Easter

This year, I went over to my mom's house for Easter. She made steak, potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, and some sort of bread. Her and Kevin have been seeing a specialist about their nutrition, so they're moving on to whole and naturally organic foods! I wanted to send my grandma something a little special for letting me borrow money for Spain, so my brother and I had an adventure with my mom's camera and the tripod.

My brother was debating whether or not this "spot" was good for a picture for Grandma, so while he was trying to learn how to use the camera, I stood there being no help at all. I saw this and thought I would try my hand at editing (with the very limited photo shop software I have on my computer). I REALLY want to take a photography and editing class one of these days! My schedule is always just too packed! Sometimes I think it will be okay if I don't get into nursing school again, because then I will have plenty of time in my schedule to take one! But...then I think of how much I miss my science classes. Haha, yes I would still really like to get into nursing school this year!

 This is my brother trying to make the remote control clicker work...haha took him like 15 minutes :)

And finally! What we sent to the fam (better quality of course)

I tried to get one of Dalton and me, but the good pictures somehow got deleted, so I was only left with this one :/ Typical...what a freak.

:)

My dad and Melissa went to Georgia to meet my Grandma, Aunt and Uncle in Savannah, so we didn't get the usual jelly bean hunt at their house! They get the every-flavorjelly belly beans and COLOR match them to everything in the house, it's actually really hard! Haha, and the older we got, the harder they made it for us. And of course, my dad doesn't want old jelly beans laying around for years, so the jelly beans would get counted and we weren't allowed to stop until they were all found.

I miss the days when all my siblings would be around for the holidays...jelly beans and all!

Stampede

Last night we celebrated 2 of my friend's, Cody and Will's, birthday at a line dancing bar in Temecula called Stampede. I'm not very much into country and know a total of about 7 country songs, but it was actually really fun!! It was cool  how everyone there heard the name of some line dance that was coming next and could just do it! There were some nice people we ran into that would help us catch onto the dances if we looked like we were struggling, but some people were intense and would get pretty angry if we ruined their line dancing groove, haha.

I thought it was a great idea to go here because it was an 18+ / 21+ bar so all of our younger friends could make it too.  A lot of my friends are down from school or where they're stationed and are visiting for Spring Break so it was great to see everyone again altogether! I've been stuck in my homework cave for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to hang out with all my friends! I have missed them!

I really need to invest in a camera before I go to Europe. These silly, poor quality iPhone pictures will just NOT cut it for Spanish architecture! 

Boleto para España=pagado!!

It's official!! 

I have purchased my flight to Spain! I can't believe how EXCITED I am!! I can't wait the 6 weeks until I leave! Europe is going to be amazing...

My flight leave 5:55pm on Saturday, May 19th and I get to Spain the next day at 2:15! (A perfect 3.5 hours before the bus with my school leaves for Valladolid)

I scurried to get all my paperwork filled out in one night. They're sending the papers over to Spain this weekend so they can coordinate who goes with what family and such.

Got my extra passport pictures this morning on my way to work at the hospital. Haha, I had just gotten out of bed so my host family is just gunna have to envision me as tired Katie.

Paid my deposit and don't have to pay in full until next week. The lady who is coordinating this for us thinks she found a way to lower to price about $100, so hopefully I will save on that because I paid $100 more on my than I wanted to! It's crazy how fast the prices went up in less than 12 HOURS! But it's okay, because I'll be in Europe! :)

So, I'm all ready to go! Just gotta dust off my passport (literally) and wait 42 days to get on a plane to Europe! (And finish 6 remaining classes in the semester). I can barely believe I am actually going! I am so happy I have this opportunity to finally go, and so last minute too! 

A special thanks to my Grandma for letting me loan enough money to be able to buy my flight so last minute! You're the BEST! I will make this trip a great one because you made it happen! :)

I will be taking my "placement test" for my classes at University of Valladolid within the next couple weeks. It's not really a test, I'll get into whatever class I wanted no matter what, but I think my professor just likes to play power games. Haha, he really is a funny man. I had him for my SPAN 301 course (Basic Verbal Communication) and he did whatever the heck he wanted (and not a lot of "verbal communication" at all). He is a very energetic Spaniard and has severe ADD, but he knows everything in the world! He speaks 13 or 14 languages and gets side tracked pretty much constantly. It's going to be really great going to Spain with him, because he was born there and will have so many cool things to show us.

The two courses I am taking at the University there are 5 units of an advanced seminar in spanish to learn mainly about the culture there in Spain, and then 1 unit writing 3 essays about our activities just to get extra practice writing, but I'm gunna want to write down these memories anyway! Taking that extra 1 unit class just makes it so I can transfer 2 classes at home at Cal State San Marcos.

I'll be keeping everyone updated on the rest of my preparations for Spain! Hopefully I will hear about my host family soon and I'll let ya know how I do on the "placement test" haha :)

Study Abroad in Valladolid, Spain

I AM SO EXCITED!! I have been waiting for this opportunity forever! Every year I have looked into it, but have never had the money available when I needed it! So I assumed I would never have the chance. But yesterday, I was going through my emails and I saw that it was the LAST CHANCE to sign up for the study abroad in Spain. They were having an informational meeting right before my next class, so I went since it was right next door to my class. Before that, I added up my tax return money and the money I would save if I ended up not going to National University and found a cheap discount ticket to Madrid. All the numbers added up, so I had to make sure I was able to still sign up!

