2 Weeks Back

Two weeks from today I got back to the Americas. It's been a pretty good two weeks. I've worked at good ol' Occasionally Cake a couple times and just picked up odd jobs. Got to save up that money! I literally have a $1.87 left after all my adventures and Christmas present shopping. It's been fun. 

Anyway my Grandma and Aunt were in town until Saturday. So of course we had to do some kind of touristy thing. That turned out to be visiting the Natural History Museum. I've been there many times but it's always fun to visit. The dinosaur exhibit is closed for some reason. So that was kind of lame. It was pouring down rain all day so by the end of it we were cold and wet and ready to sleep. Which was nice for me. I've been taking Townsend to Seminary the past week. Yay for the lack of sleep. At least I get to go back to sleep afterwards.  

 And pretty much I just hung out with my siblings. Joan-Claire has not failed to tell me constantly about how I look pretty. Even after just having waking up and looking like death. It's very sweet of her.

And Jairus and Jane have just been my hangout buds. Really all of them have. They like to draw with me in my room most nights. It's usually fun. But often times very loud and chaotic. I guess that's what to be expected if you have 7 people in my small room. 

Anyway besides working and chilling with the fam I haven't done much. As I write this though I'm watching the Seahawks game and I would like you to know that I thoroughly disapprove of their Thursday night uniforms. Those colors man are fabulous. Woo. Also my mom wants to learn more about the European bog people. My dad just got home from a business trip. I made a chicken pot pie crumble for dinner. It was delicious. In case you were wondering.

Well till next time!

Back Home

My last week in Coruna was a good one. Tuesday I had the day to myself. 

 I decided to walk to Monte de San Pedro since I still hadn't been to it. 

 I passed this thing.

 I will miss the ocean.

 I had seen this octopus on the web and had wondered where it was. Apparently it was on the way to the mountain.

 A fishing boat. 

 Usually to get up the mountain you take this globe elevator. I however was very unlucky and no one was there to operate it. So I decided to take the long way up and walk for 2 miles. 

 The start of the walk.

 And cliffs along the way. 

 And rolling fields. 

 And wild flowers. 

 When I got to the top one of the first things I saw was this awesome maze. I couldn't go in it though because they were repairing it or something. I'm not really sure. The sign was in Spanish.

 And here was one of the views. I love how you'd think I'd take the most pics at the top. But no I took more on the journey up and down. It was really gorgeous though. And the grass was really soft. In case you were wondering. 

 Wednesday I had a goodbye coffee with my friends from Spanish class. Magdalena my Polish friend invited me to walk to Torres de Hercules afterward so that's what I did. 

 Hercules in a boat. Kind of random but a cool sculpture anyway.

 Old Celtic stones. 

 And Thursday I flew home. I had no problems in the airports. No problem going through customs. No delays in flights. It was great! My flight from Madrid to Boston I had a whole row to myself so I could stretch out. Really it was pretty awesome. 

 Dad picked me up from the airport and then I was bombarded by the children!

I did miss them. And I won't lie and say I didn't cry at all. The kids were all very sweet. They made me signs and put them on the door. Jane and Joan-Claire have been giving me spontaneous hugs and telling me they love me. Jairus cried for joy because I was home. Pretty much the whole family has been wonderful and loving and I'm so happy to be back with them. Spain was AMAZING! But I think 3 months is long enough time for me to be away. I just love my family to much to be gone any longer than that. 

My Grandma Judd and Aunt Sheree came into town a couple days before I got back. So they were there too. It's nice having family visit. Especially since I haven't seen them since July. So far my time has been great. I kind of feel like I haven't been gone. Today in church I spent half of sacrament sitting in the church foyer with Jane. Like a real mama Marley. I'll probably blog next week but I can't guarantee how interesting it'll be now that I'm back from my out of country adventures. Till next week! 

In London

As I said last week my blog post was going to be late. And the reason why?! I went to London!

I took a crap load of pictures and I tried to include most of them in this post. Enjoy! 

 The view from the airport window in La Coruna. 

 Travel buddy Lauren and I on the tube. I'm really glad I've had the D.C. and NY metro systems to help me practice for the London Underground. 'Cause dang it's huge! 

 Telephone

 They take Christmas very seriously in the U.K. 

 Like they just go all out!

 I mean just look at that! 

 These pics are for my dear grandma, who specifically requested pics of Piccadilly Square. 

 The fountain had scaffolding around it. I really hate scaffolding. It gets in the way of really cool pictures. 

 But it was cool nonetheless. 

Dinner was a burger. Because you know gotta stay true the 'murican roots. 

 This was the street my hostel was on. 

 It was more hotel than hostel but it was still pretty cool. 

 They really liked The Beatles if you couldn't tell. It was a little weird sleeping in a room with 7 other girls who I've never met before. They were all nice though. They were from Australia, Korea, Italy, and some other country that I couldn't quite place where her accent came from.

I flew to London on Friday and we got there pretty late but we still did stuff. Because why wouldn't we! 

 Saturday we went to Trafalgar Square. 

