Routines and Races This Summer... BY MIA!

We’ve settled into a worn routine, which is what makes a house a home. Yes, even a house with one-inch walls that are sometimes frighteningly hollow and an eternally dusty concrete floor. It’s the routine that makes summer feel less like summer, even in the most summer of places, despite the routine strictly mandating daily surfing. Work on the house in the morning, lunch, school-y work in the afternoon (online classes until a week ago, now it’s college essays or reading one of the books I pick from the Classics shelf at the library), swimming at 3:30, directly followed by a beach trip that I often spend with my head in a book and my toes in the coral sand.

It’s a pretty summer-y schedule, I guess (we are in Hawai’i), but I’ve always thought of summer of the time when routines, obligations, and schedules hibernate, coming out of their orderly caves in late August, all refreshed and new. I’ve honestly never experienced this type of fantastic summer before, though, and the more I wish for it the surer I am that it doesn’t exist. Rolph summers are less like ‘summers’, and more like life. Except with the family. And we are in a tropical paradise…. And I don’t plan on spending my life remodeling houses. So scratch that—Rolph summers are Rolph summers. They are very different from other people’s summers, and they are all very different from each other, while still managing to keeps the same basic characteristics. We are always together, we always go somewhere crazy, do something crazy, and keep busy busy busy. Also, there’s usually a house involved, I’ve noticed.  Routines are central though and as a family we’ve gotten good at establishing them, even on the road.

Our summer routines get old quickly because they are so fast paced and we all tire ourselves out trying to slow them down because—well—its summer! It actually works surprisingly well, and I don’t know if anyone’s noticed. Instead of all routines and schedules and obligations disappearing for the months of June and July and August, we just switch them around! The school year one ducks her exhausted head and the Rolph summer one raises his—the school year is the tortoise, summer is the hare. Two and a half months later, the hare is collapsed under a palm tree and the tortoise sniffs the air. We are all so tired out from chasing the hare around that following the tortoise is a nice change, even though it’s a race that lasts nine and a half months and we have to carry a bag full of textbooks. Life’s a race, guys! Make it a relay to keep from killing yourself from bored exhaustion—the only thing to get bored of is routine. And I’ve hit the end of my rope, personally. Figuring out that you’re whole year is a big routine will do that, especially if that big routine is actually established by someone other than yourself. Good thing I get to hop off the train next year and learn to love its smooth tracks while I bushwhack through the jungle of college and ‘real life’….

Kayak trip in an Archipelago

So we're back! Posting in a blog in the middle of the Canadian wilderness is a bit weird, but for some reason we felt the need to make use of the cell signal. Tonight is the end of a very long third day of a five day kayak camping trip in the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park, off Vancouver island. Today we paddled eighteen miles into a very annoying headwind due to a serious navigational error. That is, after having to lug our three loaded boats over the mucky bottom of a cove at low tide. I have exceedingly sore shoulders and I'm sure I'm not alone in that sentiment.
This park is nice, but after spending several similar trips in Alaska and Maine, the scenery sort of redundant but still beautiful. I could go on about our adventures here but I will leave you in suspense (ha) because my dad wants his phone back.

Advice by mia

This trip hasiybop3been a huge adventure and we all learned a lot. Is someone else were to decide to do a trip like this, here is some things I would tell them. C

First off all, the trick for survival is to break it up. If you just go from city to city looking at awesome stuff, everything you see will start to blur together and you wont remember any of it. Break up the trips to the city with camping or to the beach or something relaxing in nature to clean the slate. Otherwise the vacation will turn into work and won't be any fun at all.

In our trip we tried to go relax in every country, depending on the intensity of the sightseeing we were doing, but toward the end when we were speeding around Europe, we only had time to hit the Swiss Alps for a day or two and it wasn't enough. I can barely remember where we went and most of the stuff we saw I have forgotten already. We were pretty good about taking breaks at most of the other places, though.

Another thing is about planning. It's about the balance between spontaneity and planning. It helps to book hotels and rent cars ahead of time, but not plan every second of ever day. It's fun to just scratch things off The List at the last second. When we were in Paris we decided at the last second that we didn't want to go to the Louvre. It's kind of a good reminder that The List actually can be changed. An example of an unplanned disaster was the beginning of our stay in New Zealand. We ended up blowing a fortune on hotels while we tried to find a rental, and wasted a ton of time. It's also fun just to get lost sometimes and wander through the cute alleys in Europe.

The last piece of advice I have is to record the trip somehow. A year is a really long to travail and, trust me, by the end of it you will not be able to remember any of it without help. Write a diary, or a blog ( like us!) and take a ton of pictures. Any unrecorded memory will be lost forever!

So there you go, the only other thing is to pack light because you don't want to carry a ton of stuff. Also, pack in backpacks because it's hard to drag suitcases with wheels over cobbles. Whoever you are, good luck on your trip and I hope all this helped! We had a lot of fun, maybe not as much when we were actually there as now that its over, though!

Things we stole in WashingtonDC by mia

During this trip I have noticed that almost every country has stolen things from other countries, be it architecture, monuments, or treasure. In Washington, DC there wasn't any stolen monuments, but the architecture definitely wasn't original. It was mostly Greek. Also, the Washington monument is an obelisk which is Egyptian (even though we didn't actually take it from Egypt like most other countries).

Most of the architecture of the government buildings and memorials in DC is Greek, but this is hardly 'stealing' because everyone uses Greek architecture. The memorial which is especially greek is the Jefferson memorial, which is really similar to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is actually Roman, but I seriously can't tell the difference between Greek and Roman architecture except, perhaps, that Greek is simpler. Like the Pantheon, the Jefferson Memorial is round, with a big dome and a column-y front like the Pantheon. The Memorial is more like a portico, because it is really open and there are only walls where there is a famous passage from the deceleration of independence engraved upon it. The big spaces between engraved walls have Doric columns (again Greek) holding up the roof.

The dome is also very similar to that of the Pantheon because it has square holes in the inside of the dome, kind of like a honeycomb, and a sort of step around the outside of the dome on the exterior. The honeycomb effect is to lighten the roof, and the extra steps on the base of the dome are to add weight to the base, and counteract the outward thrust from the dome. The same thing happens on the Pantheon. The entire memorial (like most of the other important buildings in our capital) is made of bright white marble, which is usually associated with Greece as well.

There is no new form of architecture in the government buildings and memorials in Washington, DC, but I don't think it is right to accuse anyone of stealing the Greek architecture. So many people use it that it is practically public property anyway.

