I’m not joking, so it was a huge blessing to us. Since we had just a tiny bit of money left, for the next two days, we visited Sevilla's Gothic Cathedral (3rd biggest in the world), ate churros, ate one meal in a restaurant where Matt tried authentic Spanish food, and also took a horse drawn carriage!!!

Yay!!

Just really happy to be together!

The last thing we did, was put a lock on the bridge that I walk over every day. There are locks all over the bridges and the story goes…that lovers put locks on the bridge and throw the key into the river, so that nothing can unlock..their love. To this day, our lock is still on the bridge. I LOVE looking at it.. as I walk over the bridge every day. It’s just another reminder of how much Matt loves me!

Our lock.. that says "My home is where you are".. which Matt wrote.
The Tower of Gold is in the background.

Matt left bright and early the next morning.. and I was pretty emotional, but he made it home just fine and recovered from jetlag quite quickly. My host mom sent him with some food for his journey...a Spanish sandwich, chips and fruit. Again, another blessing.

So there you have it. This is probably my longest blog yet and I’m sure there is something I’ve left out. If you want more specific stories, you’ll have to ask me sometime.

One week until I am home! Sorry if I have some gramatical errors. I'm pretty exhausted. =)

Traveling Adventures with Matt, Pt. I

J'etais perdue**. It was how I was feeling…when I got to the airport to discover that Matt was not there. I had received an email saying that he was just about to board on his flight from Dallas to Madrid (capital of Spain) but that his flight had been delayed by two hours. That was the last communication I had from him. So to my knowledge, he had supposedly made his last two flights, but when I arrived at the airport in Sevilla, he was no where to be seen. Furthermore, I had no new emails saying what had happened, so I just figured that he must have missed his connecting flight. Not knowing what to do,  I proceeded to ask the airport officials, what they could do to help me. With a few tears and no luck, they told me that they wouldn't be able to help me in any way because it would be a security issue. They couldn't tell me if Matt had missed his flight or was scheduled for the next...regardless of the fact I was his wife and that he had no euros, no international phone, apparently no internet and spoke barely any Spanish. Yes, I was a emotional wreck.


After waiting five hours in the airport, he finally came. (He was able to catch the next flight) Thank the Lord! I do not know what I would have done if he hadn't come. It was SO great to see him again. He was obviously very tired, but that did not stop us from enjoying ourselves in Sevilla. Unfortunately, he had brought bad weather with him and it rained for the duration of the day (which was only the second time I had seen it rain in Sevilla. What luck!)

Eating tapas with Pablo and Cristina

We were very blessed and were able to stay with a married couple that I know, Sarah and Jordan...for two nights free of charge! In the evening, we went out to dinner for tapas at my favorite restaurant with a Spanish couple that I met here. Matt hit it off well with them, although he gets along good with everyone. Then afterwards, we went to the church I've been attending...to go to a miniature concert. There he was able to meet more of my Spanish friends.

The next couple of nights, we spent in Sevilla…just wandering around. I was super excited to show him where I’d been living.. and what I got to see everyday. We visited a popular park called "El Parque de Maria Luisa", the Plaza de España and the famous Alcazar, which is the royal palace and gardens. Let me tell you, they are beautiful!

In the Plaza de España,
in the section specifically for Sevilla! 

Plaza de España

There are peacocks all around the Alcazar!

In the Alcazar

For Halloween, we went to a pizza place. It was quite the experience… the people were dressed like devils and they were playing weird music in the background of people screaming, cats growling, and people in chains. Super strange, but at least the pizza was tasty!

The night of the 1^st, we took a bus to Madrid to catch our flight to Paris. We ended up sleeping in the airport that night, until our flight left bright and early. One thing that is nice about Europe is that you can easily find cheap flights to other countries within Europe. I think we got our return flights for like 10 dollars each. Cheap, huh? The stinky thing, is that the cheap airlines will try to charge you on any little thing they can find after your flight is already booked. So for example, the airline we flew with to Paris, was RyanAir. You can take one carry-on without paying, but it cannot way more than like 15 pounds and has to have specific dimensions. Everything has to be inside your carryon, including purse, food, camera, book.. or anything as such. If they decide to get picky and your bag just happens to be wrong in someway, they will make you check your bag and will charge you.

