Pictures from the craziest month of my ENTIRE life!!

Semana Santa

He´s actually NOT a KKK. These are called ¨nazarenos.¨ There are thousands and THOUSANDS of them. Sometimes before just one float. For example, the most popular float has 2,400 nazarenos before it. That is NOT a lie. It´s just nuts! 

My future husband. He´s a Spanish Hasselhoff, or as I like to call him

¨Spaz- ellhoff¨

The BULL FIGHT!

There´s a matador running away from the bull and out of the ring.

There were 2 awesome moments concerning this: see the white strip around the ring? That´s actually a step so that matadors can use it to jump out of the ring. Once, a matador used it to jump, and the bull came after him and BUCKED THE STEP RIGHT OFF THE FENCE. All you could hear was the entire crowd gasping, and me laughing oh so devilishly. The other great moment was when another matador was running for the step, and the bull caught up to him and BUCKED HIM UP IN THE AIR a few times. Once again, the same reaction was heard throughout the crowd.

PADDED HORSES!! And all the matadors leaving the ring to wait for the hard work of stabbing a worn out, bleeding bull, to finally begin.

It´s hard to see, but he´s holding the sword out, ready to strike. As you can see, the bull has lost approxamately a gallon of blood by now, but shoving a saber through his heart is COMPLETELY necessary to kill him.

I could be a matador...a.

We all could. Notice how my roomate and I stand as FAR away from each other as possible. And how I´m way cooler than her.

LONDON!

See if you can guess why I thought the first metro sign I saw there was funny.

I´ll give you a hint: it rhymes with rock lobsters.

Don´t ask me why this was part of the Diana Tribute at Harrods.

London heard that my pipes and I were coming.

Then I did some cartwheels in Hyde Park. I had no idea I had an audience until I put the picture on my computer, and saw those travelers looking at me. Hope they enjoyed the show.

I have no idea why my hair looks so blonde there. I feel like a neon sign! That´s the London Bridge by the way. There was a marathon that day, and the other, much more blend-y in-y people in the background were spectators.

I was trying to look tough like the guard, but I kept cracking up.

Here´s just ONE of the bands that plays for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The best part is that you can see the ¨London Eye¨ ferris wheel in the back. We wanted to go on, until we found out it costs $52!!!

Here´s big ben! Much bigger than I expected it to be, from my years of watching the disney classic, Peter Pan.

Ok, so I saw a picture of the Rosetta ¨stone¨ once in one of my texbooks, and I figured it´s just a little rock right? That my friends, is not a ¨stone.¨ They should call it the Rosetta SLAB or the Rosetta WALL FRAGMENT. It is clearly bigger than a human.

This was right next to Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Charming isn´t it?

Here is the entrance to the ¨We Will Rock You¨ Queen musical. I really wanted to go! I tried to snatch the statue for some superfans I know back home, but that thing is heavy, and barely fit in my purse!

On our way out of London, I saw this ad in the Subway. I laughed out loud, and for a long time! It says ¨ Reducing contractors´ tax bills is like public speaking. It´s best left to the experts.¨ HAHAHAHAHAHA!

DUBLIN!

There´s me at Trinity College. They have the original bible there or something. It´s called the book of Kells. Anyway, the rest of my pix from Dublin are dumb, so this is the only one I´m posting.

FERIA!

There´s the entrance to feria. Everything in Sevilla looks like something out of the the disney classic I grew up watching, Aladdin. It also appears to be leaning. That´s because it´s so big, the curvature of the earth is actually visible when photographing it. It has nothing to do with my lack of skills behind the camera.

Myself, Kerstin, and Marcie all looking pretty. Marcie´s probably going to go on the BNL cruise with me, so that´s good. Also, It was almost 90 degrees that day and I INSTANTLY regretted wearing a black, long sleeved, shirt.

But not even sun stroke worthy heat could stop me from flamenco dancing. I´m totally dancing there too. I´m definitely NOT posing for a picture. I was dancing, and moving freely inside that casket.

And that´s about it sports fans! I will see you all very soon! I´ll be home may 15th through the 20th!! Come see me!

Alright, now here´s some pictures from Rome and Paris!

ROME

Literally the first thing I saw in Rome: a bank called BNL!

The next morning, we hopped the metro to

The coliseum. I know you´re thinking, where exactly

IS the coliseum...I can´t seem to spot it?!?! I´m actually

pointing to it in this shot; you may have to look closely.

muhahaha. I´m touching a gladiators chest.

One more expensive shot with Katelyn,

the Gladiator and I. Then we were off to

The Spanish Steps. Another one of my infamous ¨in motion¨

poses. These steps were boring.

But the fountain of Trevi on the other hand,

was gorgeous! Then we went to the

Parthenon!

Where we reenacted the God and Adam part from the sistine chapel!

I really like this picture!

Then we broke for Pizza

Katelyn kept asking for ONE slice, and the waiter

insisted THAT IS one slice. It´s clearly at least

a third of a pie.

The next day, we went to the VATICAN!

OH! Funny story. The Vatican got it´s name from the a CIRCUS!

(Fitting I think) Before it was the ¨City of God¨, the vatican grounds hosted a

circus act called Circus Vaticani. Put that one away for the Jeopardy file in

your brain!

Prayin outside St. Peters Basillica. Just so you understand how

BIG it is, the dome can easily hold the Statue of Liberty!!

