i can breath again.

I am now one semester closer to that piece of paper that says I earned a degree and can get a better job (hopefully) and boy does it feel good! This last week I studied a lot and it paid off because I did really well on my finals and I am so relieved. Plus, I have enough time to blog again :)

The question is... what to do with myself now? WORK. I told my job I can work as much as they need me to so i'm scheduled to work every day next week. But I don't mind since I need the money for my summer adventures. I have 34 days until I leave to Hawaii (yes, I just counted) and I have a lot of things I want to get done before then so I'll probably get started as soon as I feel I've done enough butt-sitting. My dad asked me last night how I was going to reward myself for studying so hard this week and I said I'd probably just spend a couple days on my butt. I am really enjoying it.

Usually school being out = summer (a.k.a. sunshine, warmth, perfect weather to lay-out in, etc) buuuut I guess I'm going to have to be patient for that summer weather since my home was covered in a white blanket of snow when I woke up this morning. Isn't it the first day of May tomorrow??! Well hopefully it'll warm up again soon so that I can enjoy my free time outside rather than indoors.

I'll keep you posted on my butt-sitting activities. I'm sure it will include a lot of blogging since I was too busy this past week and have a few things I need to catch up on.

lovelovelove

lulu

so much to do. so little motivation.

I have a lengthy to-do list sitting right by me but yet here I am blogging. Towards the end of every semester it gets harder and harder to keep my motivation going and I feel like I am using every last drop these last few weeks. I can't seem to focus on anything to do with school anymore, especially on such a nice day as this! I think I have tried 3 times to do these online quizzes I need to get done by midnight for Geology but as i'm trying to concentrate on them I suddenly find myself browsing the web (i.e. facebooking, reading your blogs, checking out cute swimsuits online, or looking up anything to do with laie, hawaii since i'm so excited to be going to school there this summer). Then I ended up on my blog so here I am, adding a new post and boring you with my end of the semester frustrations.

There are only 2 weeks left of spring semester.

I. Can. Do. It.

(just needed a little reminder)

girls day on the slopes.

Yesterday Carolyn got Savannah, Alicia, and I free passes to Solitude since its the last weekend of the season. It was a 75 degree day so even though the slopes were slushy; the fact that we skied in tank tops and got a start on our tans for the summer made up for it.

Last season I was the only skier and the rest of my friends snow boarded so I was always the loner but this time Alicia said she would try skiing with me. It wasn't exactly the best day for her to learn with all the slush mounds that try so very hard to take you down when you ski over them but she was a trooper and did really well & she ended up really liking skiing! It was funny because even though we would go as fast as we could down the hill so that we could make it past a flat part we would go about 10 feet and then just come to a complete stop. But it was a lovely free day of skiing... not to mention the free pizza and ice cream we got afterwards since Carolyn has all kinds of connections to the other people who work up there as well. Thanks Carol for such a fun girls day!!

happiness: is just outside my window.

I love springtime. I do admit that sometimes the bi-polar weather tends to get annoying but in the long run I have always been a rain or sunshine kind of girl. As for snow, I don't mind it at Christmas time or when i'm on the slopes but any other time; I would like it to go far, far away.

Sunny days motivate me. When I wake up to the warm sunshine outside my window I get all excited and think of everything I can accomplish that day. I loved today; I went running with my dogs in hope of soaking up a few rays & getting in some exercise for summer and then although I had to spend the rest of my day at school, I enjoyed sprawling out on the grass under the sunshine during my breaks between classes. How can you not be happy in such nice weather?

Rainy days on the other hand have a good effect on me too. I have always thought living in Seattle for awhile would be a fun experience. Although they can seem dark and dreary; I love a good overcast/rainy day every once in awhile because then I feel like I have the right to slow down. I can stay inside and read a good book or take a relaxing drive while listening the sound of the rain on my windshield. Rainy days don't feel as stressful as Sunny days because I don't feel like I have to be on the go all day long; I can sit back, relax, and breath.

