Spring Break 2010

1. Us girls making the word "SPAIN". Haha.
2. One of Gaudi's houses he designed.
3. Us girls in front of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
4. In front of the water show! :)


Wow. First off, Happy Easter! I hope that everyone has a very blessed day full of praise to our Risen Lord! Spring break was absolutely, positively, amazing. I really couldn't have asked for it to have been any better. Caitlin, Maggie, and I left for Barcelona early Saturday morning. We flew out of Granada and arrived in Barcelona around 11. We easily navigated our way through the metro/train stations, and used our handy-dandy map skills to find our hostel. Our hostel was such a pleasant surprise. Probably the nicest I have stayed in, named "Barcelona Mar." We had internet, a kitchen, scan-cards rather than keys, and even our own personal lockers that were HUGE for our belongings. We got it for a great price, too. I believe it was 14/16 Euros a night. The only thing was that it was right next to a street called "Las Ramblas." This street is basically a huge carnival going on, there are venders everywhere... and I guess at night its gets pretty sketchy. We managed to stay safe for the most part at least! We cleaned up when we arrived, and decided to go check out the market. In the market, there was every kind of food that you could have wanted. There were pizzas, to smoothies, to random heads of animals that looked like dinosaurs... I may spare you all from posting the picture, we'll see. Haha. Anyway, there were body-to-body people everywhere, so after a while we decided we wanted to get out of that environment. We found a plaza with a beautiful fountain... bought some bread and lunch meat...made a little picnic, and people watched (my favorite). We were just chillin, laying in the sun, and an old woman that was begging came up to us. She was shaking her cup in our faces, so we told her no and to please leave. She then proceeded to lean down, pick up my UN-OPENED diet pepsi, which i was so excited to drink... opened it, took a sip, and tried to give it back to me. I was so shocked I didn't even know what to do. I just told her to take it after that... and us girls laughed about it for a bit. After she left I started reflecting on the biblical connections to what had just happened. First off, I was trying to not look the lady in the eyes as she was begging, after running into so many needy people, it begins to break your heart if you look into their eyes. However, because I wasn't completely giving her my full attention, she was sneaky and just decided she wanted a sip of my drink. At first, I was honestly a bit appauled, and frustrated that she had just taken my pop. Then I hit myself in the head, and realized, Paige... it was just a Pepsi. I should have just given it to her in the first place. We are supposed to be feeding the hungry, but I guess I had just become a bit numb to what that really meant, after dealing with so many needy people that "harrass" you. So all in all, this was a good wake-up call for me! That night we went to a grocery store to get all of the food for our meals we were going to cook. We made some pasta, which HIT the spot. Pasta never fails us. We then decided to check out a water-light show. Apparently it was supposed to be really sweet. When we walked up to the Palace, I was blown away. Imagine the largest fountain you could imagine, with the water being all lit up... changing colors from a deep red to a crystal blue. In the background there was music playing. It was just so powerful, especially with the palace in the background. It really made me think about what heaven will be like. It was one of those magical moments where you are just in awe of your surroundings, and makes you really reflect, digging deep into your soul. Those are the moments I live for, and I've had plenty of them to go around! Caitlin, Maggie and I just chilled on a ledge for a while and met a dad from Ohio. He was traveling for business, and was an agriculture magazine editor. We talked to him about studying abroad and such. I asked him if he ever studied abroad, and he said,"No it wasn't a very popular thing to do at Miami." I replied with, "Well i wouldn't study abroad either if i went to school in Miami!" Maggie chimed in, "I'd never leave that sun." Little did Mags and I know, he had said he went to Miami college in Ohio. He laughed, re-informed us, and we laughed it off. Gotta love those moments. Haha. On our way back to our hostel that night, as we were waiting at a crosswalk, I felt something touch my purse. Since I was already on edge with it being night time and all, I turned around, and caught a guy trying to unzip the front zipper of my purse. I think I must have gave him a very intimidating look/lunge of disgust, and he ran off. Must have been these "guns" that carry with me, on my left and my right. Thank the LORD he wasn't successful, he would have had my iPod and my passport. Whewfta. After that incident, we needed to get on the metro to go across the city. (Keep in mind, we were a bit flustered from my attempted robbey.)As we hopped onto our metro car, there was a mugging going on. A gang of 7 men, 1 girl were taking some ladies purse. They were rolling around, and at that point some men on the metro came to her aid, but the gang got off the cart with the purse. THAT freaked us out. The rest of the trip we were on edge, scared to even bring our purses outside with us. The next day, we woke up and ate a breakfast full of Nutella and ColaCoa (HEAVEN). We then headed to 'La Sagrada Familia'. This is a huge cathedral designed by Gaudi. Gaudi was an architect that was very unique in his designs. He used a lot of curves and swirls. Anyway, since we were visiting on Palm Sunday, we got to see so many unique things. There were families everywhere.. children with HUGE ornate palm branches... just chilling in the plazas around the cathedral. We got to go inside a smaller part of the cathedral, and the stained glass blew my mind. It was so beautiful... After that we decided to endulge, and get a meal at the good old Hard Rock Cafe! I can't tell you how great it felt to have my beloved ranch dressing and barbeque sauce again. I devoured my burger and fries. After our stomachs were full, and our wallets were empty, we decided to go check out the other buildings/houses Gaudi had designed. There are pictures posted above... so neat, huh?! I was infatuated with them. Its like you just walked into a real-life Candy Land. The next morning we woke up, and checked out a chocolate museum. The detail and perfection of these chocolate sculptors was crazy! (And we got a free chocolate bar out of the deal) We then went to a park on top of the city. We had to HIKE up there, and take a few escalators along the way, but it was so worth it. We got to have an amazing few of the city, and even hit up a free massage stand. Now THAT, my friend, is what I call a vacation! It was then time to grab our monster backpacks, and say good bye to Barcelona. We headed to the airport and flew to Madrid. We had to stay the night in the airport, because our flight to the Canaries didn't leave until the next morning, but that was alright. It wasn't our first Rodeo! We bundled up, had a few heart-to-heart girl talks, and fell into dreamland. We woke up, met up with our friend Steph, and flew to the Canary Islands! The flight took about 3 hours, but we gained an hour, so we got there in enough time to hit up the pool and get some great sun on the first day! We stayed in a hostel which was actually our very own apartment. We had 5 girls, and three boys with us, with two apartments. So we had plenty of room for all of us. It was SO nice to have your own living space, and not have to share a bathroom with strangers. Basically, every day while we were in the Canaries, we would sleep in until about 10, make some breakfast, get our flip flops and suits on, head to the pool, take in the sun for about 5 hours while reading, listening to music, cracking jokes... you name it. After the pool we would shower up, get ready, make food, play card games... and stay up until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. It was the most relaxing, perfect spring break ever. It was good to get away from everything. It was a great time of reflection and evaluation as well. Don't you love it when breaks do that for you? I do. I came back to Granada with some sweet tan lines, a darker skin tone, many stories I continue to laugh about, and even closer friends than before. :)