Send my stuff...I´m moving to Lisboa

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So we just got back home to Segovia...funny how quickly you adjust to a place! It seemed like we came home today when we arrived in Segovia. We were glad to be back to see Mama Julia and of course for the food.

So Wednesday we went to the Alcazar with our profesora from my Spain history class...and it was so amazing! So I am going to include some pictures! This castle is unbelievable! And it´s steps away from our house. And I was so glad that we went to the Alcazar with her because she was able to show us everything and get us into secret places and it was really awesome. I am adding pictures of this but it isn´t Lisboa.

SO after class and everything on Thursday we went home and packed and took showers and Mama Julia gave us a sack lunch and a box of breakfast cookies, kissed us on both cheeks and said "Adios hijas." We caught the last bus out of Segovia at 9:30pm...our "direct" trip turned out to be a "stop every 5 minutes trip" but we had plenty of time so it wasn´t a big deal. And 12 UA students and 3 Oregon students were on the bus so it was a little ridiculous anyway.

We got to Madrid and jumped on the Metro and took it to the airport. We were going to run around Madrid for a while but the Metro closes at midnight and the last line to the airport closes at 1:30 so we had to get to Nuevos Ministerios stop before midnight so that we could get on line 8 to the airport before 1:30. So we walked around Nuevos Ministerios...nothing. So we went on to the airport and found a nice piece of cold tile floor to sit/sleep/wait on. The problem is that the metro closes and doesn´t open again until 6 am so we couldn´t even do a hotel without having to take a taxi and no one wanted to do that so we just stayed up all night and we weren´t the only ones. A lot of people had to do the same because there were over 30 flights before 7am.

Our plane was delayed about an hour and half, one of the guys (visiting not on the trip with us) forgot his passport at the hotel, one girl accidently scheduled her ticket for the day before and therefore missed it and had to buy another ticket right before we left and no one got more than an hour of sleep. Yeah we were in a good mood.

But we all kept saying it doensn´t matter because we are going to Portugal! So at 8:30am our flight finally took off! We all did the pass out, bob and weave sleep thing all the way there. I fell asleep in Madrid and woke up in Lisboa. (it´s only about a 55 minute flight). When we got there we were ready to go through customs and do the whole 9 yards...but we just walked off the plain and got on a bus to the actual airport and then we just walked out onto the streets. The metro in Lisboa is much much smaller and so there wasn´t a metro to the airport...that just wasn´t good enough. We got a map and looked to see where we were...well of course we were on the outskirts but we soon realized that we were close to the Aquarium and then we realized that we could see the ocean...so what did we do? Yup, we started walking.

We walked all the way to the water and then found the Aquarium. We had seen so many catedrals y alcazars y museos and we were ready to do something different. So 6 UA students and 50 or so 6 year olds on a birthday party decided to go to the Aquarium. It´s called the Oceanario de Lisboa...and it was awesome! You stand in front of these tanks and schools of fish and sharks and huge fish just swim by! And then they are seperated by ocean too so it´s just unbelievable! I think that it is one of the biggest! So it was just such a different thing to get to do and it was a nice thing to do first thing when most of us hadn´t slept and we were running on excitment for the fact that we were in Lisboa.

So after the Aquarium (which we spent a lot of time at) we started walking to the metro which was close to the Aquarium and we went into the center of town to check into our hotel.

By the way this city is probably my favorite that I have ever been to. Literally! It is so interesting...I mean it is so pretty and so different. It´s on the water so it won´t allow it to be too serious, city, craziness. It´s a clean city and it is really just a pretty place. The people are so nice and helpful...and really good looking!

Now you should know that I don´t speak a lick of the language...so I could say "I don´t speak portugues...only english and spanish." It was actually really frustrating because I could understand everything that was going on but I just couldn´t respond at all. And I didn´t want to offend anyone by using spanish...and I was so used to Spanish that I had a hard time not using it. But surprisingly a lot of people spoke English too! So I never assumed english but most of the time someone would say "Well do you speak english" and we would go from there. The other funny thing was that I didn´t realize how much Spanish I can actually speak. I mean I can easily get around, ask questions and talk to people whereas here it was like I could hear and understand but I was mute. It was neat. I want to take Portugues next! I honestly think that with a week of classes I could have at least gotten around because it is so similar to Spanish. But I would like to take it so that I could more than get by! So I will be looking to take that class in the Spring.

So we went and checked into the hotel and we didn´t stay more than 3 minutes because we needed to get going or we would pass out and we wanted to see all we could see on Friday so that we could spend all of Saturday on the beach. So we started walking...and using the map stumbled onto some pretty neat places. We had lunch at a strange little cafe...I had scrambled eggs, ham, cheese and french fries (that was a normal meal???) Man I am liking eggs these days. I really don´t know any of the names of the places that we went...we just went. And stopped when something looked neat. So we took pictures to google later. I will include some pictures so that you can see what we did.

We went hard all day and around 7 we all split up and Megan and I went back to shower and then we went out and grabbed something quick to eat and tried the local beer. Real good.

We were out by 9:30!

The next morning we set our alarm to get up and meet the girls at the metro to go to the beach at 10...so we get to the metro and there´s a clock on the wall and it says  that it´s 8:59...yes Chelsea forgot that the time had changed...and my cell phone doesn´t change the time on it´s own. So we were an hour early...won´t make that mistake again.

So we left the metro (Megan and I) and went to this neat little cafe and we ordered orange juice (cause we could point to it!) and then he asked if wante toast and we understood that so we said yes and then he said "ham and cheese" (they worship it here!) and so we said yeah sure. And so we ended up with an awesome bottle of orange juice (naranja in spanish or laranja in portugues) and a ham and cheese panini. I always put food in cause I think it´s interesting...you all probably think all I do is eat over here!

Anyway we finally got on the metro took it as far as we could and then got on a train to the beach. We layed on beach after beach and just hopped from one to the next! It was beautiful. One of the beaches has a castle on it and everyone there speaks so many different languages. The water is clear and the weather was perfect...not too hot...but yes I have a little tan! Oh and a bee stung me on my back! Yeah that was fun. I think bees love me or something!

We spent the whole day at the beach and finally got on the train to go back to the hotel. We met up with everyone for dinner a little later and then walked around for a while. The nightlife here is a little crazy, in ways we avoided, so we just went back around 1am after dinner and went to sleep...got up at 7 and went to the airport...Segovia in time for lunch!

I´m glad to be back but I don´t look forward to classes on Monday! All is well here...I am having a great time and feeling great. Part of me knows that someone is going to have to drag me, kicking and screaming onto the plan home and tie me to the chair and part of me feels like home sounds pretty good...but it always has. I miss things like kool aid and driving...haha. All my love!

Vida, Amor, Viaje...and time change