School at the Universidad de Alicante

Unfortunately my internet at home has been really shoddy so I have had trouble staying on top of writing on here and being able to call home and talk to people. But I just found out yesterday that it just doesn’t work in my bedroom so now I know to just go in another room to go on the internet.

I am going to start with school since I have officially finished my first week. I am in the class called inicial 2A, which transfers to ASU as a Spanish 201 class. I have two classes one is a conversation class from 10-11 and the other is a grammar class from 12-3. On the first day of classes my roommates Garrett, Mandy, and I totally tag teamed getting to school. They were in charge of showing me how to get to the bus since they actually knew where they were going, then I knew which stop to get off at for school and I knew where the classrooms were and finally they picked me up at the bus stop on my way home so I wouldn’t get lost. It worked out pretty good, but the only down side was that I had to wake up really early since my roommates have class from 8-11. It ended up being really nice getting there early because I was able to write in my journal and go around the campus and take pictures. You can see for yourself how pretty the campus is. It used to be an airport actually so there is a ton of very wide-open walkways with lots of trees and vegetation. I love it!

I felt so at home when I saw all these cacti. I took a lot of pictures of them! I see them everyday and I think of AZ and everyone back home.

This was the control tower for the airport and now it is the international students office.

It had rained that morning before we went to school so everything was wet and it was kind of a gloomy day, but of course being an Arizonan I loved it.

This is where I have my grammar class.

The first day of class wasn’t bad I was very pleasantly surprised with myself, I was able to understand most of what the teachers were saying the trouble is talking back to them. The whole week went really well as far as being able to keep up in my classes but I do think I am one of the lesser in my class. My view is that as long as I keep up and I am learning what I need to I will be fine. Both of my teachers, Laura and Marie Cruz, are really nice and really funny, but one thing I noticed which was kind of weird was that Laura wears the same outfit a lot. In the one week she wore only two different dresses, I was kind of thrown off when she walked into class on the second day wearing the same thing as the first day. I am kind of glad that she does that cause now I won't feel as bad wearing the same things week after week.

Overall school it is going really well. I have my first test on Friday so wish me luck!

Love you all!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile I have been very busy the past couple of days. But good news I have WIFI!!!!! I was very excited when I found out. It is hilarious how they pronounce wifi here, but unfortunately I can't portray it through text sorry. The last time I updated you was Saturday morning so I will continue with the rest of the weekend and the beginning of the week and believe me a lot has happened in that time. Saturday night was our first chance as a group to go out and do whatever we want so after our tour of the Universidad de Alicante we all decided to go to the hotel take a siesta and then go out and have a good time. We went out as one big group to dinner at this really cute little place that I don't remember the name of and then across the street to a little bar, La Bohemia, that was like a cave made of rock from the mountain in Alicante. It was a cool atmosphere with a pianist and a violinist playing good music.

We took a picture in front of the bar so we could remember the name of the place so we can go back.

These are all people from my group. Some from ASU some from Mizzou and one from Nebraska.

Some of the pictures are blurry sorry it was dark in the bar.

After La Bohemia we just started walking up the main street until we found a bar/club to go to and we found Havana Club. It had a ton of people outside so we decided it was a good place to go. It was a very crowded, very smokey, very loud bar but it was fun. They had american music at the places we went which is very common here. We didn't stay there too long, just long enough for them to have one drink and move on. The next place we went was called Carpe Diem and it was much smaller place and a little less crowded. I didn't stay that long because it was already 2:30 in the morning so a guy from Mizzou (University of Missouri) Cameron, on the program with me, and myself walked back to the hotel to get some sleep. I didn't end up going to bed until 4:00 because I was talking to people on skype and facebook. I thought I was pretty bad off on sleep because I only ended up getting three hours of sleep, but I found out the next morning I had the most sleep out of pretty much everybody in our group. Some people didn't get back until 7:30-8:00 in the morning, just in time to get some breakfast and pack their stuff up. I thought they were crazy but I guess they managed.

