A beautiful weekend in Madrid

Happy Sunday!
This weekend has been very relaxing, which is exactly what I needed after my first week of midterms. Although today the fun has stopped because I have to prepare for my last two midterms this Tuesday. My roommate liz was on this weekend so I was kind of lonely, yet enjoyed the quiet of our room. On Friday some of my friends and I made a Mexican feast with chicken burritos and tacos. But I was a little sad due to the fact that there was no chile for me to spicy up my food, or that we couldn't find refried beans anywhere. That night me and my friend Scotti went to Kapital, which is a very popular disco. I was not too impressed by its over priced entry fee and drinks. Plus they claim to have 7 dance floors but in reality it is just 7 floors with only 2 dance floors.
Saturday day, I got to sleep in then met my friend Michelle at el parque retiro. We bought some snacks for our study session at the parks, and I was very pleased to find a fruit tart! It was amazing! El parque retiro is very famous because it used to only be open to the rich and important people so that they could go there to meet their husbands and wives. And no I am not making that up. It is very beautiful and has a lake with row boats which i cant wait to explore when it gets warmer. There are a ton of fountains and very cool sculptures. Then michelle and I walked through Gran Via, Sol, and Opera, which are all well known areas of town. I wish my camera could capture how amazingly beautiful this city is, but unfortunately it cant.
Today has been dedicated to studying. Luckily I will be done with midterms soon and will be able to actually relax, because i don't have any work till our second set of midterms. it is really weird, but my school have 2 midterms. Kate and Ciara will no longer be visiting, due to Kate's sudden illness. I am pretty bummed, but it will be nice to have another weekend of possible travel or just a quiet weekend in Madrid wandering.
Hopefully next week something more exciting will happened that I can tell you about. O and one last thing, today my señora asked me to dye her hair. She is so cute! I love her!
hasta proxima!



(the first picture is me with my amazing fruit tart. the second is the cute late and retiro. the last one is me and my roommates beth and liz.)

Valentines Day in Portugal!

Bon dia!
I am sorry that I haven't updated this in 2 weeks, but last week/weekend was very uneventful, yet still amazing. This past weekend, my friends and I went to Lisbon, Portugal. It's not actually called Lisbon, it is Lisboa. Friday night my friends Michelle, Brian, and myself headed out to catch the night bus to Lisboa. It was quite a long trip due to how packed the bus was, how uncomfortable the seats were, and the fact that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom. Once we finally arrived in Lisboa we had to wait 30 min to catch the metro to take us to the center of the city where we would then catch a trolley. By trolley I mean literally an old style trolley. It was very interesting. Some of our friends were already in Lisboa because they got a cheap flight out friday night instead of taking the bus so we went to meet them at the hostel. Once again I was very lucky to stay in such an amazing hostel. The owner johnie was very nice and accommodating to our needs.
Once we were all together our journey started off. We went to the coast and say the Tower of Belem, and went into this really tall building in which we could see the 7 hills of Lisboa. It was amazing and we got some really cool pictures. Then for lunch we went to an outside cafe because the weather was amazing. It was very surprising though as to how many people spoke english. There seemed to be more people able to understand us when we spoke english than spanish. Ha ha. The rest of the day we just explored and didn't really have a plan of what were we going to see. We went to the aquarium and got to see the longest bridge in Portugal (which to my surprise we rode on to get to Lisboa, but didn't know because I had been sleeping). For about an hour we just laid out on benches and rested and enjoyed the sun.
Getting back to the hostel some of us (just the night bus travelers) decided to take a power nap while the other played games in the living area. We all started to get ready for dinner and were lucky that Johnie gave us a box of wine for the evening. As we started out for dinner we had no idea where we were going, we just knew the direction we needed to take. So we ended up not finding the restaurant we wanted to eat at which was a bummer. Everyplace we tried to eat at was totally packed because it was Valentine's day so we had to settle for this not so great place. I enjoyed what I ordered but it was spanish not portuguese. After dinner we walked around the center of the city, and then went to this club. The club had 3 levels and the top level was a terrace that looked out over the ocean. It was so beautiful! We dance for a long time, then took a cab home to get a few hours of sleep before the long 8 hour bus ride back.
I do not have any trips planned this coming weekend, but am excited to spend another weekend in Madrid. It is so beautiful here now that it is getting warmer and everything is starting to bloom. Also I am trying to get things all prepared for Kate and Ciara (my friends from Regis)'s arrival in 2 weeks, spring break in 3, and then Courtney's here 4. I hope you all have a blessed day.
Te amo,
Kayla!




The first picture is Lisboa before the sun rose. The next is a picture of a view of the city. The tower is Belem Tower, and the group picture is all of us in front of the Belem Tower. It goes Manuel, me, Liz, Amy, Michelle, and Brian. The last picture is from the terrace at the club. Only Manuel, Brian, Michelle and my self decided to go out.

Any suggestions?

