in amsterdam

i am in amsterdam for four hours waiting for my plane to take me back to madrid. i have been in sweden for the past six days....it was soooo fun! i will write more later....whooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

yesterday...

well well well. let´s see. tuesday lauren and i went out for our last time together :( our last time this trip anyways. we plan on coming back someday. but anyways. we went to get sangria at one of our favorite places. we then went and sang karaoke, the beatles ¨yesterday¨. the crowd loves it. ok, so really no one paid us any attention but whatever, we enjoyed it. we then met up with some friends at our favorite club and had one last hoorah with the erasmus group. wednesday we went to retiro and rented this little row boat and rowed around and got some sun and enjoyed the beautiful day. i was pretty much in denial that she was actually leaving. even wed night as she was packing up everything i think i was kinda laughing inside, thinking ¨she really thinks i am going to let her leave¨ but...joke´s on me. she really did leave. thursday morning i took her to the airport and not until we were in line for her to go thru the gate did we both start crying as it became clear that IT WAS OVER. i cried all the way home and when i walked into my bedroom to turn on the light, the bulb burnt out. coincidence? i think not!!!! definetly a sign. ~sigh~ but ok. so after she left i started cleaning up the room and even starting packing one of my suitcases. friday (yesterday) i walked around and tried to shop for souveniers but ended up buying a belt. oops. then i went to this party our school held on campus, an end of the year fiesta if you will. pretty cool. then today i woke up early (11am) and then went to the palace which was absolutely gorgeous. the rooms are amazing with ornate EVERYTHING. very royal. then i went to el prado museum to see the parts i hadnt seen before. so yeah basically now i am trying to just keep myself busy with touristy things until wed when i leave for sweden! much lovvvvee.

whoooa its been awhile

well i hadnt realized how long it has been since i last wrote in my blog! well since my last entry i have started and.....FINISHED with finals!! whoop! i am free, it is finally summmmmerrr!! but lets backtrack so i can talk about what i did when my sister was here....let´s see we went to that brazilian concert which was really more of a mob scene with firefighters hosing the dancing crowd down while me my sister and my roomie lauren looked on in horror and tried not to get run down. then the next day (sunday) lauren left for ireland for a week and i was left alone with my sister who tried her best not to get bored while i tried my best to study. the next week pretty much consisted of amanda going to museums and such while i...you guessed it....studied. we went to eat...and umm yeah...i am a bad tour guide bc i didnt really take her out other than to eat at night. but we did go shopping on friday and we got tons of cute clothes...thanks dad! haha jk jk...kinda..anyways that night lauren came back and we went out dancing with my sister and then on saturday we went to get tapas and sangria for my sisters last night here and then sunday morning bright and early, i took amanda to the airport :( and then today i took my last final and then now i am going to spend the next three days with my roomie lauren bc she is leaving on thursday SOBBBBBBBB. i dont even want to think about it...blah. well now i am going to go grocery shopping bc i have no food other than some old bread. hope everyone is doing well. besos!!!

wahoo!

yay my sister amanda is here! wed night i went with my friend patricia to meet amanda and her school group. the same teacher that brought patricia and i to spain four years ago was the same one who was leading my sisters group. it was really awesome to see her and to be able to thank her bc if she hadnt brought us here while we were in high school, we may have never come to study abroad here in college! the next morning i went and picked up amanda and brought her back to my apartment and then that night i took her out with some of my friends and she got a little taste of madrid nightlife but we were all pretty tired so we came home (relatively) early...friday she went to a museum with lauren while i studied my life away and then that night we we went to eat some mexican food, yum. then today she went shopping with lauren while i once again studied my life away. and now we are going to get ready to go to this outdoor concert that is going on in madrid where some brazilian salsa guy is playing and its supossed to be really awesome. i am excited. thats about it, pretty much studying a ton and trying to manage my time so amanda doesnt get bored and so that i dont fail. have a great day loves!

well well well

well. i am currently on campus, trying to find information on a company that i have to write a report about. and it was driving me crazy so i went and bought a huge thing of dietcoke and called my roomie to chat and she told me about the people who are in our apartment that are thinking about buying it bc the landlord is selling it. last time people came to our apartment to look at it, i left them alone in the living room and when i came back i saw cigarette stubs in one of our candle holders. how rude is that!??? argh. yes, i will admit, our apartment is in sub par condition. but that does not give people the right to smoke without asking. anyways this past weekend was pretty chill, went out on friday but stayed home other than that. saturday night i saw the movie, ¨the butterfly effect¨. it was very very disturbing. i hate watching disturbing scenes in movies where there are children and you have to wonder what kind of parent would be like, ¨yes, i think my son would be perfect for that sick and twisted scene!!¨anyways, i have been hanging out at starbucks way too much, i think every day last week pretty much. and the weird thing is...every time i go there i see the same guy with his mom and i think they might live there. one time i was there for almost three hours and the lady was sitting in a chair sleeping the entire time. and this other guy was there, building a model car...ok... random. but its just easier to study outside of my apartment, and there is no barnes and nobles around here and i hate going to libraries. the only bad thing is they dont have the internet so now that i have to write some reports and look up info i have to either try and work at the internet cafe where the peruivan man who owns it is always playing loud music and watching tv OR pay 2 euro for a half hour at the fancy workstation OR make the hour commute to campus. ay yay yay. well the good thing is my sister amanda is going to be arriving in Madrid tomorrow with her school and then on thursday she is going to be coming to stay with me for ten days! i am excited to see her, i think we´re going to have a good time. even though a lot of the time she is here i am going to have to be studying my butt off for my tests....ahhh i am nervous!!! anyways maybe i should get back to work and stop thinking about how much i have to do and actually do it!! have a great day!! love, natalie

long blur of a week

well this week i have been doing a ton of studying and yet i dont really feel like i have made a ton of progress...hopefully soon i will realize ¨wow, i understand everything!!¨ we shall see....this past week lauren was gone and i was really lonely, but at least i was forced to study due to having no one to talk to. anyways now she is back and we are going to salsa dancing tonight with her mom and that should be fun. not much else is going on....i will make sure to do something worth wrting about before i write again haha. byebye!!

please pray

this past weekend was just a big reality check with my cell phone and camera getting stolen, lauren´s moms wallet getting stolen, and my friend patricia´s wallet getting stolen. i just feel like there are so many evil people and it just makes me sick to think about. please pray for me to get out of this slump, because i need to get over it and start my studying but all i can think about is how awful people are and how i want to go back to college station where people are kind and decent. anyways i think it doesnt help that lauren and her mom left today to go to barcelona for the week and i am alone in my apartment reading the sad sequel to angels ashs which will make you sad to begin with. well hopefully i will feel better soon bc this stinks. miss you all and please pray for me and for the world. love, nat