Later that day Armando, one of our directors, walked us to one the bus stop to take to the university and explained to us that we need to get a youth card and with that get a bus pass so we can ride the bus for cheaper. Then we rode the bus to the university and got a short tour of where stuff was and where our classes were going to be. It was very helpful for monday.

We rode back to the hotel to get our bags and waited for our host families to come pick us up. Everyone was SO nervous including me because none of us knew what to expect. My host mom was one of the first to arrive. Her name is Pepita and we live about a 15 minutes walk from the center of town, the Plaza de Torros. Here is the street we live on and the awesome elevator for your car! I thought it was the coolest thing ever, I have never seen anything like it.

I thought going into I was going to be the only person living with her, but I found out she has three other students living with her too. I was so excited to find that out only because they could help me communicate with Pepita a little better. There are two Americans, Garrett and Mandy, both from Mississippi College. Mandy and I share a room, Garrett has his own room and Rebecca our other roommate, who is Swedish, has her own room as well. It is super fun living with a lot of people. We sometimes hang out in the family room and watch tv and talk. All three of my roommates are leaving in 3 months though so it will be lonely, but hopefully not awkward with just me and Pepita. Who knows more people may be moving in I don't know.

Rebecca actually has a friend from Sweden in town as of yesterday so now there are even more people. Mandy and Garrett also have friends from Mississippi College, John Mark and Andrew, who come over hang out and use the wifi sometimes so it is a lot of fun. Pepita really likes have people here to hang out.

Mandy and my room is pretty big, plenty of room for both of us and there is one bathroom for all of us to share. One thing that I really have to get used to is how cold they keep their houses here. Pepita only turns the heat on for two hours a day so it gets pretty cold so we keep our jackets on and stay under the covers a long as possible. I am thankful though that we have hot water that lasts here. I know some of the other people I go to school with have hot water for max 2 minutes! Even though it is hot water though showers do get cold because we have to keep the water off as much as possible. So I think I have perfected the showering system so I don't get as cold. First I keep my clothes on and lean over the tub to wash and condition my hair, turning the water off in between of course, then I ring out my hair and take of my clothes and hop in the shower and wash my body and such. It isn't that bad and it works so it will have to do for 5 months.

Another thing I found kind of weird, fine but weird, is that Pepita will make something in the early afternoon and we will have it for lunch then she just leaves it out and we reheat it and have it for dinner. I thought it was a little strange but I guess we would be eating it as leftovers anyway so why not just do it sooner rather than later.

I need to go to bed now so I will let you know how school has been tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Hotel lights

I totally forgot I wanted to let you know another way I was tricked my the hotel. Not only could I not figure out the escalator I couldn't figure out the lights in my room. I came in at night so I walked in and tried to turn on the light and it wasn't working so I proceeded to walk around the room trying all of the switches and none of them worked! I was very confused and then I walked back to the door where the first switch is and realized you had to put your room key in a little slot to turn all the switches on. I felt stupid but pretty much everyone said that they did the same thing so I didn't feel as bad.

Everyone is napping right since it is our siesta but I am not tired because I accidentally slept in. What happened was my roommate and I were going to wake up at 7:30 this morning so we could get breakfast and then get ready for our orientation at 10 so she set her alarm on her iPhone. Well I decided that since she set her alarm and my phone was low on battery that I didn't need to set one. That was a bad decision, because Jessica ended up getting sick during the night and went back to her host parents house (she got here on Wednesday so she already has been staying with her host family) and took her phone, our alarm, with her. So I ended up not waking up until 12:45. It wasn't that big of a deal I just missed the orientation but there are others who just got in who missed it too so we can the information from Cynthia, our director, later. It worked out well though cause I was ready just in time for lunch.

