Huhh??

Alright. Everyone needs to take a moment and reflect on the organized, logical systems we have in Canada and express gratitude for the blessing they are. For example, standing in line to get bread at the bakery rather than standing in a throng of people and hoping they see you amidst this crowd of crazy Spaniards when your number is called.

However, the disorganization that has driven every international student crazy since they got here has to do with the school. So, I am studying at a snotty, rich-kid, private, religious university here. You would think with a private University it would be full of the best of the best and that you could figure out how things work pretty easy. Well, you are wrong.

1)      The website. Comillas has THE most confusing website I have ever seen in my ENTIRE life. Seriously...... Seriously. Yah, it deserves two seriously-s. Anytime a professor needs you to get anything off the website, they then have to sit and give you step by step instructions on how to find it and where. Dear Comillas, if you design a logical website, you could eliminate this issue.

2)      Registering for classes. What...a... gong... show. Everything overlaps with everything else. Some classes run all year, some don’t. You are never really certain which classes you are actually allowed to register for. Some classes are on a campus in a different city with an hour commute. Some classes are in English, some in Spanish. AND to top it all off, for the majority of classes, you have to set them in stone before you can even attend the class. Yikes!

3)      Oh wait, you signed up for all of your classes online and built your timetable? You think that means you registered? You are wrong. Now you need to print off a ton of stuff, photocopy your passport and travel insurance, bring in two photos of yourself, a blood sample, your heritage back 8 generations, and your firstborn child, well, if you have born children. If not, you’re screwed, sorry. And I can guarantee the room you think you are supposed to bring all this too will not be the room you need to bring it to.

4)      The school layout. I have been lost soooooo many times. There are four different stairwells, well, that I have found, in this school. You think you could take any of them to get to the room you need on the fourth floor? You are wrong. You must go around the courtyard, up the east stairwell, through the magical closet that takes you to Narnia, throw salt over your shoulder, spin three times, and then you might, just might, find the room you need.

5)      Finally, printing. I consider myself a pretty smart girl but it still took me three tries to find the room to print in. Of course, once I got there I found out that I needed to go back a room and hit print on a computer in there, then return to the printing room, with your my paper and my second born child, and hit print again. Very similar to the way the UofA does it, minus the second child of course, so it really wasn’t too bad but it has tripped up many other students.

In the end, none of this is suuuuuper confusing. You figure it all out in the end and students do their best to help each other out. But, when evvvery single thing you try to do takes 17 times longer than it really should, I start to get confused and overwhelmed. But hey! Being overwhelmed means I get to eat more Principe Cookies!!! And THAT is a good thing!

La Iglesia

Okay, one last thing to write about and then I should be mostly caught up with my blogging! Look at me being all productive! Who knows? Maybe I will even do some homework.... hahaha. Yah.... not happening. 

So, I have the most AMAZING ward down here. Seriously. I have only been there twice thus far but I seriously feel like I am home when I go to church. My first week I was super freaked out. I was scared I wouldn’t be accepted and I would feel like an outsider and such, like I kinda did when I was down in Mexico. BUT I had a plan. I had decided what I could do to integrate myself into the ward and make sure I was able to include the gospel in my life while I was in Europe.

My first week I was totally late. I had been to institute on the Friday and asked where the chapel was and either I was given the wrong address or I didn’t bookmark it right. Either way, big time fail on getting there. In the end I made it though. After sacrament meeting, I started the search for Sunday School. I asked someone where I could find it and in the end I found out that there is an English class and a Spanish class in my ward! Initially, I went to the Spanish Sunday School because I understand, so why not. While sitting there, an Elder came in and introduced me to this guy, who ps was pretty cute, and asked if I could translate for him. He and I sat there and I was said, "There is an English class. Want to just go over there?" So, we did and it was awesome. After class, a group of people came over to welcome us into the ward and get to know us. This guy and I had to sort out that in fact we were not dating and that we had only just met. Desrae was a little shocked cuz we just looked so cute together. Hahaha! Her words, not mine.