Matt and his Ham flavored chips

It just so happened, that they day we left.. was a day they decided to be picky. They made each passenger stick their carry-ons in a measurement box and if the bag didn’t fit, then they had to check it. Well… Matt’s didn’t fit. So in order to avoid getting charged, we both put on about 3-4 layers of clothing to make the bags smaller. It worked! The flight was a little.. sweaty but we managed. =) It was also quite comical. The whole flight was like a infomercial. They advertised tons of different things to try to get people to buy, such as perfume, lottery tickets, and stuffed animals. They must be somewhat successful. 

Once we arrived to Paris, we discovered that the airport we landed in was about 45 minutes outside of the actual city. (I guess that is also why the flight was so cheap). Needless to say, we had to get to the city somehow, so the option was to take a bus that cost about 100 dollars in extra expenses.. that we had not anticipated. =/ 

Paris itself was great after we finally found our hotel, but I will talk about it more in my next blog! 

Culture 101

            So here you go… I know you’ve all been waiting. How is Spain really different from the United States? This is what I have so far....

This is a meal just for ME. A TON of food as you can see.
It consists of meatballs and mashed potatos, chips and
cheese, bread, cheesecake, fruit, and a plate of dessert.
NO, I did not eat all of it. =) 

* Meal times are drastically different. Breakfast is similar.. at around 8ish, but then lunch is at 2:30 and dinner at 9:30. Breakfast consists of a piece of bread and jam. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Usually, there will be a main course, which could be chicken and fries… Paella…Garbanzo beans and then there is a secondary dish with fish or cheese and meat and crackers. Basically, it’s a big meal. I don’t think I’ve ever finished the entire thing. (And our host mom gets offended when we don't eat all our food and thinks that we don't like it..)

* Food is different. Almost everything is cooked in olive oil, whereas.. we bake a lot of our stuff in the oven.

* Everything, except restaurants and bars close down during the afternoon from about 2-5 for nap time. Nothing is open on Sundays either.

* The temperature is strange. It starts out very cold in the mornings.. get's really warm in the afternoons, and then by the evening is very cold again. The houses aren't really equipped for cold weather either, so many times.. it will be colder inside than outside.

* Everyone smokes. In houses.. outside. You can't go into a restaurant and find a non-smoking area. It just doesn't exist.

Dos Besitos (See description)

* Showers have to be limited. Water is expensive and they don't have a ton of hot water...so we have a 5 minute-ish limit in the shower.

* When you first meet someone...or see a friend you know on the street, you must give them "dos besitos".. or two kisses. You put your cheek against their cheek, first right cheek and then left check. While doing it...you make two kissing sounds. It sounds really awkward and strange...and it is at first, but eventually it becomes normal.

* You never see people on the street dressed casually. Everyone wears cute clothes all the time. Girls always wear fashionable boots with peacoats and lots of jewelry. So it's very easy to pick out an American...because they are usually wearing jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes.

* Piropos (Compliments) - It's super, super common for you to be walking down the street and for strangers to say 'hello beautiful' to you. It's not a creepy thing here, but just a compliment.

* People do not smile at strangers.

* Talking loud, is NOT yelling. You will know when a Spaniard is mad.

* Interrupting is not considered rude. If you want to get your voice into a conversation, you have to be willing to interrupt!

* Being 'on time' is relative. If you want your Spanish friends to be on time... tell them to be there 10-15 minutes before you actually want them there...or be prepared to wait.

* There is no such thing as 'tipping' when you go to a restaurant.

* People don't invite friends to their houses. Instead.. they go out for coffee or to get a drink.

