June 24th Update

4:34pm - I am currently laying on my bed in our Madrid hotel room enjoying the first real alone time I have had since this trip began. Since we signed up as a group of four, our room is really big and actually has two bedrooms.  There is the main room - with a big TV, table, desk, two beds, couch, and small kitchen (the bathroom stems off of this room, as well)- and another bedroom - two beds pushed together in the center of the room surrounded by a small TV, a desk, and closet space.  Rebecca and I share this room, so while she's downstairs, I have the room to myself. Actually, Ella just joined me, but that's okay because I like her (and she brought chips).  She also brought "Schweppes Naranja Spirit", a type of orange pop that has probably the funniest commercial I've seen here so far - it's also in English, so that's nice. Woman lying seductively on sofa: "I want to have Shweppes together". Man: "You mean sex?" Woman: "No...Shweppes!"

Anyway, I should probably fill you in on my last week.

My family stay was fantastic. Touring the cities and seeing the major attractions is fun and interesting, but last week I was able to immerse myself in real Spanish life - I stayed up later, I ate meals later, I tried Spanish foods, I met Spanish people, I woke up later, I relaxed more, I walked and rode the bus, I shopped in Spanish shops (not tourist shops), I made Spanish friends, I had a Spanish family!

Oh, how I miss my Spanish family... My host dad worked a lot, but when I got to see him, it was always a lot of fun. He reminded me a lot of my real dad - able to have serious conversation but laughing and making jokes most of the time instead.  My host mom was really sweet and accommodating (and also an amazing cook!). She always made me feel at home. My little host sister Marta was so funny.  She was always fun to talk to (even when I didn't always understand what she was telling me).  She was usually willing to slow down and try to explain things *even trying out the English she's learning once in a while).  She joked around with me like a sister, as well. Once the light shut off while I was in the bathroom; I heard soft giggling outside shortly after. It was funny, and I took it as a sign that she was getting more comfortable around me (plus, I think it would be IMPOSSIBLE to ever be upset with someone so cute and funny). Finally, my host sister Laura, who I spent every part of my week with.  We were never apart for more than 15 minutes, and I can not begin to describe how much I have missed her the past day and a half.

We spent most of our days with her friends.

Patricia - Jordan's host sister and Laura's best friend. She was hilarious and very similar to Jordan.

Borja - Another one of Laura's best friends. He reminded me a lot of Nathan - a really great friend and always looking out for the rest of the group, like a father.

Aida - Another close friend who happened to be Gabrielle's host sister. She was always very sweet.

Dani - Yet another close friend of Laura's. He was really intelligent. Laura explained to me that you always feel less intelligent after talking to him because he always knows about something you don't. He was also really nice. He was always willing to explain things to me and even kept me company during Laura's English test.

I also got to meet a lot of other great people including Raquel, Sonya, "X", and Cesar.

We spent a lot of time sitting and talking at parks. On the way (by foot and by bus) we would ALWAYS stop at one of the many, many candy shops for candy and/or a Frigo ice cream treat.

I really loved the food there. Their candy was fantastic (my favorite was a heart shaped chandy that tasted just like Peachy-O's).  For breakfast, I usually had toast with Nutella, fresh squeezed orange juice, and a kiki for desert.  They offered me desert (ice cream, fruit, yogurt, etc) after every meal. I usually had strawberry yogurt.  My favorite traditional Spanish meal there was a chicken paella my host mom made. I had some Paella last night in Madrid and it was not NEARLY as good - not even close.

Resting in my hotel room is nice, but I REALLY wish that I was relaxing with my host sister in Logrono instead. We're headed back out into the city soon, so I will have to catch un on the rest of my journalling later.

June 24th Update

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June 20th Update

I have not been writing much because I have been very busy doing a lot of nothing. I'm a pretty big fan of the schedule here. You do everything later - stay up later, eat later, wake up later. Then, throughout the day we have mostly
-- this entry ends very abruptly because we left the park we were relaxing at with friends to go eat and relax at home.