Although I am very excited for summer, once the heat hits; it'll be here for awhile. So for now I am just as content with rain or shine, boots or flip flops, umbrellas or sunglasses; ohhh the joys of spring. I wonder what type of day the weather has in store for me tomorrow? It's hard to tell when you live in Utah(:

P.s. All this talk of rain reminded me of a rainy day last year that Savannah, Alicia, and I took full advantage of. We put on our swimsuits and played in puddles around our apartment parking lot until we were numb. It was October and the sun had already gone down... call us crazy but we had so much fun, plus we got some cute pictures out of it (i.e. the picture posted above is Alicia and I).

london, england

Okay last but NOT least.... London! Carolyn and I rode the Eurostar from Paris to London and within 2 hours we arrived at King's Cross. We lucked out big time because a friend of the family I stayed with in Spain is from England so when I was asking him about London to get some travel tips before getting there, he told me his parents lived just ten minutes out of London by train and would be happy to let us stay with them since they are Irish and the Irish are very welcoming and friendly. I was so happy about this as it would save us a lot of money since we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel in pounds. So we followed the directions he gave me and made it to his parents home. They were so nice, just as he had said. We talked to them every night after site-seeing before going to bed and they always offered us tea or toast with jam (so British).

Walking through their neighborhood reminded me so much of Harry Potter. I felt like I was on Privet Drive because all the houses had that "look". It was so fun to see all the buildings and houses in England because they all had the old-English look that you would picture them having. Almost as if nothing had changed since my ancestors lived there and I could picture what it would have been like.

We arrived to England on a Sunday and the daughter of the family we were staying with told us that every Sunday there is a really cool market in Camden town (a district in the northern part of London) so we decided to check it out. We loooved it. It had a complete retro feel and sold the most unique things. Later on we ended up riding on top of the classic big, red buses for awhile just enjoying the passing scenery of the streets of England. We were already falling in love with London as well.

The following days we went to all the the main tourist destinations and just walked everywhere and anywhere around London. Strolling through the parks, walking around the different areas of London (Soho was our favorite which is pictured below) and just soaking up all we could before heading back to the different world of the U.S.A.

<---You'll notice in this picture it says "Look Right" on the side of the road. It seems stupid but it was honestly so helpful since most of the world drives on the opposite side of the road. I'm sure they have saved a lot of tourists lives by doing this, including ours.

Also, I have to point out that the taxis (the silver car in the picture) have an 'old-style' look.. just totally keeps the whole London feel in-check. And we can't forget the big, red buses... because where would London be without those?

And one more addition to add to the list of things London just must have are the red telephone booths :)

For all you Harry Potter fans we had to get a picture at King's Cross train station on platform 9 and 3/4 and I was hoping to actually make it to Hogwarts but, no luck.

P.s. Even though Holly (my best friend I met in Spain) is from England, we weren't able to stay with her or even see her while we were there because her family had planned a trip to Tunisia in Africa that same week before I met her in Spain. It was a huge bummer.

We were exhausted by the last day of London because we had been walking around site-seeing 24/7 for the past 2 weeks. To say we were tired would be an understatement.

It was a bitter-sweet feeling to be going home. We had so many amazing experiences in Europe that completely opened up our eyes and we were so happy to have had our 9 week summer adventure but at the same time we were ready to see our families and friends again, ready to see our homes in happy-valley Utah, and ready to enjoy the things about the U.S. that we realized we took for granted (things as simple as public drinking fountains).

The flight home was nice because there were some empty rows of seats so I moved to another one and we each had our own row to lay across & sleep on so the 9 hours went by A LOT faster. Once we saw Utah below the plane we were literally almost in tears... its weird but when you are somewhere on the other side of the world for awhile, you can hardly imagine that your hometown is still going on just fine without you even though you aren't there. It was good to see it still existed though and i'm sure our families were happy to see that WE still existed because I can't say our parents weren't worried about Carolyn & I traveling around Europe. It was definitely was an intimidating decision to make and I remember us saying as we were first flying away from Salt Lake back in June, "wait... are we really doing this?!" We were almost in tears on the way there too. We were excited, of course, but we had NO idea what was going to happen. If the trip would be a success or not. I told my mom right before I left, "I almost wish that I was coming home today instead of leaving because then I would have already experienced everything and would know that everything worked out successfully and that I made it back just fine." But I don't think it could have worked out more perfectly. And it was the best feeling in the world when we came down the escalator at the SLC airport to see our families holding huge signs to welcome us home.

Driving my car again was so nice, seeing Utah around me felt so good, pulling up to my house was so exciting, and laying on my own bed again was heaven.

