Almost to the Middle East!!!!!!!!

So…. I guess the only time I write in this blog is when I have a lot of free time, or when I am abroad. Right now I am at home in Salt Lake prepping to go to Israel to study abroad for the spring of 2013. I thought I would resurrect the blog so everybody can see what I am doing. Especially those people who don’t have Facebook (cough cough… Mom).

I just finished my fifth semester of nursing school and it sure does feel good. I have been utilizing this break very well, sleeping almost twice as many hours per night than I did in Philly. I also have free time to do actual fun things. I’ve been able to go snowshoeing, go to the temple, run, make delicious food, watch a ton of movies, go to an art show, go to the annual cousins white elephant gift party, and a lot of random things :).

Nature shot up Provo Canyon

Snowshoeing adventure!!

I thought I would utilize this break to make up for all the exercising I didn’t get to do at school. I got a 30-class exercise pass through Groupon. I get to choose between four different exercise studios and all have which have been really interesting. The first one I signed up for was a body pump class, which I had interpreted as an aerobics class. Turned out it was a boxing class. But, hey, I feel like I know a lot more self-defense moves than before. It took a bit to get into; I am not really comfortable punching and kicking things. I tried one of the moves out on one of my really good friends Joe and he said he is still sore a day or two later. I feel better about defending myself against potential harm. I feel like I will be just as safe in Israel as I have been in Philly. People act like the Middle East is crazy, but a lot of crazy things happen close to our homes too. Before I left for break there had been two armed robberies in one week, within a block of my apartment on campus. Moral of the story: be smart and safe no matter where you go.

I leave back to Philly for a few days, get to go see my sisters' new babies in NYC, and then I am off. I am extremely excited to go to Israel. This will be quite the adventure, my goal is at least weekly posts. Look for them on Saturdays/Sunday. 

28 countries visited- still have way more to go!

Volde-Mort Voldemort, Ew volde-voldemort

This last weekend I got to go to Scotland! It was really pretty and also a much needed climate change. It rained almost the whole time we were there. I met up with a friend I made last summer at BYU- his name is Peter. He was doing anthropological research in Guernsey earlier this summer and we were both free this weekend so we decided to meet up. We had a lot of fun!

First, I want to talk about Spanish Standard Time. Here is Spain people are sometimes too relaxed. When people say 5 minutes they really mean 30. When my “host mom” said 2:20, she really means 3:15. This is extremely scary when it comes to flights, especially in airports that you have never been to before. My flight was a 4:25 and my host mom dropped me off at the airport at 3:45. When I got to the airport I was sprinting all over the place. I found out that if you are not a citizen of the EU when flying Ryan Air you have to get a special stamp on your ticket before boarding the plane. I had to sit in the Ryan Air stamping line and two other very long lines. I somehow magically still made my flight on time. I also finished two books on the way from Madrid -> Edinburgh because of take-off delays. I met Peter at the airport and we hustled to our bus to Edinburgh. We got there late, but luckily the bus was two hours late. We made a Lithuanian friend on the bus that goes to Edinburgh University. We had a nice conversation about stereotypes and what he thinks of Scotland. By the time we got to Edinburgh it was 2 AM and our new friend offered to walk us to where we were couch surfing that night. People are so nice! Our couch surfing experience was also great. We stayed with a Canadian who came to Edinburgh University for his Masters in International Relations. We stayed up until 4 talking about current events and his view on the UK. It was really cool- Couch surfing really lets you learn about where you are visiting, rather then just chum around the tourist sites. I think I finally understand the whole Protestants vs. Catholics problem in the U.K.-it was enlightening.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and I met up with my friend Brandon-a friend from Penn that I went to Rwanda with. We sat near the train station and hung out until he had to catch his train. It was nice to catch up. Promptly after, Peter and I made breakfast for our couch surfing host and took a free 3-hour walking tour of Edinburgh. It is such an old and beautiful city; I would love to live there.

One story from the tour stuck out to me, especially because I just went through Cadaver Sessions this last year during Anatomy and Physiology. Our tour guide talked about a woman named Maggie that owned a hotel in Edinburgh. One of her guests owed her 4 pounds (which at the time was about a month’s salary) but before he paid her back, he died in his guestroom. Maggie didn’t know what to do, but found out that there was a high demand for fresh bodies (Cadavers) at the medical school at Edinburgh University. She and two men arranged to sell the body and made 7 pounds. They realized how much money they could make from this trade and started quickening their guest’s deaths. Dozens of deaths later they were caught by police. They later got arrested and hanged. Their bodies were then donated to Edinburgh University’s medical school. Because the trade could be so profitable, graveyards had to be closely monitored for gravediggers looking to make money. They started barring up graves of newly buried bodies so that they could not be stolen. Gross and interesting.

