Beautiful day in Mallorca!

It was beautiful here yesterday! Well every day is beautiful here actually... its such a blessing! I thought I would post some pictures of my walk home from school yesterday, its was amazing. We also had dorm cleaning...and my job is to clean the windows and mirrors. I attached some pictures of my day yesterday, and of my cleaning adventure. As I was cleaning my windows I happened to be scaling the outside of the apartment building in order to throughly clean the outside of the windows:) I caught a few tourists taking pictures too...it was pretty funny :)

To see pictures of my day click here 

xoxo sharrah

Palma de Mallorca

This weekend we have been we all took the bus into Palma to see the famous Cathedral and do a little shopping around the stores. There were a ton of homeless people begging outside of the cathedral, but there were also a few mimes and "theatrical actors" that would perform and try to take pictures with you…with hopes that we would give them a few euros….and sure enough we did ha.

The shops are amazing here…they have SO many perfume and cosmetic shops its crazy, and they carry nice stuff too. There are these Ethiopian guys that walk around the shops of downtown Palma with these huge white sheets full of knock off watches, purses etc…so of course I thought it would be fun bargain a little bitJ Originally the guy tried to sell me a knock off Louis Vuitton bag for 90 euro… naturally I talked him down to 30 ;) haha…at the end when he offered 35 and I said no 30 he responded with, “Ladyyyy!?” haha it was funny. I guess the Policia here “frown upon” bargain shopping, so when they drive through the shopping square on their mopeds all the “bag boys” quickly pick up their sheets and run! Ha, so I had to hide my bag until we got back on the bus haha.

We then shopped around a bit and just took in all the beautiful Spanish architectureJ we found this really good coffee/pastry shop that we call “Red Chairs” because the original name was too long and tricky ha… but the whole day I walked around with my new friends who spoke really good Spanish with hopes of advancing my Spanish. Alex, who has lived in Mallorca for 5 years, Daniel who is from San Clemente and speaks really good Spanish, and then David who is a local and speaks like no English and is determined to get me fluent in Spanish by the end of the semester by making me respond to all his Spanish questions IN Spanish…except I don’t know any haha, so its interesting. When we were at “Red Chairs” I practiced by telling the owner that “its delicious when you mix the espresso shots WITH the homemade vanilla ice cream”…so I think it goes like this, “Senor, café con leche vanilla es muey fantastico” ha… but when he came to the table I was so excited and ready to actually say a sentence in Spanish that when I addressed him I apparently pointed at him and said “senor” in a really firm, deep, mad tone that he looked at me and ran away haha… to watch the end of that scene click here to see the video… pretty funny! 

On our way home we went to the supermarket to buy some groceries... as we were walking home we realized this huge street parade. I guess it was in celebration for their victory over the Muslims when they kicked them off the island of Mallorca ha. Very odd street parade though...look at the pictures of the GIANT people ha...

We finished the night off by sitting on a wall, eating our dinner (bread), watching the street parade on one side, and the sunset on the other... God is so good!

To see the pictures click here

Adios!!

Touring Santa Ponsa….

On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea…its just breath taking and so amazing. I don’t think its possible to wake up mad…or to start your morning off bad because we wake up and walk out of our room to the kitchen to see our beautiful view.

 After Megan (one of my great roommates) and I finished unpacking we made some quesadillas and made our way to the church, which is about ¼ of a mile away. We were meeting up with some other people from our school to go on a tour of the city. Santa Ponsa is the city in Mallorca that we live in…and its beautiful! It’s about a 20-minute drive from the main city of Palma de Mallorca. It’s so weird to see the speed limit signs in km instead of mi… on the way home from the airport I looked at the speedometer and it said we were going 100 and I was a little taken back as to why our Church History teacher was driving so recklessly…and why it felt like we were only taking a nice stroll through the city streets…and then I realized the speedometer is in km not mi ha. We walked around the city and were so entertained by the culture and scenery. We walked about 4 miles that day. We went by the post office, hospital, a few markets, lots of little stores, a couple of beaches, coffee shops with free wifi, and the main bus stop into Palma. Our final destination was this huge cross on the top of this cliff. It was incredible! We went cliff jumping off of the 40 ft platform.... and YES I did it! It was scary but was the coolest feeling ever, so glad I did it. We all got gelato and enjoyed the sun as we made our way back to our flat.

That night megan and I decided to go out to dinner at a near by restaurant. Everyone here eats dinner at 10 pm! So odd for us but we decided to try it out, and it wasn't that bad! The sun doesn't set here until 9 o'clock so it is beginning to feel normal to eat this late ha...uh oh! Its ok though because we literally walk EVERYWHERE here...prob 2 miles a day collectively, most days more! So we can afford to eat late at night... I hope! In spain you have to pay for water...which sucks when your on a starving college student budget! Megan is teaching me great things though, notice in the pictures Megan brought her HUGE  water bottle to dinner (which she paid .93 euros at the market) and I bought my little sip-sized bottle (1.50 euros at the restaurant) haha oh so many life lessons Im learning;) best part was the waiter ended up bringing megan a cup haha, and then winked at her:) Great start to a wonderful adventure! 

Click here to view the pictures!

To see the video of me cliff jumping click here! Im the third one to jump:)

¡Ruffin it in Espana!

