Camp Champ!

Okay, I have a few minutes so I will try to give you as much as an update as I can for as long as I can! Yikes.

So I made it (finally) at 4 a.m. and Tricia and I talked for a while so I got to bed it was about 5. I had to get up at 8 to get ready for the day and start going for the day on 3 hours of sleep. We are all aware that does not work for Amanda. But I got up and met the rest of the group and had a delicious (for reals) omlette from the Hotel Moldova. Then we headed up to the Foundation Office and unloaded the boxes that we had brought. One of the girls that is with us has a husband who plays for the Green Bay Packers (Brady Poppinga) and they have a foundation called Poppinga Pay it Forward that gathered a whole bunch of stuff. And when I say "Whole Bunch" I mean about 85 tons of supplies. Seriously. Clothes, toys, medical supplies, you name it. I unpacked the camp supplies and then helped them get things organized and it took a very very long time. We also had a meeting with a bunch of the staff where we introduced ourselves and went over the agenda for the week.

After that we went to the Elena Farago orphanage to see the teens. I tell you what I was a celebrity there. The boys were running at me and it was SO SO SO SO good to see them again. We talked and hung out and all of them kind of introduced themselves and talked about where they are in life and what they are doing. We also met the new director for the place and he is a great man. His eyes just totally light up and I can tell he really cares about the kids there. He has a really good heart and he made me feel really comforatble about having the boys there. They were leaving for camp the next day so that was our only night to hang out at the center.

After that a few of us went to the Children's Protection office where the painter Costica has his studio. A few of the girls bought paintings (he wouldn't sell the one I wanted, it was one of Oana's.) and we saw all of the amazing murals he's made for the kids in the Children's Protection building. It mostly houses kids in emergency situations who are being abused and it was a really nice and clean facility.

After that we headed back to the Foundation Apartment to have dinner with the Bridge to Success boys: Claudiu, Adrian, Vasile, Sorin, Danut, and Bogdan. Oh, how I love those boys so much. We ate and hung out and Brooke brought all of them tons of Packers clothes. They got brand new shoes, shirts, coats and pants all from the team and I think most of them were autographed. They were really excited even thought they have NO IDEA what American Football is. They still were pretty excited. I gave the guys a few CD's and we had a good talk (of course) about how we expect them to make good decisions and how what they decide now will really effect them and how we're so proud of the gains they've been making lately. It was so great to see them and I was so sad that they all left for camp and I wont get to see them again! They all seemed happy and healthy and I just love them so much!

The next day was the first day of camp and it was so awesome. The theme for the day was all activities that had to do with Christmas (the parents thought I was totally nuts) and we decorated Christmas trees, made ornaments out of pipe cleaners and beads, made macaroni necklaces and decorated big wooden stars. The little kids (3-5ish) came first and the older kids came later. We did the same thing for both groups and it was a blast. We had so much fun! The kids are really awesome and the moms were so supportive and so helpful with the kids! We had a lot of fun with camp.

After camp the first day we went to the special needs orphanage. It still is getting so much better! We brought bumper pads for all the cribs and got to tie them all on and hold the kids. Yes, Debbie, I got to hold Alexandra again and she is so sweet. We played frisbee with a few of the older kids there and hung out for a while. After that we did some organizations of the camp stuff and clothes stuff for a long time and then a few of us went to Happy Time for dinner. After that we totally just hit the sack. I was still trying to catch up on sleep which was about the longest process ever.

Tuesday we did camp again with the theme of Animals. We all got there and started to set up and the parents and kids all came and we were about ready to start when we realized that not one person there spoke English and Romanian. None of the staff had shown up yet. We pulled out crayons and paper to kill some time... then we needed more time to kill so we pulled out the parachute... We didn't get an interpreter there until almost an hour late! We got things going and it ended up being one of the funnest days. We had kids crawling around acting like animals and a whole bunch of pictures and masks and we did some races while acting like animals. It was probably the funnest day of camp. After that we went to the Barlad Children's Hospital and delivered a whole bunch of medical supplies and delivered toys to the kids that were there. It was so fun to be playing Santa and taking toys to all the kids. We couldn't hold any of the babies or take pictures which is probably best considering the 800 I have of Stefan from last year. These poor mothers had to deal with all of us totally invading their privacy as the nurses took us into all the rooms. It was really cool to see the therapy room there. They were doing a lot of massage therapy there with the kids and it was so interesting to see it. The room was really nice and colorful and they were doing massage therapy with a girl with muscular dystrophy and another boy with some leg problems. I had never seen that room before and it was really cool.

After me and Tricia did some mad Barlad shopping, we met all of the staff for dinner at Alona's which turned into about a 3 hour affair by the time we all ordered and ate. It was a really good time to just sit and have fun and talk to them outside of the setting with the kids. We just kind of had fun and ate a lot and sat for a long time.

Okay, I think 3 days is about all I can cover in one blog. I have so much to say about the improvements in this place. Elena Farago is incredible. The special needs center and the hospital seem so much better staffed and the kids seem so cared for. The parents are even getting so much more involved with their children. I am just so happy with the situation these kids are facing. It seems like the whole town is coming together and taking care of these kids. We talked to a lady at the hospital who said that things are looking better because parents are excited to have kids and "wishing to have children." I have been so pleased with how things are looking here and it's making me so happy for these kids.

Okay, that's enough for today. Love you all! See you soon!

Death. To. Flights.

Okay. Prepare yourself for the worst story of my lifetime! Grab a chair (this will be a long one), and some tissues because you are either going to cry for me or laugh so hard you'll cry. Depends on whether you are a jerk or not.

So the morning I was supposed to leave for Bucharest I made Megann and Mitch get up EXTRA early so we would get to the airport in plenty of time to get me to the airport. We got to the Madrid airport with PLENTY of time to get me going. I bought my ticket online and they mailed me a paper ticket (raise your hand if you've seen one of those in 10 years... anyone...?) so I wanted to make sure I had tons of time to make sure there were no problems. See, once I got to Bucharest I was meeting the rest of the travel group to take a van to Barlad. They landed a little bit before me and were going to have the van loaded and ready to go so I had to be totally ready to just jump on the van when I landed.

So I'm at the airport and the lady at the check in counter says that I need to be in some other line because of my ticket and my flight and my line will open at 9:30. I asked her if that would be a problem because my flight took off at 10:15 and that sounded like it was cutting it close, but she quickly directed us to the other line. We waited in the other line for over an hour and when the pudgy Spanish man finally waddled behind the counter and put up the flight info... It wasn't my flight. I had been in the wrong line the whole time. This is where Amanda starts to sob. Uncontrollably. In the airport. So we freak out and find some lady who was standing there who tells me I'm pretty much screwed because my flight is closed and there is no way I can get there and I need to go back to the lady that told me that in the first place. So we run to the front of her line, leaving many angry Spaniards in our frantic wake, and she admits she made the mistake and tells me to take both of my bags as carry-on luggage and run for it. She makes me a quick boarding pass and gets a speedy security stamp and tells me to run.

And run I did. I was pulling the biggest one behind me and pushing the smaller one in front of me. I get to the security line and they rush me through but I have to chuck all of my liquids. Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash, hair spray, everything. The security guy was nice enough to run them back to Meg and Mitch. I get down some ramp and realize I have to take a train to my terminal. Then I have to go through Passport control. Then I have to run down about 15 hallways STILL sobbing like a maniac, STILL carrying a month's worth of luggage. Needless to say when I got there... No plane.

THey directed me to the counter where they were nice enough to get me on the next flight, but I was in the airport realizing that I had no way to get from Bucharest to Barlad and no way to contact the group to tell them I wasn't going to be arriving at three. So at this point I did what any girl would do... I called my daddy in the middle of the night and asked him to fix it.

My poor dad gets a hysterical phone call in the middle of the night and has no idea how to help me! We finally decided that I could get to Bucharest and find a hotel and take a train in the morning. No one in their right mind wants to spend a night in Bucharest alone! I was totally freaked out with that solution but I was out of ideas. We talked about how to get ahold of the people and my dad decided he'd call the mission home and try to get ahold of our friends the Lundbergs who are the mission presidents in Bucharest and worked with the foundation and they could give us a number to let them know I'd be late.

So my dad calls as I'm boarding the plane and says "Laurie Lundberg will pick you up at the airport. She says dont worry and she will take complete care of you." I have never heard better words in all of my days. It was the first time in about 6 hours that I actually stopped crying.

