where to start? the last i left you all i was in ireland. seems like forever ago, but i had a weekend here in madrid and then midterms the following week- ew. let me just say that the was the first time i entered the library at school and my study habits were definitely below par. i'm going to have to kick my butt back into gear after coming back from spring break! AH! school is challenging over here. please don't kill me as you read this parents.
after midterms i had a lot to look forward to: FAMILY IN MADRID! for 10 days. we had an absolute blast. they arrive on saturday and michael and i left on sunday for a trip for just the two of us to palma mallorca. a small island in the south east mediterranean. the bluest waters, amazing cliffs, and wonderful people and culture. on sunday night we met up with my other madrid/marquette amigos that were posted up in mallorca as well. we had dinner, and then things got a little wild at the bar thereafter. michael was on his a-game. the following day michael and i did some major relaxing on the beach. what a life. we also did a TON of bike riding- i'm guessing close to 50 miles in one day! we biked along the coastline with our little baskets, and ended up at the top of some cliffs with sweeping views of the island and ocean. then, a little cliffdiving! this was followed up by a rasley sibs dinner date night. michael and i always have the best conversations. we can be talking about the most insightful things, and go on for hours about absolutely anything, and at the same time we can have the goofiest, most non-serious, and immature conversations about nothing. i love moke so much. so blessed to get along so well with my brother. and what a guapo fellow- as was stated later by my host mother. however, on our last day in mallroca we woke up and got some breakfast and wandered around the city, saw lots of sights in downtown, and then posted up on the beach for the rest of the day. i honestly forgot what it was like being tan. my skin was crying for sun! carolyn does not do pale well. leaving mallorca was a bit of a tragedy. i am praying to god that i make it back to this heavenly spot sometime in the future. it was definitely a highlight of my time here abroad. the pictures might do better justice then my descriptions:
the cathedral in downtown palma
el parque del mar-overlooking the ocean
playing
biking adventures along the coast
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
why should i ever come back home? give me one good reason.
rasley sibs date night
bye bye palma!
after coming back to reality...no wait we still came back to madrid so i'm still living the good life ha! i digress. after we came back, michael and the fam and i had some awesome hiking adventures in cercedillas about an hour north of the city. although i've already been, i thought it was a fun little getaway since we all loved the outdoors. i think mom and tom were happy to have me back since they were stranded for 3 days without any spanish translators and myself as a tour guide! however, they learned the basic words they needed to such as "cafe solo" and "oh, oh grathias." haha i can still hear these words echoing in my head. ah my family. we had a blast hiking, and we ran into some wild horses on our hike. only in spain!
later that night we celebrated my birthday a little early at downtown sol, complete with beautiful music, somewhat decent food, and wonderful company. now that i'm writing this all down this is sounding likea whirlwind of a week but there's still so much more oofta! (norwegian side of me coming out)
where i resided all week. heaven. "the palace" right across from the prado.
thursday and friday involved me actually going to school- i forgot i actually had to do that. thursday michael and i chilled in retiro during the afternoon, and michael enjoyed reading world events to me form the newspaper since i'm a little out of the loop. however, yes michael i am aware that there was an earthquake in japan...thanks though. we continued our usual tradition of good conversations and i took him to my favorite steps where dad and i had once sat in the beginning of march. a rasley tradition! later that night michael and i went out to cave bar with a couple of my friends so he could enjoy the spanish night life and leche from the gods. dad and steph- you'll have to hear what he has to say about it, i know you cool kids wanted to go ha
oh retiro. favorite place. only 50 days left in spain. shooooot.