Hey, does anyone know why France gave that to us. Katelyn

and I were wondering in

PARIS

...which is where we went next!

The first thing I saw there was

THE EASTER FERRET!

Then, we went to the Lourve.

Where they have all these giant glass pyramids.

Kind of strange, but chic.

There were some really cool statues there too...

(The statue is the one on the left)

And the Venus di Milo. And this guy...

The latin name of this statue translates to

¨Can you hear me now?¨

Then we went back to our hotel room

And had some BORDEAUX! Look at our beautiful little mini bar!

We had to rest up for the next day, when we were going to meet

The BROWN Eiffel Tower!

And I forgot to upload the pictures of what Irene had waiting for me when I got home, but I will try to put them up later. It was literally three giant pots of SNAILS!! No joke.

I am not kidding (and I WILL put up the pictures to prove it) there must have been at LEAST 500 of them cooking!!! So gross. I mean, I´ve eaten escargot, which translates to, I once ate three very clean ones, already out of the shell, drown in butter and garlic, but I´m pretty sure Snails are now on the endangered species list because of how many Irene made.

I wanted to gag!

 But anyway, that was my little trip. On thurs, I leave for Loundon and Dublin, so I´m sure there will be another update after that!

Here´s some pictures from PORTUGAL!

My gift to the staff at the holiday inn lisbon

A Portuguese menu outside a restaurant. Doesn´t it look Italian?

Me and A GYPSY!!! At an old castle in Lisbon.

Aye Aye...Cannon.

Then the Spain squad  and I headed to downtown Lisbon.

Here´s Suzanne and I in a Chimney in this Portuguese Monestario.

Definitely my favorite pic from Portugal, and the whole trip.

This was also in the monestary.

Then Saturday, we went to Cascais, Portugal to be Rock Stars.

Shortly after, I saw an Eagle, and it reminded me of my lovely home.

God bless America!! Where there are lots of Targets, unlike SOME countries I know.

Then we were off to what they called the West-est point of Europe, but

it turned out to be untrue. Anyway, I was the closest to home I would be.

I could almost SEE the red bullseye from there. And what the hell is in

the water back there. No clue. I think it must have been a giant 

Portuguese MAN-O-WAR!!

There´s Melissa and I, and apparently we entered Oz for a breif moment.

The color honestly wasn´t that crazy, but I didn´t want to ¨fix¨ it. It looks cool.

And there we are at the pink castle o´ Portugal doing YMCA.

And that was my silly little trip to my neighboring country.

And yes, I realize that I wore the same shirt as the last round

of pictures, and yes, I AM highly embarrassed. I won´t even

BRING that shirt to Rome/Paris. Hasta entonces!

Well, here's some pictures from SPAIN so far

My roomate Melissa and I in  the "El Alhambra" castle in Granada

Me in my normal Spanish attire. Notice the lime green castanettes.

Out for a night of Salsa Dancing!

The Spain sqaud and I at a flamenco show that was actually IN A CAVE!

My host mom tending to my hair! This is not a joke picture. She ACTUALLY ironed it. And I didn't have a choice.

Dinner: Potato WATER. I wish I were jesting.

Wine Tasting in Cadiz. A glass THAT SIZE made me drunk.

Suzanne, Me, and Jaime, on the beach in Cadiz, right after wine tasting.

It says "pinch me" in the sand

So much fun with sand sculpting. I made that.

How much food I have to eat each night at dinner. Have you ever eaten a shrimp that was bigger than your body?!

I physically can NOT resist posing with statues, especially if they are statues of flamenco dancers.

In La Linea, which is right next to Gibraltar, The hostel sign was connected to our balcony. Had to get a pic.

So we got a bottle of wine that night. Notice that I uncorked it with my pocketknife Lola. By the way, she is 3 years old. We're looking at enrolling her into "gifted kindergarten" next year.

Wine: Drank.

Message: Written

Bottle: Corked

T shirt: E= mc2: Espana = mucho calor (spain is way hot)

Protective wax seal: done first thing in the morning while still in my jammies.

Here I am, mocking the teeth of the monkeys there on top of the rock of Gibraltar

Opp, OPP, there's me mocking the "Hey Lanna, watch out because a monkey is gonna steal that from you, honestly!" sign.

(not pictured) Me STILL not worried, even though there's a monkey on my friends back, who if you look closely is trying to get into her purse.

And of course me shocked and enraged, that a monkey attempted to steal my bottle. He broke the damn wax seal I'd worked all morning on too!

But I couldn't stay mad long. We had to stop for some afternoon tea (unfortunately sans crumpets) because HELLO we were in a british territory. That's what you do. However, it was only a short break because there was still very important work to do...

Like posing as the statue of liberty in front of the light house on Europa Point.

Look how blue the mediterranean is!

Now the moment I'd been waiting for...

Time to put "Dream accomplished" on my list of things done in my life.

...By posing for ONE more picture of me pretending to throw the bottle with my right hand. I am most certainly left-handed. Anyway, I then honestly threw it in, and headed back to Seville. Then it was back to reality.

My roomate. (unaltered photo.)

Read as much of this as you possibly can before pass out of laughter.

http://cgi.ebay.com/USED-1-MONTH-PERFECT-20-GALLON-AQUARIUM-LID-AND-LIGHT_W0QQitemZ7732607040QQcategoryZ20755QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem