It's been a minute.....

Hello to all.......(prob not many of you that keep up with this or check frequently...but no worries.)
I am writing this blog to just catch up on life... like I said it has been a minute since we last spoke. I returned from Spain safe and sound 2 summers ago (2009)..... Fast forward and we are now here Summer 2011. Well... in 2009 I got convinced to go to this Bon Voyage party for a a group of friends that were studying abroad the Spring '10. I met this boy there. (yea..... thats how all those stories start right?) Well if you haven't guessed it yet... its Mike.. my bf :) Okay... back to the summers we missed. Last summer 2010,   I studied abroad in Mexico. We stayed in San Luis Potosi and visited several cities that had much significance and key roles to the history of the entire country. Guanajauto, San Miguel, and Mexico City. All of these were incredible cities! & the peeps in the Mexico Field Course were pretty awesome. Dr. Zamora & Dr. Corbett were the professors. Of course, classes were strictly in Spanish.

Weekend in Granada

pic with the mime :)

grapevines in the Alhambra

Bullfight, the matadors were awesome!

The nice man at place let me cut my own tapa meat called "Jamon Serrano" its cut fresh from a pigs leg as you can see, it is very tasty :)

So this weekend we ventured out to Granada. It was about 2 and a half hours from Sevilla. We went to visit a palaca called, "The Alhambra" which was absolutely amazing! It is one of the largest palaces in the world. It was pretty awesome being able to see the phenomenal things that have been left behind from people who lived thousands of years ago. We then went to a cathedral in Granada where King Fernidad and Queen Isabella are buried. (To refresh some history, King Fernidad and Queen Isabebella are the ones who funded Christopher Columbus's trip to the Americas) after we visisted the cathedral we went shopping down some crazy arabic markets and found some great things to take home. Oh & this is when we were directed to the most AMAZING ice cream ever! This place had fresh ice cream,nice and cold and way beter then marble slab, cold stone, & mcdonalds! We then headed back to the hotel and got ready for the evening festivities. As a group we went to a gypsy cave across the Alhambra and watched these people live their hearts out through flamenco dancing. It was breath taking and the thing that made this experience was that they were literally 3 ft away, we could hear the music the pounding feet were making and we could see their feet move so fast.

Saturday we had a free day to do some more shopping and of ocurse get some some ice cream. On the way to the ice cream shop we encountered a REAL, LIVE, mime! He was so entertaining! He was making us laugh, we donated some change to his hat and were able to take a pic of him. Before the amazing palace visit I wanted to hydrate my body & I drank some water but it was like a water bottle the size of those water coolers that get deliver or you can refill at remote locations in a city. So during the visit at the most amazing palace in the world that was built in like before Christ times the built buildings withoug toilets. I was stuck half way through the coolest place I could have ever been & I had to get escorted out by one of the supervisors here at the center. So Fel's experience at this palace was limited due to the lack of her age and extremely small bladder. I was embarassed. Granada was alot of fun. Spain has been so much fun! We are going to Portugal this weekend to hit up the beach, surf, see some dolphins & kayak through some coves they have there. Yea, I'm pretty stoked. Also the running of the bulls is tomorrow July 7 in Pamplona. It is about 7 hours from here on a high speed train. I would've loved just to go see but unfortunately it's too far :( Check out the pics!

Spain Update!

Amigos y Familia! Lo siento por no escribir mucho en este blog. No hay muchas lugares aqui que puedo acesso el interent. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Friends & Family! I´m sorry for not writing much on this blog. There are not alot of places where I can get access to the interent. Well we have been here for about 2 weeks. It is amazing,. It takes some time to get adjusted but I did and we are embracing the country and the culture in its entirety!There is soo much history here its amazing. This past weeekend we went to cordoba and saw arabic ruins and a mosque that was converted into a cathedral. Tonorrow we leave to granada for the weekend to go look at other amazing historical monuments. I will post pics as soon as I can. The best part has been the bull fight. Yea it was slightly gross but man was it very exciting to see a 120 lb 19 yr old challenge a 1200 lb bull! Def put pics up of that soon! We´ve gone to the beach but it wasnt your typical american beach. Females enjoy going topless! School is great we just took our first prueba today(test) and I know I did well :) I will update as soon as I can. I gotta get to class! Miss you all very much!

I made it!

Hola a todos!

Hello friends! I actually made it to Spain! It was quite an adventure that left me very tired & somewhat frustrated at some points, but I am happy to say we're here and were getting the ball rolling already! We left El Paso wednesday morning at 9:16 am, since it was delayed the very kind airline booker re-routed us from the EPT to Dallas on a direct flight to Madrid. It was pretty awesome! We were scheduled to go from EPT--->Dallas---> NYC----> Madrid. It was about a 9 hour flight and they fed us dinner and breakfast. The food was really good! For dinner we had lasagna, a side salad, a dinner roll, and a granola bar thing. For breakfast they served a warm croissant & strawberry yogurt which set in my stomach well, wasnt overfilling, wasnt too light, it was just right. I sat next to this really cool lady, she backpacks around the world every summer! This summer she will be backpacking around Europe! We were happy to land in madrid, then we got our luggage and got in a taxi. Man was that a little nerve wrecking, just because we couldn't speak spanish very well & the cab driver didnt know english. Once we got to the train station we journeyed around until we bought our bilettos(tickets). The train was really cool! By the time we got on it we were just exhausted so we were in & out of sleep. We then got a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel is nice. Its not super fancy like a hilton or anything but its nice for a college student studying abroad in Spain. We are off to dinner at 8:30, I am pretty hungry because I haven't eaten since breakfast. From Lubbock there is a 7 hour time difference! So its about 8:15 pm here, so it's about 1:15 pm LBK time. I must say its pretty cool living in your future! haha I wish I could tell you more about the city but I haven't seen much of it. More to come soon! Hasta Luego!

The clock is tickin' away!

Ok so here I am, 10 days before departure. & I have so much to do in so little time! Geez, I barely realized it is like crunch time! haha I have alot to get done. I have started to create a list of things that are necessary for abroad travel, like the red stillettos, the water-proof mascara (for the hotties on the beach, duh!), my red asics for the cardio, and the most important: a spanish-english dictionary! I have 4 days to spend time with the people that I have spent the beginning of my summer with. Its crazy, how when time is put into perspective, it becomes just 10x more valuable. I am going to get my insurance card today, I need to deposit some checks, & return a library book. Well, maybe it doesn't seem like so much to do it is just a little difficult to fit it into the daily routine. I just know that this week will go by ricky bobby fast!

2 weeks & 2 days before departure!

Alright Ladies & Gents:

You are obviously reading this because 1. You are a friend or family member of "Fel" a.k.a. Felicia Juarez. So this is 2 weeks & 2 days before I leave to Spain. Yes, Spain. Jealous? I know. I plan to study abroad this summer in Seville, Spain to learn and comprehend the Spanish language more in depth. I think that it is going to be an Awesome experience being surrounded in the pure spanish speaking culture and everything that comes along with it-basically daily activities, walking down the street, going to the store, being at home, I will be surrounded by the language 24/7 which puts me in a perfect position to learn! I will also be traveling with a great friend of mine, her name is Justine. So I leave Lubbock June 12/13 to El Paso, TX to spend some time with family before I depart. I head off to Spain Wednesday June 17, 2009 & return the end of July. I must say that as of today (2 weeks & 2 days before departure) I am pretty excited! I am happy to say that I am doing something I have never done before and I am going to have an experience that will put a different perspective on the way I look at the world today! I created this blog so that way I can write about my experience abroad so that others back here in the states can follow and journey with me! I will try my hardest to update this as much as possible, but for the time being- the countdown has begun! 16 days! 2 weeks & 2 days!