The Blau's in a foreign land: Wales, not Whales.

After my final exam on Thursday, I rushed home to pack up and hit the road to Wales!!!

- Why Wales:

My mom did a great job capturing the happiness my dad has for his job. You cant describe his mannerisms right now, just look at it! 

In 2006, my dad was asked to spend a summer of in Ruthin, Wales working at the ABS company over there. He spent 3 months fending for himself in a land where they drive on "the other" side of the road (You cant say wrong side of the road, they take great offense to that). We missed him a lot that summer but I guess his friends in Wales have been missing him too!! So for the second time, my parents have saved up to go on holiday to Wales. They're so cute and happy over there, it was great to see them while Im studying abroad, but better yet embracing the travel bug like I do!

So proud of them getting out of WI every once in a blue moon ;)

- Who is even in Wales:

Aside from a few rugby coaches I've had the privilege to meet and learn from (S/O to Bowie & Plug), my dad made quite a few friends while he was there. Is that even hard to believe though? The man talks to anyone and everyone. To name a few of their friends: Rhys & Angie, Caryis & John, Frank and Nain are the folks we stayed with and I met for the first time.

- What is over in Wales:
Sheep, mountains, beer, farms & awesome accents.

Other than that, I cant even begin to describe how gorgeous it is. Take a look:

- When in Wales:

My parents, twice now, have gone for about a week to vacation and catch up with their Welsh friends. I only met up with my parents for the weekend, but their friends I met are actually TOO generous. They bought me dinner, clothes and beer even though I tried VERY HARD to not let them pay! I figure because they can heard sheep so dang well, so they had no problem getting around me to pay for things.

So the trip began:

• I began with a city bus that took me to--> 
• the bus station just in the knick of time --> 
• road to Malaga next to the smelliest lady EVER (I don't mean to be rude, but she had fancy shoes on, a really nice smart phone and obviously wasn't homeless, so why was she smelling like a stinky dog? Tip: its courteous to shower and stay clean when you're about to ride a bus, side by side with a stranger for a few hours!) -->
• arrived at the Malaga bus station and waited for --> 
• the express bus to the airport where I chatted with a couple British girls who were very nice -->
• I hopped a plane to Manchester, UK  which took 3 hours -->
• I went through border control and honestly, the man asking me the questions must have REALLY thought I was going to cause havoc in Manchester. He grilled me pretty hard and yelled at me a few times!

Man: 'Where are you from?'
Me: 'ahhhhhh Wisconsin'
Man: 'NO!!! I MEAN WHERE ARE YOU FROM?'
Me ('omgosh what answer is he looking for?!'): 'Well, Spain?'
Man (apparently very angry): 'WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!!?!"
Me:(about to cry) 'I was born in Wi, I am from the US. I am a student studying for a semester in Granada, Spain but I flew in from Malaga, Spain. Im not sure how else to answer the question"
Man (a little calmer): 'Well what are you studying?!'
Me: .............Spanish language
Man: (rolls his eyes) 'Nice answer, how long are you here for and why'
Me: 'I am here for the weekend Visiting my parents who are on holiday in Wales'
Man: *STAMP* 'NEXT!!!!'


He hates his job..





Then I grabbed a taxi to the hotel. My room was obviously a party room in the past: black marks on the wall, no telephone, a big giant black stain on the ground, a queen sized bed with 2 flimsy pillows & a blanket that wasn't that warm. It was much cooler in the UK than Spain, so when I found out the thermostat was broken, I basically ran some boiling water for a bath and warmed up. Finally hitting the hay by 3:30am or so, I uncomfortably slept until the morning. I and got picked up by Rhys & Angie, my mom and pops by 11:30am at the hotel. It was such a joy to finally see family again, I very much miss them!!!

We then drove to Ruthin, a small but beautiful town with gigantic hills and mountains, trees and fields, grass and sheep everywhere! I felt like I was already back home in WI. We stopped for some "tea & cake" (basically any food and drink, but mostly a social hour in the afternoon) then climbed to the top of Moel Famau (pronounced: 'moil-fam-ah'). The hike took a total of about two beautiful hours, breathing in clean air again. It felt wonderful to be out of the city and smelling the clean air once
again.

Me, Rhys, my mum & pops

We all made it to the top of Moel Famau! 2.4 miles round trip. My dad is so good at taking photos.

Like father like daughter? We take great pictures...

