I need it.

Malaga is a delicious maze of tapas bars, storefronts with shoes in them, all on sale, and multilevel buildings with plants tumbling off all sorts of terraces. And today I got hot enough that I was searching for shade even though I was wearing a thin sundress. I think I like it here.

Captain's log 30.1.13

I have reached the promised land.

Toledo

The old city is small, surrounded on three sides by the river Tajo and on all sides by impressive stone murallas. This is a view of the river as it separates the old city area from the rest of the city. (old city is on left). Had a tour of the sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca that was built by moors and absolutely looks like a mosque. Then got to see El Greco's most famous work depicting a miracle that occurred in the 1300s where Count Orgaz was being laid to rest when two saints descended from heaven and assisted in the burial and then carried him up to heaven. Our tour guide directed our attention to one of the members of the mourners in the mural and said it was obviously based after him. Ridiculously enough, it could have been his twin. Also ran into his mom in the middle of the tour. :) he introduced her as the most important lady in toledo. After the tour we explored the narrow, beautiful alleyway system and then walked through the cathedral. Very gothic, very ornate. Very humbling. The buttresses and overall design, MAN! So much respect for people who designed that in the olden days. Mad props. I'm now in my toledo hotel with a mini balcony and a view of the old city. Note- garbage cans are much harder to find in public Spain. Eso es todo para ahora. Rest and then adventure time!

Sunrise in Madrid

For you, oz. :) breakfast at the hotel. Scrambled eggs have a slightly sweet taste here. :/ everything else is delicious.

Plaza Mayor in Madrid. The royals (and common folk) used to watch the spanish inquisition trials from the balconies.

Bullfights and big fiestas happen here. So I went out to find food/dinner- I plugged a restaurant into this "smart" phone and started walking in circles for 40 minutes. It was supposed to be a nine minute walk. Soo I asked some ladies for directions in broken spanish and they looked like they simultaneously hated me and feared for their lives. No help there, then the next chica we asked was nice and pointed up one street over. Bridging the speaking gap is really hard. Not the being brave enough to speak part, but more the 'I don't speaks no good spanish' part. But we made it to food, struggled into ordering something that looked pretty spanish, and holy cow. Great success. I am worried that this blog might turn into a food blog. Which reminds me- this morning's breakfast in the hotel was increible. Delicate pastries, delicious fresh fruit, esspresso slash coffee and tea bar, meats, fancy cheeses, savory square bites of different tortillas y cosas asi, and.... A juice bar. Zumo. Freshly squeezed oranges. It stopped time. Today was an amazing adventure. And I am getting up half an hour early tomorrow just to have more time at  breakfast. One and a half hours didn't quite cut it this morning. :) Oh! Also, great part of my day was that I got to see kev! When I got back from dinner (at midnight) I checked skype to see if anyone was on in my phone and we got to talk for a decent amount of time! Love you, bro. hasta pronto, queridos y queridas. Brazos.
Hope

Palacio Real in madrid- forgot my camera today but was able to take a few shots with this sweet phone. We hit the Prado today. Wow. Just wow. I spent my free time there as well. There's another girl from the u of i here-didn't know that until I got here but we have been hanging out all today which has been super nice. Note-this keyboard on my phone has no comma. Uuuh sorry. We spent more than seven hours in the Prado. We hit almost every painting and sculpture. Again- WOW. Also ate my first spanishy meal- lunch at the Prado. Stuffed baked tomatoes and some kind of vegetable filled rice. EXTREMELY delicious. And extremely spanish.  Resting my feet and journalling now then maybe off to get some cena. Lots of love

Hola a todos! He llegado en la ciudad de Madrid seguramente pero sin dormir. I made some friends at the airport also in the program, we had an extremely harrowing adventure on a crazy shuttle, I tried out my Spanish to marginal success, and I met my roommate, Emily. This was my day in a nutshell. the day of flying was an adventure of patience all on its own. My mind has seemed to have forgotten that it needs rest in the form of sleep. I have managed to stay awake since Friday morning with a grand total of three hours of scavenged plane napping. My plane from Chicago to Madrid was long but delightful. The meals you are served on planes are so cute! Mostly terrible tasting (except the spinach- that was decent) and a horrific amount of wasteful individual wrappings, but oh so cute! My plane mate on that voyage was a lovely old man heading to the middle of Nowhere, Germany. We worked together to flag down the stewardess who BOOKED past with the coffee. I think she thought that if she made it to the back of the plane with the pot full, she got to drink it all. Not to be, tricksy lady.  Anyway, I am in Spain. This is my life now. Can't think too hard- need to concentrate on staying up to get on Spain clock. Captain out.

Practicing making a picture happen. 

Oh this is a little confusing. Let's start with some facts. My name is Hope. I was born and raised in a mountain-lined town called Sandpoint. I am a third generation Vandal. And I am about to live in Spain for a semester. This is my first blog. Do I know what I'm doing? No. Am I worried that I'll leave someone out of the email loop that I keep updated in Spain or that others will get sick of my updates slash wonder who I am? Yes. Thus this blog was born. I don't even know if you can contact me through here. AHHH. Ok, if you want to drop me a line, the email is Hopexc921@gmail.com. Warning, I never check it. A facebook message is more likely to be read, but that depends on internet accessibility. Right! So more facts. Facts are easy. I leave the 26th of January at 5:00 am. I am never coming back. HAHA I am so funny. Whew, that was exhausting. More later. When I'm in Spain and actually interesting. Lots of love,
Hope