5,962 miles from home.

hello to my wonderful family :)

I have been gone for a week and a half, and have been through an array of emotions already! I will start explaining from the beginning. I started my journey from the SF airport, and flew straight to London to stay with friends (Hawkings family) that i met through my soccer program (AIS). I stayed in the cutest little town called Chorleywood, which is about 30 minutes from Heatherow Airport. The Hawkings family consists of 4 boys, so Elaine, the mum, was really excited to have a lady in the house. I have known the 2 boys that still live at home for about 5 years now, so not seeing them for 6 months hadn't mattered. They took me sledding down a massive hill on a golf course, we went into london, went out to pubs, and visited so many historical places. Because people in Europe dont have big houses, it is very typical to meet up with friends at pubs instead of having them over to your house. When we traveled around London, it reminded me a lot of san francisco actually. It helped me not miss you all so much. It was incredible. I will figure out how to post pictures for you all to see. I'm assuming photobucket will work if i give you my username & password.

So England from Monday through Friday, & then i was off to Spain!

Friday night i arrived in Granada around 7 pm & was picked up by smiling american faces that i also knew from AIS. Vicki is from Georgia & now works in the AIS office in Granada. I got to go to her house for the night instead of having to stay in a hostel by myself, which was very nice. Friday we went to the women's soccer practice & stopped at a Panaderia! the most incredible baked goods you will EVER have. The panaderia had bread, croissants, cookies, more bread, and anything you can imagine covered in chocolate. Es muy delicioso!!! After soccer practice i was exhausted so i went to bed pretty early. In spain it is very very typical for houses to be cold, and for people to wear layers & slippers. So when in Spain, do as the Spaniards do! i wore four layers to bed & socks as well, even though i HATE wearing socks to bed! Anyways, the next day, i had to go to the hotel i would be staying at for the night in downtown Granada. due to the fact that you can't drive in certain places downtown, i had to get on a bus with my luggage and venture out into the city with only a map, very little spanish & a smile! Let me tell you that didnt get me very far. I ended up getting off two stops passed where i should have & was dragging my luggage uphill for about 2 miles!!!! ahhhh no bueno :))

i finally made it to my hotel & got to see 2 of my volleyball girls from school that i haven't seen since September. It was great. more smiling, recognizable, american faces that understood english. We got all checked into our rooms, and decided we wanted to go out for the night :) We got ready & hit the streets. There were six girls & 3 boys (our bodyguards, due to the fact that spanish men are very open with how they feel about pretty american ladies). We went out for tapas at some local pubs. In Spain when you order any type of drink other than water, you get some type of appetizer. It could be big, little, delicious or nasty. My first drink came with olives & bread with bruschetta??? i always get bruschetta & broschutto confused. Anyways it was bread with the thin, salty bacon stuff. It was very good, & so was my sangria. mmmmmm. I am not a big fan of wine, but when it is mixed with a bunch of fruit juice & chunks of fruit you can't go wrong. We kept wandering around to different pubs, and found some american ones with football on. It is funny because i had no idea that american football is big over here. They all have chants & shirts etc. So after tapas and football, we found a discoteco which is a dancing bar kinda place. There was a huge line, so we just walked up and asked how much it cost to get in. They saw how good looking we were & let us in FOR FREE! :)) Normally it costs 10 euro per person to get in, which is around 15 dollars or so, & he let us all in. All we did was ask cuanto cuestas??? translated in english "how much does this cost." Let's just say the 150 spaniards waiting in line were not happy to see 8 americans get in before them & not have to pay.

So i can say without a doubt, that our first night in Granada was a success! There will be more to come to explain everything else that has happened so far. Thanks so much for all your support & prayers. I can feel them many miles away :))
xxx Shay