I figure that it's been quite a long time since I last wrote in this dilly-o, so it's high time that I give a little update. I just noticed also that in my last post, I mentioned something about telling you all about my Thanksgiving, trip to Marbella, and Christmas. Well, here's the Reader's Digest version:
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Thanksgiving: Flew to Barcelona (Sabadell) for the weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving (El Día de Acción de Gracias) on the Saturday after the real holiday in the States. It was fantastic! The turkey was even bigger this year and we made the amazing pumpkin pie from scratch! That means that we actually bought a pumpkin, scraped out the insides, blended them with other ingredients and then poured them into the pan with the homemade crust (a Youtube video taught me how to make that, haha). It was a wonderful weekend to meet the new au pair, Meghan, show her around, and to just spend some wonderful quality time with Anna, Bernat, the kiddos, and the extended familia. I was also able to go around Barcelona and visit some of my good friends from the year before.
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Marbella trip: It was a lot of fun. At the beginning of December, I took a train down to Malaga, got on a bus to Marbella, and then met up and stayed with my friend, Tim, who I met in a church in Barcelona the year before. He showed me the city, the nightlife (which has inspired me to learn salsa), and the beach (which I insisted on because I miss living next to a big body of water, whether the Mediterranean, Puget Sound, or Lake Washington). Valladolid only has a dirty river called the Psuerga. Anyways, it was a fun trip and on the way back, for the first time I took a night train and slept in the small, uncomfortable beds.
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Christmas in Seattle (and Linnea's wedding!!): was fantastic! It was wonderful to go home and see everyone, to relax, and get some good, quality time with family and friends. The highlights of the trip were definitely Christmas with the fam-bam and Linnea's wedding (which is why I came home). I was the maid of honor (along with the amazing matron of honor, Emmy Grob) in Linnea Grob (now Wexler)'s wedding. It was such a fun wedding and I had a ton of fun being a part of Linnea and David's special day. I loved my dress too and can't wait to wear it again.
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Since then: I arrived to Valladolid sano y salvo (safe and sound) on the 18th of January (I left the day after Linnea's wedding), which means that I've been back for exactly 4 weeks. Since then, I've just been back in the routine of teaching English, learning Spanish, and traveling. I'm excited to have passed the Intermediate 2 level Spanish and will go onto the advanced level this following semester (as long as the schedule allows). Teaching English is the same old, same ol' with the teenagers at the high school. I'm starting to run out of things to do with them... but luckily the resources online keep growing as well. :)
In terms of traveling, I stayed home my first two weekends back in Spain, and then traveled these last two weekends. Last weekend, I had an amazing 5 day weekend, so I bought some super last minute train tickets to and from Barcelona to visit my friends and "family" (host family in Sabadell). It was such a wonderful weekend and I absolutely loved being back with everyone and seeing the kids, and the other moms and dads at "my" (the kiddos that I took care of) kids' school. 
The two family dinners that I had with my host family were amazing. I really love that family and hope to stay in contact 
with them for a very long time.Photo of the kids and I thanks to Meghan Smith (new au pair).
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Madrid y Castilla y León road trip:
Then, this last weekend, I went on sort of a road trip with my friend, David. I met David exactly a year ago (as he pointed out), when I traveled to Madrid to meet up with him and another friend of a friend, Alicia. I met David through my friend, Mike, who I worked with at Redwood Camp as camp counselors in the summer of 2006, and I went to his wedding in Switzerland in June. Mike knows David because they went to high school together in Germany. Anyways, so I traveled down to Madrid, crashed there for the night, and then David and I drove in the amazing Smart Car first to El Escorial. El Escorial is in the province of Madrid and is a super impressive old monastery. It even has sort of a crypt with the tombs of many of the kings and queens and royal family (including a weird cake-like structure with the tombs of the royal children). The town around El Escorial is super cute as well.
Then, we drove another 5 or 10 minutes to The Valley of the Fallen (El Valle de los Caídos), which, to my great disappointment, was pretty much closed. We were allowed to drive up to it, park, and look at the structure from the outside, but we could not go into the Basilica (which was dug out out a mountain and apparently is quite eerie inside), nor could we hike up to the huge cross on the top of the mountain. It was still quite impressive from the outside and we took some photos and explored a bit around the area. I definitely want to return there someday to see the inside and hike up to the top.
After The Valley of the Fallen, we drove about an hour north to the small town of Coca to see their very impressive castle. Unfortunately, the inside was closed by the time we got there, but we were able to explore the ground floor, outside of the castle and down inside some short tunnels. This also was a very cute town with kind people (population ~ 500 inhabitants), some greenish-yellow fields of wheat grass (or that's what David told me), a church, and a random tower. Haha, you wouldn't believe the funny looks and stares we got because of the Smart Car in that town. Though, thinking about it, I probably would laugh and stare at us too if I were them... we did look quite ridiculous in that car (see the pictures). I don't think that I'll return to this city, but it was definitely worth seeing the castle.
We arrived in Valladolid around 8 pm on Saturday night, walked through the city center, got some tapas (we were practically falling asleep during dinner), and then hit the hay. The next day, I showed David around Valladolid, we explored Campo Grande (the big park with peacocks), some churches, and then he peaced out around 1 pm-ish. I was really tired from the weekend, so I haven't done much since.
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I have a 5 day weekend coming up, with the Carnaval holiday, but I haven't decided what I want to do. There's a group going to Valencia and some other people going to Sevilla. I'm honestly tired of traveling. Haha, I guess we'll see.
Oh, and in other news, I have decided not to extend my stay in Spain another year. I'll be coming home to hang with all of you from June 22nd, 2010 to 2011 (at least). I don't know what exactly I'll do when I get home in terms of work, but I'm trusting that it will all work out (at least I have a summer job. I've already talked with my boss about that). In terms of future traveling, if an opportunity presents itself in the next couple years, I would not be against spending some more time abroad (assuming that my life circumstances allow it). I just need at least a year or two to be at home with my family and friends.
Well, friends and family, hasta la próxima. I miss you and can't wait to see you after June 22nd. :)
Saludos desde Valladolid,
Linnell
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