Relaxing in Madrid

A couple weekends ago I had zero plans and nothing to do! It was a great feeling! I got to spend the entire weekend in Madrid just hanging around. Our friend Rachel is studying in France this semester and she was on her winter break, so she visited us in Madrid! It was so nice to see her and show her the night life of Madrid. We only saw her for a few hours total, but it was a great time! It had been a really stressful week with I think fourish tests and a couple skill test-outs for lab, so it was great to relax for the weekend. I wandered around the area near my house for a little while on Saturday, and found the hotel where my parents and I are staying while in Madrid. I finally got a famous McFlurry with Chips Ahoy. Everyone says the McFlurries are better here than in America... it's true! It was so delicious!! I also read the entire Hunger Games in one day. I obviously got a lot accomplished! The next day I went to Al Rostro which is an open air market in Madrid. There are mobs and mobs of people there every Sunday for the market. After that some friends and I tried to go biking for free in a park way out near the airport. We traveled all the way there just to find out we needed passports to rent the bikes... so unfortunately no bikes for us that day! We did wander around the park anyway and found some great playgrounds! We were those crazy American adults playing on the playground... We rode down the best slide ever!! it was so fast and circular, it was so much fun! No shame...

Later that night a few of us decided to go to the Real Madrid futbol game!! IT WAS SO AMAZING!!! Madrid won 5-0 and every time they scored the entire stadium exploded and stood up!! They were constantly cheering. I cheered along... except the cheers were in spanish and I had no idea what they were saying! So I basically jsut mumbled loudly along with the crowd. For future reference, if you ever go to a Real Madrid game, bring sunflower seeds and a hot sandwich for half time. We did not get the memo, and were literally the only people in the stadium without either... It was so funny to see every other person whip out a sandwich wrapped in foil during half time. The game was so much fun and I'm so glad I was able to have such an unforgettable experience! I've never really watched soccer before, but I'm a huge fan now!

My weekend of relaxation turned out to be an epic weekend!! It was just what I needed to recoup from all the tests and get ready for some more! It made me love Madrid even more just walking around and experiencing the culture

Becoming a Real Nurse

For the past 3 weeks I have been going to nursing clinical! The very first week I was assigned to the Urgencia Pediatria, or Pediatric Emergency area of the hospital. It was SO boring!! There were no patients... well four kids came in to the urgencia, but we just took their temperature and sent them to the doctor... that was it. I basically sat on coffee break for 5 hours. For the last hour though I got to move to the adult emergency and watch a couple of people get an electrocardiogram. As bored as I was, it was interesting to still see how the hospital works and how it is different than American health care. For example, I did not wash my hands a single time while at the hospital. In class we learn to wash our hands ALL THE TIME!!! In the Spanish hospital they rarely wash their hands, just switch gloves between patients. They also do not wear gloves for a lot of things we would wear gloves for. 

The following week I got to go to Residencia. Residencias are long term facilities for older people, basically a nursing home. At the Residencia I passed out hundreds of medications at breakfast time. I was really amazed at the amount of drugs one person would take. It's interesting though being in pharmacology this semester and understanding what the drugs do for a person. The nurse I followed would mention some of the drugs and I actually knew what they were! After breakfast we went up to the floor of the nurse and started changing pressure wounds. I've never changed a wound, but my nurse just told me to start doing it on the first patient! I had no idea what to do, but the nurse was able to talk me through it, so by the second or third patient I was pretty comfortable with it! Then the doctor came and let me watch him insert an IV on a patient. Then I watched him do a sterile cleaning of a stage 4 pressure ulcer. WARNING, graphic sentence coming up! The pressure ulcer was so deep the doctor could fit his entire fist into it!! You could literally see organs and muscle. The doctor just stuck his hand in and dug around cleaning it out. I almost passed out seeing him dig into teh wound like that... but I didn't. It was neat seeing the sterile procedure after practicing it in labs. He had to put on sterile gloves and had us open sterile packaging of gauze for him to grab. Then I prepared a few tube feeding, pulled out an iv, got some coffee and croissants and left! I really enjoyed the long term facility

This week was my favorite so far! I went back to the Urgencia Adulto, adult emergency, and followed a nurse. People will literally come in to the emergency room for nothing. There were several people that just felt a little dizzy and they were coming to the ER. It is free for them so they come for anything! My nurse was very willing to let me do things which was nice. She told me to watch first and then next time do! So I was able to put in an IV!! I didn't do it perfectly, but I hit the vein easily, I just didn't stop the flow of blood well so it gushed all over my hand... but besides that it was pretty good! I witnessed my nurse do so much more than I had previously. I also got to prepare a few iv lines with medication and witness a catheter. I would have been able to do the catheter... but I kind of chickened out, I kind of just wanted to see it done on a real person instead of a mannequin before doing it myself. Next time though! I'm really glad this week at the hospital was better than my first because it makes me excited to back one more time! I still have not given a shot, so I'm looking forward to that! I finally feel like a real nurse!!

