What are you thankful for?

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am reminded of the need to be thankful everyday. I know I don't say thank you enough. I will make a list (in no particular order) of the things I am thankful for.

-My family, I am so blessed to have them.
-My friends, I wouldn't have made it through this amazingly tough year without you.
-My trip to Spain, (thanks to my awesome parents for this one) I discovered myself and had the experience of a lifetime
-Education, my school is amazing, and I will be leaving with a great preparation for teaching
-Georgia football, despite the season I will FOREVER bleed RED and BLACK!
-Over 21 years with my Grandpa, John Bert Yancoskie, who was taken too soon from us. I miss him every day, but I have to be ok knowing that he is in a better place. Also, he is
probably spying on all of us, which I know he enjoys.
-My dogs. They bring joy to my life that no human can. Amazing. Meeko and Mushu are the
bomb (so is Eagle). This is the year of the puppy, and boy do I love it. Eagle brings a whole new
aspect to life.
-Shelter. Duh, but my shelter happens to be awesome. I love coming home!
-Music. Can't live without it.
-Food. Could probably stand to eliminate this one.
-The ability to speak other languages. I LOVE this, makes me feel accomplished.
-My job. Boy do I love the Ram Fam.
-Charity, we are blessed with the ability to help others. Giving is way better than getting (try it!)
-The approaching new year. I am ready to see and do new things! First year of my life where I
don't know exactly what I'll be doing a year from now. So cool.
-Finally, I am thankful for Jessica Anja Applegate. The only person who still reads this
blog. :)
-I forgot HEALTH. Duh! Wouldn't be doing much without that major one!

Please comment on what you're thankful for this year. Also, if you think I forgot anything, say so.

Need to work harder on blogging

So clearly I am not good at blogging. All I need is an app for that, and I'd be on it. It is truly sad how much I rely on my phone to get things done. Anywho. I am so glad that fall is finally here, although I would appreciate a lack of hurricanes and the weather being one temp throughout the day. Thanks. I am so excited for it to get really cold so I can wear my boots (obsessed) on a regular basis. I have recently realized that I am becoming a boot fiend. I see boots, I want them. Not good for the wallet so I stay away, but soon, my friends, soon.
In addition, I have also realized my recent obsession with lip products and (this is a real shocker) painting my nails. Even if it looks really bad when I finish, I absolutely love having painted nails (and hate paying for a manicure, hence the DIY job). Word to the wise: Victoria's Secret nail polish doesn't cut it. Stick with their lip products, way better.
I have a pretty busy life in the coming weeks with school, work, and a visit from Trey this weekend :). I will certainly be ready for a break at Thanksgiving. However, I will be using that break to get applications and studying done grrrr. I am so excited to see Granddaddy. It's been since January that I saw him last, so this will be a great little many trip (I'll also use the 10 hours total in the car to get work done. Note to self: NO SLEEPING!).
For the actual day of Thanksgiving, we're going to the mountains. So excited about this. It's been awhile since I have been one with nature, and boy do I need it. Eagle has never been to a river before either so I am really excited to see what my little boy will do.
On a heavier note, today is Veterans' Day. My grandpa was a veteran of World War II, and I used to call him to thank him every Veterans' Day. It kills me that I can't this year. It's certainly been tough. Please be sure to hug your veterans or at least thank them. Appreciate them while you have the opportunity. Our veterans are the reason we can go about our daily lives with few worries. They choose the job that many people are not willing to do (I don't think I could do it), and they do their jobs with pride. Even if you don't agree with our current overseas efforts, always remember to support your troops. (If the red didn't set it off, this is the important part of today's blog)
As this was originally a travel blog, I feel I should inform you that Cooper and I are planning on backpacking Europe next summer. I hope this really does happen, because it would be an absolute blast. Watch out Europe, the crayons are coming (if you don't get this reference, we were crayons for Halloween). Hope everyone is doing well in their lives. Tell me about them, call me, facebook me, tweet me, I miss everyone as our lives are so freakin' busy these days.

A triumphant return

As everyone probably knows I am no longer in Spain, but I have been asked to return to blogland (I'm pretty sure I made that one up). As of this hour, I am supposed to be studying for all that approaches, but blogging is a better idea. I bought four magazines today, three of which are health magazines. Oh how times have changed. I'm trying to stay healthy; it is proving more difficult than having the set menus I was used to but I am at least maintaining (and losing slowly). This is all I really care to discuss for the moment but hopefully I will have something more interesting to say in the coming posts. LOVE

Final Today

I just finished my final. Wow! I can´t believe this is almost the end. I have had the most incredible time. I honestly can´t even put into words how I feel about Spain. I´m ready to be home to talk incessantly about Spain, but I would mind staying longer or returning immediately! This has been the time of my life, and I don´t want it to end. We leave Valencia Wednesday morning for Madrid. Then we fly out Thursday. You can prepare yourselves for annoying stories (you can just hit me when I repeat myself). I am excited to see all of you so we can catch up (and so you can keep me upbeat). I love you all so much and we will be reunited very soon!

