2 weeks and counting!

Ok, so I know again this blog is extremely over due! But I have been extremely busy, and the internet has not worked at my house for a month. So here you go! After the weekend after I went to Barcelona we headed to Madrid and Toledo. It was a great time. We saw some of the famous things like the Puerta del Sol, Museo del Prado, Plaza Mayor, the Bull ring, Retiro Park and the Royal Palace. On Saturday we spent the day with my friends that are missionaries in Madrid. They showed us around and it was a good time. Sunday we went to Toledo and the Bullfigting ring in Madrid. Again we had great weather and it was cool to see the Cathedral!

Now back to school. I have gotten involved a lot with a group of students here with Intervarsity. We have an outreach project coming up next week along with our finals approaching! I can't believe the time is already coming. So with all of this I haven't had a lot of time to do much else. We will hopefully be handing out the book of John to people on our campuses. We are waiting on permission from the administation before we do it though!

Tomorrow I head out one one last trip before my flight home. Two other girls and I are headed to Ireland for the weekend. It should be a blast!

I am really looking forward to coming home, but it will be bitter sweet. I have just gotten to know a lot of the people from the church and now I have to leave. I wish that they could come back to the US with me!

Barceolna and Volcanic Ash

>Alright, let’s see how much stuff I can cram in one blog from this past weekend. Barcelona, to start off, is amazing. I love the city, the art, the everything…except the people were a little different. The first thing we noticed is that none of the writing on the streets is in Spanish, but in Catalan. People for the most part spoke to us in English before they would speak to us in Spanish. Completely different from Oviedo. Anyway on to the stuff we did.

We started by getting to Barcelona about 11:00 am. and checked into our hostel about 12:00. It was nice. Then we decided to go straight to the Sagrada Familia. When we got there we decided we were hungry and had to get some American food. We saw a Domino’s right outside the entrance to the metro and knew it was fate! We had pizza and it was delicious J The Sagrada Familia was breath taking. The only bad part is it isn’t finished yet. So there is scaffolding and the inside is almost completely bare…but still amazing. We walked around the outside for a while and then continued to the inside. We ran through the museum quickly and then went inside. When we got inside we took the elevator up to the top of the towers and that was worth it for sure. It was an amazing view of Barcelona and it was fun to get a gargoyle’s view. There is a tiny bridge connecting the towers and that was fun to walk across.

Then we went to Las Ramblas (the entertainment street in Barcelona) and at the end there is the Harbor and a statue of Columbus. It was cool to see all the street entertainers and random things that people were trying to sell you. We ended at La Plaza de Catalonia where we found the Hard Rock Café and knew that again it must be fate. I had a chocolate shake and a bacon cheeseburger! I love the food in Spain, but at the same time it was good to get a taste of home. Then we went back to the hostel and went to bed…because we had a full day the next day.

Saturday we spent running around the city trying to see as much as possible! We started at Park Guell, one of Gaudi’s most famous works and the sight of his house of 20 years before he moved into La Sagrada Famila. I loved walking around seeing all the sculputres and crazy architecture that he made. The famous dragon statue is here and the curvy benches. There is also a leaning hallway of pillars that was sweet. The really cool thing about Gaudi is that all of his stuff is completely based off of nature and you can see it in every part of his work. If there was a tree where he wanted to build, he built around it. The big plaza drains water when it rains and it goes down through columns and is the source for the fountains in the park. We saw his house, which is not nearly as cool as the rest of the houses he built for other people. There are also two “gingerbread houses” in front of the park that have now been converted into tourist traps.

From there we went to one of Gaudi’s famous houses, Casa Milà. We were able to see the bottom floor, the attic and the roof top. I don’t believe there is one right angle in this house. The walls are curvy and every part of this apartment complex is unique. They have a mock apartment set up so that you can see an example of what one of the people living in an apartment there would actually look like. Then on the roof he made himself known. There are a bunch of chimneys, and each one is different. A lot of them look like soldiers, trees, and random sculptures. It was cool to walk around and take pictures by them and then we found one archway that perfectly captured the Sagrada Familia in the background. It was cool. Then we went to the Palace Guell because it was going to close and when we finally got there we realized that it was closed for renavation and we could only see the basement. It was a little bit of a bust and time waster but that was okay.

We went back to the Block of Discord, where we saw another famous Gaudi house and the other crazy building surrounding it. The reason it is called the Block of Discord is because on each corner there is a house of a completely different style and they all seem to be competing for attention. They were all really cool. Then we headed to the Cathedral. It was cool to see that and then we sat outside because they have a concert every Saturday where the people of Barcelona come out to dance their cultural dance. It was fun to listen to the music and watch the people dancing. They get in a circle and put their belongings in the middle as a sense of community and sharing and then they join hands and dance in circles.

To end our night we did some sight seeing in the dark. We went to the Magic Fountains, a water show with lights and music that was fun to watch and then went to see the Sagrada Familia and the “egg tower” lit up. The towers of the Sagrada Familia were lit up a little bit which was worth it, but the Egg shaped building was not lit up at all. We were dissapointed by that because it looked so cool in the postcards. We went back to the hostel and tried to get a good night sleep.

The last morning we woke up and headed out for our tour of the Catalan Music Hall. It was really cool. I wish they would have let us take picutres, but I guess that’s what post cards are for. It was not a Gaudi work, but this guy I guess is the father of modernist art. It was filled with sculputures, mosaics and ceramics. It was worth every cent to get in there. Then we went back to The ramblas for one more Hoorah and then ate lunch quick. We went back to the Hostel to get our stuff and when we got there they told us that the Barcelona airport was closed today due to the Volcano that errupted in Iceland at the beginning of the week. We freaked out because we had to get back to classes. We looked up buses and decided that our best bet was to go talk to the people at the airport.

When we got there we got in line to talk to Vueling and when we were next in line we heard the glorious voice over the intercom say that “The airways out of Barcelona are now open.” Within a few more minutes we were told to go check in because our flight was going to be operating. With just a few more delays were left around 7:00. We had to argue with the lady at the ticket counter and then were told the wrong gate and thought we missed it. But thankfully it all worked out and we made it back to Oviedo just 3 hours later than we had originally planned. Thankfully we didn’t listen to the people in the Hostel and we went to the airport anyway. On our flight that could hold 200 plus people there were about 15 so it was a nice, quiet flight back. Overall it was a great trip and I hope one day to go back and see everything. Especially the Sagrada Familia when it is completed. Now to start the week of cultural classes at school. Should be a fun and interesting week and then Madrid next weekend!

Spring Break 2010

Well, I haven't been around Oviedo much in the last two weeks. We have been on Spring break for the last week and a half or so. My friend Ashley and I spent the first weekend of our break in San Sebastian. San Sebastian is just about a half an hour train ride from France and right on the Bay of Biscay. It has two beautiful beaches, one for surfing and one for hanging out at. It is surrounded by two mountains on either side, which we went to the top of both! We stayed in a hostel that was run by some surfers, which was fun. They were really friendly. After we checked in we walked around the city a little bit and saw the beach at night! The first day we spent hours watching the waves come in. The bay was a lot rougher than normal and the tide was really high. So we hung out and watched the ocean come in and hit all the rocks while we took in some sun! Then for the night we rode the tram up to the top of the mountain and watched the sunset. The next day we went up the other mountain where there is another statue of Jesus (but the one in Oviedo is better).
We spend the evening writing notes in the sand and watching the sunset and talking. It was a really neat town, but a long bus ride back. We did have some excitement when our bus got stopped and was searched for drugs!

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday hanging out and packing clothes for Antequera. It is a town close to Malaga (on the complete opposite side of the country. I saw the northern coast and then went all the way to the southern!). Thursday morning I got up at 3:45 am to get on the bus at 4:45. We took off to Gijon to pick up the rest of the group. My church here has two churches, one in Oviedo and one in Gijon. Then we started our twelve hour ride to camp. We stopped every 4 hours our so, until the bus broke down! We had to wait in the middle of nowhere until a replacement but came! Our bus driver, Pudi, was pretty sweet though! When the other bus got there, we got all of our stuff switched and then not 10 minutes after we had gotten back on the road, we got pulled over. It all turned out alright though. We finally made it just in time to catch the end of the first chapel. After this we talked for a little while and then went to sleep!

I woke up at 7:45 the next morning and took a shower, then we all went for breakfast. We had toast and hot chocolate. It was delicious! We went the the first chapel. The worship was awesome. It is really cool to sing praises to God in Spanish! I was exhausted after it was finished though. Here the chapels are about 3 hours long. We had lunch and then I went to a workshop on the Holy Spirit. It was an interesting experience. We had doughnuts for a snack and then had another evening chapel. By the end of this one I was literally dead, but the night did not end there!!! We had "noche del talentos" Every church had at least one song, skit, or something to do. It was really fun, but lasted until 2 in the morning. I slept really, really good!

Then Saturday morning I woke up to a cold shower...but the hot chocolate at breakfast made it better! The first chapel I had trouble focusing because I was so tired, but I took an hour nap after lunch and that made the rest of the day go much better! I spent the rest of the break playing volleyball. We went to our workshop for the day called men and women of God. It was a good reminder of what a woman of God should look like. After supper we had evening chapel where we spent a lot of time in prayer which was much needed. It was really good to get to know some of the girls here, and we really bonded that night.

The next morning we had breakfast and then went to our last chapel where he used a powerpoint, so I was able to focus and understand more of what was going on. The whole weekend was about how we need to have the fire of God in us and we need to extinguish the fires of the world. It was our send off chapel. Then we had paella for lunch in the biggest pan I have ever seen in my life! It was way cool. We had a long bus ride back, but everything went smoothly this time. We got back to Oviedo at 5:30 in the morning and I slept until noon this morning! I'm just really glad that this weekend was exactly what I needed for encouragement to finish out the semester!

My first birthday...asturiano style!!!

Well, I am 3 more days away from Spring break! It should be a blast. Ashley and I have our bus tickets and hostel for San Sebastian. I've had a few adventures in the last few weeks. The first one was a walk in the mountains. I went with a group of students walking through the hills to a old church. It was pretty cool, but the view from there was spectacular. I saw some more of the rural life.

The next adventure was my 20th birthday. I actually had classes on my birthday which was not as bad as I thought. During my first grammar class my teacher taught us how to sing 2 different versions of happy birthday, Spanish style. Then I had a break that we played cards in and then my least favorite 2 classes. After that I had an extra grammar class to make up for one week that we didn't have classes. During her break, my friend went and bought a pint of haagen-dazs chocolate, chocolate chip ice cream and spoons. We went into the hallway to eat it because we aren't supposed to eat in the classroom, and invited a bunch of others to eat with us! So logically there was a huge crowd from my class out in the hallway when the teacher came by. We invited her to have some and she jumped right in and helped us finished it off. Then she proceeded to tell us the best two places in Oviedo to get ice cream! Later that night I went with Leslie and Abigail to the space ship mall to get ice cream or pizza...and when I went up the escalator, almost everyone from UNI was there singing happy birthday! It was a good time and a happy birthday asturiano style :)

I've had quite a few cooking adventures as well. My madre has been teaching me some pretty sweet recipes and Ashley and I have made tortilla espanola and since we found some marshmallow like substance, we attempted to make rice crispy bars. They weren't exactly the same, but a good substitute.

My most recent adventure was with Ashley and her padres here. They invited me to go on a trip to the coast with them. We drove up and along the coast and saw two old light houses and watched a storm come in from the ocean. Then when we got back we had a typical cena asturiano (asturian supper). She served some chorizo, bread, cheese, fried potatoes, and squid. Yes, I ate squid...and it actually wasn't too bad. Then we drank some sidra (the typical alcoholic cider here in Oviedo). For dessert we had strawberries and cream! It was absolutely delicious and a good time getting to know her family!

Now I just have spring break to look forward too!!!

Santiago

Alright, so I know that this is much overdue, but I am still alive! I have been having a good time! The first thing I have to update is with school. I have had my first rounds of tests and they turned out well! Hopefully they will continue to improve though. I have been learning a lot and continuing to gain confidence.

The next new and exciting news is my plans for spring break are set! I am going on a retreat with the other young adults from my church. We are renting a bus and driving back to Malaga where we are meeting many other church groups there at a camp. Then we will be having some awesome worship, Bible Studies, games, and time to get to know each other. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it will all be in Spanish? It will be a really good learning weekend.

Then there is Santiago. Last weekend we went to Santiago de Compestela where thousands of Pilgrims come every year. The cathedral here is famous for housing the remains of St. James (Santiago). This year is also a holy year (every 10 years) so we were able to see the flying incense burner (batafumerio) and the holy door open. It was really awesome, but it could have been better if we didn't go in the middle of a hurricane. We were soaked walking through the streets, but it was worth it.

