Things I want to thank my parents for:

Being away from home and especially working with children has made me realize some things that I have definitely taken for granted for most, if not all, of my life. So mom and dad, this thanksgiving I'm sending a HUGE shoutout to you!

Thank you for having jobs that allowed you to be home for breakfast and/or dinner.

Thank you for having jobs that allowed you to take care of me when I was sick.

Thank you for being the type of parent who would take time to play with me.

Thank you for sending me to public school.

Thank you for bringing me up in church and helping me see the love of Christ.

Thank you for speaking the little bit of Spanish you knew to me, even if it was only "porque no?"

Dad, thank you for those times you randomly picked me up from elementary school just to go to lunch on your break.

Mom, thank you for being on of those moms who volunteered in my class, and for that time you surprised me on the playground at school when you came to help with a class party.

Thank you for giving me two older brothers, who taught me to be tough (kinda) and who played with me... sometimes.

Thank you for driving up to Lynchburg College on Sundays just to go to church with me or to go to lunch.

Thank you for not sticking me in front of a television for the majority of my childhood.

Thank you for supporting me studying abroad and now living abroad even though it meant I would be far away and you'd miss me.

Thank you for getting me braces.

Thank you for always having a dog in the house.

Thank you for selling Fiona to me (my car).

Thank you for cooking meals for me and not feeding me too much fast food.

Thank you for paying for those years and years of dance and competition.

Thank you for coming to all of my dance recitals.

Thank you for showing how to treat others with respect and what it looks like to be treated with respect.

Thank you for raising me to be confident in myself.

Thank you for taking me on vacation almost every summer.

Thank you for coming to visit me for Christmas this year!

Thank you for only throwing me a birthday party every other year. (Because I did get to celebrate, but I was not too spoiled).

Dad, thank you for making me laugh when I was sick, and for when you were just being your weird self.

Thank you for dance parties.

Mom, thank you for packing my lunch EVERY SINLGE DAY of elementary school.

Thank you for taking me to Disney World.

Thank you for being open minded people who like to travel the world just like I do.

Thank you for showing me that it is okay to have more than one job and to work in lots of different types of fields.

Thank you for taking me to the airport when I went to Costa Rica and Spain.

All in all just thank you for being the kinda of parents that I miss so much and that I am so excited to see in December!

Can't wait to Skype later!

Happy Thanksgiving, I love you!

Cool Story Bro

So, earlier I posted about the differences between American children and Spanish children; and I must take back one thing... Spanish children do actually complain about random stupid stuff just like American children do.

I have come to learn this very well from my time watching the four and five year olds on patio.  Often times, when a complaint is absurd I'll just say sorry and wait for them to walk away.  Recently, however, I have taken to just saying stuff in English that they obviously won't understand.  Generally I start with "oh my gosh" and I usually go somewhere like "in the grand scheme of things" or "compared to everything else going on in this world."  Its really a shame that the kids don't understand me, because I find it quite humorous.

Really, though, in the moments when a kids is telling me about their petty problems I just want to say,

So here is my compilation of children's complaints:

(Names have been omitted to save the children some pride... they're also translated from Spanish.)

"______ doesn't want to play dogs with me."

"______ did this (flicking motion) to my book bag."

(In tears) "______ wants to play police with me... but I don't want to play."

(In tears) "_____ won't listen to me when I talk to him."

"Teacher, _____ is screaming like a crazy person."

"______ pushed me on accident." (Clearly not hurt)

....And here is a bonus one from this summer that was actually my favorite ever:

"______ called me a cheese burger."

This is my life.

The end.

Nothing sadder... than being blind in Granada.

Dale limosna, mujer,

que no hay en la vida nada

como la pena de ser

ciego en Granada.

(Give him alms, woman,

for there is nothing sadder in life than being blind in Granada)

-Francisco de Icaza

This weekend I had a four day weekend, so on Monday and Tuesday I decided to go visit Granada, and one thing is for sure, Francisco de Icaza was right.  