Laurie and Scott and Joshua were there when I got off the plane and I immediately started crying yet again because I was so happy to see someone that spoke my language and was a familiar face that I trusted! THey took me to the mission home and fed me dinner and had the AP's physically walk me to my seat and ask the people in my car to make sure I got off in Barlad because I'd already missed my chance to get there once and I didn't want to miss it again! My train didnt leave until 11 which means I didn't even get to Barlad until 3:30 in the morning. Wonderful Sorin from the foundation had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to haul my butt and luggage to the hotel. I'm glad it takes the full force of the Church in Bucharest to get Amanda to a destination. Mercy.

Okay, this is really long and I am SO SO SORRY that I have not written about the kids! I know a lot of you are counting on that and I promise I will write soon. I had to get this story out of the way.

THe kids are amazing. I love them. I have so much to write but I am leaving Barlad on Friday and will try to write tomorrow when camp ends. I have so many great pictures and lots of really ugly ones (one where I look like Quazimoto the Hunchback) and so much to talk about but I will leave this story in all it's glory.

Love you all!I will see you soon!

I Corazon Madrid

So tonight I am packing... Well, blogging with the intention of packing later.

Madrid has been awesome. We have gotten lots of sleep which has been definitely needed! Especially after how jam packed Rome was. The first night after we got back, Megann and I went on a romantic date to see the Flamenco Ballet. It was so awesome. There were like 12 dancers total and a live band on stage and they just rocked it. The audience was straight Americans, which really made me laugh because it was definitely geared towards tourists. The dancers were definitely spicy and Meg and I definitely loved it. It was really cool to see. After that we kinda roamed the streets (looking for a fabled Subway Restaurant we´d heard about) and ended up doing a little bit of shopping (oops! No Pradas this time, though!) and ended up eating the best chicken sandwiches ever at KFC! We´re super authentic in our food, but I hear Spanish food isn´t that great.

The next day (yesterday) I spent some time in the Thyssen Museum which is a HUGE art museum that is all one family´s private collection, which is insane. It was quite the large collection. M and M had already seen it all so I went by myself which is probably best because I´m a nerd and got like the audio tour and wandered for a while. Then we took a few Metros (I am getting deathly sick of public transportation and am pining, yes pining, for my Mazda) and ended up at an incredible park that had some tram system that takes you over a huge chunk of Madrid. It was a great way to see tons of the city without dealing with the weird Madrid-ians.

People in Madrid are so strange. Italy was full of very beautiful and extremely well dressed people. Madrid on the other hand?? Yikes. This is the land of mullets. Men, women, young, old, it doesn´t matter, you cut the mullet. And if you´re extra fancy?? Grow the back into dreads. Then add some hammer pants or skinny jeans, wear shirts from 1980 and throw in some cleavage and you are good to go! Add a cigarette just to make yourself extra authentic. It´s gross.

That was a huge detour but it needed to be said.

After the tram ride we went into the park to see this huge Egyptian temple. Yes, Egyptian temple. Apparently Spain helped Egypt with something at some point and so they donated a huge temple that they took apart and labeled each brick and then put back together in the park. It was really cool. We got there about 10 seconds after closing time so we couldn´t go in, but the outside of it was oddly cool for how out of place it looks in the middle of Madrid!

Today we spent the day at Aquopolis, which was the most ghetto water park I have ever seen! Yes, Emily, more ghetto than Roaring Springs in Meridian Idaho. It´s in the middle of nowhere built on top of a huge hay field. They have like 10 slides, but let me tell you what. Maybe it´s the lack of safety codes or something but some of those slides are AWESOME. We went on some huge blue one about 20 times by the end of the day. The other weird thing about people from Madrid (and pretty much Europeans in general) is their lack of decision making skills when it comes to swimwear. I have never seen so much anatomy in my life as I did today. And that almost includes our days at the beach. I think Megann and I were 2 of about 5 women there NOT in bikinis, which isn´t a bad thing until you factor in that many of them were large, many of the bikinis were small, and all of the slides included a strong water current. And then add in the men in Speedos or white tight swim shorts and you´ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Or a lesson in body parts.

