En serio, HOLY TOLEDO.

Okay. Favorite day in Spain so far: Friday spent in Toledo. Twas just incredible.

I now have a pretty good grasp on the origins of the saying, "Holy Toledo!" On the one hand, it is holy in the sense that, at one time, three major religions could be found within its walls: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all had their place in Toledo. That didn't last long, because different religions in close quarters, for some strange reason, tends to cause a teensy bit of tension. But there is still evidence of all three in the form of synagogues, mosques, and cathedrals. Saaaaweet.

On the other hand, the first view of Toledo is absolutely stunning. Hence, the exclamation, "Holy Toledo!" First thing, we drove up to the tallest hill surrounding Toledo, and got to see the entire city from above.

Lo que sea.

We had a lovely tour of the city in Spanglish, and our first stop was La Mezquita, and a little overview of Mudejar architecture. Second on the schedule was La Catedral de Toledo. Ummmmmmmm ridiculous. Every single thing in there was so ornate and beautiful, it was unbelievable. Loved it. Took an absurd amount of pictures, but this one shows the vaulted ceiling, stained-glass windows, and the detailed fencing - a little bit of everything.


Next up: Santo Tomé. Home of The Burial of Count Orgaz, El Greco's most famous painting. Let's just say it was crazy seeing it in real life. It was painted specifically to be hung in Santo Tomé, so it was really great to see it where it was originally intended to be, instead of in a museum.

Our next stop was La Sinagoga del Transito. My favorite part about it was the designs in the windows. Each one had a slightly different pattern, and the light shining through was real purdy. Sorry guys, I'm trying to come up with a million ways to say "it was beautiful," because that's my reaction to just about everything here. In the middle of this picture you can see the Star of David outline on the ceiling, but there's also a bit of Arabic around the inside of the walls of the synagogue. ¿Una mezcla de las iglesias, no?
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After this last stop, we were set free, and Anna was dead-set on finding the bridge we passed on our drive in that morning, and rightly so; it was gorgeous. So off we went. We navigated the streets of Toledo (successfully, I might add - we are getting better), and eventually found it. We had some fun with self-timer again, and snapped a shot of us on the LOTR-esque wall. Can't you just picture orks scaling the wall? ¿Somos empollónes? Well, yeah.


The weather was seriously uhhhhmazing. Not a cloud in the sky, sunny, and probably 60ish degrees. In January. Whhhhhhat. It was strange indeed, but I mean, no complaints here.


On our way back to meet up with the group, we decided to stop in this little shop, and thank goodness we did. Meet Andres, the coolest man in Toledo. He hand-makes these little steel plates with gold leafing and gold-thread design. And boy, are they pretty. So we bought some jewelry with the same designs (he gave us a discount, what were we supposed to do?), all the while getting a history lesson from him and just chatting about his family. It was just a neat experience all around.


We of course had to try some of Toledo's traditional mazapán, and after getting some cautionary reviews from some in our group who tried it before us, it was surprisingly good! Not anything to write home about, but tasty nonetheless.

Toledo is now solidly the leader in the running for my favorite place in Spain. Granted, it's one of only three places I've seen. But the other cities have a lot to live up to if they want a chance at the title.


NSP moment:
Saturday morning, the day after we got back from Toledo, we were planning on going to a YSA activity with kids from the ward. Plan was to meet Anna and Aly and the train station at 8:30am. Saturday morning - wake up, look at phone - 8:40am. Uuuuurgh.

Caminando por Madrid medieval...

¡Hola a todos! It's been a crazy week! Also - I've been here just over a week. I CANNOT believe that. It seriously feels like I've been here for months. So strange. But a wonderful strange, I think.

We got the chance to go to El Prado for the first time on Saturday, and it was just magnificent. Guys. I got to see Velasquez. And Bosch. And Raphael. In real life. What theeeeee. It was fairly exhausting walking all around the huge museum, but soooo incredibly worth it. It's free most nights for a few hours, so it was packed. This is outside the entrance, and the line of people wrapped around the entire side of the building; it was impressive that that many people chose an art museum for their Saturday night activity.