After the hike we went to our friend Carys's mothers house about 15 minutes away. We stayed with Nain, which is the Welsh word for grandmother. She is just the sweetest 80 year old woman I've ever met!!! They cooked us a delicious lamb dinner and Carys's other half, John poured us all some wine. I think he was testing my limit though. He poured me three medium sized glasses of wine then surprised me saying I was going on a pub crawl with his son and his son's girlfriend. John gave Dillon & Kat £20  to take me out for the night!!! Dil & Kat took me to four bars total because we had a mission. I collect beer bottle tops and I am making a pretty bottle cap design on top of my grandma's old night stand. The thing is, not a lot of beer is bottled in Wales, almost all beers are on tap! So without any luck at the first bar, we couldn't find me any beer bottles with interesting designs and I just ordered a pint a local beer instead. But, A PINT OF BEER IN WALES IS ACTUALLY LIKE HALF A GALLON I KID YOU NOT! They thought it was funny when I almost fell off my bar stool just from looking at the size of beer I had just ordered. We marched on to the next pub looking for our bottle caps, but in the end we had TERRIBLE luck. No bottle caps at all. We all had a great night and Dil, who had to work on the farm in the early morning, was our DD and drove us home. I slept like a baby, half drunk and jet legged from all the traveling just to get there.

Carys on the left and her mother, Nain on the right

Day 2 in Wales:

The Welsh believe in overfeeding their guests; that's how they let you know you're welcome. So breakfast (remember I'm used to solely toast and coffee for breakfast here in Spain) was scrambled eggs, MOUTHWATERING BACON, cereal, toast, coffee, juice and the works. I was in heaven.

Then we drove through whats called Horseshoe Pass. Absolutely breathtaking. This is my kind of world.

Carys took us shopping in Llangollen (pronounced: 'clan-gloth-lan' with a lot of phlegm) where I bought a few things and she treated us to my first fish 'n chips. THE PORTIONS WERE HUGE! The fish was the size of my forearm and the 'chips' (actually french fries) could have fed three people. No joke.

FISH & CHIPS

A gorgeous little creek running through the town 

Nain, my mama & pops 

so cute!!

Welsh Potatoes are the special today

On the way back home, we stopped at some old ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey.

The ruins and some mountains

Stunning architecture 

cool little stairway....AM I IN HOGWARTS?!

I want some windows like this :)

typical pose...sorry 

I RSVP'd to my bosses wedding in October by posting this pic on his Facebook wall. Cant make it, Im a kah-gillion miles away right now!!!

It was eery to be walking around the ruins of a few buildings that were used for monks to live in. Its amazing to think of how much more we have today. I wish I could have experienced that life where you work all day just to make dinner. I would be a heck of a lot less stressed out about grades and such, but probably more about communal diseases.

I fell asleep, catching flies in my mouth, on the car ride back to Nain's house. We all napped for a bit then got ready to go out for a fancy dinner. Almost all the people in Wales my parents knew were at dinner and we ate like kings & queens.

I had fettuccine carbonara, garlic bread, a pint of local lager and then my 'mum' and I split the most enchanting chocolate sponge cake. We all went home and I got another night's sleep in the most comfortable bed I've been in since living in Europe. I actually woke up both mornings in Wales having dreamt for the first time, that I can remember, in Europe. I think this is because my bed in Spain is reallllllllllllllllly kinda hard and small and I don't have my comfy blankets from home that have been passed from sister to sister, getting perfectly broken in for me!

Day 3:

I woke and had another filling breakfast, knowing I wouldn't get one of those again for a long while. My parents were off to the Irish Sea for the next few days with their friend Frank. The rest of their vacation in Wales was wonderful and I cant wait to see the photos when my mama finally gets them onto Facebook!!

Carys and Nain dropped me off at a shuttle that would take me to the Manchester airport and I finally flew back to my home in Spain. Now since my phone was stolen about three weeks ago, I luckily had insurance and got a new one sent home. My parents thankfully brought that to me and once I got through security and such, I finally got WiFi for the first time in three days. I went to check all my emails, social media, weather and stuff when finally I logged into Facebook with 27 messages. CRIPES! I miss my pals back home :)

These girls are my Winona family. This is the stunning team for fall 2013. I MISS THIS!!!

All together though, I love Wales! Its gorgeous, the people are SO GENEROUS and very easygoing, the food is wonderful and the pint sizes for beer are just perfect. I was offered to come back this summer and get a job wrapping wool or shearing sheep, sounds pretty grand to me!!