So where to start… I guess a good place is the beginning!

My trip to Spain began at 4:30 AM Wednesday… a drive to LAX, air port security, a few rude flight attendants, a flight to Philly and then to Madrid got me stuck in the airport in Madrid for 4 hours!… our flight from Philly left 30 min late because there were technical difficulties, which meant we had 30 minutes to get to our next gate...but we didn't have our next boarding pass because we had to take a spanish airline...so we had to run around the airport (like home alone ha) and figure out our gate, then somehow get it printed and on the plane in 30...obviously that didn't happen! 

We tried to communicate with the people there to figure out how to get our flight changed, how to get a hold of the people that were picking us up in mallorca, and how to let our parents know what was going on... but believe it or not ....NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH! We eventually got it figured out and got on the plane to Mallorca.... the flight into the island was BEAUTIFUL! I sat in between these two 12 year old kids, one boy and one girl. They were little blonde spanish/dutch kids who spoke a little english... they spoke better english than I did spanish! They taught me some new words and we laughed and joked about how bad my spanish was ha... it was great. Getting our luggage and then going through customs was also interesting.... but boring so I wont bore you with details...on to the fun stuff...

We met one of our teachers at the airport, his name is Serg and hes from the Netherlands... super funny guy! We packed our luggage into his little spanish car and drove to Santa Ponsa. The town is so cute and beautiful! When we pulled up to our building I thought we were just waiting for someone... I did not think we would be staying in flats RIGHT ON THE WATER! The building is called Caesar's and its such a blessing to be able to live here!!

I have had problems uploading my pictures to my blog so Ive attached a link to my mobileme gallery. The title of the gallery that goes with this blog is, Arriving in Spain/ Our humble abode. More to come!!

View Pictures

Help!!

Ok so I know I haven't been updating my blog very well... But I want to post pictures and it's been taking FOREVER to upload them... Does anyone know why that is or how to make it go faster? We hve great Internet here but it isn't working still. I will try to upload some tonight... So stay tuned!!

Xoxo Sharrah

Adios Fiesta!

Last night a few close family and friends came over to my parents house for an Adios Fiesta!

Here are a few pictures...

Bianca, Aaron, Me, Lauren.

Beautiful set up;) Thanks mom!

Graham and me :)

These beautiful ladies (Laurel and Dana) are in my bible study:)

Just another one of mom's great ideas: turn the old fountain into a sand-filled chandelier

My mom, me, and Mrs. Saber.

We had a couple of birthday girls at the party! Aunt Chris and Pam turned 34!

My best friend Priscilla... (B&T for life;)

Saying goodbye to my bible study girls :(

Randy, Birthday girl Pam, and Aunt Lynne:)

Jennevieve, Uncle Paul, and birthday girl Aunt Chris :)

Lauren, Cassie, me, and Bekah :)

Saying goodbye :(

Gathering around for prayer...

Praying with my brother Scott.

Graham, Me, Mr. Saber, Mrs. Saber :)

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it! I was so blessed to see every one of you!!

T-minus SIX DAYS.... i mean... seis días :)

So I have never blogged before in my life so bear with me here:) I think the point of blogging is to journal my thoughts and life experiences...so I'm just going to start writing and hopefully those who follow along will enjoy it! (AKA: Mom, Dad...and apparently my first blog follower, Priscilla! ha) I wanted to make this blog so that my family and friends could check in and see all of my adventures in España!

My life so far has been so great. I've been blessed with an amazing Mom and Dad and two brothers Jimmy and Scott. I've been raised in a God fearing home and I am SO grateful for that. I had the opportunity to go to Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta Hot Springs last year. It was an amazing time of my life where I was able to seek the Lord and learn more about who my Savior is. I met some pretty incredible people there along the way! One of which became my best friend, and is now going to be my travel buddy to España!

Life in the US has been a blessing, but now as I am leaving my teen years and about to enter my twenty something years it is time for me to experience new adventures. Thats what this trip is going to be all about, different adventures. Some big, some small; some funny, and probably some sad; definitely a lot beautiful... and hopefully not too many ugly. This venture to Spain is going to be a time alone with the Lord where I can grow spiritually, and also time in fellowship with the kids on campus and also the local spanish people. All of these adventures will be life changing and life-growing. I absolutely cannot wait! I hope whoever reads this blog will enjoy following along!!

SO...

I'm sorry to report that I've seemed to fail at my last posted adventure... my spanish hasn't improved ;-/ So I've decided to rely solely on immersing myself in the Spanish culture to learn their language the authentic way! Stay tuned to see how this adventure unfolds... ;)

What's my next adventure? Packing up my life and saying goodbye to the ones I love and care about :( This will probably be the first adventure in my 'something sad' category. (Im learning not to listen to "where are you now" by George Winston while I blog... I am getting WAY too emotional!) This adventure will be sad, I wish I could take my fam and friends on this journey with me, but it will be good to go on my own. I will be living in my own apartment with my own kitchen! I'll be shopping at the local markets for groceries and making delicious spanish meals! I will be hiking the Mediterranean mountains and jumping off the island cliffs into the crystal clear waters! (breathe mom!) Its going to be great! Pictures to follow!!!

España here I come!!