most loved about spain

following my previous post, i feel it is only fair to share the things that i will miss most about Spain. (also, in an effort to sound like less of a first world complainer.)


1. fashion magazines: especially, TELVA (lacks ridiculous details about pop culture & just sticks with what is important, fashion. duh)
2. protests, mostly because school is cancelled and i admire the spanish enthusiasm in implementing change.
3. SIESTA
4. desserts, bread, sweets, danishes, churros y chocolate, croissants, pastries (okay, maybe just the fact that is is acceptable to eat them here.)
5. shopping, with a special shout out to Inditex.. especially ZARA & gypsy markets!
6. conviction of your own personal style, always.
7. ryan-air, take this with a grain of salt.. because i'm almost positive i risked my life a few times over this semester for the sake of cheap flights.
8. beer & wine = price of water, if not cheaper.
9. open container law does not apply.
10. most laws do not apply.
11. SPANISH, of course!


that's about it folks. i love this country.


besitoooos! meg

playing a bit of catch-up

unfortunately, i am far too lazy to write about my semana santa adventures, but assuming you're friends with me on facebook.. i encourage you to take a journey through my albums from last week. that being said, today i am going to provide you with a list of things i am anxiously anticipating upon my return to the united states:


bojangles, cafe carolina, moe's, a slew of other fast food restaurants.
my dior midnight poison perfume
smart phones
going to the gym!
acceptable amount of public displays of affection
free public bathrooms
free water
less mayonnaise/seafood
baggy sweatpants
baseball caps
VESTIQUE, duh.


i will say though, i think this picture from sevilla is pretty sick.

ciao. besos, meg

'viva en el momento hija..'

    so i finally had the talk with my señora.. something i've been scared to bring up for the two months i've been here: her husband, Dario's, death. i knew he passed away 13 years ago, but i finally had an opportunity in which to bring up the conversation and get to know my señora a little bit better, without prying. we've become really, pretty close the past few weeks and she even took me to a 5 star hotel to have breakfast last weekend. i don't remember how it came up, but she told me detail for detail the story behind her husband's death: an aneurysm, the morning she woke to find her husband's face seemingly paralyzed, the 8 months he spent in a coma.. only to then pass away. she said there were a few times when she knew he was with her and her family because one time one of her daughters came to the hospital and said to her father: dame un beso (give me a kiss) which then he pursed his lips as if to blow a kiss. later over christmas they brought Dario to their house just to form a sense of normalcy for the family and to celebrate the holidays in their home. she told me he has a sense of a smile upon arrival and dropped his head as they left. she was married to him for almost thirty years when he passed away.

    this isn't the only tragedy my señora has faced. she once had 4 children, and now she only has 3. when her twin boys were just 13 her family discovered that one had leukemia. he had pains one night before going to bed, so the next day they took him to the doctor to discover that it was tumor. they traveled to Madrid and one other treatment center.. and finally decided to operate to see what they could do. during the surgery the removed part of the tumor to do some  experiments, when something happened to the tumor and it expanded. (remember, this is all understood in spanish, so this was one of her more complicated stories) she said at the funeral for her child, there was nothing like seeing his twin suffering in pain over his lost brother. 

    this still isn't even where her pain stops. one of her friends also suffered an aneurysm when she was with her (who luckily survived and returned back to normal - gracias a dios.) and her mother who lived with me the first month and a half i was here, is now needing constant care at the age of 89 and is growing weaker and weaker every day. she essentially is having to sit and watch her mother pass away as well.

    the point of this blog post isn't to write a sob story about my señora, or make anyone feel bad for her. it's to awaken anyone who reads it to appreciate how lucky we have it. when you think you've had a bad day, think of people like my spanish madre, Gracia. at the end of our conversation we talked about her faith and i asked her how she remained faithful. she told me it's been very hard but she still 'tries to follow the world' as she put it. she also told me 'viva en el momento hija,' - live in the moment. she couldn't tell me anything more than that. if someone in this world has been through as much as she has, we should all appreciate the blessings that have been given to us. although you can tell by looking at her that she has had much pain in her life, she diligently remains busy playing tennis, tutoring, and enjoys being a care-taker. i cried with her today as she told me her life story, giving thanks for all the blessings in my life as i hugged her tightly. 

meg

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

letras de casa :)

i received some love from home today! ... it inspired me to send some back. :) thank you mommy!

favorite pictures in salamanca!

salamanca!

this past weekend me and a small group from my program went to Salamanca, Spain! i have a friend who i've taken a few spanish classes with at state named Allegra who is studying there and my friend Sarah does too.. so we decided to take a weekend trip. they were great tour guides and it was also awesome to see some familiar faces and do some more exploring. Salamanca is located a little more centrally.. closer to Madrid. it was a long bus ride, but well worth the trip, or 'vale la pena'.. one of my favorite spanish sayings. we had a great time and really enjoyed people watching and discussing how different everything was from the landscape to the style of clothing/hair, etc. there were a lot of dreads and alll of the girls wore tights with jean shorts. there is also a lot more english spoken there because it's known as a huge 'college' or really 'study abroad' town. the boys were also more attractive... hehe. but all things considered i'm definitely glad i live in Santander. i gained a lot of respect for how clean and conservative our precious little town is! i feel a lot safer here as well, but probably just because i've been here for almost a month now.. how crazy! this week our schedule changes, yet again. i'll be in school from 9-1 mondays & wednesdays and 9-12 on tuesdays & thursdays, with fridays off! we also have an excursion to Bilbao on friday. photos of Salamanca to come. un beso! xo. meg

canciones!

for those of you who dig foreign music.. latin music.. discoteca music... i thought i'd post a few of my favorites we hear out on the town.. for your listening pleasure. 


"danza kuduro" - don omar
"ai se eu te pego" - michel telo (portuguese)
"rain over me" - pitbull ft. marc anthony
"hotel nacional" - gloria estefan .. this one is my favorite, esp. b/c of the poor english
"bailando por el mundo" juan magan ft. pitbull & el cata
"o ritmo do amor (kuduro)" - emanuel
"tu olor" - wisin y yandel
"ven a bailar" - jennifer lopez .. yes, it's "on the floor" in spanglish
"lovumba" - daddy yankee
"rabiosa" - shakira

this is where i live!?

 the weather here is no longer so dreary! i go for runs by the beach and just soak up the fact that i live in this beautiful town! now i really can't wait for it to be warm enough to lay out! :) xo meg

las tres gracias

i just wrote my second paper here about this work of art. it's called "The Three Graces" or "Las Tres Gracias" in spanish. it's by Peter Paul Rubens.. and i like it. we'll be seeing it in El Prado in Madrid at the end of my trip.

Manolo - mejor profesor del mundo.

i'd like to dedicate the first of probably many blog posts to my teacher Manolo. he is the funniest man i've ever met, ask Cristina. not only is he hilarious.. but he is the best teacher i've ever had. he's taught us ways to remember different verb tenses and sayings like i never have before in my 6 years with the spanish language. he throws chalk at the chalkboard, drops chairs with enthusiasm, teaches us cuss words and often blatantly yells at us. this past friday he told us he was going to give us a sorpresa (surprise.) we were all anxiously awaiting for our surprise .. when he made us have about 10 minutes of class in the men's bathroom. this may seem uncharacteristic of a good teacher.. but believe me, i will never forget how to say faucet (grifo) ever again. he also continued on in the classroom by describing a bide. he made my classmate josh stand on top of his desk and demonstrate how to properly use one. all things considered.. i look forward to his class every day. one more week of intensive spanish - 3 hours/day.. with an excursion to Bilbao to follow! ciao! meg

una canción

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcZhLDws5c&feature=related
this song gets played everyyy night out! i'm starting to love it.. i really have no choice.

primer nota

por todos que saben.. soy una 'nerd!' 93 en mi primer nota :)