4th of July weekend!

¡Hola!

We hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekends! We had fun spending our last weekend in Spain right here in our city, Salamanca. We were able to spend some time writing our final papers which are due today (Wednesday) and relax too.

On Saturday Kendra met up with a childhood friend, Abby, who just happens to be starting a semester of study at the University of Salamanca! It is amazing that they two of them were able to meet up here after 10 years of not seeing each other! Kendra, a true Salamancan now, gave Abby a tour of the city and they were able to catch up. Michelle spent the day, with one of our group members Cristina, shopping at the sales and eating tapas. 

On Sunday morning we hung out together and went to the “flea market” located right by the Rio Tormes. Michelle expected it to be full of small treasures, fresh fruits and to be really spectacular but it turned out to be a regular swap meet. Afterwards, we put on our matching University of Salamanca t-shirts and had our own mini photo shoot together. But the best part was buying a warm, fresh baget from the panderia by our apartment and walking around eating it together. The bagets here are amazing, especially with Manchego cheese! We had fun being overindulging tourists for a few hours.

Us eating our pan in our matching tees.

On Monday, we spent our 4^th of July with our professor Angeles, her fiancé Philip and a group member Cristina in a rented car driving around the province of Salamanca. We drove up Peña de Francia, a beautiful mountain with a church, and picnicked at the top in honor of Independence Day. We also travelled to several small towns including La Alberca, Bejar and Alba de Tormes.

Video from the rented car as we were driving through the Spanish countryside. 

Tuesday night was our farewell dinner with our whole group, today (Wednesday) was our last day of class and tomorrow (Thursday) we drive to Madrid. Friday morning we fly back and arrive in the evening California time.

Us at the farewell dinner.

We are very excited to be coming home!

EuroSistersK&M 

One Week Left!

So we will be home in exactly one week! We arrive at LAX on Friday, July 8^th at 8:25pm at American Airlines.

We have great expectations for our arrival:
1. All our family and friends will be there. (So if you are reading this that means you, even if you are a creeper we don’t know.)
2. A giant welcome banner will read “Welcome Back K&M!” and confetti will shoot out of a cannon.
3. Upon first seeing us, Hail to the Chief will start playing, by a hired live band. (This band will be made up of members of our favorite bands Arcade Fire and Parachute.)
4. President Obama will then come forth and shake our hands, congratulating us on our return to American soil.
5. Families and friends will begin cheering, hugging and greeting us.
6. The song Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus will then begin blasting on a boom box.
7. Medals and sashes will be bestowed upon us.
8. A flash mob will then take place to the song California Gurls by Katy Perry.
9. A buffet of our American favorites will be present including Chick-Fil-A and Burrito Track.
10. A limo complete with 5 star hotel beds will take us home.

We’re not asking for a lot, so please do the best you can. :P
See you soon!
EuroSistersK&M

Music in Salamanca

Salamancans are pretty cool in terms of music. Yeah we shot this video. Ok just kidding. But we want to do this on campus next year. And you get to see parts of our city!

yay! K&M

Cathedral Tower

This is us after climbing to the top of the New Cathedral tower in Salamanca, Spain. By "new" we mean built nearly 500 years ago in 1513.

Con Cariños,
EuroSistersK&M

Immobile Moby

We must share our tale about a puppy.

Immobile Moby


One rainy day at the start of our trip, Michelle noticed a dog laying in the grass under a tree. Rain was falling on this puppy and it was a very pitiful sight. The puppy's owner was standing not too far away and was shouting at the puppy to get up and out of the cold rain. The puppy just laid there and looked around with a sad face. The owner kept yelling and the dog just shook from the cold. Kendra didn't seem to notice any of this happening, but Michelle found it hilarious and very entertaining. 
Over the next week Michelle noticed the dog again and again, always laying in the same grassy area under trees. 


The puppy can only be described in one word: immobile.
It doesn't move. 
We call it Moby for short. 

This past weekend Kendra actually saw Moby moving with the owner along the sidewalk, and she said it was as if Moby was missing a leg and the owner was practically dragging Moby with the leash. 


Anyway, Michelle loves Moby so much, she felt it was blog worthy.


