Happy Easter!

I forgot I may not be able to post so I am going to tell you all now, HAPPY EASTER. I changed my background just for you guys and I thought it was cute! Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

La Playa de Alicante

Hola everyone. This is probably going to be my last post for a few weeks because I am going to be on spring break without my laptop until the 18th. I am not 100% sure though cause I know some of my hostels have internet. It will all depend on if I have time in my crazy busy travel schedule and if the computers are free. If we are really lucky I am bringing my camera cord to try and put pictures up. So I guess I need to rephrase my first sentence, this may be one of my last posts with pictures for a few weeks. There that is more accurate.

So anyway to get to the more important stuff...it is finally starting to warm up and b nice enough to go to the beach!!!!! This past Friday and Saturday were fabulous days so both days we spent hanging out on the beach playing volleyball and sticking our feet in the freezing cold water. After class on Friday I went and changed from pants to capris and headed down to the beach. I felt like an idiot though because as I am walking past people in my capris and flip flops people are walking in the other direction with scarves and jackets! I think I looked a little weird to them but believe me it was a perfect day and they were the weird ones. It must need to be a lot warmer for spaniards to take off their jackets and go to the beach.

I was surprised how few people there were at the beach. It was definitely all foreigners too, Americans and other exchange students. It was kind of funny cause you could hear people speaking english all around. Here are a few pics from our fun time on the beach friday and saturday afternoons.

We all put our feet in but it was still a little cold.

(Note Britta holding a buttermilk brownie that I made on thursday, they were delicious.)

This was part of the big group we were sitting with.

Once the ONE volleyball court was open we started a game.

I can't believe there is only one court it doesn't make sense to only have one when there are so many people wanting to play while they hang out at the beach.

Serve it Sarah!

It was funny every time Sarah served it was so serious, she would say the score and something like "ready serve" or whatever you are supposed to say when you serve. I have no idea. She did that because she actually new what she was doing because she played when she was in high school.

I think Marcos has got Jordyn beat.

Alex was such a good server. You would have thought she played in high school, but nope she was just a lame cheerleader :) Jk I am hoping she reads that.

Some of the guys sitting on the side lines drinking beer of course.

Sarah really got into it a couple of times. She kept falling it was hilarious, but hey she was a dedicated team player.

In mid-fall of course.

There is a good one and she didn't even have to fall to get it :)

Just to show you I wasn't lazy the whole time taking pictures, I actually played. My arms kind of hurt after though, I'm not used to hitting a ball around like that.

This is the beach Saturday. You can tell people were off of work cause there were a lot more people.

Saturday we weren't lucky enough to get the volleyball court so we formed a circle and hit it around trying to keep it off the ground. Surprisingly fun and I was way better than I was friday.


After we got sick of playing volleyball I went and put my feet in the water. I thought it was beautiful how the light it the water. The formations the sand made under the water were awesome too, but that is kind of hard to take a picture of. It is just amazing how it lands so perfectly in rows and wavy lines and stays like that.
Chickens. They wouldn't put their feet in much further than that.
Then I got Alex and Eric to come in further with me. It was sweet cause the sand dipped down a little bit right after the shore line, then it came back up to just above the ankle. That is why we were able to go out so far.

Our beautiful castle!

Alex was brave with me! Your legs just become numb to the coldness so it isn't really bad.
The tide started to get higher and the waves got a little bigger so we went back it.
I am hoping the weather is even better when we get back from spring break. I am kind of sad we are leaving right as it starts getting nicer, but really I am not that sad cause uhh I am leaving for my awesome trip!!!!!

I miss you all and wish you could be here to see all of this amazing stuff. I promise I will not leave my camera battery anywhere or lose my camera so that I can take LOTS and LOTS of pretty pictures. I am already coming up with cool ways to take pictures with the pyramids!!!!!!

I am off to bed at now at 9:00 so that I can actually get up in the morning at 3:00 :( My flight to Madrid is at 6:45 in la mañana so it is off to the airport early for me! Hope I get to talk to you all soon or at least put in a short post here and there so you know I am alive and well.

LOVE, Emily

Moved Rooms!!!