I have learned there are about three English speaking American families in this ward. There is a lady who is in the Navy... I think??... Oh I am totally going to get my facts wrong. Either way she is here in Madrid doing some international relations course that the US Army offers. Then there is another family with five kids (four kids??) whose dad is doing the same thing. This family has really taken me under their wings. After knowing their daughter Kylee for about an hour and a half, I received an invitation to her wedding in Belgium and was invited over for dinner the following Sunday and the Bridal shower in the upcoming week. It was awesome and so comforting. It felt like I already had a family and friends! Oh and ps.... Kylee is Desiree Layton’s identical twin in almost EVERY aspect. It is awesome. Seriously. Maybe a cross between Des and Reese Witherspoon. Anyways, third family is here because the Dad works for NATO. Again, wonderful, open, inviting family. Oh! I am forgetting a fourth. Another Brother is here with his wife and two kids doing an internship in optometry.

Okay, yes. Now for the Spanish half of the ward. So, my second Sunday, I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting. I had decided that I was going to do Sunday School in Spanish and RS in English or vice versa so I could get to know people from both languages. After Sacrament Meeting this adorable little old lady turns around and starts telling me how much she loves my singing voice. She then goes on to tell me about the Stake choir and how I HAVE to join, etc, etc. In the end she grabs my arm and starts leading me around the church and introducing me to everyone that sings in the choir and the ward music director and on and on. It was so adorable. I was going to make my escape to go to Sunday School in English but that was practically impossible. She sat me down next to Rosio and there I stayed! It was awesome.

I went to Stake Choir and ohhhh what a hilarious situation. So, I am sitting there and the choir director is quite humorous. She is kind of a hard nose and yells at people and lectures them for not studying the music and on and on. So funny. So, she looks at me, this white American with an accent and essentially was like, what are you doing here? We sing in two weeks and I am not letting you sing with us if you can’t learn the music by then. And with all of this she gave me this quizzical look that essentially said, there is noooooo way you are learning this music but I guess I have to let you try since this is a church choir. Haha! So, we sang the first song. It had a basic alto line and I sang it. At the end of the song, she looks at me over her glasses at the end of her nose that no kidding have a jewelled chain to keep them around her neck. First, she complements me on my voice, which ps isn’t amazing. I mean, I can hit a note but I am not musical genius. Then she proceeds to get all of my contact information so she can send me all of the music and any news the choir might have. It was adorable.

Anyways, those are my church stories. My ward rocks and I love it. I will work on the YSA eventually but for now I am quite content where I am. Yay Madrid!

Holy Toledo!

I have started the quest to get as sick as possible of churches and castles. Haha! After orientation, I had a long weekend. So, my friend Andréanne and I jumped on the AVE (high speed train) and went out to see Toledo! It was ridiculously awesome. I still need to post pictures but I am way behind on everything so it isn’t going to happen right now.

Toledo is this city that is basically built on the top of this hill. Surrounding the town there is this giant gate or fence or whatever you would call a super tall brick thing that keeps the bad guys out.  It is this tiny little fortress and it was soooo cool.

Andréanne and I basically just wandered around the city. I had a map and things I wanted to see but really, we were in no rush. We went into the cathedral and took silly pictures with statues and went on a nice little nature walk outside the city looking up into it. We got SUPER lost in the side roads and for the most part we really didn’t care. We took many excellent Facebook profile worthy pictures with big European buildings in the background. We successfully avoided the museum and I even found a nice pair of boots for 9 Euros! Rock on! Hahaha!!

I don’t know. I feel ridiculous writing this now because nothing I say can really describe what it is like there. I am no Jane Austen when it comes to describing the gorgeous things I am seeing. I really can’t do the place justice. You just need to see it. I will post pictures but they probably won’t do it justice either. Just trust me. Toledo is adorably cute and quaint and all castle like and I loved it.

La Universidad Pontificia de Comillas

La Escuela

So, school. This is really what I am here to do right?? Well, that is what I will tell the University so they will pay my tuition! J I am kidding. I will work hard and attend all my classes and all of that but still I am not going to give school my full attention. How could I when I am in Europe!??!

I am kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place because of how my credits will transfer and such. But, in the end, I think I have found a solution! I am going to have to do another semester at the UofA in the winter, but I am totally okay with that because in the end I am going to get a (this is where you insert your most important sounding voice) Diploma of International Relations from a Spanish Perspective from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. Sounds impressive eh?!  

