A weekend in Porto!

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Porto, Portugal! It was a relaxing weekend in a beautiful city. I will share some highlights and of course some photos!

1. We managed to figure out the metro and bus system in Portugal where everyone speaks Portuguese. Note: I only know how to say "Thank you" in Portuguese. On the metro on our way!!

2. Having an amazing hostel that we just happened to find on hostelworld.com. The location was great and the people there were so nice and spoke english! We meet people from France, England, Costa Rica and China while at the hostel. This is the street view of the hostel.

 The view of our terrace from our room!

3. Bus tour of the city that allowed us to see all around the city. We also took a boat tour on the river. The views were breathtaking. Below is one of the streets.

The city had beautiful bridges crossing the river.

 4. The atlantic Ocean. The waves were amazing and we were right by the pier and lots of big rocks. Girls on the beach:)

 5. The city views that we saw were great! Some of us with the river and city behind us.

 6. We ate dinner on the river and watched the sunset. Note: this photo was not edited and was the background to our dinner. Fresh salmon for everyone while I got french fries and fried eggs which I special ordered because everything on the menu including the child's menu had meat on it.

7. During dinner we heard drumming and then there were 25 or so drummer boys and men marching through the street. After dinner there was a festival parade in honor of Saint Joao. People were dressed up and marching in groups. The parade ended in a square where each group danced. They all danced to the same song. The people that danced ranged from 3 years old to 70 years. Although we had no idea what was going on because everything was in Portuguese it was fun to watch.  This is me a drummer boy. 

 8. I visited the beach again with Sam and Genna. Some alpha love with the Atlantic Ocean.

This weekend was nice because we didn't have an agenda so we were free to do whatever and see whatever. This was really nice and made it a relaxed weekend. Saturday was one of my favorite days since I have been in Europe. This weekend was full of laughter and confusion. Overall it was a marvelous weekend in Porto, Portugal! There will be plenty more pictures on facebook soon!

300 miles in 3 days

After a productive build day in Kinston, NC we headed south early on Thursday (6/14) morning. Tom took the early lead and we all followed like ducks in a row. The group rode together the first 25 miles. After a short rest stop and a race to the bathroom, the group was a little spread out. Alyssa and I chased the lead pack for a good 10 miles and eventually caught Tom. At the second rest stop we re-grouped and the girls rode together again. We spent the rest of the ride singing songs, playing silly games and driving the boys crazy. It was a fast 94 miles to Wilmington, NC.

In the afternoon, I went to the post office, walked around the little city with friends and took pictures of the river nearby. That night we had lasagna and rested for the coming bike days. Kelsey even made friends with a cockroach! Who knew they were so friendly, joke!

Friday (6/15) morning we took off headed for Garden City, SC. This day had lots of turns, confusing intersections, busy roads and a very hot beating sun! Alyssa and I missed a turn and did and extra 5 miles or so. Within 15 miles of our destination my headache really got to me and I started to wonder if I was dehydrated. I was with about 5 other riders who felt the same so we stopped at a gas station to replenish our water and get some shade. Because of my large water intake, 20 minutes later I felt like my eyeballs were floating. When we got to the church I threw my bike down and scrambled for the bathroom. My bike computer read 101.01 that evening. My first unexpected century ride!!

Saturday (6/16) we rode to Charleston, SC. It was a great day of riding and also Kelsey's last day of riding:( During the ride we silently organized pace lines, which got us done quick! We rode on one particularly bumpy forest road and also over a large suspension bridge!! Another wonderful 95 miles!

For dinner we went to a local southern style restaurant. I tried fried green tomatoes and fried okra. I liked both. After dinner we went in search of ice cream and settled on Ben and Jerry's. Usually we try to find local ice cream places, but could only find froyo and gelato.

Today (6/18) we went to church, made food for the week, did chores, and relaxed. Kelsey heads back to Michigan tomorrow. It will be very sad to see her go, I can't imagine this trip without her. I am very thankful for the past 3 weeks we have spent together and know that they will always hold a special place in each of our hearts. In the next 2 or 3 months we won't see each other very often, due to jobs and camp.

Hope everyone is having a great Fathers Day! I love you Dad! Thanks for being a great Dad, role model, and supporter of my adventurous spirit!

The study part of Study Abroad

This week marked about half way through my study abroad this summer and with this came midterms. I am taking three classes so this week I had three midterms. They were spread out with one on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So I mostly just studied this week. I did go to the beach on Wednesday which was very nice! I even studied a little bit on the beach. I am so glad that midterms are over now though.