On Sunday we went to the ward in Alcalá for the first time. It was so great. You always hear how the church is the same everywhere, and it's so true. They talk so fast that none of us could really understand most of it, but the Spirit was still there, and we still felt welcomed by the members. I'm so excited to get to know them!

Tuesday after class, Anna, Aly, Kim, and I went into Madrid for the afternoon. We have a one-credit class called Madrid Walks where we basically have to just go walk around certain areas of Madrid. Stroll around a beautiful European city in the sunshine for homework? I mean, if you insist...
After Anna avoided our first run-in with los ladrones, we started our little tour. (But seriously she had to pull this lady's thieving hand out of her bag. Moral of the story - never trust anyone with horrible, penciled-in, maroon eyebrows). Some of the places we had passed on our first tour of Madrid, but the directions we were given explained the history of each place, so we were able to learn so much about each thing we saw. It was a long walk, but it was so, so enjoyable!

Kim, Aly, Anna, and me acting like fools with the self-timer.

GORGEOUS little garden we found

New goal in life: have a turquoise door on my house. But let's be real, can I please live here??

Anna and I in front of the cathedral. I don't know if pictures do it justice, but it's just so impressive up close.

There is graffiti everywhere here. Mostly it just ruins really pretty, old buildings. But this was actually pretty cool. Please notice Anna petting her dragon.

Plaza del Sol at night. Once the sun goes down, huge crowds come out of the woodwork and suddenly everything is noisy and bustling with all the people. And, like everything here, it's absolutely beautiful.

Tomorrow we're going to Toledo, and from what I've heard, it's going to be incredible! Oh whatup El Greco!!

NSP moment:
Might have kept my roommate up last night because I was being kind of loud and probably a tidbit rude :( I was skyping a certain Russian, and I just forgot my roommate etiquette, dang it! I'm sorry Elizabeth!!! Also we ended up walking home separately twice today, and both times she ran into our program directors, so basically they think I'm an awful and irresponsible roommate, letting her walk by herself :( But I am determined to be better. Elizabeth, tomorrow I will buy you a marzapan model of the Toledo Cathedral to make up for it. ¿Vale?

¡España! Oh vassup.

A veces estoy tan cansada que no puedo pensar ni hablar ni caminar.

In fact it's really a miracle I was even able to string a coherent sentence together in Spanish. But really. All I want to do right now is snuggle down underneath my covers and conk out. But if I ever want to beat this jetlag thing, that can't happen. So, instead, I'm going to blog.Well, we made it! It's been an absolute whirlwind the past couple days, but we're all safe and sound! My perception of time has taken a severe beating in the last little while, I barely know what time it is, let alone what day. I slept for eight hours of our lovely eleven-hour plane ride, and it was absolutely glorious. We got to Alcalá around 6pm on Tuesday, and first thing we met our host mom, Juana. (And by we I mean my roommate Elizabeth and I. She is absolutely fantastic! I can't forsee any roommate struggles which is going to be so nice. The only problem is that she doesn't like tswift, so it's a good thing I brought headphones.) We then went straight to our house on Calle Violeta. Here it is!


We live with Juana and her two sons, Daniel and Guillermo. They are super nice and very welcoming, but they talk sooooo fast. Most of the time I'm able to pick out the gist of what they're saying, but sometimes all they get in response is a blank stare, and will promptly repeat themselves for the Spanish-challenged Americans. We really are grateful for their patience, and we're trying as hard as we can not to be so ignorant! There is also a student from the Czech Republic living with us, and she is just a sweetheart. Between us we speak enough combined English and Spanish to get by, and we get along really well.

