Four states, three days! ME, NH, MA, CT

Woah, what a whirlwind!

Things are great, what an adventure!

May 27- Started the day with a great church service. It included red balloons, an organ, cymbals and a great message. I was so excited to get biking, the couple days of orientation had made me anxious. We were joined by three Whiners too! Diane, Jen, and Bill led us from Maine to New Hampshire with very little trouble. They are such a fun, motivational and knowledgable bunch. They rode almost 100 miles that day! I helped cooked dinner and even cooked burgers and hit dogs on the grill! We slept very good that night on couches!

May 28- I'm sure this was a great day, but all I can remember right now is sleeping in a gym, going to Walmart and lots of biking. Oh! After riding, Alyssa and I took a nap and while we were asleep our friends went to get pizza without us!!

May 29- Kelsey is 23!! We celebrated her birthday all day! Starting with birthday prayers, birthday biking, birthday singing, birthday cake, birthday ice cream, and finally birthday beds!!! We woke up in Massachusetts and ended in Connecticut. It was a very hot day with lots of hills, so when the other Kelsey and I saw my Kelsey when we got to Wilamantic we were very excited!

May 30- 90 some miles! Longest personal mileage to date! We are sleeping in Norwalk, CT and had a great dinner at the YMCA.

The group is getting along great and we are having so much fun! I miss everyone at home so much and hope that you all are having a wonderful summer too:)

-Emmalilly

Just another beach day!

This week has been a good chill week. On Monday, I went to the mall which was fun. Yesterday I had class in the morning which was especially boring. Four hours of spanish history lecture is a lot for one morning. Especially at 830 in the morning! But after class I went home for lunch which was nice to eat with my madre and brother. Lunch is the biggest meal here and doesn't happen until like 230 in the afternoon. Then it was a beach day! The beach was emptier which was nice. I fel asleep for a little bit when I was laying there. I forgot to put sunblock on my face..oops. But my face is not that burnt nut my part in my hair is from walking everywhere during the day. Today we went to the old Valencia part of town where are lots of little shops and stalls of vendors. There were a lot of interesting little things at the stores. I got a good bag for the beach which I am excited to use! I also got a delicious pastry that was like a croissant covered in chocolate and suger..yumm!
This was the beach yesterday! I have come to love the beach more and more everyday!

Things are different here....shopping

There are little shops that line every street in the city. Some have some cute things in them while others are like dollar stores with random things that cost more than a dollar. The aisles are full of random things that overflow the shelves.


They have a lot of tupperware, luggage and beach things. Today I got a mat to lay on at the beach for 2 Euro. From the street the stores look like they just go back and are small but they are deceiving. They actually are four or five store widths wide and are deep full of shelves and shelves of random things. They are fun to explore because you never know what you will find!
        This afternoon we ventured to one of the malls in Valencia that is a 20 min walk from my house. IT was a four story mall that had lots of shoe stores. There were probably 2 shoes stores for every clothing or other store. They apparently really like shoes! The mall seemed normal but there are more things allowed in malls in Spain. For example, There was a store that was like Walmart and the electronics were just for the taking. Emily picked out her camera and just carried it in a box around the store.

 It is okay to wear rollarblades and rollarblade around the mall!

 Small children are given balloons and left unattended.

 The moving stairs are not actually stairs, they are just sidewalks.

 They have kiosks with boxes of flowers.

 The signs say -50% for sales.

It was an eventful day shopping in Valencia but it was fun! I have class tomorrow at 830 am..ugh. The realization that I am not just touring around Valencia. I will be going to the Beach tomorrow after class to celebrate Jon's Birthday though!

Trip to Xativa

On saturday (5/26) we ventured to a city called Xativa which is about 45 minutes south of Valencia. When we got to the town we had a walking tour of the city. We saw a gorgeous church and went through a museum. In the museum there was a 3-D map of the city which was cool because we could see where we were and see the castle walls and castle. So we started the ascent up to the castle. At first we were just on street roads that were on an angle and then the streets turned to uneven steps. We eventually got to a paved road which winded its way up to the castle. The view just kept getting better as we walked. 

Halfway up to the castle and the view was already great! After about 45 minutes we made it to the entrance to the castle. The view from the base of the castle was amazing and we still had farther to go. We walked up at 1pm in the afternoon so the heat of the day so we were very thirsty. We began exploring the castle. There was an outdoor theatre, a garden, and many pathways up. 

A small garden area inside the castle.

