We went to Madrid yesterday! Plan was to meet at la estación del tren al 10am, pero YO decided to walk to the train station from Primi’s apartment instead of take the bus (25 minute walk vs. 10 minute bus ride). Thought it’d be a nice morning stroll. However, surprise surprise surprise, even though I had el mapa out in front of me while walking, I still somehow managed to get lost… and my 25 minute walk turned into a 40 minute walk. Sorry my amigos nuevos! It’s inevitable… I will always be 10 minutes late. Terd.

Madrid=crazy cool. After we arrived in the train station in Madrid, we got to surface level and began to explore. There were tons of street performers just like in New York City... however everyone spoke Spanish (except for this one creepy man dressed as Spiderman in La Plaza Mayor… he was British... and had a lovely beer belly… and an exceptionally disgusting smokers cough. Please see pictures.). Some of the troop (there were 11 of us) went on a guided tour of the inside of the royal palace (that is now used as just a government building… king & queen live somewhere else these days), but Lauren, Richard, Spencer, and Me decided to save our Euros and just take our own tour of the outside of the palace (BEAUTIFUL! Once again… see pictures). The gardens and fountains and magnificent architecture were absolutely gorgeous. I tried to imagine what it’d be like to be the queen 300 years ago and to stroll around those lovely gardens in a huge poofy dress, my hair all powdered up, and saying fancy old-timey Spanish things with my servants following close behind… I think I was much more comfortable in my skirt, sweater, scarf, and boots as a tourist in 2010 than she ever was. Also, I don’t have to worry about governing a country. Or worry about going to war. I just get to take pictures, let my mind wander, and imagine what it’d be like instead.

After we walked around the palace, and while waiting for the others to finish their guided tour, we decided to lose ourselves in the city. And we literally did that. We just walked around and explored as much as we could. We may or may not have seen a few prostitutes struttin’ their stuff on the street corner. We saw many beautiful history-filled buildings, cathedrals, interesting clothing stores, pastry stores, extravagant restaurants, cute lil cafés, cute lil bars (usually the bar and café are the same thing lol), street vendors, tons of fountains and parques, etc… It was so fun!

When it came time for lunch, the 4 of us decided to sit down by a fountain in a little plaza and eat our sandwiches picnic style. Prior to our picnic we purchased a bottle of locally made red wine, and during our picnic we enjoyed all of it. It was the best bottle of wine I’ve ever purchased. Also the only bottle of wine I’ve ever purchased due to the fact that in USA I’m still underage… haha. Then we met up with the rest of the group, and we all went (for FREE) to the Museum Reína Sofía and the Museum Prada. They were amazing. I got to see paintings up close by Goya, Picasso, Velasquez, and many other famous artists from Spain. La Guernica by Picasso is HUGE and is even sadder in person. Even though the figures in his painting are disfigured and un-proportional (on purpose of course… I mean it’s Picasso.) you could still sense the terror of the painting, reflecting how much pain and suffering the people had to endure during the ‘testing’ of some of Hitler’s bombs. What the eff. That’s so messed up. Que terible.

Anyways… Then after a wonderful loooooonnnng day in Madrid we headed back to Alcala por el tren at about 7:45pm. But don’t worry, the day didn’t end there… because just walking to the bus stop and riding home is way too easy. No, no. I have to get on the wrong bus in Alcala that takes me to the total opposite side of the city than where I live. Then I have to not know where the poop I am. Then I have to search for another bus stop that will take me to the east side so I can get home (pepper spray in hand this whole time, don’t kid yourself.). Then I have to ask for directions from probably the most immature 17ish year old couple who is nastily making out at the bus stop, and then of course they have to look at me like I’m some idiot who doesn’t pronounce Spanish words correctly (ding-ding-ding. Foreigner.) and say “no se” (I don’t know) to everything I ask. They probably just wanted to PDA it up a lil more to make me feel even more awkward… ah! So then of course they have to start kissing again. Ew. Okay... enough ranting… I eventually made it home safe and sound and extremely exhausted about an hour after I should have arrived. Dadgum buses. The End.
I love Spain. But I wish I knew how to get around! ‘Twas a great day nonetheless! I’m just glad I have the opportunity to be here!

My guardian angel is watching me though, that’s for sure!
that's all for now. amor amor amor por todos

lil bity world + pictures

Narnia... IN SPANISH. I went into a book store the other day for a while and explored and i think i may go back and buy this para leer! :)

Madrid!!! It was raining a lot.. but this picture is still really cool! Look at all the paraguas (umbrellas), even with all of those we were still soaking wet. Oh well, all part of the adventure! :)

My darling new friends, Lauren and Katie, on the train going to Madrid

Candy Store. Spanish candy is weird.. but it's candy nonetheless. I LOVE THIS PLACE.

