Baloncesto? claro que si! [Basketball? of course!]

Que tal, chicos?  <= That has become my greeting here in Spain.  It means, "how's it going, friends?"  You can also use tios for friends.  The direct translation of that is uncle, though...so I tend not to use it as much.  (Who would have thought that by reading my blog you could learn Spanish?!) 

Sadly, I have no photos from today.  :(  But I still wanted to write an entry telling you about my fantastic Sunday.  For the past few Sundays, my roommate and I have spent the morning working on homework and stuff, and after lunch we've basically been spending all afternoon watching movies with our host mom.

Well, today I decided to change things up a bit!  This morning (well, around noon) my roommate and I walked towards the outer area of the city to find they gypsy market (they weren't all gypsies, just what people here call it), called el mercadillo.  It's only open on Sunday's so we decided to head over there and see what we could find.  It was really fun!  The people with stands are shouting prices, trying to get you to buy their things.  You could literally buy anything from bras and undies to winter jackets.  You could get some wrenches, or a vice, if you really wanted to!  My roommate and I found really cute bags, and she got some gifts for her friends and family.

After that we came back home for lunch and we hung out with our host mom while we watched the news.  Right now, Spain is having a really huge economic crisis, and about 22% of their population are without jobs.  It's really apparent in the news, and in fact, because of the crisis, one of the largest air travel companies just shut down (SpanAir).  We also get to see some of what's going on in the United States.  Today we saw that in Kentucky a boat smashed through part of a bridge, and there's always a lot on the news about the states' politics and the primary elections.

Anyway after lunch I got ready and headed to Plaza Zorilla to meet my friends (from USA and from Spain) and we played a great game of basketball!  We had 6 people interested in playing, so conveniently split up 3 from America and 3 from Spain.  So a friendly game broke out between the Spaniards and the Americans.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and to get to know their city from the viewpoint of a native Spaniard.  I always learn new vocabulary when I'm hanging out with them, too!  It makes it so much more fun to have friends here!  They have truly enriched my time over here!  I know I said that I had no pictures for you today, but here's one of me and two friends.  The guy to my right's name is Javier (we all call him Javi - pronounced Ha-vee) and the girl on my left is Sarah.  She is from UW La Crosse, studying at a different university here in Valladolid. This picture was taken one night while we were hanging out in a cafe here.  We have a lot of fun together!  We're always laughing!  

  After basketball, I met up with some girls in a different cafe to finalize and book a bus ticket to Valencia for a festival called Las Fallas.  I'm really excited to do the traveling I've all planned!  It's getting really exciting to travel and learn.  Today during lunch, we had a discussion with our host mom about how we'd rather take the money and travel, instead of purchasing a tangible thing, such as an expensive bracelet.  Traveling gives you such a unique perspective on life, and it really opens your eyes to new cultures.

Anyway, after the cafe, I came home, finished watching the movie that my host mom, her brother-in-law, and my roommate were watching.  We ate dinner, and I worked on my studies for a bit.

All in all, it might seem like just another Sunday, but this Sunday was the best one yet!  Someone gave me advice on spending a semester abroad.  They said to discover or do something new every day!  Today had 2 great discoveries: the market, and basketball!  Que suerte!

Gosh, it's the little things in life that make me so thankful and happy to be where I am right now.  Getting to play basketball in a park in Spain was definitely one of those little things. (They even said next time they'd teach me how to play soccer!)

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic start to your week!

Love you and miss you all! Besos y abrazos! 

Erin

Un dia, fuimos a Segovia [one day, we went to Segovia].

Hello again!  Here's another great entry about my adventures!!  I'm really excited to show all of my pictures to you all!  If I could, I would include them ALL in here!  As it stands, I'll choose the best ones to include!

Last Saturday, the students at the university took a bus to Segovia, a city about an hour to an hour and a half away from Valladolid.  It's located in the center of the city, just north of one of the central mountain ranges in Spain.  The mountains in Spain are very short - they're not as grand as what you normally picture in your head when you think of mountains (Kilimanjaro, McKinley, the Matterhorn..), but that doesn't mean they're any less beautiful.  Here's a photo from a long time ago (not Segovia, but it pertains to what I'm talking about) when we first flew over Spain.  These are the Pyrenees: the tallest mountain chain that separates Spain from France.  There's a lot of ski areas in the north of Spain because of these mountains - they're a very important part to Spain's tourism.