Things we saw about the Holocaust by mia

Today we visited a concentration camp on our way to Frankfort from Amsterdam called Camp Vught. It was a bit boring because all the information boards were in Dutch so we couldn't read about what we were seeing. A few things were obvious enough though, the crematorium and the lab place where they dissected people were easy to figure out. The crematorium had a bunch of person sized ovens, and the dissection place had a concrete table that had troughs for blood to drain into. It was a pretty gross thought! There was also a memorial listing all the names of the kids who had been killed there. Many of them were just babies, some of them were less than a year old! It was really sad.

We have been to a lot of different holocaust related museums and exhibits and the Camp Vught one definitely wasn't the best. The two that were the most touching/ horrifying were an exhibit in the London war museum and Anne Franks house. The exhibit in London had a sign and a guard outside he door that had a warning and advisory that said that kids under 14 shouldn't go inside. Daddy and I were the only ones to go into it because everyone else was lost in some other maze like exhibit. The holocaust exhibit was really big and was set up so you go through this maze of dark rooms with gross pictures of emancipated bodies and stuff. There was information on the mistreatment of the Jews in the Ghettos, all of the nasty laws that Hitler made, and finally the concentration camps. It was a really crazy exhibit and I, at least, came out of there a teeny bit misty eyed.

The visit to Anne Frank's house was just as emotional, but, unlike the last one, there was a teeny speck of happy (that was still sorta sad) mixed in with all of the tragedy. There were lots of quotes from her diary that said that she wanted to become a famous writer and leave a legacy through her writing. She certainly has done both of those things, even if she doesn't know it! In the museum we walked through the old jam factory under the Secret Annex and through the rooms that The Franks shared with four other people (the Van Pels and another man who was a family friend). The space was bigger than the one we have been sharing for the last year, but we have been able to go outside during the day and make noise. They had to be really quiet all the time and they were always stuck up in those same few rooms with the same few people all of the time.

Anne had tons of time on her hands so she wrote a lot. She filled a few diaries and wrote short stories and things on loose sheets of paper. Her dad found all of it at the end of the war and had her diary published. He edited it a bunch first, and took out inappropriate or mean things she wrote in it. There are tons of different versions, some including different things. I think it was really nice that Anne Frank got what she wanted. She has a global legacy and her diary is pretty much a classic!

Brussels by mia

We arrived in Brussels yesterday and found our hotel which was in the middle of the sketchy part of town and surrounded by prostitutes. It was pretty darn sketchy. The actual apartment was pretty good though. There was something squishy for everyone to sleep on so we were happy. We dropped off our stuff, and then walked around the city. We went to see the statue of little boy peeing and got some ice cream there. The statue was really cute, and that little boy was really muscular! It's so weird that sculptures and painters make babies buff.

Then we went to the Grand Place, which was bombed to the ground by Louis XIV of France. It was a really pretty square with a huge cathedral on one side that had a super tall steeple, and cool buildings with red flowers in flower boxes all around. It was really festive, because the red flowers and the warm lights from inside the buildings made it look Christmassy. We sat down on the ground in the middle of the square and ate our ice cream, and then walked around some more before we went back to the apartment. We had to shoo all the prostitutes in their stripper heels off of our doorstep. Mommy always picks the hotels in the most interesting places!

Versailles and Chartres by Mia

Yesterday we drove to Versailles first thing in the morning to see the Chateau. It took ages to get there because we kept getting lost, but thats normal. When we finally got to Versailles it was about 9:30 and we had been aiming for 9. I don't even know why we bother aiming for a certain time because I can't remember the last time we have actually made it. It took a little bit to find a parking spot, and daddy ended up dropping us off while he went and found one alone. The parking lot in front of the palace was absolutely packed with tour buses and other cars so he had no chance there.

We spent about two hours in various lines and at one point daddy walked off and came back with frappuccinos from McDonalds, and that was really good! When we finally got into the actual palace, it was extremely crowded. We had the audio guide so we had that stuck in our ear the whole time and it told us about the different paintings, furniture, and other decoration (all equally lavish) in all of the rooms (which varied from unnecessary to just plain stupid). Each gilded bedroom had several antechambers and every single room had extra chairs for spectators who could come watch the king and queen do anything from eat dinner to give birth (ew, but not kidding).

We walked through about a bazillion of those rooms, and then we got to the Hall of Mirrors. The people who built the palace must have really liked looking at themselves because there was at least one mirror in every single room of the place. The hall of mirrors had mirrors (duh), tons of gilded fancy detailing (again, duh), lots of crystal chandeliers (wow, this is starting to sound like the rest of the palace), and a giant pair of shoes made of silver pots (phew, that is definitely not in any other room). They had lots of random modern art in some of the rooms of the palace, including several spinning things hanging from the ceiling made of plastic eating utensils melted in floral designs, some random sculpture things wrapped in doilies, and the pair of giant pot shoes in the Hall. Anyway, the hall of mirrors was for having parties and entertaining guests (again, like most off the other rooms in the palace, I think the lives of the royals were similar to the Kardashians'... Really public).

After the palace we hit the palace gardens, which were colossal. There were tons of fountains, which had never all worked at the same time, mazes of tall hedges and lots of pretty flowers. All of it was perfectly manicured. We checked out a few fountains and then lay around in the lawn for a little while in front of a big pond. Then, we walked to the Grand Trianon, which was a smaller house (more like a mansion) that had pretty pink stone pillars, and a gorgeous flower garden. It was full of rooms with portraits of lots of different important women. Then we walked all the way back to the main palace, stopping at an ice cream place along the way. We also stopped for a few minutes to watch a cool musical fountain show at the only fountain in the park that actually works. Then we got the heck out of there, as fast as our numb legs could carry us!

After a bit more driving in circles we got to our next (and last) destination for that day: Chartres Cathedral. Chartes has a really cute historical quarter and in the center is the Cathedral. The walls on the inside and outside of the cathedral are blackened with soot, but they are cleaning the inside. The difference between the dirty part and the clean part is really crazy. The real color of the stone is more like a creamy white than grey. If the entire interior was like that it would seem so much lighter inside! I actually thought that they were painting it that color, but they only painted some of it. Chartres also has almost all of it's original stained glass still, which was also quite dirty, making the inside seem even darker because there is barely any light coming in. They are pretty much in the middle of a giant restoration of everything, so all of the best parts of the cathedral, like the altar and most of the ambulatory, was covered up. It was really pretty anyways!