Day 6 - July 18th

3:06pm - Yesterday at about 6:00pm, Laura, Marta (mis hermanas), y Asun (mi madre) picked me up from the bus. Creo que they walkered there, but Laura y yo rode to her apartamento en el coche de la madre de su amiga Aida - la hermana de Gabrielle Fox.  Ellos dropped us off a el apartamento de Laura y su familia. Yo comparto un habitacion con Laura porque ella tenia una cama con a pull out bed underneath. I don't remember the word for it...trundle bed? No se.  Sus padre, Fernando (como don Fernando en Destinos), trabago. For la cena, comian tortilla espanola. Before dinner, we hung out con su amiga Patricia y Jordan Hendrickson. We met Aida y Gabrielle mas luego. Juntos, jugamos "fuseball".  After dinner, yo paso tiempo con Laura y Marta. Lau y yo nos acostamos a 12am. I slept very, very well. This morning, we woke up at 930am. At breakfast, I learned that they heat up their milk before drinking it. They thought I was very strange for drinking it cold. The milk es diferente tambien - it seems thicker and sweeter. As yo can tell from my Spanish, yo empece a pensar en espanol y ingles. Es raro para mi, pero lo me gusta. Today, conoce un "amigo" de Laura. Se llamo Sergio. Era simpatico. We went to meet him by bus. Then, we came home para almuerzar y ahora descansamos. Tonight, hay una fiesta.

Day 6 - July 18th

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Day 5 - June 17th

11:16am - We just got on our charter bus, and we are headed to Logrono for our family stay. I am so thankful for my mom right now. The Dramamine she got for me to pack will probably save me today. The water/light show we went to last night was really fun. We were all energized after resting in the hotel, and the fountain was beautiful.  We took lots of pictures. Next to the fountain, there was another group of tourists dancing and singing American songs with thick accents, which was really funny. We sang along for a bit and wanted to join their dancing, but our group had to stick together and keep moving because we were short on time.  We began gathering together at about 11:30pm and realized how short we really were.  We needed to catch TWO metro lines home and the metro stops at 12... (btw, we just passed Nestle on the bus, which I think is funny).  We ran through the metro trying to get to our check points, swipe our shared tickets, find the correct line, find our correct stop, double check, wait for the tram, stay together, watch out for creepy men, get on the tram, watch out for pickpockets, remember the name of the stop, get out, regroup, run to the next station/line, Senor had Megan and I help get everyone through the checkpoint with our shared tickets, regroup, run/find our next stop, wait for metro, realize it's 12, panic! Although, Senora explained, luckily for us, we would be able to ride the metro back because we had swiped our tickets at the checkpoint and were already in. She compared it to going into a mall right before close and being allowed to finish up. That meant no more panicking, and the metro was almost empty, so it was easy to be wary of all possible pickpockets (cateristas, ladrones).

When we got back to the room that night we packed a little and got to sleep at about one. Rebecca got up to shower at around 645, so I got out of bed at seven. This gave us all PLENTY of time to finish packing, get ready without being rushed, relax, etc - I was even able to update my travel blog.

Now, I'm getting sleepy. I may take a nap and finish this later.

1:35pm The Spanish countryside is so beautiful. My nap was very nice, as well.

Back to my morning - after updating my blog, I went back up to the room, and all three of us came down for breakfast. We made a few trips to the market down the street in groups of 3 or 4 to get snacks and "lunch" for the bus only to find out now that we're stopping somewhere. I suppose that's good because this charter bus ("home" for 6 hours) has no bathroom!

Hopefully, that won't end up being a problem.

3:30 "I wish Quique was here."     (This was the code phrase we were supposed to use if there was ever a problem at our family stay).

3:31 I think we just drove by a sheep (ovejas) farm.  I didn't get a great look, but it was pretty exciting. I just don't want to think about where they're headed.

