Oh how the time flies! How else could I start my blog but with that sentence? I feel like I was in Ohio yesterday opening Christmas presents, so we´ll start there. Since I last blogged I was in Ohio for a week to see everyone for the holidays. Right before I left Juan surprised me with his presence to say goodbye, awww how sweet. Then I was off! The plane ticket cost $1000 round trip, which hurt the bank account, but it was worth every penny. I spent most of the time in Morrow, but also spent 1 day 2 nights in Columbus. I didn´t get to see even half the people I would have liked to, but I did see RACHIE!!!!! Who, might I add, I have been missing like crazy lately. I had an amazing time with my family, just as I had expected. Overall, the trip was just what I needed to keep going.
Flight back to Madrid - December 31, and of course that was New Year´s, so we headed down to Sol with the jetlag and all. Side note - I highly recommend flying Delta or British Airways over US Airways when going overseas. New Year´s Eve was fun, but not a whole lot to tell. At the beginning of January I received the bad news that I wasn´t going to see Zach in Spain :( I was supertriste! With my schedule cleared for the 2nd due to Zach´s bad planning, haha, I went down to Granada with Emily and Sybil. His parents so graciously hosted all 3 of us in their house! It was tight, but we appreciated it a lot. After coming back to Madrid 2 really more exciting things happened. My friend Mary was in town visiting some old friends that she made when she lived here, and we got to spend the day together with a friend of hers. We ate some delicious Colombian food and went to Aranjuez. Then...JENNA CAME!!!! Yay! I can´t even explain how excited I was to see her. Juan came up from Granada to see us and helped us carry Jenna´s luggage through the snowstorm. She´s studying abroad for 4 months in Segovia, forgot to mention that. Her first little visit was too short, but not too long after I went up to Segovia to see her. The city is very enchanting and beautiful. I also was able to tag along with her study abroad group to a visit through a couple different pueblos in Castilla y León that had castles and such. It was the perfect visit to see my sis :)
In January, Jenna, DeAnna, Emily, Rita, Kristin, Rita´s friend Susan and I all went to Amsterdam too! I won´t go into too much detail, but it was awesome awesome awesome. The city is beautiful and the food is good. We went to the Anne Frank house, which is something you shouldn´t miss if you head up there. That same weekend when we got back, Jenna and I also went to a Real Madrid game. There were more people and the players were better, but surprisingly the atmosphere wasn´t that different from a Crew game.
Since then I´ve been in Madrid except one small trip to Granada. Some really exciting things have happened in the past couple of weeks though. 1 - I found out my sister Tricia is pregnant!!!!! Babies bring our family so much joy. I love thinking about how different all of my nieces and nephews are, and I can´t wait to see what the newest one will be like. Will he/she be quiet like Lily? Feisty like Abby? Easy going like Audrey? Serious like Andrew? Rowdy but caring like Austin? I am so happy for my sis! 2 - we bought tickets to go to Turkey for 12 days in April. 3 - Here I would like to combine all the little things that I love, like getting mistaken for a Spaniard, haha, hugs from my kids at school, portatil parties with the roomies, snow, a successful trip to the doctor, and making good food, just to name a few. Right now I am just looking forward to going to Salamanca, a Kings of Leon concert and Paris this month :)
I hope all is well wherever you are :) Lots of love, Laura