Last night Spain played Ireland in the EuroCup so we went to a bar near our school the watch the game. The place was packed full of people and we had to fight for a couple chairs. Everyone was cheering and in the spirit! When Spain scored their first goal the bar erupted with cheering and everyone besides us were on their feet. It was a fun atmosphere to watch a futbol game in! Spain won 4 to 0 which was even better!

I am off to Porto, Portugal for a girls weekend with 7 other girls from MSU today. I am very excited! It is supposed to be rainy and cold all weekend but we are going to make the best of it!

More Barcelona

Saturday June 9 - We got up at 930 to eat breakfast in our hotel and started our bus tour at 10 with tour tour guide. We drove all through the city seeing and hearing about all of the different areas and important things. We stopped at a park designed by Gaudi that was originally supposed to be a neighborhood. Nobody invested in it so it became a park. It is on a hill that overlooks the city so the view was beautiful. The main entrance had two buildings that were designed to be the guards house and a welcoming house. They were designed like gingerbread houses. One had a cross on it and the other a mushroom which represented the battle between good and evil. The cross was higher symbolizing good overcoming evil. The roads are seperate from the people so there a lot of bridges. Below we are under a bridge.

 Genna, Sam and I with the main entrance behind us.

 There were lots of people playing music in the garden. Some of them were really good.

We continued our tour through Barcelona. We went by the port and up through the Olympic Village. The olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992 and so is a whole are of the city that is that. Here are some photos of the view!

 Sending some alpha love to my wonderful turtle family! There were so many cute Turtle souvenirs in Barcelona!

After touring the city we shopped around an area called Las Ramblas which is full of people and shops.  We had dinner at a nice spanish restaurant. After dinner we went to a bar called Dow Jones. This bar is operated like the stock market. The proces change depending on the demand of certain drinks. So if a lot of people buy the same drink the price went up. Every 45 min it would crash so the prices would be at their lowest point again. There were a lot of Americans there so it was fun to interact with them and hear about their travels. It is amazing how easily we can hear when someone else can speak english. 

Sunday June 10 - We took a tour of the oler part of Barcelona on sunday. There are a lot of gorgeous churches in the city. We were not allowed in to see them because we were wearing shorts. They do not mess around about this either. There were security at every entrance and they would just turn you around if you were not dressed properly. We headed home to Valencia in the afternoon, another long hot bus ride.

It was a very fun weekend overall. The city was beautiful and full of cool architecture. The city was way more touristy than Valencia which was annoying because immediately upon entering a store we would get Hello and not Hola. This did not help us to use our spanish. But I loved Barcelona!

Feeling like a sitting duck

Yesterday (6/12) Kelsey and I volunteered to be sweepers. This means riding in the back of the group, fixing bike problems, and getting to eat dinner first!

Being sweeper stresses me out. During one particular busy stretch of road I became a little anxious. I felt that the other riders with me weren't being cautious enough and were putting all of us in danger. We were going at a slow speed, the cars weren't slowing down, there was a crack in the pavement, occasional grates and gravel, turning lanes and stoplights. Can you see how I felt like a sitting duck!?!? Someone was bound to get hit or fall and then get hit. The worst feeling ever was running through my head. The best I felt I could do was to continually call 'car back' and encourage the others to ride straight and safe. Needless to say I was very happy to turn off that road!

Right after that we got totally drenched with rain. Wet to the bone! We did go by a huge field of lavender and it smelled wonderful! The rain picked up pretty hard and we stopped under a store awning to wait it out.

On days when I am a sweeper I have more time to enjoy the scenery. Today I saw fake ducks an geese set up Ina pond, ponies, cows, and farms. I have no idea what crops they grow here, sometimes we just guess and go with it. I especially like seeing green tractors and thinking of what Jake would say if he saw how big they are. Going slow also puts us in more danger concerning dogs. Kelsey is getting really good at saying "NO, GO AWAY!" in a deep manly voice. Thank goodness for her, I usually end up screaming and pedaling like crazy.

We arrived at the Perry Fun Farm in Kinston, NC before 4pm! We met our goal! I was so happy to sweep with Kelsey, we had great conversation and I couldn't have gotten through the stress without her. If Kelsey takes the Rowanda teaching job, our days together are numbered:(

Today (6/13) was build day #2!!! We slept in and had breakfast at 8, a welcomed rest time. We headed out around 9 and got right to work. One group painted cabinets, a couple people went on errands, some organized supplies and then the collective group worked on railings for the front and back porch. We kept ourselves busy during the down times by cleaning up the yard and making each other laughter with probably not funny jokes.