Anyway, let's get back to Segovia! It's a city that used to be really important when the Romans inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, but now, it's a small city that thrives mostly on tourism.  The main site people come to see in this city is the Roman Aqueduct.  It was built during the first century AD.  It was built to bring water to the town, so the inhabitants didn't have to go to the mountains everyday and get water.  It's really impressive, because all of the stones were put there without the use of cement or any other fixative.

As with any good tourist attraction, there's also a story that goes along with the construction of the aqueduct.  It goes as follows:  There was a beautiful, smart, young girl who had to walk back and forth from the mountains every day to bring water to the village.  One day while she was walking, she wished to herself, "Oh I wish there was an easier way to bring this water, so I didn't have to make multiple trips to the mountains everyday!"  Lo and behold, the devil himself appears.  And he offered to build it for her, in exchange for her soul.  She thought about it, she agreed under one condition: he would have it done by the next morning's sunrise.  It stormed all night long, and the devil was putting the VERY last rock into the aqueduct when the sun rose from the horizon.  The girl arrived and saw he was not done with the aqueduct.  She was able to keep her soul, and use the aqueduct the devil made.  There are holes in some of the rocks now, and people say they came from the claws of the devil when he placed them.

This is a photo of the view from a top of the aqueduct! 

After seeing the aqueduct, we had a short tour of the city by our professors, which included the mountain referred to as the Mujer Muerta, (Dead Woman) as well as the Cathedral!

 She's called the Dead Woman, because the mountain appears to be a lady, laying as if she were in a casket, with her head on the left, and her arms folded on her chest.  Her legs are a long slope to the right and you can see where her feet would rest. 

 This is the cathedral in Segovia.  It was the last gothic style cathedral that was built in Spain.  It's considered to be the magnum opus (that one is Latin) of all gothic style cathedrals in Spain.  It was finished in 1768, and now contains three doors of entry.  They are called the doors of Perdón, San Frutos, y San Geroteo.  In keeping with a similar theme, the cathedral we saw in Toledo also had a door of Perdón, and the people in Toledo used to think a simple walk through that door would grant them forgiveness for which ever sins they may have committed.  Just a fun fact for you all, however, we know now that's not how it works!  

 This is my traveling friend, Sarah and I in the Plaza Mayor.  She is from UW-Eau Claire, and is in our classes with us as well.

This is one of my favorite photos from Segovia.  It's a photo of the country side from the castle, which is up on a hill.  You can see a circular church, with a small tower attached to it, among other villages and houses. 

We climbed the tower of the castle, and this is the view of the Cathedral that we got from the top!  152 stairs later...the view was very, very rewarding!  This city is so beautiful.  The architecture here really is incredible, and to think most of these buildings were built before we were even a country!  It's crazy!

 

 Here's me, after the wonderful climb to the top of the tower!  The view was worth every minute of i

And here is the photo of the castle itself, and the tower we climbed!  At one point, the Catholic Kings lived here (King Ferdinand and Isabella).  They were extremely important figures in Spain's history, and to be able to see the castle where they once lived was incredible!

The stairs to get to the top consisted of a very, very small spiral staircase - I was afraid I would hit my head!  However, I made it up and down without it!


Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed seeing my photos of Segovia, Spain! It really is a beautiful city, and we were so thankful to have our professors with us, who were able to related our history, art, and culture classes with all the wonderful sights we saw!

Being in this country, and learning about their history really makes history come alive.  It means so much more when we're able to learn, and see what we're learning about all at the same time!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

besos y abrazos! 
Erin

La gastronomía de España [the gastronomy of Spain].

Buenas dias chicos!  :)  Good day, friends!  This might be a long entry...I could write about food all day long!

After being in Spain for 21 days, I've definitely tried some really interesting food!  I've got plenty of stories about the food here, but since it's so different than what we have back home, I have decided to do an entry solely on the gastronomy of Spain.  It will be mostly photos, but don't worry, I will thoroughly explain what each item of food is (that is, if I even know!!) 