By then we literally had to ooze back to the car, stopping at a bakery on the way for some quiche (which was really yummy) for dinner. We drove back to the hotel, getting lost on the way again, and finally got there at about 10 pm. Then we hung out and watched TV until 1 am. Fun!!!

Switzerland by Mia

We woke up at about 4 am on Thursday morning to get to the airport on time for our 7:30 flight to Zurich. That was really tough. Everyone pretty much slept the entire drive to the airport. Checking in and security and stuff went really smoothly, but we were the very last people to get onto the plane, so our seats weren't the best. I slept on the plane as well, and when we got to Zurich and hour and fifteen minutes later I had mostly caught up on sleep. Or at least I could walk....

The first thing I noticed about Switzerland was how clean it was! Everything from the air to the windows looked clearer and shinier. Daddy rented a brand new station wagon sort of car that is a bright, beautiful blue. The car has some cool automatic features, but some of them get really annoying, like when it beeps really loud whenever the front bumper gets close to anything. Also, there are only five seats so Sarah sits in the back with the luggage.

We drove in that car to the campsite in Jungfrau Valley. The campsite was really nice, on par with the holiday parks in Australia and New Zealand. We made Mac & cheese in the communal kitchen and watched soccer in the living room. We walked fifteen minutes to the cute little town near the campsite, which was full of adorable little houses with flower boxes full of colorful flowers. The valley is really pretty, with steep stone walls and several waterfalls and a river running through the middle. It reminds me of Yosemite.

The next morning we woke up early to catch a lift to the top of Schilthorn, which is where part of the James Bond movie Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed. They filmed it in the restaurant and view area that is at the top. We rode to the top, stayed there for a few hours, looking at the great view and watching a paraglider take off, and then rode half way down and walked the rest of the way back. It was a really. Long walk and today I can barely walk, my legs are so sore!

We celebrated Kayley's birthday too, with lots of icecreams and candles. She got a watch and a pomegranate for her present. This morning we walked over to the entrance to a cave that has ten underground waterfalls in it, but it was expensive to go I and see them, so we didn't. Then we drove to France!

Stonehenge by Mia

The morning after we arrived in England we woke up pretty late because we had stayed up until the early morning the night before. We packed our stuff and mommy and daddy went down to breakfast first, because they were they only ones who were supposed to be staying in our room. By they time they came back up it was too late for us to go down because they were shutting down the buffet, so we had some yogurt and bread that was in the cooler. We ended up leaving at about eleven, and then we spent about three and a half hours driving to Stonehenge which was actually only supposed to take two hours. Daddy got a bit lost, we spent like an hour driving back in forth about ten minutes away from the hotel.

When we finally got to Stonehenge it was like 2:15 in the afternoon. On the way we had stopped at a little grocery store and all us kids bought candy and chips and all sorts of junk food and had a party. Because of this, by the time we got there everyone was either feeling sick or bouncing off the walls. Also, during the car ride I finished A Farewell to Arms, which is a really sad book!

Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere. To get to it we went through several adorable little villages and then through rolling green hills. You drive over one of the rolling green hills and suddenly see it, and a parking lot full of tour buses and cars. Then beyond it there are more rolling green hills. The parking area is much bigger than the actual attraction (which is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be). You can't get very close to the rocks because it is entirely roped off, and the paths lead the he'd of tourists around the ring, and to the heel stone. It is extremely regulated, but there is the occasional streaker. One guy ran up really close to the rocks and got his friend to take his picture before the guards kicked him out.

There is only a little grass patch and two benches within the roped off area, and that was where we sat and had our picnic lunch. It was really windy so all our food was blowing around. We pondered Stonehenge while getting increasingly allergic to all the grass. We came to the conclusion that it is over rated, smaller than expected, and overprotected. Then we left because our eyes were really itchy and we were sneezing a lot. Before we got back in the car we went to stand on top of a little caveman made mound to got a better view of Stonehenge. It was one of three grassy mounds that had been there as long as Stonehenge and Mommy kept wondering what they were. Judging by the fact that archeologists and tour guides alike go off on long lectures and write long papers on how they 'have no idea what Stonehenge is,but here's what it might be', no one has any idea. I was also slightly weird that there was a couple sleeping at the top. At first I thought they wee hobos but they had a dog so I decided they were just some people who fell asleep for some reason.

By that time we were dying of allergic-ness so we headed back to the car. We drove into London and find our hotel. The apartment we got has one bedroom and I foldout couch, but luckily the couch has lots of cushions so we all have someplace to sleep, more or less. It is about twice the size of the place Kayley and I stayed at with Bippy and Gramps in Paris, though.

Seville by Mia

This morning we woke up way too early for a Saturday morning to go to Seville. When we got there it was extremely hot out, but it always is here in Spain. We parked a bit of a walk away from the cathedral, and walked through the maze of cute alleys until we found it. The Seville cathedral is the biggest cathedral in Europe and it is pretty darn big. It is surrounded by a plaza with a few fountains and lots of horses pulling carriages. On one side of the plaza is a stone wall which is the Alcazar. We entered the cathedral from the side and walked around it, stopping at the treasury and the sacristy, before sitting in the pews in the middle of the church. The pews faced the choir and right across from the choir was supposed to be a huge altar, but it was being restored so there was just a big picture of it hung on the scaffolding. The picture was really cool looking, but I really wish we could have seen the real thing! I hate when they are restoring cool things, because we can't see them.

We were really tired because it was really hot in the cathedral and we hadn't slept very much the last night, so it was not as fun as it should have been to look at the cathedral. We saw the biggest pearl in the world that was the torso of a little cherub on the crown of the Virgin Mary, and it was about as long as my thumb and twice as wide. It was a really weird shape; the perfect shape for the torso and the tops of the legs of the cherub because it splits at the bottom. The rest of the crown was covered with hundreds of diamonds, heaps of emeralds and lots of rubies and others precious stones. The crown it's self was made of gold. There was a much smaller crown next to it that was decorated just as richly, and we thought it was for baby Jesus. After a few hours we were pretty done with the cathedral, and we walked up to the top of the bell tower before leaving.

After the cathedral, we walked around the neighborhood, found a plaza to have some food in, and then got some really good ice cream. While we ate our ice cream Sarah got a ruffled pink flamenco dress. It was very pink; pink with black dots, not black with pink ones. She was really excited, though despite its apparent hideousness. After that we walked around a little bit more until we were about to fall on our faces, so we went back to the car and last.