So tonight I pack. Little challenging due to the handbags, but it needs to be done. I am getting really excited to go to Romania. I am so excited to see those kids for now the third year in a row and see how far they´ve come in the last 2 years! I´m very excited to get there and a little bit sad to only be there for a week, but I am starting to get anxious to come home and get my classroom set up! Yikes. Well, next time I blog it will be from the lovely city of Barlad. Thanks for all of the comments, emails, etc. and keep them coming. Romania is hard on my heart every year and it was harder last year than the first year so I hope it´s not a trend.

I love you all so much! Be good while I´m gone!

Ciao, Roma....

So today we said goodbye to Roma.... And what a sad day it was...

So Sunday night we went back into the city to this huge outdoor market. There was a bunch of crap for sale so we did a lot of browsing and even more people watching. The people here are so fun to watch, mostly because they are either really crazy or insanely beautiful. Italian people are so attractive. One of the waiters at the Marriott should honestly set himself up in a museum and start charging. I´d have paid for SURE but I got it for free! But I´m getting off track. After we left the market, we ate at the most amazing restaurant I have ever seen.

It was in an alley against a building covered with ivy, lit lanterns everywhere, old Italian guys playing accordians and guitars, and pasta. OH the pasta. It was unbelievable. It was seriously one of the most beautiful settings I have ever been in. I took lots of pictures but you´re going to have to wait to see them.

Monday morning we got up and went to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. If the waiter wasn´t enough, there were a few security guys at the Vatican that could have been side exhibits. Megann had to hold me back from doing something illegal to get tackled by them. But the Sistine Chapel was incredible. Other than the workers yelling at the top of their lungs ¨Silencio! No Fotos!¨about every 8 seconds. That definitely didn´t help. I thought I´d be sneaky and take one anyways (like about half of the people in there were doing) but totally got busted by one of the yellers. He said ¨no fotos¨to me about 86 times in the course of half a minute. Even after my camera was off and in my purse! It was funny! It was really really pretty and there was so much to look at. It´s kinda funny to walk into a room where every single person is looking at the ceiling. And it´s impossible to keep your mouth closed when you´re looking up so it´s like 300 people all staring up with their mouths open when you first walk in. I started laughing and then totally joined the crowd. It was really incredible. I was just expecting the finger-touching picture (which is totally making me laugh at the Arrested Development episode but Kevin and Jen might be the only ones laughing with me. Or the Simpsons episode with Mr. Burns. One of the two) but there is so much on that ceiling. It is huge and that picture is like 1/20 of it. Wow.

After that we walked around for a bit and saw the Church of the Bones. It´s in a pretty busy part of the city by the US Embassy and looks like a normal church on the outside. It looks out of place because its surrounded by banks and huge hotels, but it looks like a very unassuming church from the outside. It´s run by a lady who sits at a desk and asks for donations and from that room, still, just looks like an innocent little church... And then you walk inside...

The church is decorated with bones. Human bones. And when I say decorated I mean like Grandma Smith style decorations. There are bones EVERYWHERE. Little vertebrae hooked together to form a border of the arch way. Skulls and pelvises hooked together and hung on the wall. Chandeliers made up of arm bones. Knee caps formed into flowers. Full skeletons hung from the ceilings. And to top it off, a sign at the end that says ¨What you are, we were. What we are now, you will be.¨ Creepiest and coolest place ever. And then they start playing this haunting organ music and it´s just creepy. There are bones nailed to the ceiling and I just knew one of them would fall and hit me in the face or something.

Probably the funniest thing about packing to get home was my unfortunate shopping habit. See, unfortunately the streets are lined with fake Prada handbags. And I may have purchased a few. Well, six. I bought six. Some of them are gifts so don´t think I´m THAT crazy, but I ended up having to carry one purse with all my stuff and another purse stuffed with other purses as my other carry-on for the flight home. I know I´m a total moron! I realize that! And I looked even cooler with my huge purses on the plane.

I´m back in Spain for a few more days and leave for Romania on Saturday. It will be nice to get some laundry done (my clothes are the stinkiest) and get some good sleep. We´re hoping to catch the Dark Knight while we´re here so don´t tell me anything about it!

Okay this has been super long. But I love you all and will see everyone soon!

Church it up!

Hello! I hope youre all enjoying this. I have failed to recieve ANY emails from hardly any of you and if I were as bitter as I was last year I would skip writing today, but as I am another year older and wiser, I will continue.