Before I jump into the wonderful array of items I've been eating, I'm gonna just take a few sentences and explain a few things about the food in Spain.  First of all I'll explain the peculiar times of eating here.  Breakfast, or desayuno, is eaten when you get up in the morning.  For us, it's at about 8:30h, before we have class at 9:30h.  Breakfast is a really small meal here.  We have warm milk with NesQuik, and some toast.  Lunch, referred to as, comida, and it's the largest meal here.  It's equivalent to our dinner in the states.  However, comida is served here at 15:00h.  Uff.  Between breakfast and lunch, I'm definitely hungry!  Then we have dinner, cena, and it's served between 21:00h and 22:00.  Some of my friends don't eat cena until 22:30h!  It's pretty different.  It's like the whole day is lengthened here! 

The food here is all so fresh and different than in the states.  They eat a very, very heavy Mediterranean diet, complete with a ton of olive oil (in everything!) and fresh fish, olives, tomatoes, etc.  The fruit right now is amazing - I have never eaten a clementine sweeter than the ones here.  Our host mom tells us that right now, in winter, the fruit is out of season.  I can't wait to see how amazing it is in the spring!  Most of the fruit here is grown in the Canary Islands, along with the bananas, and because they don't have a long distance to ship, they're closer, and just better all around.

Okay, so that's enough boring stuff!  Let's get into the pictures and yummy food!  :)

The first dinner we had in Madrid was a HUGE piece of salmon with baby white potatoes.  I obviously started eating before I took a picture, but it was so good, and we were so hungry!  

 The fish here is so prevalent and fresh, it's amazing.  I'm glad I can still eat fish. We probably eat fish about 4 times a week at home.  Most of the time it's fried, but sometimes she also bakes it! 

      

To the right, there's a photo of our dessert that night!  It's a fluffy pastry with a lemony cream cheese mixture in the middle with a raspberry sauce on the plate!  YUM!






Below are some pictures of the Spanish great, Paella.  We enjoyed this for lunch one day while we were in Madrid.  It was so delicious, I'm bringing Mom and Dad to the restaurant (called El Arrozal) for lunch while they're here!  Paella is a rice dish with a lot of vegetables, shellfish, meat, and spices (think jambalaya without the spice).  The main flavor in the paella here is saffron, which is why it appears so yellow.  You can also order Paella Negra, which is black.  It's colored with the ink of squids.  I think I'll just stick with the saffron, thanks!

It's made in a HUGE stovetop kettle, and then the portions are taken out of there.  The waiter came out of the kitchen and showed us the pan, so we could see the careful placement of mussles and shrimp on top.  It was a work of art!

 This is a photo of the regular paella, which my friends had at the table.  In it is vegetables, along with a lot of shellfish (you can see the mussel and shrimp on top), chicken, and other meat (we weren't entirely sure of what some things were). 

 This is a photo of the vegetarian paella I ate, since I'm allergic to shellfish.  It has large artichoke hearts, sugar snap peas, peppers, carrots, and peas in it!  I ate about half of it plain, and then I decided to squeeze the lemon on the other half of the paella.  It was so great, even writing this I can feel the flavors mixing in my mouth.  The sultry mix of the tangy lemon and the saffron made the paella my favorite meal we've had in Spain so far.  The rice they use I would consider more of a risotto than a rice, because it's similar to half pasta half rice.


Next up is a typical central Spain dish called cocido. The presentation of this dish was really neat.  First we received a base of white noodles.  Then poured on top of that was a red broth. To that is added a stew of chickpeas, potatoes, chicken, and beef, and some vegetables.  It's really tasty!  The main ingredient is the garbanzo beans, and it's really filling! Our host mom makes this sometimes.

The meat/chickpea/stew part was stored in little jars like this:

Overall, it was a really fun meal to eat!  The different layers of the stew really made it all come together!















And I know you're all waiting to see a picture of churros con chocolate!!!  Well, here it is!  Long strips of fried bread, sprinkled with sugar, dunked in a cup of thick, soupy chocolate!  Can't go wrong with it!  After you're done dunking your churros, you can drink the chocolate like hot chocolate!  It's very delicious! 

