Gobble Gobble! :D

Dear Friends,

These past two weeks I was ill. I believe it was a cold, probably because everyone at school has also been sick. I will spare you the nasty details about my runny nose, etc. etc. But I will tell you how much Salud loves me. She decided that she would give me the same remedy her mother gave her as a child to make her get better. What is this magical solution you may be wondering? Well it is… Drum roll please… Alcohol! :)

Salud came out of the kitchen with a glass of hot milk, a little shot glass with some cognac in it and an aspirin. After a few minutes of me sniffing the cognac, setting it down and making a face, both Sarah and Salud told me to just drink it. So, I toughened up and gulped the cognac. Sadly it did not make me feel better. I actually did not sleep much that night. I kept waking up every few hours thinking it was morning… and it was not. Darn. At least I gave it a shot… lol get it? Shot… bahahaha

On Saturday John and I went to the Mercadillo. There were less people there but besides that it looked pretty much the same as the previous weekend. We did however enjoy some Churros for the first time while in Spain. They reminded us of funnel cake, except this you dip in chocolate. It was tasty and cheap.

Saturday night- John, Brett (his roommate), Ellen (friend from Northwestern who is living in Jerez) and I found our way to a bar that has free Flamenco shows. We arrived too early (9ish) and the show was not until 11pm, so we walked to a nearby restaurant to get some tapas (small servings of food- sort of like appetizers). We found a table (they were all very close to each other in the center of a plaza- outside) but there were only two chairs at the table so Ellen and Brett found two extra chairs from other tables. We ordered our drinks right away (and they were brought out right away) about 30 minutes later the waitress walked by and asked if we wanted to eat anything, we said yes so she took our order then left. Our food was brought out one plate at a time some time later and it was pretty tasty. We then sat there for over an hour and then finally we had to ask them for our bill. I like that when at a restaurant in Spain one is not rushed to finish and move on. Here people just take their time and enjoy just sitting out side with friends and family. The American in me, however, just gets inpatient and annoyed that I have to ask to get my bill so that I can leave. I want to be more Spanish and just be able to sit at a restaurant for 3 hours… maybe I can learn. :)

After we finally paid for our meal we headed back to the free Flamenco place (up to this point we did not know the name of the place just that it had big red doors). Once we got there and actually went in, we discovered another room where a whole lot of other tourists (who like us cannot afford to pay 37 euros for a Flamenco show) were already gathered. Of course one will not find many locals at a place like this because it is intended for tourists but this… was ALL tourists! I felt like I was in Orange city again… everyone was white. :) The show was short but considering there was only one dancer and it was free- I am not complaining.



On Sunday John, Brett, Ellen and I went to mass at the cathedral. Sevilla’s cathedral is the third largest in the world- how awesome is that? It is not everyday one can say- “Oh yeah, I went to mass at the cathedral today”. I feel pretty blessed to have had this opportunity. Truth is that since I am not Catholic and I have only been to mass once before. I was really lost during the service. I tried to play it cool but really I just stood up when everyone else did and sat down when everyone else did. It was a pretty awesome experience though, the cathedral is beautiful and the service was nice and short. Haha

Last night salud, Sarah and I went to see the movie Amelia. It was a good movie and it was fun to just have a fun night out with Salud. She is very entertaining!

This week was really short. We only had three days of classes. I am NOT complaining about this. We went to Italica today and got to see an old Roman city. It was pretty cool! It was raining this morning so some of my fellow students chickened out and did not go. I have never let rain stopped me from an adventure; my poor jeans hate me now though. There is mud all over them and they are still wet… oops. :)

Well- my calendar tells me it is Thanksgiving today. It is weird because it sure does not feel like it. Today feels like just another day in Sevilla, with a little bit of rain. Our school is having a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all. It should be a fun get-together.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and may God continue to fill your lives with love and peace.

Blessings,

Karla <3

My house is like a fridge....

Good day my lovely readers!

(F.Y.I- I wrote this on Sunday)

Today is a beautiful day! Except for the fact that my house is freezing! I am currently sitting in my room wrapped up in a blanket because that is how cold it is inside. People warned us about it getting cold indoors in the winter but I did not think it would be this true! You see, since it gets so hot here in the summer the homes are built to keep the inside of the homes cool- kind of like a fridge. The only problem is that in the winter it gets really cold indoors even if the outdoor temperature is just cool.