Con Cariños, 
EuroSistersK&M

Barcelona!

Video of the water show at the Fountain of Montjuic.


Hola!
It's Michelle here, back from a weekend trip to Barcelona with some of the people from our group. This trip was separate from the study abroad program and had to be paid for on our own, so not everyone decided to go.


Anyway, 9 of us took the 6 hour train ride to Barcelona early Friday morning and got there in the afternoon. We spent Friday visiting the FC Barcelona stadium (where we spent a lot of money), figuring out the metro system and trying to find our hotel. Friday was a rough day of traveling. That night we got fancied up and went to an ice bar at the beach. It was a room covered in ice and was -9º celsius! We were given giant coats and gloves to wear inside. The drinks were served in cups made of ice! Most of us women were wearing sandals and eventually we lost feeling in our feet, so we did not stay too long. We started out early on Saturday and we were able to see and experience a lot of Barcelona. We went to the Park Guell, the Sagrada Familia, the Fountain of Montjuic, the Ramblas, the protests at the Plaza Catalunya and the beach! We took a dip in the water and collected shells. There were a lot of topless women which was different. We also took a bus tour of the city, shopped and ate some delicious food. Later that night we went out to the clubs near the beach again and experienced the night life. Overall it was a great day except for the fact that I lost something on the metro. I was really upset about it and the lovely ladies that I traveled with are so kind that they secretly chipped in money to replace what I lost! It was really very nice of them and I am very grateful to have experienced this trip with them. Sunday we simply had breakfast and traveled home to Salamanca by train.

My favorite part of the trip was visting the Park Guell which was designed by Antoni Gaudi. I have always wanted to go to this beautiful view point and it was amazing to finally see it! If you want to see more photos check out the album "Spain 4"on my facebook. 


Con cariños,
EuroSisterM

It's rather difficult to come up with clever titles for these posts.

Hey everyone!

Kendra here. All by myself... Michelle went to Barcelona this weekend with part of the CSUF groupies. Since she is going to blog about her trip next week, we decided that I would do a random post now!

This past week, we took part in many activities. We got to go to a music club, where we actually got to play instuments. We now have the Don Manuel Experience, which is comprised of 5 members of our group. We actually played music that sounded good. The video is on Facebook. I would load it here, but my laptop doesn't post videos for some reason. On Wednesday, we had a class on Spanish movies. We watched part of the Spanish horror movie, The Orphange. Michelle desided that the creepy ghost child in the movie is haunting our bedroom when we sleep. Awesome. 

On Thursday, we had a wine tasting class. No worries friends and family! I did not participate and stayed true to my morals and religion. On Friday (which is today), Michelle left at 5 in the morning to the train station. I was happily sleeping.

Now, I think that it is important to mention the little things that happen here in Spain. Just like the little things that seem insignificant, but really make the whole experience better.  

1. Animals.
Our lives here are constantly surrounded by animals. Our host family has a bird that doesn't have a name. He constantly sings during lunch and dinner. There is also a dog that Michelle is obessed with. She is going to dedicate a whole blog post to him, so I won't go into much detail here. We also pass a pet store on our way to class. Every now and then they add new puppies and kittens to the window. Currently, there is a beautiful Siamese kitten that I keep forgetting to tell my mom about. It is only 40 euros, which is about 60 US dollars. I would take him, but I don't know how to bring him back... There are also many puppies in the window. Two of the puppies look like mini bears.. still cute though.

2.Junk Food
We are really good at finding the good junk food. We have stumbled upon these chips called "York'eso". They are ham and cheese favored. They are discustingly addictive. There is also this linonada from the local market that is like Chick-Fil-A's lemonade, but only about 52 times better. The candy is really good here too. I don't even know how to describe it.

3. Michelle playing chess.
So Michelle likes to play chess on my laptop. She doesn't really know how to play. She just moves pieces around until the computer beats her. However, it is one of the most entertaining things to watch. She sits there in the same spot, barely moving for the whole 10 minutes of the game. She also exclaims when something good or bad happens. I encourage you to watch her play chess if you ever have to chance.

Well, I think that is all I have for now. Have a good weekend everyone!

Hasta Luego
EuroSisterK