This photo has a really great story behind it.  We spent the day in Segovia (another entry soon) and during our free time, a few of us decided to sample some tapas and vino.  This is a really common past time in Segovia.  They have some of the best wine in Spain.  In fact, it's so common in Segovia, that when you order a glass of wine, the tapas are free!  Segovia is one of the only remaining cities that follows this tradition.  Here is a fried egg with a béchamel sauce.  It was really good!  Clockwise from the fried egg, you see a pile of mushrooms with chunks of Iberian ham, and bread.  Every meal is served with bread here.  It's GREAT.  And the Iberian ham is something you'll never find anywhere else in the world (unless it's imported) and it's delicious.  It's cured ham, sliced VERY thinly.  And as with everything else, it's delicious.  The fun story behind this plate of tapas and wine, is that while we were in the bar, enjoying our food, we chatted with an older Spanish couple from Madrid, and they had 2 daughters who lived in the United States.  We also talked with the bartender for a long time, and it was a really awesome experience, to learn about the cuisine from native Spaniards.  They helped us pick out good food, and they were wonderful company.  It was perhaps one of the best interactions I've had with Spaniards so far.  Moving on...

 This is a photo of the breakfast my friends and I ate in Burgos (another entry soon).  It's café con leche (coffe with steamed milk) and also tortilla española, rellena. This is scrambled eggs made into an almost quiche, that has layers and layers and layers of sliced potatoes in it.  It's so simple, but I do think I could eat it for every meal.  Especially if it has cheese and bacon in it, like this one did.  It was phenomenal!

Here's a better photo of the filled tortilla:

 

  These last photos serve as a demonstration of the quality of fish they have here in Spain.  In Burgos, we got lunch at this little cafe.  I ordered this sandwich, called a bocadillo.  It came open faced, and it had slices of oranges underneath the smoked salmon.  There was also a white cheese sauce between the two.  It seems like a really strange combination, but it was absolutely delicious!

Okay, okay.  This is all I have for now.  I hope you enjoyed your tour of Span's gastronomy.  It was long, but I hope it was worth it!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and savor the food you eat!  I know I will!  :)

Besos y abrazos!  (hugs and kisses!)

Erin

Quieres ver mi casa? [want to see my home?]

Hello again! 

As most of you might know, the Spaniards don't exactly live in houses.  Well, they're homes, but not a house, if you will.  They typically live in pisos, or floors of an apartment building.  I figured I would devote an entry and give you all a tour of our piso!  To start, we live on the 11th floor of a building very close to the center of the city.  It takes me about 10 minutes to walk to the Plaza Mayor, which is where most of us get together to walk around, and to hang out.  It's a really convenient and cozy area of the city.  It's about a 40 minute walk to campus, and even that goes by really quickly in the mornings.

So, this is my building.  :)  The very top floor is our piso!

We take the elevator upstairs (thankfully, we have an elevator!!) And go into our apartment (the door handle is in the middle of the door...strange!)

 
This is the view you see when you walk in the front door.  The room is split up into 2 functions.  There's the front room, which we call the salon, and the back part of the room has a more formal dining room.  Here's a better picture from the other side of the room, looking towards the double doors.

The next photo is of the kitchen.  After entering the front door, you turn left and head down a short hallway.  The end is the entrance to the kitchen.  On the left is the fridge, followed by the microwave, and the oven underneath the microwave.  On the right is where we eat all of our meals, on the sweet looking chairs. 

And through that foggy glass door, you find the following.  (This is probably  my favorite part of the house...)

The stove is on top of the washing machine!!  How great is that?!  It's convenient too, because as you can see, there's a bowl of spaghetti on the stove.  This area of the piso is not heated, and it's close to outside (only separated by a window) so it serves as a great refrigerator during the winter!  She always puts our leftovers out there. 

Anyway, that pretty much sums up my house!  Oh, my room.  I think I've already posted a photo of this, so I'm going to hope you remember.  It's pretty awesome. 

Welcome to mi casa!!
Hasta luego!

Finalmente, creo que sé la ciudad, geograficamente, por supuesto [finally, I think I know the city, geographically, of course].

I chose this title, because I feel pretty secure in that you could drop me off in any part of the city and I would be able to get back to my house.  Within reason.  But I know I'm only just beginning to know the culture and great variety of things to do in this city.  It's taken a lot of exploring, but I'm starting to really like it here!  On Monday, we took our placement exam for our classes, and our professors gave us a tour of the city, and then Tuesday we found out the results of that exam and started classes!  I placed into level B2, on a scale that goes, A1,A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.  Our grammar professor told us we’re considered advanced, and that once you get to the C levels, you’re practically bilingual!  Que sorpresa!  What a surprise! Dang, I did better than I thought!

