Just thoughts....

I just wanted to write about how I feel being in Spain with 5 days left.

It´s the biggest mix of emotions ever! I am ready to come home...I miss people more than anything. I am excited for summer in Moorhead. But I´m going to miss the people I´ve met here...I´m going to miss the culture here...I´m not looking forward to reverse culture shock. Before I came here I didn´t think that I´d have a problem going back, but now I´m pretty immersed in the culture of this country, and I know that it´s different at home.

Some things I already know I´ll miss:
-everyone walking everywhere
-the cute cobblestone streets
-the old buildings
-the Alhambra (which is #8 on the wonders of the world list right now...I think we´re gonna make it!)
-my host family who even after 5 months I don´t feel like I had enough time to really get to know.
-the nightlife-everyone is out on the streets well past 11pm-old and young alike
-the free tapas with your cheap drinks
-Fanta with real juice in it!
-Kinder Bueno-best candy ever

I am realizing how much this really was an opportunity of a lifetime, and it´s an experience I´ll never forget. I have gotten a lot more comfortable with my Spanish as well, which is comforting!

Some things I´m really looking forward to in the states:
-seeing my family
-hanging out with my friends
-the food!
-my bed, my bathroom
-air conditioning
-my puppy
-the cabin
-having a kitchen that I can use whenever I want!-cooking
-ice water-there´s never ice in the water here

I already know it´s going to be difficult this summer, and even going back to Luther in the fall, but I´m just ready to be home again! Os echo de menos!!! (I miss you all!) 5 finals, 5 days, and then I´m home free!

Francia!

Ok, so I went to France...cool, right?! I went to visit Medgeface. For a little background...I took a bus 6 hours to Madrid, a metro and taxi to the airport, a plane to Paris, buses around the city, and a train to Nantes...in other words, I was travelling about 24 hours, to France! On the way back I had 4 hours to kill in the middle of the night, alone, in this sketchy part of town where I had to catch a bus. Long story short I saw someone getting beat up on the street and decided to hide away in a hotel lobby for 4 hours, from 1am to 5am! I just hoped and prayed that I wouldn't get kicked out onto the streets! No one questioned my sitting in the lobby of this 5 star hotel, and I made it back to Granada safe and sound! But...that's the only bad part of the entire trip! I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Megs and was awed by the Eiffel Tower! My trip in a nutshell follows, in the opposite order of occurance of course!!!

This is actually me sitting in the train the Saturday night I left to get back to Paris! Bubye Megan!

Before leaving Paris Saturday night I had to get one last look at the glowing beauty!

Why not eat Moroccan food in Nantes?! Katie and Amanda (girls from Meg's program), Megs and I stuffed ourselves with delicious couscous!

So good to be with my first Luther love!

The wonderful green pastry is specific to Nantes! It was pistacchio!!! mmmm....

Johnny Depp?!?? Not quite!

Just so you know, Megs and I are left-handed...this is how we prefer to take pictures!

We're in a beautiful park in Nantes!!!

Back to saying goodbye...Miss you already Medgen!

Of course it rained the first day I was there, but it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves!!!

This is the group we went out with Friday night...front: Meg, me, Amanda-Back: Paul, Kojo, Nick

I still can't believe I ate grilled sardines and actually enjoyed them!!! I have really grown up over here!!! haha! But they had their heads on and everything....it was scary, but tasty!

Meg and I at the Nantes Castle!!! So cool! It still had a partial mote!

Mmmm...coffee with milk!!!

Yeah, I really was that excited to be there!

So nice that I met up with Tamarra on the bus to Madrid...it would have been much more lonely seeing the Eiffel Tower by myself!

Can you see it?!

Hunchback anyone?! Notre Dame was huge, and incredible!

Pretty...

Dia de los cruces and Portugal!

So this last weekend I went on a roadtrip to Lagos, Portugal with 4 other people from my program! It was a beautiful little city with amazing beaches! We stayed at a hostel and cooked on the terrace and soaked up too much sun!!! This was our second day at the beach...a beautiful little cove of a beach, but it ended up being a nudie beach! Yikes, that wasn't planned!

If you're familiar with Luther campus and Decorah Iowa this pic makes a lot of sense! Although it's not spelled the same, the Norses had to pose in front of a bar that reminded us of "home!"

The Atlantic ocean...

This is taken at the end of the world...the southwestern most point in all of Europe where explorers once thought they had reached the end of the world!!!

Spain in Portuguese!

Our delicious fondue dessert on the terrace! (Abbey, Katie, Alex, Felix)


This is a fishbowl drink!!! A real fishbowl filled with a yummy tropical drink and shared between a group with 3 foot long straws!!! (Abbey, Katie, Alex, Felix, and me)

The second day at the beach when I was too sunburnt to actually enjoy the sun...you can see how red I am reading my magazine in the cove!

Cooking a hearty American meal, steak and potatoes....mmm...(Alex, Felix, me)

We're being explorers at the end of the world...(Abbey, me, Alex, Katie)

The atlantic ocean-I was sitting on the edge of the cliff, the water is way down there!!!

It was the perfect Little Mermaid stone, we couldn't resist...

You can't swim in the ocean and not do a Baywatch rescue...however, when I was waterlogged on the beach, Alex didn't know how to help me...

The day of the crosses in Granada is big celebration in which different organizations build big carnation cross scenes and enter a contest to win prizes. People have the day off and everyone is out in the streets enjoying the festivities. There are people dressed in traditional flamenco costumes all day and music plays by the crosses and the Sevillianas (dancers) entertain. People start drinking before noon even and the they don't stop until early the next day. We enjoyed a good night at botellon (drinking in the streets) where over 10 thousand people were during last year's day of the cross...and ended the night at a discoteca, returning to our houses around 5:30 in the morning.

This cross is in a residence hall patio and it has won 1st prize about 7 times! Very cool!

This is hard to explain if you don't know Spanish, but scissors in an apple is a symbol that is displayed at all the crosses and it's a play on words type of thing. It means that you can't talk bad about the cross you're looking at basically!

This is a mini Alhambra cross scene...I hope you all know that the Alhambra is now one of the 7 Wonders of the World!!!

There's plastic on this cross because of course it was raining off and on.

This is about how the whole 6 and a half hour car ride looked like in the backseat on the way to Portugal! It was a nonstop dance party between Katie, me, and Alex!

NORWEGA!!! Norge! Norway! My homeland!

Probably the best trip ever! I was only in Norway for 4 days, which was way too short, but got to see quite a bit in such a short time! I stayed for free with my former roommate who was here in Granada in January and February! We stayed two nights in Oslo and then roadtripped 6 and a half hours to Voss, an adorable little city! And of course my pictures are out of order, but try to enjoy them anyhow!

Nothing needs to be said here!

This is my in a sculpture!

Inside another statue!

I didn't actually dive into the fjord, don't worry!

Me and the Oslo metro!

An old stave church-stavkirke-where we stopped and had some lunch. It had been placed in a little museum area with a bunch of other old buildings!

Not sure if this is a fjord or a lake...but this is taken through the window!

Another adorable little stave church!

Our final goodbye to Britt at the Torp airport:(

Saying goodby to Norway on our flight back to Madrid.

On the ferry with our car, going across a fjord! It was kinda pretty!

A hole in the ferry...pretty artsy, eh?!

A famous waterfall that we stopped at...you couldn't even see the river it was soo far down there!

A replica stave church! In other words, this is a new church modeled after the old school ones!

A stabbur! A little hut on stilts-I learned that they used to be used to hang food, or smoke it or something, but now people still have them and use them as guest houses or storage!

A waterfall on our drive...right next to the bridge we crossed!

I think this is another lake...again taken through the window! But the lakes were all sooo still and you could see perfect reflections of the landscape!

This is the fjord we crossed on the ferry!

Me and my Norwegian girlie, Britt at the fjord!

Me and the fjord!

Voss and it's little lake! So cute!

One of the oldest wooden buildings in Norway that's not a church!

The coolest hotel ever, in Voss, overlooking the lake, mountains, and railway!

The river that flows into the Voss lake, it created these crazy holes in the rock! Super strong current!

Just one of the many "Norwegian" things in Britt's mother's house! Mom, I put that in there for you, but I have lots more pics for you! Just thought you would like that one!

This is the port in Oslo through a sculpture!

Norwegian sausage!!! It was really just a gas station hot dog, but man was it tasty! And fountain pop was such a treat!

A boat on the Voss lake!

Britt's grandmother...she only spoke Norwegian and acted like Katie and I could understand her, probably the cutest lady ever! And she was a carver....see below!

The table in Britt's gma's house that she carved! I want it!

Our little homecooked meal in Britt's tiny apartment in Oslo! We made homemade noodles!!!

Britt and her bf, Christian!

Katie and I met some more grandparents! Charles and Genevive! We're going to visit them in CA for a free place to stay!!! They were so nice and hiking around in Oslo!

The ski jump in Oslo, from the '52 Olympics!

Me and the port in Oslo!

The naked, angry boy in the naked statue park!

The tower in the naked park...this is a representation of the concrentration camps and the gas chambers when people would climb to get to the top for air.

I couldn't help but hop on!

More naked statues...I just thought this one was neat!

Britt's tiny little kitchen, making pasta!

Outside Britt's cute little apartment in Oslo!

One of the