So far today it is just as windy and cold as last night but it isn't that bad. It was awesome getting to see the city in the day time. We have an AMAZING view from our hotel because it is right on the pier so it is pretty much just surrounded by the beautifully blue Mediterranean Sea. Here are a few pics from the backside of the hotel. It is a sold glass wall. I came down this afternoon and was blown away by how pretty the view was.

I have arrived!!!

So today, or I guess I have to technically say the past two days, have been full of travel. It honestly just feels like one really looooong day. I started Thursday morning say my final goodbyes to my family and Lauren and headed out of the phoenix airport at 12:59. I had a 5 or so hour flight to Philadelphia and I think I slept for maybe 2 of those hours so it wasn't bad. Then I had a fairly short layover in philly and left for Madrid at 8:55 for a 6 hour and 45 minute flight. I did exactly what my parents told me not to do and watched two movies on the plane instead of sleeping. I couldn't help it they were two movies I really wanted to see, Julie and Julia (fantastic by the way) and The Time Traveler's Wife which was also really good. I did sleep an hour on that flight but I honestly wasn't that tired. Once I got into the Madrid airport I had to get my suitcase from baggage claim, which took forever, and recheck it in with Spanair for my flight to Alicante. I had an extremely long layover in Madrid. I got in at 10:15 and my flight didn't leave until 5:50 so I had to sit around the airport playing games on my phone and sleeping. The closer it got to my flight the more tired I got so I think I ended up sleeping for about another 2 hours in the airport on and off. I also had a rough time with the calling card I had. I tried to use my cell phone and it was working fine but when I put in my home phone number it was saying I wasn't permitted to call the number that this time. I ended up walking around to try and find a pay phone but I couldn't find one until I went to my gate. It was probably for the better cause when I landed it was still really early in the morning and I don't think my family would have appreciated a call from me that early. Once I found a pay phone I tried the calling card a few more times but it wasn't working so I gave up and just used my credit card to call. I knew my family would want to know I was in Madrid fine and waiting for my flight so I figured I would just make it a really short call since I am sure it cost a lot.

Anyways I slept on my 45 minute flight from Madrid to Alicante and got my bag right away and went outside to look for the bus or a taxi. I decided to take a taxi because when I walked outside I found a row of like 20 bus stops and I didn't really trust myself to figure out which one to take. SO instead I took the easier and slightly more expensive root of a taxi. It was nice cause it got my to the hotel super fast. It was kind of funny cause I was tricked by the escalator in the hotel lobby. I felt stupid cause it had a green light but it wasn't moving so I figured something was wrong with it so I went up the stairs. Well I later found out that as soon as you step on it it will move, it is just a way to save energy I guess. Anyways I was able to put all my stuff in my room and clean up a bit and then we all went to dinner as a group. I don't know the name of the place, Cynthia and Armando our group leaders brought us there and paid which was very nice of them. It was a nice dinner and it was nice getting to talk to everyone and get to know one another. I also thought it was cool cause we got to walk there. I need to start getting used to that cause I am pretty sure that is pretty much all I will be doing.

After dinner we all went back to the hotel and a few of us went and walked around the pier that our hotel is on. It was super cold and extremely windy. I think it was mostly the wind that was making it so cold, but even so it was really nice. We stopped by this little restaurant and a few of the people got 5 beers for 5 euro. It was just neat getting to everyone and awesome getting to see a little bit of the city. I CANNOT believe I am going to be living here for 5 months, this is going to awesome!

I will keep you updated on what is going on and how I like my host family. They are picking me up on Sunday so it should be interesting!

Oh my the way side note my computer is still on AZ time so it is really 1:15 in the morning on Saturday morning here. I will have to fix that.

Love you all thanks for reading!

Less than 24 hours!!!