Burial Protection.

Another main perk of Edinburgh: Did you know that J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in a wee little café in the middle of Edinburgh? Well she did. It is also thought that she described Hogwarts architecture as very similar to a private school only a block away. In a grave yard next door to the school lie some pretty famous names: Tom Riddle, Mr. McGonagall, and other character’s names she used in the books. It was a Harry Potter Adventure! To make it even more interesting, the guide told us a story of a little guard dog in that cemetery named Bobby. He was super loyal to his master and when is master died he sat on his grave everyday for 14 years. Ironically he wasn’t allowed to be buried by his master in the cemetery because he wasn’t Christian. Anyways, I saw I slight parallel between Bobby and Dobby. A statue only 3 buildings away from the café where J.K. Rowling wrote the book stands a monument for loyal Bobby. Dobby was pretty loyal too.

Tom Riddle's Grave!

The Cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter!

After our tour we walked around the city and decided to climb to the highest point. The top of an extinct Volcano called Charles point. It was quite the hike, but gave us a wonderful view of the city. After the hike we were pooped, we took a bus to Glasgow and hung out with Peter’s friend. We stayed at his friend’s house and went to church with his family the next morning. Later that afternoon I got a train back to the airport and had to come back to Madrid. Only two weekends left and then I am off to travel for two weeks. Time goes by so fast! We will see what I do this next weekend!

Me at the halfway point of Charles Point Hike

Cheers until next week!

Corre de los Toros

Wouldn't this be a Where's Waldo shot paradise?

This weekend was a lot more different than I expected.  I went to Pamplona with 2 friends, another Au Pair who is from France and a guy I know from church. This is where the infamous running of the bulls takes place. We arrived on Saturday afternoon at about 3 P.M. to find the city completely trashed. Literally. Drunken people passed out and empty Sangria bottles scattered everywhere. Sangria is a popular alcoholic drink in Spain; it is made of wine and is supposed to look like blood (Sangre in Spanish= blood, hence Sangria). We walked around for a couple of hours and really just saw how many people were there and how drunk everyone was. The official name of the Festival for a Saint San Fermin and everyone wears white and red to be symbolic of him. White because he was a saint and red because he was a martyr. The festival of the running of the bulls really just ended up being meshed with the festival for San Fermin and the running of the bulls. This whole festival was made popular by the book The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway- I didn’t know that until I went. I guess I should read it now.

Did you know more people have died during running of the bulls from alcohol poisoning than being injured by a bull? It doesn’t surprise me. The whole festival is literally a week long of straight partying. Everywhere you go people are spilling sangria all over and everyone’s clothes are stained by it. It is really apparent because people are wearing so much white. To make it ever more of a mess there are around 1 million people or more in Pamplona during the festival. The normal occupancy of the city is 200,000. This means no hotels have rooms and everyone sleeps in parks. It was extremely loud and people are just sprawled everywhere. It kind of reminded me of Spring Fling at Penn (huge 3-4 day music festival/play land) but on steroids.

Three guys fell asleep on the group right outside where we were going to watch the running

We went to a concert in the middle of the night that was being held near the center of the city. They only did cover songs of popular American songs. For some reasons Spaniards are obsessed with the tune “7 Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Every soccer game all of the fans would start chanting the tune to it, almost like it is a fight song or something. They played that song at this concert at least 3 times. They also played a lot of other top hits. Most of the songs resulted in a mosh pit-> which means Sangria is everywhere. I just barely washed all of it out of my hair. It was Gross.

The concert at 4 in the morning

Finally, the run:

The run officially starts at 8 A.M. every morning of the festival, but people secure good spots to watch it started at like 3 in the mornings. We got there are 6 and sadly had really bad spots to see. We still saw it, it just wasn’t prime. I got a little bit of it recorded.

This is the best picture I could get and the only one with an actual bull!

