Salamanca

A little while ago Matt and I got a chance to visit Salamanca, Spain. It's about an hour and a half away from where we are in Avila, and everyone says its a great place to go visit. When we found out that the bus trip only cost 12 Euros round trip per person, we decided to make it happen!

The bus ride was pretty short, and once we reached Salamanca we went in a tourist shop and asked directions to the Plaza Mayor, which we had heard was the middle of the tourist area of the city. It was so beautiful!

We walked around the Plaza for awhile, it was such a beautiful day and there were so many people walking around and sitting in the sun. There were a lot of shops and restaurants, and while we were tempted just to eat at McDonalds, we took a chance on a pasta place that ended up being great! It looked like a small bar, but an upstairs nice seating area and the food was great and not too expensive. 

Matt wouldn't smile for me.

An archaic looking McDonalds.

There was small parade in the square for Carnival, which I think is about equivalent to Mardi Gras. The people in the parade were from Bolivia, and there were cars driving blaring music with dancers in costumes behind them, it was cool to see but only lasted a few minutes.

We went into a few shops and each bought a shirt, then we got some hot chocolate. As we were leaving we saw a church door that was open and got to go inside. The city had a lot of beautiful churches, but some were closed. It has one main older cathedral that looked beautiful, we didn't get to see it, but as we left on the bus we realized we were closer to it than we thought. Here are some of the churches and buildings we saw:

It was a great day, and we definitely plan to go back again!

P.S. Today I posted over HERE at the Gleim Blog about my first week of studying for the CPA exam. 

CPA Exam

I'm so excited about an opportunity that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago! I had to purchase new study materials for the next section of the CPA exam (Audit) that I will take in May. I decided to purchase Gleim again, first because they are the cheapest, second because I have passed two tests in a row using Gleim. As I was on their website, I saw they had started a blog and needed writers, compensation included. So...after some correspondence, I will be writing about my study process for the Gleim Blog once a week, and in return I receive a section of study materials FREE! I am so excited, and if you know how much study materials cost, then you will be excited for me too!

All that to say that my first introductory post went up today, and HERE is the link if you would like to read it. Now I actually have to study so I can have something to write about....

Hot Chocolate...and other food

Spain has the best hot chocolate I've ever had...it is thick and very chocolatey, almost like drinking a melted hershey's bar. It's delicious! At cafes here, if you order tea, or a cappuccino, or most any other hot drink, it comes in the tiniest cup you've ever seen! It is smaller than an old fashioned tea cup. I see the reason for this though, after my first cappuccino over here I was up all night, so that tiny cup must have a lot of expresso/caffeine! However, the hot chocolate comes in a normal size cup, which is another perk.

On Wednesdays I have one lesson at 10:30 am, then three English lessons in a row, 4:30-5:30, 6-7, and 7:30-8:30. This makes for a long afternoon, because I have 30 minutes in between each lesson which is not enough time to walk home, and it only takes 5-10 minutes to get from one lesson to another. When it looks like this outside...

...its not really fun to just wonder around the street, so a few weeks ago I found this great bakery/cafe right beside my 2nd lesson. I stopped in for some hot chocolate, and not only was it the best I've had yet, but they gave me some free little cookies too! They were so cute that I took a picture:

The girls who work there are so nice too. So now every week I look forward to my Wednesday hot chocolate break. :)

As far as other food goes, I have actually kept a New Year's Resolution this year! My resolution was to eat better and more. This sounds funny and is opposite of the typical resolution to eat less, but I did a terrible job in the fall of feeding myself. All of Matt's food is provided as part of his contract (which is great!), but as a result, I never want to cook or make a good meal for just myself. Last fall, I ate a lot of cereal, and every week I would make a big pot of spaghetti and eat it for about 5 days in a row. Needless to say, I'm really tired of spaghetti.