The past couple days have been spent just getting to know Alcalá and becoming familiar with our routes to school, the train station, etc. There are so many different things to see, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we have three months here, we don't have to see everything in one day! One place we're around a lot is Plaza Cervantes, it's just a block from Alcalingua (our school), has a bunch of little shops, and most of the buses stop there. Not to mention, it's beautiful, just like most everything here. Here's a little shot of it last night:


We've seen some absolutely fantastic things so far, but some of the things I've loved the most are the really stupid things that make me laugh, and that no one in the group really understands, leading them to believe I am slightly insane. Today we had our first trip in to Madrid, and saw some incredible architecture, but my favorite part was people-watching (lesbihonest AKA creeping). I saw a Spanish man who was a mix between Brian Williams and Carter Livingston. Later I saw a Spanish version of Ethan Moore, as well as our good friend Lucky. And to top it all off, on the train I found a Spanish ginger. Also Anna and I love all the super cool elevators they have in Madrid, so that's brought us a lot of joy, as well as a couple dirty looks. Our bad. I'm aware I have a strange sense of humor, but you can't deny that this Spiderman fellow is about the greatest thing you've ever seen.


We found him in the Plaza Mayor de Madrid, which was absolutely beautiful, and had the greatest mix of people, from the bubble man to the dog-cart racer, from the old ladies dressed to the nines to this fellow who agree to take a picture with me. Our directors told us before we left to try to "be travelers, not tourists," and we've been trying so hard, but there are some opportunities you just don't pass up.


Why can't they make doors in the U.S. like the ones here? I seriously want to take a picture of every one we pass. While venturing through one of Madrid's many cathedrals, we happened upon this, the oldest door in all of Spain. It's fine, whatever.


So far my experience with the food here has been so great. Like too great for my own good. Our host mom, Juana, has been easing us into the local cuisine with basic things like pasta and ham with nummy cheese and a delicious salad that's more like pico de gallo than anything else. And tonight she made Torilla Hispañola and good gracious it was so delicious. After our little guided tour of Madrid, we took off on a mini adventure of our own, and got our very first taste of churros con chocolate. And ohhhh boyyyy. Dangerous.


One of the things that continues to amaze me about what we've seen of Madrid and Alcalá is that everything is SO BEAUTIFUL. Seriously every tiny street is absolutely breathtaking. Our guide today said that everything beautiful was built before the 20th century, and it really is so true. I don't know if there is anything in the U.S. that can compare to this architecture, and the history that comes with it. Like this picture of one of the random streets we passed. Is this real life??


That is not to say that everything here is perfect, because that would be very naive of me, wouldn't it? Actually, on the train ride from Alcalá to Madrid, I was a little unprepared for how bleak some parts of it were. Not everything about these places is romantic and idyllic; I guess where one extreme exists, the other has to as well. Vale?

Honestly, when I first got here I was super homesick. I missed my friends and family and was being completely destroyed by my Spanish shortcomings. Twas a little rough. I know, stop complaining about this ridiculously incredible opportunity, right? Regardless, that's how it went. But now as I'm getting more comfortable with our host family, the girls in the program, and Alcalá, I'm becoming loads and loads more optimistic, and I can tell it's going to be hard to leave this place.


Really I'm just in awe of everything I've seen so far, and I can tell that's not going to wear off any time soon...


NSP moment:
While on the bus home today-
Me: "Hey, is that our stop?" Elizabeth: "Nope." Me: "Oh, I recognize this now, there's the park we pass on the way to the school." Elizabeth: "Uhhh, I don't think so." Me: "Is that our street?" Elizabeth: "No, that's not it." Me: "Please don't ever let me ride the bus home by myself."

peace out homies.

Well, kids, I'm off.

It's been a whirlwind trying to get everything ready, and somehow leaving time has snuck right up on me! I'll be on a plane to Madrid (via L.A. - yeah, don't ask) tomorrow morning, and will get there sometime on Tuesday. Can't wait to meet up with all the girls from the program, I'm relying on them not to let me completely lose it on the way over there. Haha but really I am so excited to get to know these girls, it is going to be a blast!