All in all, we have 7 classes we’re taking for our 17 credits, plus a few large papers we have to write.  We’re taking Culture, History, Geography, Literature, Oral Expression, Grammar, and Art.  I love it because Spain is a country with a lot of really rich history, and because of that, the history influenced the art, literature, and the culture.  All the classes intertwine at some point, which is really neat.  In Literature class, we’re reading part of Don Quijote (AHH!! Not again!).  But I guess it’s almost necessary to read in a Spanish literature class.  Our walk to school isn't bad either, it takes us about 35 to 40 minutes.  Our host mom doesn't want us walking because it's too cold out, but we do anyway.  We just tell her we're taking the bus. Even on the coldest days here, it's only about 32 degrees F, so we're used to weather much, much colder than that.     

Here's some photos of the city.  The first photo with the huge fountain is called Plaza Zorilla.  It's a large area of the city where some of the best shopping streets stem off from.  On one side of the Plaza there is Campo Grande, the city's largest park.  I haven't explored Campo Grande yet, but soon enough I will! 

This is Antigua, one of the churches in the city.  It stands next to the cathedral, which is quite impressive itself.  It's really pretty how they light everything up at night!  Way cooler than churches I've seen in the United States! 

And this is called the "Cupula del Milenio".  It's not too far from my house, and during the day, it's just white.  They hold events there like concerts and other art and theatre shows.  

 This is the town hall on one side of the Plaza Mayor.  The plaza mayor incorporates 3 important aspects of the city's power.  1.  Government (town hall) 2. Church (there's a church nearby) and 3. the economy (there are shops all around the plaza).  Most plazas were built in the same style as this one, since this one was the first plaza built in Spain! 

It’s always extremely foggy here, especially in the mornings and at night.  We get a 2 hour block where the sun comes out between 4 and 6 most evenings, and then shortly thereafter, it hides again.

Here's a photo of when it's foggy, and when it's not!

 

Anyway, life here is going much better now that we started classes and we have things to talk about with our host mom.  We have more conversations and just talk about more things, which is much better than it was our first few days.  If my confidence in my Spanish speaking skills have gotten this good in a week, I can’t imagine how well my Spanish is going to be in 4 more months!!!   

This past week we met Marcos, our host mom’s grandson, and Laura, her daughter who is studying to be a nurse.  We also went out Saturday afternoon with our host mom, and met her brother-in-law for a taste of the local wine and tapas (appetizers), and he came home to a huge lunch called cocido, which is basically a huge stew of chickpeas, meat, noodles, and a broth.  It was delicious!  They have some pretty crazy traditions here, but who am I to argue with it?! 

Today is Sunday, and I plan on relaxing.  I ate breakfast at like, 11am, and now I’m going to maybe nap, or read a book until lunch!

Hasta luego!!    (I've learned they don't say adios here when they leave to go somewhere, it's always hasta luego, which means, I'll see you later.  The word adios is translated to mean: to God.  So it's appropriate that they wouldn't use it on a daily basis.  I think it's used for more permanent goodbyes.)  

La primer noche en Valladolid [the first night in Valladolid].

Hola otra vez!  Hello again! Last night was my first night in Valladolid, con Maria Jesus Matallana de la Fuente.  She's our host mother who met us at the station we were dropped off at and brought us back to her piso (apartment) for lunch.  We arrived around 2pm ish and by the time we got back home and she made us lunch, which consisted of something like a fried egg, a salad, some potatoes, and a chunk of meat, I think it was similar to breakfast sausage.  Then we put stuff away in our rooms and took a nap.  After the wonderful nap, we awoke and went for a walk through the city with Maria.  She showed us some of the more important parts of the city.  Here are photos of the city from my window on the 11th floor of our building. 

This third photo is a picture out my window after dark.  Lots of lights!  :) 

Anyway, after that lovely walk, we came back home and Maria made us dinner, around 10:30pm.  We had chicken and potatoes!  After figuring out the wireless internet, we went to bed.  From the pictures so far, Valladolid might seem like a city made of cement, and quite frankly, it is.  There isn't much green area around, except the parks and stuff.  I'm getting used to the area, so hopefully in a few weeks, I'll know my way around like a pro.  This is a picture of my bedroom - it's cozy and I love it!  :)  It's been really foggy the past few days and Maria said it's normally like that in January - they have really sad weather in January.  But she said it gets better in February! 