See these guys in 2 more months!

The flies here are just like the men,

you swat them away but they just keep comin' back!!

I'm not even joking. You can bat at these flies all day long and they don't care, they just keep following you! Same goes for the men, they just don't get it.

So in turn, I just learned to drop the 'Minnesota Nice' act and say it like it is.

'Minnesota Nice' : Smile, hug & bake food for basically anyone ya know eh? Strangers included.

YEAH, DON'T DO THIS IN SPAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The first week and half I walked around smiling at everyone: little kids, old folks and I even said 'hola' to a few people in passing.

In Spain, when you make eye contact, smile or even say hello to a stranger on the street, it means you want 'more than a friendship' with them.

Now that my roomie Molly reminded me of this cultural difference, I understand why so many old men were grinning ear to ear on my walk to school. Damn it Jerianne.

'Guapa' was taught to us Americanos to mean: good looking, pretty etc. So along with this, about once or twice a day SOMEONE would call me guapa. I took this as "Good job Jeri, you lookin' fine today"









No.

I was suspicious because most days here, I roll out of bed and throw on a pair of running shorts  and go to class for 4 hours in a tiny desk. One day I was about to go for a run, I was stretching against a wall when an older lady came up to me and asked if I knew were some stupid street was. I didn't (since I'm terrible with direction) and she said 'ohhhhh gracias guapa!' and I KNEW RIGHT THEN AND THERE IT DIDNT MEAN PRETTY! I hadn't showered in two days, my hair was in a ratty bun, I didn't have any make up on and was wearing some very unflattering running clothes. So I asked a few people if 'guapa' actually meant "ugly little unwashed weasel" because that's me most days.

'Guapa' here means sweetie or honey or young woman. Again, damn it Jerianne.


Some 'cultural differences' you might want to learn about...

1. Dogs
• A lot of the people here have dogs, but they are ALL small ones. I've seen about 4 big dogs total. Where is the love for my large pups?
• It is totally legal to let your little dog take a big, giant crap in the middle of the street and NOT clean it up. I've come close to stepping in a few steamy piles. 
• Dogs in the city do not need leashes. Beware. 
2. Homelessness
• I live out in the country back in Wisco. Winona, MN (my college town) isn't very big at all so homeless people weren't in my life each day. I am aware of homelessness, don't get me wrong, my sister Adrienne was a volunteer coordinator for homeless shelter in a WI.
• Walking to school I see at minimum 5 homeless folks a day. I'm not really sure what to make of it quite yet. There are homeless people here with cell phones, smoking cigarettes and even hand out lighters (in hopes you will pay them for it). 
• (Particular case I need suggestions for) There is a young homeless man who I see each day. He is very nice and always says good morning to me, though he has never asked me for money. I am my father's daughter (if any of you know my pops, he would probably help you move the sofa you were stealing from his house. Both my parents are almost TOO compassionate.) and I feel that if he is STILL there after my 3 month course here, I'd like to bring him lunch or something. I just don't want to do it now; what if I'm being naive and he ends up following me home or something? Is this wrong?
3. Weed
• I'm not sure if it's legal to smoke or not here. I smell it each day when I walk to school.
• Last week in our last hour of class, 4 boys were smoking weed outside our classroom window. Our professor proceeded to explain the verb "to get high" and the boys started to giggle and covertly blow it into our classroom. This city never gets boring...
• Walking home from class and I ended up turning a corner and almost physically ran into a guy toking it up outside my apartment building. He said 'hola' and I almost lunged into a full sprint to get home.
• Is it legal or is it not? Who knows...
4. Aussie vs. Kiwi
• A few friends from back home, who had studied in Granada, recommended an Irish bar called 'Hannigan's' near our school. It wasn't open for the season yet so we went across the street to Paddy's. They make some really strong drinks at the Irish bars here.
• Paddy himself was bar tending. Since he spoke English, we all flocked for familiar conversation. I found out he went on a cycling trip: 3000 miles in 3 months in the U.S.
• HE BIKED THROUGH MADISON,WI,  THROUGH MY SMALL HOMETOWN AND UP PAST MY COLLEGE IN MINNESOTA! small world..
• At this pub, we met some Aussie boys who were on a vacation trip. By this time I had asked Paddy to turn on a rugby match for his homegirl who misses the game. I was staring at the TV, being totally antisocial when the Aussie boys wanted to talk about rugby. They said they seriously didn't believe that I played rugby, so I told them Kiwis are better. That ended our conversation for the night as well as our short-lived friendship. No regrets.