So this week I kind of bummed around up in Park City getting stuff ready, had a little glimpse at my friend the stomach flu again, and hung out with the fam. Then on Thursday night I headed on down to p-town to pack in some last minute roommate time. We basically just did what we always do: make treats, watch TLC, drop in at the tree house, and hang out with dinner group. We also had a little get together for me to say bye to people, and it went just swimmingly. I couldn't have asked for a better last couple days in Provo. I just have met some of the best people in the world (and I'm not embellishing, they are THE best) in the last few months, and I'm sad to have to leave them, but am excited to have so many friendly faces to come back to.

Now. To everyone I love: Have such a good time while I'm gone! Be safe, be smart, and BE HAPPY! I love you all so much, and I'll see you in three months!!

NSP moment: I left the oven on at our apartment three times this week. And I don't even live there anymore. M'bad.

Treats and Snoozin'

Treats and snoozin, that pretty much sums up my break! Snoozin and treats, that's all I care about. If you don't get that reference, or just need something to brighten up your day, by all means, watch this.

But seriously, Christmas at the cabin consists of sleeping, eating, snowmobiling, reading, and watching movies. Repeat that a couple times and you've covered the whole trip. And it is glorious.

Christmas Eve I woke up feeling just not very great. But, there was work to be done! We still didn't have a Christmas tree! So we set out on an adventure to find the PERFECT tree. And by perfect I mean the smallest, closest, and easiest to cut down and drag back. We did indeed find said tree, and I have to say, I loved it! It was a little bit reminiscent of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it had character! So we cut it down with our tiny little saw, piled it on the sled with Ikey and me, and dragged it back to the cabin.


We then proceeded to decorate it with whatever we could find lying around. And I have to say, I think it turned out real pretty. But that could just be me.


Welp. We don't need to go into details about the rest of Christmas Eve, I don't think. Remember that part about me waking up not feeling well? Let's just say I spent the day paying homage to the porcelain throne. Not overwhelmingly pleasant. I guess my pops and I got some kind of stomach flu, because we were in bad shape. I remember seeing this quote from the Devil Wears Prada on pinterest a while back, and it highlights the only tiny silver lining to the situation:

Sends a really good message, I know. Just speaking the truth.

Anywhooo, Dad and I slept it off and woke up cured by the Christmas spirit! Christmas morning in the Pitcher fam is a strange combination of groggy irritation at the early wakeup call and the pure elation of present-opening. Anddddd, drum roll please! I got a new camera for Spain! And I loooooove it. It's just a little bit bigger than my camera now, but it has a professional lens and takes gorgeous pictures. I am so excited to have it for my European escapades! But it will most likely turn my into an obnoxious paparazzi wannabe. I already took sooo many pictures at the cabin, here's a few out of the hundreds...

I probably have twenty shots of this exact same view at different times of day. Every picture looks a little different and is absolutely breathtaking. This might be my favorite view, it could give the view of Deer Creek at the top of Provo Canyon a run for its money.


Guys, I'm just really artsy, it's fine. This is my grandma's china that she has displayed at the cabin. I'm obsessed with it, it's so pretty!


This is my beautiful little cousin, Jane. We were playing around taking jumping and silly face pictures, and she told me solemnly that "we should take some pictures of me being serious, too." Haha so we did, and they were actually really beautiful pictures. This one absolutely breaks my heart!


One of the best things about the cabin is that it's always cousin time. This year Steve, Andi, and Shauna's families couldn't come up, but Marcia and Kenton and their crew made the drive from Denver the day after Christmas, and it was so fun to be able to spend a couple days with them. Kenton and Marsh should get an award for making such cute children. Seriously they are ADORABLE. The two youngest, Jane and Tate, sat with me for a round of "in the manner of the adverb." I think, at this point, Mom and Marsh were entertaining us by stealing Perplexus 'fashionably.'