So this past Saturday my roommate Rebeka moved back to Sweden therefore leaving her room empty so I got to move into it. The only reasons I am really happy for the change is because I am right next to the internet and the bed is a double instead of just a twin!!!! I honestly kind of sad to not be rooming with Mandy anymore but it doesn't even really feel like I moved rooms cause Mandy is always in my room. She just broke her computer so she has been in my room constantly using my computer. She and Garrett are leaving on Thursday, the same day I leave for my spring break. So when I get back I will be all alone with Pepita!!!! Ahhhhh.....this should be fun. NOT. Pepita actually told me the other day that she was going to have three girls from Austria for a week while I am on spring break and then three Austrian boys the week after I get back. So I will really only be alone with her for a few days before I leave for Paris.

Here are a few pictures of my much smaller new room:

I told you Mandy was always in my room. We only have three more days together so we need to spend some quality time together. Not that we weren't doing that before.

My desk.

My closet stuffed behind the door and next to the desk.

TV and dresser. I have no idea if the TV even works. I have gotten good at watching TV online.

I don't know if I will ever really consider this my room only because I am going to be in it for a total of two weeks and I was in Mandy's and my room for almost three months. It is nice to have a bigger bed though and a constant internet connection!!!!

Be Jealous!

That is right get ready to be a little bit, scratch that, a lot bit jealous of me and my spring break plans!!! Here is Spain we have a 2 and a half week spring break so of course everyone travels all around Europe. So of course guess what I am doing traveling around Europe and.....wait for it wait for it.....AFRICA!!! So since I am so excited for this trip I thought I would share my itinerary with you all so that you could follow along as I am traveling. Also I am not going to be able to really post pictures and probably very few posts while I am gone because I am not going to bring my laptop.

We have been planning this trip for a very long time and we are all super excited about it coming up so soon! We are leaving in less that a week.....CRAZINESS!!! When I say we have been planning this trip I am that Britta and I have been planning this trip and 7 other people are tagging along. Actually that is not completely true some of the other girls have been helping out too, but Britta and I are the ones who came up with our itinerary and started planning. I have found all the flights, trains and ferries we needed to take and found and booked 4 out of the 8 of the hostels. I am sure you want to know who all is coming so I will tell you, hopefully you can put names to the faces in my pictures. In the beginning it is going to be Britta, Sarah, Alex, Michelle, and myself, then later on Kat, Cameron, Marcos, and Marcos' friend are

It all begins April 1 (oh geez I just realized that is April fools day, I will have to watch my back with the girls I am traveling with) we are heading out of Alicante bright and early in the morning and getting into Madrid at 7:35 am. We are planning on going to the Prado Museum, the Madrid Cathedral (clever name isn't it) and just wonder around the city for the day.

(I am including a picture from each city that I got off of google so you can kind of get a feel for what I am going to be seeing.)

Then on April 2nd we are leaving at 1:40 and flying to Florence, Italy at 3:50 in the afternoon. While we are there we are planning on going to the Il Duomo and the galleria degli Uffizi.

Then next we are leaving Florence at 11:13 am and are taking a train to Rome. Arriving at 3:23 pm. We of course are doing the usual sites like the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Trevi fountain. Sorry this picture is a little small. This where the boys and Kat will join up with us, but Kat is only with us for this portion of the trip.

Oh but wait we are doing one more thing in Rome we are going to the Vatican and we got tickets for the Papal General Audience and we get to see the Pope!!! Haha I think it is hilarious that I am so excited to see the Pope when I am not even Catholic, but I can't help it I am super excited.

After Rome we are heading over to Athens, Greece. We are leaving Rome on the 8th at 11:10 and getting in at 2:10. In Athens we are planning on seeing the Parthenon (not to be confused with the previous Pantheon), the Acropolis, the Temple of Poseidon at Sounin, and teh Agora-Athens Central Market.

Here is where I would start to get extra jealous of myself. On the night on the 9th we are leaving at midnight and taking a night ferry to Santorini. We will be able to sleep on the ferry and we are going to get up and get in at 8:45 am and be set to go for the rest of the day. Just the 5 of us girls are going to Santorini, the boys are staying in Athens for these days. Here we want to relax and just take in the beauty, but we are looking forward to getting to see the red and black sand beaches and the caldera that Santorini is built around.
We are leaving Santorini and taking another night ferry from Santorini to Athens. This time we are arriving in Athens at 5:40 am! Yikes! Then we have to catch a plane at 4:00 and arrive in Cairo, Egypt at 5:00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! While we are there we are hoping to ride a camel, see the Pyramids, Sphinx, Citadel, the Egyptian Museum, and and open air market called Khan Ali-Kalili. I am really excited about going to the market to get all sorts of really cheap cool stuff! I am going to be packing really light so I will have enough room to bring lots of souvenirs back to Alicante.

