Obrigado Lisboa.

Note to self: Next study abroad I sign up for, I am going to Portugal, and secondly, the next language I am going to tackle is Portuguese.

Second note to self: When I retire wealthy and accomplished, I am going to live here:

Sintra, Portugal. 


See that bright blue house on the very right side? Yeah..that will probably be mine. Of course at this point I will inevitably speak Portuguese perfectly and my life will be blissful. 


Considering I have quite a time before all this is possible, I am going to tell you all about....PORTUGAL.  Have you grasped yet that my main point of this point is Portugal?  I sure hope so. 


So, long before I left for Spain, I knew that I would have 5 days in March with no classes and time designated to travel anywhere I wanted. (under approval of BYU of course.)  A lot of the girls wanted to go to Rome or other cities in Italy, but I had already had the fortunate opportunity of visiting there.  So, I had heard a lot of cool things about Lisbon and decided it was close and thought to myself, "when else in my life would I ever go to Portugal?"  Well let me assure you mis amigos, that after going to Lisbon, I am DEFINITELY going back someday.  You can take that as a strong indication that I highly enjoyed it. 


Only six of us decided to go to Lisbon, while the other girls of the program all went to Rome.  Aly, Janeen, Chloe, Chelsey, and Elizabeth all happily made our way to the airport on wednesday morning to catch a short 45 minute flight to Lisbon.  We stayed in this awesome hostel which was very centrally located in old downtown Lisbon and the people were sooo nice.  We shared a 6 bunk room with two other girls from Brazil and Belgium, who were both extremely sweet.  Janeen and Elizabeth booked their room so late that they may or may not have had to share it with two german guys. SHH!! don't tell anyone! 


If there is one thing I have learned about people since I have been in Europe, it is that everyone is bilingual and so many people can speak like 8 languages.  I have made a goal here on out that my children WILL grow up learning a language besides English.  I have been so impressed with all these young Europeans who know so many languages..it was so prevalent in Lisbon and in my hostel. I was exceedingly jealous. I don't care how many people out there think its not important for me to learn a language because I know the "universal language"  but I think thats crap.  I have never been more motivated with my spanish than now. 


Now that my ranting is over, I'll talk about our adventure. The first night we walked up to the castle on top of the city called São Jorge, which sits perfectly above the stucco walls and red roofs of the very mediterranean city of Lisboa.  The views up there were incredible.  Lisboa reminds me so much of San Francisco because of all the narrow steep streets and the trolleys.  I will forever remember those old rickety yellow trolleys, pack full of people, just mosying around Lisbon.  Lisbon is situated on the delta of the Tagus river which then turns into the Atlantic Ocean.  The buildings aren't nearly as nice or fancy as Madrid, but they have this aged element which gives them such a charm.  I loved the colors..the coral pinks, turquoise blues, and pasty yellows.  The sun illuminated the red topped houses and gave the city such a relaxed and humble feel.  The cobble stoned streets are artwork in and of themselves, and I love the narrow alleyways we walked through.  I felt like I was getting such a taste for daily life in Lisbon, as I got lost in those twisted streets. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining the entire time.  Lisbon has such a genuine realness to it, and I loved the atmosphere.  I sincerely wish I could describe it better. 

The view from my window.

Our room.

Bahaha. 

Yellow Trolleys!

Welcome to Lisboa

PEACOCK. It looked ready to attack.

I will have a blue door in my house.

The first night we walked around exploring for a long time trying to find something to eat.  One of my favorite things to do in europe is getting lost. Im sure my father doesn't necessarily like that thought, but I just enjoy so much exploring.  We somehow landed on this darling restaurante looking out over the bay and we watched the sunset while we enjoyed our bacalhau, or fresh cod fish.  

The next day we decided to go out to Caiscais, an old fisherman's village which is now where all the richest people in Lisbon have summer beach houses. We meandered around, enjoyed the coast, blue waves, and crashing tides.  We visited this point called Boca de Infernero, more or less the mouth of hell. There was a large whole in the rocks and when the tide came in and crashed against it, the sound echoed so loud and powerful.  We enjoyed the sun at the beach and made it back in time to the hostel to enjoy our dinner and "free shots." Ha, you can only imagine the reactions we got when we told the hostel workers we didn't drink.  The whole night one guy was begging to put vodka in my coke.  Trust me when I say we were the laughing stock of the hostel...basically we were the weirdos. Did we love it? yes.   

