Quick note,

Another week of school down...feels good. We dont have school tomorrow because its St Thomas (or something like that) day....Tons of people are going to Barcelona...and a select few (which includes Joy and I) are not...might take a day trip to San Sebastian or may even go to Portugual if we can find cheap tickets.
Things are really starting to go well here...the homesickness is decreasing and I think it started when Cassie from home told me it probably wouldnt ever go away...Im so glad she said that because it is so true...I think I was waiting for that day when I would just no longer have it...nope...just needed the day where I could finally not think about it and focus on each day and where I am....live in the moment.
Last night Joy and I started looking up Spring Break plans...we have 17 days off so we want to travel travel travel...and we have decided on Ireland. We both have been wanting to go there for a long time..or at least since we saw the movie P.S. I love you haha...We both agree staring at gorgeous green rolling hills is exactly what we need...oh and also a Gerard Butler look a like. We have found cheap plane tickets and are have looked up some really nice and well rated, but none the less cheap hostels in Dublin. This is a wake-up experience to plan your own trip...because as you all know I grew up in a household with Joe Miller who planned our vacations to a tee....for as much as the three of us kids complained about that sometimes...I wish I had that now...but what ever we face, wrong or right, it will help us grow and learn.
The last two days have been really pretty cold...yeah I know Nebraskans...not as cold as it is there...but still I had to pull out the good ol winter coat this morning. It is currently 36 here...but supposed to be back up to 50 in the next couple days.
Thats all I think to write at the moment...more to come.