These are the Aussies - before I told them to "stick it where the sun don't shine" - another famous Randy Blau phrase..

1. No conservative clothing here
• There are butt cheeks for days 
• When we go out at night, I look like I dressed up as a soccer mom compared to all the Spanish ladies (I'm okay with it)
• You cant find shorts here. They are actually just denim granny panties that these girls wear. 
2. Going out at night
• Iphones are realllllllll hot commodities here 
• My phone was pick pocketed
• I have a friend who had her Iphone stolen, she was sent a replacement one and that was stolen at the SAME BAR mine was..
• Pick pocketers are so sneaky here, but we've heard its the worst in Barcelona
• The other night, our professor Javier took the class out to some really local and authentic bars where they had a few drinks and tapas. Javier told us after the final exam tomorrow we can go out for some tapas and few cervesas with him. He's such a funny guy!
• Finding late night (actually EARLY morning, like 5am or 6am) 'drunk munchies' is REALLY hard. My roommate Molly & I discovered a little Shwarma (kebab) place that is cheap and open at 5:30am. SPANISH LIFE COMPLETE!

1. Randoms
• Fanta Limon (lemon flavored fanta, not lemon lime clear soda, LEMON flavored) is worth getting shipped to the U.S.  It's the most delicious soda!
• Our host mama has grandchildren (over 5) and about once a week we have a big family meal with some of them. THEY ARE ALL SO CUTE! Mateo is the 14 month old who is over like 2-3 times a week and he's SO HAPPY all the time!! I want to steal him and bring him home with me. Mateo goes to bed around 10pm or 1030 though. So basically this 14 month old child can stay up later than both my parents. Wow
• Mars Bar?s They are kind of an older candy, but they are really popular here in Spain. I found some Mars Bars flavored ice cream!

We went hiking in Los Cahorros last Saturday morning. My camera is refusing to charge so I stole some bomb pictures from my girl Shelby.

S/O to her blog as well!

 http://killenadventures.blogspot.com.es/

This shot reminds me of one of my fav states from back home, Utah!

One last fact: 

My hometown population: 472 
Granada, Spain: 239,000

I'm liking the big city, but I'm missing: animal contact, fresh country air, quiet nights, leaving doors unlocked, gravel roads, GRASS and cereal with real milk!!!

A sangria filled adventure over to Lagos, Portugal

- LAGOS, PORTUGAL

A few of my pals and I decided to book a last minute trip to Lagos, Portugal through a program called Discover Excursions. We left at 6am the next morning, for an 8 hour trek to the gorgeous South West coastline of Portugal. We made a stop a few hours into the bus ride to pick up about 100 other college students from Sevilla, Spain. Molly and I got the privilege to sit behind the rudest girls I have even had to encounter. They extended their seats back so far Molly & I barely squeezed through to our own seats. So for about 4-5 more hours I basically had this self-absorbed girl's head on my lap. Does everyone remember Snookie from Jersey Shore? Yes, it was a smaller version of Snookie. Everyone arrived in Lagos and we checked into an awesome hotel with a 30 second walk to the beach!! The program we booked through is really geared toward college students and the trip leaders were SUCH a blast to hang out with. They also had free sangria every day!! So about 100-130 college students hung out on this amazing beach for a few hours and then partied in Lagos later that night.

The program provides wristbands that include 2 free drinks at a local club close to the hotel. Our group from Granada stopped at a bar called "Black Cat" (THE NAME OF THE BEST AND MY MOST FAVORITE RUGBY TEAM BACK IN MINNESOTA!!) and after I told them all about my awesome Kitties back home, the bartenders gave me a bunch of stickers promoting the bar! From there....the night went on and on. We all got home safely and met SO many new friends from Sevilla! I participated in a pushup contest wearing a maxi dress; all thanks to some liquid courage.

We all had a real rough morning but the hotel breakfast was one of the trip highlights. In my last post, I described breakfast in Granada as toast and coffee, which doesn't even put a dent in my morning hunger. At the hotel, we gorged ourself in a heavy american (rid-the-hangover) breakfast: sandwiches and pastries and fruit and orange juice and cereal and yummmmmmm. Seriously though, one of the best moments on the trip.