The Spanish countryside slightly resembles Colorado - just factor in more grapes and olives, so probably more of a CO/CA mix.
There are periodically large clusters of windmills, too, but it is too hilly to resemble the midwest much.  Most of the houses/building I've seen are made of stone -from the small, quaint cottages to the larger (but still small by US standards), beautifully crafted farmyard estates.

Their pine trees are strangely narrow and straight.

Flower bushes line parts of the highway.

I'm thinking back to yesterday's visit to la Sagrada Familia. Still under construction, this remarkably intricate Catedral is filled with beautiful patterns and colors. It seemed to be entirely lit by natural light, which was even more breathtaking.  I'm in a pretty artsy mood right now, so I'm hoping to create some sort of collage using the colors/patterns in my pictures when I get home. I could print some pictures, match them to some paint chips, possibly add in some ribbon and/or textured paper. I'm excited for it.

A Quick Update

I´m sorry that I haven´t been updating this much during my family stay. I haven´t been writing in my journal much at all, either. I plan on writing about my family stay on the busride to Madrid.

So far, my family stay has been wonderful. I love my Spanish family, and I am very sad to leave them.  Yesterday, I was a little homesick - I always miss my friends and family, but yesterday I missed America: understanding everything that people were talking about, knowing everyone in Janesville, listening to Sunshine Jackson, walking around Waverly at night with all my friends, hanging out and making music in random locations, everything. Today, it has been exactly the opposite.  I realized that tomorrow is my last day in Logroño, and I already miss my family here.

Jordan and I really want Laura and Patricia (our host sisters) to visit us in America next summer.  I´m really excited for the possibility, but at the same time, I´m worried that it´s only talk.  I guess we´ll see what happens.

I miss my family, my friends, and my home, but I don´t want to leave Logroño; six days isn´t enough time.

Day 4 - July 16th

150pm - This morning, Rebecca´s alarm woke her up early enough, so that was good. We visited la Sagrada Familia where I laerned that my camera is not great for taking pictures in low light. I also learned that my shutter speed is very slow, so I was able to have a lot of fun with light and color. I enjoy some of my pictures, but it´s probably just me. Other people with better cameras got a lot of good pictures, so I´m happy with my interesting (to me) ones.  Then, we went to see two houses designed by Gaudi (Casa Botillo y Casa Mila). Now, we´re eating lunch before heading to the supermarket to buy snacks for a picnic at 4 y anoche en nos hotel.

805- I started feeling really sick on the bus on the way to the park.  The fresh air there helped a lot. It hsa been a really hectic and stresssful day, so I´m glad to be back in the hotel.

The park we went to was called parque guel. It was beautiful. There were also many musicians - I bought a CD for 5 Euros.

We may go see some light/water show tonight at Paulo de España or something like that. It just needs to get dark first.




We got back to the hotel pretty late (almost missing the metro), but I haven´t had the chance to blog about the rest of that night.  This morning, we´re leaving to take a 6 hour bus ride to meet our host families, so I´m super excited for that. I will update this when I can. =]

Day 3 - June 15th

1032am - Last night, we set TWO alarms for morning. We planned on waking up at 845 to be downstairs at 10 for breakfast. Either all three of us slept through both or they didn´t go off, but all three of us woke up to a tap on the door at 1008...so much for showers this morning. We all got ready really quickly and made it down in time to get some breakfast.