Que?

Que? is a a question I ask A LOT here in Spain. It means "what?".  I often have absolutely no idea what a person is saying to me. It is very frustrating and confusing trying to order, or ask directions, or just ask a question with a language barrier. I probably should have learned more spanish before living in Spain for a semester, but I've gotten by so far. I just had this crazy thought about what it will be like going home and not having a language barrier anymore. I've noticed on weekend trips that I often add in Spanish phrases that have become natural for me, like "por favor" and "gracias" even in countries where they don't speak Spanish. I realized that when I'm back to a country where they speak English it's going to be difficult to speak. Yes I speak english here with everyone I can, but sometimes when I'm speaking to a stranger I speak very slowly even if they speak perfect English. It's weird to think about going somewhere and being able to ask questions and understand the answer! I have definitely taken for granted the ability to communicate! I never knew it was such a privilege, but I am really glad I am able to communicate in America.  For now though I'm doing alright and it's become normal not to understand what anyone is saying on the metro, or in stores or restaurants. I've gotten really good at tuning voices out because I can't understand them anyway... Eavesdropping on the metro would probably be really entertaining, but here it's all jibberish to me!

When in Rome!

Well I went to Rome again a few weeks ago! Friends and I went for our winter break. We had Thursday and Friday off and spent it eating gelato, pasta, and pizza! It was our first RyanAir flight and we survived! RyanAir is so interesting... no assigned seats so it's a free for all when they start boarding. They also make tons of announcements the entire flight and sell things from a trolley that are really overpriced, I guess they have to make money somehow since they're flights are so cheap. We arrived in Rome in the afternoon and got settled into our hotel. We were within walking distance of the Coliseum so we just strolled on over to have a look at it! We tried to go in the Roman Forum but it was closing for the day. We then just wandered around and found some nice churches and a park to explore and our first gelato.  Then we wanted to see the church of Paul in Chains, where the chains of St. Paul are kept. I was able to get us back to the church after only being there once 2 years before when I was in Rome with our youth group. I'm pretty proud of my abilities to go anywhere once and get there for the rest of my life.

oh hey, there's the coliseum... no big deal

For the rest of the evening we explored more of Rome. We went to the Spanish steps where we saw a group of Spaniards dancing and singing the Macarana. Then we hit up a classy McCafe for the bathroom and some coffee and headed to Trevi Fountain.  On the way we shopped! When we got to Trevi we all through in some coins and made our wishes! We also met up with the friend of a friend that is studying in Rome. She took us to one of her favorite gelato places for gelato #2!

after we all made our wish into the fountain

THe next morning we woke up really early and hit up the Vatican Museum. We basically sprinted through it and made through in about 3-4 hours. That's an accomplishment. We spent the rest of the day in the Vatican! We walked through St. Peter's and went up in the cupula! We climbed 538 stairs approximately to make it to the top and climbed all of them back down.  Next we met up with a priest friend and he gave us a tour of the Jewish neighborhood. I had never seen that area before so it was really neat to see it. We sat down with him for a nice pasta dinner (i had penne arrabiatta!! my favorite) and then went and got gelato #3. My feet have never hurt so badly in my entire life, but the day was so worth it!

the stairs were definitely worth it to see the Vatican from the top of St. Peter's

