Salamanca estoy aqui!

Well I made it to Salamanca in one piece. Turns out there's internet in the plaza mayor, it goes in and out but its closer than the university. It is so beautiful here. It's so different from everywhere at home, everything is so old. In a good way. all the buildings are old, but solid. there's a bridge that was built by the romans in the third century still in use. There's such a relaxed atmosphere here. Everything closes from 2 to for for a 4 couse lunch and a siesta. Yesterday everything was closed because Spain was playing in the world cup. We went to watch the game outside this department store called el corte ingles, close to where we live. They had a big screen set up with a tent serving food and drinks. I tried calimoche, a mixture of red wine and coke that i read about and it sounded really strange but it was actually really delicious. I was expecting it to be like cherry coke, but it wasn't at all. It's hard to describe but good. There were tons of people there dressed to the nines with their faces painted waving Spanish flags and blowing horns. Spain one everyone went crazy! It was really fun..

My host lady Conchi is really nice. Its just her and her niece who live in her apartment. Its much better than i expected. And I've been eating the food, which is a big deal for me. Yesterday I had a tortilla espanol. a potato cake thing. Today we had some kind of meat, i think it was some kind of ham, but it was good. lunch so far has always had soup, a salad and some fruit for dessert. yesterday we had tapas after the game today we're having our first dinner with our host. We toured the university today. it's really beautiful.

Off to Spain

Well I fly out today! I'm soo excited! My first Transatlantic flight! Got lots to do today so i'll just finish here. Wish me luck everyone! here are some pictures from the last time Tim and I went to Chicago, Enjoy

Harry is my homeboy

The Wizarding world of Harry Potter Was SOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!! The first day we had to wait 6 hours in line just to get into that part of the park but it was totally worth it. Tho if I could do it again i wouldn't have taken the shuttle and I would have gotten a taxi at 4 am. ahh well nothing I can do about it now. It was amazing. Hogsmede was covered in snow, it felt like the real thing, (when it was cloudy, the angle next to jurrassic park when i t was sunny and there were palm trees at hogwarts looked really wierd lol) The main new ride was awesome. The line was even fun, it went through hogwarts and u got to see all kinds of stuff. The pictures talked, my favorite part was the 4 founders bickering about harry potter. Hologram Harry Ron Hermione, and Dumbledor in his office talk to u. It was awesome! The ride itself was really amazing, even BL liked it. it was a miz of virtual reality and real props, you actually move tho it wasn't one of those stationary one there is a good amount of flipping going on. You get sprayed by spiders the whomping willow (which is real not virtual) almost hit me in the face. I fought a dragon, played quittich and had my face sucked off by a dementor, but harry saved me! It was really cool!The other dragon coaster was cool, tho not new, it was new to me. We got really wet on the poeye ride and went on that coaster a few times to dry off. I liked the family coaster because i got to bow to buckbeak, but bl didn't because it was slow. We got to eat at the three broomsticks at another day. It was delicious and sooo neat inside, and a good helping of food, not as pricey as i expected. I got to have butterbeer, which was delicious, tho I had trouble getting to the foam. I got to see the hogwarts express, and all the workers were dressed in pointey hats. some of them were very into it, I would be too! We went on the other rides too, the rockit was a bit too scarey for me too much upside down. But the hulk and mummy were cool. Universal is really into fire lately, it seemed like every ride there was fire. It rained every day too, but not bad the first day, and it was sunny before and after. It was really great I'm so glad I got to go.

bird love

check out these pidgins...or doves...birds on my back porch yesterday morning. I thought they were very cute, they were cleaning each other's feathers. ahhh bird love, the purest love there is

Dune adventure

We made it back home to Indiana safe and sound. After a few days of chilling out at home, Tim payed us a visit. I decided to show him the majestic beauty of Northweast Indiana. We went to the dunes and Deep River County park. Here are some pictures.

hot springs arkansas

Mom and I decided in stead of traveling on my birthday we would spend the day in Hot springs arkansas. We had always driven by it on this trip and wanted to stop and we finally did. It was beautiful there. There are all these mountains with springs, where the water comes out at 140 degrees. It looks like a waterfall, but you can see the steam rising up. you can't even keep your hand in the water. there is this cute little touristy town around it with all kinds of little shops. They have these sink type things where you can fill up containers with the hot water. people come with milk jugs to take it home. The water is supposed to have healing powers. people like to bathe in it but since it comes out of the ground so hot you have to go to these bath house spa things where they cool the water down. lots of them happen to be closed on tuesdays, which seems like an odd day to be closed. We went to the one that was open and it was wonderful. It's a really great place to go if you get the chance.
arkansas welcome center
view from the top of the mountain
mom at the hot spring
kelln kanteen at the visitor's center/ bath house museum
me in the tub at the museum. they preserved the bath house to keep it how it was in the early 1900's. the one we went to was very similar to how it was back then. they put u in a (newer and cleaner) tub just like this but with a jet.
they have this too. the one on the left is a sits bath that u sit in. the other thing is a steamer where u stick your head out and they steam your body like in cartoons. it all sounds wierd but it was nice.
the spring, see the steam coming up

one of the hot fountains in the town

unfortunately i was captured by a gorilla

back to bay city

We survived the monsoon and came back to uncle joe and aunt nancy's house and all the cousins got together. It was great to see everyone. Mom and uncle joe took uela back to mexico in the pouring rain. It eventually cleared up Olivia came to hang out with me and aunt nancy. Isabel was having too much fun with her other cousins and came later. We watched Shriek 2 and played games.

me and olivia

jasmine the wild poodle
olivia and isabel
a lizard, i thought he was cool looking