Internet Access! It Exists!

So, it's been awhile. Mostly the fault of our computer not being easily accessable. Here goes.
We left Madrid in high style in a manual red van. My dad stalled it twice, I was amused. Fortunately, I have SeaBands, they are amazing. Because of them I can now read in the car without becoming incredibly nauseaus. Unfortunately, I might not have enough reading material for the 12 hour flight back home! Such is life.
We arrived in Toledo and stayed at a Hilton on top of a hill. The hill had once been home to a castle and the Hilton had merged it's hotel into the castle. It was very classy. The bathroom was completely covered in black tile and echoed. Very nice. There was, once again, three beds so there was little debate/argument over who had to share the bed with who. Very nice considering that we find plenty other things to argue about. :( They also had a pool which was very welcome despite the cold water. When we arrived at the pool the sun, which had been staying behind clouds, broke out. There were mixed reactions about it. Dad burns like nobody's business. I don't like to suntan that much so it shortened my time at the pool but we were going into the city anyway so it didn't matter much.
We went and toured Toledo and I got some lovely things. A statue of a bull, it is orange and awesome. I also got my first friend gift as well as a very pretty bowl. It was very hot in Toledo and the streets were very narrow and very cobble-y. Toledo is a very old and very beautiful town though. Also very hilly which is no bueno for my feet, ankles, and knees. Nowadays I am ALWAYS behind my family, usually by a lot.
We stayed one night in Toledo and then piled back into the car and headed for Cuenca. ANOTHER every rising, cobble-y town on a MOUNTAIN with tiny little streets. We took a little train dealy up to the top. We doodled around there for awhile checked out a cool museum in the hanging houses of Cuenca. These houses were built in the ?15th century?, fell into disrepair and were then renovated. It is very cool the house is built right on the edge of a cliff above one of the gorges surrounding Cuenca. The balconies are literally hanging above thin air.
There was a older begger woman who passed us while we were walking. Out of habit I said no to her begging and then stopped and realized what had just happened. She had obviously not been someone who had fallen on hard times because of an addiction. Later, I saw her again sitting on the steps of a cathedral. The first inspection had been sad, the second was heartwrenching. The womans legs were emaciated and her toes went in all directions but the right one. She probably had terrible pain in her hips and back and had obvious sculiosis if not something more. When I had passed her she had been slowly shuffling up a hill in a way that bespoke pain and incredible difficulty in just getting around. She had one arm that was normal length but the other was either amputated or shrunken, most likely a birth defect, and was much shorter then the other. The woman's head was tilted to the side because of a tumor the size of her head that started at the base of her skull under her hair. She was dirty, avoided, an outcast. Her belongings were packed into a small backpack which she carried with her. She didn't even have a cane. The second time I saw her my dad, knowing of my regret that I had not given her anything out of habit, handed me a 5 euro and told me to give it to her. In Europe I have no money of my own, Dad is the walking wallet.
One of the things I do is when we go to some place I usually find pleasure in seeing things other than the main thing I came to see. One such thing was this little family, a mother, father, and their son. They were traveling the country in style on motorcycles. The father had his little boy up behind him and the boy appeared to be sitting on most of the family's travel gear. He was pretty much enthroned. What was the best though was that they all had head sets with mics on them so that they could talk to each other during their travelling on the road. I loved it. I didn't manage to take a picture though. :(
When we got back down the hill we got back in the car and headed for that 8th century Arab castle many of you know about. I forget the town name but the town itself was more like a village. It was tiny and out in the middle of lots of farmland. The castle was the first place we stayed that I had to share a bed with one of my sisters. We managed just fine. Apparently though, after C and I fell asleep, V witnessed something rather funny. I had told C multiple times to not kick my foot. The one that had surgery on it. Well, in my sleep I had moved over until I was basically on C's side of the bed and I slowly moved my leg and touched C's. Whereupon I sleep yelled at her, "C! What are you doing!?!?!" and she responded, in her sleep, with a "sorry" in that sleepy voice some of you know. Of course, all of it was my fault. It caused some hilarity in the morning. Neither of us remember a thing.
We moved on the next day to Valencia. We stayed at a very nice hotel, once again with three seperate beds. We were right on the beach. Valencia is known for it's beaches so we headed there straightaway. The sand was soft, the water warm, and the riptide was non-existant. Very and you had to go relatively far out to get the water to neck level. We also had our first "simple dinner" in Valencia. We had been having a lot of very Spanish food. I understand now why my sis V said she was so tired of ham. Here it's pork products all the way.
We crossed the street to a little italian restaurant. We all had pasta dishes. C and I had pasta with cheese sauce ham bits and peas. Something that is very similar to what we sometimes eat at home. It was incredibly refreshing.
During our time in Valencia we went S.C.U.B.A. diving. I had doubts about the strength of my foot but the first dive was a success. It was also the first dive that I've ever done where my goggles have not fogged up at all!! I was very excited. We saw octopus and many fish. My favorites were tiny little royal purple colored fishes. We went back to shore for some lunch, Dad and C then departed. Dad wasn't impressed with the Mediteranean variety and Cindy had been unable to go down because of her swimmer's ear. Mom decided she'd try again and V and I (we're usually dive partners) decided we'd go down again too. I was down for about 10 to 15 minutes when my ankle and foot started to tire for real. I decided to go up before I got exhausted. Diving is not a sport where you want to get exhausted. So, I signal I need to go up and I get assigned a dive master who is not on duty and we go up and get back to the boat. My mom is there because she couldn't manage to get down again she has issues with being too buoyant and very sensitive ears. There were also two other divers one was teaching the other rescue diving. Fun to watch. Soon, the others joined us on the boat and we started back to land. One of my favorite parts of diving is the boat ride. We were on a inflatable boat this time so I actually straddled the side and rode that way. It was very fun. The water was so blue and clear you could see the bottom most of the time. Anyway, we were riding in and then the vroom of the boat turned into a sputter.
My fingers are getting tired. I'm going to go rest awhile and then continue... ;P