 

Friday brought Belem. A famous neighborhood with a monastery and a tower which symbolizes all the journeys to and from the new world.  We ate the famous pastels de Belem, which are these yummy tart things with cinnamon and sugar.  We also just so happened to run into some Portuguese navy boys. haha 


After Aly and I were determined to go back to Caiscais because the day before, we saw that they rented bikes for free and we wanted to take part of that for sure!  On the way out to the train, an interesting experience happened.  We had already bought the card needed for the train, but we just had to recharge it with a new ticket to Caiscais.  I was so bugged because mine was NOT working, and it took forever and we missed two trains. Finally I just decided to buy a new card for 50 cents and be done with it.  I know its only 50 cents, but hey money is a little tight ok! haha. The second we walked onto the platform, a young girl approached us looking very scared and asked us if we spoke English because she needed help.  She was trying to get out to the ocean as well, and didn't know what train to catch.  We told her we were going the same way and that she could stay with us.  We ended up talking to her the whole way and even invited her to spend the day with us! which she did! Her name was Galina, she was from Russia and she was absolutely adorable.  She had a break from school and decided to go to Portugal for a couple days by herself. 


On our bike ride out to Guincho, one of the most secluded and beautiful beaches in Lisbon, we ran into another guy who was headed the same direction.  He was taking pictures of the coast because the waves were SO big and the tide was so high.  He offered to show us all the best spots because he goes there all the time. Then there were four.. a Russian, two Americans, and a young Portuguese boy named Nounou, all on a journey down one of the most beautiful coasts I have ever seen.  Lets just say we had some fun with our new tour guide :) 

 We ended up watching the sunset and eating dinner at a restaurant on the coast.  The perfect end to a perfect day. 

 Our new friend Nounou is from Sintra, a town in the mountains about 40 minutes from Lisbon, and another very popular desination.  Aly and I had wanted to go, but we weren't sure what to do or what was even there. We told nounou our dillemma and he absolutely convinced us we had to go! He offered to show us around to see the best places of his beautiful home. 

That next day was Sintra, the day I disovered my future retirement home.  Nounou met us at the train station and took us up to one of the palaces where a rich man lived in the summer, built from the money he made from his coffee plantations in Brazil.  He built all these underground tunnels and grottos and waterfalls and lakes in the midst of this beautiful greenery.  Nounou told us this palace is way less unknown, but definitely the best. I am pretty sure he was right, because my mind was absolutely blown away by the vast beauty.

MY FUTURE HOME! 

our new friend!

inside the initiation well!

unreal.

goodbye lisbon! we love you!

doughnut face=happy anna!


To sum of my weekend:  Beautiful port city, sun, waves, laughter, bikes, aly giving me a pump on a bike when we only had two, sunsets, new friends, adventures, portuguese is SO cool, fish, hostel while being mormon=hilarious, yellow trolleys, steep streets, narrow alleyways and close knit houses, steps, incredibly helpful people, independence, exhilaration. OBRIGADO portugal. 

On a side note, I may or may not have fallen on my face yesterday really hard at soccer and had to go to the hospital..but no worries! its not broken and I merely look like a clown. Quite comical if you ask me! 

hahahah. I guess I have secretly always wanted a black eye...

Lento.

To this day my favorite song in spanish is a lovely little "canción" by Julieta Venegas.  The overall message is the importance of taking things slow, and allowing yourself to enjoy the moment.  With the schedule we have here in spain, sometimes this can be difficult to do.  I swear somedays I feel like we are trying to see an entire country, learn an entire history, and comprehend an entirely new language in a matter of days.  Sometimes I come on the weekends absolutely exhausted.  Its not an exhausted in agony type of feeling though.  Its a good exhausted.  The type where you have been working your brain all day to try and communicate, you've been walking around all day to try and learn, and you've been laughing all day due to pure happiness.

Spanish, study abroad exhaustion is a type I can handle. :)  Anyways, back to my whole "slowing things down" tangent... I wish this experience would slow down. haha, is it bad that I never really want to leave? Sorry family, i love you..but my life is awesome.

On sunday the Larsens gave us a fireside and asked us to think about what we have learned in Spain so far, and to then make a list of what we want to learn in the last month and how we are going to finish off this experience the best way possible, basically how we are going to reach our goals.

All this chat of only having a month left gave me a little anxiety.  My biggest fear about coming to Spain, was simply that I wouldn't experience enough with the time given me.  That I wouldn't know how to fully take advantage of this opportunity.  I didn't want to come home with regrets about things I wish I would have spent more time or effort doing.  I kind of had this same type of panic attack...when all the sudden I thought about this song.  I don't need to try and rush to fit everything in...I just need to slow it down, enjoy the little moments, and learn to just soak in the small things.  I know that if I worry about trying to fit in all the big museum visits or whatever else, I might forget to just stop and smell the roses.. and i mean literally smell the roses, spring time is upon us here in Spain and the flowers are blooming.  I want to go into Madrid, sit in a cafe overlooking the city, and just read a book.  I want so spend time with my family for hours in the kitchen, just joking and laughing. I want to talk to the old ladies at church about everything and anything. I just want to live while I can.