Life had never felt so good.

paris, france

bonjour! When we arrived in Paris, we realized that the city was a lot more complicated than Rome because it was full of metro lines unlike Rome since it is a lot older and only had 2 lines under the city. So we followed the directions we had printed off to get to our hotel and ended up taking lots of metro lines and going up and down plenty of stairs with our giant suitcases (why don't they believe in escalators??... oh yeah because they don't want to get fat like US). We finally got somewhat close to our destination but couldn't figure out the rest of the directions so we asked this nice little French woman who didn't speak much English but she helped us find our hotel by asking about 20 other people along the way. This hotel only cost us 25 euros a night and also served a nice breakfast. It was actually a building with 120 rooms for people with disorders such as down-syndrome but they rent out the rooms not being used to tourists which helps fund their organization. At night when we used the wi-fi in the lobby we had several of the people who lived there come up and try and talk to us but unfortunately we didn't know much French besides "Parlez-vous l'anglais?" (do you speak English?) and "Combien coûte-t-ceci?" (how much does this cost?) and luckily we had someone pronounce those for us beforehand or I would have had no idea how to say them. French was so over my head! Rome wasn't too bad since Italian sounds similar to Spanish but once we got to France we were like hmmm... this is going to be interesting!

The first day we got there we were exhausted from not getting much sleep at the airport in Rome so we headed straight to our beds and took a nap. I kept thinking 'the whole city of Paris is just outside my window and i'm sleeping in my hotel'... but it was a much needed rest. We then ventured out in the evening and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower and seeing it in front of me felt so surreal. We opted to take the stairs instead of the elevators and it was quite a work-out (as if we needed one... we had been walking on our feet 24/7 the past week) but it was worth it once we saw the view of Paris and watched the sunset. Unfortunately, pictures don't ever do something like that justice. We were told that the Eiffel Tower flashes a bunch of lights at night every hour on the hour for 5 minutes so we waited until 10pm and it did; it sparkled. It was magical. We ended up watching it about every night we were there after that.

'Arc de Triomphe'

'The Louvre Pyramid'

The Louvre Museum is the huge art museum in Paris which holds the famous 'Mona Lisa'. It was cool to see the mysterious painting in person but we wondered how it could be so famous? It was just funny to be in a museum filled with beautiful art pieces and paintings and then you come across a giant crowd and once you push your way through it you see a small painting hanging behind protective glass that isn't even very attractive. Made us laugh.

We also visited 'Montmartre' which is an older area of Paris placed on a hill. Many artists had studios in the area of Montmartre such as Picasso and Van Gogh.

We then went to find the 'Moulin Rouge'
since Carolyn and I both love that movie. It wasn't far from Montmartre but it was in Paris' red light district and we realized this once we noticed about every shop in that area was sex shops and strip clubs. We took a picture in front of the famous Moulin Rouge windmill and got out of there. We later were talking to some guys at a restaurant about where to visit in Paris next and they told us to make sure we didn't find ourselves in the red-light district but we told them we accidentally already had... luckily we had been there in the daytime though.

We visited the famous Notre Dame Cathedral but unfortunately didn't see the hunched back.

One story that I must share was when Carolyn and I were eating at a restaurant near our hotel. Two guys (the ones I mentioned above) who were seated at the table next to us realized we were speaking English and began talking with us because they had learned English but rarely got to use it. They were really nice and we began talking about why French people hate Americans. One of them asked "What do you think about Nicolas -----?" I couldn't really understand the last name. So we just responded "I don't know, who is he?" They immediately busted up laughing and then said "That is why French people hate Americans. He is the president of France. We know all about your president Obama and what is going on in the U.S. but all you Americans think the world revolves around you and don't care about anyone else because your country is so big." We then explained that learning all the presidents of Europe would be like them learning the governors of each state in the U.S. and they decided that is true. I also explained (as nicely as possible) that honestly one thing I had learned while living in Europe was that the world does somewhat revolve around the U.S. because there are always American songs on their top weekly music channels even if they don't understand the words, they watch many popular American TV shows even though they have different voices in their language, there was always something about the U.S. on the news each night, our poor economy is effecting their economy, and Obama seemed to be like the worlds president (people mentioned him to me all the time and told me how much they loved him... I even saw shirts with Obama's face on them often). They understood and agreed what we meant. It was fun to have a conversation with them and even though we were warned that a lot of French people might not be nice since we were American; we never had a problem, everyone seemed friendly enough.