Then last but definitely not least we are flying back to Athens on the 16th and spending the night there then waking up the next morning and flying out to Barcelona at 8:50 am. We are going to to be there for the day and try and see the Sangrada Familia, the Gaudi park, and maybe a few other things. We will be back in Alicante by 3:00 pm on the 18th and the next day I will be back to school! Woohoo...not.

This spring break is going to be amazing I am SUPER DOOPER excited and so grateful that I am able to do a trip like this. It is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so thankful that I get to experience it! Hope you aren't all too jealous though :)

Here is a real quick funny, random story. I am at school the other day and I went down to the vending machines to get a drink and I look and I see this girl that I thought looked like a girl I went to elementary school with and played lacrosse with in 7th and 8th grade. I didn't say anything though cause I didn't want to look like an idiot, so instead being the detective I am, I went back to my class pulled out my iPhone and went straight to facebook. After a little searching I found her on facebook and looked at her wall and saw that is said she was studying in Alicante!!! How weird is that?!?! I mean of all places and people I just happen to run into her at a vending machine at school in Spain. Random. But kinda of cool. Oh yeah by the way for those of you who might know her it was Emily Sullivan.

It has finally gotten nicer here, nice enough to go and hang out on the beach. Friday after class and Saturday afternoon practically every American in Alicante went to the beach and laid out and stuck their feet in the water. Our group had a ton of fun playing volleyball and just hanging out. I am hoping and praying it stays like this and will be even warmer when we get back so we can possibly go in the water!

Mail!

Here's the mail, it never fails

It makes me want to wag my tail

When it comes I want to wail, MAIL!

Haha sorry I am lame. That is definitely from blue clues but I am that excited.

I just wanted to do a thank you post real fast. Yesterday morning as I was leaving for school I saw a letter on the table for me! Thank you Grandma Warren!!! That seriously made my day. I love getting mail at home, as I am pretty everyone does, but here it is like 20 times better! When I got to school I bragged to everyone that I got a letter from my grandma :)

Yesterday was just a good day all around. It started off wonderfully with the letter, then at school I didn't get any homework in my Spanish class, then me and a few of my friends met and we made progress on our spring break plans! That wasn't even all. I then met with my retail marketing group and we practically finished our slideshow and are on track to finish. Then when I got home I had a package on my bed from my family!!!

Look at all that stuff! Girl scout cookies, slim jims, reese's pieces, chocolate chips, travel towel, towel size lotions and contact solution, etc.... I love my family! Then to top off my day I finished book number two. I read 'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella (no this is not the same as the movie that is coming out soon). It was a hilarious book and a fairly fast read. Now I am on a mission to read another one of her books before Mandy leaves, because it is her book and she is leaving in a week!

Just thought I would share my happy day with y'all. Hope yours was as good as mine.

The craziness that was Las Fallas

This week we didn't have class on Friday cause it was Spain's father's day. Isn't that weird they take off school for father's day? I am not complaining though cause we got to go to Valencia for Las Fallas! So Friday morning I woke up at 5 in the morning in order to get ready and make it to the train station on the other side of the city by 7:20. The train ride was a little over 2 hours long, not bad. I went with Marcos, Sarah, Alex, Britta, Kristin (Britta's best friend who was in town visiting during ASU's spring break), and Michelle. Later on we met up with Eric and Zak. We got to Valencia at about 9:30 and started walking around looking at all of the Fallas (kind of like giant parade floats). They were ginormous! I was told that they take all year to build and paint. Apparently the painting is the majority of the time though because they go into such detail on them.

Here is Marcos and Sarah in front of the first Falla we saw. The theme of this one was art.

Look at all the detail they put into these. It is kind of sad though because all that work is just going to be destroyed in a matter of minutes.

Look Kleenex is an internationally known brand apparently.

Haha Mona Lisa with a Visa.

LO

VE

:)

Look how cute :)

This one is the main gigantic one. It is in the main plaza the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. As you can see it was as tall as the surrounding buildings!
I was funny cause they incorporated all of the normal shops you would find on the streets here in Spain.
They even had a chinese store and an once (the stands that sell the lotto tickets). Hilarious.

Bombers (aka Firefighters.)

This was all apart of the same huge falla in the plaza ayuntamiento. The detail and magnitude was incredible.

An awesome spiral churro.

This guy was awesome. I don't know how he did this. He made them into little doughnuts, but I couldn't figure out how he got the hole in the middle of them.