So it is official I have less than 24 hours before I am gone for good. Well not really for good but for 5 months and that is kind of a long time for me considering I have never really been away from everything I know. I have already said most of my good byes but I don't really think it has hit me quite yet that I am leaving and I don't think it will until I am on the plane or maybe not even until I get to Madrid. Hopefully all goes well on travels over there. I am praying that all of my flights will be on time and nothing goes too terribly wrong. I will just need to keep on schedule and not just wonder around the airports :) Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers. The next time I will post will be when I am in Alicante!!!! I am so excited!

Spain is Quickly Approaching!

I cannot believe it there is only 10 days....count them 10 days until I leave for Spain. How crazy is that? It has been kind of interesting to me because I am having a lot different emotions than I expected. Going into this I was full of just pure excitement but as it has been closely approaching I have been having an array of different emotions.

When I think about my friends and family it makes me really sad because I know I am not going to see them for 5 whole months! At first I didn't think that would effect me that much because I am pretty good at being able to spend some time by myself but I am starting to worry that I am going to be lonely :( I just keep telling myself that I will have Skype and facebook to talk to everyone when I need/want to.

I have also been really scared of what is to come. There is a lot of unknown going into this and normally I am just chill and figure whatever I will figure it out, but when it is in another language I think it may be a little harder to figure things out. I am planning on being a genius at spanish and hoping to be completely fluent after just a week :) like that will actually happen.

Getting stressed is something that rarely happens to me. As I said before I am a very chill, relaxed person so it takes a lot to get me stressed and I have to say this meets the criteria. I think having to worry about making sure I have everything I need, having limited space to pack, not knowing Spanish, being away from everyone and everything I know, and pretty much everything to do with this trip has made me slightly stressed out.

Don't get me wrong though I am very excited about going. This is such an amazing opportunity that I know not a lot of people get to do, but until I get there and am settled in I think the rush of emotions will continue. I just pray everyday that everything will work out and I will have an amazing and safe experience. I can't wait to start posting pictures and stories of my upcoming adventure!

Merry belated Christmas (I will post pics of that later) and have a happy SAFE new year! 2010 should be interesting!

Baking, Baking and more baking!

So I know I haven't posted in awhile, but between school, work, traveling, and most recently finals I haven't had much free time. The free time I did have, I spent baking all sorts of yummy goodies. Before Thanksgiving I got the urge to make pie, partially because I got a pie cookbook, and partially because Thanksgiving was coming and my Mom never makes pie so I decided I wanted to. I made three pies, a peanut butter one, a coconut one, and a brown sugar one. I got them all from this book...

These are all three...

When I started I was only going to make one pie this brown sugar pie, because we had a pre-made crust in the fridge, but after baking the first I decided I couldn't stop after just one. You can tell this one is the pre-made crust because it is a lot darker than the other two. I took this pie to work and everyone really liked it. I was proud of myself.

The second pie I made was a coconut pie. I honestly thought going into making it that is was a coconut cream pie but I quickly realized that it wasn't. Oh well I didn't really care I figured it would still taste okay. Unfortunately I didn't get to taste it, but I was told it was really good. The reason I didn't get to taste it was because my parents took it to a party and I didn't want to cut into it before they took it. My parents didn't taste it either. When they came home from the party I asked how it was and my mom said they forgot about the desserts....I thought to myself yeah right you were probably too embarrassed to serve it, but they for real forgot about all of the desserts. It was a pizza party and apparently they filled up on the pizza and didn't eat anyone's desserts. Anyways my parents ended up leaving it at the people's house and when they brought the pie plate back they said they really liked the pie and ended up eating it all! I was happy at least someone enjoyed it.

One thing that I love about my Mom is that through all of her years of baking and cooking she has acquired so many different pots, pans, plates, and pretty much everything you can think of. She also has practically every ingredient you would ever possibly need, so when I go to bake you can pretty much guarantee that everything I need for any recipe is in our kitchen somewhere. I love it! The only thing I ever need to buy are things like flour, sugar, and such since I go through it so fast.