Well this about sums up Paris. It definitely is really pretty but being the top tourist destination in the world, I thought it was a tad over-rated. I do think that everyone needs to see it sometime in their life though and I'm grateful to have experienced it.

[Just the feeling of being in Paris was wonderful]

Next and last stop... London!

rome, italy

Now for our first destination after living in Spain for 7 weeks, Carolyn and I met each other in Rome. It was a little scary at first seeing as it was the beginning of our travels through Europe with just us 2 blonde girls and we had no idea what to expect. The whole plane ride from Barcelona to Rome I was thinking, 'what if Carolyn doesn't get there? What if she missed her flight?!' I would have been alone in Rome without any way to contact her. And come to find out once I found her at the airport in Rome; she almost did miss her flight! The plane had finished boarding in Madrid so she started crying and begging to get on the plane and they eventually let her PAY her way onto the plane. It was a traumatic experience for her but LUCKILY we were both able to arrive in Rome and all was good.

We eventually hauled our giant suitcases through the subways stations and to our hostel we had booked before getting there and it ended up being really nice. It was called "Salvador's B&B" which was run by George who was a friendly Italian man who owned two floors in a flat (apartment) building. He hardly knew any English so we used a lot of hand motions to communicate. He told us breakfast was at 8am so we got up assuming he probably made his guests some simple eggs and toast or something. But he ended up motioning us to follow him and took us out of the building, around the corner, and about a block down the street into a coffee shop where he bought us coffee and a pastry for breakfast and then left us to eat. It was so funny. We were like, "so this is his 'bed & breakfast'?" It was worth every penny seeing as it was only 20 euros a night and only minutes away from Vatican City and the subway. I would recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Rome and wanting to keep it cheap.

Anyways, to sum it all up... I LOVED ROME.

Even just walking down the most random street felt like seeing beautiful art. From the cobblestone streets to the small balconies full of plants, from unique doors to shuttered windows; it was amazing. I wanted so badly to live in any one of those flats, especially the ones that had a garden on their roof where I could sun bathe and hang my clothes to dry.

It was [amazing] to be surrounded by so much [history].

We took a guided tour at the Colosseum that took us through the Colosseum and the Roman ruins that they still have there. Our guide told us all about how the Roman empire began and how the Romans lived. I could almost imagine what Rome would have looked like back then.

Vatican City was awesome as well. The guards wore cool outfits and we saw plenty of nuns. Too bad the pope was at his 'summer home' seeing as its really hot there in the summer or it would have been cool to go to a mass.

We took another guided tour through the Vatican museum which was full of art everywhere you looked. Our guide told us that if you were to look at each piece of artwork for 20 seconds you would be there for 12 years! The last stop on the tour was the Sistine Chapel where Michael Angelo famously painted the whole ceiling by hand.

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana Di Trevi) was so cool, we loved going there. I threw a penny in and made a wish but sadly no hott Italian singer was standing in front of me when I opened my eyes like on the "Lizzy McGuire Movie".... bummer.

One thing that was so nice about Rome was that they had natural water taps all around the city whether it was a big fancy tap or just a regular looking one. The Romans built an underground water system and they still use it today. The water was cold & clean which saved us in the hot summer heat.

Spaghetti and Gelato also added to how much I love Rome since i'm a huge fan of those things.

Carolyn and I found a look-out point just above a square where you could see the whole city of Rome.

*The view is the first picture on this post

[As we were sitting there looking out at the city, watching the sunset, and listening to the Italian music being played in the square below us; that is when we fell in love with Rome. It was breathtaking and we never wanted to leave.]

The last night in Rome we decided to sleep at the airport because our flight left really early in the morning before any shuttle buses began and we didn't want to pay for a taxi. Plus, a night at the airport was free. However, they close the Rome airport at night so nobody is allowed to be in there. We found this out once we got there and joined about 30 other people who found places on grass, benches, or side walks to camp out on for the night. Unlike Carolyn, I got hardly any sleep. But I didn't mind because I was happy knowing I would be arriving in Paris, France in the morning. So be ready for a Paris post next... Ciao!

girona, spain

Now that I have joined the blogging world, I wish I would have done it sooner. It would have been so nice to have my summer in Europe neatly documented on my blog. I did however keep a journal so even though I have been home for over 7 months now, I decided I would post some things from my adventures in Europe. I'll start with Spain since that is where I spent the majority of my trip.