Yesterday we slept in (are you shocked??) and then went to Rome a little later in the day. We started at the Basilica di San Clemente, which is a church built on top of a temple of some sort built on top of a Roman coin mint built on top of a Pagan church. So every level you go down it changes to fit whatever purpose it was used for at the time. It was so cool. The tour guide was saying that they havent excavated everything so they really have very little idea the actual size of whatever is underground. Some of the frescoes and work dates back to like the years Christ was alive and it was just really cool to be down there and see everything. It was probably one of the cooler things weve seen so far.

After that we walked around for a while and saw a few other buildings that are old and cool and then walked down to kinda the main square and took the Night Bus around Rome. We were on the top of a double decker and it shuttled us around the city so we could see everything lit up. It was awesome! They had a place to plug in earphones and was spewing out the most random facts about the city while we were driving and looking at the sights. This city is so incredible. The colluseum looked amazing.

(Im running out of internet time so Im hurrying!)

Today we went to the LDS church that is close to the Vatican. Cool to see that its the same (and true:)) everywhere you go. After that we went over to St. Peters Basilica and walked around that and caught the noon session of mass. Hearing people sing and organs playing in that huge and gorgeous building is just beyond words. It was an incredible experience to be there even if I couldnt understand it! We also got to go down and see the tombs of the Popes. Now THAT was awesome. They still had people crying and seeing the tomb of the last Pope and writing prayers and stuff and leaving them there. The Basilica is amazing and seeing the Pieta in real life was incredible.

Internets kicking me off. Love you all!

Rome if you want toooo-ooooo!

I am running out of song titles about Rome! I gave you a lame post about Rome so I thought I would wax a little poetic here about the great city. But the keyboard is jacked so if you are shocked by my poor use of grammar its only because I cant find an apostrophe on the keyboard.

Okay, so we got to Rome and it took us 10 hours from the time we left Meg and Mitchs place in Madrid until we staggerd into our beautiful Courtyard Marriott. What we didnt really realize is that we flew into the Ciampino airport, but our hotel is at the Fiumicino airport. They are on opposite sides of the city. It took us forever to get here. When we woke up we finally realized that it would take us about 90 Euro per day to get all of us into Rome each day, so we rented a car. I think I told you that, but its awesome. The cars here are so tiny!

We started off yesterday at the Colloseum. There were these crazy Roman soliders who were taking pictures with me when suddenly one of them started saying he was going to cut off my chest and asked if they were "original or plastic" and I couldnt stop laughing at him! Then they asked me for 10 € for the pictures! I gave them 2 and the pictures are funny. I went into the Collosuem alone (M and M had already seen it) and it was so incredible. Seriously.

We had met a guy on our flight there who is an American living in Rome and working with something called the "Rome Pub Crawl" where they pretty much take tourists out drinking at like 10 different bars or something. We dont know his name so weve started lovingly referring to him as Pimpleton. So we ran into Pimpleton who for about the 50th time tried to get us to go on this Bar Crawl. It gets funnier every time because we keep telling him we dont even drink and he keeps wanting us to go with him! We ran into him at the Pantheon, too. He will be important in a minute.

We went to McDonalds for lunch (I know. We are lame.) and it was maybe the funniest 15 minutes thus far. We sat down and I said "I bet we will see Pimpleton and he will make some comment about us being in Rome and eating at McDs." Mitch starts laughing and says "here he comes!" and me and Meg start laughing becuase he must be joking! Oh no. About 4 seconds after I say that he comes strolling up the path. He turns to us and says (not kidding) "You came all the way to Rome to eat at McDonalds??" We made small talk for a minute and then about died laughing when he left. We were so far away from when we first saw him it was just totally bizarre.

Okay, I am just realizing my stories really arent that funny! The other one involves Megann telling some woman who didnt speak English that she was going to pee her pants (in an Italian accent) so she would let us in to the closed bathrooms.

The rest of the day we just walked around the city. We saw tons and tons of stuff. I was the ultimate tourist. I had this huge map and carried my camera and water all day. I felt like a total moron but it was awesome!

