1st days in Spain

I have a home!!! It is so nice to be unpacked and have my own room and an address again! Travelling is great, but I don't think I would survive as a nomad-I like being in 'homey' places too much. 
I arrived in Spain on Wednesday the 23rd, and have loved it!! I am so happy, I was really worried about coming to a Spanish speaking country at first.  I know that the culture is totally diffrent than Ecuador, but the fear is there when I hear the language.  But God is on my side with this move.  I love the family that I am living with: Miguel, Marije, Carla (9 yrs) and Abraham (4 yrs).  They are so wonderful, warm and i get along with them great.  Carla is such a doll-she loves to play and her English is great so I am just teaching her new things and helping her perfect grammar.  Abraham is hilarious, 4 yrs old but already such a boy.  He understands some English but won't speak so that is my goal, to get him to speak English.  Marije is wonderful! She and I get along really well and she is so wonderful and making me feel such a part of the family.  Miguel is at work alot so I dont see him to much, but when I do is is so nice.  He doesn't speak any English so I am going to try to speak to him more in English since he wants to learn.  The family lives in Suesa, a farming town near Somo (the beach town) and Santander (the bigger beach city).  When we first drove tot eh house at night time I didn't see any farm land, but when I got up the next morning I was standing at the kitchen window making coffee, and across the street what do I see? I bunch of cows! haha,  They smell a little but other than that, I think it's cool to live near cows-so different than home.  We also get our milk from the cows-Miguel's family works the farm, but he does stuff with the big machines, like dirt moves and such.  But we always have fresh milk, so I guess my pasteurizing skills learned in Ecuador will come in handy here.  I am so excited to learn how to cook spanish cuisine.  Marije makes this potato, egg thing that is SO good! And Yesterday I tried payaya-it was good, although I really am a SoCal girl.  The shrimp in the payaya were whole (feet, legs, etc.) and So I was so careful to not spill insides anywhere and missed just choosing the prawns from the market at home that were already done, lol.  But the fresh fish in the payaya was awesome and the clams (ate them out of the shells) were wonderful!
Marije took me to Somo with the kids and I got to see the beach! It is so beautiful (I promise to post pics as soon as I remember to take my camera out with me) and it is a very big surf spot, in summer i guess it is near impossible to parking anywhere.  But it's a fun place, I am going down there this week to hang out with some young people.  Marije's house cleaner has an 18 year old daughter (Rocio) that is taking me out,  she is very nice and Marije says she knows all the fun places to go in Somo/Santander and Spain. 
Well that is it for now, I will try to update more often now that I have stable internet. 

The kids made this for me to see when I first walked into my room :)

By Abraham

By Carla

house

front yard, and cows

my room

living room-nice right?

Kitchen-I love it!

The Beautiful land of leprechauns, shamrocks and fairies

I love Ireland! It is such a beautiful country and the people are wonderful. We were mainly in Dublin, but did manage to get out of the city a few days. The day after St. Patty's we went to Glendelough, a beautiful little country town with a gorgeous cemetery and then to the Guinness storehouse.
Over the next few days, Lindsey and I went all over Dublin, Howth and Galway. We visited the Cliffs of Moher, so amazing! It was absolutely beautiful and the sun decided to make an appearance right when we got there, so great!! Howth is a great little sea town about 20 min outside of Dublin, we were so excited to get out of the city at this point. In the city we went to the Leprechaun Museum (so fun!-Kim, you would just love it!), Dublin Castle, Dublina (the Dublin Viking Museum) and Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.
And now for a few pics!

Glenelough Cemetary

Leprechaun Museum 

Howth 

Dublin Castle 

Galway Farm

Cliffs of Moher

Honoring the great Irish saint with Guinness and shamrocks!