Bullfight by Mia

There is a loaded but complete silence as the matador levels his sword as the bull. He sighted down the blade so that the sharp tip points at the spot just between the bulls big shoulder blades on its blood soaked back. Then, with a twitch of the matador's red cape, the bull charges, exposing the spot which the matador wishes to pierce. And, helped by the bulls momentum, the sword disappears to the hilt in the bulls back.

The crowd roars, and blood pours from the bulls mouth on to the floor of the bullring. Even I could see the specks it made from where is sat at the top of the stands. Everyone waits expectantly for the bull to keel over, and several pink caped guys came over the fence, one of which wielded a dagger. When the bulls knees finally buckled, and he lay twitching on his side in the dirt, the guy with the dagger came up and plunged it into the bulls brain to make sure it was dead.

While the matador strutted around waving his had and bowing, the dead bull was dragged off by two horses, leaving a red streak on the ground behind it which is quickly whipped away by the guys with rakes. As this happens, the increasingly drunk crowd waves handkerchiefs and cheers.

Corpus Cristi Festival by Mia

The atmosphere in the plaza is festive. It is crowded with all manner of people, from old ladies to young tourists, to little kids in fluffy dresses, and they are all having fun. There are two old looking carousels, one with horses made from old tires, and the other with horses made from wood. Music had just begun playing and people were dancing to it in the crowd. There are bubbles flying everywhere from the bubble guns that people were selling to little kids, glistening from the lights hung everywhere. In the alleys leading off of the square there are pretty lights strung from the buildings.

It is almost eleven pm and everyone was still out partying. Even the little babies in strollers are still awake. We are sitting around a square aluminum table in one of the packed cafes that line the square. Every singe table is full and you can tell that the place is conserving their drinks, because the glasses of wine they are bringing out are becoming increasingly small. We sit there, six people around one little table, soak up the atmosphere, and eat some good gelato.
PS the picture is random

PARIS by Mia

After some very fattening buffet breakfast at the Toledo Parador we headed up to the Madrid airport. On the way we were going to stop and see a really big palace but we couldn't find it and just ended up driving around in circles until we just stopped at a Starbucks for a pick me up and gave up. We got lost again on the way to the airport and when we finally got there we were definitely glad we hadn't stopped at the palace because if we had we would have missed our plane. Gramps went off in a taxi to drop off Zander and Sarah at the hotel where mommy and daddy would meet them later while the rest of us checked in. Then came the normal airport routine and the 2hour flight to Charles de Gaulle.

We were welcomed at the airport by a guy named Paul in his shiny black Mercedes-Benz. Arrival in style!!! That car was nice! And now we have bragging rights to Zander for having actually been inside a Benz. Our apartment, however was of very different quality to the Benz. We cruised up to the plain red door, fumbled around with the sticky lock, and then dragged our bags up two flights of stairs in a tight spiral. Our door had butterfly stickers on it and the apartment was about half the size of the hotel room we had occupied the night before. It was, as the guy who was letting us use it rightly said, cavelike. There was a tiny room that served as the bedroom, living room, and dining room, and three even tinier rooms containing the kitchen, bathroom, and itty bitty toilet room. The ceiling was sagging , and It was decorated with a ramshackle array of stuff. It was incredibly cute, and incredibly french!

We got organized and rested a bit and then went out to dinner at a brasserie a few blocks from the apartment. It was almost midnight by then, but everything was still open and hopping. The brasserie was one of those places with all the random but funny signs tacked all over the walls. In addition to street signs, funny signs, and hotel signs, there were random nicknacks, old looking books, and all sorts of other stuff on every available surface. If you just glance at it all you would think that some one had raided a flea market and spread it out randomly over the room. But, if you look closely, you see little things that show incredible effort. The colored stones hot glued to the edges of a shelf. The stains on the walls that become ghostly people upon closer inspection. The way everything is placed perfectly for maximum crookedness and cuteness. Someone obviously spent a lot of time trying to make this look carelessly ramshackle. It was fantastic!

The first full day in Paris we went to breakfast at a cafe on our the "food street". The street was lined with artisan shops selling cheese, meats and bread, patisseries (one of which was visited by the Queen of England according to all the postcards out front), pharmacies, grocery stores, and of course about a million and one cafes. Also there was the Palais de Fruit which was a big shop full of the most yummy looking fruit ever!!

After breakfast we went to the island in the middle of the Siene river that has the historic center. We went to Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, and the Conciergerie. I think you all know what Notre Dame is, but Saint Chapelle is a little church that was made to house the crown of thorns, so it is shaped sort of like a relic box and the walls are almost entirely stained glass. The Conciergerie was the prison for all the people sentenced to death by guillotine during the French revolution. There were four levels of cells: the poor got a little room with straw on the floor and three roommates, the rich could buy a room with a bed and only one roommate, the rich and famous got a room to themselves with a desk and everything, and Marie Antoinette had a room twice the size of the others, with a tapestry on the wall, a table and chair, a nicer bed, and a little alter thingy. Its pretty crazy how different the queen of France's cell was from even the rich and famous people's cells.

By the time we were out of the Conciergerie we were really tired but we used the last drop of energy to stop by the Eifel Tower for like twenty minutes. We just took our pictures and left and don't bother to go to the top. We were too tired! Then we took the ferry back down the Seine and went back to the cave and rested a bit before Bippy and Gramps's friend Sue Ann came. We ate bread and cheese in the main room before they all went out to dinner. I stayed home because I was really tired and not that hungry.

The next day we went to the Louvre which was huge beyond belief so we only visited the most famous things like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I'm not sure why the Mona Lisa is so famous because it is really small and dark compared to all the other paintings in the room with it. There was a huge crowd around it anyway, and they had it covered in a big glass case. We also saw Napolean III's apartments which were really fancy (lots of big chandeliers). After the Louvre we walked through the Tuileries to Avenue Champs Élysées. We walked up that, stopping in the middle at a cafe near the biggest Sephora in France. We had some really good ice cream there and I walked around in the Sephora. I didn't buy anything because the lines to the cashiers were about a mile long. It was so crowded you could barely move! By the time we reached the Arc de Triomphe at the en of the Avenue, there was no way we would be able to walk back, so Gramps hailed a cab and we got driven home.

For our last dinner in Paris we went across the street to a more modern cafe which had really good Cesar salad. We got there at about 8:30 and the place was absolutely deserted. It was just picking up when we left at 11!! Those Parisians eat late! The next day was Sunday, so all the museums were free entry. We were going to the Musee d'Orsay to see impressionist paintings. On the way there we passed the Louvre and then line was out the courtyard and almost turning the corner of the building! And trust me, with the Louvre that is extremely long; that place is so big! Just past the Louvre we ducked inside a little cathedral just out of curiosity, and we ended up staying for an entire Sunday mass. That is what happens when you travel with Bippy. It was cool, even though I almost fell asleep because a sermon in French is about as good as a lullaby.

