A Tale of Two Cities...

... is a really great book that I read in high school. As everyone knows, it takes place in Paris and London, both of which I've now visited! Michelle and I spent the weekend with her family in London, and it was really great. We flew in on Friday really late and left Sunday afternoon, so it was a short trip, but totally worth it. Everything was green and beautiful, but it was rainy on Saturday. But what's a weekend in the UK without a little drizzle, eh?



















The famous phone booths














The Tower Bridge














The Queen's quarters at the Tower of London














Fish and chips! (With salt and vinegar, of course.) Delicious.















The London Eye















Me and Michelle in front of Buckingham Palace







































Westminster Abbey















Another shot. I couldn't take enough pictures of it!















Wonderful English breakfast at the hotel















Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (white building)














Picadilly Circus














I found it Melynn!














Classic double decker bus

Ooh la la!

Here it is-- the Paris entry. It was definitely one of the best weekends EVER! We flew into Paris Orly airport on Thursday afternoon and had planned on seeing the Eiffel Tower that night but ran into some hotel problems and were happy to call it a night after those were resolved. The next morning was the Palace of Versailles, then around lunch we went to the Tower (where we spent about 2 hours just looking and taking pictures!). Afterwards, Notre Dame, dinner with a Parisian friend, the Tower again (this time at night), and finally back to the hotel. A very full day!

The next morning, Saturday, we had a great crepe breakfast then headed to the Louvre. We saw as much as we could take in, including the Mona Lisa of course, but there was still so much more! We ate lunch back at the Tower, enjoying street performers and eating more crepes for dessert. We wanted to go up the Tower and enjoy the view, but the lines were horrendous. So instead we walked a bit and experienced French culture at its best-- an outdoor "market" street called Rue Cler. We saw, smelled, and/or tasted amazing produce and lots of kinds of cheese and beautiful flowers and fresh pastries. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! After Rue Cler we went to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. Paris has so much to see! Again we went back to the hotel after dark, tired but happy. The next morning we flew out at 11am. And thus ended our French adventure.

I'll NEVER forget this trip. (It would be hard to with all the pictures and video I took!)



















The chapel in the Palace of Versailles














The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles














The gardens















Another part of the gardens. Look how far they go!














Crepes! This was seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten.



















One of my favorites




































Christmas card



















The Tower sparkling!














The Louvre-- there were so many rooms!














The actual Mona Lisa. Sorry she's so small-- it was hard to get close!



































































Arc de Triomphe

Portuguese is NOT the same as Spanish

I love Portugal. Lagos, a small ocean town that I visited a few weeks ago, and Lisbon, where we just spent a 4-day weekend, are really different but both wonderful. The drive to Lisbon was about 5 hours. We entered the city by a huge suspension bridge over the river Tajo. (There's a picture below.) Lisbon is a sprawling city right by the ocean. We visited a castle, a monastery, and a tower by the river, among other things. It also has a modern feel-- there's an enormous aquarium, lots of museums, and even a metro system! The bullring in Lisbon (which was 2 blocks from our hotel) is a good example of how the new and old coexist-- the beautiful old building has a shopping mall under it!

This trip was lots of fun for us also because we had a few tastes of home. Blake, our friend Zach Barnes, and I played lots of frisbee right in front of the bullring. Portuguese TV has a lot of American shows-- we found Grey's Anatomy, America's Next Top Model, Pushing Daisies, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and more. Our first dinner in Lisbon wasn't especially American but definitely memorable. We went to a restaurant called "Chimarrão," an all-you-can-eat meat place. They served us about 8 different types of meat off the skewer, as much as we wanted or until we exploded! Among the meats was beef, which we NEVER eat in Spain, so in that sense it was homey, for sure.

Next weekend-- Paris. Look out!















The bullring, with the mall entrance under it















Rachel, Michelle and me enjoying the grass in the cloister of the monastery. I love this picture.














The Cristo Rey, a massive statue on a cliff overlooking Lisbon. There's one a lot like it in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.














The view from the base of the Cristo Rey. Here's the suspension bridge-- yes, built by the same guys that designed the Golden Gate.