hugs and kisses

-Mel

Most Hilarious Blog Yet

All I can do is laugh when I think of last night. Lets just hope that last night will be the only night like it. As stated in the previous blog, my friends and I had plans to go to a salsa place to dance the night away….well that didn’t exactly happen. Dave, one of our friends from Wisconsin, has been having troubles with his foot and last night it was to the point where he could barely walk so he no longer wanted to go, which meant the other guys weren’t going to go either…sooo our salsa night was canceled. Joy and I still wanted to go out and do something because after all we had prettied ourselves up and didn’t want to waste away that effort. So our friend Ish said he was having friends over to his place, so we decided to go there. Ish lives in Algorta which is a suburb of Bilbao, so we needed to obviously take the metro. The previous night I had taken the Deustro metro and told Joy that we should take that one instead of the Casco Viejo one because even though it would take a tad bit more time walking to it, it would be a shorter metro ride. We started walking and I was pretty confident in where I was going…Joy and I, as usual, got into a very in depth conversation and when we both came up for a breath I realized that I wasn’t recognizing anything around me….I figured that I should recognize things from the night before since I had taken that same path home, but I didn’t remember anything I was seeing…So without saying I was lost I just told Joy that if I didn’t recognize something in the next couple minutes we should probably turn around….yeah….the next couple minutes were not successful in finding anything remotely recognizable. At this point it wasn’t much surprise that Joy and I were turned around, because this happens quite often….but at this time it was already 10:30ish and we just wanted to get where we were supposed to be. I called our friend Michaela and she said we could just take the bus to get to the metro station and then go from there. We both agreed this would be the easiest thing to do and so she told us to go back to the University and wait at that bus stop for bus number 71…..we waited….and waited….then it started to rain….and we waited some more….we took pictures…..we laughed….a lot….we saw bus G8 pass by…..three times….half an hour later….still no bus 71. At this point we had text Michaela and said to go on without us because we were going to call it a night. Joy and I then decided to walk to Casco Viejo and get Chocolate y Churros and sit and chat like old women would probably do. So we are walking to Casco Viejo in the rain with may I add the crappiest umbrella ever...when we arrive to Casco Viejo all, and I mean ALL, of the churro places are closed….this made us pretty sad….but we were determined to find some place that served some kind of something with Chocolate. In all of Bilbao we found a Burger King…..yes a Burger King. We both ordered these Chocolate cake ice cream things and sat down and talked. After being there for awhile we decided that we at this point might as well take the bus home considering it was still raining and getting cold. We then headed to the bus stop and saw that the next bus wasn’t for 25 minutes but we decided to wait because we knew that it would take us longer than that to walk home anyway….so we sat under the bus shelter on the cold bench and again chatted and waited (at this time it was close to 1:30am). The plan was to use my bus pass for both of us because Joys had run out of euros and so that was no problem…when the bus pulled up I got my wallet out and went to open it…just jokingly I said “this would be a really bad time to not have my bus pass”….well I apparently I can see into the future because I opened my wallet….no bus pass…I then remembered that I had left it in my jeans pocket from the night before. Joy and I haven’t laughed that hard the whole time we have been in Spain…we just sat there on the bench and watched our bus that we had waited for for 25 minutes pull away as we were trying to hold back the tears from laughing sooooo hard. We then looked up at the sign to see when the next bus was to come….30 minutes….haha , just awesome. So we decided that it was enough time to go get both of ourselves new bus passes at the metro station and find something else that consisted of chocolate since this night has gone from rough to bad. We got our bus passes and then found this deli /bar place that we thought may have something…after staring at the menu forever we spotted some chocolate cake on the counter….so of course we both wanted a piece. When we went to go order the guy asked us what we wanted and we couldn’t remember the Spanish word for piece so we pointed at the chocolate cake and made a triangle with our hands to indicate we wanted a piece of it. He looked at us and in plain English, he said “You want a piece of cake?”….haha we felt soo dumb lol…but how were we supposed to know that he spoke perfect English? We both nodded and he served us our cake. We sat down at the bar and ate it…when we were finishing up I said we should probably get a move on it so we didn’t miss our bus….we walk out of the bar and we had to walk around this larger round -about and then down the street a little to get to the bus stop. We got around the round-about and I saw down the street that a bus had pulled up….yep…it was our bus. We both just looked at each other and took of sprinting down the street to catch it….and we did, right before it took off again. We get on the bus both laughing and trying to catch our breath. Joy just looked at me and she said at this point I doubt this bus will even take us to the right stop. At this point of the night we should have learned not to say stuff like that because with our luck it would come true..and you guessed right it did….our jaws just dropped and we again laughed hysterically when we just passed on by our apartment building at the stop we were supposed to get off at. A couple in the bus started to laugh too….they much have thought our faces were pretty priceless when we realized that we weren’t stopping where we needed too….I then pressed the stop button on the bus thinking maybe he would realize that we needed off, and would pull over….not the case…..We were then dropped off a couple blocks away at another bus stop we didn’t even know existed. We got off the bus again in the rain and started to back track to the apartment….at this time it is close to a quarter till 3 am…Joy and I are both freezing, I have to go to the bathroom like no other, and we both just wanted to get home since we had been trying to do that for the last hour. And this is where our incredibly uneventful and at the same time eventful night ended...
So all in all….. chocolate cake icecream,2.80 euros….new bus pass, 5 euros….piece of chocolate cake,3 euros, waiting for buses, hour and a half wasted…..tons of laughter and a great story to tell the grandkids…priceless

Love and miss you all,
-Mel

P.s. Continue prayers for Haiti.