The Richmonds came over on the 27th, so we only got to see them for a little bit, but Chris and I were up to our usual antics right off the bat. This picture was my bad, we said we were going to take a normal picture, and I was still in the world of what is socially acceptable, so I forgot our own special meaning of the word "normal." My bad, dearie.


We got to chat a bit about the big things we both have in store for the next little while. I love you and I am so excited for you!

Back to PC:
New Year's Eve in the real world is kind of a new thing for me. Meaning, we're usually over at the cabin, so we have a set routine of watching a movie, and then breaking out the Martinelli's and banging pots and pans when the clock hits midnight. So when I was faced with the prospect of deciding what to do for the night, I had a couple options. One: hang out at home with my parents. Tempting. Two: venture out to a booze and drug filled Park City bash. Even more tempting. (If you know me at all you should be able to see the sarcasm dripping off those words.) Three: mosey on down to Provo and ring in the New Year with friends who had already come back from home. Ding, ding, we have a winner! My fam went down for the BYU basketball game (we won, and redeemed ourselves a little bit from the nightmarish St. Mary's game), and I just stayed in p-town after that. Brad and Tyler (Tree House Boys) were at the game, so we decided to go redeem our 5 oz. of free YogurtLand - SO YUMMY! The men were dead-set on bbq-ing, so we stopped by the store and grabbed some burgers and fixins, and went back to their house and had some dang good food while sharing our favorite memories from 2011! Then we went to a New Years party and danced our hearts out! We hit a wall right in time for the ball to drop, and welcomed in the new year with root beer toasts and hugs all around. It was a great night indeed!

Hmmm, well that about does it for this break! I am so grateful for the people I have in my life and the blessings I've received, especially in this wonderful holiday season! Back to the hustle and bustle! The week countdown to Spain starts tomorrow!

NSP Moment:
I recently discovered that the bag that contained all my lovely winter peacoats was mistaken for a D.I. bag a few months back. Oops.

The Caybin in Flaygstayff

Warning: this post may contain unnecessary rambling. So sue me.

This is my first blog post from my phone! Oh, the wonders of modern technology. Yeeeeesh I sound like my mother, bless her heart (love you mommy!). Back to the point, we are currently in the car on our way to the cabin! Don't worry, we are fully aware that other cabins exist throughout the world, but long before I was born it was dubbed "THE" cabin, and so it has remained. It is nestled deep in the forest, right up against the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is my favoritest place in the whole wide world. If I had a million dollars, I would buy the whole property and keep it in the family furrrever. There are so, so many distinct and happy memories made at the cabin that I wouldn't trade for anything. These include, but are not limited to: the 4th of July bear encounter and the subsequent stream of curses from Aunt Shauna and my dad, raking and picking up branches for hours on end, extreme sledding down bear mountain, painting lessons from grandma, "turn it down, kids!", Aunt Marsh and momma leading barn dances, swimming in the frigid pond (just an awwwful idea; I guess we forget how incredibly unpleasant it is over the course of the year), campfires in the bottomland, snowmobile trips into town for pizza, 4th of July fireworks (soooo good), church at the Granby branch, cousin bonding, the sheer joy that comes from snowmobiling through the meadow full of fresh powder...

...the list could literally go on and on and on and onnnn, and most of them only my cousins will really understand. But I think my favorite memory from the cabin is one that pretty much sums up the unique charm and draw of the cabin: it was absolutely miserable, completely absurd, slightly terrifying, and at the same time absolutely hilarious and wonderful. A couple years ago a species of beetle infested all the trees and started killing them all off, creating a huuuuge fire hazard. So my grandpa took on the huge challenge of cutting down all the dead trees, piling them up, and burning them in 'controlled' burn piles. We were all out in the bottomland building up the piles and starting the fires when out of nowhere these huge gusts of wind came rolling in. You can probably guess where this is going. Within 30 seconds at least three of the piles were burning out of control. One way the cabin has prepared me for the future? I know have the skills to become a firefighter. We all panicked for half a second, then sprang into action. My cousins and I started hacking at the flames with branches, trying to swat the flames into smithereens. (I am probably making this sound a lot more int ense than it actually was, but it was still the most exhilarating moment of my life up to that point). Meanwhile, my grandpa proceeded to drive his tractor, filled with GALLONS AND GALLONS of gasoline, over the fires. We all nearly had a heart attack. However, as per usual, my grandpa's idea was fairly insane, but surprisingly effective. The tractor, along with our branch-swinging, eventually smothered the flames. Completely terrifying in the moment, slightly hilarious in hindsight.