Classes are awesome. There is a huge group of exchange students that are here and they are all in the same boat as me looking for housing and friends and adjusting to the culture and everything. That means everyone is quite open to one another. It has been a huge blessing. For example, my first week here when I was still wandering the city and finding housing and everything before orientation started I ran into a group of four girls that are from Wisconsin and doing the same program as me! We were all trying to get cell phones so we sat and talked and got our phones and everything. I finished up with the phone stuff first so I said bye and then took off. As I was walking away from the store I realized that I am completely alone in the country and I just made some friends and I should take advantage of it. So, against EVERY natural instinct I have and my fears and insecurities and the whole bit, I gathered my courage and walked right back into the store and invited them out for lunch. And we went! We had scary, hairy pork at a nice little restaurant. Haha! It was quite excellent.

I have met tons of amazing people here though and from all over the world. It is amazing. I was able to sit in my Spanish class and discuss Finland with a girl from Finland and what her home and languages and culture are all like. I was able to meet a girl from Quebec and oh we have had some good times traveling and sitting in class and noting the interesting actions of our program coordinator.

Ohhhhh, one more thing about school. So, I am going to this private Jesuit school, which is interesting. The big day of orientation they showed us this movie introducing the school and its values and why it is the best school out there (as any school will tell you when you first get there). So, this movie started and it took EVERYTHING in me not to burst out laughing. I immediately turned to my friend Jessica and we both were like, “Hogwarts??” It was RIDICULOUS!!!! The opening song is basically the exact same song that plays at the beginning of the Harry Potter movies. Ohhhh we laughed and laughed and laughed. I didn’t know I would learn to be a wizard while studying in Spain.

Ohhhh and one other thing. So, when I first got to Madrid, I was walking around and seeing the sites and situating myself and all of that. After a long day, I started my trek back to the hostel. While doing this I passed the school and again, almost burst out laughing. Get this. My school is identical to a creepy, haunted house at night. It is this huge brick building with this tall, daunting brick fence surrounding the building. It has this clock up at the top and these trees hanging out over the gate that are all wiry and leafless. Oh man. All it needed was a creepy crow to sit on the tree and you would feel like Bell’s father finding the Beast’s castle at the beginning of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Yup, quite excellent. One of these days I will get a picture of it and share the awesomeness with everyone else.

El Apartamento

For those of you who know the fridge-less, dog filled experience I had in Mexico, I am glad to tell you that Europe is kicking trash right now in the housing department. It is pretty stinking awesome! I found this little apartment that is super adorable from the outside. I LOVE the architecture of Europe. It is amazing. I love the stone buildings and the narrow streets and the tall buildings. I love the archways and the old rickety circling stairwells and everything. It makes me feel like I am living it up in an old Sherlock Holmes movie. It brings me joy. Also, I LOVE that the streets aren’t littered with super flashy, ugly franchise signs for grocery stores and fast food. Half the time you can’t even find the signs to tell you what street you are on! Anyways, yes. Love, love, love the architecture.

So, I am living in this tiny little two bedroom apartment. We have a fridge that works!! AND in suite laundry! Woot! It is fantastic. It is a nice enough little student apartment and it is cute and quaint and I feel right at home here. Especially because there is no central heating and all the windows are single paned so I am constantly cold, just like I am back home in Canada! Hahaha! I am surviving though. After sitting with fingers that were ice cold for a couple days I went out and bought THE warmest sweater I could find. It is huge and thick and warm. I also got thick tights to wear under my pants and warmer slippers than the ones I brought. Now I am all set and ready to face this ridiculously cold apartment. BUT the upside is that when it gets ridiculously warm towards the end of my trip, I will totally be ready for it! Bring it warm weather! I shall find relief in my apartment and there is nothing you can do about it. They have this saying in Madrid that is “nueve meses de invierno, tres meses de infierno” which translated means 9 months of winter, 3 months of hell.  I am ready for the hell part. I like warm much more than cold.

One of the great upsides of this apartment is that I have the most fantabulous roommate I could ask for. She is ridiculously wonderful. She is from France and is here doing the practicum portion of her degree. She is super bubbly and outgoing and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. If she has something on her mind, you are going to hear about it. It is super awesome. She understands English but prefers to speak Spanish so in the end ALL of our conversations are in Spanish. It has been excellent. I don’t even have the option of another language. It is going to really help me with the language.