My biggest hurdle to get over is that I don't want to make a big mess by cooking for just me. So in January, I just decided I was going to cook and make a mess every day, and I needed to just get over it. I haven't cooked every day, but I've done much better eating "real" food (aka not cereal and chips) and not being hungry. I've found some new recipes that I can make over here and they mostly require all fresh foods which makes me feel healthy. Speaking of healthy, the other day I finally spent some time at the store locating some baking necessities, and I made chocolate chip cookies! I surprised Matt with them when he came home from practice, and he was really excited. I'm so glad I finally got flour, sugar, baking soda, etc. because now I've come across so many things I can make! I don't really enjoy cooking (as in dinner, etc) but I love to bake! Also, at the store I found some American pancake mix, so the last two weekends we've made a great breakfast with eggs and pancakes, and that's been really fun.

I've been spending more time at the grocery store when I go, to just wonder around and find new things I didn't know they had. I've also been taking the time to Google Translate ingredients before I go, and that has helped a lot! I'm finding a lot more things, and realizing that every store here carries different things. I was trying to make chili last month, and could not find kidney beans at the most American friendly store here. Last week I was at the small market store, and I saw kidney beans. So I just have to remember who has what. I think the stores probably have more than I realize, but the packaging and the language make it difficult for me to find! For example, last week my friend showed me sour cream - it is non-refrigerated (as is milk - yuck!) and comes in a cardboard, tall skinny box. Never would have looked for that!

My friend Jackie, who's husband also plays basketball over here, sent me a lot of recipes all containing basic things you can find. I tried one the other night, the Lemon Chicken with Mushroom sauce, and it was delicious! I can't wait to try the rest of her recipes. If anyone has suggestions please leave a comment with a recipe!

Weekends

Weekends are my favorite time over here, especially when Matt's games are on Friday. He gets Saturday and Sunday totally off, so we get to hang out for two days straight :). I'm not very busy over here, but he is! He lifts weights on top of 2 practices on Monday, 2 practices on Tuesday, "only" one on Wednesday, weights again and two practices on Thrusday, one a shooting practice, and then a game on Friday or one practice Friday and game on Saturday. (Or something pretty close to that schedule.) So he is worn out most days during the week, the coaches work them really hard.

So weekends we take it really easy, watch movies and pretty much stay in the apartment almost the whole two days. This weekend, on Saturday I went to Cuatro Postes, the hotel where the team eats, and ate lunch with Matt. This was a treat for me to have a good meal prepared by someone else. Then we came back to the apartment and did nothing, it was great. We played on our computers and got on Skype with our families and watched some TV. Oh, and I started this program to learn basic Spanish free through my library in Florida, so we'll see if I can stick with it. It's about time I started actually studying Spanish, not just picking up on random words a few times a week.

This morning (Sunday) we made a big breakfast, which was delicious. In Orlando we used to cook breakfast on Saturday sometimes, but we haven't eaten anything but frosted flakes since we've been in Spain. We made eggs and pancakes and had orange juice, it was great, definitely going to become a Sunday tradition. Then we watched the Sunday service from Church of the Highlands live, which is so awesome to be able to watch the worship and everything. After that, we watched the Justin Bieber movie, Never say Never, which I actually really enjoyed, it was good. For the rest of the day we've just been on Skype with our families and relaxing. I did fold some laundry so that was one productive thing.

So that's a glimpse at our weekend. Sounds lazy, I know, and it is for me, but Matt really deserves it after a hard week, and honestly just needs to be off his feet for a couple days. It definitely makes Monday harder though, when we both have to get up at 9 (oh so early), me for an English lesson and Matt for the first of a 2 a day (really 3 a day if you count weights) practice. That's a glimpse in our life, I'll give you a glimpse into a weekday later, maybe a Wednesday when I have 4 English lessons to make me sound busy :).

Merry Christmas! (a little late)

Matt and I had the best time at Christmas being in the US and with our families! We were so grateful that we got to come home this year, we don't know if that will always be the case. Matt could only come home for one week, but I stayed for 3 weeks, partially because I wanted to, and partially because I sat for a section of the CPA exam, which isn't offered in the month of December, so I took it January 4th.