Today we slept in (WAY in) and then went to the beach. It was not even close to as nice as the beach in Barcelona! It was still pretty good and I got a kickin tan. It was about 45 minutes away from us and the drive was beautiful. We came back and ate some really good pasta and had probably the most attractive man in the world as a waiter. Im not even kidding you he was amazing. I was trying my best to get my groove on, until I got into the elevator and realized that the green Pesto sauce was all over my teeth! Ha ha! Yea, Im not so good at that! We went to a huge movie theatre hoping that we could see Batman, but it doesnt come out here for another week. So we will have to try to catch it in Madrid. We ended up eating gelato (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) and then we found paradise. The biggest mall I have ever seen in my life. It had over 200 stores. I might have to make the pilgrimage tomorrow morning to do some serious time there. Mitch wasnt too interested in that tonight.

Tomorrow we are planning on sleeping in (again) and spending some time at the pool (or probably the mall) and then heading out to see Rome at night. We have a few more days here and a pretty packed schedule of things to see, but we cant get enough of sleeping in! This has been so amazing and I am loving this city. There is so much to see and so much to do.

Okay, this is getting far too long and I am getting far too tired, so I had better end for now.

Love you all!
Amanda

When in Rome...

Rome is hands down the winner. It is the most awesomest. We got here after about 10 hours of travelling (I probably could have swam here faster) and checked into the Courtyard Marriott (BLESS their clean sheets and towels) and got some great sleep. Today we hit up the Colleseum, Pantheon, Fountain de Trevi, and a lot of other buildings you are not cool enough or cultured enough to know about! It is so beautiful. We rented a car and Mitch is being the bomb driver. Rome is amazing. I am tired. More later!



Loves!

Amanda

Pamplona=Foul

Okay, so after the excitement of the barf story i need to give Barcelona some credit. Seriously the most beautiful city ever. The beach we went to (Setgis) was easily the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The water of the Mediterranian is amazing. I wish I could post pictures already because it was incredible. However, as with all European beaches, tops were definitely optional! Topless women everywhere. Old, wrinkly, saggy, topless women. That was NOT picturesque. It was quite frightening. But the beach was amazing. There was this really cool and really old church that was set against the water and I´m running out of adjectives to tell you how fantastic this place really was. The pictures will tell you when I get them up! Also the architecture is unreal. We spent one morning at Gaudi´s building La Padrera which was super cool. We also hit up the park where they did the fashion show for America´s Next Top Model (the season with Caridee and Melrose with the scary brides) and totally reinacted the fashion show. Yes, we´re morons. We realize that.

We flew home (barf-free) and pretty much turned around and headed to Pamplona.

If you think I ran out of adjectives for the beauty of Barcelona, I will easily run out for the disgustingness that was Pamplona. Our morning got off to a rough start (we BARELY made it) and when we got there we had to meet the guy who rented us the apartment and balcony. Michael Jude Murphy from Dublin. Oh, Michael. He was roughly the size of a bull and we could barely understand him, which was a good thing because I think his vocabulary is mostly made up of the F-word. So we got to our apartment and the sheets were dirty and the towels were all used and it took a lot of convincing for Michael to provide! Once we checked in we were excited to get out.

Yea, we should have stayed in. Pamplona is nothing but drunks. That Ernest Hemingway is full of crap. He must have been wasted when he wrote about the beauty of the festival. I saw more beer, urine, and blood in those 48 hours than i have ever seen in my life (which may be where he calls it "colorful")! The city is beautiful, but pretty much everything was closed up except for gift shops and bars. It was so foul. People sleeping everywhere, passed out everywhere, peeing on buildings, leaving cans and cups all over the place, seriously gross. I have some good stories but probably should wait because if my mom reads them she will make me come home. So they´ll come later.

The morning of the run was nuts. We got to Michael Murphy´s apartment and he answered the door in his bathrobe and we just kind of sat around for a bit. They close off the street to clean it so we had to be there early. We started up some conversations with him and let me tell you he is about the funniest man ever. I asked him if women ever ran and he replied "Oh yea, but only the mad bitches run." With his Irish accent it was about the funniest comment he could have said.