Trent leaning off the wall of the castle. In the distance-- more castle, Lisbon, and the river/ocean

Michelle, Vicky, Chaille, Sara, me, and Rachel

I love this game

A big group of us splurged on a Sevilla soccer game and went Saturday night. It was amazing! The opposing team wasn't even "big" (we won 5-0!), but the place was still electric. There was singing and chanting and clapping... lots of spirit.















We had 4th row seats! (Sevilla is in white.)




















Blake all suited out to cheer for our team!














Lance and Rachel














Huge stadium!

26.2 miles

Something about Sundays… we’re always having the craziest adventures! Today was no exception. This weekend we’re in Sevilla, which hasn’t happened for a few weeks and won’t happen again for a while either. So Michelle and I got up this morning excited to go to church. Well, we had some problems. Sounding familiar? Oh yes.

We started at a little before 10 am as usual, heading out to our normal bus stop to catch bus #20. The #20 and one more bus would take us to the big bus station where we ride a “suburb” bus to Bormujos (where church is). We knew something was different when we saw the police directing traffic on our street. As we approached we asked a guy if the buses could still come through and he seemed to think so, so we waited for a while. No bus. Meanwhile we realized what all the commotion was about: a marathon! We’d seen signs about it for a few weeks but hadn’t noted the date and never thought the route would pass by our house. After a while we walked to another nearby stop on a major street, but still no buses. We even tried to call a taxi and some guy flagged it down before us. As we stood there, stuck, we watched more and more and MORE runners come down the street. This race was a BIG deal—hundreds of runners from all over the world! Finally a bus came and we got a little closer to our destination. We tried to catch our next bus but had to get off after about 30 yards because the route was blocked off again. After walking about 2 miles we found a smaller bus that took us where we needed to go and tried to relax.

Just for some perspective as to how badly our plans had failed so far: we needed to be at the bus station at 11 am to catch our “suburb” bus. (They leave on the hour.) It was 11:20 when we got on the little bus! Oops.

Ok, back to the story. We arrived at Plaza de Armas bus station at 11:45, now planning to catch the noon bus out of town. We waited around a little, then realized that everyone else had a little ticket and wasn’t paying with cash. We dashed back upstairs to the counter to buy tickets, but the lady told us they were done selling noon tickets. Crap!! As a last ditch effort we tried the lady in the next window, and she sold us the tickets we wanted! We sprinted back to the bus and yelled at the driver to wait. Sitting down on that bus was one of life’s little victories, for sure.

After that the day was smooth sailing—church (we only missed the singing!), fellowship, a delicious lunch with the Actons, and bus back home.

Loving a place for it’s lovely sights and smells is one thing, but Michelle and I have passed a threshold today. We felt as if Sevilla was doing everything possible to mess up our plans, but we love this place unconditionally. We are Sevillanas!

Lagos, Portugal

Friday of this past week we had a Tech trip to Huelva, where Colombus raised support for his journey to the New World. We saw some of his original letters and went on board reconstructions of his 3 ships. After lunch we drove 2 more hours into Portugal, to the beautiful ocean town of Lagos. About 30 Tech kids stayed in Lagos for the long weekend. It was 3 1/2 days of paradise-- nobody wanted to go home to Spain! We spent our hours hanging on the beach, making music, walking around Lagos, and just having whatever adventure we found-- it was a wonderful weekend.


















Rachel being a Red Raider














Me and Gabe making some music on the beach with our new hippie friend Anthony















Lance's glasses-- cool reflection
















Walking with our bags. We stayed in the pink hotel in the background-- it had a beautiful view and was cheap!














The rocks made the beach different from anything I'd ever seen!

Carnival in Cádiz!

About 60 of us Tech kids left in a bus at 6pm this past Saturday and rode about an hour to Cádiz, a city right on the coast that has a huge carnival every year. We all wore costumes and got ready to party! There were HUNDREDS of people all in one plaza, showing off their costumes and dancing and making noise and having a great time. We were SO tired in the morning but really glad we went.

















Me and Michael
















Lance and Gabe