¿Te ha tocado el gordo?

Today... is the day of the "Christmas Lottery" here in Spain. So in other words, little kids are singing numbers and prizes alllll day on TV, it's actually kind of funny. I'm not sure how many different people win. But the phrase for if you win, kind of like "I won the big one"... is "me toca el gordo" .. don't try and translate it literally.

Last week.. My family came to Spain and it was a blast! On Friday I met my parents in Madrid and then Saturday morning we picked up Jason at the airport!

^^ Look how excited he was to see me! ^^

We spent the rest of Saturday in Madrid as well and then Sunday morning we headed to Segovia. I showed them around my town and we went to dinner with my host mom, Amparo, that night. When I found out that she can actually speak quite a bit on english, who knew?!

All of us out to dinner Sunday night

Mom and I at the Aqueduct

Monday morning we headed back to Madrid for our flight to Barcelona. We spent the next couple days exploring Barcelona! We toured an apartment building by Gaudí, went on a "hop on hop off" tour on Tuesday, where we got to see a lot... we toured La Sangrada Familia (also by Gaudí), went to Parc Guell, ate McDonals :) , walked down La Rambla, saw the Mediterranean Sea, and did a little bit of shopping. And then Wednesday, we had our flight to ROME!!

Family picture inside the apartment building by Gaudí

Photoshoot on the top of La Sangrada Familia

Last night in Barcelona!

Rome. Thursday: COLD. Friday: RAIN. Gracias a Dios.. Saturday: absolutely beautiful.

Alright, Thursday included more than just coldness. We toured the Vatican, it was very cool and very beautiful. On Friday we toured the Colosseum and the Roman ruins.. and also got to see it snow in Rome!.. which is very pretty until it toured into rain during are long walk back to the hotel after lunch. On Friday we were able to be outside basically all day! We walked around in some plazas and looked at different markets, went to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. 

Inside of St. Peter's Basilica 

Roman Ruins.. obviously.

Inside the Colosseum

haha you can't tell that we were freezing or anything...

hilarious street performer

Sunday morning they had to take off early to get to the airport, so at 7:30 AM I woke up to say goodbye to them! And I sent them on their way and I headed back to bed. Although... I was checking in at the airport later that day, around noon, and hear someone yelling "Amanda!!" .. know who would I know in the Rome airport?? So I look to the right, where I had previously seen a verrrrry long line of people and was very glad it wasn't where I had to check in, I see my lovely family. Their flight had been cancelled. They ended up having to wait until Monday to go home, because Amsterdam airport was only accepting flights as their "final destination." Europe has been having a lot of airport closings because of all the snow. The UK was completely closed for a few days. So on Monday they had a flight that went to New Jersey, and then to MN.

Today was our 3rd day of "Jterm Class" .. 3 hours every morning. We talked about vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. I'm starting to think that these 3 weeks are going to go by quicker than I expected....

Well... Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all have a relaxing couple of days and enjoy time with your families :) 

besos

Amanda.

Everyone's Worst Nightmare While Traveling...

...is to lose your passport.

Well, I can check that one off of my bucket list. Friday, November 26, six friends and I took off for Portugal. And Gracias a Dios, passport miracles were plentiful that day.

Passport Miracle #1: I meet up with my friend Kasey outside my door that morning, right away (for some reason).. I ask her, "did you remember your passport?" The answer was no, so she quickly ran home and grabbed it. And off we go to the bus station to catch the bus to Madrid to then go to the airport.

On our hour long bus ride, I wake up to another friend, Isaac, on the phone with his host mom and I hear the words.. "se me olvidó mi pasaporte en mi armario" ... translation: I forgot my passport in my closet. Although his host mom was not able to bring it to Madrid for him, so he called a friend who was staying in Segovia... Brad.

Passport Miracle #2: Brad was EXTREMELY nice, and get on the next bus he could, with Isaac's passport.. and they met up at the bus stop in Madrid. So, Isaac had his passport! Although... he had not very much time to take the 40 minute metro ride to the airport...

Again, Gracias a Dios... our flight was delayed for a bit.. giving Isaac enough time to make it!

We all had our passports.. we all got on the plane. Although... I'm not so sure if my passport made it off the plane (at least, not with me). We FINALLY found our hostel (the streets are soo strange in Portugal... zero organization to the entire city of Lisbon) and I went to fill out the check-in information, which of course, needed my passport number... go into my wallet where I always keep it.. and it wasn't there. My heart sank. I'm a fairly organized person.. and if my passport wasn't in my wallet.. I knew it was not with me. But I continued to search through my entire backpack for it.. with a horrible feeling.. because I knew it wasn't in there. And we were going to be in Portugal for less than 48 hours.. and the US Embassy isn't open on the weekends... and I had no way of getting back into Spain without a passport...

So retracing my steps.. the only thing I could imagine would be it fell out of my pocket in the plane. So after trying to call the airlines and the airport and nothing would go through, I called our program director and told him what happened... he said if I didn't find it at the airport.. I would need to go to the police station and report it and try to somehow get in contact with the US Embassy.. even though it wasn't open. My friend Paul and I started to make out way back to the airport.. even though I had just about zero hope that it would be there. Before we walked into the airport I said.. "I don't even want to go in there, because when they tell me that they don't have it... I won't know what to do next"

Passport Miracle #3: Walk into the airport... go to the "lost&found / Police Station" and spit out the words that I think I lost my passport on a flight earlier that day, the lovely police officer grabs a book of names, and there my name was.. in red ink.. THEY HAD MY PASSPORT! He said one minute, went to the back.. and had my passport in hand. Gave him my driver's license, filled out some paper work.. and put my passport securely in my purse... GRACIAS A DIOS. Seriously, God was looking out for us on this trip.

So then.. we celebrated by getting some delicious McDonalds :)

I guess any city with water is worth a visit :)

Paul and I at the Castle

Lisbon was nice, but a fairly dirty city. And was is just jam packed with buildings... with zero planning. 

To say the least, the trip was pretty stressful.. but we were still able to enjoy it some what! If I were to go back to Portugal, I would much rather make a trip to south Portugal and spend some time on the beach!!! :)

Note to travels: don't ever lose your passport.

My SEMESTER in Spain ends in 5 days... wow, time flies. As far as school work goes, I have an 8 page paper I'm writing, and an assignment for my business class.. so hopefully I can wrap this up soon and enjoy the end of the semester with the the whole group! This wednesday we have our final "going away dinner" .. all of our host families and professors will be there. And then Friday morning we all get on a bus at 5:45 AM and head to the airport. From there I will get on the metro and go find my parents at their hotel in Madrid!!! They are currently in Andalucía right now. And then Saturday, I will go pick JASON up at the airport!!!! How fun.. my family in Spain! I am looking forward to that!! And then on Monday, December 20, my 3 week J-Term class will start. Then it will be Christmas, and New Years.. and then it will be my LAST week in Spain.

I hope you are all having a great start to the month of December and are feeling some Holiday Cheer! Here is the view I had out of my bedroom window the other morning, so wonderful! It doesn't snow very often in Segovia, so this was a treat! So of course, I threw on the Mariah Carey Christmas CD and immediately was ready for Christmas Time!

Un beso y un abrazo... Nos vemos pronto, ¡os quiero muchisimo!

love, mandy