Mi Bella Vida

It has been a long time since I made a post! Not much has happned since then. Only new thing is the gym membership that I got. Well, I re-instated my membership at LA Fitness. It feel good to be back. I missed it. I did P90 for a while but not for me. I don’t enjoy solo workouts. I workout alone at the gym but there are so many people around that I feel like I went with a big group!

I picked out a paint color for the guest bedroom!!! I’m going to buy the primer and the paint this weekend and probably start painting the following weekend! I just need to figure out what I’m going to do with all my shoes because I keep all 45 pairs in the guest room. After the guest room is the master! I can’t wait to paint our room!

off to finish getting my things ready for tomorrow and then it is off to bed!!!

I am loving Spain! There are so many great things to see here! Lots of museums, parks, and OLD towns. The first couple of days were spending roaming around Spain. Checking out the different districts and becoming pros at riding the Metro around town. I will be posting my favorite pictures once we get back to the states. I need to go through them on a bigger computer. The mini isn’t cutting it but I still love it.

On Tuesday we went to Toledo and O-M-G!!! Definitely my favorite place. It is so cool to see all the different religious architecture around town. The Cathedral there is AMAZING. Super Massive!!!! I can’t wait to go through the pictures from the town

On Friday we went to Segovia to check out the Roman Aquaduct and the Palace. Both places get 2 thumbs up. It is so cool and amazing to be standing next to something that is hundreds and hundreds of years old. Gets you thinking how on Earth did they build this without the kind of technology that we have. Just crazy and amazing.

We took the highspeed rail to Toledo and Segovia, making it a 25 minute trip. Pretty flippin cool.

We have done lots of walking. LOTS. It also became very apparent that while I have been running at a small incline just about everyday before we left, I was no where near in the kind of cardio shape to be working around everywhere Sad. Going to have to up the cardio. I can’t be defeated by walking.

While I love being here, I can’t wait to get back home!!! I miss my bed and my kitties and my mom! I really miss my food! The Spanish cuisine is really nothing special, for me at least. This nation eats way too many simple carbs, drinks entirely too much coffee, and they smoke EVERYWHERE! There are carbs with everymeal! Don’t get me wrong, I like bread at all but they have their time and place. Like my bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, my fiber one bar, and the occassional pasta or rice dish for dinner. It is just crazy to me how much carbs they consume and still be soo thin! They also drink coffee at all hours of the day and night! People are drinking coffee at 11pm!!! How are they going to fall asleep. I can’t even have tea with caffiene before bed bc I won’t be able to sleep! I’m sure it is no longer the caffiene but the taste of coffee they are after. The smoking here is crazy. I am no one to judge, if you want to smoke then go ahead, do it. Here they are allowed to smoke in the restuarant, which really bugs me. I can’t enjoy a meal because there is smoke blowing in my direction. I leave lunch smelling like an ash tray and my hair smells gross for the rest of the day. I am really curious as what the cancer rate is here. I have noticed people go throught 4 maybe 5 cigs while sitting down to a 30-45 minute lunch. I don’t smoke but I’m pretty sure that is excessive.

I’m on vacation so I’m allowed to be lazy but the lifestyle here is very…relaxed? Chris and I were up early on Tuesday for our day trip to Toledo. Well, not that early,it was 8am. We were having our breakfast when we saw one of our hosts come into the kitchen. We asked if their boyfriend has already made into work? The response…No, he is still laying in bed being lazy. What? I’m at work at 730am on most days and Chris will be in the office at 6am! How is this person still in bed at 815? He probably rolled into the office around 930. They also get a 3 hour lunch break! 2-5pm everyday! Some go back to work and some don’t. Our host does not. He probably only works 6 hrs on a good day. I just don’t get it. Maybe they’re right. Maybe as Americans we are over worked and so tired that we are not enjoying our life and families. Here I always see families together. Hanging, going to the park, or just walking around. I only have family time on holidays! My dad is always traveling, my sister lives in Carrollton and works in Newnan, and my other sister only works on weekends. I can only make it back home on the weekends due to work on the week. Maybe they are on to something but we are too busy to really notice or care.

It is almost noon and I am ready to head out and check out a new district. The sun is out but its only in the high 40’s today. The winter here is much like a GA winter, I like that

We finally made it to Spain!!! Traveling to another country is definitely tiring.

On Jan 13 we both worked half day and after we got off from work we had to drive down to Orlando. We made a 6 hr drive to our friend’s house, where they so graciously let us spend the night. Thanks guys!!!!

The following day the took us to an awesome seafood place on the East Coast of Florida. Chris and I shared 42 shrimpies. We thought that was going to be a lot but we killed them! Kaysen and Casey then took us to the airport so we could catch our 5pm flight to Philly. We  were on a packed flight and there was no room for an upgrade. We were in the middle of the plane that pretty much sucked. There were crying children in front and behind us. So much for a quiet nap.

We make it to Philly with enough time to buy some CFA and eat at our terminal before its boarding time. We board this ginormous plane, the biggest one I have ever been on, and we get the call… “Folks we are experiencing some trouble and there is a leak that needs to be fixed before we can leave. We are going to have to ask you to deplane because it may take up to 4 hours to fix. If the problem is not fixed in 4 hrs then we will have to use another plane.” 4 HOUR delay! Gah. Already 9pm and it is going to mess with my sleeping. My intention was to sleep for the whole flight and then wake up in when we landed in Madrid and 1030 am and avoiding jetlag. Fail, I took a deep nap while we waited to board the plane again. They fixed the problem and take off was 1am, booooooooo!!! I passed out as soon as we took off but I kept waking up every few hours. We finally arrive in Spain at 230 and it takes us forever to get to Customs and then we have to wait in a super long line. We probably waited for an hour because there only 2 lines for the foreigners and like 8 for the EU residents. I spoke to the Customs Agent in Spainish and he called me a gusty American for speaking the language  well. I then told him I was Mexican and he looked even more surprised.

After going through Customs we pretty much walked the length of the airport just to get to the metro. I now see why these Spaniards are so damn skinny, walking everywhere! I don’t mind at all but when you have a winter coat and luggage to carry around it gets hot and tiring.

The metro is a big thing here and it is pretty much awesome. Marta comes nowhere near the metro. Luckily, the place we are staying is right in front of the metro so we didn’t have to travel far once we got off the train. We are staying with some really cool guys and they gave us a key and everything. We come and go as we please. After we got settled into our room and showered we were off to do a little bit of exploring. We got to the flat at like430, we talked with the guys for a little while, showered and got ready it was 730. We went and got some food and then we explored the market. Holy crap!!! That market is amazing!!! There are individual vendors within the market. It was pretty damn cool. We didn’t know where or what else to do so we headed back to the flat. We turned in for an early night at 9 pm but I had a hard time sleeping. My body was tired but my mind was wide awake. Boo