Beauty

Tonight, the button gets pushed.

2.33 hours from now my mission papers will be turned in!!! Where will I go? When will I go?!

BAHHHHHH!

That is all about that.

Except for the fact that now I will tell you about my week, which included two visits to the doctor in order to check for tuberculosis for my mission papers. Clear! Also. I would like to say that the first appointment took 5 minutes. The second took about 45 seconds. And I finally made the trip there and back with the lovely and helpful Leticia in 3 hours, tacking on a nice run through the city once we got back in order to scan the form to email home before the school closed. We got plenty of weird looks, and I was able to get back to the house by 4 (in 35 minutes) with a sweaty but happy face to Skype with my Daddy. Mission accomplished :)
Also, I will never take having a car for granted ever again. Talk about walking your little bum off (excuse my language ;) )!
PS Normally the trip to and from the doctor's office takes a good 4-5 hours. This was a record made for sure!

Also, on the train rides on a certain line, we had a musician come and play for us every time! My favorite was the trumpet man with the stereo or else the guitar man with the on the spot rapper who was absolutely AMAZING! He was rapping so fast, and everything rhymed, and he even mentioned my botella de agua! All in Spanish. It's really fun having such an increased comprehension and communication level now. Love it :)

Tuesday Letty and I spent the day inside doing homework. Well, after I went and cut Laura's bangs! She looks like a babe with bangs! I adore that lady. She does hard things and she does them gracefully. And she has beautiful blue eyes and long dark hair. She is able to share her testimony through her smile- not a joke. Not just rhetoric. She actually does. You get a warm fuzzy feeling when you see her smile. Take a look at my profile picture from Salamanca. The babe next to me in the green sweatshirt- that's her. Look at that beautiful smile. She is one special lady.

Let's talk about Wednesday night, after finishing skyping with my dad. This was the time when all the ghosts and goblins come out! And also bananas, apparently! I was a banana for Halloween this year! It was thrilling! I wore Letty's yellow long sleeve, my yellow short sleeve over it, my yellow pants up to my navel with a brown belt, my Rainbow moccasins (that's a brand, not a color), and my brown beanie and scarf. The spanish kids who came around trick or treating loved it! It made me feel special. It's interesting because in Spain they do only super scary, nothing cute for Halloween. Our host sister looked at Letty like she was off her rocker when Letty said she was going to be a Flower Princess for Halloween. Everyone has white faced with blood everywhere, even if they are like French Maids or whatever else. One little Spanish boy said, when they asked where we were from, ("Los Estados Unidos?! Ay, que mono!!!) <<(That's like, wow how cool!!!) he said, "I know why you are all here! You are here because your country is flooded!" Smart boy. Very informed. But, no, that was not why we were here! It was pretty funny, but I tried to tell him he was okay even though people laughed! Poor guy. Anyways, we played signs and ate SO MANY sweets at that party! Haha all of the girls left the party moaning and holding their stomachs. But there were some serious no-bake cookies and delicious skittles! Oh how dearly I love skittles. The next time you get some, put them in a glass bowl and jiggle it around. That is a beautiful sound, probably one of the most appetizing sounds I've ever heard!

Thursday was a national holiday. I met Mir-Bir in the plaza at 10 am and we made medals and flower bouquets in order to congratulate our beautiful friends who completed a half marathon! Yeah, remember how I was going to do that? :/ Got sick, couldn't breathe. Decided not to. Heh. Oh well. But I was there to see them! And we also chatted for a good 3 hours with the Relief Society President here and her husband. After which Letty and I used McDonald's free wifi and I had pancakes... with chocolate syrup. Sick! Oh well. The hot chocolate was good :) We walked ourselves home, had purple cooked cabbage and Spanish tortilla for lunch (really could get used to that tortilla) and then got on the train and headed to Madrid, where we walked around the incredible Parque de Retiro and saw the Crystal Palace, the Rosaleda, and the Statue of the Fallen Angel, the only statue dedicated to Satan. The park was beautiful! It is absolutely giant. It has a lake in the middle of it! And lots of pathways, right now covered in yellow and orange leaves. Talk about bliss. I could have spent an entire day inside of it. It was absolutely tranquil, and the statue we saw was interesting. It showed Satan as he fell. It felt... sad. And legitimate. It looked like an awful moment, which I am sure it was. He's part of all of our lives, I guess there should be a statue of him somewhere.
After the Parque de Retiro we spent time getting dinner on Gran Via (amazing at night) and then went to the Broadway showing of Sonrisas y Lagrimas (The Sound of Music). It was amazing! And I was thinking about my Mammy the whole time! I promised her we would watch that before I left for Spain and we never did, but we will do it for sure in December! I am counting on it!

Friday, we went on our way to Valencia, on the Eastern coast of Spain. It was beautiful, and I will describe that trip in the next post, so you all aren't too bored now :)

Thought of the day:

You can be excellent in every way. You can be first class. There is no need for you to be a scrub. Respect yourself. Do not feel sorry for yourself. Do not dwell on unkind things others may say about you. Polish and refine whatever talents the Lord has given you. Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in your heart. Love life and look for its opportunities.

~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Love you all. Give my family a hug if you see any of them. Give yourselves a hug if you need one :) The Lord loves you, and He wants you to be happy. I love the gospel! And so, in one hour now, I will have my button officially pushed and the papers officially sent!!! Any guesses as to where I might go? Feel free to comment. But for reals, do it! LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Especially you, Mammy!