The second day was really cloudy and actually kind of cold so we did some sightseeing and drove to a REALLY nice beach but just tried to stay warm! The second night consisted of watching the sun set at a place called "End of the World". Cliffs for dayzzzzzz.

After the sun had set, we drove back to Lagos and danced another night away at a club called Joe's garage.  For dinner I had my first Kebab (or I think it's also called Shawarma) and I think I'm in love. Molly & I have a great host mother who cooks extremely healthy but sometimes, I just need to indulge in the greasy foods. This. Was. It. 

We struggled out of our beds that last morning for another amazing breakfast, packed up and headed out to a sangria sailboat tour. It was a perfect day (minus the hangovers) and we sailed for 2 hours in the Portuguese sun, took SO many pictures, drank endless sangria and only got a little burnt. This last day was one for the books. I have never seen so much beauty!!!!!! 

 ^^ the girls from Granada on the sailboat 

We hopped on the bus and rode home for 9 hours which included two stops and a flat tire about 7 blocks away from being dropped off. At this time, it was 1am with class in only a few hours. There was nothing to do but laugh at our situation as the bus driver told all of us to move to the right side of the bus, squeeze together and he would ride it out. Miguel got us to the bus stop and we clapped.

Lagos, Portugal is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. I can not believe just how lucky I am. I hope y'all decide to work your buns off and use that money on a trip somewhere special rather than on the material things. The ONLY thing I would have changed: probably should have flicked those girls on the ride to Lagos right on the ear a few times. 

One more change: bringing my loved ones from home to enjoy the weekend with us as well. This weekend made me miss home a lot, but I know I'll be back soon enough.

 Soooooooooo just come visit me, ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!

A typical day as a student in Granada, Spain

- Breakfast: toast & jam every morning at 8:15am. Our host mama is sweet as pie and makes us a little cup of french pressed espresso then goes back to bed. I'm a big breakfast gal so this toast thing, in the words of my father "ain't enough for a rat to eat". 

- Class: After a 20-25 minute walk to our University, I have class from 9am-1pm. This month is our "intensive" class and after 3 more weeks we change classes up. My main man Javier is so goofy and really funny! From the first day you could tell he just LOVES teaching, that's rare to find these days. A different teacher comes in for the last hour, her name is Pilar and she's a clever little lady.

This is my morning walk to class

- Lunch: I am starved until 2:30pm-3:30pm when we eat a MASSIVE lunch. The first day here we had traditional Spanish paella (lots of rice, veggies & meat almost like a casserole) and my host mama heaped about 6lbs of this stuff onto my plate. Paella is so delicious but I could have been buried by the amount she gave me! After the main meal we have "postre" which is spanish for dessert. Fruit, yogurt or pudding have been our usual suspects.

This is a traditional Spanish dish: Torta Espanola or Frittata. It's  simply egg & potato.

- SIESTA: Take a little napski and relax while most stores & businesses shut down until about 5:30pm then reopen for about three hours. During this time I usually roll around on my bed so uncomfortably full of food and catch up talking to everyone back home. From lunch until dinner it is basically free time for me. I don't have practice, don't have a job here and there isn't a whole lot of homework that we get. Relaxation station..

- Workout: Back home I can eat whatever the heck I want because I always had a 2 hour practice filled with sprints, running drills, tackling, stupid burpees and all this after our initial "let's begin practice with a 2-3 mile run where we all just race each other" run. So here I am learning to not HATE running so I don't gain like 60lbs. After a run each day I am basically trying to be the female Jason Statham in my tiny room here doing some squats, push ups and other "prison like" workouts.

- Dinner: LATE....like between 9pm-11pm. We usually have a pasta salad, a soup or maybe a smaller sandwich. My roommate Molly & I really really REALLY lucked out. Our host mama loves to cook and we've been here over a week without a repeated meal! Last night we had our first "ehhh" meal but we were both raised to not be picky and just eat it anyway. Bow tie noodles, pieces of fruit like pineapple, mango, apples, peach, and imitation crab meat all glazed with a sweet mayo sauce....."ehh".

- Week nights: Molly & I usually stay in and hang out, Skype people and do some social media. Pretty simple, pretty laid back.