weekend number two

This weekend has been pretty fun. Since we don’t have school on Fridays our weekends begin Thursday night. This Thursday night the university was holding a party…well kind of….its more like one of the CIDE (that’s the study abroad program we are in) teacher/ advisors is part owner or manager or something of a bar somewhere on the outside of Bilbao and so kids from the program congregate there some nights….drinks, live music, pretty fun. Joy and I got ready Thursday night and started walking to one of the bus stop corners that would take us close to one our friends house who we were going to meet and then take the metro to get to the bar….on our way walking we got to just before the University and we heard people yelling our names from a car….so we turned around and it was two of our friends and Jon Franco..the teacher/advisor/part bar owner. They asked if we wanted a ride and we thought that it would be perfect because Joy and I aren’t awesomely skilled at the whole public transportation thing yet…we are getting better, but never having to use it growing up, we aren’t as good as these other city kids. So we got in the car with Ashley, Sarah, and Jon Franco (who was driving).
I will now take a break in the story to explain just who Jon Franco is….if only you guys could see him and meet him this would be all that more hilarious. He is one of the nicest guys you could meet, but he’s just a tad different. All of us students have come to the conclusion that weather he is or isn’t, he looks like he is on something all the time…just loopy maybe…haha idk…He definitely likes to go out and have a good time…and drink…but never disrespectful or anything. So when Joy and I got into the car I nudged Joy and pointed to my eyes to get her to look at Jon Franco…he was wearing sun glasses and by this time is was at least 9:30 and dark out…our jaws kind of dropped…it was soo funny. Then when we were driving he would get kind of close to a car and then slightly slam on his breaks and would say ohhh be careful…like it was the other cars fault or something…us four girls were all trying to hold in our laughter….let’s just say that may be the first and last car ride with Mr. Jon Franco.
The bar was fun….the four of us girls met up with other friends and we ordered drinks….Us four girls ordered Bilbao’s favorite and famous mixed drink….it’s called a Calimojo….and I’m debating if I want to say what is in one because any American would think it’s an awful mix and a waste of two drinks…and I want to have my parents try it …..so maybe I’ll hold off for awhile. We just hung out and talked and had a good time. After going to another bar and what not we were all getting a little tired and the boys that we were with were hungry….surprise surprise . So we found this burger and shake place…..kind of funny considering that its very American. They ate and we took pictures and then decided to head home. We got taxis and ended the night.
Friday was an equally good day/night as well. Joy and I met some friends and went to the beach….its kind of a long metro right but it felt so great to be there….so beautiful. I was talking to my friend Sarah (who was born and raised in LA) and said that it felt sooo good to be out by the water and beach because I was starting to feel trapped because I am not so used to a ton of buildings and a bigger city….she said she was starting to feel trapped as well but for the opposite reason…Bilbao was way smaller than what she was used too. It wasn’t a big beach but just a fun place to be for awhile. There were people surfing in wet suits and dogs running up and down the beach. Definitely a place I will take my parents. After spending some time there we took the metro back to Bilbao to get some supper and hang out for awhile. For supper we went to this upscale Chinese restaurant….it was very good, Sarah and I go two things to split and then all of us girls got fried ice cream for dessert….being in a Chinese restaurant in Spain kind of made me feel like I was at Epcot…haha…felt like I should be able to speak English to all of these Chinese people, but that is not the case, they all speak Spanish…no English…obviously I suppose. After that we got on the metro and headed to this bar on the outside of Bilbao to pick up one of my friend’s jackets that he had accidently left there the weekend before. As we waited for our metro to come back home the four of us (Jonah, Dave, Sarah, and I) talked for awhile...turns out I’m not the only one who has been feeling some home sickness….haha…they all thought they were alone in feeling that as well just because just like me, they saw everyone going out and having a good time and having no worries…we had a nice heart to heart talk and decided to just keep reminding each other why we are here and that we are privileged to be here anytime we start to feel homesick. Sounds like a plan to me.
Tonight a group of us are going to go to this Salsa dancing place….we all know I can’t dance, so I’ll let you know how big of a fool I will look like at a later date….should be fun though.

Still thinking about Haiti constantly…and hope everything is going well with the crew that went over there.
Love you, miss you.
Xoxoxoxo
-Mel

3 days down of class....many more to go. Although I have less classes here than i normally would at Bryan LGH, It just seems so intense because being taught everything in spanish, if you dont pay attention every second it just becomes white noise. My culture class started yesterday and the teacher is very nice. She is actually a professor at University of Wisconsin, but is originally from Spain so she came with the kids that came from that University so she could teach for the semester.

My mom asked me about food the other night but didnt have time to really answer. Amelia is a great cook and everything has been homemade and delicious. For breakfast i have yogurt...which is basically sour milk...haha...so we add jam and sugar....than it taste more like American yogurt, but still not as sweet, but none the less very good...and along with yogurt either a coffee cake that she makes or toast. Lunch here is their big meal...its usually around 1 or 2 and its litereally at least 3 courses...first Amelia always has a type of stew or soup...always very good...and then after that she has some type of meat and veggie...then when im stuffed to the top we eat fruit and or pudding to finish it off. She continually tells me...u are tall and young, so you need to eat a lot, lets just say its a darn good thing we walk a ton. She always has this big basket of fruit, which is awesome..cause you know me, i love fruit. We eat supper anywhere from 8:30-9:30....which is kinda what i was used to growing up but with being at school for awhile...it seems late now. For supper its not as large of meal...which totally makes sense because you arent supposed to eat a large meal before you sleep...everything has been good....except for one thing haha...the other night for part of our supper we had white asaparagus....which my friends and i like to call albino asaparagus.... i havent even seen the green stuff so who knows if it exists here...but anyway...i love asaparagus usually but here they slather on mayonaise. My family doesnt eat mayonaise...so i didnt grow up eating it...all i eat it on is tacos and tortas...so as im choking down this maynoaise slathered asaparagus all i could think was if i can eat this on tortas, i can do it now...lets just say its not my fav.

The other day i told her i was going to the library and i left around 3...she said ok we will probably eat supper around 9....so after the library and shopping with my friends for awhile (had to get a lighter weight jacket)...i headed back home and got there around 8:40. Of course she wanted to see what i had gotten and then see told me how much she loved the jacket...when she called me into the kitchen for dinner before we ate she pulled out a chair put it by the wall and stood up on it so she could reach the clock..(she had to do so because she is quite short)...she then went on to tell point at the different times on clock saying.....If you are out with your friends and shopping and having a good time you do not need to come come home at 9 for dinner if u want to come home at 9:15, 9:30, or even 9:45 thats ok...dont come home for dinner if you are having fun....she just kept saying this and pointing to the different times on the clock....all i could do is laugh...watching this short adorable lady stand on a chair and point at the clock and ramble of this speech on how i shouldnt end my fun to come home and eat with her was hilarious...she is so nice...im pretty lucky.

Tomorrow is my last day of class for the week since we dont go to class on Friday...dont really know what the weekend holds, but i guess you will probably read about it in a couple days.

Safe travels for my dad, Chuck, Bob, and Bob´s wife as they are on their way to Haiti.... wish i was on that plane....but there is a time for everthing, and right now my time needs to be spent learning spanish...or so my mom would probably tell me.

love you guys, thanks for the comments...
xoxo

-Mel

Quick note,

Class started today and I got into the class I needed to test into in order for all my credits to transfer back to UNL. Such a relief. My classes are great so far...just had language today but will also have a culture class on Tuesdays and Thursdays....the University doesnt hold classes on Fridays....awesome :D. My teacher is great and i have fun kids in my class....not to mention a pretty darn good looking Texan that may come home with me. When we introduced ourselves we obviously both said where we were from... and we both kinda laughed and I said Its ok, we can still be friends...he laughed as well and said of course we can. After class, one of this kids that is in my class said we should go get some coffee and just hang out since we had nothing to do for awhile...talk about thick coffee...i usually drink my coffee black but holy cow, strong.

Today is very sunny, and it feels like a perfect spring day in Nebraska. Joy and I are headed to a near by mall to meet some friends for awhile...so Adios for now...

