Take your mark...

GO!

I've been back for 6 mo. and it still feels like yesterday! Coaching, Optometry-ing and nannying make up my days now but I can feel change-a-comin. I have a huge itch of traveling right now mostly because I feel like I can't but I know all my brides are happy im around town (Sarah, Jenny, Katie, Valerie, Maritza). I'm a pro.

Maritza's is less than about a month away! But first, skiing trip in Aspen!

This is Olivia Jaillet. Cutie-Patutie and the only girl of 4 (Nicholas-9, Justin-7, Olivia-5 and Marshall-3)

Costa Brava

Llavaneres is about 30 minutes south of the costa brava.... a couple of friends and me got together a couple weeks ago for una dia a la playa... We went to a little town called Blanes.

It was quite lovely with a little help from the locals telling us exactly where to go. "15 min walking" was what EVERYONE told us. I would of prepared a little better if I knew we would end up walking an hour an a half. We decided half way we might as well walk the rest even though I was in mis flippy floppies, hungry and making everyone suffer to my sarcastic comments. I was able to handle "15 minutes more" only so long. We finally arrived to our little cove beach surrounded by rocks jetting up out of the Med. QUE BONITA!!

I love the costa brava.

I had to jet home because my sister and new bro-in-law came to BCN on their honeymoon. I tried to show them around a bit. Sarah was set on seeing the SAGRADA FAMILIA but I passed. We met up for tapas and some delicioso summer wine to take in the city.

After 8 years of running the P'tree road race, I decided one year would be "ok" in Spain... I spent the 4th in Castelldefels...

(also where Messi has a house for all those fútbol fans) 15 min south of the city by train for a day of sea kayaking, wind surfing, catamarans and massages... FREE! 10 euros for a bbq all you can eat. Awesome 4th in Espana.

Updated picture of the little monster...

YA ES VERANO!

ITS SUMMER! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!

A whirl-wind of a trip home for Sarah's wedding back to Spain I went for another month of work. I now have 5 more days left of work. 5 DAYSSS! I don't have any sad feelings yet mostly because I know in August I will be close by... July 30th kicks off the start of my travels and fun summer in Barcelona. I am renting a room in Eixample area of bcn from a friend and taking a month intensive spanish course. My classes start Aug 3rd to the 27th Monday to Thursday. My plan is to travel Friday to Sunday starting with the fabulous city of ROME! So far I've planned 3 cities of Rome for the first weekend, Paris the second and the last weekend before my trip home is London!

I am so pumped to finally see the rest of Europe!

I have two more weekends to plan in August.. Possibly to visit my great-aunt in Switzerland or Palma Mallorca or Madrid!

Awesome Colombian dinner to see off my American friend Linnell

this and that

Its been a fun past two weeks. After a nice Dia de Sant Jordi (somewhat like Valentines day for Catalunya) and an nice rose from "los chicos" in my family... it was time for my BIRTHDAY!!! Wooo! Yes, I'm now 24! I celebrated my birthday with my Spanish family on Friday because they had off work and I wanted to go to the city on the weekend. We had an awesome lunch of mussels, fish and rice followed by a cute cute chocolate cake. They gave me a nice bracelet with different kinds of stones in it. Tourqoise, silver, jade and not quite sure what else. I chilled in Llavaneres Friday night because my throat was hurting and didn't want to catch the pig flu with a down and out immune system. Headed out early Sat am to do a bit of shopping and met up w friend Iben for lunch and a coffee. 

I had a joint party w friend Romian who has the exact same bday as me. It was the same group of friends I went to Bordeaux which is why we ended up salsa-ing and macarena-ing the night away into the wee hours...

 5 weeks until Sarah's wedding! 

I would just like to comment on exactly how many people are engaged or getting married since I've been in Spain:

Jenny

Sarah

Katie

Valerie

Natanya

Juliana

One friend who remains un-nameable...

Mallory

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS! I have no doubt someone else will be added to this list soon. Who's the next lucky person???

Montpellier

This past weekend I went with 3 friends to Montpellier France. Yes, another France trip but much more calm and also to see 2 friends who use to swim with me at UGA. My friend Laura, Ricard and Marcelo left at 6 Sat AM for a 4 hr drive to Montpellier. We walked around this quaint town to find ourselves grabbing lunch at a little cafe and renting bikes to do a bit of sight-seeing. 

   

it was pretty windy...