The entire 22 hours we were there this is what the streets looked like. Packed! It was like coming out of a baseball game, but it never ended. It made me nervous how many people were there so I made sure to carry my backpack in front of me and I had locks on it so I knew no one could steal anything from me.
In the Plaza de Virgens they had an ENORMOUS statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, that was made entirely out of flowers! That plaza smelled so good :) There were flowers everywhere.

I was told that all of the women that participate and dress up in the parade bring a bouquet of flowers and put it on this wall. I don't know if that is true but I believed it.


Like I said there were a ridiculous number of flowers in this plaza. It was beautiful.
The point of Las Fallas is to celebrate the coming of spring, hence all of the flowers I suppose.

I wish we celebrated the coming of spring in the US like they do here.

Walking through the streets.

We started to take side streets so we could walk a little faster and not be so crowded. Thankfully we had been here before so I knew where we were going. I was definitely the official navigator of the trip because 1 I knew my way around the city and 2 I was the only sober one.

I know this is slightly inappropriate but I had to take a picture as evidence of how open Spain is with nudity and sexuality. It shocks me because there are definitely little kids who see this, but the parents don't really care. It is normal for Europe. I am glad the US isn't like that cause it is inappropriate and awkward.

I liked this float the best cause it was very western and it had cactus!

This guy was nasty looking.

We said this was Marcos cause he is Mexican and it was appropriate :)

This was sad cause it was so cute but it was broken. I was kind of happy it was broken though cause we could see what they were made of. It looked like to me that is was styrofoam and plaster. Doesn't seem like that is the best thing to burn for the ozone but oh well too late.

Again with the obvious nudity. Sorry

I was going to tag this on facebook an HP or something of the sort. :)

Lovely.

This was a beach themed falla.

Sorry after awhile of looking at the fallas and all the street vendors we went back to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento to watch one of many firework shows. There were people EVERYWHERE!

You can see in this video that they go mostly for loudness then for prettiness with the fireworks. Not sure why but it was intense. I could barely bring myself to take my hand off my ear to take this video, but I decided I had to.

Afterwards there was just a fog of smoke. You could barely see anything it was pretty cool.
After seeing the fireworks and walking around looking at all the Fallas and little street vendors we decided to pop a squat at this cafe right in la Plaza de Virgens. We had gotten paella from another place that didn't have tables and brought it here and ate. We knew weren't going to last too long sitting at a restaurants table while eating food from another place so we order two pitchers of agua de Valencia. That is a very deceiving name though because it is far from water. It is kind of like a mimosa except with lots of different kinds of alcohol and orange juice. I just had a small glass. It honestly wasn't that good, the taste of alcohol is just too over powering and kind of gross for my taste. Everyone else enjoyed it but said there wasn't enough alcohol in it. Kind of made me laugh that I didn't like it for the opposite reason.

Zak & Erin

Britta & Kristin

Me, Michelle, & Sarah

We ended up sitting here for a ridiculously long time, because we didn't really have anything to do and we knew we had a long day/night ahead of us. It was probably about 6 or 7 hours. No joke we were there forever. In that time we played mafia (awesome card game!!!) and chatted away. Another friend Eric met up with us after his host family drove out with him. He decided he was going to stay with us instead of go home early so a few of us walked to the train station with him so he could purchase a ticket. When we got back the group that was left behind had ordered a pizza from the cafe so that they could sit there even longer. Ha.

A little while later a parade came through and we had prime spots! It was a very slow parade they seriously moved SO slow it was strange. It was pretty neat though all the costumes and music and such.

Rolling timpani's I don't think I have ever seen this before. The bands were so frustrating though because they just casually walked they didn't step in time and they most definitely didn't step together! SO annoying, but that may just be the marching band geek inside me.
How these guys were dressed + their spears + the drums going made me think of Aladdin. I was waiting for them to start singing 'make way for prince Ali!'
It was funny though cause they were all marching and smoking cigars at the same time.

For all occasion and parades and such some of the women dress up in this very traditional attire. I don't know who is qualified to dress up and I don't know where this outfit originated, but it is very beautiful and pretty cool. I do have to admit though every time I see their hair like that is makes me think of princess Leia.

Spanish band geeks!

They have mostly woodwind instruments in the bands very strange cause normally you want more of a brass section.

Another Falla.