Sad news: Did you know at the end of every day of the running of the bulls they have a bullfight? Did you know the bullfight means public massacre of the bulls that ran? I had no idea that this actually happened. I thought it was something like a rodeo. Sadly, it is not. I also found out that two days before the festival there was a “Running of the nudes” hosted by Peta (animal cruelty activist group). Apparently it is illegal to streak in Basque country of Spain so everyone just wears underwear and runs the same course that the running of the bulls uses. We missed the nudes and the bull fight- both of which I wasn’t super keen on seeing.

After watching it I realized that the course really isn’t that difficult at all. Most of the runners are doing a light jog; the only people in trouble are those in the back. It actually seemed kind of casual, especially at the end near the bull ring (where they are herded to). There are only been 19 deaths in the past and most of them were from drunks. My host mom however told me that there is a stereotype that all the Australian tourists are really dumb and are the only people who get hurt by bulls. On Saturday morning one of the injured was Australian. There was also an old Spaniard (from Pamplona) and a little Japanese boy. I don’t think stereotypes hold up to well.

Now that it is over, I wish I had run it. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry. After I got back from Pamplona I got an email from my mom saying that she read the newspaper and didn’t see any American girls injured from Sunday morning- She thought I ran it! Just because she thought I would have run it makes me feel like a wimp. My mom, who knows me better than I know myself, expected me to be adventurous and run it. I should have just run it. I guess it can be something I will do if I ever have a midlife crisis. It just wasn’t important enough for a quarter life crisis :P.

In conclusion, it was a really fun weekend. I don’t really want to experience it again though. Super drunken fiestas aren’t one of my favorite things.

Stay tuned: Next weekend is Scotland!!

Yo soy Español

Outside a Church where a wedding recently happened. Flower petals were abundant.

Last week to start off, I went to Toledo. Toledo is so popular because is it beautiful , historic, and has been a beacon of all three Abrahamic religions. It was really hot, but also really beautiful.

Inside the main gate at Toledo

 Over the weekend, I switched families (as was planned from the beginning). I like this family a lot more. They let me go to Madrid every day if I want. They are also overall much more chill- I don’t have a curfew. It is a family with two little girls who are extremely cute and fun to be around. They also really only know Spanish, so I speak to them in English first and then in Spanish ( I am there to help them learn English and to nanny). It has made me learn a lot more Spanish. On Wednesday I dropped my stuff off at their house so I could switch families and come back straight to their house on Monday morning from Barcelona.

On Thursday night I left to Barcelona for the weekend with some friends from church. Sadly, we are poor college students and the cheapest method to go is taking a bus. It took eight hours. EIGHT HOURS! We survived. We took overnight buses. So we had all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We took time at the beach, at museums, many churches, and eating a lot of gelato. I think after Barcelona I have seen almost all of Picasso’s work. He has a museum in Barcelona that has his entire pre-cubism look. It was definitely interesting. His paintings are all over, but I think I have honestly been to every museum that is famous for his work.

At a lookout point near the main art museum in Barcelona Kari.

We went to the beach Friday. It can be kind of uncomfortable. Women find it totally acceptable to just go topless (which could have been worse- some of Barcelona’s beaches are nude only). Every few minutes one of us would see someone naked. At the beginning we would acknowledge it, but by the end we realized that if we said anything we all would look no matter what. It was kind of like when we were little kids in the locker room of the pool and someone would yell “don’t look, I’m naked!” and then everyone would look. Not only women were naked, people openly change out of swimsuits on the beach. I know I have been desensitized by nursing school- but now I think my desensitization is totally complete.  In any case the beach was a good way to beat the heat.

On Saturday we saw almost as many cathedrals as possible, including the Sagrada Family Cathedral, which has been under construction for more than 100 years and isn’t expected to be finished until 2026. Maybe I’ll have enough money to come visit then? On our way back we caught some local dancing in the main square and even a wedding they allowed the public to go to.

Wedding we happened to walk into.

Dancing in town square!