Well- aside from my not being able to feel my fingers as I type… life in Seville continues to be going well. Classes are kind of dull but I have a couple tests this week, which should make them a little more exciting. :P

Serving at the old folk’s home is ok. I continue to feel like more of a burden than help. The nuns are sweet ladies and they like having volunteers there but since we only go once a week it is hard for them to keep us straight and they always forget we have been there before. This is frustrating because I want to have a relationship with them but all we have time for is small talk in between pushing carts and the folks we serve are only interested in us handing them their food, clearing the dishes and giving them more food. They all appreciate us being there but well but we really cannot build relationships with any of them when we are only there for an hour a week serving a fast paced meal.

On a happier note- I woke up early yesterday and went to the Mercadillo, which is a big swap meet type thing where vendors come together and compete for the lowest prices. It sounded like a good place to get the Christmas/Birthday/souvenirs I needed for family and friends! I went with a friend named Yesi, who had gone the previous week and said it was a must because the prices were amazing. :)

Getting there was an adventure. We somehow ended up being stuck inside a very large gate without an exit. After an old man on the bus told us what stop to get off on because the mean driver was of no help, a security guard walked out of a building to tell us we were going the wrong way because we were headed towards a dead end. He also told us we had to walk a really long ways to get to the Mercadillo. Instead of listening to his advice we went the opposite direction he had said in search of an easier way out of the enclosed area. We then encountered a very friendly old man (who was also lost) and he told us there were two ways of getting to the Mercadillo: 1. same way the Security guard had previously said. 2. The way Yesi was sure would be shorter.




So, we walked the way the old man told us but instead of turning like he said we should we kept walking straight. This of course was the WRONG thing to do because there was only one exit that way and it was chained closed. We saw a woman walking on the other side of the gate so we asked if she knew a way for us to get out and she just laughed and said she had no idea. Yesi then flagged/ raised her hand when a security officer drove past us and she asked for some professional guidance. They sent us the direction the old man had suggested and we then found a very small opening that took us to a parking lot which lead to the outside. We were free once again! : )

haha Once there, I was reminded of the times my family and I went go to swap meets in California on Saturday mornings. The Mercadillo was an interesting experience and I got some cheap items, which was also awesome. When I got home however, Salud told me she does not like going there because it is all stuff the gypsies have stolen… I don’t want to believe that I bought stolen items from Gypsies after all that work.

Also yesterday- John came over for lunch because Salud wanted him to have a good meal while in Spain (she is under the impression that his Senora does not feed him enough). Salud made a big pan of Paella and some very delicious ribs! She also gave me Coca-Cola, John beer and Sarah a soda called “Aquarius” (I am not sure what exactly it is). The fact that she gave us all special drinks meant that this was a special occasion because we usually only get special drinks on Sundays.




I am sure that by now you all know that I love my host mom’s cooking but yesterdays was especially delicious! I ate a whole lot but I have grown accustomed to the large portions she serves. Poor John however, was served about twice as much as me! Salud just piled the Paella on his plate and expected him to eat it all because in her opinion, “You are getting taller instead of fatter here!” I think after that meal we were all feeling a whole lot fatter!




Peace and Love to you all,

Karla <3

Part V... don´t worry it is the last one!

Then we continued the climb to the top of the dome; the steps were quite narrow and they curved, as we got closer to the top. I barely fit there so you can imagine John trying to walk up those steps. Haha When we got to the top and glanced out, it was clear that the climb was worth every second! We could see all of Rome from where we were standing. It was amazing! Too bad that a few seconds later there was a cloud right above us and it began pouring. We then walked back down to the roof of St. Peters and waited for the rain to let down.

When it finally did we began our search for the Sistine Chapel. We followed some signs and ended up at the Vatican Museum. The fee to get in was not cheap but we did not really have a choice. A person cannot go to Roma and not see the Sistine Chapel. So we walked through rooms and rooms of paintings and sculptures before getting to the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot really describe how awesome this was. It really is as impressive as people say it is! :D We then walked back towards our Hostel, this time we were not harassed by people selling umbrellas which is always nice. Haha We had dinner at a little restaurant that we had seen before. They had Tortellini and it was pretty good. :) You can guess how cold we were after spending a day walking around in the rain. My shoes were soaked as soon as we got back to our Hostel I put on two pairs of dry socks! Haha I then found out the other girl’s name. Her name was Jude and she was from Poland. Jude enlightened me and told me other spots in Rome I had to see before leaving. She also thought I was an idiot for not having known about them before she told me to go see them. Oh well, I will never see her again. :)

So on our last day in Rome, we stood in a very long line for the Colosseum but we got combined tickets for the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine (if the second two mean nothing to you- these were things Jude thought I was retarded for not knowing every detail about). I am afraid I have used the words sweet, awesome, amazing, impressive and cool too much but the Colosseum and the Roman Forum were a combination of all these words. It was just so humbling to stand in a place where many civilizations have gathered and worshiped in their own way. It really gives you some perspective.