Then we walked to the museum and waited in line for about an hour. The line wasn't as bad as the one at the Louvre, but still pretty long! The Musee d'Orsay is full of impressionist art;both paintings and statues. We focused on the famous stuff like Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh. Then we had lunch at a really cool cafe in the museum with awesome Cesar salad and really good ice cream.There was like a fifty fifty ratio of ice cream to whipped cream!! I love the food in France!! By then it was time to walk back to the apartment to pack up and get ready for Paul and his Benz to take Kayley, Gramps, and me to the airport. Bippy and Gramps were staying for a few more days and Kayley and I were flying back to Madrid by ourselves!

Flying by ourselves was not that different from flying with other people. Sure, there was a flight attendant monitoring our every move, and while we were waiting to board we sat behind the desk with them, but other than that it was the same. It was really cool to listen to them talking even though we don't understand French. Their English is pretty much limited to a few scripted phrases including "the plane is delayed 15minutes, but we expect to arrive in Madrid in time". it was delayed more than fifteen minutes, and we did not arrive in Madrid on time.

The flight was uneventful, and when we got to Madrid at around midnight we were escorted to the arrivals place by another flight attendant. This time there was another 'unaccompanied minor' with us. He was a little nine year old kid who claimed to speak nine languages including japonese and Chinese, English, German, and some others. The flight attendant obviously couldn't decide whether he was telling the truth or not! It was the cutest thing ever! Then the little kid said that his mom could speak sixteen languages! I didn't even know there were that many languages in existance!

We met daddy at the arrivals place and then piled in the car to drive to Churriana. It was a sunday night and we had school the next morning. We didn't get home until 2 am! I skipped the first period of school the next day because I was sleeping. It was just study hall so it was okay. Paris was so fun, it was totally worth the lack of sleep, though! We caught up on sleep lying on a beach in Motril for several hours that afternoon, though.

Granada -- Toledo by Mia

The second weekend with Bippy and Gramps was a little bit more mellow. We stayed at home and took a trip ino Granada on Saturday. On Friday afternoon I had started to feel a bit sick and by the time Saturday came around I was feeling no better, but I went anyway. I really like downtown Granada!

We drove in and parked in an overstuffed parking garage after a bit of driving in circles (which is inevitable in any old city, I've found) and set off walking to the tourist information office. The lady in there gave Gramps a map and suggested an itinerary around the Albaycin (the old area) and through the major tourist spots, like the Cathedral and stuff. The first part of the trip was a bit boring and icky because I was feeling pretty bad and it was really hot out. We were walking around a lot and not going into anything except for a little church and an ice cream shop (that gave me a bit nof energy but ice cream only lasts so long).

We stopped for lunch in a square, but I didn't order anything except for a ton of water and orange juice because I wasn't hungry. I just ate the paella we got for tapas which was really good. After we got out of the Albaycin it was much more fun. We walked over to the Cathedral and waited a little while for it to open. The Cathedral was really cool! And I mean that literally. They had the air conditioning on way too high in there because walking in the door was like walking straight from the Sahara desert into Siberia. Other than the temperature issues it actually was really awesome. You walk in theough the bishop's robing room (which, I must say, was way bigger than a closet has any right to be), and the on into the main Cathedral. When you walk in you sort of just stop and say wow because the Gothic styled architecture makes it look much taller than it actually is. It doesn't help to walk in to the side of the cathedral where there is a sort of forest of gigantic columns between you and the aisle. I am proud to say that I have been in a fair number of cathedrals, but I think the reason that it was so surprising to walk into this one was because we were entering from the side. All the other cathedrals we have been in were entered from the big doors exactly opposite from the alter. Whatever the reason, most of the big cathedrals in Spain are entered from the side. I kind of like it because there is a bit of suspense before you get to the big fancy gilded bit at the alter.

After the cathedral we made our way back to the car and drove back home. For the next two days I was a permanent resident of the couch! On Monday I was feeling a bit better but I decided that it is not fair to be sick on the weekend and still have to go to school, so I stayed home to fully recover. We had decided to skip Wednesday to Friday of that week to go to Toledo and then Paris for Kayley and I and northern Spain for the other two. I only had to go to one day of school that week and I am pretty sure it was the best day of school yet. Mostly that was because there was very little schooling going on. I watched a movie for two of the hours, had special Spanish class for another two hours, had English class for one ( where I only sit and read), and I was let out an hour early because the teacher never showed up for last period. Just shows how bad that school is, if I can go there and not go to a single real class!! But it was a great day, and while I walked home I probably looked like an absolute idiot because I was grinning, skipping and humming the whole way! It was like "Yes! I'm freeeeee!!".

Pretty much promptly after Zander got back from school we set out for Toledo. It was a big fat three hour drive and we spent it eating the food Bippy had packed for lunch and passing around the electronics we had and trying not to get too bored. When we finally got to the hotel in Toledo, it was a relief! Zander and Kayley were all but in a fist fight, and things were getting kind of tense. Toledo was absolutely amazing! We stayed in the Parador Hotel which has the best view of the city, and we all had beds (woo hoo!). Bippy and Gramps got two three person rooms and the girls stayed in one and Bippy and Gramps stayed in the other with Zander.

We spent the rest of the day watching TV and lying around in the room.At 8:39 we had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was on a big balcony with the most amazing view on earth. You just sit there and stare at it and every time we ate there we had to get the camera out and take about a gazillion pictures because it was just so beautiful. You could see out over the town with the cathedrals, the palace thingy, and all sorts of other cool stuff at the top of the hill, the houses all the way down the hill to the walls, and the two bridges over the river that circles half of the edge. The food was really good there too, and the waiters were really nice.

The next day we went into town and spent about 2hours in the Cathedral of Toledo which has all the extra rooms off it like the robing room (complete with some really uncomfortable looking robes), the treasury (with some really nice treasure), the monastery thingy, etc. It was a little bit bigger than the Granada cathedral, and much nicer. Then we went to lunch where I had some really delicious lasagna.

After lunch we went to the El Greco museum and then visited a synagogue. By then we were about to fall on our faces and it was super hot, so we went back to the car and went back to the Parador. We had a few hours before dinner time and we were going to go swimming, but it turned out that the pool isn't open until June! We were so mad because we were leaving the day before June started. So we just watched some more TV until dinner. We sat out there on the balcony eating our fancy food and fancy desserts, watching the sun set over Toledo. It was perfect! And I loved it.