In the square, there was dancing and it was really cute. People got really into it. They all wear the same shoes and some wore exercise clothes because it is pretty intense.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and then saw more things. It rained ALL DAY LONG. It wasn’t sporadic Philly rain either. It was buckets upon buckets of rain for hour and hours. We went to the FC Barcelona stadium- Natalie tried to casually walk in and a security guard stopped her and asked “Que Pasa” (What’s up?). It turns out it costs a lot of money to go inside. We hung out there for a while and then hit up the Picasso museum. It is free on Sundays- the line to get in was 1.5 hours long- the same amount of time we spent in the museum. It was cool to see. After we were going to go see the Euro cup final Spain vs. Italy. It took us a while to leave the museum because it was so rainy and we really didn’t want to get wet. We finally just left and tried to find a pub and watch it. Spain won! I have to get on a bus back to Madrid before it ended. It was 4-0 though. Everything was crazy the next day. I got into Madrid at 7 in the morning and took the metro to get to my house. Everyone was really tired, sleeping, and had traces of red face paint or hair dye on them. I got the work just fine that morning. That night in Madrid was the official congratulatory ceremony for winning the cup. There were easily hundred of thousands of people there celebrating. It was really crowded- but amazing to see. We stood there for at least 4 hours, getting a good spot and waiting for the team to come in. It was amazing to see so much unity. It made me want to yell “Americuh” or something. There are a lot of typical songs people sing around games, a favorite it “ yo soy Español, Español, yo soy Español Español” Simply yelling, “ I AM SPANISH, I AM SPANISH” hundreds of times. Anyways, it was a really good experience. I got home really late that night because all of the metros were SO full.

Spain's team on a bus on the way into the main celebration in Madrid.

I was lucky because on Tuesday (the 3^rd) I got to go to a 4^th of July Party at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. I thought it weird that they wouldn’t have it on the 4^th- then I found out that all of the workers there get the 4^th off, so they wanted to be able to have a hangover on the day they didn’t have to go back to work. It was amazing. I wore what I thought I would normally wear on the 4^th. Bright blue pants and a shirt that had red and white on it. Turns out that people in Spain like to dress up a lot more than us Americans. I was severely underdressed. The woman in charge of my Africa trip said that on the 4^th of July she went to the embassy in Kigali, Rwanda and had a lot of fun. It sounded like it was really casual, so I thought this would also be casual. I was wrong. No one really cared that I wasn’t really dressed up. I got introduced to a lot of top names- a lot of them I had never heard of. It was really cool though! Lesson learned: Hamburgers in Madrid are not the tastiest.

To top it all off- yesterday I got a haircut. In Spanish. Risky business. I got a haircut when I was an exchange student in Germany- but it wasn’t too bad. Trying to find the correct translation for layers is really hard in any language. Anyways, I knew how to answer when the lady asked if I wanted my hair dyed and I surprisingly knew how to explain what I wanted (I brought a picture also). It was a good learning experience. Very few people have my hair color here

Now for the future! Today I bought my bus ticket to Pamplona for the running of the bulls! Look for my next post soon! I am SUPER STOKED!

B-You-Tifull Day

Oh Boy, week three almost finished:

This week so far has been interesting! My boss was out of town until late Tuesday night, so I couldn’t really go into Madrid or do anything fun until today. Today I got to go to Segovia- a UNESCO world heritage site. It has a lot of really ancient structures, including an aqueduct that is as old as 100 AD and a few extremely large churches- a synagogue and a cathedral. I got to go with a friend that I met at church here, who is also nannying, and just happens to also be named Liz. Travelling with someone else is so much more fun. We saw the aqueduct, the cathedral, Alzcazar, and went to lunch. We had melon soup with shrimp in it and it was surprisingly good. When I sat down at the restaurant I looked behind my chair and there was a carved sheep leg on the table behind me, covered up by a napkin. Poor sheep. The whole time we ate the waiter just stared at us, he got really twitter patted when he tried to speak English to us, which was funny because we only spoke to him in Spanish.

Funny story of today:

I bought a pair of jeans from H and M. After I bought them I noticed a tag warning that the contents of the jeans (fabric dye) may wipe off onto other materials. When I changed my pants when I came home I found my legs to be blue. Too bad there was no disclaimer about changing skin color :P.

I’m glad I am only here for 5 more weeks. I'm not homesick, but I kind of do not want to be here for too much longer. It will be a good experience but I can’t imagine doing this forever, or even a year. I have planned a lot of things I need to do on weekends here to get through it, here is the low down:

June 29-July 1^st: Hopefully Lisbon, Portugal

July 13-15^th: Scotland 

July 20-22: Marrakesh, Morocco (1st day of Rammadan, I am excited)

July 27-29^th: Milan, Italy

I am posting all of these so that I make myself go!

As for after-nannying travel I have made a route:

Geneva, Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland

Vienna, Austria

Budapest, Hungary

Prague, Chech Republic

Krakow, Poland

Warsaw, Poland

Stockholm Switzerland

I am SOOOOO excited.