Later we walked down to Piazza de Navona and had lunch there (bread and Nutella), then walked to the Pantheon and walked around the basilica there. It was circular and had a giant hole in the center (this was also one of the places Jude said was Obligatory). Our final stop before heading to the train station was the Trevi fountain. Now- I had been looking for this fountain because I saw it in the Lizzie McGuire movie (laugh all you want) and I knew it was famous but I had no idea what it was called and even less of an idea where I could find it. When Jude asked me if I had seen the Trevi fountain and I responded with a blank face and an “ummmm… what does it look like?” I believe her response was a shocked “NO (Insert bad word here)WAY!!!” Poor Jude, she almost had a heart attack. She took a deep breath and then explained what it looked like and told me that according to the legend, if you go to this fountain and throw money over your shoulder you will go back to Rome, I wanted to tell her “Oh yeah! That is the fountain I saw in Lizzie McGuire!” but I figured she would call me a bad name and just walk away from me, so I kept quiet. :) haha

Anyways, it was evident this fountain was really famous because when we got there, there were only about a few hundred people crowded around the fountain taking pictures while throwing money over their shoulders. We could not afford to throw money into the fountain but we are also not superstitious (I am just afraid of the dark, that is different). So after our crowded experience with the Trevi fountain we made our way to the train station, arrived at Leonardo DaVinci airport, had our giant container of Nutella thrown away by an angry Italian woman, waited for a while, got on the plane, were not served anything to drink (a small glass of coke cost 3 dollars), arrived at Barajas, took the metro to the bus station, had dinner, took a 7 hour bus ride to Sevilla, walked home to find myself unable to open the door because Salud left her key in the door handle which makes it impossible to turn the key (her way of keeping people from breaking in), rang the door bell three times, walked back outside, stood at her window and yelled her name a few times, came back inside rang the door bell once more than she finally woke up. She said good morning, I said good night.

This sums up my weeklong adventure. I am sure I am forgetting something but for more details you should read John’s blog. :) Once again, thanks for reading my longest blog ever!

Peace and love my friends,

Karla <3

Part IV

The next morning we were on the road by 7am! We beat the tourist rush to Pisa and took many pictures with the leaning tower. I laughed a lot while trying to get a good picture of John kicking the tower. I don’t think we actually got a good one but the process was very entertaining!

After our pit stop in Pisa we took the scenic route to Rome. We drove along the shore of Italy and got to see the Mediterranean Sea! It was quite beautiful.

We arrived in Roma and as expected it was the ultimate driving challenge for John. Haha This was the most chaotic traffic I have ever seen. Unlike the US- People here make their own lanes and the police see nothing wrong with this. It was a two-lane road turned into five-lanes. It was a mess. We found parking for our little car as soon as we could and then just walked to our Hostel. This was our first time staying in a large room at a Hostel. It was a 6-person room and I was really hoping I would not be the only girl in this room especially since John was going to leave early in the morning to return our car and I was going to stay alone (this saved us about 16 dollars). Luckily for me there was another girl in the room! :)

We explored the city that night and walked down to the Spanish steps and Piazza Venezia (we were told these places were cool when lit up at night). They were pretty cool but mostly we were just in awe of the fact that we were actually in Rome! We wanted pizza and walked around for a while looking for a place that was opened. We ended up getting ripped off and getting nasty old pizza for dinner. We headed back to our Hostel and called it a day.

The next morning we woke up to rain. Lucky us! We toughed it out and walked to Vatican City (mind you this was not a short walk). By the time we arrived our shoes and socks were soaked and we were cold. There was a long line at St. Peters but it moved pretty quickly. Admission was free which always makes me happy. The Basilica is pretty impressive. I am sure it would have been even more impressive if I was Catholic but it was still awesome to be in a place of such importance. We then stood in line to go up to the Cupula (dome). We were told this would be a very difficult climb but it was worth it. I was definitely out of breath by the time we made it to the first level which is the inside the dome of the basilica. It was pretty cool getting to see the basilica from up there! Don’t worry I took pictures. :)

Part III

Anyways- the next morning we got on a train to Venice (since there are no cars allowed in Venice). When we got off the train we were checking times for the trains back and then ran into a couple girls from our school! It is a small world after all. Haha

