Pamplona...Much more than corridas de toros

A couple of weekends ago, a few girlfriends and I went to visit Pamplona for the day. I have been wanting to visit for a while, and while I've driven through a couple of times, I've never had the chance to actually wander around in the city and see the sights. We started off the day getting "breakfast" and drinking coffees, of course.

Got caught in the running of the bulls!

(Quick, someone take the picture before we get in trouble for being on the statue!)

Nacimiento Del Rio Urederra- The Birth of the Urederra River

Today, a big group of friends and I all went on a hike by the river Urederra. It's about an hour and a half drive from where we live, in the neighboring province. My friends went back in October, but I wasn't able to go that day, so I'm so glad that I finally got the chance to go! It is about a 5 mile hike round trip, following the river up to the place where it is "born" or where it comes out of the mountain. This hike is full of breath taking waterfalls and crystal clear blue water - I think pictures may describe it better....

Partilho a tentação com quem mais gosto- Portugal!

Partilho a tentação com quem mais gosto- this is from a sugar packet...sometimes you find great tid-bits on sugar! This one says, "I'll share temptation with those I like the most."

Felices Fiestas Part 1: Madrid

Puerta del Sol- everyone together now!

Since I found out that I was accepted into this program to live in Spain for a while, my family has been really excited to come out and visit me...and they finally made it! I know I'm a little late on the uptake, but this is part of our journey, starting on Christmas. The three of them flew into Madrid on Christmas day, so I took the bus down to meet them. We rented a piso for a couple of days and from there we discovered Museo del Jamon, the Puerta del Sol, the Palacio Real, Parque Retiro, Plaza de Torros, and way too many museums!

Amor por el mar- Cantabria

Here in Spain there is a thing called a puente. They have a lot of holidays that are on a Tuesday or a Thursday and they take the days off in between. So if there is a holiday on Tuesday, they will take the Monday before that off and call it a puente (bridge). In the beginning of December, there was a week where we had two puentes in one week! Actually, most schools took only one puente and worked two days in the week. I was supposed to work two days of the week, but I somehow weaseled out of it and ended up having to work only one day- and got two puentes! So two of my roommates and I went on a road trip up to one of the northern regions of Spain- Cantabria. We had had a few girls from Santander come visit and stay at our place a few weeks before hand so we figured we would call them up and see if we could stay with them and explore the area. My one roommate has a friend native to the area, so we had a list of awesome villages around Santander that we needed to visit.

Los Pirineos

Since we live so close to the Pyranees, we decided that we needed to go visit them! So one weekend we rented a car and drove up there.

We were looking for a tiny little town named Sallent de Gallego, just a mere 30 minute drive from the French border. It was quite a beautiful drive through the Spanish country side, ending in breathtaking views of the Pyranees. Once we got to Sallent de Gallego, we had a quick bite to eat and then went as quickly as we could to try and get some hiking in before the sun went down. After hiking, we drove over the French border to have a coffee, just so we could say we'd been to France! We also ran over the border because there was no border patrol....

Viva Italia- Milan!

My first international trip....from Spain! A few weeks ago a group of us who wanted to go on an international trip met up to decide when/where to go. After perusing the flight prices, we decided on Milan, Italy. Mainly because the flights were so cheap. Now I know why- it was freezing!! And foggy. Oh well, it's still a beautiful city.

So after stuffing ourselves repeatedly with pizza, pasta, and gelato, we toured the city and also took a day trip out to Como Lake. I also happened upon a traditional Milano dessert, called meneghina. It's a raisin bread, layered with cream in between, toasted and covered in Grand Marnier. Delicious!!

I love Donostia! (San Sebastian)

San Sebastian.... known to the locals as Donostia, is my new favorite city in Northern Spain. A big group of us decided to go up to San Seb together last weekend to hopefully catch some of the last days of the year when it would be warm enough to go swimming. My roommate from Belgium has a car, and she said she could drive so we decided to pack as many people as there are seats in her car. That was a bad idea- her car is tiny. But we survived the long and cramped drive and finally made it without getting lost too many times!

La Concha- the tourist beach, and the harbor on the other side of the mountain

Porque la vida es como te la tomas...

I realize that it has been quite some time since I wrote my last post, but it has also been quite some time since my life has felt any sense of "normal." I think that probably has to do with the fact that I just moved to another country, but I digress.

La Calle Gran Via

These first couple of weeks in Spain have been quite the whirlwind. My very first weekend, in Madrid, consisted of an "orientation" and meeting heaps of new people that I soon learned I would probably never see again. Although, we did have a good time. We went to visit the Museum of Reina Sofia, which was jam packed with modern and crazy art, including some cubism and an entire floor devoted to Pablo Picasso. We also found ourselves wandering around around the Plaza del Sol and sampling more than one pitcher of Sangria. But, we only had a short time in Madrid and then quickly moved on to Logroño.

Only two days left?!

I know I've really fallen off of the blog train here, but I haven't really been doing a whole lot, so don't worry! You didn't miss anything. Since I am leaving on Tuesday morning, I have been doing my best to get everything done and see everyone that I want to see before I go. I put my car up for sale, and 17 hours later had the money in my pocket and the car was gone. I spent my last days at the boat today, and these past few days I have been hanging out with all of my friends and saying goodbye. I still have some goodbyes to say; some will be for much longer than others!  I can't believe I'm leaving in only 3 days!!

Since I haven't shared any pictures in a long time, here are some from this weekend. My last day at the lake for  a long time! I sure will miss sailing; I will have to find a way to do some of that in Spain.

My first 14er!

I don't know how I've managed to live my whole life in Colorado and never climbed a 14er! It's been on my to-do list for a while, and it was about time that it got done! I wanted to do Grays and Torreys because they are one of the easier 14ers to start with.

First Weekend back in Colorado

This weekend my uncle and cousin came out to visit from California. The main thing we did while they were here was have an 80th birthday party for my grandpa. His actual birthday isn't until halfway through September, but we can always have the party whenever we want, right? We went to a park and all the family that lives in Colorado joined us for the festivities.

                                Katelyn and Mia                      Dad has a parasite growing off his arm...

Thoughts on returning to the States

I just got back from Korea on Saturday. It was a very loooong Saturday seeing as I left Saturday morning at 8:30 am and got into Colorado 30 hours later at 11:00 pm on Saturday. Time travel is weird. I've hesitated to write a post because I've had a lot of things to process and I was hoping to organize my thoughts, but it seems to be turning out that just a few days isn't going to do the trick. So here I am, trying to put into words all of the things that I've been feeling/thinking these past couple of days. I have some writer's block- mainly because I have no idea where to start.

My first thoughts on returning to the USA:

Beachee Time!!

My final weekend in Korea :(

Luckily it was a three day weekend...for me at least. Many teachers had to continue to work all through Friday and all of Saturday. The work schedule here is insane. But at least they didn't force us to work the long weekend. I might have rebelled had they scheduled me. Anyway, moving on.

Robert and I took the 2:30 shuttle out of the village on Friday afternoon just to get out. I didn't want to go straight down to Busan so we could just relax for a little bit after a crazy week. It was nice hanging out in Daegu without having to worry about catching the shuttle bus back to the village. We were able to eat dinner and wander around and just sit and talk without any stress. We found a tiny family restaurant and ate some delicious dolsot be-bim-bop (a rice and veggies thing in a super hot stone bowl) which has become one of my favorite varieties of Korean food. This little restaurant was the first time I had ever eaten at one of the floor-level tables. It was definitely a new experience; but it's something I could get used to.

 After dinner we wandered over to the 2-28 park which is the place to be it seems. There are benches all over the place and almost every single one is occupied. It makes sense though, seeing as it is a great place to have a conversation.

Korean Fashionista?

Last weekend when I was prowling downtown looking for street photographs, I met two men who were also looking for street photographs. Except they were looking for street fashion! I walked past them when a car drove by one time and they caught up with me quickly. They both said hi and that my "sunglasses were so beautiful!" the one guy told me he was a fashion blogger and the other guy is a fashion designer. Try guessing who is who in the picture! Haha. But they took my picture, asked me questions about what I was doing here in Korea and how long I would be here and such. Then they took my email address so they could send me the picture. I didn't think that they would actually send me anything but they did! Here is the link: http://lowr.tistory.com/686 I know it's in Korean and all but I have figured out a very loose translation. The heading says something about my style of attractive spontaneity, the other heading says charming beauty, and the main body goes on to say some very poetic things about my style including my camera, umbrella and my smile! I'm not trying to be vain or self-centered here, but I think it's pretty cool that I made it into a fashion blog in my camelback and chaco's! Woot for Coloradoan style!! Here are the guys who took my pic (I know I already posted it but I'll post it again!)