friday was fun because i got to sneak off with my mom and we walked down the fuencarral and did some awesome people watching and extravagant window shopping. i loved having some mom time to myself :) big mama's girl over here. speaking of mama's, we had dinner on friday night with gloria- my spanish mama! it was one big happy family dinner, and else my host sister from marquette came to join us too. needless to say, my head hurt after dinner from translating both conversations from english to spanish and english to spanish, but some highlights were: gloria repeating over and over how handsome or "guapo" michael was. gloria and her younger men...typical. and my mother saying thank you over and over again, and gloria tearing up when i told her she will always be my mommy too :) oh and lats but not least when she was differentiating elise and i. and how i am so stylish in my appearances, and how she would definitely think i'm european. eeee happiness i belongggggg haha! and also she said that i dress more "flirty" then elise, but she doesn't know if i actually flirt outside the house hahaha needless to say elise and i had one of our laughing sessions that lasted for about 5 minutes. when this happens she always asks what's so funny. laughing with or at gloria, she always brings a good laugh. we had such a wonderful time at dinner and we were there for 3 hours! time flies when you're having fun. i know all of you have wanted to see pictures of gloria so here goes:
my two moms :)
my crazy beautiful spanish family. SO MUCH LOVE!
saturday we decided to do a little day trip to where else but Toledo! we took the AVE train which shot us there like a bullet- we arrived in half hour and the train is awesome, i'm considering taking it to cordoba and granada for a weekend! when we arrived in toledo we took a bus up around the city to get a wonderful view of what we would be exploring all day. the view was, to say the least breathtaking. when we made our way into the city we stopped for lunch in the main plaza and then decided all what we wanted to do. somehow i ended up being the designated navigator- i am not the best with maps and didn't know where we were going. i got a little stressed since everyone was pulling me in different directors eek! but it all turned out okay. we saw the alcazar, cathedral, monastery, el greco's house, and the awesome synagogue. not sure if you know reader haha but toledo used to be the capital of spain back in the day, and it used to be a city stronghold but at one point it was taken over by the muslims. hence why you might notice some of the buildings with that style. toledo used to also be a three way meeting point. jews, christians, and muslims all used to co-exist here at one point. so much history that's just a tidbit. we had a lovely day exploring and our feet killed at the end of the day. toeldo is such a hilly, up and down city that our whole bodies were exhausted from hiking all day.
train station @ atocha with giant forest and animals. que guay.
welcome to toledo
what a view
cervantes!
cathedral
my fave spot
love 'em
though it was the last night, i decided that taking michael to kapital would be in everyone's best interest. so michael and i trudged ourselves out around 2 am when all the gatos were out and about roaming the streets. do i need to go on? of course we had a fun night. this girl and that guy know how to have fun. lots of chupitos, goofy dancing, hailing king megatron the king of kapital, and making fun of creepy blonde spanish men haha you know what i mean michael. waking up the next morning was near impossible, and leaving my family at the airport was even harder. knowing that i get to see them in a month and a half made it a little easier, but still it was sad. half of me wanted to hop on that plane. i came home and slept for most of the day and then made plans for my not so big day today ha.
today, my 21st birthday- my only class was cancelled so i went shopping with laura and colleen and then laid in retiro park all day. aside from my embarrassing moment involving about 25 madrid police officers (ask later if you care to know.) , it was all in all a great day, wonderful weather and we had a little picnic under the sun. i came home and packed from my 16 day excursion that i'm leaving on tomorrow. although i haven't really celebrated by going out like a typical 21st birthday, i decided i wanted to go out one night in greece and get a little wild so cheers to that! another thing i should mention, elise and gloria were so cute and brought me a little cake tonight for dinner and a beautiful bracelet-its todo tipos de preciosa :) i have the best fam ever.
me being a loser on my birthday in retiro and proving i had a drink
so i'm off tomorrow on my wonderful spring breezy 2011 adventure. so much to see and do! i can't wait to see and do everything i've dreamed of and more, especially with such wonderful friends. having such a wonderful birthday-these next 2 weeks can only get better from here on out! here i come greece and italy!
sorry for not more descriptive stories, or fun music. i tried to crank out this blog post as fast as possible eek. hope you enjoyed. wish me luck and look forward to my next blog post in may! seems so long from now but i'm sure it will creep up! thanks for all the birthday love today. feeling very blessed and loved.
and this special blog shoutout goes out to my #smellycompanero david kuester. my avid blog reader, and close friend who skyped me twice on my birthday. made me feel missed and very loved. well hey i love and miss you friend! speaking spanish without you just doesn't seem right. can't wait for this summer!
seriously missing you all.
-your spanish girl
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