David Bowie and Chocolate

My goodness. Flemenco is LOUD! Poundpoundpound BANG pound ratatatatatat. On and on. I mean watching their feet is only interesting for so long! So, I guess I'm not a fan of flamenco dancing... at least not without ear plugs. It might be easier to be entertained if I had understood the stories that went with the dancing! They were in Spanish and sung. Though the singing was more of a loud "tuneful" yelling than singing. One singer was especially intense, he jerked his arms back and forth when he sang/wailed/yelled, very dramatic! His looks called to mind David Bowie for me and Kieth Richards for my dad. He's the guy with the bowed head in the picture. It isn't the greatest but you could barely see them in the others. Here's another...

Dinner was pretty good. I had breaded calf fillet, veal basically, with grilled vegetables. It was pretty good. I ordered the chocolate custard for dessert my sister V joked that I should drink it, it was so watery! We also had these appetizers called croquettes. They were fried dumplings with ham and maybe potato but mostly made from flour and water. Rather sticky but good!

During the day we went and walked around inside El Prado, a art museum in Madrid. Unfortunately, we walked there so my feet were hurting quite a bit by the time we got there making focusing on the paintings a bit difficult as I walked around some more. I was always happiest when I spied a bench. V had a lot of insights on the paintings, for example, if the artist painted a piece of paper into the bottom of his painting then it means that he wasn't satisfied with the result and plans to come back later to finish it to his satisfaction. She also explained the meaning of different positions of a horses leg or legs. I forget most of them now... I wasn't really listening, one track mind and all.

Today, Sunday, was very restful. I got up around 9:30 on my own and went in to my parents room to see what was up. They had ordered a in room breakfast of bread rolls, croissants, jam and some of the most delicious hot chocolate. It came on a rolling trolly that turned into a table. Very sweet. The hot chocolate came in two pitchers, one was full of pure liquid cocoa and the other was cream. You mixed them together in your cup. Very good and not at all sugary. I was amused to discover the number of pills I was taking during breakfast. One daily vitamin pill, one calcium, two fiber pills, one iron, and one lactaid pill. I take another calcium pill later in the day. I felt kind of ridiculous taking all of those pills, most of them rather large. It's kind of obnoxious actually. Perhaps I am turning into a health nut?? :P Why not? It's supposed to be good for you.

Well, I need to stop writing now, my parents are going to bed and I need to move the computer. Love you all!

We've Arrived!

