so i went to paris last weekend and it was absolutely amazing! there was a transportation strike in paris on thursday and we were convinced that our flight was going to get canceled as many that day were, but ours was only delayed a couple of hours. we got to paris and there were french soldiers with guns directing people around which was a bit intimidating. we got royally ripped off by our taxi driver but finally arrived at our hotel which was worth the 7 dollars we paid a night for it - our bathroom was basically non existant it was so small and all around it was just a bit sketchy. the first pic is of me cowering in the corner :) we got up bright and early to venture into paris (our hotel was in a town called Chelle which was not 15 km out of paris as the website told us...) we hopped on a bus and then a train toward paris and met a very nice and extremely helpful english speaking man that told us how to get to where we wanted to go. from that train we took the metro and emerged about a block away from the louvre!! we ate at a cute cafe on the river seine and then headed to the louvre. the building of the louvre is art in itself its so beautiful! and its much much larger than i thought, we could have spent the whole weekend just there! it was amazing getting to see such historic stuff that we've heard so much about! the second picture is of the outside of the louvre. from there we walked to the bastille, which i was SO excited to see, but apparently i didn't pay enough attention in Ms. Zimmerman's lit class because i found out that the bastille came down two days after it was stormed, but i did get to see the monument. The sad picture of me in front of a statue depicts this part of the trip. we then walked from the bastille to Notre Dame, and from there started our quest for the eiffel tower. Understand that this walk from the dame to teh tower is very, very long but our map was not exactly proportionate. we walked through the park of invalides without even knowing it and passed some awesome architecture. we finally reached the tower at about 9:15 and stayed till 10 to see it sparkle and it was soooo worth it! from there we made our way home just to start again on saturday.

here are a couple more pictures from our crazy hiking adventure. the one is of a couple friends and me looking out over Alcala, and the other is of one of Lauren walking through one of the worst muddy patches of the whole hike!

so yesterday we took another adventure into Madrid by ourselves to go to some of the museums because sundays are always free. We hit up el Reina Sofia, one of the most famous art museums in Madrid and I got to see la Guernica, one of Picasso's most famous paintings, and I saw some pretty cool Salvador Dali paintings. There was a lot of modern art and just weird art. the museum is four floors and each floor is huge, so by the end of it we were so worn out! we didn't make it to the rastro (the outdoor market that i was so excited for) and the prado was only free from 5 to 8 at night, so we decided to save that for a different day. We hopped on a train to come back to Alcala and ended up taking an hour and a half train ride to who knows where! we ended up going in a huge loop around madrid and then ended up back at the station Atocha where we started. we then had to take a different train back to Alcala and this time it worked. dad you'll be happy, it turns out i kind of have a job here as well! i replied to a posting on the school's website to help a nine year old boy with his english homework twice a week thinking that someone else had already gotten it, but she emailed me right back! Its 10 euros an hour which is only 20 a week, but thats about $30 more every week to put in my travel fund! three days until Paris!

so i'm very frustrated that my skype won't work correctly so i'm sorry for the lack of contact. Mom and Bug i tried calling you on each of your birthdays but didn't get a hold of you, i hope you got my messages and both had great days! i'll get something up and running soon so we can talk!

so last night i booked a flight for my first big travel adventure. next weekend three other girls and i are headed to paris for three days! we got an amazing deal of a flight and three nights in hotel thats right outside of the city. i can't wait!

hey kids here's what's new in Alcala:
I watched the inauguration this afternoon, pretty cool to witness such a historical event. it was all in spanish and therefore much harder to understand, but still pretty cool. my classes are in full swing now but homework still isn't half as bad as it is in the states. i'm starting to look at classes to take for my regular course with spanish students, no idea what i want yet though. i may be going to madrid on friday and possibly spending the night in a hostel there with melissa and emily, two girls from college who are studying in toledo and taking a weekend trip to madrid. the three pictures are from madrid, one is a post office but one of the most beautiful buildings i saw, the other is just something that i honestly dont remember, and the third is the geographical center of madrid. besos! Natalia

Left is a picture of the view from the top of the mountain, pretty much what made it all worth it!