When the running actually starts, it´s madness. They let the runners down the street so the pansies can hide out in store fronts and still say they ran (which is totally where I would have been) and then the police form a huge line between the men and the cage that holds the bulls. Every balcony down the street was packed and then there are men (and the "mad bitches") lining the streets and right at 8 a.m. someone lights a rocket that is heard by everyone and signals the release of the bulls. At this point, all hell breaks loose. Seriously. The bulls start running. We didn´t see them until they had rounded the corner, but people start yelling, pansies start running already, bulls are charging, and the whole thing lasted about 30 seconds from what we saw! It was awesome. Unfortunatley, as Michael told us, it was a bad morning because "we only saw a few tramplins! It gets really good if some poor sucker (or F-er, we couldn´t understand him) gets gored." We did see a few tramplings and a guy ripped his pants off right under our window to show off a MASSIVE bruise that we could see from 4 stories up. It was serious madness, but so awesome. They run down our street and around a corner and into the bull ring where most of them run into their cage but a few fight back and charge some guys.

Then, the drinking resumed. We had to just hang out in the city for a while and I think kharma was in our favor when we stumbled upon the Hong Kong China Restaurant which was quiet and secluded and didn´t have a passed out drunk in sight. We ate there both days and ate enough food for an entire day. There were some incredible parts of the city and I bet when the festival is over it would be a great place to visit, but it was revolting. Vile. Foul. But a good experience!

It was good to get home and shower in a mixture of one part water, two parts Clorox to wash of the layer of film that had developed around us from the filth of the city. It was pretty sad to say goodbye to Michael, who told me on the phone that our departure time "had really F-ed him up. It´s not your fault, but you really F-ed me up." But we checked out and headed for the train.

Today we slept really late and are just now heading for Madrid. Tomorrow we leave for a week in Rome which should be amazing. I´m really excited for it! I should be able to find an internet somewhere and update you and everyone pray I don´t toss my cookies on another flight.

Love you all!
Amanda

BARF-elona!

Oh mercy. Do I have a story for you all. So we took a cheap flight from madrid to Barcelona and it was the day after I arrived. Totally jetlagged and tired and worn out and dead. So we get to the airport and I´m feeling kinda crappy so I decide to eat some fries and a Sprite to try to settle myself and get on the hour and a half flight.

Here´s where life gets interesting!

So I´m still feeling sick and getting sicker as we board the plane. We sit right in the middle and I decide if I can just fall asleep I can make it through the flight. I fall asleep immediately and am out for about 20 minutes when I wake up! What wakes me up? Myself. Vomiting. All over the place. I´m not even kidding. I´ve never thrown up in public in my entire life and here I am barfing all over the place on an airplane before it even takes off. The flight attendants were in the middle of their safety presentation so Mitch starts yelling "Vomito!" and the flight attendant finally comes running and hands me... a tissue. Yea, that´s going to do me a lot of good at this point!

So I´m shaking and crying because I´m totally embarrassed at this point but I have to do something. She finally brings me some paper towels and, without getting into too much detail, luckily the skirt I was wearing caught the bulk of it! I get partially cleaned up and the lady tells us we have to wait for an hour so they grab my suitcase (thank goodness we carried on our luggage) and I grab the first bottoms I see.

Then the problem is I have to get to a bathroom and we´re in the middle of the plane. So Megann (who deserves a medal for this) walks in front of me as I try to hide the barf that is now all down my skirt. Of course it doesn´t work and everyone is giving me the stink eye on my way back. Also, I had some of it on my shoe and am now pretty much sliding down the aisle. I get to the bathroom and wash off my shoe and my foot when they suddenly come on and say that we´re cleared for take off. Right now. So the flight attendant tells us to go sit at the very front so I can get off fast and Meg high tails it up there while I am trying to wash myself off and change all in about 3 seconds before we take off. I got to my seat and could not stop laughing and crying for the remainder of the flight. The minute we landed I was off that plane faster than you can even believe.

I have NEVER been so completely embarrassed in my life! Seriously, it was almost painful how embarrassed I was. I was completely mortified. However, I survived and the poor Laundry service at the Madanis Hotel got to deal with the rest of my skirt. Best 7 Euro I have spent thus far.

Other than that, Barcelona has been AMAZING. We spent yesterday at Setgis beach on the Mediterranian, which was so beautiful. It was incredible. The sea was so warm! Today we did lots and lots and lots of sightseeing. This city is absolutely beautiful. All of the architecture is fantastic. We went to the apartment building designed by Gaudi and it was ridiculously cool. The rooftop overlooks the entire city (including the building we´ve named "Penis Building" but you´ll see pictures later!) and you can see everything. It seriously is beautiful.

