in the pirineos

so last Friday there wasn't school, and my counselor and his family took me to the pyrenees for the 3 day weekend. it. was. amazing. I will now tell you how amazing it was.

we left Thursday night, drove 4 hours, and got to their house. the ride there was super fun. there was my counselor (juan carlos), his wife (Susana), Barbara (whos 11) and alex (who's 18). we talked and listened to music and danced (as much as you can in a car) the whole way there and it felt like I was with family.

so we got there, ate dinner, watched some tv, and went to bed.

 

the house we were in, on the right

 

alex, Barbara, and yooo

 

so you can see Madrid in the middle, and we drove up to the top right.

 

 



so we woke up Friday morning around 745, ate breakfast, and headed out to go skiing. it was freaking amazing. just seeing the mountains covered in snow is beautiful. as we started out I basically failed at everything I thought I might remember about skiing. but then after a couple hills it came back and I loved it.  the difficulty levels are; green, blue, red and black. black being the hardest. and by the end of the first day I did a part of the red, so I was proud.

 

ugh. amazing

after that we took a short trip to cross the border so I can say i've officially been in france. the landscape may not have changed but the signs did and I felt pretty proud to be able to understand at least some of it. ahhaha.

 

in france

 

the sign says "bienvenidos a espana", en ingles "welcome to spain"

 

 



so that was pretty sweet. then we went to a little café thing and we bought some toblerone, which is this type of chocolate from Switzerland. and let me tell you, it was amazing. so then we went back home and ate and stretched because I was soooo sore. and we sat around and watched tv and played games. fun stuff.

then the next day we got up a little later, and since it was snowing, decided to go build snowmen. which I personally love doing. we drove a little ways out into a super cute little town, and walked into the forest. living in iowa, I was the expert on building snowmen and snow in general, so we had a ton of fun. we made 2 snowmen and one fort. and had a mini snowball fight. then afterwards we walked back, went to a restaurant, and had a little snack thing. its called migas, and its bread, eggs, and grapes, which is a surprisingly delicious combination. then we went home, ate actual lunch and hung out.

 

the final fort. cant really see it because we're sitting on it, but its cool. people from left: juan carlos, alex, Barbara, me. and thor the dog

 

snowballs being thrown

 

my fu Manchu style snowman. i'm very proud

 

my mini snowmen

 

the little village thing

 

 

a waterfall on the walk there

 

later that night, we went and visited the city Jaca. it was a typical Spanish city and we stopped in quite a few chops. juan carlos bought me a pin andthat was pretty sweet. also, I heard some vasco. which is the other language in that area. and lemme tell ya, I could totally tell what everyone said about it not being connected to another language. but it was cool to hear. so we walked around some more, and headed home.

 

the next day, sunday, we went skiing again. and it was even more fun since I had regained my confidence in skiing. howeverrrr, i was still sore so it was harder. and we skied harder hills and i just hurt. a lot. but it was still amazing.

 

 

the drive there

 

here, my friends, are the Pyrenees

 

 

so then we went out to a restaurant and ate delicious food. seriously, I ate everything. but then I got cramps from something and it hurt a lot, so that ruined it a bit, but it was stil amazing. later, we headed home and got ready to go. we left around 7 and i got home at 11. the car ride was great, again, although this time we were all tired and there wasnt as much dancing hahaha. but anyway, the mountains are awesome. and the weather was perfect, since its not as cold as iowa, and there was sun, and it was just, ugh, amazing.

 

so that's that. to update you on my Madrid life: soon I will be changing families. on the 15th to be exact. tomorrow im actually going to be meeting them, so that'll be fun. i'm deciding my return date, and as of now, im thinking august 5th or 6th, to be home in time for swim season.

 

and just to show off a little bit:

 

 

this was at the movie theater. but clouds here are just gorgeous. like everyday I see a beautiful sunrise and sunset. its awesome.

 

one of my great friends marta

 

and this is gran via. to get this picture you have to go up the corte ingles that's across the street and it was sooo busy, with people taking pictures and everything. but totally worth it

 

 

so that's me. school is going well. I have great friends. the weather is nice. yeah.

 

M





P.S. today I was on the train and sitting across from me there was a girl reading a book in Russian or something like that and I just want to say I love the cultural diversity here. on just that train there was me (English), that girl (Russian), Spanish people obviously, and you could probably find at least on e Romanian person and probably someone who speaks French. its seriously just super cool.