I'm a little worried about the rest of the semester.  I mean, I'm excited to be here, but so far, it hasn't quite hit my expectations.  But I know it's only the first week, and I should give it time.  So many of my friends told me how amazing it was to study abroad, and I fear I made my expectations too high, and now that it's not really meeting them, I'm scared.  I want to get the most out of this experience, and maybe it's just me prematurely worrying.  Probably.

Anyway, I'm going to relax and read for a bit before we eat dinner tonight!  We have the welcome dinner with all the other students and the professors at a restaurant outside of the Plaza Mayor!

Adios!  I will update again soon, probably after our first day of classes!  

Cuando en Madrid, hizo como los Madrileños [when in Madrid, do as the Spanish people do].

Hola!  Nosotros estamos en Madrid!  :)  We arrived in Madrid on Wednesday around 2pm local time (7am WI time), and from there, we went straight to the hotel.  It was an exhasuting 12+ hours of travel with a stop in Munich, but it was pretty good, overall!  That night we had some amazing salmon (basically the best I've ever had) and then Thursday we spent the day in Toledo!  It was a beautiful city, complete with a fortress and everything.  I gathered that the city is important because it's a mixture of three religions, Christianity, Muslim, and Jewish.  We got to see a mosque, a synagogue, and a church, all in one city.  It's also a city protected on three sides by a river and also a wall built around it.  It's a beautiful city, with hills.  I absolutely loved it!  If I could choose anywhere to live, it would be Toledo!

After Toledo, we got back to Madrid and before dinner, a small group of us decided to go to a huge Dia de los Reyes parade!  Dia de los Reyes is a huge national celebration (day of the kings, or epiphany) and they celebrate the ending of the 12 days of Chrismas with a great festival!  They sure know how to throw a fiesta here in Spain!  The floats were absolutely amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it! 

After the parade, we had yet another great dinner, including chick peas, lots of noodles, and chorizo!  Fue fantastico! We’re becoming professionals at using the Metro!  Today, Friday, we woke up this morning and took a huge walking tour around Madrid with the best historian.  His name is Steven, and he’s hilarious!  He’s Irish/British and has lived in Spain since the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1975.  He is possibly the greatest tour guide any one could ask for.  After that, we enjoyed a wonderful plate of paella and a few glasses of sangria, and visited some more of the city.  A friend of mine and I found a beautiful church and watched the sun set over the terrace next door!  We wanted to go in, because it was the church where Francisco de Goya first painted (it’s supposedly amazing) but it was closed because today was a holiday.  It was, all in all, a wonderful day today!  Tomorrow morning, I think I’m going to stop by the little bakery outside of our hotel window and check it out, and then we’re going to see the Prado and the Reina Sofia art museums (we get Steven again for our tours – que bueno!).  Sunday we’re heading to Valladolid to meet our host families!  I can’t wait to meet my host mom!  I hope you enjoy the photos! 

Mañana!! [tomorrow!!].

So tomorrow I leave for Spain.  I cannot believe how fast this past year has gone!  I feel overwhelmed, anxious, excited, nervous.  Pretty much anything you can feel, I'm feeling it. 

Sunday, I said goodbye to someone super important to me, and that started the first of my goodbyes.  It was hard, and we cried, but we both acknowledged that it's more like a "see you later" than a "bye!"  On the bright side, he's coming to visit me in March, so it'll just be a while until I see him. 

Today, I said goodbye to my sister, after we got our nails done and had lunch in Appleton, and that was difficult too. Though she knows what I'm going through, with her traveling to India while she was in college, so it was an easier goodbye to her. 

Tomorrow will be the parents, and that will be hard.  I'm nervous to leave them, but let's be honest, I've been in college for the past 4.5 years.  It's going to be different, yes.  But I think my parents are getting the short end of the stick.  I get to be in Spain, so everything will be new to me, and it'll all be the same for them.  They'll be stuck in their daily routine, while I'm just in the beginning of finding a new one!

Ugh, I'm so excited!  :)  Let the adventure begin!!

España, espero que estas lista para mis amigos y yo!  :)  because we're coming your way!  Oh, and did I mention it's going to be 60 degrees in Madrid while we're there?  I hope y'all enjoy the Wisconsin winter! 

Ciao!!