6 weeks gone, 1 to go.

i am leaving. on a jet plane.
in the morning.

what??
i can't believe it. i feel like i have seen, experienced, and learned an incredible amount in the last six weeks.

culture shocks in nyc. culture shocks in spain.
falling in love with cities. and bridges. and heladerías.
learning so much about myself. what i want in life. where i want to be and what i want to do.

a new appreciation for things i take for granted -- fresh fruit, salads, family just a phone call away, air conditioning, clean air (meaning NOT walking through puffs of smoke on every single street), a gospel-oriented home.

man. it has been a grand experience. and now i am off to D.C. (after a bus ride, plane ride, overnight layover, plane ride, and one more bus ride) to visit with my beautiful sisters (jen and becky).

and then more exciting things when i head back to utah. it is a great summer indeed.

love love.
--cheri

where i've been.

visited 24 states (48%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

create your own here

by the way, I have 14 more days until I am home! 4 more nights in Spain and 9 days in Washington, D.C. with my sisters. Can you believe that? I promise to post many pictures when I am finally able to see them! I have taken more than 1,000 so it might take me a bit to narrow them down!

time of my life.

all these pics were taken on the same day. can you see my happiness? yeah. spain is amazing. life is great. my roommate...couldn't have asked for a better one! we have such fun times together (buying cacahuetes bañados en chocolate, "pring-less", chocolate loafs, peanut m&ms, ropa, and zapatos..) and we keep saying how strange it will be to not be around each other 24-7. she has taught me so much and i love learning about her life! we are both silly and crazy and have crazy families too, but it makes everything much more enjoyable. alex is such a strong, incredible person! she is a great example too. we have a little book of quotes from this trip that none of you would laugh about...but anyway, we have fun together. the end :)

glad game: spain edition.

in Pollyanna, she plays the Glad Game. I thought I would try to do the same with some things that might otherwise be a little...less than happy :)

Bad: Having a group project and doing homework in the middle of June on a beautiful sunny day.
Glad: Preparing for said project in El Parque de Federíco García Lorca (it is beautiful) AND having the teacher love your presentation. Even better? When you were the one who thought of the topic for debate AND had examples from society...yes!!

Bad: A crazy teacher who shows up late, speaks very fast, and goes over time.
Glad: Being able to laugh about her very precise enunciations and her being oh-so-scatterbrained.

Bad: Missing family and friends
Glad: Having a roommate and group who become like family. Oh, and Google Chat and Skype help too.

Bad: Having a bird poop on your arm on the way to school this morning.
Glad: Having it poop on your arm, and not in your hair.

There you have it, round 1 of the Glad Game. You should play it some time!

crock, crock.

More stories straight from España!

-well, around here if you are talking about a frog, you don´t say "ribbit, ribbit." No, frogs say "crock, crock."
-if you are poor and have no money, but you don´t care about money because you love or like someone, you might say something like: "¡Contigo, pan y cebolla!" As in: "With you, bread and onion!"
-i will be so happy to have a bowl of multi grain cheerios when I get home. BUT, I do enjoy these little mini loafs of bread with sugar on top that we eat for breakfast. I think I will buy a pack for my suitcase because I´m sure I will crave them after I leave.
-everyone here smokes. it makes me sad. and it makes me smell. but, overall, it just makes me sad! why are these people ruining their own lives by becoming addicted to nicotine? and sometimes the people who smoke are very young too. ¡Qué triste!
-each week we have a list of food to try and places to visit (this is for the 3 culture credits we receive in addition to the 4 language credits). One of the items this week was chocolate con churros, basically a HOT chocolate drink that you dip churros in to. I really enjoyed the hot chocolate. Yum! But I´d like it on a cold day rather than in the middle of the afternoon, when we tried it.
-We visited the Alhambra yesterday. Go Google it if you have never heard of it. It is the most visited attraction in Europe. And it is gorgeous. I took more than 150 pictures there yesterday. It is very beautiful.
-There are times when I start to think of how long I have left in Granada...the times when I crave my mom´s homecooked meals, a shower head that you don´t have to hold above you the entire shower, fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, family, friends, dates, not wearing shoes in the house (it is a custom here), no summer school, etc.
Then I remind myself, "Cheri! You are in Spain. In Spain! Enjoy it while you can. You will look back and love the memories you have there and regret all the times you had a bad attitude because you missed what you were accustomed to. Try new things. Dip in to new cultures. Learn. Explore. Enjoy this experience." So, here is to a great attitude the rest of the trip!

Alright, those are a few stories to keep you updated on my life! Thanks for reading about my summer adventures.

your boyfriend is like a train.

Well, hello again! I made a list of stories for you, so I hope you enjoy some more of my European experiences.

- Last night I tried calimari (squid) for the first time. Of course it was fried. But besides that, it wasn´t half bad. I actually like all the fish here!

- Here in Spain, we eat galletas (cookies) for breakfast. Well, Maite was very happy to show us that her friend had made "American cookies" with chocolate chips. I was curious as to why she didn´t offer us any when she showed us them. Oh, why of course! The next morning when we sat down to eat breakfast (which is a SAUCER of milk...that bowl-cup thing is huge) and some cinnamon sugar pastry, she had also set out the American chocolate chip cookies. They were sort of like those cookies you have at ward parties...you know the ones that look tasty but are often stil there at the end of the party? Not very moist, but not too terrible. Today, Irene took SIX in her lunch for school. That made me laugh.

- In my class, when we have to share what we don´t like, everyone always comments on how much they HATE walking. Walking to class...walking in Granada...walking in general. I just don´t understand. I love it! The streets are beautiful, the graffiti is beautiful (as seen above. I took that picture on my way to school). I love it all!

- I found out the word for babysitter today: canguros. Yes, the same word for kangaroos. And, a word for creepy (such as a creepy person) is buitre, the same word for vulture. We use frequently.

-There is a young man on the10th floor of the building that faces us who we can see from our 7th floor window. Well, he likes to stand there, half out the window...and sometimes for hours, it seems. Except, did I mention he likes to stand there shirtless? Oh yes. His name, we found out one night at dinner, is Pablo. We now fondly refer to him as Pablo en la ventana.

- Walking back to the main building (my class is about 5 minutes down the road) today with my new friend Amanda (who is AWESOME)...well, we were getting ready to cross the road and a pigeon sitting in front of us suddenly flew up into our faces. We thought it would fly up, not AT us. Both of us jumped back, inhaled deeply, and kept going, but our hearts were wildly racing for the next few minutes. Then we just started laughing, thinking about how silly the two American girls must have looked, being so scared about a silly pigeon!

- We have learned many interesting colloquial phrases in class. One of my favorites has been a phrased used to describe an awesome boyfriend or girlfriend.
"Su novio está como un tren."
OR
"Su nuvio está como un moto."
OR
"Su novio está como queso."
Basically, if you have a rockin' boyfriend, you might be told he is like a train, a motorcycle (or Vespa, which are EVERYWHERE), or cheese. But, it´s a good thing!

no mas comida frito, por favor.

Hello again! I have a few more stories to share about my time here in Granada. Are you ready to read all about them?

--Irene (the little girl I live with aka mi hermanita) really, really loves Justin Bieber. Already established, si? But, everyday she comes in to my room, asks me to turn on my iPOD to JB music and then proceeds to dance. It´s the cutest thing in the world to hear her sing the words "Never say never", "Baby..ooh" or "somebody to love". She doesn´t quite understand what she is saying, but she tries and it´s adorable. I am excited to post pictures of her one day when I am able to upload pictures.

--Last night I began reading the book Manolo Gafotas, which is a book that is written in a young adolescent style, but still takes time for me to understand. It´s full of critical humor (like The Simpsons, which professors refer to ALL THE TIME here for anything American. Interesting) and cultural allusions. I was reading it last night when Irene was doing my makeup and I began reading it out loud. SO HELPFUL! She would stop me if I pronounced something wrong, would explain words I didn´t understand, and would cue me in on humorous parts that I wouldn´t otherwise note. One thing mentioned in the first chapter was colleja, which is kind of like a smack on the head. Each time I said that word, Irene would do that to remind me. Or as an excuse to hit me...but it was helpful either way!

--Why is everything here fried? I feel like I must be in the south all over again. Last night we had a talk at dinner about food. I mentiond I loved basically all fruits and vegetables that I´ve ever tried, and I especially love spinach salads with apples and strawberries...granola..feta cheese (oh man, I´m drooling right now just thinking about it!). My host mom was astonished that I liked spinach raw. "Frito?" she asked (fried). No way! She mentioned that she liked cabbage...when it was fried. She likes potatoes...fried. Carrots...fried. Get the picture? Nearly every meal has something fried.

--Speaking of fried, yesterday for lunch (the biggest meal of the day here. and they´re not kidding with their large portions), I tried anchovies for the first time in my life. Oh, they were fried though. Don´t worry. Surprisingly I enjoyed them, even though my entire life I´ve only heard "Don´t order anchovies on your pizza!" I think when I get back I´m going to eat fruits and vegetables and multi grain bread everyday. Oh, the joy that will be! How I miss it.

--Lastly, I was having such a hard time in class today! It´s 4 hours long, with two 5-minute breaks. It´s a little rough. Well, not only was I little sleepy from staying up until 2 a.m. talking to my roommate about our families, but the room was stifling. It´s that same feeling as walking back into a church gym after going outside at an institute dance. Anyway, I was sure I was going to fall asleep. All of the sudden, my little Manolo Gafotas book fell off of my desk and hit the floor with a loud THUD. Our class only has 11 people. It was awkward. But it startled me enough to keep me awake until I could go step outside during our last break.

Well, once again it´s time to wrap it up! I hope you've enjoyed these stories.
¡Hablo contigo pronto!