Hey everyone! So, we arrived yesterday evening here in Spain. It was a lot of travel and we were all tired. Especially me. I didn't sleep on the plane much. I did on the second plane where the stewardess found me a row all to myself. Killed my neck sleeping there though.
We got to our hotel. Which is Gorgeous! The bathroom echos no joke. My parents have their own smaller bathroom and it has a bidet. All very European and fancy. Apparently, really clean lady bits are rather popular here abouts.
We didn't eat our breakfast at the hotel where a plain Spanish breakfast is 30 euros ($50) for one person. We went to a little restaurant and got four breakfasts for 15 euros. We are amazing.
My mother and I went to the airport to pick up my sister after breakfast. Her flight was delayed twice but she finally came through the doors. She looked beautiful!!! She's all tan and stylish and put together. When we got to the hotel again the doorman asked her a question and she went alsidfjoaisdhjfaiswjdf except in Spanish. She's going to be bilingual no question.
Love y'all! We have to go find foods (comida). Bye!

Relaxing is Mandatory

So, today I woke up to my mother telling me I had 10 minutes to get myself and my sister to the chiropractor. We made it. Cause we're awesome.
Then, then I continued my awesome by being productive. I hemmed my dress pants, started to hem the skirt of my new dress, did my laundry, ate, made a picnic lunch for the beach trip I was going on later that day, and got other beach stuff together. After all that I got my sister and I to our piano lessons. I had a lot of fun at my lesson and my teacher told me that if I remembered to e-mail her after I get back from Spain she would make an exception for me and give me some lessons during August, her vacation month!
Switching to present tense now!
After my lesson I drive up to the middle-college to pick up my friend S. I haven't seen her in three weeks and I am determined to get her away from her busy life for even a few hours. Out of all my friends and family S is the easiest for me to have as a passenger. My car can be tempermental and difficult to make happy, especially if I'm going slow. She doesn't mind that and when the driving is smooth she enjoys the speed, power, and awesome that is my car. It's my first time driving over the mountains to the beach and I'm pretty excited about driving on those winding roads! I manage them well and, as usual, love driving my car!
We get to the beach and, thankfully, it's about 10 degrees cooler there than it is further inland. Inland, or near the bay it's 90 degree's and higher. We chill and make fun of or comment (occasionally positively!!) on other people, their looks and their actions. There's a really strong rip tide where we were and I'm not going to go into the water because I've still got a bandage on my foot from my surgery. The waves were huge and a beautiful color. A light aquamarine/robins egg blue. Beautiful. After about two hours of lying about and drinking soda we drive home. We predicted more traffic but it wasn't bad at all.
Back to past tense... with a little overlap.
We got back home and talked to my family a little and waited for my friend A to arrive. She had this pointless meeting to attend at work that went on for over an hour and a half. She was kind of annoyed. So, she joined us and we had dinner. Leftover spaghetti is great! Then I had to race S home because her mother... because. Both my friends were in the car and we giggled and laughed all the way to S's home.
Dropped A off and got back home. I had good intentions to sort out the things I'm taking to Spain but I got distracted and now I'm watching some T.V.
That was my day. It was a good one.

Inspired

So, I've been inspired by my dear friend Lucy to start a travel blog and see how far it goes. Meaning, does it continue after I return from Spain? Also, she's my friend and since she already uses this site it might be easier to see what I'm doing if I use the same site. Basically, Lucy dear, this is for you.
I'll start my blog by giving you a basic itinerary for the next few months. The Big Events.
I leave for Spain on Thursday and will be there for two weeks. I'll hit Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona. It will be awesome. I will have a blast.
I get home and my mother will be getting knee surgery. We decided I won't be getting the second foot surgery, so my mother decided we MUST have a surgery during August. So, she's going to get surgery.
Then my Grandpa Ed and Aunt Carla visit. They will be here when I celebrate my 19th birthday! I'm hoping to get a lot of practical gifts; pots and pans, dishware, cookware, blankets, maybe a tablecloth. Things like that because the cost does add up as one outfits the places one lives in during the college years. I'm hoping I get pretty good quality so that my stuff LASTS.
After that my oldest sister is visiting which is very exciting. She's awesome. And then it's almost time to start school again. Move into my new apartment with my new roomies Jordan and Ryan. Start my new classes and hopefully not lose all my hair from stress!
Hopefully, I will remain a good blogger and you will hear of all that and more as the days go by.
By the time you get back in a year I hope to still be connected!
Love!