Venice was beautiful! People had said Venice was stinky and rundown. Well, it is a rundown city but luckily it was too cold for it to be smelly. :) People had also told us that it was easy to get lost in Venice and they were not kidding! There are many streets that all look alike and they are very short. It was almost like finding your way through a maze. It was fun to just get lost though since we did not have a destination set. We had some amazing pizza for a very reasonable price! It was lovely. We would have gone on a ride in a Gandola except it was 80 Euros (120 Dollars)! As you can imagine that was a little out of our budget. Haha but I took many pictures of them. :P

Also- I got pooped on by a pigeon! The Italians (and my mom’s Venezuelan friend) believe that a bird pooping on you is good luck. Lucky me I guess.

That evening we had dinner with Sarah and Will (Yummy Pasta) and then we bundled up and went out for Gelato ( I got Strawberry) and a walk around creepy Aviano. Did I mention that Ice cream in Italy is significantly cheaper than in Sevilla? Probably because Sevilla continues to be in the 80’s even though it is November.

The next morning we headed towards Florence. It was a fairly long drive and once again- it was raining and cold. We attempted to find things to do in Florence but Lola failed us. She kept trying to send us the wrong way down a one-way and then losing us and redirecting us. We found a museum we saw advertised only to find out it was closed on Wednesdays. Then we went on a search for the David Statue. Too bad there were like 8 different ones according to Lola. We found a fake David on the top of a hill, took some sweet pictures of Florence and the fake and then attempted to find an Internet café to get our next hosts address. We asked some locals and then walked around rainy Florence for quite some time in vain. Since everyone nowadays has laptops and can get WIFI small Internet shops are running out of business, which unfortunately for us meant we were SOL! We finally gave up, found a payphone and gave our hosts a call. We then headed towards their home (which was also in a small town) and Lola once again took us to the wrong address. This time it was a small gravel parking lot in the middle on nowhere. We quickly realized this was not Kathy and Rich’s home. We eventually found their home and once inside, safe from the rain we put dry socks on. I love dry socks! :)

Kathy and Rich were amazing hosts! They were both Americans, former military, she works as a teacher at the base and he works with computers. They have lived all over the world (in Japan for over 10years!). They made a nice American meal for us. I had Clam Chowder for the first time (it was delicious!), indulged in some home made corn bread, ate some salad (she grew all the veggies in her own garden) and even got a coke with my meal! Oh- we also got Cappuccino flavored Gelato for Dessert! It was pretty solid. They also had another couch surfer staying with them that night. Her name was Kathleen, also an American, she had just gotten done studying in England for a year and a half and she was now exploring Italy and Budapest for over a month. Lucky duck.

Also- Kathy and Rich’s home was a 300 year old farmhouse. So we can now say that we have spent a night in a real Tuscan home… for free… Woot woot! :)

Part II

Things you should know about me:
1. I love mountains.
2. I love Fall.
3. I have wanted to go to Switzerland since I read the book Heidi (a long time ago)
4. When I like something I cannot stop saying how much I like it.

Now that you know these things about me, you can imagine how annoyed John must have been after a long drive through Switzerland in the fall with me as the only passenger. I am pretty sure I said- “Wow this is beautiful!!!” or “OMG I love this place!!! about every five minutes. Haha :) We finally arrived at Zurich and it was (Using John’s third favorite word) quaint. We walked around for a few hours and of course I took a lot of pictures. I also fell into a rose bush while taking a picture of a rose. Ouch.

Later we drove to a small town near Zurich and met our host for the night. Her name is Kathrin and she was pretty awesome as well. She spent a year as a foreign exchange student in Texas so her English was pretty good. We watched Friends and a British movie and she gave us some Swiss chocolate. Her apartment was pretty awesome so I took some pictures of it. :) Don’t judge my inability to stop taking pictures.

The next morning we woke up to rainy day and then began our 7-hour drive (that ended up taking more than 8hrs) to our next host’s home in a small town called Aviano near Venice. We had to get gas in a small town in Switzerland, we did not want to take money out of an ATM because we were not going to be Switzerland for much longer so we went inside and asked (in a combination of English and Spanish) if they took Visa (John was holding up the card for the lady to see). The lady looked at us with blank eyes, shook her head and said “NO”. So we put some gas in but not enough to fill it up since everything was significantly more expensive in Switzerland. I walked over to the ATM and realized there I had to take out a minimum of 40 Swiss Franks. So there we were with 15 Franks left over. We decided to put more gas in the car but then accidentally put 2 franks more than we had. John went inside and asked if he could give them 15 Franks and 2 euros (Euros are worth more than Franks), the lady said “NO” but said he could put it all on his card. Hmmmm… WHAT?!?!?! This could have all been avoided if she would have taken the card in the first place. GRRRRR! This was all quite frustrating but we made the best out of the situation and bought some sandwiches and pretzels with the left over Franks.