First Week With Bippy and Gramps by Mia

          All of us kids had been counting down the days (and, when it got close enough, the hours) until Bippy and Gramps were going to arrive on the Wednesday two weeks ago. When they did arrive it was super exciting to see a familiar face that spoke our language (and wasn’t our parents or each other). We were also excited that our parents would be leaving for a whole two weeks to go on a cruise in the Baltic, (when they chose the Baltic over the Mediterranean for this cruise I seriously questioned their sanity. I mean, really, they have two weeks in the end of May/ beginning of June to go on a big, fancy cruise ship and they pick a sea where the weather is to cold to make use of the swimming pool?!) and Bippy and Gramps would be taking over. To make things even better was the fact that they had got a beach side condo at a resort in Marbella to hang out in that weekend. So, in short, we were all extremely excited.

          Our parents didn’t leave the second Bippy and Gramps arrived, though. There was an overlap of two nights during which Kayley and I were sleeping on couches in the living room. I had never thought I would be glad about the two extremely unnecessary couches that clutter up the living room, but I was glad they were there to sleep on. I know from experience that stone floors are really hard! Our parents left for Norway early Friday morning, and then the party started! On Friday after school we drove to Marbella and the resort. I had stayed home from school on Thursday and Friday because the rest of my class was in Gibraltar so I had gone grocery shopping with Bippy and we had a cooler full of food for our “siesta meal” (which is what we call the giant feast we have at around 4 pm because no one really eats much of anything at school). And we ate sandwiches and snacks on the car ride there. 

          The resort was amazing! The condo had enough beds for every one (that’s a huge thing for mistreated kids like us), and the added bonus of numerous flat screen TVs and complete kitchen. In the resort there were several pools, several restaurants, the beach a few steps away, and an overpriced supermarket (yeah, I know, why would you need a supermarket if you have several restaurants?). The weather had been perfect for laziness all week (about 90 degrees) and the future looked good. On Saturday we walked around in Marbella, which was nice, even though we picked the wrong restaurant for lunch. It takes skill to make a chicken Cesar salad taste gross. When we came back we lazed around for a bit and had the leftover sandwich from lunch on Friday for dinner. That first whole day was a complete success, even though it was a little colder and cloudier towards the end of the day than I would have liked.

          The second day was what made me angry. It rained (rained!!!) during the night and it was way colder than it had any right to be on a Sunday in the end of May. We tried to laze around outside for a while, but it got too cold so we just left. I just couldn’t believe that the one weekend we get to be in a condo on the Spanish Riviera just happens to be the one weekend that it isn’t 90 degrees out!! Weather is so evil. We drove back to Churriana and did some more lazing around (man, I just love laziness) before going to bed early enough so that we wouldn’t die the next morning when we had to go to school. 

Fiesta de las Cruces by mia

For the last week there has been a continuous mini carnival in the main square of our little town, the neighboring little town, and every other town or city in the entire country of Spain. We got Monday and Tuesday of this last week off from school (hence our ability to go to Morocco and Barcelona last weekend) because of the huge party that was being had all over the country.

The big weeklong party is called Fiesta de las Cruces, and it involves lots of dancing, drinking, dressing up, and every thing else that makes for a fun time. When we talked to our landlady, Carmen about it she said that it was actually a religious party, but now its just turned into a normal party (like pretty much any religious holiday). What they still do that keeps up the religious part, is build and decorate crosses. The one in our central square was covered with roses and around it everyone put big pots of flowers, decorative plates and other pretty things. They set it up on the big trellised platform, and the whole setup took up pretty much the entire area. It looked really nice with all the flowers everywhere.

Another part of the party in our town was a nice mini carnival complete with bumper cars, a throw up ride, a carousel, a bouncy castle, and giant cotton candy. This carnival was set up at the beginning of last week and is just being taken down now! There was also an outdoor bar and a stage set up in the square. Zander and I were walking to school on the morning after the biggest party night, when they had just taken down the bar and the square looked trashed!! There was all sorts of trash and "party residue" all over the place. We were both like, wow looks like some people had a lot of fun last night!

We walked to the neighboring town, Armilla, to check out their celebrations too. On the way we noticed that many of the restaurants and businesses had their own decorated crosses, either outside by the door, or inside somewhere. We saw some made of corks, bottles, and one out of cake boxes! The party in Armilla had two bars set up and pretty much the same carnival set up as Churriana, if not a bit bigger.

The cutest part of this party was the dressing up part. Everyone dressed up in those crazy looking flamenco dresses and put flowers in their hair. There were the most adorable little girls were running around all decked out in fluffy pink polka dotted dresses with matching shoes and earrings!! It was awesome. The little girls would go up on the stage and do little flamenco dances with other kids. The boys were all dressed up too, in button downs and hats.

We walked through the party a lot but we only went there to party once. It was kind of a bummer that we picked the one day that it rained as the day that we would finally enjoy the festivities! We had drinks and tapas and were going to go on bumper cars or something,but then it started raining and we decided to head home. After the party week was over there was a little artisan market set up along the street next to the main square. It sold all sorts of things, from jewelry to cheese, but we only walked through it once. There were stalls selling big hunks of cheese, stalls selling all sorts of different jewelry, pastries, spices, tea, and random wooden trinkets. I really liked the spices because they smelled really yummy and there was mint chocolate tea, which I have never seen before!

The Fiesta de las Cruces was a really cool holiday, very Spanish. The fact that it kept going for about a week was the best thing, because there aren't really any like that in the US. I also really liked the dressing up (so cute!) and especially the fact that it gave us a four day weekend! I hope there are lots more huge parties around here.

PS Two of the pictures are random because we don't have many of the party (though mommy did try to take pics of some little girls who were all dressed up, but we got her not to because that would be slightly creepy...)

Pictures:

Guess which one is of me driving!! That lasted for a fee minutes in an empty parking lot. We had to stop because we saw a cop. We learned that that me+Standard driving= lots of bucking broncos..... My car is going to be an automatic for everyone's safety!!!

The one of momma is at the Armilla party.