You can call this pie a fail. I unfortunately wasn't smart enough to read the directions carefully and kind of ruined this pie (that's why it looks like poo anyways). So I made the two different fillings, put the crust in the pan, pressed in the first layer of the pie then poured the second filling on top, and went to look in the book to see what the oven should be set at and how long to cook the pie for. I was reading through and realized it just says to put the pie in the fridge and let it set. I was like What?! you don't cook it, what about the crust? Well at the beginning of the recipe where it lists all the ingredients, it says I need a prebaked crust....I felt like an idiot. So what I ended up doing was scoop out the filling and baked the crust, but when I put the filling back in they mixed and the it ended up looking like this.....
Then after screwing it up no one really wanted to eat it and it sat out for a little to long so I just tossed it. I figured 2 out of 3 was good enough for my first time making pie.

Since making the pie I decided to make a few other things. I made more red velvet cupcakes for Heather's boss, Michelle's anniversary party. Apparently red velvet is her favorite type of cake and she really liked the ones I made the last time so Heather thought she would appreciate them for her party. Heather came home and told me everyone loved them! I think that is my favorite part of baking, getting to give people something that they will love and will really enjoy. When I made them I made a double batch so I brought some into work too.

I also tried a recipe I found on another blog for S'more cupcakes. I guess you can't really call them cupcakes, there isn't any sort of cake in them, but whatever I didn't come up with the name. The recipe was super easy. You can find it at Sumo's Sweet Stuff, she has so many good recipes but this is the only one I have tried so far. They turned out so delicious and this is coming from someone who doesn't really like marshmallows or s'mores.

I followed the directions just fine this time, but I was surprised when I opened the oven to take them out and found the marshmallows had grown big time. I should have realized that was going to happen...hello who hasn't seen someone blow up peeps in the microwave. After I let them cool they had shrunk a little but because the brownie had hardened in the big blown up shape I just took a knife and kind of folded it on top of itself and covered it up with the marshmallow fluff. They turned out awesome, I even broiled them a little bit with the fluff on top so it looked like a toasted marshmallow! I again brought them into work and everyone loved them. They all at least two...I am pretty sure one guy at four of them!

I got this from another blog and it is so ridiculously easy and fast to make. It is called Christmas Crack and for a good reason, it is so addictive. I have made so much of it already. All you need to do is boil one cup of butter and one cup of brown sugar and pour that over a cookie sheet filled with saltines. Make sure to put the saltines on parchment paper. Once you have poured the brown sugar mixture over the saltines, you bake it at 400 degrees for 5 minutes take it out pour a bag of chocolate chips over top, let them melt spread them out and refrigerate until chocolate it hardened.

The last thing I got from a book called All Cakes Considered! Awesome book, I highly recommend it! This is called an Appalachian Stack Cake. It is a 5 layer cake of ginger molasses cookies with a spiced apple filling. I made it for the Barrett Birthday's Bash. Heather was in charge of providing the desserts so she asked me to help out with it. I had been wanting to make this cake and I had all the ingredients so I figured why not. I was a little nervous cause I didn't get to taste it before hand so I was hoping and praying it didn't taste rancid or anything. Luckily it was delicious! Perfect for this time of season. The only complaint I had was that on the very edge it was a little dry because the filling didn't reach out that far and moisten it. Besides that it wasn't bad by any means. I really liked it cause it looked cool too and it isn't something a lot of people make.

I have made a few other things but these are all new things for me so I figured I would share them. I might share the other stuff later.

So as everyone can see I love to bake and I can't really get enough of it! That is why I am going to try and make a business out of it. My sister Heather gave me the idea. Here is how it is going to work... For the people who don't like to take the time or don't have the talent of baking I am going to offer my services to them. I have a list of the items I make and the costs of all the different things so that people can choose what they want, how much they want, and when they want them and I will bake the stuff and have it ready by the time they need it. I hope it works and people actually order stuff from me. I really need money for Spain and I have less than a month to get it!