Louisville, USA only 7128 km! 

Laura and I's mutual friend Seb and my friend Aleks were swimming at the French Nationals. Seb was able to get Laura and I in to watch a bit of the meet for Saturday finals. We saw some European and French Records broken but missed the World Records on Friday and Sunday. 

SUPER nice pool.

It was a short but fun trip. The weather Sunday was pretty rainy so we found ourselves leaving early after some delicious croissants and pastries of course. On the drive back we stopped in Figures, Spain which is the home town of Salvador Dali. I've been wanting to go for a while so it was a nice surprise just to go on a whim. We didn't go into the museum which I really wanted to but we could still see two famous buildings that are considered art in themselves.

 

Home in  45 days!

Bordeaux

This past weekend a group of friends and I went to Bordeaux, France to have a nice "relaxing" easter weekend... Imagine 1 american, 5 mexicans, 1 chilean, 3 argentineans, 1 polish, 1, portuguese, 1 spanish and 2 french. 

 

Me, Adrianna and Jorge... and our trusty driver Lolo

 

Chateau in Carcassonne, France

This group of friends I met through my friend Emmita who ended up not being able to go.... Which meant I was left to fend for myself with my broken Spanish. Most everyone could understand bits and pieces of english but everyone was really speaking Spanish. Talk about immersion! Up until this point in Spain I've had a little english bubble that I've been in and was functional in Spanish but not really conversational. So now I am well on my way. 

the group...

All of us met at the main train station in Barcelona and headed to Bordeaux by caravanning. A long trip later with a couple stops to visit a chateau and to buy food for the weekend we made it to a sweet wine country house around 11pm. After eating around 12am we commenced into a salsa dance party, with me learning once again 1 and 2 and 1 and 2. repeat. Lets just say my brain was dead after a day of listening to Castellano and a latino dance lesson.

 

our nice little french country casa

The next morning we got up pretty early and headed into the city of Bordeaux to explore. A beautiful city although the weather wasn't the best we were successful in roaming the streets, finding a couple of key landmarks and strolling by the marina. Another very long trip back to the country house with losing the caravan in the rain made for another 11pm dinner and yet another lesson in latino dance.

 

A fountian in Bordeaux at Placa des Quinconces and wine fields...

Sunday we ventured to Saint Emilion which is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux. A tour of the church and the catacombs there found the entire group worn out and dragging our feet a bit. We ended up missing a wine tasting a different chateau which only meant we were able to eat dinner at a "reasonable" hour of 830. One of the french guys dubbed "Lolo"  brought his guitar and the group turned to me to know the lyrics of all the english songs. I think most everyone knew just as much as I did of the Beatles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marley and Dylan. Music was definitely my friend this weekend for we speak the same language.

 

Me in Saint Emillion and some of the chicas...

Monday morning we all got up early to clean the poor french country house that was subject to our fiesta ways.  Left the house around 12pm, drove, stopped a couple times, had some dance parties in gas station parking lots, ate lunch and made it back to bcn around 8 pm. I was prepared to make the 1.5 hr trek back to Llavaneres by train, bus, walking only to find out the group wanted to hang out LONGER and  grab some grub. Just past 10pm I found myself running to my train just to see it pulling up the platform. Phew! If I missed this train it would mean I would have to spend the night in the city. Made it back to find out the bus stops at 8 pm on Sunday and with no money on my phone I hitched a ride with a good ole spaniard to the centre of Llavaneres. That uphill 2.2 km would of NOT been fun after that weekend... 

Home safe and sound! Next adventure is... 

Montserrat

Last Monday I had off work to spend some time with my lovely friends Elizabeth and Karen... We ventured 30k out of barcelona via train to a place called "Monserrat". Literally meaning serrated mountain, you can see for yourself this amazing view. Monserrat is a monk monastery that is famous for its remarkable views, virgin mary statue and boys choir. We left BCN early for an all day extravaganza of a packed train ride, an "aire" lift up the mountain, listening to the boys choir, and a hike to "santa cova" all called for 3 tired chicas.

  

 on the train to monserrat

on the aire, hope the cable doesn't break!

 boys choir (yes in catalan but still beautiful)

on the way to the "santa cova" or to see where the black madonna (santa maria de monserrat) was discovered...

Que Bontina!

 

outside the monastery 

  

 

 the black madonna

 

in "santa cova" where the black madonna was originally found.