Baby!

I really wish I was better at keeping up with this blog and I feel like I say that every time I write! I think I'm just going to e-mail everyone every time I update so they'll know to check it.

Anyways, Quique and I are excited to announce that we're expecting a baby! I'm currently 25 weeks along and the baby is expected for December 5th. We found out about a month ago that we are having a little baby girl! We both wanted a girl especially Quique who's convinced it's going to be a "daddy's girl." We're not set on a name yet, but I'll keep you updated when we make our final decision.

I've been feeling really well. The first four months were really difficult with morning sickness. I haven't felt sick in a long time though and I don't feel too big yet. In the past few weeks I've felt and seen the baby kick my stomach. It's such a strange feeling! Quique got to feel the baby kick once before he left to go back to Spain (I'm currently in Georgia on vacation) and he couldn't stop talking about it because it was so neat for him.

I'm headed back to Madrid in a week. I'm starting a new job in a different school this year. I'm teaching English to 3, 4, and 5 year olds and a few English classes to the teachers as well. I plan on having the baby in Madrid so I'll be sure to send lots of pictures. If I can figure out how to upload an ultrasound photo onto this blog I will although I make no promises because that involves scanning the picture and I am not exactly good with technology!

Nice long week of vacation

I just spent all of Holy Week with two friends in Italy. I had a great time although I´m glad to be back! I feel like I took every mode of transportation known to man. We flew into Milan last Tuesday and took a day trip to Lake Como. Lake Como is a beautiful lake shaped like a Y where a lot of the Italian people go on vacation. George Clooney owns a house there too! We walked around the lake all day and took a scenic bus ride around the cliffs. Because Lake Como is so close to Switzerland I also got to see the Swiss Alps covered in snow. We only spent one day in Lake Como and the next day we were off to Verona.

I think Verona was my favorite place. The hostal we stayed at was amazing. It was nicer than any hotel I´d ever been in and we got a free homemade breakfast. The first thing we did in Verona was grab some food from the grocery store and eat in the park. We went to the old arena after that. It looked like a scene from the movie Gladiator on the inside. The seats in the stands were so smooth that I slipped and fell on my butt on one of them. I´m sure nobody noticed... We saw Juliette´s balcony where Romeo and Juliette supposedly had their famous meeting. Overall, Verona was really calm and very small. I liked it a lot.

Venice was neat because you had to take a boat everywhere! We took a boat to our hostal which was nice because it gave us a nice tour of the Grand Canal. It´s so crazy to see people´s front doors about a foot above the water. We visited a beautiful church called San Marcos. It was absolutely huge. Because the ground was so uneven all of the towers and tall buildings in the city looked like they were leaning. The second day we were in Venice we went to a small island called Burona which is known for its brightly colored houses and lace. It was my favorite part of Venice. I thought it was so neat how every house was painted a different and very bright color.

Our last stop was in Florence. Florence is beautiful and known for all of it´s famous statues such as David and Michelangelo´s Pieta. After my second day in Florence I left with one of my friends back to Milan to catch a flight to Madrid. We arrived in Milan on Sunday night and weren´t leaving until 6:45 a.m. the next day. We slept in the waiting room of the train station and let me tell you THAT was an experience. All of the homeless people sleep there because it is warm and open all night. So I slept next to like 6 homeless people who hadn´t bathed in awhile and seemed very sick. I felt like I was homeless that night. It was a strange feeling.

Now I´m back in Madrid at school. It´s nice to get back to a regular schedule and sleep in my own bed!

Finally a new one!

Okay so I'm going to try and get back on the horse with this blogging. I think after this blog I'll start writing lots of little ones as opposed to big long ones.

Everything's been going really well lately and I've been staying really busy. I moved at the beginning of February to a new apartment downtown. The apartment is big, but my room is pretty small. I live with 6 other people: 3 Spaniards, 2 Germans, and 1 other American. I'm right off of Plaza de Espana which is one of the main plazas in Madrid. I'm really close to everything and I love that I can walk out my door and get where I want to quickly. All of my roommates are nice, but I probably get along with the American girl the best. My kitchen is big, but so far I haven't used it that much. I think I know how to cook a total of 5 things and one of those things is cereal...haha.

I'm taking Spanish classes 5 days a week as well from 7:15-8:15 p.m. I think going to class everyday helps me to force myself to learn and speak more Spanish. I've also been speaking more Spanish with Quique. Now I feel like I can communicate a lot easier than I could before, but the journey to fluency is a long one...

I went to Quique's graduation last month and it was great. I got to hang out with his family all weekend. I was really proud of him (can't write much about his job because this is on the Internet!). After his graduation we all came back to Madrid and I hung out with his family the rest of the weekend.

Lately I've been enjoying the nice weather in Madrid. The past two Sundays I went to the Retiro park which is the most popular park here. I had a picnic with some friends and last week 15 people showed up! We mostly just talk and eat our food and then some of the guys kick around a soccer ball. I hope we make it a kind of tradition for every Sunday.