The lovely palm tree lined promenade is the famous marble walkway along the beach on Alacante. We had some good frozen yogurt there... :)

Barcelona by Mia

After our disastrous trip to Morocco we drove all the way back to Churriana, arriving at 4 the next morning. We slept until 10 (which was not late enough) and then had some breakfast before hopping back into the car to drive east. The plan was to stop at Valencia for one night on the way to Barcelona, where we would stay for two nights. The reason we had so much time to do all of this was that we had Monday and Tuesday off from school because of International Party Day

It took pretty much all day to get to Valencia, do we only had a little bit of time to look around before dinner. We checked out the Ciudad de Arte y Ciencia, which was a really cool complex of awesome modern buildings. In the middle of a shallow 'lake' thing. There were three big buildings in the lake, and an awesome bridge that was in the video course we took on Great Structures. We walked around there for a while and then we went back to the hotel. The hotel daddy got us a room at was a nice big four star... big enough for all us kids to sneak into the double room daddy got us. Wonderful....

The next morning we looked around in Valencia. First we went to the Cathedral (its important enough to just be called "the Cathedral") which was nice, but it looked like all the other really cool Gothic cathedrals we had seen. What made it special was the fact that the Holy Grail was inside it. So we saw that, and, despite what anyone saw in Indiana Jones, the Grail is NOT wooden! It is golden, of course. Next we went to the Plaza del Mercado which is a square with a few cool buildings on it, including a few markets and a church. There was also a bunch of old guys selling coins, movies, and books on either side of the sidewalk in front of the Silk Market. We saw a fat old guy in a wheel chair with a big stack of porn movies there, which was kind of funny in a sad way (if you know what I mean). After all that we got in the car and headed for Barcelona.

The drive to Barcelona was a bit shorter than the one to Valencia gad been, so we had plenty of time to get a hotel room and knock a few sights off our list. We parked the car by a big monument to that idiot, Christopher Columbus (sure, he found America, but he was aiming for India! And he didn't even realize he wasn't actually in India when he got there! That takes a certain amount of stupidity.) and walked along the waterfront. We walked out across a bridge to a mall they had in the harbor, around the mall, and then along Las Ramblas, Barça's famous street. That was really cool because the traffic space was mostly for people and all the cafes along the road had all their seating in the middle of the wide promenade that was in between the two dinky little lanes that were for the cars. There was also trees and stands selling jewelry and fake bags (you know, the kind of things people sell to tourists) along the promenade. Here and there there was a giant statue, too. One of them was a really gigantic metal cat, that Kayley and Sarah climbed on top of. After we walked down that street for a while someone had the stupid idea of walking down a dingy side street to get to our next destination. It looked crowded enough not to be dangerous, but it turned out that most of the people out on the street were guys looking messed up/bored. Some idiot tried to pick dadda's pocket (he did a pretty bad job, it was as far from subtle as it goes) so he tackled the scumbag and put him in a headlock. He didn't escalate it beyond that though because he had friends. Pretty much mommy got in between them and we all ran for it.

That was really exciting, especially because the guy didn't get the wallet or the phone! Also, some other guy who was watching told dadda 'good job' when we were walking away. Apparently they were either impressed, or were glad that the kids got tough a lesson. Either way I thought that was funny! After that adventure we got off that street as fast as we could and walked over to the 'Magic Fountain' which was what we wanted to see next. I wasn't just a fountain, but a whole complex of awesome stuff including a giant art museum, lots of columns and statues and the actual fountain which was off. It was just our luck that the fountain was off because we were there on the one day that it was off. Without the waterworks the fountain was just a big round pool with little jets where the water would normally come out of. Because there was more to see than jut the fountain, it wasn't that bad that it was off. We sat down at a cafe with some ice creams and drinks, to wait for the fountain to turn on (it was supposed to come on at 9, and we were a little early. We didn't know that it wouldn't come on at all, and apparently no one else got the memo either because there was a whole crowd waiting for it). Eventually the crowd trickled off when everyone realized that it wasn't going to turn on after all, and we joined them.

We took a different, safer route back to the car (Zander analyzing the previous event, speaking knowledgeably about the proper technique and etiquette of street fighting and pickpocketing, and asking Daddy all sorts of questions he already knew the answer to for the entire walk back) and when we got there we headed back to the hotel. (Our hotel situation was exactly the same as it was in Valencia, so Sarah and Zander got the floor and the other four squeezed onto the two twin beds that were next to each other. Its a good thing not to have weird sleeping habits! The only weird thing Kayley does some times is to try and climb you, and I am, of course, a perfect sleeper, so we usually get the bed if there is one. ) Back at the hotel we ate some salad and bread n cheese, and then went to sleep.

SPAIN UPDATE by Mia

Lately we have fallen into a nice routine. We have school, sport, and activities all figured out, and we do it all without the car. A typical day is school, eat, laze around, get some exercise, eat again, sleep. We eat a lot.... We have been getting fondue chocolate and strawberries from the grocery store and eating them after 'siesta meal' which is kind of like a really late lunch.

School has been pretty interesting, but manageable. There have been a few weird instances when I realized that when my math teacher kept saying "pee" he actually meant "pi", and things like that. It makes sense because Spanish is a really phonetic language so they say wifi "weefee" and sound out the name of the singer LMFAO (its an anagram). They say "limfow" instead.

The school takes us on tons of field trips! Zander had two this week and I have one tomorrow. They are usually small, but I'm going to Granada tomorrow and there is a trip to Portugal later. I'm to late to sign up for that one, but I'll get a few days off from school anyway. Zander went all the way to Cordoba last week for a night. He came home with some interesting stories that I am not allowed to tell you....

For exercise, we play padel at the sport center. Padel is like a mix between squash and tennis because it is a smaller court and you can use the walls, but you use tennis balls and the court is like a mini tennis court. Sometimes I think we get more exercise laughing at each other and ourselves than from the actual game, but racket sports have always been that way for me! We go there almost every day, so we are really familiar with the lady at the desk at the sports center. We don't even really have to ask to book a court anymore, she knows us! She is really nice and she's the only one who ever works the desk, so we know her really well.

Kayley and Sarah are doing a flamenco dancing class at the cultural center
on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that's when we play padel. Most of the other days we play soccer on our street or in the plaza, depending upon if we have a ball or not. We have already lost one over our neighbor's fence and we can't get it back because no one lives in that house. We got a cheap new ball at the mini bazar off the square, and then lost it over another locked fence at the sport center. We just got it back today, and hopefully nothing else will happen to it!

Its really weird to live in such a small town, though! Every time I go outside the house I see someone I know. The smallness is also nice because it means we can walk absolutely everywhere, so we only need to rent a car for the weekend trips around Spain, and to Morocco. Its really weird to live in Spain and I am starting to realize how difficult it is to do anything if you can't communicate easily! I really hope I become fluent after all of this, and I will never take my language for granted again!