Everything is smaller in spain. i love it.

cars, apartments, houses, stores, people (usually), roads.... everything! Why take up an unnecessarily large amount of space if you can avoid it?

My bedroom=tiny. Why? Because that's all the space I need.

Kitchen=tiny. Why? All you're doing in there is cooking, why take up more room?

Cars=tiny. Why? people here take the bus, train, or walk! There are no oversized escalades here.. it's refreshing! I know when everything is super big and extravagant it may seem like it make things more exciting, but not really. Here, tiny cars make sense. They take up less space parked on the streets, use less gas, and are more environmentally friendly. Way to go Espana!

The people are even smaller! Which means some of the doors are smaller.. which is really funny when some of my really tall American friends try to walk through them.. hehehe! It's all so interesting!

More to come......

some picturas

The Living Room/Dining Room













La Cocina!

Bathroom Bedroom!

Our (well, Primitiva's) apartment.. it's so cute!
The first door on the left is primi's room, the next is my room, and on the right is my bathroom. Straight ahead is la cocina, and then at the end of the hall if you turn left you'll be in the living room/dining room!

this is what you see when you open up the door to the apartment

Espresso... with milk... and sugar.... in a cute lil spanish coffee cup. I'm livin off this til i'm used to the time change. haha

The view of the great lakes from the plane above Chicago!

That's all for now.

Map = una necesidad

Maps.Maps.Maps. I love maps (I also love the song Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs… but that’s not the maps I’m talking about right now).

I feel like the biggest scoob always walking around Alcalá holding a map out in front of me, but I also feel like such a champ when I arrive at the destination I so desperately sought out. Yesterday I walked all the way from La Plaza Cervantes (which is right by la Universidad Alcala) to Primitiva Ruiz’s apartment. It took about 25 minutes, but only because I stopped every 8 feet to look at the map haha! Las Calles (streets) are not in a grid at ALL like most cities in the U.S… they’re just randomly starting and ending wherever they want. One street will take a sliiiight curve and then all of a sudden be called another street! This is how I got lost today. I was walking back to la Universidad (after eating a delicious lunch of broccoli soup) and all of a sudden I realized that I didn’t recognize anything… so I stopped... looked at my map… and saw that I was about 5 blocks off of my route. It’s okay, I just held the map out in front of me while I walked (fitting in perfectly with the locals? NOT!) until I found my way back to the university! Hahaha! Whoops!

Everything is so beautiful here. So what it rained all day yesterday (yes… all day…), even the rain is pretty! There are so many amazing buildings that have so much meaning and history, I can’t wait to memorize the map of the city so I can actually soak in all the wonderfulness while I walk around instead of just staring at the map, hahha!

Also, I discovered the bus system here in Alcalá. That’s another map I need to be familiar with! It’s extremely confusing, but so helpful and convenient too!!

We went to Madrid yesterday! About 20 of the American students and some of the directors of the program took the train and explored the capitol city for about an hour and a half or so, we would’ve stayed longer but it was pourrrring down rain! It is SUCH a cool city, I think me and a few friends might go back this weekend and actually hang out when we can actually walk down the streets and not canoe due to the large amount of rain.

This morning at breakfast, me and Primi Ruíz talked the entire time (in Spanish of course haha) about Santa Claus [known as PaPa Noel here]. It was hilarious. I’ll admit that sometimes when she got going real fast I only caught every 4th or 5th word, but it was still funny!

First day of classes today: I had Spanish Civilization and Culture at 10:30 and then Los Maestros de Pintura (great painters of Spain) at 12:30. They were both very interesting and I'm really excited for this semester to learn more about Spain and get better and better with the language. I had a nice 30 min. break in between classes so me and my delightfully funny new friend Lauren Poindexter went and had cafe' con leche (coffeeeeeeeeee!!!) at a cute lil coffee shop in la plaza de cervantes. Gotta get my caffeine fix for the day.

Now I'm done with class for the day and I'm about to walk back to Primitiva's apartment for some lunch and then probably a lil siesta. This evening we're all going out for some fun! No class tomorrrrrowwwww = Time to explore the city!

It's weird that it's early afternoon here and I'm done with all the things I really need to do for the day, but in Oklahoma people are just now starting. Crazy. Probably won't get used to that for a while.

My “jollys” (+) and “oh gollys” (-) :

+ I love my Spanish/English dictionary.
- I don’t like the time change. It’s weird.
+ I love café con leche.
- I don’t like that Spaniards talk 300 miles per hour.
+ I love my hilarious new friends that are sharing this amazing experience with me.
- I don’t like that a phone call home is so expensive.
+ I love spanish wine and free tapas!
- I don’t like that I still don’t have internet in the apartment and can't figure out how to work the university's computers. McDonald’s free wifi rocks... but really.
+ I love that I can feel God’s protection as He guides me through each minute of the day.