As you can see, Spaniards leave no room in
between cars, so that no space is wasted.
(Again, read the description)

* Driving here is crazy.. most everyone has really small cars and try to park in the tightest parking spot ever. In fact, I've also heard that because cars are parked so close together, many people will leave their car in neutral, so that other people can push their car out of the way.

Well, that's a lot for you to read. Hope it wasn't too overwhelming. =) Most everything I've been able to get accustomed to. It has been hard not being able to go to other people's houses to study.. or just hang out. The school isn't open super often, so in order to use the internet or to study...we have to go somewhere and pay for a coffee. Back in the states, I LOVE hosting people...for dinner, for game nights, for movie nights..for basically anything, so this has been hard to get accustomed to. Fortunately, I have made friends with a missionary and gone to her house a couple of times and also gone to the student ministry coordinator's house.

The other thing that has been hard.. has been not having independence. Being married, puts me in a whole new ball game than the other students. It has been nice to not have to cook or do all my laundry, but I also get treated like a kid...since I get yelled at for not wearing a coat in the house (when I'm not cold) or when I don't eat all my lunch. I miss driving too! I look forward to driving again and turning up my music and singing really loud. I walk at least 2 miles everyday and that's just going back and forth from the school once. =)

Hope thanksgiving was great! 

     Only 26 days until I come home. How crazy is that?! Time has flown by faster than I imagined…but that is what everyone told me would happen.

    I feel like I’ve been pretty busy lately, which is good and bad. All semester long, I’ve been taking a Flamenco dance class…which has been really fun, but hard! The dance instructor is so sweet and she’s 4 months pregnant and super cute and she makes it fun! We have one more class and then have our final performance next Monday night. I got my flamenco dress and it’s ridiculously amazing!

My Flamenco Dress!

My friend, Angline and I in our dresses

   I’ve also recently started taking a free salsa dance class. Let me tell you.. I love salsa! Its really good exercise and I leave feeling so refreshed! I’ve already informed Matt that we must take a salsa class when I return. =)

   I´ve been hearing lately via family and facebook that most of you have a lot of snow. I am so jealous! It makes me wish that I were home...playing in the snow and gearing up for Christmas with Black Friday on the way. It´s so strange to think that in Sevilla.. the weather is still fairly nice being in the 60s or 70s during the day. My body is going to be in shock when I come back! I am praying that I will be able to make it back home for Christmas. I fly into Chicago and then to Portland and I´m worried that snow or bad weather will prohibit me from coming. Please be praying! Spending Christmas in Chicago doesn´t sound super appealing.

Making snowflakes with Haya (the girl I work with at the convent)
It was her first time!

Thanks to those of you who reply to my blogs. It’s super great to hear from you and it lets me know that there really are people out there reading about my adventures!

Do you guys have any questions.. or things you would like to hear about in one of my next blogs?

Oh and happy thanksgiving and black friday shopping! Eat lots of turkey for me. :-)

Oh to be an old lady

Halloween. It's an excuse to be crazy... and to dress funky and have no one wonder what is wrong with you. In the past I've dressed up as a facebook page, a Rubik's cube, and even a rockstar. This year, I wasn't quite sure what to be. Plus, Halloween isn't as big of an event in Spain as it is in the United States. Needless to say, I still chose to participate. So on deciding what to be, I thought I'd add a few years to my life... 

The Full Ensemble

Our school actually had a little Halloween party...upon which there was a costume contest. So that morning, bright and early, I awoke to start the preparations of my costume. My roommate put hair curlers in my hair, did my make-up pretty crazy, and ended with some baby powder, to give the effect of grey hair. It was a hoot! I walked to school and back that morning looking like an old woman. I got some pretty crazy looks that day. One woman even almost fell off of her bike. =) At the costume party, not a ton of students dressed up, which was sad...but I suppose an advantage on my part, because I won first prize, which was a free drink to Starbucks. =) 

Helping a senior citizen

Later on the the evening, I went to another halloween party that was hosted by a missionary friend, named Nadine. She also had a costume contest. A lot more people dressed up for her party, which it made it fun...and I remained a granny. :D To my delight, I also won first prize for that contest...which was a $15 dollar iTunes card (now I can buy $15 dollars worth of music online!). Nadine had also bought some pumpkins to carve. There were some Spaniards there, so we taught them the art of carving pumpkins. They thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious. There were even some Americans who had never cut pumpkins before and one of them had her own pumpkin farm. How can someone grow pumpkins and never have cut one???