So, after thinking about what the Larsens talked to us about. I have decided that my biggest goal in Spain is to just slow down.  When I go to class tomorrow, I don't want to sit, look at my clock and anticipate its ending.  I don't want to walk around Spain, only with the objective to arrive at the next destination. I don't want to go through the motions, as easy as it is now that I have been accustomed to living here. I want to make my experiences feel as new and as exciting as they did when I first arrived.  I know I have the power to do this through my attitude, words, actions, and thoughts. So, though my departure here here is rapidly approaching, I'm gonna slow it down. This all makes sense to me anyway. Sorry if you can't keep up. :) haha. ironic.


Quick recap of the week. Here we go.


-I learned how to play paddle.  This is a perfect mix between Tennis and Raquetball.  Santi taught us how on Tuesday, and I am absolutely obessed.  I will never forget the goofy hats he made us wear though.  Me and Aly were laughing so hard at how dumb we looked. Of course Santi beat us, one versus two. But no te preocupes, we are totally gonna beat him soon. We played again on thursday for hours.  Paddle, soccer, and Basketball.  Santi rounded up all the neighborhood boys and made us play with them.  At first I felt dumb, but then I got over myself and had so much fun. I love how Santi is such a dad. He is now making us "paddle appointments" at the park on a regular basis.


-Went to the Royal Palace. SO MUCH MONEY was spent on this place. I can't even comprehend the intricacy of it all. I am pretty sure I am going to build my own royal palace someday.  My favorite moment was when we were all listening to our audioguides at the exact same time, and some british guy was imitating Napolean Bonaparte and for some reason we all found it hilarious. We laughed so hard and a guard SHHHsed us. I was told to shut up in the royal palace of madrid.



-El Escorial
-La Cruz de Valle de los Caídos (where Franco and other veterans from the Spanish War are buried.)
-Manazares. (this castle is fake! big let down, but prime for acting stupid with 30 other girls.

We were dancing to the Irish music playing on speakers outside this caste. I think the builders forgot we were in spain or something? Fair enough...

PROUD TO BE A SOLOMON

Tonight I spent the night in Madrid with my uncle and aunt Mike and Victoria. We walked around their neighborhood and enjoyed some authentic food from Andalusia.  DELICIOUS. My uncle told me all about Madrid, their neighborhood and a lot of the history.  We sat outside in a quiet plaza, enjoyed some drinks, and just chatted. I shared a lot of my experiences and funny stories here in Spain.  They informed me all about the culture and other aspects I didn't know before about the country and Madrid. I learned a lot, and truly spent the night like a Spaniard..just enjoying good company and good conversation. (though we did eat a little earlier than the normal spaniard, but whatever.)  Its crazy to think that no matter where you are in the world, you're family is never very far away. 

Yesterday was Jesús's birthday.  We had a HUGE feast of lamb, stuckling pig, shrimp with heads and eyes, liver of a duck, and some delicious ice cream cake thing.  Jesús just happened to wake up with a giant zit on his nose and the whole conversation throughout dinner consisted of making fun of him. I have never seen spaniards laugh so hard in my life. For this reason, I love my family. Though the language is getting easier, there is still so much I don't understand. But I do understand laughter..the language that truly transcends all.

Next episode: PORTUGAL!   

puedes decir barcelona?

Can you say barcelona?! but really, can you say it?  Remember that spaniards pronounce the "c" and "z" with a "th" sound.  So.. bar-TH-lona.  But, did you also know that Spanish isn't actually the official language of Barcelona?  They speak Catálan.  Do you find yourself wondering what on earth that is?  Well.. I will tell you.  It is this weird language which is basically half french, half spanish. Don't even ask me how the heck you speak it.  The idea of language is so abstract and incomprehensible to me.  I often find myself wondering, where did all these words and languages come from, and how can they all be so different?  For goodness sake, Barcelona is only like 6 hours away from Madrid.  That would be like people in Las Vegas speaking an entirely different language than the people in Salt Lake.  Blows my mind.

So, as you have probably already guessed, my featured blog today is about my trip to Barcelona! But first, I just need to share an experience real quick.  This one is definitely a strong contender for making my top 10 experiences on this trip.  All of the girls have been divided into Family Home Evening groups.  It just so happens that Aly, Kim, and I are the parents of our group.  So, last week we decided it would be a fun activity to invite the girls over to learn how to make Tortilla Española from Santi.  Santi is such a little show off. He was SO excited to have everyone over so he could show everyone what's up.  Such a good man.  So the girls all came over, along with the BYU photographer and his wife.  We all crowded into our little kitchen and helped peel the potatoes, whisp up the 18 eggs we had to use, and fry the onions.  SOO MUCHH OIL! Spaniards might as well drink their olive oil straight, they just use so dang much of it! We took turns flipping it and joking around.  Before we started, I bore my testimony and shared a spiritual message in Spanish, which was REALLY hard by the way.  Right after, all Santi says is..."Anna, you REALLY need to work on your masculine and feminine." haha and then he just walked out of the room laughing.  We all ate dinner together and after words we taught Gloria how to country dance.  Our house was just full of so much laughter that night and I feel like it was incredible exposure to the spanish culture for us, and to the church for Santi and Gloria.

Ok, so the next day was Barcelona.  We really only spent two full days there, because we had to use 2 days for traveling.  We stopped in Zaragoza on the way there because it is entirely equidistant from Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao, which I think is pretty cool.  We stopped there to see the Cathedral where they treasure the Virgin Pillar.  This pillar was a gift to one of the saints in Zaragoza from the Virgin Mary and to this day people worship it by kissing it and praying to it.  We also saw a Goya museum on our stop.

So, Barcelona.  I am just gonna go through a list of highlights from the trip.

FLOWER SHAPED HELADO. 
Once we arrived at our hotel, Lance told us he wanted to buy us all ice cream at a gelato shop which he claimed to be the best in Barcelona.  They shaped it in the form of a flower.  I got chocolate, vanilla, and lime. Best tasting flower I ever did have.



LA BOQUERIA
La Boqueria is this giant, beautiful market where they sell an assortment of fresh fruits, fish, meats, chocolate, bread, and basically anything your heart desires, for a very reasonable price.  We probably stopped here twice a day to buy pineapple and strawberries and these DELICIOUS fruit smoothies.  I love the buzz of markets. The smell (good or bad) the produce sellers trying their hardest to get you to buy things, and the array of people wandering in awe of all there is to offer.  I guess you could say I am an avid "market" goer.  I would like to say its my scene. haha




PARC GUELL
Gaudí, the famous architect, very much associated with Barcelona, designed this housing complex.  He entirely intended to finish it, but the project fell through and the neighborhood was never completed.  However, what he did finish was remarkable.  I don't know how he came up with all those crazy buildings.





LA SAGRADA FAMILIA 
Gaudí's masterpiece.  La Sagrada Familia stands for the sacred famila, referring to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Gaudí began this church, but died in the process.  He was hit by a car and did not receive immediate attention because he was dressed so shabbily, no one could recognize it was him, and decided not to care.  How sad is that?  Just cuz they thought he was some hobo didn't mean they shouldn't have tried to save him!  Anyways, the church is also unfinished, but is being created by other architects now.  This is very evident in the different styles of all the facades.  The building is very symbolic and I couldn't help but think while I was there how knowledgeable about the church Gaudí must have been.  My favorite aspect was his design of the interior.  He intended to have the chapel look like a forest, with light coming in from the stained glass windows.  It goes to show we should learn from nature and from God!

This is supposed to be the finished product in 2026. Reunion anyone?

DINNER DATE AT THE PLAZA DEL TOROS
For dinner the very first night, Jenna, Aly, Kim and I happened to stumble upon an old Plaza de Toros which has now been turned into a mall because Bull Fighting is illegal in Catalunya, the region of Barcelona.  We went to the very top and ate an authentic Catalonian restaurant. After we also tried Gofres which are like these thick and doughy divine waffle things that they cover in chocolate. Incredible.  We could see the view of the palace and magic fountains.  I will always associate my experience in Barcelona with those beaming spotlights of the palace.








LA CASA MILÁ
Another crazy apartment complex designed by Gaudí.  The chimneys look like Elvish warriors.








LA PLAYA 
Who goes to beach in February? We do.



CAMP NOU
YES. YES. YES. Though we didn't want to pay 22 euros to get into the tour, just walking around the outside of this awesome stadium was so worth it. I can only imagine how packed it would get on FC Barcelona game day.  I WILL go back someday to witness such a spectacle.










DANCING ON LAS RAMBLAS.
We may or may not have gone to a club.  Have you ever been to a club with 8 other BYU girls? Let me tell you how it goes.
-You show up too early and are forced to go wait in subway haha. In Spain, 11:45 is too early.
-You are the first ones there, and have the floor entirely to yourselves for almost 45 minutes.
-You don't buy any drinks, you dance like dorks, and therefore all the club workers hate you.
-Any time a boy gets anywhere remotely close to any of the girls, you make a certain sign and everyone starts dancing like idiots to scare them away. I was on "creeper" alert.  When I saw the enemy approaching, I stuck both hands up and immediately we all started to dance super bad.  This way, no one has any desire to get near us.
-You leave the club at 1:30, when the majority of people are just arriving.
-You wear the same things you did all day. No way were we gonna get ready for some dumb club.
-You laugh the whole night at how mormon you are, and how happy you are because of it.

madness and an experience I will never forget!

In conclusion. Barcelona is a way nicer city than Madrid. haha.  The city was a lot more diverse and there was just so much going on.  I would absolutely one hundred percent recommend seeing it someday. I know I will go back, any one want in?