So this is quite the story....so we were told all of the fallas were going to start burning at midnight including the Virgin Mary made of flowers in the plaza de virgens so we went there around 11:45 and waited. It was not until 12:05 that we were told that they were not going to burn that (thank goodness cause I felt it was kind of terrible for us to sit there and watch baby Jesus and Mary burn). So in a panic thinking we were going to miss it all we go running to the first falla we came across in the Plaza de Reina. Thankfully that falla was in tact so we go and find a good viewing spot and sit down. After a little while starting getting bored wondering when they were going to take it....keep in mind they were supposed to start at midnight. Well 1:00 came around then 1:15, 1:30.......1:45. At this point we start getting frustrated cause can see and hear fireworks going off at all the other fallas including the main one in the plaza de ayuntamiento! But we didn't want to leave this one cause knowing our luck we would walk away and it would go off and we wouldn't be able to see any fallas burning. So 2:00 came around and they start doing stuff with the falla and we all got super excited but nope 2:15 came around, still nothing and the FINALLY at 2:30 we were able to witness the famous burning of the fallas!!!!!!!

During all of our waiting we were tired, cold, and extremely bored so we were trying to come up with different things to entertain ourselves. Marcos and Sarah were playing a punching game where Marcos would say 'A' or 'B' and Sarah would have to hit the corresponding hand. It was hilarious cause she either had a super long delay or hit the wrong hand. So of course Michelle and I had to each take a turn too cause we thought we would be better. But sure enough we looked just as stupid.
We were all sitting on the curb at different times resting our poor tired feet.

There is Michelle taking a stab at it.

Britta covered herself with her scarf at one point and took a little nap. So Sarah and Alex wanted to take a picture with her.
Good ol' buddies. Oh by the way that ridiculous hat Marcos is wearing is a free hat that we all got that has the Amstel logo on it. Random. The girls took theirs off pretty quickly but the boys kept them all the way until the walk home.

More of Britta sleeping :)

Erin was the one who really went out. She was legit asleep for probably about an hour and a half.
Everyone the entire time we were there were setting off these stupid stupid little firecrackers. They are definitely not like the little poppers we used to get when we were younger. It amazed me because the little kids were setting these off. The shocking part is that you have to use a lighter to set it off and the parents were just letting their kids play with them like it was nothing. But while we were waiting their Britta got her hands on one and decided she had to set it off. I was terrified taking this video because I knew it was going to be loud but I couldn't cover both ears if I wanted to take video.

The entire time we were in Valencia I am super paranoid about all of the loud pops and booms not because I am scared of loud noises but because on the train ride in Sarah was telling us how you could go deaf and that a kid last year in our program couldn't hear for a month after this.

Finally the fireworks begin!!!!!

There was a rope wrapped around the falla that was set off by the fireworks. It was like a chain reaction, little crackers would go off one at a time around the rope and started to burn the falla.

Burn baby burn!!!

Haha I love Sarah's expression in this picture. You can hear me say in one of the videos how nice the fire felt. It seriously was worth the wait just for the warmth we got from it.

The fire fizzling down. There were fire fighters on hand with hoses to wet all the vegetation around the fire so nothing would burn and cause an unwanted fire.

So after all of this occurred we went and got some Chinese food at Wok to Walk then headed to the train station. At this point it was probably around 4:00 in the morning and our train wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:23 :( boo. Well when we got to the train station it was closed so we went down to the subway station and found a spot on the wall and crashed. It was nice cause it was warm, that was all I needed.

But at 5:00 we went up to the train station to sit in there so that there was no chance of us missing the train. I was pissed though cause it was FREEZING in there especially laying on the concrete floor. It was so hard to relax and take a little nap but don't worry it wasn't too hard.

When the train finally got there we all pilled in (it was a freakin' mad dash to the train because everyone wanted to get seats next to people they new). Luckily we were all able to sit near each other and we all fell asleep instantly. I am pretty sure the entire train was asleep actually. It made for a nice short trip though cause when I woke up we were in Alicante!!! We got back around 9:30 and by 10:15 I was in my bed asleep. I slept until 8:00 Saturday night, it was FAN-freakin'-TASTIC! Overall Las Fallas was a success, but I have to say if I were to do it all over again I would make sure to book a hostel so that I could go to sleep whenever I wanted.

This week is definitely crunch time for me. I have to finish up my Spanish class, finish my group project for my retail marketing class, and finalize all my spring break plans!!!! I have barely even been home this week I have been so busy with this stuff. It is going to be so worth it though cause I will be able to have a nice relaxing TOTALLY AWESOME spring break!!! SO EXCITED!