On one half of the castle with the other half in the background. We made it to the top where we could see the whole city. It was worth the climb. It took us much less time to get down then up! It was a very fun day. It felt like a vacation from Valencia which was weird because although I have only been here a week I already feel like I know my way around the area.

On sunday I slept in after a long day in the sun and laid on the beach all day. It was fabulous! I am still not tan but I do have a lot more freckles!

And we're off!

Today we started out journey south!!! We rode from Saco, ME to Greenland, NH which is about 55 miles.

Kelsey, my mom and I arrived in Saco on Friday (3/25) and spent the afternoon meeting the other riders and orientating ourselves about the bike trip.

Saturday morning we sent Mom on her way, it was sad to see her go. After learning about bike maintenance, the group headed out on a 17 mile practice ride. We rode by some carnivals and stopped on the beach to take pictures. During the ride I felt great and rode near the front of the group the entire way.

It is crazy to think that I will see a huge part of the Atlantic Ocean in the next 5 weeks!

Sunday (5/27) we got up and went to church in Saco. The congregation was so nice and was very welcoming. We even sang one of my favorite hymns, Every time I feel the spirit!

We gathered around at noon to do a devotion and to take off. Three Whiner friends joined us for the ride. They helped us find a great route with amazing scenery. After 2 rest stops, a couple hills and a very cool bridge we arrived in Greenland, NH. The church has a huge youth building called the barn. Everyone gets their own couch!

The take off time for tomorrow is 6:30 so it's bed time!!

Thanks to everyone who is reading this and who has supported me along the way!

-E

Island Time!

First week on the fabulous Mackinac Island is complete!
I'm not very good at this blogging thing, so we shall see how it goes.

This week has been great, the weather has been phenomenal, my job has started off great, and living with Grace has been super fun!
I arrived on the Island sunday and because I am a poor college student I didn't want to pay for a taxi to drive all my stuff up to the Island, so I pushed my 100 lbs. of stuff the two miles up to the condo. It was quite the workout! A cute dray boy did offer to help me with my stuff before the Grand Hill, if I waited 20 minutes for him to drop off his load, I waited 25 minutes and there was still no sign of him. I figured I had already wasted enough time and I use pushed it all up the hill, no biggie.

I didn't start working until Wednesday, therefore Monday and Tuesday were fairly lazy days. I took some time to relax, un-pack and clean-up the condo.
Wednesday I started work and so far it has been great. The job isn't too challenging, and my coworkers are fun! the job does get tedious near the end of the day when things start to slow down, but that will just take some getting used too.
But no I wil spend a moment taking about the groovy tunes we listen to at the store: 60's on Six. Oh boy! I will know all of the hits of the sixties by July.

Tomorrow Dad and Cameron are coming up for the weekend with the puppies! So I am anxious  to see them, although I do work all weekend, but sometime is better than notice :)

that's it for now, M

Somethings are easier said than done.

Today I did not have class until 12.50 so I was going to get up and be productive before class. I had a short to do list for on my way to school.
1. Go to the back and get money out to pay for my weekend trop to Barcelona.
2. Figure out my phone that I am currently locked out of.
3. Look for a bag to take to the beach.

Seems like three easy stops but it sure was not. I left my apartment with a smile and ready to go attitude. I stopped at the first ATM that I saw on my way to school. I put my card in and seemed to be doing fine but then it asked me with or without conversion and I did not know what that meant and didn't want to mess up and get charged extra so I decided to wait to ask at school and go to the ATM close to school. Thinking I could just get money there. So I was off to the phone store. I got to the phone store and asked the lady how to unlock it and she understood me and helped me unlock it. Then I tried to figure out how many minutes were on my phone or how to buy minutes, this did not go over well. She put what she wanted to say in her phone in a translator but it did not translate correct. So I left because I couldn't understand her.
        I continued on my way to school still looking for a bag. I saw a really cute one on a window of a store so I went inside. I asked the lady about the bag and she went in the display window to get the bag because it was the last one. I saw the price and I thought it said .19 Euro but when I went to checkout and it was 19 Euro which is like 25 dollars for a cloth bag, so I had to tell her no. She was not happy that I was not buying it. I didn't want to make her mad but I wasn't paying that much. She got mad at me which made me get a little worked up but after some water and walking I was okay.
     So I got to school and clarified the bank question, and went to the bank near the school. The ATM machine ate my card! I was freaking out, I went inside to talk to the lady and she got it back and said try the other machine. So I tried the other machine and twice it ate my card. I did not know why it took my card and the lady at the bank was just like go to a different bank. So I went to the other bank near school and it did not allow me to take money out either!
    So I finally got to class without getting money out, without figuring out the minutes on my phone and without a beach bag! I was understanding most of the discussion. I lost the teacher for a second and that was when he called on me for a question. I simply replied in spanish "No se que estas hablando sobre" which means I do not what you are saying. He thought that was hilarious luckily and continued to laugh! It was a very fun class except for the whole dissecting spanish poems.
    We are going to Xativa tomorrow which should be really fun! There is a castle there I think! I will try to post pictures of my house and other things soon!

