2 More Weeks

It's been a long time since I blogged and so much has happened. My friend Sara and I met friends who were studying in Rome in Amsterdam. It was a beautiful city but it really does not stray from displaying anything controversial. One of the best parts was seeing the tulip fields and gardens of flowers. We drove by fields of such bright colors. The next weekend I went to three cities in Valencia with my Spanish class and we spent some time in small cities and toured castles. The Spanish countryside was so beautiful, especially from the castles on the top of mountains. One of the best parts though was that Minnesotans were the majority (that NEVER happens) and it was nice to have a piece of home so far into the semester. Then some friends and I took more of a relaxing weekend and laid on the beaches of Alicante, Spain. I ended up very pink and red from the sun but it was a great weekend.

Tulip fields of Amsterdam

Amsterdam Tulip Garden

In the past couple weeks I have been trying to fit in as much of Madrid as possible. I wanted to soak it in as much of Madrid as possible before having to leave. Here are some random pics from the past couple weeks:

Hiking in Guadarrama up to this giant cross in the mountains with Paulina 

Touring the Royal Palace of Madrid

Learning to make Tortilla Española from my wonderful host mom, Paloma

Our last paella in the house (Paloma makes the world's best paella)

We also went to a bull fight. People have had very mixed reactions about this experience, but I admit that you have to see one to appreciate the cultural aspect. Watching the bulls die was really hard, but I enjoyed the cultural aspect of the experience. The bull fighters are very talented and it almost appears as a sort of dance. It also takes a sort of knowledge to be a fan as well. We sort of caught on to what were impressive moves, but the people only clap after certain moves and they have all of these traditions of when to celebrate. Honestly, the experience reminded me of a baseball game.

And after all of this time soaking in the culture, yesterday I finished my last final and therefore my semester at SLU Madrid. It was a surreal experience. Everyone was a mix of emotions between the excitement of going home to see their families and sadness of having to leave. I am not going home quite yet, though. I had to say goodbye to a lot of friends but not to Madrid yet. Three friends and I headed off on a plane to England earlier today and we're spending the next 12 days traveling before heading back to Madrid to say goodbye and then back to America.

It was still a surreal experience though... saying bye to my home for the past 4 months, my school for the past 4 months, and most importantly my stand in mother, Paloma, for the past 4 months. Getting to know her was an amazing experience! I don't know if I've met a more spunky lady before in my life and she would always tell us stories "de la vida." And her cooking... TO DIE FOR! It was the best and the best part is that she knew that she's the best and would say it! She made Emily and I laugh all the time and we will miss her a ton! (Even though we will see her briefly when we go back to Madrid before leaving!)

But here we are in England... so far I haven't seen much! It took us so long to get to from the airport to our apartment and it was raining so I explored a little in the rain... but all I've really gotten out of it so far is that there are no pedestrian crossing signs... so I ran across every street in fear! Tomorrow I'll actually get to seem some things!

Love from London,
Jenna