After a 1 hour flight from SLC to Las Vegas, a 4 hour flight from Vegas to Cincinnati, a 9 hour flight from Cincinnati to London, and a 2 hour flight from London to Girona, Spain.... add in the lay-overs (especially the 6 hour one in London airport with no food or drink since our U.S. money didn't work there) and you have 24 hours of airports, planes, & pulling around a 50-pound suitcase (we later realized that we brought way too much stuff when we had to throw about 10 pounds of stuff away in order for them to let us on the airplane from England to Spain... it was the saddest thing ever). Can you say JET LAG?? It was a loooong but WORTH IT day of traveling. And as I am sitting here reminding myself just about how horrible it was.. I am thinking about how much I wish I could do it all over again right now.

Anyways, once I arrived in Girona, Spain I was so nervous to meet my "new" family and really hoping they weren't really some creeper guy that wanted to take me like on the movie "Taken". All nerves were set to rest when I saw Suny (the mother) and the three darling kids holding welcome signs for me. When we arrived to their beautiful country home, I met Pere (the father) and they took me out to a Chinese restaurant. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have found such an amazing family. And pretty much the rest is history. As much as I would looove to type ALL of my wonderful adventures in Spain; I'm tired. But one important thing I must add is my lovely friend Holly from England. She was staying with a family close by as an Au Pair as well so they introduced us and we became friends right from the start. I loved imitating her English accent and comparing our words (i.e. they call fries, chips and chips, crisps... weird, yes?) We had tons of fun adventures together & we will make many more because she is coming in August to party in the USA with meeee :) but that is a story for another day....

So I was thinking about my experience in Spain a few weeks ago and I composed a list of what I miss & don't miss about it. Here it is:

I miss my family in Spain.

I miss living 10 minutes away from Holly.

I miss driving the "Super Panda" with my new learned stick skills.

I miss hearing Spanish all around me & getting to speak it every day.

I miss eating Spanish food (especially tapas).

I miss my cute little room.

I miss eating "postre" (dessert) after every meal.

I miss the square in Banyoles.

I miss the kids hanging out in my room at night & never wanting to go to bed.

I miss the home in the country side.

I miss the neighbors.

I miss la merienda (daily snack... especially tomato bread).

I miss hearing cool Spanish songs on the radio.

I miss drinking Coke out of glass bottles.

I miss eating ice cream several times a week.

I miss waking up, going downstairs, and finding the kids all watching TV every day without fail.

I miss cute little Santiago & teaching him words in English.

I miss playing "High School Musical Sing-It" with Daniela and her thinking I was the best singer ever.

I miss Maurici's magic tricks and playing card games with him.

I miss going on random outings with Holly.

I miss the amazingly cheap "rebajas" (sales) while shopping.

I miss not ever doing my hair.

I miss site-seeing.

I miss the beautiful city of Girona.

I miss living a simple life (no actual job or school to worry about).

I miss the Mediterranean Sea.

I miss Holly's British accent & comparing words.

I miss playing futbol with the kids.

I miss Principe cookies and mine & Holly's favorite cakes.

I miss talking with Suny and Pere at dinner.

I miss a lot of things about Spain.

Buuuuut....

I don't miss "peojos".

I don't miss mosquitoes biting me while I sleep.

I don't miss driving on crazy European streets with crazy European drivers.

I don't miss not being able to trust the tap water.

I don't miss the humidity.

I don't miss using the Euro.

I don't miss not having a cell phone that reached the U.S.

I don't miss all the topless woman (of all ages, shapes, & sizes) at the beach.

I don't miss not feeling secure all of the time in unfamiliar places.

I don't miss not having air-conditioning at home or in the car.

I don't miss having to talk to my family & friends on Skype.

I don't miss the warm milk.

I don't miss missing people from home.

But honestly all those things taught me so much and I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything.

It was a summer to [remember]; a summer i'll [never forget].

My home in Spain

Beach trip with the family

Holly and I in Barcelona

The "Super Panda"

"I am not the same having seen the moon rise on the other side of the world."