St. Patrick's Day is the one dad where we think we get a saint's permission to drink to our hearts content. I was so excited to spend this wonderful Irish holiday in Ireland!! I never really celebrated it at home, except for getting pinched (which we only do in American, the Irish think we are crazy). Asince we got in on the 16th, we hit some tourist shops to crab a few St. Patty's Day accessories and made a pub run was a must (this is sort of mandatory in Dublin). We found a really good pub near the hostel that had live Irish music playing and met some really great people to hangout with a treid out some Irish dancing.
St. Patty's day started out with putting on our awesome temporary tattoos (Irish flag on one cheek and a shamrock on the other) and going to the Parade on O'Connell street. It is the largest non-military parade in the world-and I think the craziest parade in the world, lol. There were some really interesting groups, but we loved it! We waited 2 hours in our spot for the parade to start. We got some good coffee (which I was really missing in Prague) and croissants and muffins. After the parade we napped! A very important part of the day, especially when we were out late the night before and considering it was Patty's day we needed rest. After naps we ventured out to 2 awesome pubs. The first was the Pub at the Arlington Hotel (great bar btw). We listed to some great real Irish music and got to watch river dancing, we also got to have some Guinness. Lindsey and Stephanie had never had it before and by the end of the night they were pros at drinking it and knowing when it was ready to be consumed (there are rules to drinking Guinness). After the Arlington we went back to the pub from the night before, The Celt. The Celt and the Arlington were our favorite pubs. The crowds are great and prices good, plus they were very festive! We had a great time, met some cool Irish people (they are actually difficult to find at some places, lol). We learned a lot about St. Patty's day and just how American we look. First of all: No Green Beer in Ireland (apparently it is a mortal sin to even request one-that is what every Irish guy told us). Secondly-it's ok not to wear green, they don’t care, but they did like that I could drink Guinness and liked it [thank you dad for teaching me the proper way to drink;) ]. Oh, apparently I am very American! Steph (from New York), Linds (Illinois) and I were walking up to the bar and thisguy stopped us, pointed at us individually and said "American (Steph), American (me), Chicago(Linds)"…we were like OMG how did you do that. The Chicago part through us off though, since Lindsey is really only from 3 hours outside of the city. Then when I asked him where he thought I was from he said North Dakota (random state) and he said because he thought I seemed real. When he found out I was from Cali he was like 'What!? No way, you are real, no plastic and your hair isn't platinum" haha, I was just cracking up, but I am glad that I don’t fit the bad stereotypes on SoCal. One guy we met taught us the "Irish Bungee Jump"…… it's just sitting in a chair an tipping it backwards, we were like OMG you are a crazy dude. It was a great night meeting new people and learning all about the real Irish Patty traditions.

Now I can teach everyone about the crazy language we call English

I am TEFL certified!!! I am so happy to be done with it! Everyone was so relived after we had our last teachings.  We went out Thursday to celebrate and had a blast.  And then last night we had our graduation and champagne night.  It was fun.  But now everyone is leaving and figuring out who is going where. 

These are 2 of my favorite people: Lindsey, me and Stephanie with our certificates!! 

the group with our instructors Terry (far left in brown sweater) and Dan (front and center)

Lauren, Stephanie, Michelle, Lindsey and Me: so happy to be done!!

I am so excited to be seeing my roommate, Helen, again in London on Tuesday and then my new friends Lindsey, Stephanie and I are spending St. Patty's day in Ireland!! We are so excited! It will be a fun way to celebrate being done and starting this new and wonderful chapter in our lives. 

Oh the possibilities

Stephanie and I are planning a trip to Dublin for St. Patty's Day!!! I am so excited! I was sitting at the table sending couch requests on CouchSurfer and all of a sudden this rush of excitement came over me! I was like 'OMG I am in Europe, I can go anywhere, this is so flippin' crazy!!'

It's just an amazing and totally exhilarating feeling, I can't really describe it, but I would assume this is the closest feeling of  freedom I will ever have in my life. I just can't believe it, I am able to travel and work….it's like a dream. My world is now full of all sorts of possibilities!! I am loving it!