On Monday morning I hopped on a bus at 7:30 and headed towards Granada.  When I arrived in Granada I headed straight for the closest stop of a tour bus/train that I had found out about online.  (SHOUT OUT to my Mom and Dad for getting me an international phone plan, because I would never make it anywhere without my data.)  So, for the fantastic price of 12 euro I got a two day pass to ride around on this tour bus and get on and off whenever I wanted.  I rode around until about 11am where I got off at the stop where they were offering a walking tour for free.  To kill some time I ate a Spanish tortilla at a cafe and looked around at some shops. Then at 12pm, two old couple, the tour guide, and I set out on a nice afternoon tour.  I highly recommend walking tour, you just get such good information that you would miss otherwise.  

After that I decided to take the tour bus to the stop that was closest to my hostel and made my way there.  As it turns out the hostel reception wasn't open yet, but luckily one of the volunteers found me and let me in.  So I joined the volunteers in their hangout spot and one of them, who is American, offered to show me around some.  So set out again.  And we walked... and walked.... and walked... for about three of four hours we walked and climbed stairs and hiked up hills.  She ended up taking me to some of the best views of the city and of the surrounding mountains.  

Once we got back to the hostel I relaxed for a bit and got ready to meet some Meddeas people who were kind enough to invited me out to dinner with them.  One of them met me at the hostel and we walked to meet the others.  We ended up eating Mexican and I finally got a BURRITO!  I was very happy to say the least.  So we just talked for hours and then headed back to our "homes."  Then I fell right to sleep.

The next morning I ate breakfast at the hostel and went around to some of the shops.  After finding some great gifts, I headed towards the closest tour bus stop and hopped on to avoid the rain.  Then my flatmates and our friend Ignacio came up for the day so I met them and we walked around and toured some ancient houses and buildings and got something to eat and were back on the road by 5 

(after hunting for the car in the wrong car garage for about 10 minutes).  

Needless to say, this was such a successful trip and I met so many great people in just one day.  Shout out to Hannah and Orla for being so friendly and taking me around with them!  I can't wait to go back and explore more, and also to continue exploring this beautiful country.  

Oh and here are some pictures in case you did't see them on facebook already:

Plaze Nueva

Inside an ancient bath house

The gypsy village

View of Granada from my hike

View from hike

Ancient house in Granada

Beautiful houses along the river

The Alhambra (ancient Muslim castle)

Beautiful streets and buildings

Souvenir market

Alright, thats it for now... I'm off to work!

Hasta luego!

Halloween in Almeria

So yesterday was Halloween, which is a big deal at home and I loved seeing all of the costumes on facebook... but what is it like in Spain?

Well first off, on Friday Aisha, Alice and I went to school dressed up for halloween just for the kids, and they loved it.  I got to tell a cute witch story to the five year old classes, and draw little halloween pictures on their hands, which they loved.  But we were pretty much the biggest deal for halloween at school.

So on Saturday we watched some Halloween movies and loaded up on candy.  Then we got all dressed up and at about 9ish we went to this restaurant near our flat that had a halloween drink special.  While were were walking there we actually saw some kids trick or treating! It broke our hearts because we had candy in the flat to give out, but had already left. So we get there... and we were the only ones.  But its fine, I mean four english girls attract enough attention, this was nothing new, and we actually gave the place some business which was good for them.

After that we went into the city which was having some special event for halloween which is cool, even though we pretty much missed it.  But because of that there were a ton of people dresses up in the bars and we didn't feel so out of place.  However, my head was killing me and no one was really feeling being out so we went home around 1:15... that may sound late, but Spanish people stay out till 6am so it actually was very early.

All in all, I think Halloween would have been fun here if I hadn't had such a bad headache and just felt like crap.  I was disappointed that I had to leave, but it made it better that Aisha, Alice, and Klaudia (our new British friend) were just as ready to leave as I was.


So thats halloween in a small Spanish town for ya.

Tomorrow I am going to Granada, so get ready for some stories and a ton of pictures coming soon!

Hasta luego!