Another huge pro of the cabin? I get to hang out with my dearie! The Richmonds have a cabin half a mile down the road from us, so our families get to hang out over the 4th and Christmas break! Can't wait to see Christie's heinous faces creeping at me!

The moral of the story: the cabin is the bestest. If you haven't been over here, you're missing out. My grandpa's policy was always "everyone's welcome," so get your bums over here.


not-so-perfect moment:
My room is already a disaster and I've been home for three days. My bad. I'm working on it, guys.

BURN. THE ROOMMATE.

I came into this semester a little hesitant in regards to my living situation. I absolutely loved the apartment I was moving into, but I signed a contract by myself, so I was going to have 3 new random roommates. I called the management company and they wouldn't even give me their names (little did I know they had given out my name, giving my future roommates license to theorize about how lame "Jessica" probably was ;) hahaha)! Lesbihonest, I was freaking out a lot a bit! I was a little bit worried it was going to turn out something like this:

SNL - The Roommate

Fortunately, I didn't end up with a roommate who puts a kitten in the dryer. Here's the story, we'll start from the beginning:

Rewind 2 years. SPAN 106 my freshman year. It was an accelerated class, and I came in halfway through the semester, so I sat terrified at the table in the back amongst the class who all already knew each other. Luckily, the people at the back table were actually very nice and friendly. One of them was named Melissa. She had dark hair and bangs, and had theeeeee cutest style in the whole world. Fast forward a year and a half. I signed a contract at Lanai with my friends Haleigh and Mauri for Fall 2011. Fast forward two weeks later. I get a call from the management company saying that the owner's daughter and her friend want to live there, so I'm going to have to find another place to live. Oh, coooooool, thanks so much. On the housing hunt again. Christie, Hil, Karissa, and Jules were living in these adorable townhouses right by brick oven, so I hurried and signed one of the last contracts they had, just three doors down from them. I was a little worried, but I figured if it was terrible I could always just spend all my time at Christie's. Fast forward to August of this year. Moving all my stuff into the apartment, sweating like no other, I hear someone (a roommate?!) come into the apartment. Lo and behold, it was indeed Melissa from my Spanish class! Provo is suchhhhh a small world.

So my roommates:

Melissa Gunner - Mission Viejo, CA. Totes hipster-loving, muddy buddy-making, hottie with a body.



Katie Buhler - Loveland, CO. Powderpuff football MVP. SO COOL in high school.



Lindsey Frey - Gig Harbor, WA. My fecetious TV soulmate. Part-time model.



Fastforward to the present. I am leaving for Spain in less than a month. Which means I'm going to have to be without these lovely ladies for three whole months. Considering I went 20 years without them before this semester, that shouldn't be such a big deal, right? WRONG. These roommates have quickly become my best friends, and I have truly been changed for the better because of them. I am so grateful for their amazing examples and true friendship.

Mostly I'm just glad they put up with me and give me the benefit of the doubt when I'm being particularly ridiculous.


I'm going to miss our supes urban pics, stuffing ourselves with nummy treats, and laughing till my stomach aches. I'm going to miss the acceptable usage of abbrevs, the many poor form moments, and matching Sundays.


Mostly I'm just going to miss Linds, KT, and Mela.


I LUB YOU ROOMMATES.