Okay, es todo para hoy! I miss all my friends and family and wish ya’ll were here with me.

Toodles,
Katie [pronounced “Kah-tee” here in Spain... hahaha ]

p.s. Happy 21st Birthday Anna Mackey!

Oh hey Spain. What's up?

Realization (realización):
I now have an entirely new definition of the word confused (confundida en espanol). It also has been moved up to #1 in the list of adjectives that describe me.

Here are some of the events that have happened since I left good ole Oklahoma:

1. 1 ½ hour layover in the Chicago airport turned into an 8 hour layover due to mechanical problems with the plane that… but on the bright side, at least they fixed the plane before sending us up in the air! Optimism. Check it. So I ended up getting to the Madrid airport 7 hours later than I was supposed to, but everything turned out fine because I’m alive! Hallaaa.

2. There are people in this world that don’t speak a lick of English. Such as the lady I’m living with, and everyone in the Madrid airport that I happened to ask where my luggage was.

3. My host family lady was not there to pick me up once I arrived in Alcala, so I was adopted for the evening (Monday) by a cute lil old Spanish woman named María & the 2 Alabama guys staying with her that were on my autobus from Madrid to Alcala. She had a cat named Cilla. María loved Cilla… she also talked to her a lot. It’s nice to see that people on the other side of the world talk to their animals as if they were humans like I do… we all really do have a lot in common! (except I hate cats.)

4. Spanish candy is weird. And tastes like really dry cocoa powder. I don’t have enough saliva to eat that stuff! But you know I do anyways. Fa sho.

5. Coffee? No. espresso shots. Spaniards are so hard core, they don’t mess around with their caffeine! This morning me, Sarah, and Brittany (some fellow O.U. students) went to this bar/coffee shop (what a great combination… baileys and coffee anyone? Boom. Two in one.) and I had the most delicious café con leche y azucar (espresso shots with milk and sugar). Chicah yeahhhh!

6. I’m living with a lady named Primitiva Rúiz, but she said to just call her “Primi”! She is about 5’1, has short, curly, bright red hair, and is about 60 years old. She’s like a lil firecracker! So energetic! So lively! But she speaks Spanish faster than a jack rabbit on crack. I keep saying “No entiendo, más despacio porfavor” (I don’t understand, slower please), but she stays at the same speed! However, she’s as cute as can be… so I just smile and nod and say “sííííí!”

7. This morning Primi fixed “tortitas” which is Spanish breakfast dish, kind of like a mix between eggs and a pancake…. It was really good! She put jam and whip cream on it… Mom never lets me put whip cream on my breakfast at home! Spain rocks.

8. God created everyone equal. We all share similar emotions, thoughts, feelings. We all laugh, cry, frown, etc. I think it’s so cool that sometimes humans get so filled up with emotion that it literally explodes. For instance, laughing. We can smile, giggle, shrug our shoulders in a little chuckle, but eventually something makes us so incredibly joyful that we can’t hold in the emotion any longer and a great big laugh literally explodes from our body. Same with crying.

9. Primitiva is really funny, she talks & laughs all the time, quite a giggler you see… the problem is that I don’t know what she’s saying half the time so I don’t know why she’s laughing, but boy golly I laugh along anyways! Nonetheless, I enjoy the giggles!

10. It still doesn't feel like I'm in Spain!!! This is crazy.

11. There's a McDonalds in La Plaza near la Universidad that has free wifi, delicious desserts, and they sell beer too. I have only experienced the 1st two, however since I'm "21" here I guess I can take advantage of enjoying a nice cold cerveza when eating my Ensalada off the dollar menu. Hahaha :)

84 hours til take off..

Hello world. So, I leave for my semester in Spain in 3 days.

Here's a look at a few of the questions I've been asking myself:

1. Hey self, are you freakin out yet?
No.. it doesn't seem real yet!

2. Katie whennn are you going to start packing?
Well, I've definitely pretended to start packing.. as in.. i've made lots of lists, put lots of things in lots of piles, made new playlists on my ipod, and thought about how in the world I'm going to fit 4 months worth of "necessities" (I'm redefining the word for myself through this process) in 2 suitcases.

3. Hey self, think you're going to be lost?
yup. probably. thanks for reminding me, myself. I'll probably be lost in the language, culture, and actually just finding my way around the city for a while. I think I need a compass. hmm. yeah.

4. What are you going to miss most?
my comfortable everyday life. but at the same time.. that's what i'm most excited to get away from. Life can be so repetitive. I'm excited to add some flare, meet new people, and be forced to escape from the tiny bubble i call comfort.

Toodles.