My favorite part so far is the Sagrada Familia. It was started by Gaudi but he died so they have hired different artists to build each section of the cathedral and it was so incredible. I can´t get enough of this city and I wish I had a few more days here because it really is amazing. I love it.

Okay, I really want a nap! I hope everyone is doing well back home! We´re heading to Madrid for tomorrow, so hopefully I´ll have a different staff on RyanAir or I´ll be even more embarrassed! We have one night in Madrid and then we head to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls! Should be cool! Love you all! Buenos Noches! (my español is muy bueno!)

Spain is neat!

Hello there! So I've been here about 24 hours and I already have managed to:
Fry my expensive straightener (with smoke and everything!)
Fall asleep on about every form of public transportation
Eat the best chocolate churros on the PLANET
Find the best shopping on the PLANET

It may surprise you that I have NOT managed to:
Fall. Anywhere. I seriously haven't! I'm serious!
Buy anything. Again, I'm really serious!

Spain is amazing. I haven't seen much yet but Madrid is beautiful. And I tell you, the Spanish men are no matter of temptation compared to the SHOPPING in Madrid. Once I give in to that temptation I have a feeling it's going to be out of control.

Meg and Mitch's apartment is really nice! It's in a suburb about 20 minutes (by train) outside of Madrid. It's the birthplace of the author of Don Quixote and don't worry, I already have pictures with the statue!

I'm leaving for Barcelona soon and don't know if I'll have internet there so look for lots of pictures when I get back!

I promise I'm not dead!

Helloooooooo Friends! I really am not dead. I didn't get my hands cut off, either. I have just been extremely busy/lazy (you can be both!) lately and haven't gotten to much blogging! It's been a very eventful 2 months since my birthday so let's recap, shall we?? I'll throw up a bunch of pictures and you will just have to guess which ones go where.

Vegas and St. George: For Tricia's b-day a few of us ladies headed down south for the weekend. Much shopping, much playing, a little unsuccessful gambling, some plastic grillz, and an intense game of Bingo. We had a great time.

BBQ: Most of the high school girls got together for some good times at Ashley's house! We ended up busting out Ashley's box of pictures from elementary, jr. high, and high school and it was probably one of the single most embarassing moments of my life! I was not cool until I hit about 22. I'm STILL not that cool, but a lot cooler than I was!

End of School: (Yea, these are pure out of order) I ended my first year of teaching with an all-out dance party with my third graders. We had a few days of cleaning, moving my boxes (I'm teaching first grade next year), field day, and assemblies. I played my kids a slide show and at the end of the day I played them the part of High School Musical 3 where they sing the song about Summer at the very beginning and we had a big dance party to end the year! Yea, I'm the best teacher ever. I know. It was really kinda sad to see those kids go. I had a BLAST this year and probably had the hardest year of my life at the same time. Some of those kids came a long way this year and I had a lot of mixed emotions about the end of the year!

Taylorsville Days: Is the bomb. Every year. No battle. And this year was no exception. The Neil Diamond cover band was the perfect addition to this year's festivities!

4th of July: I went with my fam to the cabin and can I tell you I have the best family ever? We have a blast. I love being around them and it was just fantastic.

Other: (Real creative category name!) I've been to a few Bees games, a few other BBQ's (and worn the yellow BBQ shirt a lot!), saw Kanye West and LeAnn Rimes in concert (not together, that would be weird) and they were both AWESOME, seen a few movies (Hancock = thumbs down), even made the obligatory yearly fantastic trip to the Drive-in!

Summer has been great. I am loving having a profession that provides the summers off! FANTASTIC! I don't know why everyone doesn't do this whole "summer vacation" idea.

Well, my friends, I take off on Monday for a month in Europe. Right now I'm a little stressed, a little terrified, and EXTREMELY excited. I'm spending a few days here and there in Madrid, a few days in Barcelona, a few days in Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls, a week in Rome, and ending with the yearly Romania trip, which is only a week this year! So stay with me, I promise this blog is going to be KICKIN as soon as I get there. I've been Boring McBoringster lately, but I'm back like y'all have never seen!