- WEEKENDS ARE INSANE - 

- Tapas:  This is a tradition that is only alive in only a few cities in Spain! Luckily...Granada hooks us up real nice. You go out for a drink (wine, beer or juice) and most bars/cafes here bring you out free tapas. These are little sample sized portions of different food such as black & green olives, potato salad, bread kind of like appetizer foods. You get a drink & a small portion of delicious munchies for about 2-3 euro ($3-$4). Tapas are traditionally from 9pm-1am ish

Some of the delicious tapas in Granada!

   My roomie Molly is the smiley blonde! We went out with a few girls in the program for tapas and some "Tinto de Verano" - sweet red wine & clear soda!

- Bars: "Chupiterio" = shot bar, shots for 1 euro. From there, my pals and I have found a few discotecas  and we dance until the sun comes up. Seriously though. Clubs here are open til 6am!!!!!!! Molly & I then either cab it or walk home and sleep until lunch the next day. Spainards party hard so I'm doing my part as a Wisconsin girl here in Spain, it's in my heritage.


- Sundays are for sleeping off the hangovers, going to church and then sleeping some more.

          So that's a typical day in Granada. Wooof.

Getting to Granada,Spain with a little hustle and bustle

Long story short:

- Dropped off by my family (Mom, Dad & Adrienne) in Madison,WI to catch a bus at 1:15pm to Chicago.
- 3 hours later I got into the Chicago O'Hare Airport and dropped off my suitcase, which the night before I had to lessen the load by at LEAST 13lbs to make the limit
- Got through security no problem and found my gate
- I got a Mac Don's burger because who knows when I get one of those bad boys again?!
- 1 hour before my flight...IT STARTS STORMING BAD! Black clouds rolled in really fast, rain started pouring by the gallons, and a few gates over there was something bellowing out smoke. The trip took a turn for the worst.
- This was my nightmare. I hate flying.
          - Delayed an hour
- The lady next to me on the plane didn't speak English or Spanish. It was 8.5 hours of silence, movies, music, and reading.
- Finally we landed in London, but because we were an hour behind, they gave the people who were late for their connecting flights this little orange pass for the 'express security lane' and told us "Run as fast as you possibly can to terminal 5. It's on the other side of the airport!!!!!"
- You're kidding me
- Busted my butt with a 40 lbs backpack and one shoulder, and a beach bag plum full on the other for what felt like three miles to security and to terminal 5.
- Got onto my flight for Madrid which, by the way, didn't have air conditioning on at the time
- I was sweating everywhere and had only slept for four hours
- The guy next to me was in college visiting family in Malaga and wouldn't leave me alone, but fortunately I passed out mid conversation, in the most uncomfortable position, for those next two hours.

- This next part was THE hardest thing I've had to in my life.

- Woke up, got off the plane and I was suppose to find the Metro subway. (p.s. I've NEVER been on a subway at this point before, EVER in my life)
- A Russian girl my age came up to me in line with three tickets to the Metro for the day (kind of sketchy) but I trusted her and we got through the gate!!!!! She was traveling on a miniature vacation between semesters of studying Spanish! We talked on the subway and she was absolutely charming.
- We got off the line and had to to part ways. But I was suppose to find another line to catch.I COULDN'T FIND IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME!
- I cried for the first time of many more to come, and asked about three people for help, in Spanish, and they all replied with different way to go to find this line.
- Finally I tracked down two women (one was definitely intoxicated or under the influence) and they told me that they were catching the same subway line too!
- So I followed the high lady and her friend to an elevator, and for a split second I thought I may get jumped. I then said a quick prayer, too nervous to try to say it in Spanish.
- They did in fact get me onto the right subway line, and they prodded me to get off where there was SUPPOSE to be the bus station I was looking for.
- THERE WAS NO BUS STATION!
- I walked up and out of the underground subway with all of my things (suit case, backpack and bag) down the street, almost ready to cry for the third time when I found the station. Hallelujah!!!
- Bought my ticket to the next bus going out to Granada, and my next instructions were to call my semester tour guide through the study abroad program.
- Couldn't find a pay phone so I asked some young girl (I think it was a girl) and she dialed the number for me and graciously let me use her phone.
- FINALLY found my bus to Granada, and five long hours later, saw a strange guy holding a "SOL Study Abroad" sign. He picked me up and took me to my host mother's house!
- Done and finally "home" after 30 hours of travel.
- I found my bed, slept for twelve straight hours and woke up to lunch with my host family and new study abroad roommate. We ate traditional Spanish Paella and now it is siesta time!!

My room for the next 3.5 months: