ascot, england!

ok... i haven't blogged in a while... i guess that means i'm having a good time, right?!


well.. last weekend i went to Ascot, England which is just outside of London. my godmother and her family live there.. and we had a fantastic weekend. they are so hospitable and it was nice to just relax and be around family. their children: Margaux, Antonia, & Pierre are absolutely adorable and so well-mannered, not to mention they have british accents! i had fun playing with them.. drinking wine.. eating great food/belgium chocolate.. bike riding.. playing soccer on their acre of land.. and i even took a bubble bath. not to mention they have one of the most beautiful homes i've ever been to. i am very blessed to have them in my life! tomorrow i go to Santiago de Compostela.. one of the most well known religious cities in the world for "El Camino de Santiago de Compostela".. where numerous groups of people fled Roman rule to experience religious freedom. it's going to be one of the last long-weekend trips i have with my group.. so i know we'll have an amazing time! i can't believe there is only about one month left and my family comes a week from tomorrow!!! :) so excited. here are some pictures from Ascot:

un beso! xo meg

BARCELONA

so... i've been to Barca before, but i must say.. this time we definitely did it right!!!

i spent most of my time with my common crew - Melissa, Jessica, Cristina, & Paige. before we left i planned which parts of the city to go to on each day and included the things i loved before and used the other free time to do the things i hadn't seen. we stuck to my schedule almost exactly, which made me feel very accomplished and i was lucky to be accompanied by such a beautiful group of women. we did the cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar, Plaza Cataluna and spanish pinchos on Friday, all the Gaudi sites by an extremely touristy double-decker bus on Saturday, and Parc Guell & the beach on Sunday. we also used our time away from Santander to indulge in some American stereotypes, Mcdonald's.. which you all know i can't live without.. and a LOT of english-speaking. the weather was about 60-70 degrees the whole time and without a cloud in the sky.. something we don't often experience in Santander. we laughed about 75% of the time there...and the other 15% we spent sleeping. all the others from our group of about 15 stayed at another hostel where we'd go visit and hang out there before going out because they had a very inclusive community.. and the owners of the hostel took the visitors out on the town.. so naturally we just all tagged along. we went to a discoteca called Razzmatazz on Friday night that was the biggest club i'd ever been to (with my friend from childhood, David, & his teammates from the Naval Academy's soccer team - big hit with the girls in my group). the club consisted of five different levels with different dance floors, music, and bars. it was awesome. we also went to Espit chupitos (shots) which i've been to before.. and it was some of the most fun i've had well... ever. they have shots on fire, with games, rules, and there are about 200 to pick from. we did some shopping as well.. of course - which seems to be the source of much of my bonding with these girls. we also did a great job of navigating the city.. which is not an easy task as it is one of the largest cities in Europe. as a group, we worked together and really got to see a large majority of the sites. we were exhausted from allll of the walking, bus/train traveling, dancing, and all the other fun we participated in.. so i'm taking this Monday off by resting, refreshing my Spanish with my host mom.. and adding all of these 200 photos from this weekend to Facebook. here are a few of my favorite pictures we took in Barcelona!:

 i am obsessed.

parc guell!

prayer candles in the cathedral

 inside.. phenomenal.

meliiiisssaaa!

 delirium

gelato

lo pasamos muy muy bien! besos! MEG. xo

San Sebastián!

this past Saturday i went to San Sebastián with a few people in my group just for a day trip... but i also got to see my best Spanish friend Elena (she studied in Hickory and is friends with my brother and my friends younger siblings.. she lived there for about 10 months, sweetest girl in the world)!! it was relaxing and fun to get out of Santander just because everyone else went somewhere for the weekend. so we took the opportunity to go to another coastal town about 3 hours away from Santander.. the view from the top of the city was phenomenal. Jacob & Jessica happened to stumble upon a quaint little bar on the side of the mountain basically.. my calves have been burning for the past three days, but this over-look definitely made the climb worth it. props a vosotros (y'all)! here are some of the best pics from our little day trip. :)

 Elena!!

 Jessica, Cristina & Me in the center of town.

 La Catedral de San Sebastián

 The port

 Heaven in a store

Jessica, Jacob & Me!

Real Racing Club de Santander vs. F.C. Barcelona!

this past sunday i had the pleasure to go to the Santander vs. Barca soccer game... it was SO fun!! imagine how excited people get a state games.. and multiple that times ten. that's a normal spanish home game. haha... needless to say we lost... b/c Barca is one of the best soccer teams in the world.. but 2nd row seats and being about 15 feet away from Messi wasn't too bad. :) here are some pics!

 aren't they precious!!

 paige, cristina, & me.

 OH HEY MESSI

barcelona goal

BIRTHDAYPOST.... jamón!!!

NEEDLESS to say..... i had the most wonderful birthday [week] ever. it has definitely been my best birthday to date. i received a care package from my mommy, a card from my brother, had a skype date with my beautiful boss lady, had two birthday celebrations - one when the clock struck twelve, and the other with formal attire on my actual birthday, a special lunch yesterday with my favorite foods, and my señora even gave me a present (a scarf from mango)! but my group definitely made it what it was.. and big ups to everyone who went out on my actual birthday and dressed up.. it made me so happy. a special shoutout to xtina for all her love this week.. you're the best.  here's a few photos from this week that display my festivities. :)

from my family.. :)

 skype date with my big sissy

from my host mom

¿como se dice... "nerd" en español?

so, if you know me well.. you know i'm a nerd when it comes to spanish. i took these pictures of my in class essays to remember my common mistakes (these pictures were taken before they were corrected, for those of you who are spanish speakers). either way.. i always seem to be picked to write on the board. joder.. i'll loosely translate what i wrote about. 

this one is about a story Manolo acted out with tape and pieces of chalk (hilarious) where there was an evil person who tried to blow up a bus of school children, but ended up blowing himself up.

this one.. Manolo asked us to write about our first romantic kiss. i chose to say i've never had one! but that i hope when i do, he is tall, dark, and handsome. hehehe

fotos de Bilbao!

carley, cristina & me in front of the Guggenheim in Bilbao

 after a wedding

my sweet little group

my lunch:)

gypsy market!!

:):) so much fun!

BILBAO!

to put it shortly.... bilbao was.... bitchin'.


i don't even know how to start writing a blog post about Bilbao because i just absolutely fell in love with the city. the pinchos (kind of like an appetizer, but you normally eat a few at a time - for a meal), the night life, the architecture, the shopping, the people, the red martinis. everything. was. amazing. we went to the Basque museum and the Guggenheim on friday morning.. and then had free time until saying goodbye to Pujol (our director) in the afternoon. then we found our hostel which was conveniently located across from the Guggenheim. we shared a mixed dorm at a nice hostel with some interesting people... and got ready to go out. the nightlife in Bilbao is better than Santander, but with that also comes a little more danger, weirdos etc. but we had a great time out and all managed to get back to the hostel safetly. today (3/3) we woke up and had breakfast and decided to go find the market which lizzy had heard about. little did i know it was A GYPSY MARKET... only the best kind of market. where there were local artists, second hand type vendors, and gypsies, of course. at this point i decided Bilbao is the Asheville of Spain and fell in love  with it right then and there. i bought some jewelry, a belt, and a fringed jacket all for 24 euros.


one of the best parts of the day though.. was lunch. we sat by a church in the middle of the city and had the best meal i've had yet in Spain. we had red wine, pasta w/ pesto (i know, that's italian), paella, and i had a spanish rendition of a hamburger (only the meat - with ham & egg on top, served with patatas fritas or as we know french fries). while we were all sitting by the markets and the church sipping our wine.. a wedding procession came out of the church. it was like a fairy tale. at this point i was pinching myself because i didn't know a day could be as perfect as this. the bride and groom and family gathered outside of the church and there was a customary cultural show put on for them including dancers, balloons, etc. it was so beautiful. the newlyweds looked so happy and it was a phenomenal cultural experience for us to witness, especially because it was unplanned. 


we took pictures of all the former events and finished our meal then continued on to shop a little more at Zara and some other street markets. finally, we decided to sadly start making plans to head back to Santander. even the bus ride home was awesome!!! we were given refreshments and souvenirs and were catered to.. which has never happened to me on a charter bus before. i had a great discussion with Cristina and Jessica on the way back and got to know a little more about them.. we talked about our best friends at home. :) i'm on cloud nine now.. and i'm exhausted so i think i will eat whatever my senora has prepared for me for dinner and plank in my bed for the next 15 hours or so!!!


un beso! meg