Studying abroad was one of the hardest decisions I ever made and I am so thankful everyday that I did it. The experience scared me, challenged me, pushed me and tested and broke friendships but most importantly built new friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. It opened up the world to me, inspired me, made me grow and changed me all for the better.

Here is just a glance of the best 5 months of my life so far...

Spain from Elizabeth Ortiz on Vimeo.

Together in Paris

Well the program has officially ended. That's a whole different post entirely that will be up shortly but for now I'm going to talk about my trip to Paris with Tess!

All semester Tess and I had been talking about going to Paris together. Time after time it kept now working it out so we decided we would go after the program ended since I was flying standby home and she hadn't decided when she would be leaving. We left the same morning everyone else left for home,  Friday morning. We landed in Paris around noon but didn't get into our apartment until around 3pm. We used a website called Air B&B to find a room to rent. Our host's name was Marie and she was so kind and helpful. We spent the afternoon exploring our neighborhood, getting crepes and relaxing in our awesome Parisian apartment.

Saturday morning we went up to the northern part of town to meet with an Australian blogger that Tess had set up a coffee date with to talk about what its like moving to Paris. Her name is Olivia and she makes amazing jewelry on Etsy. We had nice chat and then made our way to the center of the city to the Louvre. However, when we got there we discovered that because we had bought our tickets online, we had to go pick up our tickets on the other side of town. After we finally got our tickets we decided to leave the Louvre for Monday and instead went to see the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. We got off the metro at the Arc de Triomphe first and ran across like 6 lines of traffic to get to it. Apparently that's illegal; you're suppose to use the underground tunnel, or so says the police man who stopped us. After checking that out we went to the Eiffel Tower and walked around the park. Then we walked long the river back to the Notre Dame. Then we walked back through town and through Luxemburg Parc and back to our apartment after our long day of seeing the city.

Sunday was our day at Versailles! We left early to catch the metro, it was suppose to be easy to get to on the C train. However when we got to the transfer, the station was closed. We found a Canadian couple who were also trying to get there so we ended up sharing a cab the rest of the way there. We thought that maybe because the C train wasn't running and it was still pretty early that the crowds would be minimal, but no. Even though we bought our tickets online earlier, we had to wait in line to get inside for at least 1/2 hour in the cold. Finally once inside we got to see the beautiful palace including the hall of mirrors, the king and queen's bedrooms and rooms filled to from floor to ceiling with art. But the palace wasn't even my favorite part. Once we got out into the garden, I was completely in love! The gardens are so big it was impossible to see it all and still have enough energy to move at the end of the day. We explored on our way to the third area of Versailles: the Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon and Marie Antoinette's farm. We went into the Trianon palaces then explored the gardens and onto the farm. So beautiful and charming! Anyone could see why a queen would build a retreat like that.We could have spent even more time exploring the gardens expect we were exhausted and starving! We made sandwiches but had left them in the bag we checked in at the beginning. By this time the C train was running again so we hoped on that back to our apartment.

We thought we were done for the evening but Marie's friend Samuel came over and offered to drive us around the city! We jumped at the opportunity to see Paris by car as the sun was setting. It was so beautiful! The Eiffel Tower against a hot pink sky is not something I'm soon to forget.They dropped us off in a good area for crepes and I ate the most delicious cheesy potato crepe of my life!

On Monday we were back at the Louvre and this time we had our tickets in hand! On thing we forgot to bring/grab however was a map. The first thing we did was run to the Mona Lisa before is got too busy. Then we spent hours exploring the museum. We finally decided to try and track down a map since we could NOT find the Code of Hammurabi. We asked a young woman working there if she had any maps but the only ones she had were in Japanese. We took one and Tess said we would learn Japanese quickly and the woman gave us the typical Asian peace signs and said "good luck!". It was so funny we just laughed the rest of the way through the museum. We left the museum and walked through the Louvre garden and wondered around a bit. We found a Christian Louboutin store (almost died)

Thanks for the Memories

Coming to Spain was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But leaving is even harder. 

Coming to Spain was a very hard decision for me. I was apprehensive, nervous, scared: What if I can't communicate with anyone? What if my Spanish isn't good enough? What if I don't get along with my host family? What if I don't make friends? What if I fail?

Turns out none of this happened. Yes, I have had my (many) moments of frustration, confusion, and awkwardness but that just comes with traveling and learning a language. Overall, coming to Spain has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I have met so many amazing people from all over the world and made friendships that will last a lifetime. I've seen and experienced new things that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I cherish every person I met, every experience I had.

Granada and Spain will always have a special place in my heart. I will never forget the time I spent here with these people I love so much.

Are you ready for some fútbol?

Can you believe that I actually enjoyed watching a soccer game?

Ruth, Tess, her friend Ann Marie, Sam and I went to a Granada soccer game yesterday! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to experience some real Spanish soccer.

Granada won 3-0!

Barcelona! The anti-Spain, Spain!

This past weekend I went to Barcelona with Michael, Ruth, Kelsey and Rachel!

If you don't know much about Spain, Catalonia (the autonomous community Barcelona is located in) is very anti-Spain. They don't like being associated with Spain in general, have outlawed bull fights, don't like speaking Spanish (they prefer Catalan) and have talked about separating from Spain all together and becoming an independent country. So if you ever want a real, authentic Spanish vacation I definitely would recommend Toledo, Sevilla, Granada, or Madrid over Barcelona. I am pretty sure I heard more French than any other language this weekend.

Over the weekend we saw plenty of Gaudi architecture, markets, shopping and beautiful gardens. My favorite part was either the market off of Las Rambas or the gorgeous gardens near the Olympic park. It was a fun weekend but also really draining.

May Update!

I can't believe it is already May! Arriving at Adela's for the first time feels like just yesterday and about a year ago at the same time. Here's what I've been up to this month so far!

Nerja
Our program took a day trip to the coastal city of Nerja to soak in some sun. Even though the water was cold I finally sucked it up and swam in the Mediterranean! We all eat paellla at this beach side restaurant and then played volleyball for the rest of the afternoon! It was my last time on the coast so it was sad to leave the costa del sol!

Lunch time!

Paella restaurant!

Hey look I found my store!

Día de la cruz
The third of May is la día de la cruz (Day of the Cross). During this festival, different churches and other groups build displays that center around a large cross covered in red flowers. The cross is usually surrounded with different antiques and items that are special to the city they are in. Granada is known for having a great día de la cruz festival and I had a great time looking at all the displays and enjoying the other main part of the festival: flamenco. The women (and little girls!) of Granada dress up in beautiful flamenco dresses and put red and white flowers in their hair, many of the crosses are accompanied by flamenco music and there are performances in many of the plazas. My favorite spontaneous performance was in front of the cross in campo del principe where a mother was dancing with her husband who was holding there little daughter. I got it on film and it will for sure make it into my Spain video! After we enjoyed the crosses Katie, Ruth and I hiked up to Tess's place in the Albaicin and hung out in her cave for a while before I was off for a lovely double date with Sam, Alex and Leah!

 

All displays have an apple with scissors in them, which symbolizes a pun I'll attempt to explain. "Pero" means "but"and is another word for apple. By putting an scissors in the apple it means that anyone who says something along the lines of "This display is beautiful but I have seen better"should just stop talking when they get to the word "but".

My family doesn't read my blog...

I will bake cookies, make dinner, mow the lawn, babysit, clean the house, run to Target or do whatever favor for the first member of my family who reads this and tells me!

YOLO! You Only Lagos Once

I took a weekend trip to Lagos on the southern coast of Portugal last weekend and it was one my favorite weekends to date!

I went with Discover Excursions again so all I had to do was show up and enjoy the ride. 

Friday
We left Granada at 6am and took a bus to Sevilla to pick up more students (there I met up with Chi who I met while in Morocco) and then another 3 hours to Lagos. We checked into our hotel which was nearly on the water and then went down to the beach right away. The beach was absolutely stunning. It was in its own little cove surrounded by beautiful high cliffs and had clearly, bright water. We just had a little time to lay out because then we had to go meet up with the group for our sangria cruise! The boat ride was SO much fun. We drove along the coast and got to see all the beautiful cliffs while enjoying free, unlimited sangria! When we stopped the boat people started jumping in the water. It took a lot of convincing but I eventually got in when Oscar, one of the guides I met in Morocco, agreed to jump in with me. The water was freezing but felt good after a few minutes. Then we got to go in a little dingy boat and a local guide took us through the caves. Again, absolutely stunning! I could have spent the whole day just exploring the rocks. After the cruise, I went out to dinner with Chi and Oscar and then everyone went out to a club which I didn't stay long because we were exhausted from our first great day.

Chi, Oscar and I

Saturday
Before we headed off to the beach on our first and only full day in Lagos, we went to go look at some beautiful cliffs in the area. Sam and I ran away from the group and hiked to this beautiful look out that was straight out of a travel brochure. Yellow cliffs, bright blue water, local boats, so beautiful! I never wanted to leave!

 

After that we went to a beach on the other side of town with the whole group of Discover Excursions (like 230 people). The beach was huge so it wasn't too crowded but it was less spectacular then the small on by our hotel and it was windy, sand was everywhere! There was also free sangria which made up for it a bit. It was a nice day just relaxing in the sun. We buried Chi and Oscar used his awesome artistic skills to make him into a bodybuilder. Javi, another guide and good friend of Oscar, also helped and he just hilarious.

My boat!

Oscar and Javi buried Chi!

 We left the beach and after showers we went to "The End of the World". After a 40 min bus ride to the western coast of Portugal we got to Cape St. Vincent. Read this from Wikipedia:

Cape St. Vincent was already sacred ground in Neolithic times, as standing menhirs in the neighborhood attest. The ancient Greeks called it Ophiussa (Land of Serpents), inhabited by the Oestriminis and dedicated here a temple to Heracles. The Romans called it Promontorium Sacrum (or Holy Promontory). They considered it a magical place where the sunset was much larger than anywhere else. They believed the sun sank here hissing into the ocean, marking the edge of their world.

This place was unbelievable. The cliffs were the biggest cliffs I've ever seen and with the sun setting it was breathtaking. It was also the windiest place I've ever been! The wind could have blown you over if you weren't careful! Which also made it really, really cold but we huddled together for warmth. It was really amazing being at this place that thousands of years ago people believed was truly the end of the world. The whole time my favorite travel quote was ringing through my head "Home is now behind you, the world is ahead".

After we got back to Lagos we went to dinner; this time at Nah Nah Bah, one the of the world's best burger joints! I got a grilled chicken sandwich which was SO good. Then we went out to Joe's Garage for the night's fiesta and it got real crazy, real fast. It as fun, lots of people dancing on the bar and a lot of good music. But then it started getting a little too crazy for me. The last thing I saw before I left was a girl with blood running down her foot because she got cut by broken glass. So we all went back to the hotel and hung out in one of our rooms for a while. I don't think I got to sleep until like 5am. But that's Spain, uurr um, Portugal for ya!

I got "Big Bob's Cock Meat Sandwich

Party at Joe's Garage. Oscar was giving everyone highlighter tattoos

Sunday
On our last day we got to go back to our pretty little beach by the hotel. We spent the morning there relaxing, dipping our feet in and skipping rocks. Then we went back to the hotel for a bit to clean up and it was off to the buses for our 7ish hour trip back to Granada. I had to say goodbye to Chi and Oscar in Sevilla which was just a tiny bit of a preview of what is in store for me at the end of May. I can't bare to think of all the goodbyes!

April update!

I've been slacking again on updating so here's whats been happening in the past few weeks!

Cortijo
On the 13th we took a little trip outside of the city to German's parent's cortijo or little farm/garden house. There we made paella and sangria and then went for a walk around the river close by. It was a lovely, lovely day. The weather was perfect and it was really nice spending the day together with everyone.

Almuñécar
On the 14th Ruth, Katie, Amy, Chelsea, Kelsey and Rachel all went to the beach in Almuñécar. The first part of the day was cloudy and windy but then the sun came out and it was a very nice day. It was great to finally get on the beach!

We're spelling "Sol <3"

Horseback riding
On the 19th we finally got to go horseback riding! I was excited even though I knew it was just going to be a walking trail ride (I was right). We split into 2 groups for the 40 minutes ride around the surrounding country side and town. I was the most experienced of everyone and I obviously shouldn't be judging anyone people, I have an above average experience with horses, but sometimes I just don't get how people don't know how to ride a horse! No one completely failed except for dismounting. I almost burst out laughing at some of the people getting off. #sorrynotsorry

While we waited for the second group to finish their ride, we hung out with the prettiest dog I have ever seen!

We also babysat the owner's daughter Lola while we were waiting. She was so cute! Michael was her favorite. At one point she adorably and shyly took a toy from him and he turns around and says "What a flirt!"

Salobreña
On the 20th and 21st Sam, Ruth, Katie, Maggie, Leah, Alex, Luziel, Emily, Devon, Adrian and Wes all went to Salobreña for the weekend! We got there Saturday, checked into our hotel and headed off to the beach. Unfortunately, we didn't see the beach that day but still had loads of fun playing volleyball, soccer, climbing the rocks and drinking wine. The next day was a little warmer but I still didn't get to see the sun because Ruth and I caught an earlier bus back than the others and the sun didn't come out until after we left! Still had a great time with a great group of people.

Sam went to go buy a sweater and came back wearing this. Can you tell he is from Wisconsin?

Elegido. Our "Chosen" wine for the weekend

Octopus on a stick anyone?

Beas hike: Round 2
The last time I did this 10 mile hike, Sam, Tess, Ruth and I got ourselves lost and then turned off the beaten path. This time with Leah, Alex, Maggie, Katie and Ruth we found the correct trail and did the hike in less than 5 hours instead of 6! Highlights from this trip include some sidestepping thigh workouts, a run in with a snake, and sassy Australian one liners ("I thought we wanted to head towards Granada")