My HILARIOUS padre

Dear papí, you are too much! Your humor is rather vulgar no? Despite the vulgarity, I cracked up. What a joker. We did a tour of a public hospital today- all I can say is "just say no to universal healthcare". Super super super scary. Yesterday we got traditional drinks called horchata... one word interesante... Tonight we´re watching the champion´s cup. Go Barça! ¡Amunt! (Spanish cheer). I am having so much fun here as America looms in the near future. I could stay here much longer. I will update again soon, maybe some more pictures (of historical sites and food, not what my FATHER would have you think there were). Love you all mucho! Todos son en mi corazón. (everyone is in my heart)

Chicos

Sorry mi padre this post is necessary for the ladies in my life. Update on awesome bartender from Uruguay. Pretty much Mr. Perfect. He´s a musician (piano, guitar, drums), he´s an artist (sketches and photography), really smart (a student in English and special effects for movies), has a dog (a giant cute English sheep dog), knows where Marietta, GA is because he almost moved there once (?!?!), AND he tells me I´m gorgeous! Ah the life in Spain. I tell you those American boys could really learn something!

For my father: I am learning (the entire human body as a matter of fact) and taking lots of pictures. We have a super busy week this week (lots of hospital and school visits and three quizzes! ). I have nightmares about my bag being too heavy on the way back!! What a goob no? I love you all.

Pictures etc...

Hola Amigos y Mi Familia!
I hope everyone is doing great. I'm absolutely fabulous. I'm over half way done with my trip, and there's no way I'll be ready to get back home. No offense to any of you. I just feel like I haven't gotten in nearly enough culture or Spanish. I love it here. We keep going on such great adventures. I'll start where I left off before... Barcelona:
We started with a 5 am train ride on Saturday (yes 5 AM!!). We arrived in Barcelona around 9:30. What a crazy place. People were bustling all over, it feels like NYC big time! We headed to our hostel which was much nicer than I expected. It was actually really neat to stay there. We headed out around the Gothic Quarter to go to the Barcelona Cathedral (designed by my favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi). It's really pretty. After we lit some candles and said a few prayers, we headed to see la Sagrada Familia; one of the most impressive sights you'll ever see. It's also designed by Gaudi. It will be under construction for a long time because Gaudi died during its construction. We ate dinner at the marina for traditional Paella (oh my gosh, delicious!). AFter our yummy din din we headed "home" to get ready to go out. We never actually made it to a bar though because Barcelona won the cup that night and there were amazing parties in the streets (so much fun!). (As a side note, we also met this American on the train, he was so gorgeous, but turned out to be super annoying, is that the worst thing you've ever heard?)
Sunday was another fabulous adventure day, we went to Park Guell (another Gaudi design, perfect weekend for me!). Barcelona is Gaudi's city. If you ever go to Barcelona, this should be at the top of your list to see. Everything has mosaic tiles on it (miles of park!!). Words cannot even encompass this place. We walked around and just enjoyed the sites of Barcelona for a bit. While some people went to a bullfight (not my thing) we sat and people watched then danced with an old man to the Peruvian flute band. It was so fun. We ended up tooling around too long and had to run through the streets and metros of Barcelona to get to our train on time. We had a whopper of a weekend that didn't end until about 1:30 Monday morning.

This week, we had our first two quizzes (91 and 99, woo hoo!). We've also gone a few "expeditions" of sorts. We went to get Churros and chocolate (yum), the bullfighting museum (enough bullfight for me), a Flamenco show (wow is all I can say!), we climbed to the highest point in Valencia (a tower at the Cathedral), and we went to a really cool museum about enlightenment and thought. Today we went Xativa, a town with castles and mountains. We hiked up to the castle (and when I say hike, I mean HIKE!). It was really worth it though because we got to see a beautiful view. I won't need any extra work after that one. It was a really fun day though, we laughed the whole time. I really got lucky because we really get along well. I'll go ahead and put up some pictures here and maybe a few on Facebook. (I"d like to give a shoutout to my Mrs. Boss, you know who you are. I love you so!)

My first experience with wind turbines, they are huge and amazing! We saw them on the way to Valencia from Madrid.

Our great group with some singers.

This picture is for Jes because I know how much you love la Plaza de la Virgen.

The six girls from one room in the hostel!


Paella!

Party in the street after Barcelona won. So much fun. Yes that is fire you see!

Short Response to my Father´s post...