Me and Shrek

I ended up carving two pumpkins. I made one into a sun...and the other into a bird-like creature. Although, the Spaniards thought it looked like Shrek...so I won first prize for the pumpkin carving contest too (I won a box of chocolates). I have never won so many prizes in one day! I felt pretty accomplished. =) 

The Sun!

It was fun to teach the Spaniards some American traditions. I find it very enjoyable to learn about different cultures and to compare how 

different it is with American. So very soon, I am going to write a

 'Cultures 101' blog on things that I've noticed are different. =) 

What did you guys dress up for Halloween?? 

I wrote this blog a few weeks ago, but was unable to upload pictures until today.
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So far, I’ve been here 54 days. It doesn’t seem like that long, but I feel like I’ve been here a while. Things that were once exciting are starting to become ‘normal’. It’s weird to think that I will be coming home in about 8 weeks.

Rock formations everywhere!

Well, since I’m a bit behind, I will update you on latest travels. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Lagos, Portugal and WOW is it pretty! If any of you ever get a chance to come to Europe, you must visit Lagos. It’s on the coast, so we were right on the beach. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I can imagine that the beaches of Lagos are just as beautiful as the ones in Hawaii.  I went with two other girls from our program and it took a six-hour bus ride to get there. Once we arrived, we went to find our hotel, but to our dismay…discovered it was out in the country somewhere. The description online had said that it was close to everything, but I guess they meant by car. So you can say.. we weren’t exactly happy. The hotel however was very nice and only one other couple was actually staying there, so we had the whole joint to ourselves. It was super small, but it had a pool AND a hot tub, which we really loved.

Our hotel

                                                                                I could go on forever about Lagos, but basically it took us about 45 minutes to walk to the beach and a little longer to walk downtown. We visited many different little beaches…all of which had gorgeous rock formations around them. We even took a boat ride on the ocean and through the rock formations and the tour guides pointed out different rock formations that looked like elephants, King Kong, Michael Jackson and other random things. Then at the very end, we were able to jump off the boat and go swimming in the middle of the Atlantic. I’ve never swam in the ocean, so that was a neat experience. The boat driver even let me steer the boat on the way back. =)

What does this rock look like to you??

 

The sunset on the walk back to the hotel

             A few weeks later, we went to Huelva, a small little town about an hour from Sevilla. It’s where Christopher Columbus began his journey of discovering the new world. So we visited a museum commemorated for Columbus and then got to see exact replicas of the Niña, Pinta and the Santa Maria.

The Niña

Climbing up the rope (I wasn't supposed to)

Last weekend, we visit La Mancha, which is from the story Don Quixote. Not sure if you guys know the story, but basically there is a guy who thinks he is fighting giants, but was really fighting giant windmills. 

Afterwards, we visited Toledo for a few days (which I have already blogged about) and then two girls and I split off from the group to visit Madrid, the capital of Spain. It was a really fun weekend—we got to visit the famous Prado art museum, the Palacio Real, which is the king’s old palace and a bunch of other pretty places. It was a good weekend overall, except that a random guy tried to kiss me and we didn’t sleep super well in our hostel. Great experiences nonetheless!

The Palace!

            Now this week is over, and yes I am glad. Full of 3 tests, three papers, and one presentation—you can say that I’m happy to do nothing right now. I am hoping this upcoming week will fly by fast, since Matt will be here on Saturday! Our plans may have to change. We were planning on visiting Paris, but France is in the midst of a strike right now and there is an enormous shortage on gas. I am hoping that the strike will be finished by the time we are ready to visit France, but we will see. Either way, Matt will be with me.. and for that I am soo soo excited!