So I know its been awhile, but i have been doing a little bit of travelling the world and so here is my brief but probably rather long update on life. I could probably make this rather long but I will try and keep it short considering I will be home in a matter of days. Let me see its been about 3 weeks now since I have left school and I am currently on my way to Manchester to stay with Diane and John, my host parents from 10 day outreach. I'll start at the beginnings of my travels. It commenced in Bristol as you know, and went on to London after dropping my stuff off with my moms friend. It was there that we drove to London where we were to meet my friend Erika from school. However I learned an important lesson in meeting people while travelling: Make sure that you have a meeting place, or one of you has the others phone number but also make sure you know what time they are arriving and where from. We had a little look for Erika, unsure of all this other then a rough estimated time of arrival and after not knowing, we wandered over to the waiting room where I was praying Erika would be smart enough to wait and lucky me she was!!! Yeah!!!! After this little problem we went for a wander over to Tower hill but didnt have enough time to go in so we wandered and then went for food before leaving Teresa and her family, grabbing my bags and then heading off to meet Steve (whose actually a girl, its short for Stephanie) and Bryan her husband. So its sorta funny, we meet this couple while on a walking tour in Paris and they live just outside of London and invited us (Zach, Christy, Brianna and I) if we ever needed a place in London to stay we could stay with them. So I took them up on the offer, however Zach had the number in his phone and when he gave if to me he couldnt remember if he had written the names down right becuase they are both boys names and we knew for a fact that there was a man and a woman and so i just didnt say their names while I called them, but luckily they remembered me. Anywho a random fact, but they were actually really nice with a lovely home. They helped us figure out our plans for the next day and told us what the best and cheapest way to get to Gatwick airport the next day and where to leave our luggage and what to do in what order. It was rather wonderful and i am so glad that they helped us becuase it would have probably cost a lot more and we would have gone from one place to the next and wasted a lot of time. So after a good sleep and breakfast we headed off early to London to see all that I could show Erika in one day. Let me tell you don't ever try and see London in one day, I was there for 12 days over Christmas and saw almost everything, but it took 12 days to really see it we tried to do it in one. So here is what we saw, we went back to tower hill where we went in and saw the crown jewels and all the stuff inside the castle and then we saw tower bridge, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Parliment building, Buckingham Palace, London eye trafagan square, British library, random roads, a lot of tubes, a few shops, a lot of people and some protests and other such things! We also saw what looked like Canadian greese and a lot of sunshine, we had the perfect day for it no joke. Well our busy day ended by 4 when we decided we were too tired to see any more and went for dinner before taking the bus to Gatwick, we ended up having to rebook our ticket becuase we didnt want to wait longer. We stayed in a hotel near the airport with a girl from school, Lauren whose mom booked a hotel for us. It was so nice that she let us stay there becuase we would have had to wake up way too early, Gatwick airport is middlle of no where.
So this is already getting really long, I am sure you are probably bored. So we had to fly off to Barcelona on the 20th of March, I swear all day though I thought it was the 27th, for some reason but really thats when we were leaving Barcelona! We arrived at the airport way to early and but we got to Bareclona with no problem what so ever. However once we got there it was cold and windy and not good weather. I had given Erika the task of finding out how to get to the house and so she told us we had to catch this bus to the train stop, well we get on the bus and it moves for 2 seconds and she then rings the stop button saying we have to get off at the first stop, which we hadnt even left the airport!! It was so silly and we gave her a hard time, we got off at the last stop, caught a train and then a taxi to the house which was a 10 minute walk, I just didnt want to get lost in the dark. We were given the wrong house number and so the boys waved us over to the right house. Which by the way was amazing!!! It had 10 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room 5 bathrooms, pool, sauna, sqash court, pool table it was probably like 5 levelsish with a rooftop to sit on. So sweet plus we were 2 minutes from the beach. The first night the 4 boys who were the first to arrive were in charge of making dinner for 20. Let me say it was rather interesting, it was good they made pasta with pesto but way too much pasta and it burnt to the bottom of the pot becuase there was soo much. Everyone else didnt arrive till later that evening. The rest of the week went by so quickly, the first day was a shop for food and hang out, it was our lazy day becuase it rained all day. Once the rained stop we went and explore the beach before supper, which was tacos and strawberries for dessert. I washed dishes by hand while others dried. Then I finished cleaning the kitchen before a nice night walk through Spain. The next day everyone but me Erika, Jordan Derkson, Matt, Ty and Tim, all went to Barcelona for the day. While the me, Erika and the boys slowly got ready, coffee food, cleaning and then walked to the beach to enjoy the sun. The boys played frisbee (by the end of the week i got really good, well good for me) and I read and Erika tanned. We walked along the beach and got a little browner and redder for some. It was funny becuase we actually got colour while everyone who was in Barcelona still were white. I actually have to say that this day with the boys was probably one of my favourite, I got to know them a lot better and I had a lot of fun with them. Me and Jordan have the same last name and the whole time at school the only conversation that we had was about whose name was spelt right. So we decided by the end of the week we would be actual friends. ( It did actually happen, we went from accquaintances with the same last name to Roll kuchen making friends) So to make this quick here is a snapshot of the rest of the week:
-I was the mom of the group, How you may ask well; I refilled and bought toliet paper, I did dishes, I cleaned the kitchen spotless (with help from a few), I played nurse and cleaned the boys wounds when the table snapped. I also knew where everything was in the house, I took out the trash and i figured out how to use the stove, dishwasher and washer/dryer. People asked me if they wanted to work something, I kinda like it I felt like I had a purpose. Which I thank my mom for raising me to be independant and responsible. I think the house would have looked worse then it did if I didnt step up.