Yup, so that’s the house. I think I am going to break blogs up into a couple entries as I recap what has happened since I got here so this isn’t ridiculously long. Yup. That’s the plan!

I am a genius.... yup...

Well.... I made it! Helllloooooo Europe!!! But let me tell you, it was not as problem free as I had hoped. Seriously, I don´t get it. I can go to school and do super awesome on assignments and pull off fantabulous grades, but do you think I can read a plane ticket right?? Of course not.

So, problems started as soon as I got on plane number one. I had a REALLY short layover, which would have been totally fine cuz I didn´t need to recheck my bags or go through customs, butttt..... clearly it wasn´t long enough. We were sitting in the plane at the good old Edmonton International Airport and then the wonderful voice of our pilot comes onto the intercom saying that they need to move around some bags. I have NEVER heard of this happening before, but whatever, couldn´t take too long could it?? Oh wait, it could. So, twenty minutes later, we are finally taxi-ing out and then we stopped to get the ice off the wings, or something else that I couldn´t be angry about since it would probably save all of our lives, which of course took time. Long story short, before we had left the ground in Edmonton, I was already going to miss my plane in London. Haha! So, I planned ahead, got myself emotionally prepared for chaos and all that good stuff.

Dumb move number one. I never really figured out the whole time change thing. I knew it was eight hours but I didn´t really care enough to think it through to figure out which direction and when I would have to start dealing with it. So, on the plane I decided to watch movies until I was tired. I got through the Social Network (AWESOME!) and was about to start another when I looked at my watch.... 12:00.... maybe I should get a good nights rest I thought. So, I went to sleep (with four airplane blankets and four pillows!) and then a good, solid THREE hours later the lights went on in the cabin. Ohhhhhh.... this would be when the time zone change would slap me in the face.... AWESOME!

Flying into London was the most amazing thing ever!!! Seriously, I just wanted to stay there! I mean, I was way up in the air but I have already fallen in love with that city. I rushed off the plane and went straight to talk to the wonderful ladies of Iberia Airlines and lo and behold... I HADN´T MISSED MY PLANE!!! Yay! Turns out it was super delayed and I even had time to wander around and do whatever I wanted! Que bien! Problem was it didn´t have a gate assigned to it yet, so I had to watch the boards to find out when and where I would need to be to get on the plane.

Now, here comes my most biggest genius move of the day. So, I am sitting there trying not to die of exhaustion and I keep checking the boards or playing games or whatever. At one point, I looked up at the board and was like, huh.... they have changed the flight from 2:30 to 4:30.... that´s strange. I looked at my ticket again and read the EI31-something-something and went, yah, that matches. Oh well, guess we are delayed even further. Then, suddenly there is a gate on the flight! Yaya!! So, I go to the right gate and I am about to get in line when I realize that EI 3175 DOES NOT EQUAL EI3179. Hahahaha.... ooops.... My bad. In all honesty those signs have such small little numbers even if I had looked closer at my ticket, I probably still would have got it wrong. And who puts flights with such similar numbers sooooo close together! Seriously!! So, I am standing in line and hoping that maybe they won´t notice??? Haha! Well, they did. And OHHHHH did I get quite the loud lecture in front of everyone from this rather annoyed French stewardess. Haha! My bad....

So, I went back to the beginning again and begged them to help me get me on a flight. After enough worried looks and semi-forced tears it all worked out. I got on a plane, I made it to Madrid, and I am still alive. When I get to Madrid I pull out my confirmation for my hostel so I could get a cab to get me there when I realize...... my confirmation doesn´t have the address for my hostel on it. Hahahahahaha....... By this time all I could do was laugh. It was hilarious. I got into the cab and oh boy did he give me a strange look when I couldn´t tell him where I wanted to go. We made it there though and here I am! In Madrid! Living it up! Repressing all the feelings of panic and homesickness that seem to be taking over. Seriously, I hate change so much. I still have no idea why I do this to myself. Probably because it is TOTALLY worth it in the end.

Well, that´s all for now folks. Don´t miss me too much. Actually, do. And Skype me and Facebook me and email me allllllll the time.

Love yah!

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

What a week and a bit this has been!

So, life got crazy for me. We will touch on this and then talk about all the awesomeness I have stuffed into my last week here.