Saturday we went church hopping! Meaghan and I woke up earlier than the others to move our luggage to another hostel since ours had no room for saturday night. We then visited my favorite church ever! The Church of the Holy Cross. It has relics of the Holy Cross and a copy of the shroud of Turin. When I was there two years ago I lit a votive candle for my sister and her husband to receive the gift of a child and have patience in their wait. Two years later I was celebrating my niece's 1st birthday shortly after re-visiting this church. Then we met up with the rest of the group at the church of the Pope- St. John Lateran's Basilica! There happened to mass starting in a side chapel of the church, so I stepped in to the Italian mass (I have now been to mass in French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian). Then there happened to be confession and adoration going on also, so I hit the trifecta at the basilica of the pope! It was so amazing to be in such a place receiving so many graces! Then we hit up Mary Major's Basilica which is where a relic of the manger Jesus was born in is kept. I lit another votive candle for other little niece and sister under a statue of Our Lady to be healthy through the pregnancy. I thought it was fitting to pray for the birth of my niece where the relic of where Jesus was born is kept.  It is so amazing to see so many special pieces of Christ's life and saint's lives.  I especially love to see the respect given to them by everyone there to visit. It amazes me how many people travel so many miles to visit these religious sites. Then we got lunch and gelato #4 while waiting to see the bones of the Cappuchin Monks. The bones are displayed as artwork to reverence the monks that have been buried there. I still don't know the whole backstory of the crypt, but it was an intense site to visit. Thousands and thousands of bones all around of men who have died, it was a really intense few minutes walking through. Then we visited St. Ignatius Loyola church and the Agony of St. Anne church. Then we saw the Pantheon. We also stopped at a place for gelato #5, but I did not actually partake in the gelato, which is unfortunate because it was the best gelato place we went to... oh well. We went to Trevi Fountain for one last wish and headed to dinner. We went to a fancy dinner and headed to our hostel for a quick 2 hour nap before heading to the airport for our early flight.

St. John Lateran basilica

It was a fantastic weekend in Rome, and I'm so glad I made the decision to go. I almost didn't go because it was "too expensive" but I've learned here in Spain that sometimes the experience is worth way more than the price to pay for it. Yes I can't just spend my money however I want pretending it won't run out (trust me it's close to running out...) but sometimes it's more worth it for the experience than to miss out on some of the best memories I will ever have! I may never have these opportunities again!

Chocolate and Alps

So about a month ago I went to Geneva, Switzerland! I absolutely love Switzerland! The alps are the most beautiful landscape on this earth in my opinion.  I went with two friends and we traveled SwissAir and stayed in a nice hotel for 2 days in Geneva.  If you ever have the chance, travel SwissAir. My flights to and from were truly the best flights of my life (minus a little hiccup on the way home which I'll talk about later)! They provided us with a wonderful meal both ways- the way there a yummy pizza hot pocket thing, and the way back a great chocolate filled breakfast croissant. They then came around with Swiss chocolate for everyone! It was a very smooth and enjoyable flight!

this is the view from the cable car on our way up the mountain

i got hot walking up the mountain in the snow... i'm my dad's daughter! the view from the top was unbelievable beautiful and we just got to hang out in the snow and enjoy!

We arrived late in Geneva, and were welcomed nicely by the people at the airport. We got free transportation to our hotel and got a good night's sleep! Our hotel was quite fancy (expensive, but the cheapest option in Geneva). It was so nice to be in a comfy quiet hotel rather than a hostel for the trip. Everything was so expensive in Geneva, luckily we knew that before going so we came prepared. We packed a lot of fruit and packaged croissants to eat throughout the day, and allowed ourselves one meal out each day. We paid 30 Euro for one meal! Crazy! We had planned on going night sledding with fondue while in Switzerland, but we found out the place was actually 6 hours away from Geneva, so we had to change our plans. We decided to climb a mountain in Geneva instead! We took a cable car up to the top of Mont Saleve. We hiked through a path and found a lovely field full of snow where we sat and ate some fruit and enjoyed the nature. we then slid back down the trail back to the cable car.

Next we walked around Geneva and TONS of chocolate. You can't even imagine the deliciousness of Swiss dark chocolate and their truffles!! My boots were sopping wet from walking through the snow so I had to by a new pair of of expensive boots taht were on sale for 10 Euro... oh darn! We found an amazing toy story and literally walked through it playing with toys for at least an hour! My favorite was the Bop-It in French! Then we went to dinner and more shopping. We planned on walking around more, but everything closed at 8pm! so we bought a deck of cards, a bottle of wine, and headed back to our hotel for a relaxing evening. We actually just ended up watching a movie.