We have landed in Maine!

After two days of driving across the northeast we have safely made it to Maine!!

We left Clarkston on wednesday morning at 4am! The drive through to Canada was quick and we even made friends with border patrol. We stopped at Niagara Falls, which was beautiful!! The size and the noise and the mist was a lot to take in. We ate at Denny's in town and it cost us a Canadian arm and a leg!

After another 4 hour drive we got to Philadelphia, NY and to the Wolber's house. The town has sooo much to offer, I don't understand why she wants to leave lol. Kelsey made quick friends with Alaina by putting ice in her milk cup. It was a very good nights sleep and left in the morning after a wonderful breakfast.

This evening we had dinner with Whiner friends in Portsmouth, NH. It was such a cute and historic town!. Kelsey even got to have authentic fire stone gluten free pizza and fudge brownie! Her tummy was so happy! After a tour of the harbor and some stops in local shops we headed north again.

Tomorrow we are going to the LL Bean Flagship store. We debated going tonight because it is open 24/7!

Thanks to all who supported me and who are reading this blog! Keep checking back for updates this weekend, bike take off is Sunday!!


~E

It is not all fun and games

I had my first day of classes today, I am taking 9 credits while I am here. I am not just touring around Europe unfortunately. I had one class today at 12:50. I went early so that I could walk with my roommate so neither of us had to walk alone. The classes are through a program put on by the University of Virginia. They have a school here where classes are. There is only spanish allowed in the building. If you speak english your name will be put in the book and you will have to have a meeting with the head teacher and if it happens repeatedly you will be asked to return home. So my spanish will definitely be improving while I am here. All the classes are two hours long so after about 90 minutes I was ready to be done. My teacher was really great though so I am excited for the class. After class two friends and I ate our bocadillas that our mom packed us. A bocadilla is a sandwich here that they have everywhere, there are a lot of different kinds of bocadillas. We were starving after class. Breakfast here is very small so after like 2 hours I am hungry again. We had a walking tour of Valencia today with the center which was very cool. We went to part of the city that I had not been to before. We learned a lot of history about Valencia and the culture. We ended across town so we just walked home from there which toko about 20 minutes. We stopped at an ice cream shop on the way home! Then we had cena which was really good. Everyone should be proud because I have been trying new things. We had a potato quiche pie thing with cucumbers in it today, I also had fried tofu which my salad. Blancs, my host mom, is very concerned about me getting enough protein which is good. I have had salad with every meal and lots and lots of bread.
   After just three days I am loving it here! I am beginning to know my way around the city a little bit and the people on my trip are so much fun! It is crazy to think that now we are all great friends in Valencia and last week we didn't even know each other. Tomorrow I have one class then we are going to the beach!

Great first day

Today was a full day! We got up at 745 to shower. We are allowed one shower a day at our house. We had breakfast at 830, it was toast with jam. I got confused and when she said "caliente" I thought she was talking about the coffee so I said submit caliente but she was talking about my milk so I had very hot milk with breakfast haha! We took the bus to school on bus 89. Two boys in the program were at the stop. And four girls got on after us so we all live near each other! We had orientation at the school for three hours then we were done so we ventured to the bank and bought a bus pass. We had to bd home for lunch, it is the biggest meal of the day here. We had spaghetti, salad, salad, cheese and some weird nuts. After lunch we made plans to go the beach. We met at an intersection and figured out el auto bus. We got to the beach with not much confusion! We hung out at the beach for a couple of hours. This was a topless beach which a little different but it's Europe so it's okay. The water felt great! We headed home for dinner at 830ish and dinner was at 10. Our mom wasn't home when we got Home. After dinner we checked out night life in Valencia which was very relaxing! It has been a crazy day but fabulous! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, it is our first day of class!

Home Sweet Home

After a long day of traveling and a pit stop in Paris, I am all moved in to my home for the next eight weeks!