This evening I helped organize food and we finished watching Bravheart.

Three big days of riding coming up, we will be in South Carolina by the end of the week!

Barcelona

Fri June 8 - A weekend in Barcelona began! We left Valencia at 1130 to Barcelona. The trip was through the school so we took a bus there full of 55 students. It took 5 hours to get there with a 45 min lunch stop. We arrived in Barcelona and went right to the Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral that has been being built for 90 years and still has a long way to go. It is maybe going to be doen in 10 years but that is will be a push. It was designed by Antonio Gaudi who is a well known Spanish Architect. He has works throughout the city of Barcelona. The cathedral will have one main tower that will be 500 feet tall when done. Surrounding that are four towers representing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are three entrances to the cathedral and each has four towers so 12 total which represent the 12 disciples. Everything in the cathedral has a biblical significance. The inside of the cathedral is based off of nature and looks like a forest. The huge tree looking structured have a foundation or "roots" that go seven stories down. Because of this they are really strong and support everything so the walls do not support much. This allows the walls to be more ornate than functional. The walls are filled with stained glass. The choir loft in the cathedral can fit 2000 singers! There is also a chapel below the main sanctuary.

We had a tour guide with us all weekend to tell us about things. She spoke in english which made it easy to understand what was going on but I kind of which she would have spoken Spanish because that would have helped me learn a lot. At the Sagrada Familia we got headsets. Below is Sam and I with headsets.
After the Sagrada Familia we went to hotel to check in. Our hotel was out of the city like 15 minutes which was kind of a bummer but it was nice. I shared a room with Jaclyn and Sam. our hotel was called Las Tres Torres.
Our room was made into a triple with a third bed in place of the night stand. I slept in the middle and at the head of the bed there were the three light switches so during the night I accidentally turned them on, oops!
At 930, we met back up again to go to Las Ramblas which is the main street in Barcelona. There are lots of restaurants, stores and people. Barcelona is much more touristy than Valencia. Every time we went to a store or restaurant the people immediately spoke english to us. I would try to respond in spanish so that I could practice my spanish. The streets were full of people trying to get you to go to their club or restaurant. We grabbed dinner at a burger place so I got tortilla potato. It was really good. We ventured out into night life around 11, which is way to early for anything to be happening. We walked along the marina which was really pretty. The marina in Barcelona is really big. The waves at the beach were much bigger than the waves in Valencia and were so pretty. We ran into some friends and found a place on the beach that was free so we tried it out. After about 40 minutes we decided to call it a night. We grabbed a cab home and passed out after a long day. 

More about my weekend to come!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Time has been flying by lately. Classes keep me busy during the week and there are always things to do on the weekends. Here is what I was up to last week...

Mon June 4 - I had class in the afternoon then I hit up the beach. Only 6 of us were at the beach so it was quiet and I was able to take a good nap! At night I got to skype with Jon for our anniversary which was really great. It is so hard to talk to people at home because of the time difference. One of us is always sleeping when it is ideal for the other to talk.

Tues June 5 - I had class in the morning and had a chill afternoon. I decided to go play soccer with the kids from the school. There were about 20 of us that played. We played 7 vs 7 on a concrete court because the grass fields were full. It was a lot of fun although my soccer skills have decreased since my prime days in seventh grade. We meet some kids from Ukraine who played with us too which was cool to hear about their lives.

Wed June 6 - I walked around old Valencia with Jaclyn and Eileen. The market was open with lots of little shops so we browsed around there. Then we decided to venture in a new direction and see what we found.  We walked down new streets and saw new fountains and statues. We ended up getting a little turned around but found our way home. We stopped to get some drinks because we it was almost 90 out and we had been walking for quite some time. We stopped at a place that had tables on the street. We grabbed a table outside only to find out that the prices are double if you sit outside so we went inside and got lemonade slushyish drinks. They were very lemonadey.

Thurs June 7 - Last day of class before the weekend! I went to the beach right after class. It was a little windy and not too hot so it was a nice relaxing day at the beach. I had my umbrella so I stayed in the shade most of the afternoon to avoid too much direct sun. A majority of the group was there so we got kind of loud on the beach but it was fun. I headed home at 7ish so I could pack for my weekend in Barcelona. After dinner I met up with people from our group and we ventured out to night life on the beach in Valencia. We found a place called Discoteca Akuarela Playa. We got there around 1:30 am which is too early here. The place was empty besides the 20 of us that were there. Around 215 other people started coming.

Fri June 8 - Started my Barcelona Weekend, more to come....