hey guys,
everything is going well. i am in zarzalejo a small village outside of escorial, very close to madrid. i couldn´t write becuase i don´t have access to a computer here. soon i will be registering in a spanish language institute and a gym. so things are going well. i am travelling and exploring spain. unfortunatly i forgot my camara this trip, but i hope that everyone is getting my postcards. please let me know by giving me your adress if you want me to send you a postcard. i don´t want to recieve mail at the family´s house, it´s not that reliable, but i can talk on facebook, gmail, blog, skype very soon, etc. lots of love to everyone, missing you!
besitos y abrazos :)

Madrid-the city

hey guys,
went to madrid yesterday, on sunday my free day. i get weekends off. i met up with two au pairs christelle who is french, suzi who is austrian, and another girl who speaks english who works for virgin mobile whose name is melonie. they showed me the city a bit and we sat at a cafe on a terraza and had a drink, ie i drank diet coke not beer. they then proceeded to tell me how awefull being an au pair is, that they work 60 hours a week and only get paid for 25!! in the family i work with the girl is very sweet, i love her, the mom gets mad sometimes, and the dad is very passive. but considered to the other au pairs i now feel lucky to be living with this family. so madrid. yesterday i arrived at madrid at the metro station, la puerta del sol, the door to the sun. i then proceeded to plaza mayor, did some shopping with the other au pair then they had to go early, becuase they live much farther away from madrid then i do. i proceeded to exploring madrid on my own. i walked about 3 hours, taking pictures of various churches and monuments. i ended up walking on paseo del prado, the prado walkway which is a very famous and beautiful arts walkway in the city. i saw plaza de cebeles, palacio de cibeles, museo thyssen, and museo nacional de prado, 2 of the most famous mueseums in all of spain, but for now only from the outside, the real jardin botanico, beautiful gardens, lined with statues of famous spanish people, and pictures from inside the prado, and lastly i arrived at museo nacional centro de arte reina sophia, which was beautiful from the outside, ayuntamiento de madrid, the town hall, and the train station to get back to leganes, atocha. atocha is a very cool train station, you go inside and it is as if you have stepped into a palace. there is literally a forest of trees indoors. in general in spain i find myself not being able to go anywhere without a camara, everything is so beautiful, antic, and gorgoues. the country is so rich with culture and history around every corner, and i want to remember abselutly everything. first from 8am010am i teach the girl english. then today i went running outside in leganes. i ran to the duck pond, which only takes 10 minutes. there is a really nice bike path, surrounded by trees from both sides, which is nice and shady to run on. then i ran around the duck pond, and it´s really nice, a lot of people like to run outside here, you see kids playing in the playgrounds, sprinklers going off, which by the way i jumped into a few on my run, and there is a beautiful landcape. as i was running i saw the ducks walking beside me, the sparkling lake, the bridge across the lake, and the outskirts of leganes. they have a really cool park here, where the workout machines such as bikes, eliptical machines, arm weights, leg weighs, etc, are outside, made out of yellow and red metal. it´s meant for the old people of the community, but everyone uses it. so that´s that, i went swimming, cleaned the house a bit, now lunch time, then later more english with the girl, and off to the pool again,
chao chicos
xox besitos xox

Barcelona- city of amazing architecture

guadi museum, water education building, inside & outside of sagrada familia, street art




montejuic castle, olympic stadium, olympic stadium museum, street graffiti




statue head on side of the plaza espanya
view of barcelona from atop the city going down the carrel
view of barcelona from atop
pretty statue in la plaza real, near la rambla street.


i´m here with the family on vacation in peniscola. peniscola is beautiful and i´m getting really tanned from going to the beach everyday. there is a beautiful castle here, lots of shops, and tarrazas, and restuarants. the past 3 days i went to visit jonathan and his girlfriend michelle, he´s a son of friends of my parents. barcelona was amazing. it can´t be described in words. i took over 300 pictures!! when i have time i´ll try to upload some of the really good ones onto the computer. barcelona is basically a tourist´s haven. there are chaotic streets, churches, monuments, castles, restruants, flee markets, shopping centers, mcdonalds, h&m, kfc, everything. in barcelona i visited: la sagrada famila, the castle of montejuic, the olympic stadium in barcelona from the 82´olympics and also the museum of the olympic stadium, picasso mueum, the street la rambla, shopping centers, and much much more. i took sooo many pictures i don´t remember what´s what, it´s all pretty buildings, statues, and plazas. the architecture in barcelona is breath-taking. i couldn´t stop taking pictures, everytime i put the camara in my bag i had to take it out again. there are beautiful buildings, and monuments everyone, and a statue around every corner. the lanscape from the castle montejui was amazing, you could see all the city of barcelona. la sagrada familia is also an old church which is being renovated, and the ceilings and the building where designed by Guadi, a really famous artist. it´s a pity i couldn´t take pictures inside the museum picasso, he is such a genious, when i saw the title of each piece of art, then i looked at the painting, i could see the emotion in his portrait, his reason for painting it, you feel as if you are right there experiencing the emotion of that person, that picasso is trying to portray. there was also the history of the painter his life in barcelona, paris, madrid, holland, which really inspired me to travel europe. every corner in barcelona is enriched with history. although there are many mueseums and important people´s houses to go into, the beauty of the city is not inside the building but on the outside. i visited 3 muesums: picasso, olympic stadium, and sagrada familia-Guadi. the architecture of the building are so detailed. many times i found myself taking a picture of a building on the outside, then zooming in a million shots in order to remember all the esquisite detail. the buildings in barcelona are adorned with naked figures of women, saints, angels, christ, historical figures, historic moments, etc. just by looking at the architecture of the building of barcelona you feel inspired, part of the rich history of spain. anyway gotta go i could talk for hours about barcelona. i rode a motercycle for the first time in my life, frighting and exciting, went out to clubs, took in the atmosphere of the city and more. after seeing all the architecture engrained with history around every corner i am curious to learn more about spanish history, about all the places i briefly saw. hasta luego for now, chao chicos y chicas, xox besitos y abrazos xox

some pics are already of facebook :)