So, I have lived in Mexico for the last three months and loved it to death. Originally I had planned to come home on December 11 and then spend Christmas with my family before jumping on a plane to explore the awesomeness that Europe is rumoured to hold. Before I booked my flights I made a bunch of calls to make sure I gave myself enough time to come home, send my passport to Toronto to get my visa for Spain and get it back in time to head out. About a week ago, I was online putting together some documents for my visa when, long story short, I realized that the timeline they originally gave me had changed. So, I am coming home tomorrow!! Haha!

I am REALLY excited to come home. I have missed my family like crazy and I am soooo excited to see all of my friends and snow and Christmas lights and everything. But, oh dang am I going to miss Mexico. Seriously, I have had some crappy times, it is true. There are times when I wanted to throw things and times where I have cried but those moments are definitely overpowered by the fabulous experience I have had, the amazing friends I have made, and the awesome adventures I have had. Tears for leaving….

So, my three weeks until I came home rapidly changed to 8 days so clearly I have jammed as much awesome fun as possible into those 8 days. I jumped on a bus and went out to sit on the beach in Puerto Vallarta for a couple of days. Day one was cloudy and blah so I spent the day shopping in the markets and wandering the city. Day two was GORGEOUS!! And I have the worst sunburn of my life to prove it. Seriously, I will never learn.

That day, I jumped on a bus and came back to Guadalajara just in time to head off to the church dance. I am going to miss salsa sooooooo much!! I was super excited to spend the entire night dancing away. But the DJ was a little lame, I was burnt to a crisp, and my shoe was broken. Don’t get me wrong, I got my dance on, but let’s just say it was an awkward evening.

On Saturday I spent the majority of the day with my roommate. Apparently, every year one country in the world puts together these GIANT marionettes. This year, Mexico was selected and they picked Guadalajara as the city that it would take place in. This was the COOLEST thing EVER!!! Seriously! There were three of these giant puppets. One was a 9.5 meter tall man with the Mexican hat and clothing and the moustache. Then there was a little girl and a dog. There is a Mexican story that goes along with this that was told over the span of the week. Ask me about it if you want to hear. But yes, we went and watched them walk by. It was RIDICULOUS!! It took 30 men to operate this giant man. I have videos I will post on Facebook, it was that cool. After playing there for awhile we went out for dinner and had a blast. Mmmmmm…. Food.

On Sunday we had a final FHE at our place. It was really good. We talked about friends and friendships and played Do You Love Your Neighbour until our neighbours came over to tell us they didn’t love us and to quit playing. Haha! So, we switched to charades. This was hands down THE most intense game of charades I have ever witnessed. Seriously. I laughed soooooo hard. Man, we were ridiculously loud. At the end of the night, the entire group took turns telling me that they loved me and why and all of this and I just sat there trying not to cry and I did really good until Laura’s turn and then I was done for. There was no chance I was making it through that one.

Monday I spent with my little group of friends I have developed. I have spent the last couple of weeks hanging out and traveling with Laura and her boyfriend Gabriel and their friend Alejandro. I am more grateful for this group than I will ever be able to express. They have been little angels for me. We went shopping and went to see the city from the lookout and ate some good old traditional Mexican food. Seriously, I am going to miss the food sooooo much! Mexican food in Canada does not even come close to touching the real stuff.

Tuesday was a blast. There is a girl at my work named Veronica or Vero. She is a hoot and one of my favourite people. She lived in the States with a Mormon family for a couple of summers and one day as we sat and talked about her experience we started talking about food she had while she was there. In that conversation we decided we were going to have a night of baking. And a month and a half later and 2 days before I leave, we finally got around to it!! We made some awesome raspberry jello dessert stuff and an angel food cake to put it on top of. I have to say, we didn’t do too bad! Haha! Sooo good!! It was such a blast though. We went out shopping for ingredients and she started showing me all of the stuff I had to buy and the sauces and the mole and the pans to cook them on and everything. Ohhhh we had a good time. I love that girl and will miss her oh so very much.

And today is my last day here. I am at work right now, working very hard clearly. I am going to take off right away to make my final purchases, pack up my bags and get ready to go. I will have one last dinner with my boss, sleep, and then get on a plane to come home. Where everyone can hug me and tell me how much they missed me and love me.

See you all soon!!!

Ps…. Don’t forget about Taco Night – December 12!!!! Soooooo stoked!!!