This weekend was nice and relaxing. We went on a three hour hike to a random little church in the mountains. It was fun and good exercise. When we got there the scenery was beautiful. I still cannot believe all the amazing things that God has created here! I look forward to getting to see a few more places before I leave!

Carnaval

Well, In the past week not too much has happened. I have been in Oviedo for the most part, just leaving for one evening to go to Carnaval in Aviles. Carnaval here is compared to Mardis Gras in the US. Here they normally have a parade, fire works, everyone dresses up, and then on top of that Aviles had foam. This was crazy because a bunch of people would dress up in rain suit and go play in it. It covered the streets, sometimes feet high! The only problem, it was WAY cold and not as much fun as what I thought it was going to be. But you have to learn about the culture some how!

Other than that, school is going well. I have had 2 tests in the past week and two this week. I'm a little bit more nervous for these. With God's help though, I will get through. I have found with my free time it is delightful to walk around the city. On nice days sometimes I will walk for hours! On the edge of the city there are some beautiful mountains! I also have been spending more and more time at the church here in Oviedo. These people are becoming my family away from home! I can not tell you how much God has blessed me with these friends in Christ! After the young people's service on Saturday we all went to McDonalds and had a blast getting to know all of them. It is cool because a lot of them want to practice English too...so I can learn Spanish from them and they can learn English from me!

Let's all Hike to Jesus!

This week there has not been a lot to update on. Classes are going well and I just took my first test today. It went well, I think except for one question I did not understand. The only exciting thing so far has been our hike to Jesus. There is a huge statue of Christ on top of one of the mountains that surrounds the city of Oviedo. A group from the University of Boston Mass was going to go up so we decided to join them. It was 6 hours, but well worth it. We stopped on our way to see two 1000+ year old churches which were really cool too! Other than that I am learning a lot. It was good to talk to my family the last few days since they have been snowed in! We are now planning a few trips close to Oviedo and are getting excited for Carnaval...Spain's Mardis Gras type celebration! It should be fun!

A Quick Visit to Paradise

Wow, where to start. I have had the most amazing week. I finished classes on Wednesday and then my friend Leslie and I went to the bus station to start our adventure to Malaga. We rode the bus to Madrid and then took a taxi to the airport. Our flight landed in Malaga at midnight and Laura Eller was there to pick us up. Since it was late we pretty much went strait to bed, but I was able to quickly skype my parents to let them know we arrived safely. Laura showed us our room and we were asleep in no time :)

The next morning we started our day off bright and early with a quick drive to Mijas. This cute tourist town is known as one of the Costa del Sol's "Pueblos Blancos," (white villages). It seriously looked like we were walking in Greece! We were able to see one of Spain's only oval bull fighting ring...from the outside, visited a few lookout points so that we could see the ocean, went to a small chapel built into a cave, and looked through a museum that told the history and culture of Andalusia in clay that one woman made. It was absolutely stunning! We took pictures of the "burro taxi's" and yes, that is what you are thinking it is!

We then drove through downtown Malaga and stopped at a castle monument to Columbus. It was cool to us because we had been learning about a lot of the art that they used in art class! Then we drove to the beach and walked along the Mediterranean Sea! Beautiful :) Then we drove back and had lunch...I have never been so excited to have Chili in my life! Laura is a great cook! We then hung out the rest of the day, we walked Josh to his music class and had Moroccan tea while we waited. It was a pretty cool experience!

The next day we again started off right after the kids went to school and went to Malaga's castle and walked through downtown. We went to Picasso's birth place and walked down the street performer street. We then went to Malaga's port to see the pirate ship they have docked there and when we got there we saw a real German Submarine! How often does that happen?!? We then headed back to the house and spent the afternoon hanging out, watching movies and enjoying relaxing and hanging out with the Eller boys!

On Saturday we slept in! Then we got up and headed to the beach! It was perfect weather and we had a blast walking in the surf and picking up a ton of Starfish! We flew kites, played paddle ball and had a picnic! Then we went to the new church building that they just moved to and helped get ready for the youth service they were having that night. We met a lot of really cool people and really had to use our Spanish for most of the night! There were some Chilean guys who came to give their testimonies and they loved us because we knew how to play Ultimate Frisbee. We wished that we could have played with them, but we had to leave :( They told us only American girls would play because every other girl is too afraid to break a nail! Haha! It was a great, but late evening! We didn't get back from church until 11:30 or Midnight! Then we had to wake up at 6:30 to catch our plane in the morning. We had an uneventful travel day back and made it back just in time for my host mom to make me Arroz a la Cubana con huevos fritos! I'll explain it when I get back! Now I'm back in classes and wishing I was in Malaga!