Bop-it  in French... High "hi!" (hope my family gets the joke:))

the awesome famous fountain in Geneva

The next day we wandered around some more and spent a lot of time at the giant famous fountain! We also went to teh Patek Phillipe museum. Patek Phillipe is a watchmaker, so we learned all about watches and saw thousands of the most beautiful jewels and watches of famous people! Then we rode the public bus for over an hour because we were tired... It was actually a good way to sight see! Then we met up with a couple people and had a nice dinner! We of course also ate a lot more chocolate and bought Swiss Army Knives and my friend bought a Swiss watch!

Now for the little hiccup of the trip. We slept in the airport which was fine for me because I sleep anywhere. As we were checking in to our flight I wasn't able to print my boarding pass for some reason. The attendant was also having issues. We finally figured out I was a dumbass and booked my return flight for March instead of February... Tickets are way more expensive the day of the flight... So after a hysterical phone call to my parents and major freaking out, I finally caved and spent the money to return on the same flight as my friends. The alternative was to wait in the airport for a day by myself and fly back to Madrid Monday morning for half the price. Moral of the story is don't be a dumbass like me and waste hundreds of dollars by booking your flight for the wrong day. It's finally been long enough that I can make fun of myself for my stupidity... kind of... After the most wonderful sunrise I've ever seen on the flight we arrived back in Madrid safely! I slept all day and returned to normal life here in Madrid! It was a fabulous weekend and just enhanced my love for Switzerland even more!!

Ash Wednesday

So Ash Wednesday was last week  as pretty much everyone knows. Fat Tuesday came around and I began trying to figure out where/when I could go to mass on Wednesday. The school mass was during a time that I had class and the other masses seemed to be at times that I would still be at school. I decided to double check if Ash Wednesday was a holy day of obligation because I wasn't sure, and I found out that it is not! That was a relief because I was not finding any options for mass. I thought this would be my first Ash Wednesday ever that I didn't go to mass. I decided to double check my new church close to home on my way home from school and there was mass starting!! apparently they still went by the daily mass schedule instead of the Sunday schedule like I thought they would on a feast day. I was so excited for the opportunity to go to mass!
After mass I thought I did not have any ashes because I did not feel the priest touch my forehead. There were no ashes on my forehead and i was a little disappointed. I noticed that most people in church did not have ashes on the their foreheads either. Later that night though I found the ashes!! The priest had put them on the top of my head, on my hair, instead of on my forehead!! I was brushing my hair and saw a lot of gray, I was quite confused because I didn't think I had gray hair, and then I realized it was my ashes! Spaniards do some crazy things! I'm so glad I was able to celebrate mass on Ash Wednesday to begin my Lent though!

Goodness Me oH my!

I realized I have been here a month already and only posted maybe two times... I sincerely apologize for my lack of priorities! Studying abroad is absolutely unreal, and yet it has finally sunk in that it is my reality. I have already done more than I ever expected to do by my age and I still have so much to look forward to in the next couple of months. I have booked flights by myself, searched for the cheapest deals, booked hostels and hotels, figured out how to live life in the big city commuting on the metro every day, got my watch fixed only speaking Spanish to the employee, overcome language barriers, gotten lost and found my way, slept in an airport, and traveled to Portugal. That's just a quick recap of everything I've already accomplished. It's a really great feeling finally realizing that I can do things on my own. It definitely makes me appreciate everything my parents and family and others have helped me with and done for me throughout my life. I've learned that it takes a lot more to take care of yourself than just asking your parents what's going on. I feel very independent here and realize that it's ok to get lost, ask for directions, make mistakes, because eventually it all works out. Anyway that's just my reflections on feeling so grown up and capable of conquering the world!

So about that conquering the world thing... I definitely have no desire to actually conquer the world, but I am working on exploring the world (aka Europe) right now. This past weekend I spent an unbelievably amazing trip in Lisbon, Portugal. My friends and I slept in the Madrid airport Thursday night to catch our early flight to Lisbon. I slept totally fine of course, I wrapped up myself and all my stuff in my slanket and had a good sleep! My friends didn't sleep quite as well... I'm so thankful for my gift of sleeping anytime, anywhere! Then we woke up early to go through security, and had some breakfast. I asked for pancakes and they asked me something about chocolate, so I said "yes" not knowing what I was agreeing to. I thought maybe it was hot chocolate, but then they asked me if I wanted a cappuccino, so then I said "yes" and was even more confused.... Turns out I got pancakes with chocolate syrup on them and a cappuccino. It was a breakfast of champions for sure! Our flight was delayed a little, but still good. I saw the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen in my life! Then we arrived in Lisbon!