It continued to rain the entire drive. Did I mention John had been feeling bad since we arrived in Milan? Well this day was probably the worst day for his health and he was wearing shorts. I think he might have had a fever while driving. Poor Guy. :(

As you may or may not know- I watch too many Horror films and I cannot help but to be paranoid of certain things. On our way to Aviano not only were we running out of Gas but my mind was all ready going crazy creating a horrible plot for a low budget Horror film. Don’t get me wrong- Aviano is a cute town (in daylight) but it is in the middle of nowhere Italy and we arrived when it was pitch dark and rainy. Luckily we made it to our destination safely but not before being mislead by Lola (again this is what I named the GPS). When she said “Arriving at Destination on Left” we were not actually at our destination. Instead we were outside a black gate with a “Beware of Dog” sign. I got out of the car (expecting something to jump out at me: a dog or a ghost) to check the name on the doorbell but it was not the name we were looking for. We looked at the names on the building to our right and those were also not the right name. John flagged down some cars and attempted to ask people if they knew were Apartment 29 was or if they knew were Sarah Martin lived. One guy told us it was further back on that same street. We slowly reversed and then found a number 29 with a little note taped to the door that said “JOHN ring the door bell”.

Sarah and her husband Will were awesome people but my mind was set on Horror film and I was sleeping in a large room without a door so I did not sleep much that night. Actually- I spent the entire night thinking I was going to wake up to a Ghost standing in the door less doorway. Yes, I know I should stop watching horror films!

Also- at Sarah and Will’s we were not couch surfing. They are just super friendly people (Sarah knows John’s older sister) who let us spend two nights at their place.

Welcome to my Italy/Switzerland adventure. :)

Warning- this will probably be the longest post I will ever write.... I might have to make it more than one post.

Hope you enjoy it. :P

Ok, so this past week John and I took our first road trip together. We explored Italy and a little bit of Switzerland. Of course one week is not nearly enough time but we gave it all we had. :) Also- we couch surfed for the very first time. Couch surfing is when people host you in their homes and give you a free place to sleep and sometimes even give you meals.

Friday night/Saturday morning (October 30th / October 31st) we started our journey by getting on the 1 am bus to Madrid. The ride there is 6 hours and there was not much legroom (remember John is quite tall)- so you can only imagine the kind of sleep we experienced. We arrived at the bus station early in the morning, took the Metro to Barajas Airport in Madrid, printed off our boarding passes, went through the most unorganized security line, then found our gate with time to spare!

We arrived in Milan around noon??? I am not sure but I remember it was earlier on in the day. John and I explored the city and went to the places Mateo (our host in Milan) told us to go to. We walked through the Fashion center (street where all the famous designers have their shops) and witnessed some of the most ridiculous price tags ever! John almost had a heart attack when he saw that a Versace fur coat was 52,000 Euros A.K.A 76,000 US Dollars!!!

Later we went to the Milan Cathedral and since we were told the view from the top of the Cathedral was a must see, we walked up a whole lot of narrow stairs with our backpacks on (they were at their heaviest at this point in time). When we finally made it to the top it was clear that the agonizing climb was more than worth it! The view was breath taking, the architecture was impressive and it made for some sweet pictures.

We then realized we did not have the address to get to our hosts home which meant we needed to find an Internet Café or “Internet Point” as the Europeans call them nowadays. After finding one we took the metro to a suburb of Milan and found our way to Mateo and Ane’s home. They were lovely people and very welcoming. Mateo knows three languages and understands a fourth language and Ane is fluent in five languages! They are my language heroes.

They decided to make us a traditional Italian dinner that was not Pizza or Pasta- instead they fed us rabbit (Yes, I am talking about a bunny), polenta (a corn dough substance- typical of Northern Italy), mushrooms (gross), bread (Yum!) and Gelato (Gelato simply means Ice Cream in Italian). Overall the meal was amazing (I ate all except the mushrooms) and it was also free which makes it ever more amazing.

The following morning we took a train back to the airport and picked up our amazing little car (A white, four-door Citroen)! After struggling to get Lola working (Lola= GPS) we made our way to Zurich, Switzerland.