Valladolid is this pretty secluded town about 2 hours away from Madrid. They're sending us here so we can be completely immersed in the language, since almost no one speaks anything but Spanish in this city.

 Here are some pictures of the campus of the University of Valladolid. This school has been around since the 13th or 14th century, so I am incredibly excited to see all the amazing architecture and history it has to offer! I will be taking 6 units of Spanish courses during my 4 weeks there.

So, how this is going to work is I leave on May 19 and I am gone until June 16/17th (depending on what time my flight gets home). When I get there, one of my Spanish professors is meeting us at the airport in Madrid with a bus and is going to drive us to Valladolid to meet up with our host families. The trip includes all meals , room and board, and all the excursions that are planned for us. Apparently, a lot of the families do this because they get paid for feeding and housing us. So they know what they're doing!! Monday-Fridays we go to class from 9:30-11:30 and then 12-2 we go to class. Then the rest of the day is ours and we usually meet up with our professor and go do any activities that are planned for the day. I'll be taking 5-6 units over there that will all transfer back to Cal State San Marcos for my major in Spanish (I've officially decided to do a double major in Spanish and nursing! :/) In case I don't get into the generic 3-year program for Fall, my backup plan is to finish up the rest of my 7 classes for my Spanish major and once I have my Bachelor degree, I'm allowed to apply to the accelerated 20-month nursing program. I love the program they have at my school and I would really like to stay here to finish up the first part of my eduction. If I'm gunna do this the long way, I'm gunna make it FUN and go to Spain!!! I can not wait!!!

I just paid the deposit today ad the remainder of the fees will be turned in next Friday, so after I buy my plane ticket, I am good to go! I CAN'T WAIT!!! :D

Little Saigon

One fine weekend a few weeks ago, McKenzie and I decided to take a trip up to Orange County to visit Little Saigon in Westminster. My friend from nursing school went up there at the beginning of the semester, and apparently, they have AMAZING deals on all nail and beauty supplies. I'm really not one to go spend my money on these things, but nail polish is so expensive, so since McKenzie does nails on a regular basis, we decided to make the trip, since we wanted to get out of the house anyway, and take advantage of $2 designer nail polishes and other nail supplies.

We were driving down a road through what seemed like a normal American modern day community with parks and lagoons and people running on trails, and we cross one street and everything went Vietnamese on us. It really was a Little Saigon! Everything was written in Vietnamese and the community was packed with little Vietnamese folk walking around and doing their usual Vietnamese things!

This is the entrance to one of the bigger shopping centers we went to. There were Buddhas and little market selling the weirdest things (that I'm assuming was food) in buckets of preservative fluids an vinegar and such. I tried to get a picture of the things in there, but we got too overwhelmed rejecting samples from the ladies in the store, so we lost our chance

There was this mini little sanctuary in the middle of a huge parking lot for the Super Market. It was pretty random, but cool at the same time! I'm not sure what it was all for, but still cool to see some extremely different little subculture living in the middle of suburbia!

Visiting Cindy in Utah

I know this was a while ago, but I still think it's important to share :) At the very end of February, I drove up to Utah with Cindy's family to visit her for the weekend. Although we were in Provo for only 3 days, I'm still so happy I got to go visit my best friend. I miss her so much all the time, and any opportunity I get to see her, I will take it! I have my fingers quadruple crossed that Jordan gets into medical school in California so I can drive up and see my favorite Guillorys any time I want!

When we first got into Utah, I was SO excited to see snow everywhere! I know they haven't gotten much this season, but I just love seeing snow for the first time in the year :) I wasn't able to make it up to the mountains this year like I usually do to go snow boarding, so this was nice!

That night, Cindy made clam chowder and bought soup bowls for dinner. It smelled so good, but of course, I'm allergic to shellfish. So Cindy took me down the street to pick up soup from Zupa's and got salad for the family too to top of dinner.

We went to campus with her for her class and walked around and explored. Afterwards, we hung out all morning watching TV, resting, and catching up. Then that night, we went to the dollar theater, my FAVORITE thing in Utah and saw the movie "In Time", which was actually pretty cool!

The next night, we went to a steakhouse to celebrate Cindy and Kaylee's birthdays. The place was packed!

Afterwards, we went bowling and I lost miserably! Haha, bowling is definitely not my thing. Some nights I get lucky, but most times I don't Cindy and Jordan did really well though!

Our last night there, we went to a BYU basketball game. My University is fairly new so it is still kinda tiny and so we don't have any major sport activities. So this was almost a culture shock for me! But it was really fun! Everyone was so energetic, especially because one of their old favorite players, Jimmer, was there visiting.

After the game, we went to get hot dogs at this place called J Doggs that was started by a couple of college kids trying to make money. And now they have two restaurants in the town! I really do not like hot dogs all that much, but these were delicious!

After dinner, we piled up in the car and started our drive back home to California. It was a short 3 days, but it was still fun! I can't wait for the next chance I get to see her again!

School coma

I have been so crazy busy this semester, it's unbelievable. I've taking 6 classes and working 2 volunteer jobs and I really do not have any time for anything but for school, homework, volunteer, eating, and sleeping! (Eating is tightly squeezed in there). But surprisingly enough, I'm doing alright! My sanity hasn't been too destroyed and I'm doing well in all my classes.

SO, because I've missed out on the past couple months with keeping up with this...I'll do a little catch up with the next posts! :)