The past two Sundays I've also been going to a new church. The church is called Our Lady of Mercy and they have Mass in English!! The Mass is really interesting because there are so many different people of different nationalities there: Irish, English, people from different countries in Africa, and a few Filipinos too. I like hearing the readings because you never know what accent you're going to hear! The priest, Fr. Ron, is American. These Masses and the church remind me a lot of the U.S. I recognize the songs we sing, I can say the prayers along with everyone else, and there are lots of clubs and activities you can do within the Church. Next week I am going to register as a parishioner.

I'm headed back to the States for a little bit in August. One of my best friends, Kate, is getting married in Denver and I'm one of her bridesmaids. I'm really excited to see all of my friends and to be Kate's bridesmaid. I'm also excited to go home and see the fam.

Alright well I'll try and keep this updated a lot more often. The picture in this blog is of my family and my brother's girlfriend at my grandma's on Christmas.

Need to keep up with this better

I´m getting lazy with this blog. I need to get better at it! This is my last week at school before Christmas and I´m looking forward to coming home for three weeks. I´ve been trying to tie up lose ends before I fly off to the U.S.´

Last night I got to see Cirque du Soleil and it was awesome! I went with Quique. Quique sprained his ankle last Thursday and he´s still hurting so he was limping all the way into the tents last night. It´s sad, but kinda funny at the same time. I looked like I was walking with an old man (he didn´t have any type of crutches so he just leaned on me and we walked REALLY slow). We had a blast though and I definitely want to go next year. The venue was so small and we had some great seats. It´s crazy how some of those people were flipping around and so flexible. We even watched someone fall. At least it lets you know that it´s really difficult and even the acrobats don´t do it perfectly every time!

Well lunch is starting at school now. I hope it´s good! Almost every day we have some kind of mystery meat...and in Spain you never know what you might get...

Happy Thanksgiving!

While it isn't Thanksgiving yet I have already celebrated with Quique's family. We drove down to El Puerto (7 hours south of Madrid) on Thursday and have been enjoying our stay by the beach. Quique's mom, Sue, made Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night and it was AWESOME!! She's a really good cook. We had the typical turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green been casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and pecan pie. I'm still missing the fried turkey we have every year though at home in Georgia! The weather here is great. El Puerto has been sunny every day and the highs are in the 70s. Waay warmer than Madrid. I finally got my huge box that my parents shipped from the U.S. It has all my winter clothes in it so I can finally start wearing some warm clothes instead of t-shirts with a coat!

We're headed back to Madrid tonight. I like the drive a lot. Road trips are fun. I don't even drive the car because I can't drive a stick shift! On the way down we stopped at a neat little rest stop that had a great little restaurant. I'm still salivating thinking about the sandwich that I got from there.

Just so everyone knows, I'm headed back to the U.S. on December 22nd and staying for about three weeks. I don't have my return flight yet because I'm still researching the prices. I'm really excited to celebrate Christmas in the U.S. because Spain doesn't do the whole decoration/Christmas music stuff which I love. Well, I better go spend some more time with Quique's family before I head out. I'll put more pictures up here in the coming weeks. Miss everyone!

Here are my pictures

Okay here it is: pictures of my apartment. My room is very orange, but I was at least able to rearrange the furniture and it looks a lot better. My bathroom is very Greek looking and I LOVE having my own bathroom. Also, you can see the hallway which all of the rooms come off of and my kitchen. There is a patio off of the kitchen and it goes out to the middle of the building. It's a typical Spanish thing, but hard to explain. The apartment has neat details too like the lights and stained glass windows. I like it a lot. Another picture is of one of my roommates David. He's really nice. My other roommate, Isis is always MIA. I've been at the apartment for almost a week and have never seen her. I still have to put up pictures of the pool and paddle courts outside and the area in general. The apartment is also right by the metro which is great in the mornings when I'm not running 15 minutes to catch the metro. All in all I like it!

2 words...

Food Poisoning.

Oh yes, I had the great pleasure of getting food poisoning last Thursday. Let´s start from the beginning...

Wednesday morning Quique went to El Puerto de Santa Maria (his home that´s about a 7-hour drive from Madrid). That night I went out with his roommate and some of our friends to a restaurant and had a delicious dinner of bacon, eggs, and croquetas (fried balls of cream and bacon...yum). The next morning I woke up excited to travel down to El Puerto also after I finished with work. Halfway on my way to work I started to feel sick and by the time I got to school I realized there was no way I could teach. I told the principal and the two teachers I worked with and set out on my way home. I take the metro to and from work and it´s about an hour commute. I got so sick I couldn´t even be on the metro anymore so I got out after about three stops and sat out on a bench at a big intersection. Because Quique wasn´t in Madrid I had to call him to call his roommate and see if his roommate could pick me up. I must´ve caused a scene sitting on the bench in the middle of the street and continuously walking towards the bushes. I´ll save you all the details, but it wasn´t pretty and I felt like everyone was staring at me. I´m pretty sure I must´ve ate some bad eggs or something because I´ve never felt so sick in my life. After an hour of gracing the bushes with my presence I was picked up by Angel, Quique´s roommate, and immediately taken home where I slept about 6 hours before catching the train to El Puerto. Needless to say that was one of my more interesting days here and one I hope I NEVER have to repeat! I feel better now, but I´ll never forget the experience haha.