Buenas tardes!
I just got home from school and am taking a break from some homework. My friend Nicole (my amigos partner who is studying in Florence) and I are in the process of planning our spring break trip. So far we already have Brussels and Amsterdam booked, and are trying to decide if we should continue on east towards Germany or go more west to France. Since I have never been to Europe, and I know some of you have please give me your input. kharri53@slu.edu

Also, I wanted to fill you in with how school is going. Currently I am applying for nursing school at Regis, and trying to get that in as soon as possible. Classes out here in Madrid aren't much different considering that it is an American school. I am really enjoying my child developmental psychology class a lot. It is very interesting and is certainly not what I expected. Plus my teacher is amazing. Piano so far has been a challenge because I have not read music since 8th grade, nor do I understand the piano scale. With practice I will for sure get better. My physiology class is a lot easier and a lot less work that my anatomy class last semester. The teacher has a very different style than I am used to but she makes it more fun in a creative way. By this I mean we have had to draw and color things like intramembranous ossification. The only negative thing I have to say about my schedule is that my religion course is very unorganized. I believe it is the biggest class SLU offers yet they only have one copy of the book that everyone has to go to the library to read. It is very unorganized and a pain. Plus the other book which we are supposed to buy didn't make it to the bookstore till this week, but they only got in 9 copies. There are about 30 kids in the class. Only 2 more days of class till its the weekend and I can not wait. I will mostly be working on homework this weekend because the following weekend I will be going to Portugal. Hope all is well. Love and miss you.

I couldn't post a blog without a picture so this is just some random picture of me and my friend Michelle with some locals that we met.

Granada y Sevilla!

hola!
I just returned from my first weekend trip and I would say was a HUGE success! It was my first time planning my own trip, traveling with just friends, and staying in a hostel! My friends Katy, Whitney, and myself left for Granada Thursday afternoon. After almost missing our bus we were so excited to find that it was not full so we were able to take our own seats and nap. We had not planned on staying in a hostel our first night, because we were getting in late and didn't want to have to pay for just 5 hours of rest. Our plan was the sleep in the bus station, but when we arrived we found that was not the best idea. So we wondered Granada to try to find somewhere that was open and had room. Luckily by 2 a.m. we found a hostel. Our room was nice with 3 beds and reminded me of a hotel. The next morning we went to Alhambra, which is a palace in Granada. I have already been here summer 200, but it was amazing! I didn't get too many pictures because I didn't charge my camera, plus already have many pictures of it from before. Our hostel for the night was located in the Muslim area of town, which is beautiful because all the building are white. We had an amazing late lunch where we ate Schaurma which was amazing. It was a mix between a burrito and a pita, but had this yogurt sauce and fillafal(sp?). Plus the waiter was really nice and gave us free mint tea that was to die for. While eating my friends and I were sitting across from a Muslim women who is from Wisconsin. Her name is Aisha and recently moved to Granada and converted to Muslim. She was such a great person and we plan on keeping in contact with her. After our dinner we went to another tea place where we got crepes and tea. My tea was very interesting, but i enjoyed it. The crepes was HUGE. It had whipped cream and strawberries. YUM! That night everyone from the hostel was going out to a few tapas bars. It was really great to get to know so many people from all different backgrounds. We meet some people that work in Madrid that we already have plans with for this coming Friday. Also we met this guy from Tokyo who was also going to Sevilla the next day and happened to be staying at the same hostel and in the same room as us again. I met so many amazing people in Granada that I was super excited to see who else I would meet in Sevilla.

We left Granada at 6:45 in order to get a taxi, and make it to the bus on time. Once we arrived in Sevilla we didn't really have any idea of where to go. We knew the name of the hostel, but nothing more. Luckily we were meeting 4 of our other friends there. We got to the hostel (Oasis Backpackers) and went to breakfast. Breakfast in Spain doesn't really exist. It is more like chocolate croissants and coffee. We were really hungry and decided to go to this itialian/mexican restaurant that the hostel recommend. It was both crepe and amazing. Since I have already seen all the tourist stuff in Sevilla, along with a few other girls, we decided to do something different. We decided to go on a carriage ride around the city. It was so beautiful but really cold. The weather was started to get bad. We went back to the hostel, where I did all of the 6 other girls make up, and then we out with people for the hostel. We went to a tapas bar where I sat with a woman from Sweden and another woman from Arizona. They both have really great stories. I was amazed at how inspiring other peoples stories were to me. The woman Ann from Arizona is out here for a month. She is traveling around to places she has never been, while visiting and traveling with her son. He is 19 and a college student in Switzerland. I have not met him yet, but we plan on meeting up when he is in Madrid this Saturday. After tapas, we went to a FREE flamenco show. Now it was not as cool as the one I had been on my last trip to Spain, but it was free so it was awesome! It was really rainy afterwards and we all got lost going back to the hostel, so by the time we got there we all looked like wet dogs. It rained all night and was still raining the entire bus back to Madrid today. In fact, it snowed in Madrid today. brrrrrrr!

Overall this weekend was a great first travel experience. I loved staying in hostels (even though I lost my cocoon - sorry mom), my company, and the fact that I met people for 14 different countries. Next trip will be more organized and I will learn as I go. I cant wait for the next one.

<3 Kayla





(The first pictures is a view of the Muslim community of Granada which is where I stayed. The second is a picture of me looking out at the view! The next 2 pictures are from Sevilla. The guy with curly hair is Alberto from Mexico, then my friends from school Katy, Ruth, and Meredith, and last Shin from Tokyo. The last picture is my friends from school Scotti, Samantha, and Whitney, with our new friend Scott from Colorado. Also notice my new purple jacket?)