So in summary, here is my day:
Get up at 7 am, get ready, leave for school at 8am sharp (I refuse to go earlier, it takes exactly 15 min to get to school and I don't like being early), school starts at 8:15 and ends at 2:45, after school Zander and I walk home (sometimes via the bakery for some fried fat covered in chocolate, but only on a bad day ;)), get home, eat like starving people, then eat some more, laze around and do homework if necessary, exercise, come home (sometimes via the grocery store, you would be surprised how fast we go through food), eat dinner, laze around (watch one of the Godfather movies daddy downloaded on to the iPad. The first or the second are the best, never the third. You know a movie is bad when you are laughing at the tragic ending because of horrible acting), and, finally, get to sleep by 10 or 11. SLEEP AND REPEAT :)

Pictures Update by Mia

Pic #1: A big palace in Portugal. No one really knows what it's called cause we've seen so many! It was really cool though because there were about a hundred little rooms decorated really nicely. There were about five belonging to one queen and all the kings only had one each! It was also built pretty much on top of an old monastery which was mostly destroyed in the earthquake. Only the chapel is left of the monastery.

Pic #2: The huge cathedral at the end of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. It reminded me a bit of Angkor Wat because it had moss on it, and the spires look like Angkor Wat's spires.

Pic #3: There were random statues like this scattered around Cordoba. There was an old man in the airport that mommy thought was real! He was made of metal, and didn't look real at all. I think she needs stronger glasses.

Pic #4: Daddy's artistic picture on the waterfront in Lisbon, Portugal. We walked a long way in the thunder, lightning, and rain for that picture, so appreciate it!!!

Pic #5: The big botanical gardens in Madrid. We were aiming to go to the Museo del Prado that day, but it was closed.

Pic #6: One of the many courtyards in Alhambra Palace, the big Moorish palace in Granada, Spain.

Spain by Mia

We arrived in Spain a week ago and have been kept very busy trying to get our life straight. So far we have replaced the stolen laptop with an iPad (I did not see that one coming!! I never thought I would see the day when my dad bought and iPad! He thinks they are quite pointless!!), signed a contract for a rental house in Churriana de la Vega on the outskirts of Granada, and started school. We are also planning a trip to Portugal over Easter Break. Zander and I (mostly I) have been closely involved in everything becuase we can translate Spanish for our parents, which is extremely tiring.

The first thing we translated for was when we were searching for a good prepaid phone plan for daddy´s iPhone. That was rough, and they ended up just using googe translate.That was on the way from Madrid to Cordoba. We stayed in Cordoba for a few nights, in a 5 star hotel where daddy booked a hotel room for TWO PEOPLE!!! It was a really nice room, with a huge shower and everything, but only one king sized bed. Sarah ended up sleeping on the cusion that she took off the baby changing table, Zander on a sheet on the floor, and Kayley, me, and my parents sharing the bed. That was a bit unconfortable becuase Kayley thrashes in her sleep so we got kicked off the bed for the next night. Instead we brought up the airmatress that we had bought in Italy for camping  (and only used twice). That got popped when we were setting it up and Kayley and I did our best to patch it up with Tyvek tape. That sort of worked, but there must have been a leak because we woke up in the middle of the night on the floor. That entire time we were looking for rentals in Córdoba. That was not going well, because there were barely any in town and most of them were full because Easter is coming. We ended up just driveing on out of there.

We spent a few hours at the beach in Málaga and then drove to Granada. We did a bit of touristing there and visited Alhambra Palace, but mostly we were looking for rentals. We changed our focus from just rentals to holiday rentals becuase every one else was unwilling to rent to us for less than six months. We found a lot more that way, and I was searching in Spanish instead of English. When we really started going we were lining them up three a day. The day we found ours, we had three lined up (thanks to a ton of phone calls with people in Spainsh by ME). The one in the morning was in an adorable little town about 45 minutes from Granada. They were kind of a dump, and the one we wanted wasn´t complete yet. The next one was in Monachil, an outskirt of Granada. The apartment was cute, but really small, and the guy who showed it to us was Scottish. It was much better than the last one we had seen, but not perfect.

The last one we looked at every one had a good feeling about, because the places had been getting better all day. It was an actual house instead of an apartment, and had the perfect amount of beding for everyone. Three bedrooms, two had two twin beds each, and the master had a queen. There was a little back patio with one of those little charcoal grills. It was the landlady´s acutal house, so it was clean and tastefully furnished. The one little drawback was the fact that  the landlady didn´t speak any English. None at all. She was really nice though, and the combined force of Zanders and my Spanish skills got us an apointment the next day to sign a contract. She also told us where the schools were and stuff. That evening we hit a pastry shop for celebration (the one fault of you little town is that is doens´t have a single ice cream shop open in the spring time).

Next day we visited the schools where we got us all in the next day, and then went off to get the contract signed. This time the landlady had her iPad out with google translate so Zander and I were only needed a little. After the contract was signed we went school shopping at the monster Carrefour Planet mall, which was "the most constructive" shopping trip daddy had ever had been on. There was still a strict list and stuff, which was dumb, and we were constrained to the half hour before daddy exploded but we still mananged to get stuff done.

The next moring we got out or our beds (oh wait, just kidding, not beds, sleeping bags on the floor) really early and went to school. Zander and I were dropped off first at the "Instituto de Educación Secundaria F.G.L." (Institute of Secundary Education -- so clinical!! Like they are going to preform scientific procedures to fill our brains with knowledge). It is perhaps the most ugly building that ever existed, the outside is stone and there is not a blade of grass in sight. The inside is echoy, with tiles on the walls (like a bathroom) and nasty purple doors. Gross. There is a fence with a locked gate surrounding the entire thing. The people inside though, are normal high schoolers, and of course, the "no electronics in school" rule is entirely unenforcable. I have no idea how anyone expects to enforce that one without having a secutity system equivalent to airports. The day was great though, and the kids try a lot harder to speak English to me than the adults do (even though they sound really funny, and I could probably understand them better when they speak Spanish).

After school was out we were all really happy, especially Kayley, who´s school is giving here a little laptop to do homework on. (lucky!!). We went back to our little two person hotel room in Granada and then the kids were sent to the mall for like 3 hours becuase we were apparently too happy. The next day was national strike day so there wasn´t any school. We went for a nice hike in Monachil instead, and it was really cool because everyone was just lazing around, and not doing anything. It was like a Sunday afternoon! Spain is turning out to be pretty good, and I really hope I come out of this fluent in Spanish, becuase that would be really cool!