We stayed at Yes! Hostel for the weekend. It was a very nice hostel! We met people from all over the world, some Slovenians, Australians, Brits, and Brazilians. Besides taking a frigid cold shower, it was a great experience! After we checked into the hostel we went to the Oceanarium! It is one of Europe's largest aquarium's and it was so fabulous!! There were so many fish, and sharks, and stingrays, and turtles. I absolutely loved it! We had to walk through a mall to get to the metro on our way home, so we shopped a little. I got a really cute dress and skirt for a great deal! Since no one slept a ton Thursday night we went back to our hostel, ate dinner, and called it a night.

Saturday was a great day. We did the I Hate Tourism Tour in Lisbon. They took us to a place called Sintra where we ate a delicious cream pastry thing, a cherry liquor shot in a chocolate shot glass, and toured a cool garden. By garden I mean medieval castle type forest... There were underground tunnels, castle turrets, and a couple of giant wells.  I got to be Rapunzel. Then we had a traditional Portugese lunch of chorizo. It was bread with pepperoni like meat baked inside of it. We ate near a little outdoor market so we all bought some fresh fruit to go with lunch. Next we went to the western most point of Europe! I was as close to home as I can get for the next three months (besides having my mom's brownies and Jif peanut butter in my closet right now). The coast was beautiful!  The point was on a cliff that dropped off to the ocean. The giant waves hitting the rocks was such a cool thing to see.  It was so peaceful and calm and beautiful there. I could have sat there with the sun burning my face for hours! Then we went to the beach! We got to see real surfers catching some waves (I should mention it was the coldest weekend of the year, only about 40 degrees, and they were in the water!). We all rolled up our pants and walked to the edge of the water. It was absolutely frigid!! but the sand and sun was so great and so much fun... until the waves almost carried my shoes away... thanks to my friend for sacrificing her camera to save my shoes!! (the camera is finally feeling better after that experience though) Then after some incredible ice cream we went to a monument commemorating explorers. There was a band doing a street performance of traditional Portugese music and cool tamborine throwing. The tour guides gave us these undescribably magnificent pastries to end our excursion. They are from a place that only 2 or 3 people total know the actual recipe. It's the only place in Portugal where the authentic pastry is sold, there are plenty of copies, but none are as delicious as the original! The line is always at least a 30 minute wait out the door to get one. It was heavenly! Then our tour ended.

On our way back to the hostel we happened across a basilica! We went inside just to look around, and it happened to have an adoration chapel! I think my absolute favorite part of the trip was the next hour and half that I spent by myself. I stayed in adoration for a while and then decided to walk back to the hostel. The sun was just setting so I walked a block further than the hostel to coast. I sat on the pier and watched an unbelievably gorgeous sunset.  It was nice to have a while to myself and sit and reflect on what has been going on in the past month.  I realized I haven't really talked to anyone from home besides my parents, I should really be better about communication. I miss my friends and family so much, but after seeing how quickly this month has gone by, I realize I'll be home in no time. I am really taking advantage of my time here in Europe. I have a trip to Switzerland planned for two weeks from now, and in the process of planning more. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have been given and can't even describe how happy I am. I realized that these opportunities don't come to everyone and I really need to enjoy the time I have. I have been more stressed than I've ever been in my life with school, but I'm in Madrid so I should probably suck it up. I could be this stressed in St. Louis, but instead I get to travel the world in between exams. Sometimes it's overwhelming being so stressed and homesick all at the same time, but I really am having the time of my life.

This week and next are going to be the hardest weeks of the semester, so I'd appreciate some prayers. I have a couple of test out's for my clinical labs, and four other tests next week, in addition to the regular amounts of work I always have to do.  There's more pressure on me this semester because of unfortunate circumstances. I HAVE to do well on EVERY test, and every assignment, and of course it's our hardest semester yet in the School of Nursing. It's also a new curriculum so the teacher's are still getting organized and figuring everything out, not to mention I'm in a foreign country trying to accomplish what seems to be impossible. Like I said though, I'd rather be here abroad stressing out than in good ole St. Louis. Once all these tests coming up are over though, I get to relax for a weekend in Geneva, Switzerland! and by relax I mean have a crazy amazing weekend full of adventure! St. Joseph Cupertino, Pray for me!

I promise I'll start posting more often...