731pm - Hoy, we went to see un catedral, on a tour at Palau de la Musica Catalana, y a Museo Picasso. The Catedral was very interesting,a s was the concert hall and museo. Nos almuerzo era muy bien. We had tapas. I had meatballs and recommended we share calamari rings. The were delicioso! - definitely the best I´ve ever had.  I also tried cuttlefish and prauns. Now, we are eating dinner (after some shopping).  I had a sanwhich they called a bikini (really it´s basically grilled ham and cheese).  Although we´ve done a lot of interesting things today, the most interesting happened while we were on our own. After el museo, we were allowed to go off on our own until 900 for shopping/supper/exploring.  We were about to leave on shop when we heard yelling. I asked the shop keeper, and through lots of broken Spanglish, she was able to explain that there was a strike against the government that occured every day. We waited for it to calm down and then followed them in the direction of our meeting place. They congragated around a government building of some sort, chanted loudly, and sang songs.  After asking many people, ¨¿Que pasa?¨, a nice older woman tried explaining it to me - all in Spanish, but I actually understood her very well.  Like our government (and basically everywhere else in the world), they have been having troubles with their economy. Recently, a bunch of healthcare and other programs/funds were cut, and these protests have been happening every day since May 15th - one month today! She compared the political unrest to the middle east while explaining that protests like this were all over Spain, not only in Barcelona, and also in many other countires.  She also explained that although the protestors were young, they represented the entire country.  It was a really beautiful explanatin.  Today, this particular protest was against the police. Bobbi remembers seeing police attacking rioters on the news yesterday, so we think she was talking about that - it sounded like she sad something about a police stampede. It sounded like they were trying to remove the cheif of police ( I think that´s what ¨El Jefe¨ means..). She was very happy to explain it all to me, and it was very interesting. She said it was no longer interesting to them, which is very understandable. We talked about problems in America, as well. Finally, we had to leave to find dinner, which was disappointing. This experience may very well be the highlight of my trip.

1029pm - One the way back to our meeting place on La Rambla, we got lost. We found the street no problem, but we weren´t sure what direction to go.  We tried both ways, but nothing looked familiar. Finally, we decided to ask where H&M was because it´s a big, well known shop a few blocks from our meeting place. We heard a woman working (I think she was advertising for a pretty sketchy shop) on the street speaking very good English.  She was very nice and pointed us in the right direction.  35 minutes after beginning our search...we found the group. Now, we´re back safe and sound at the hotel. It has been a very busy/exciting day, so I´m excited for bed.

Day 2

I suppose technically part of Day 2 was included in the last post, but here´s the rest.


1239pm - The hotel we´re staying in (Hotel Guillermo Tell - William Tell Hotel) seems nice, but we got there before check in time, so our luggage is currently being kept in a locked room in the basement.  After dropping off our luggage, we went to get Euros from an ATM. Just my luck, the machine rejected the transactions of the last thee people (me included).  No worries - it all worked out. Señora got us all metro passes, and I found a working ATM at our stop. However, getting the tickets was a whole other catastrophy.  Of course, we couldn´t figure out the machine, but finally, señora was helped by a nice elderly couple. They led her upstairs, and she came back down with passes for everyone.

Now, Ella, Rebecca, y yo are all exploring some place en Barcelona - La Rambla. We stopped to eat at some resturaunt/coffee shop called ¨MOKA¨. It isn´t as Spanish as it looked from the window. Their menu was in four different languages, but none of them were Spanish.
They definitely ripped  us off and were very rude.
The shop keepers were mostly pushy and rude. La Rambla definitely has not given me a very good first taste of Barcelona.

811pm - We left La Rambla at 200pm and headed ¨home¨ to check into our hotel rooms. The rooms were small but very, very nice - bigger and nicer than I expected, so that was a good surprise.  Then, we changed for the beach - THE MEDITERANEAN SEA BEACH! It was so wonderful.  It took us a while to find the beach, but what we did find were hundreds of sail boats! Ella got some nice pictures of them (and of me with them, por supuesto). Eventually, we found the becah. I have been to the ocean but never a ¨sea¨. I´m pretty sure that the Mediteranean Sea is my all time favorite body of water. I told Ella that I wanted to live in the middle of it. ¨Sleepy Brianne¨ has definitely made some appearances, but I am doing FANTASTIC considering I haven´t slept since 630am central time YESTERDAY (31 hours and counting).  Showering felt SO niceafterwards. Now, we´re about to ship out on the metro (again= in the direction of our dinner destination.

July 15th 1205am - We were a little late for our dinner reservation due to a couple unplanned naps, but luckily, it didn´t seem to matter. We were served a meal of multiple tapas (appetizer like foods) españolas.  There were some very strange looking/tasting ones, but some of them were very good! It was a great chance to practice eating Spanish food and using Spanish manners (especially after our not-so-great lunch experience).  We finished with desert, a delicious lemon sorbet. The meal started about about 930pm, which is apparently fairly ¨early¨ for Spanish natives.  I have gone 35 hours straight without even one minute of sleep. My bed is looking wonderful.

Day 1

First of all, typing on this keyboard is weird, so please excuse any typos or weird symbols. Also - I´m writing this exactly how it´s written in my journal.

Day one - June 13, 2011
930am- Ella - ´´I feel like if you can take over a plane with tweezers, you deserve the plane.¨

1009am - ¨Que pasa, chicos?¨ ¨Colegio, ayyyy¨

22 estudiantes
2 professores

110pm - We´re getting in the Minneapolis airport getting food (Ella, Rebecca, and I). We got in line for Sbarro´s Fresh Italian Cooking. A really nice girl (graduated high school a week ago) was on her way to Army Basic Training and had meal waivers she couldn´t use up. She bought all three of us lunch! - made our day. Good thing we made the trek over here.

¨Mantenga el cinturon de seguridad abrochado mientras este sentado¨ ¨Usar el cogin del asiento para flotar¨

249pm - Our plane just took off. We´re on our way to Newerk, NJ! After our free lunch, we stopped for magazines. I purchased Rolling Stones, People en Español (in MN), and an interesting looking sailing magazine...I probably won´t understand any of the articles, but there were some nice sailboat pictures.

I have ¨lost my phone¨ multiple times already today. I panic about my empty pocket only to remember that my phone is safe at home...hopefully, that doesn´t continue for the entire tirp.

I´m really excited to learn Spanish slang.

322pm- Traveling is probably one of my favorite things. Obviously, the destinations are (hopefully) exciting, but I think I enjoy the ¨getting there¨ element just as much. Leaving the people you love is hard (I must admit I cried while hugging my mom goodbye), but the excitement sets in on/in the bus/plane/car/etc.  Maybe this is odd, but I actually enjoy long trips by plane/car/bus/whatever (unless it involves driving through Nebraska, which is luckily not the case today). They give you plenty of time to think, reflect, and (as of right now) ¨organize¨some of your thoughts into a journal. Airplanes also give you free bevereges, so that´s a plus.

348- ¨For some reason Euros feel a lot cleaner than American money.¨-Sarah O

425pmCentral Time...might as well get used to seeing Spain time/date on my watch....1125pm

I´m just leaving the US, but it´s 2am in España... I will be tired tomorrow. During take off I was able to see the statue of Liberty for the first time (there were a couple sailboats sailing around it, which made it especially beautiful). I´m currently listening to the Decemberists´ new album while waiting for the seat belt light to turn off, so I can move next to Ella. In-flight movies/music/TV/games are wonderful. Next, I´m considering Harry Potter...or maybe the Avett Brothers, Beach Boys, Mumford and Sons, and the Beatles, but no sleep...it´s only 1030 back home.

652- I love flying, but I also love sleeping. Unfortunately, it seems as thought I am unable to do both at the same time. They ¨wake us up¨ for breakfast in a half hour, and I haven´t slept at all. This is going to be a loooong day. I hope that España is ready for ¨sleepy Brianne¨...it seems as thought she´s even more ridiculosa en español.
Earlier she told Ella, ¨Soy loco...como un pollo.¨

Los pitufos - The Smurfs (the first ad en Barcelona)

first song heard on Spanish radio - Single Ladies



I just finished day three, but I don´t have time to update the rest of this yet. Hopefully, this will be good enough until I get another chance.  Goodnight. =)

Primer Mensaje

Yo creo que estoy obligada a tener un primer mensaje, así que aquí está.

I can't promise that all of my blog posts will be in English. As well as updating family friends, I may want to practice my Spanish, as well.

translate.google.com is usually pretty reliable. =]