You know how sometimes December rolls around and you just don't feel like it's Christmas time? This year that did not happen to me at all. I really felt like I didn't take anything for granted and really enjoyed the time I was home. We flew into Atlanta and actually went straight from the airport to visit Passion City Church. Matt's mom had heard of this church, where Louie Giglio preaches and Chris Tomlin leads worship, and we haven't been to church in awhile, so we were up for it! It was amazing. David Crowder was actually there too and he sang one song, solo, just him and the guitar, and it was amazing. I don't even remember what song he sang, but it was my favorite part of the service. And it just felt so good to be in church again.

The next day, we had the most amazing Taco Night at Matt's grandparent's house. Matt's grandmother, Gogo, makes these delicious tacos - she makes each one by hand, it takes hours, and she rolls each one up in a paper towel. You keep all your paper towels, and at the end the boys always see who ate the most. It was so much fun because Matt's Dad's side of the family was there, cousins, aunts and uncles, so there were a lot of people. Matt and his cousin Bryan tied at a new record of 15 tacos. (Just to keep that in perspective, the most I've ever eaten is 4!)

Matt and Bryan after eating the tacos

Me, Elizabeth (my sister) and Blair (my brother) at Taco night

Me and Matt

The next night we had Ribs and Wings night at my house, my mom is known for her world-famous (or at least friends and family famous) ribs. She cooks them almost all day and uses Dreamland BBQ sauce, they are so good. We had a pretty big crowd and all the food was delicious and very Southern, not Spanish! haha... We had baked beans, salad, bread, ribs, wings, mashed potatoes, brownies and probably some other delicious things I can't remember now. 

My Dad got us all tickets to the Alabama basketball game that was being played in Birmingham at the BJCC on Wednesday night. It was really fun to watch Alabama kill the other team, and it was great to be around so many Bama fans all in one place! Being at the game reminded me of going to the basketball games in Tuscaloosa while I was in college, it was so much fun. 

The rest of the week we spent time with our families mostly, just hanging out in living rooms watching TV or playing games or just talking. We wish we could have seen more friends, but the time was so short we didn't get to. We are really excited about being in Birmingham May-August this year and getting to see more people then. 

We went to the Christmas Eve Service at Church of the Highlands, our home church in Birmingham, which we love and miss. The service was so good! John Larson opened the service, and again I can't remember what he sang, it was my favorite part though! Or tied for my favorite part with the end of the worship when Sara Evans sang, because of course that was amazing. I always love the candlelight at the end, too. 

Matt and I did a pretty good job this Christmas Day of spreading ourselves between our families. Since he was home for less time (and had to leave the day after Christmas), we worked it out where he could stay at his house all day on Christmas, which he really enjoyed. I went to my house Christmas morning to open presents, then my family came over later in the day and our families ate Christmas dinner together. Later that night, I went over to my Dad's house to open even more presents and just hang out. It was really nice this year, because every year we struggle with going back and forth (our families live 10 min apart) and the two of us feel really rushed. So this year was good. 

In other news, Matt gave me a Mac Book Pro for Christmas! It was totally unexpected! I was so surprised! When we were opening presents, he gave me a pair of purple Taylor Swift gloves. I like purple, and I like Taylor Swift, and I had asked for new gloves, so I liked them, but we kept opening presents, and that was it. So Matt asked me "Did you have a good Christmas?" knowing I was disappointed that he only gave me a pair of gloves. Everyone started getting up and getting coffee and everything, and then Matt said "oh wait, I think there is one more present!" He was standing behind me and slowly lowered it down in front of me, so everyone in the room was excited before I even saw what it was. I was SO surprised! And I love surprises. I had no idea, and I was really really excited and in disbelief. My computer is really old but I didn't know we were in the market for a new one. The newness still hasn't worn off and just about all I do for fun over here is play on my Mac. :)

So overall, it was a really great Christmas. I really felt like I was able to fully appreciate family and friends and Jesus. There were so many times where I just looked around (at taco night, at ribs, on random weeknights at home, at the Christmas Eve service at church) and was just in disbelief at how blessed I am. I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life...and especially one in particular :)