-We got gelatoes almost everyday, Mango and coconut were the best together.
-Bakerys are amazing
-Cooking for 20 people is hard, you never know if you are going to have too much or not enough, we usually had way too much.
-The beach and sun are amazing, almost everyone got red and most got a little brown.
-We spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach or in the house.
-I spent a lot of time getting to know people I hadn't talked to while at school, i spent the day in Barcelona with Jordan, Erika, and Tim. Spent and afternoon with Ty and Matt on the roof, Went back one evening and hung out at the house with Jayme talking and getting to know her a lot more. I loved my time with these people
-I only know Gracious, Si and Hola in Spanish, and I got by. I love when you walk by someone and say hola and they give you a big smile back!
-After 3pm till about 5 ish nothing is open, it really is cesesta time.
-If people leave cumbs on the counter, and food everywhere you get really bad ants all over the kitchen. And they make you feel like you have them all over you!! Also if you find them you have to clean them up, everyone else just leaves.
-I now have a watch tan and thats all i wanted.
-Beer, wine and other alcohal is really cheap.
Highlights:
-Jordan was dancing in this gelato place and the girls gave him his ice cream for free!!
-Spain is amazing, the beaches, Sand and sun, what is better then that!!!
-Barcelonas Sangria Familia (didnt spell it right) is gorgeous!!
-Making roll kuchen and watermelon for the first time with my Derksen/Derkson pal, so much fun!! Showing all the americians what mennonite food is, they loved it so much!!
-Spending the day at the beach with the boys!
-Hanging out on the rooftop with Matt and Ty eatting watermelon, watching the sun set and getting to know the both of them better!
-Mango and Coconute Gelatoes!!
-Meeting up with a friend (Hannah) from Highschool in Barcelona and then going back to the house and seeing Amber from school there with a girl, Jodi who I went to summer camp with in 2006. They were travelling with Hannah. I had kept in touch with Jodi for 2 years and went to MCC sale with her for a few years and then to see her in Barcelona 6 years later was crazy.
-Having just a handful of girls in the house and running around in our underwear and bras with the music turned up lous
-Waking up and slowly getting ready drinking coffee and reading my bible outside
-Eatting really really good food!
Not a highlight but the last day our table snapped, it was all glass and the boys were leaning on it and the end snapped and the boys got cut, we lost our deposit
So I think that was kinda all there was to my trip to Spain, we spent a lot of time just hanging out relaxing going to the beach, talking and getting to know some people better as well as doing a lot of cleaning and learning I dont want to live with just 20 people or really want my own house yet. So from Spain I went and hit up Holland, getting there was fun. I left at about 7 with Matt so i could get my 10:30 train from Barcelona and he could get his 12o'clock train. We took a train to Barcelona and then a bus to the terminal, turns out we had the wrong terminal after sort of freaking out cause neither of our flights were showing on the board (there are 3 airports and I thought maybe I had booked with the wrong one) but it was jsut at the other terminal so we took a shuttle over there and then looked on the board only to find out that my flight was cancelled due to a strike in frankfurt so i talked to luftsana and they put me on a flight going to muncih at 12 so me and matt had from 8-12 at the airport so we checked in and sat around talking for the 5 hours. The time really flew by faster then I thought it would which I was so thankful and by the end having to say bye to Matt was rather said. Anywho got my flight to munich then to Bremen where my grandmas cousins had a sign with my name on it and picked me up and the adventures began again.
I'll end this one here and continue in a bit, its a lot to read but that has been the first part of my travels part 2!
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