When we arrived in Valencia we walked off the plane right onto to the runway. We were on stairs that were open and we could feel the Valencia sun. I felt like I was a movie star! I immediately took my camera out to capture the moment! As soon as I took my picture of the cool architecture of the airport a security personal was on me "Es prohibito!" My first encounter in Spain was getting yelled at...oops! But we took a bus to our host families. They were their waiting for us with our names on pieces of paper, again like the movies. My roommate Karlie and I headed home with our Blanca, our host mom. Her daughters girlfriends father drove us home from the airport. Our home is very cute apartment right above the city streets. We each have our own rooms!

Once we figured out everything I mom had told us we settled in. Blanca owns a tobacco store so she had to go to the store to close it down. When she returned we had "cena" dinner! It was really good...salad and egg omelet. Karlie does not eat gluten and I am a vegetarian so Blanca has her hands full!

We have orientation today and a walking tour of the city!

Things you can't do in a car

We did it! Kelsey and I finished the Mac-de-Zoo and Zoo-de-Mac!! 120 miles!!!
Friday we drove to Mackinaw City with our Dads and after a pit stop to get bike shoes we parked the car an headed south! After about 25 miles of riding we stopped at Legs Inn, a restaurant in Cross Village. The polish food was delicious! Another 25 miles later we arrived in Harbor Springs for a celebratory beer. We met up with friends in Petosky and got ready for Saturdays ride.
Saturday started early with lots of logistics! The group headed out around 8:30 and we regrouped with others at Boyne Highlands. We started the actual ride around 10 with about 4,000 other riders! There were bikes and bikers EVERYWHERE! Sometimes the roads got pretty clogged with riders and cars. After about 20 miles of riding we stopped in Good Hart for water, sandwiches an moon pie! We stopped again at Legs Inn just for drinks. Legs Inn is the main stop for most riders, so it was busy busy!
The ride finished in Mackinaw City and the group boarded the 5pm ferry, bound for Mackinac Island and a night of good food and good friends!

K an I leave for Maine on Wednesday!! We are so close to take off! Can't turn back now!!

TOMORROW!

I am beyond excited to go to Spain tomorrow! I am finishing up packing today! There are so many decisions to make on what to bring ad what not to bring, but I am nearing the finish line of packing! The group that I am going with has a facebook page and we are beginning to discuss traveling within Europe on the weekend! I want to go to Barcelona, Madrid and Paris for sure! And then where ever my money will take me after that! I checked the weather today and it is supposed to be high of 75 degrees when we land in Valencia! Our host families will pick us up from the airport and we will move in with them as soon as we get there! We have an orientation the next day at the school to learn about our classes and the school itself. It is a spanish only school, No english allowed! So my spanish will improve a lot!

Find me on skype if you want to skype while I am gone. Also if you have an ipod touch or an iphone download the app "kik messenger" and we can text while I am gone. My username is hoxsiemo

~G

Bike Adventure

Dear Friends and Family,

As you have most likely heard, I am biking over 2,000 miles this summer!! Along with my best friend, Kelsey, I am raising money to help eliminate poverty housing in the US and around the world! The Bike Adventure is a yearly trip sponsored by The Fuller Center http://fullercenter.org. The FC was started by Millard Fuller who also started Habitat for Humanity, fun fact! The organization is based in Americus, Georgia and has groups in 16 countries and 64 US communities! I am so excited to be working and biking with them this summer!

The official blog for the East Coast Bike Adventure will be posted to the FC website ....  http://fullercenter.org/blogs/bikeadventure ... go with this for now.

I have lots to do before the trip starts! Including buying a plane ticket home, buying bike tire tubes, getting cycling socks, packing lots of things into a duffel bag, making a compact sleeping bag and sending more thank you notes just to name a few!! 

Here is a picture of my awesome road bike! It's a Giant Avail 3 small:)

My Dad and I road in the MSU Triathlon Farm Daze over the weekend (5/12/12). It was great to get some practice in and to learn from the master!! We did the 75km loop and it ended up being about 47 miles of riding.

More updates and pictures to come this week about the Mac-de-Zoo and Zoo-de-Mac rides next weekend!!

~E

SPAIN

I leave for Valencia Spain next Saturday!! I am going on a Study Abroad Program through Michigan State University for eight weeks! I will be taking 9 credits consisting of three classes while I am there. These credits will go towards my additional major in Spanish. I am beyond excited for this trip, this will be my first time to Europe! I will be staying with a host family while I am in Valencia which will completely immerse me into spanish culture. The school where the classes are held is completely in spanish, I have heard that if a student speaks english they will be kicked out! So my spanish will definitely improve while I am there.This week is all about packing. I have a mental list of things to remember constantly going in my head and a word document on my computer to make sure I don't forget anything!