Off to see the Ellers!

Our first vacation day has offically arrived! My friend Leslie and I are headed to Malaga to visit some friends of mine, the Ellers. They live in Malaga which is right on the Med. Sea! It should be a great long weekend. We leave today, as soon as classes are done to catch a bus to Madrid. Then we have a quick flight to Malaga where Laura is going to pick us up. It will be fun to drive through some of the country side of Spain and then cut off a few hours with a plane ride. Hopefully by the end of this trip I will have mastered the art of airports! Well other than that I haven´t done much. Classes are going pretty good and my understanding is slowly but surely increasing! I will try and update when I arrive in Malaga!
¡Besos!

Things are just different in Europe....

Well my second week of classes is officially over. I am amazed at how different life in Europe is, but it is not bad. We have had a blast getting to know the city of Oviedo. It is a beautiful city with a lot to offer.

Well, to start off school has been good...but the most boring part of my day. We have classes pretty early in the morning. My first class is at 9 am, and I know that everyone is thinking that is not early at all! But for here, it is quite early because I have to walk about 30 minutes to get to the University. It is a beautiful walk though, so I cannot complain. The weather this week has been pretty good too! It had some rainy days, but for the most part was sunny with a little bit of fog. I haven't had much homework, just translating some pretty easy paragraphs. So the lack of hours of homework has been delightful.

We have had some other adventures the past two weeks. First, all of our meetings are held in a bar which I had to get used to. I love going to the bar and ordering Fanta. It's good here because it is more like carbonated lemonade or orange juice. I also had a interesting time buying shoes. They have different shoe sizes here which makes me feel bad because I am a size 41. But I got my boots, that are waterproof!

I have also been attending a church here. Yay for finding people to worship with! Leslie and I have been connecting with a student name Noemi and a group called gbu, that is a Bible Study. We attended our first girls night. It was hippie themed and we played roulette (wheel of fortune bible edition) and a version of Spanish Bible Edition Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We ate some amazing food and I took a lot of Spanish in! It is funny to listen to everyone try and pronounce my name though because they cannot pronounce the "J" sound.

Well I will update soon! We just planned our first trip to Malaga to visit Kory and Laura Eller. I am super super excited!! So We leave Wednesday night and then will stay the weekend and leave Sunday. I will keep everyone updated as much as possible!

La Universidad de Oviedo

I started classes yesterday. My first class was grammar and I had a really really hard time understanding the professor. Hopefully tomorrow she will speak much slower! I think that my classes are going to be really good though. After my grammar class I had a 2 hour break, so me and a couple other girls walked around the streets near campus. We went to the "China" store. It would be comparable to the Dollar Tree in the States. I had to ask for an adapter because one of the girls needed one and nobody wanted to ask. They had them, which was good because another girl blew hers up today with her hair drier and had to get another!

I ate an apple for mid-morning snack and then had my Art class. I really liked this professor and I think that It is going to be a really fun class learning about the art in Spain and especially the trips to go out and learn about the art in Oviedo. I then went home where my host mom made me lunch! So far everything she has made has been "rico" or delicious! I took a siesta after lunch and then at 5 we met at "La Gorda." La Gorda (the fat lady) Is a statue near the big park in oviedo. We all as one big group went and bought cell phones. It was good that one of the mom's went with us and translated so that the lady behind the counter knew what to do. I'm sure it is not often that she gets a group of 15 english speakers wanting to buy cell phones!

The store we bought our cell phone in was comparable to Sears, so they had a little bit of everything...so I bought a book in Spanish. I bought Breaking Dawn, because I read it in English and it was an easy read...not so much in Spanish though! I came home then and ate supper about 8:30 and then talked to Sarah on Skype for a while before I went to bed.