Daddy- I am learning lots! My Spanish is about a million times better (it´s sort of fast now) and I can take you to the doctor´s office in a Spanish speaking country :) I´m just also learning about the culture as well haha! Another quiz today. Longer post soon. Love you pops. No worries, still no son-in-law for you.

Also to my beautiful Claire- I will try with all my might to make it to Nueva York. However, my bank account will need some therapy first. We will talk though!

I missed the season finale of 24!?!?!

As my dear Trey has informed me, I have missed the season finale of 24. This is very terrible news, however I know my dear sweet father recorded it for me (then we can talk all about it my beautiful BFF/little brother). So, as I said I have a lot of catching up to do!!! First off Valencia is amazing! Second, Concha, my house mother is so great. We got really lucky. She takes such good care of us and makes sure we have a good time. We've already had four classes and a quiz (another tomorrow). This trip is going by so quickly. So far, we've walked almost everywhere, but the Spanish food makes up for the extra activity, so don't worry, I won't be a rail when I get back. Haha. I've gone to the beach a few times and got burned of course. The sand is really different here, it's super fine and gets stuck EVERYWHERE!!! We went out our first night to watch a huge football game between Barcelona and Bilbao. Barcelona is on their way to a championship so it was a lot of fun to watch. Barcelona won, it was very exciting. The next night, we went out to a few different bars and danced the night away... so fun! I also finally met my first nice Spanish boy :). He was the bartender, but super cool. Funny story too... when I was walking into the house, I accidentally rang the doorbell and woke Concha up at 4 am.... WHOOPS! She's awesome, she just laughed at me. Now, prepare yourselves for my crazy weekend.... Sorry, I have to go to a flamenco show now, I know that was a tease. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update tomorrow with pictures of my weekend and my awesome friends! Love you all.

Que guay! (How cool!)

Oh my gosh! We went to Barcelona as a group this weekend, it was absolutely incredible! One of the coolest places I've ever been... sorry have to go to class to take a quiz, one second!

Still Alive

Hola! Just wanted to let you know that I am alive. I don´t really have time to talk about all the cool stuff I´ve done so far, but I will take some time this weekend to update a long post! Love! Amo! Also to my padre... I didn´t get sunburned... yet. You would love it here!

¡Yo Soy en España! (I am in Spàin!)

¡Hola mi amigas y mi familia! I am finally in Spain! Right now, I´m in Madrid. It´s a beautiful day and the city is SUPER busy. It´s a really pretty city, it reminds me a little of New York. I slept almost the whole way here, so I don´t feel that jetlagged. Good news there. So far, there isn"t much to report. Keep checking in on me. <3 Sorry about some of my punctuation, this is a different type of keyboard.

Today is the Day!

I leave today! I'm super excited/nervous. My bag isn't too heavy :) and I even have a little room for other stuff. I've been waiting so long that I can't believe it's really here. I'll miss you all very much. Keep checking in on me. Personal shout out to Jes for giving me my awesome goody bag. Thanks you are awesome! Love you all!

Please comment

Hi- I enjoy getting comments almost as much as enjoy getting mail (which is a lot). Please comment on my blog... maybe just to say hi? It makes me very happy- especially once I'm in Spain, because I won't get to hear many of your lovely voices for quite some time. Getting comments is like Christmas morning (well almost). Love you all. 5 days!!

Una Semana (One Week)

So I have one week left! I have my first final tonight so that means I am really getting close to departure! I can't believe I'll be across an ocean so soon! WOO HOO!

Finals

I only have two finals, both of which shouldn't be too tough. I still have to study though. It's so hard to focus with the excitement of Spain looming in just over a week. I have so much to do to get ready... lots of packing! I'm trying to be a good/efficient packer, which if you've ever traveled with me, you know is SUPER hard for me to do! My hopes are to pack little and come back with lots! Good idea I think. Please start posting your address so I can send you postcards! You know you love them.

2 Weeks!

I am leaving in two weeks! I CANNOT believe it! I have so much to get ready for my viaje (that's voyage for you non-speakers). I know at least one of my readers speaks the language (Jes haha). Thanks for following me, and hopefully I'll have some good stuff to say in the next few posts getting ready for Spain.

22 days!

I went to the big meeting for all the students going to Spain this summer. It was really informative, and made me even more excited! Aaahh! I can't wait. I'm going to be so busy, but it will be incredible.

24 Days!

I got a great paycheck today! My Spain jar is looking happy! I'll be able to do some serious shopping in Spain!

31 days!

Countdown is a little monotonous... going to just stick with a weekly update until Espana!

32 days!

Had another meeting with my fellow travelers and my teacher, going to be great!

The countdown begins!

Welcome to my blog! I leave for Spain on May 11, and I'm so excited it hurts! 33 days!