 More like we went to the National Gallery.

 Saw some Degas

 And Van Gogh

 And Monet

 I also saw an Ugly Duchess.

 I gazed upon some Da Vinci as well. 

Can I just say that seeing these artists work in person made me realize how genius they were. Especially Da Vinci. He was amazing. His work as a scientist and an artist is just purely amazing. The talent and the observation skills he possessed really just blow me away. Van Gogh's use of color and texture is incredible. Monet's art has so many colors but isn't as textured as Van Gogh. In a literal sense. When I was looking at their art Monet's pieces were smooth while Van Gogh's just had so much texture and really weren't blended at all. He used so much paint! The National Gallery was definitely one of my favorite things that we visited.  

 After that art adventure we had lunch. I had some very touristy fish and chips that were absolutely delicious. 

 And a lemon meringue pie with clotted cream ice cream. I had to have some pie since it was recently Thanksgiving and I didn't get anything delicious like that on Thursday its self.

 Big Ben

 Westminster Abbey

At Westminster Abbey we attended a boys choir evensong. Simply put it was beautiful and almost made me cry. I'm learning as I get older I'm quite a sensitive person. It must be the Judd genes kicking in. 

 It never rained while we were there but it was definitely very cold. Shout out to dad and his rain coat that doesn't breath and traps all the heat for keeping me warm while I was there! Even if I did look like a hobo.

 Street art by the Thames

 London at night. 

 We had Chinese for dinner. I had duck. It was pretty dang delicious. So crispy and tender. Words that you normally wouldn't put together in a descriptive sentence. 

Sunday we found a cool van.

 I had a proper English breakfast on request of my British friends back in Coruna. I will say it was pretty good. I still don't like baked beans very much though. 

 The tube.

 Equestrian

 Wellington Arch

 And Buckingham Palace. 

We watched the changing of the guards. It's a good thing I'm tall or else I wouldn't have been able to see anything. There was so many people. 

 Wild non-Canadian Geese. 

 After Buckingham we went to the British Museum. So here you have magical Egyptian eyes.

 And lions that guard tombs. 

 The west frieze of the Parthenon

 Other parts of the Parthenon. 

I saw a lot of other cool old stuff but mostly Greek naked statues. Moms favorite. She really would have enjoyed it I'm sure.

 For dinner we had Korean food. I felt so cultural in my food eating. London in general is a cultural place. I swear I heard more foreign languages than English while being there. It was so cool. I heard some languages that I've never even heard before. 

 I love how they tell you which way to look when you cross the street. 

 Monday we went to London Bridge.

 Saw an old Cathedral

 And the ruins of an old cathedral. 

 We also saw the Globe theater! 

 I was super excited about seeing it them it was brought to my attention that none of it was original. 

 So that was kind of disappointing but it was still really cool to see what it would've looked liked in Shakespeare's time.

 After the globe we went to Borough Market and had Thai food for lunch.

And the most creamy scrumptious cheesecake I've ever had for dessert. 

 We walked along the water from there and saw Tower Bridge and walked across it.

Again flipping freezing. 

From there we went back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and then headed back to Spain. Dear Linda picked us up from the Airport and that was the end of it. 

I had a really amazing time in London and I want to go again. Gotta save up that money first! And doing this trip to London has made me less afraid to travel to other places in Europe. I mean I of course traveled to Spain on my own and that was pretty cool but I wasn't going to travel beyond that. So thanks Lauren for getting me to go with you! Now I want to go to the Netherlands and Ireland and all other kinds of countries. 

Also I want to thank Lauren for being a good travel buddy. She never complained. Unless it was with me when I was complaining about being cold or hungry. She wanted to go to all the museums and historical sites and she planned most of the trip. It was pretty great and I had a ton of fun. 

Now I only have two days left in Spain till I go back to America. I'm so excited! I miss my family so much and I can't wait to be with them. 

 Also before my London trip I went to the Picasso house museum here in Coruna with my British friend Helen. I had no idea that he lived in La Coruna for a time. It also was all just replicas of what it would have been like but it's still always cool to be like, "I stood where this famous person once stood." 

 Thursday as you know was Thanksgiving. This was my dinner. yum. It didn't help that my family video messaged me while they were eating and rubbed it in my face. It made me hungry and miss them. Dang family. I can't wait to be with them.

 Thursday was also my last night with the kids. I'm really going to miss them. We had a sweet goodbye Friday morning. Although I don't think Teo understood that he wasn't going to see me again. Matilda was sad though and kept complaining about how she didn't want me to go. She's secretly my favorite. It turns out it's easy for me to make friends with 10 year olds. They're nice. 

Wednesday was my last day in Spanish class. My older British friend Marian had everyone sign a card for me in their native language, another guy Dan bought me an Orange Juice afterwards, and after that my friend Magdalena took me out to lunch. I have made such amazing friends while living out here and I'm going to miss them all so much! It's been so great!

This is just a few of the people in my class. Angel the teacher is in the corner.

Well next time I write it'll be from America. How cool will that be! Till next time!