I woke up early and went to class before the sun even came up! This is hard to get used to!!! I am getting pretty good at the walk between my house and campus. The park is open now so I can cut quite a bit of time off :) Today I had 3 Classes and all of them were good! I have another 2 hour break on Wednesdays in between my first class and my last two classes but I like going down to the cafeteria and talking to people. This afternoon I came back home and ate lunch at 3 and then took a siesta. I am really getting used to this! At 7:15 I met Leslie and Naomi for church. It was interesting but the people there are very sweet and patient with the Americans :) They all talk about Tyler, a student from last year because he was so tall!

I came back after Church and ate dinner. Then I gave my host mom her present. Mom, she loved the quilt and necklaces! She wanted to wear all the necklaces at once! Now I'm off to bed! It's almost Midnight and we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow! Buenos Noches!

Arrival in Spain!

Well, after 12 hours we finally made it to Spain. We left the hotel around 7:45 and arrived at Paddington Station just a few minutes before the next Heathrow Express train took off. It was almost perfect timing because we even found room for our bags! We got to the airport 15 minutes later and were checked in and through security within an hour. It went by so fast we had to wait an hour (until 10:00) to even figure out which gate we were to go to. After a while we got on the plane and were off to the Madrid airport. When we got there again we did not know exactly which terminal to go to right away so we grabbed a snack and something to drink and by that time we knew where we were to go.

When we got to the terminal we found 2 others from our group: Kayla and Zach. We waited since our plane was delayed for about 20 minutes and then got on. When we got to Oviedo, Kayla's bags did not show up...so after figuring out (in Spanish) what to do we missed the bus to Oviedo. Kayla and I grabbed some cafe con leche and waited until 6:30 to get on the next bus for Oviedo that left about 7. When we got to the bus station, we grabbed a taxi and were off to the hotel. We met up with everyone else there and after about and hour or so went to Dinner. It was a very interesting experience.

First, I don't like sangria. I don't like beer (which I knew from the smell a long time ago. I don't like campaign. I tried squid for the first time...and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There cheese balls here are NOT the same as Iowa but the french fries are pretty tasty! After the dinner most of the group went to the bar, but Leslie, Abigail and I went back to the hotel. I went to bed about 1 and then woke up at 7:45. After I checked out of the hotel we went to meet our families.

My host mom picked me up and we walked back to our Pizo. When we got there we dropped my luggage in my room and then took off again back to the University. I had to go to the library and all the international students met there for a big meeting and to take the entrance exam. When they started I had no idea what they were saying. I got just enough to get by. Afterward my mom came and picked me up and we went back to the house to eat lunch. I was starving because I didn't get anything for breakfast. She made me arroz con pollo and it was delicious.

After lunch I unpacked one of my suitcases and then took a siesta! I think I can get used to this. I woke up at 3 and went back to campus. I met Abigail and Leslie and we went to get phones and the things that we needed. I bought my umbrella and went to get a phone, but I forgot I needed my passport number. So I will have to go get that tomorrow.

When I got back I went to the centro comercial (mall) and was kinda bored actually. I was looking for the phone store again but they moved. So I will get it before coming back from classes tomorrow. Now I am updating my blog, I talking to 1315 Brenton Drive, and now Sarah. I miss that I am not able to talk to my parents. I hope they are enjoying themselves on the cruise, and that they get back soon so that I can talk to them. Well I think now I'm going to try and unpack a little more and then go to bed. We have to be at the University at 8:30 in the morning, which in Spain is extremely early. I have to leave about 8...because it takes me 20-25 minutes to get there. Fun stuff...I will be getting my exercise for sure.

~London Weekend~

2 Days in the beautiful city of London was amazing! Anna and I looked around at different tours that we could take around the city, and we came to the conclusion that we did not need a tour guide. All we needed was the tube map and a day pass each day!

We spent the first day taking the tube to Hyde Park, then getting off and walking through the park. In the park we looked around the outside of Kensington Gardens. We then took off for Buckingham Palace, where we were able to see the changing of the Guards. After Buckingham, we went to Westimister Cathedral and a tour of the bell tower, which was beautiful, followed by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The Houses of Parliment, Trafagar square, Piccadily area, and the broadway show, Mamma Mia. Needless to say by the time I arrived back to the hotel I was pooped!

We were able to see the London Eye from the ground, but it was closed due to "Adverse" weather conditions. It was sunny and 28 degrees. The lady at the hotel counter told me that people in london start to freak out when they get 5 cm of snow! I think that they need to take some lessons from Iowa on what to consider adverse weather!

Then today we got up and headed out on the tube again. We went to the London Eye, but again because of the cold it was not running. So we took a river cruise to Tower of London. We took the guided tour that talked about a lot of beheadings and burials, but was interesting to find out about. After the tour was over we walked through the tower to see the crown jewels. They are breathtaking. We had a quick lunch at the cafe there and then explored the tower a little more.

At 3 we left for St. Pauls cathedral and I can now see why my Aunt Suzie said it was a must to see it. And Aunt Sue...the floor did resemble you kitchen floor! But on a more serious note the mosaic celing was beyond anything you can imagine and made westminster cathedral look like a small town church. We decided we had to climb the 257 stairs to the top of the wispering gallery where you are able to hear a whisper from across the dome. We were not able to go any farther again because of adverse weather. There were two more places to climb too...but it was probably for the better we were not able to because i don't know how much more my legs could take! I definatly got my exercise the past 2 days.

We finished the night with the Tates Modern Art Museum, which was a little bit odd at times, but free none the less. We ate at a little Korean/Chinese resturant just around the corner from our hotel. Now we are updating blogs, calling on skype, and packing so we can head off to the airport about 7:45. Good Stuff...hopefully the Heathrow Express train and the airport don't have any problems due to the Adverse Weather tomorrow!!

Audios USA, Hola London

So I had an exciting last few days in the USA. On New Year's Eve I rang in 2010 by having my roommates and friends come hang out at my house. We played many games and watched a movie, along with eating a lot of food! It was good to see everyone one last time before I left. I got to see Kaylee, Abby, Megan, and Meghan in Cedar Falls on the Monday before I left, and on Tuesday Whit and I met for lunch and Abby came over during the afternoon. We had a blast reminiscing and catching up.

I also had good time spent with family at basketball games, family suppers, playing board games and just watching TV. My brother, sister and I spent quite a few hours watching That 70's Show the last few weeks. Christmas was good and relaxing. I have eaten way too much food in the last few days...getting my "last suppers" before I flew out. My Mom made her famous chicken penne pasta on Tuesday and invited the family over for one last goodbye.

One Wednesday (Jan. 6th) morning I got up and finished packing what was left to go in my suitcases and made sure that I had copies of everything in my luggage. At 11:00 am my Mom, Dad, and I took off for the Cedar Rapids airport. We stopped on the way at one of our favorite resturants in Waterloo...LJ's for a quick lunch and then got to Cedar Rapids about 2:30.

When we got to the airport I quick went to the bathroom and then Anna and I went to check our bags in. I quick packed away my present from Auntie Sue (Plane ride essentials and the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was partially filmed in Oviedo) and went to check my bags. When we got up there we were told our flight from Chicago to London was canceled and we would be leaving at 3:30. That didn't give us much time to get through security. Abby and Kaylee also met me at the airport and arrived just in time! With some quick last minute goodbye's we made it through security and then within 10 minutes were on our first plane to Dallas, TX.

In Dallas we got to our terminal and had to check in at the gate so they could give us our seat assignments. We started watching the movie my Aunt got us...and then realized that our plan was delayed an extra hour. This meant we were leaving Dallas at 8:45 now. After another hour we finally boarded and found our seats were in the last row of the airplane, which we were fine with. We sat right next to eachother and it was only a 2 person row so we couldn't complain. The airplane had 8 seats accross which was the biggest plane that I had ever flown on.

On the plane we had about a 9 hour flight. We had a chicken rice dinner and a roll for breakfast. I slept most of the way and watched a few episodes of the Office and Disney Channel (to put me to sleep). When we got to Heathrow we got on the Heathrow express to Paddington Station and finally found our hotel. It is nice...but has very small hallways and stairs. The rooms are pretty big and Anna and I both have our own beds. The staff is also very helpful. So far we have had to ask them for the password to the internet, a converter, and how to shut the shower off. I couldn't figure it out...and I really felt like I needed a shower. I skyped my parents to tell them that I made it and we were all checked into our hotel. Anna and I are just resting right now after lugging 2 huge suitcases I'm quite tired...but according to Uncle Sam...I am not allowed to sleep for quite a while longer! So I think i'm going to clean up my suitcases and head out to walk around the city. It looks like Hyde Park and then to eat!