Safe travels for my dad, love you so much

xoxoxoxo

-Mel

Weekend Number One

Welll the weekend was a success i suppose. Miley should re-write her song and have is say party in Espana...cause that is exactly what the weekend is about. For my age group it is sooo common for them to stay out until 5 or 6 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights. Joy and I made it until 3 haha...we like getting more than 5 hours of sleep. Friday night we went to a birthday party of one of Joy's host brothers friends. It was her 18th, so a big deal because of drinking age. Before the party (which was in a bar) we met all of his friends in the park...very nice. One of his friends spent a year in Iowa so her english was very pretty good...but she helped us out by still talking to us in spanish unless we had questions. It is still a little weird to be able to walk into a bar and not be carded or anything....not even when you order a drink. Another different thing out the bars is that if you want to leave and you havent finished your drink they have disposable cups by the door you poor the rest of it into and you are on your way to the next bar. Last night Joy and I left the apartments at around 4:30 pm and didnt get home until 2am....We first met some friends that are from Chicago and went and walked around to find supper..we found this really good pizza place. We then went to go find somewhere to watch the soccer, i mean futbol game...Bilbao was playing Real Madrid which was a big deal because they havent beat them in a long time but as i understand they are rivals....annnnnd Bilbao won!!! it was really cool to see people so excited...the score was 1-0. We watch the game at this cafe and the 5 of us order chocolate y churros.......sooooooooooooooo good. yum yum yum. It was a fun time. Why were at the restaurant, Joy and I needed to use the restroom so we crowded ourselves into this little bathroom that was one stall but the stall was separated with a door to the sink area.....there were some Spain women in there, but when it was our turn i went ahead and went..when i was done going (sry if this is too much information, but i promise im getting to the point) i could not find the flusher anywhere...so i opened the door a crack to Joy and these three other spanish women crammed into a small room and i said joy i dont know how to flush it and one of the women must have gotten the drift cause she pointed at the ceiling...and sure enough there was a chain hanging from the ceiling that i need to pull...joy and i started to laugh and in spanish, joy said sorry we are from the united states with a giggle. It was pretty funny. [ ok this section is totally off subject but I am currently sitting in Joy's host families apartment, because they have internet and Xabi turned on the radio to listen to and Taylor Swift was on...so funny to me because it is a Spain radio station, but they play so much American music...even in the bars, these kids claim they dont know english but then a American song comes on and they know EVERY word..they love Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga...so funny. ] The rest of the night last night was good...we just walked around...and talked....our group was very indecisive so at times we would just randomly stop along the street cause we didnt know where to go and we would have very in depth conversations... it was a lot of fun though. On the way home last night Joy and i were talking about going to Mass but didnt know what church to go to and didnt know the times....just at that time we crossed paths with one of our friends that we met that is from California, she was with two other kids and the guy that she was with was showing her where the church was because she wanted to go in the morning as well...so we tagged along. We got to the church but there was no sort of sign as to when it started...so we just started asking random people on the street that were passing by the church...it became a very hilarious night at this point....out of everyone we asked...we were told that it started at 7,8,9,10,11,and 12...after someone would say a new hour the 5 of us couldnt help busting out laughing...we contemplated about sleeping on the church steps because we didnt know what hour to pick....we ended up not going, so we will try next week because my Host-mom said it started at noon. Today was a "do nothing all day" day....Sundays are family/ relaxing days...so all i really did was catch up on sleep, eat meals, and worked on some stuff on my computer....it was a good day to have before starting class tomorrow.

It is so amazing to Joy and I how much Spaniards look like Americans, and they dont even know it....so many of these people could be in American and nobody would know except for they dont speak english... alot of them, especially the young kids, have fair skill and blond hair. Joy and I asked Xabi's friends if they knew that they looked like Americans, and they were stunned...they were like uhhh no we dont....yes, yes you do haha. The other thing that isnt really surprising but kinda annoying to Joy and I is that EVERYONE smokes...its awful...you can smoke in any building and just through your buds on the floor when your done...its there way of life but its so sad because they start when they are so young...at the birthday party all of these 18 year olds have a smoke in one hand and a drink in the other....it just screams cancer to me :(.

My mom told me today that my dad and Anne will head to Haiti on Wednesday with one tickets not knowing when they will come back...I pray for safety for them with traveling and all that they do in Haiti...my heart goes out to that country and all that they are going through...

I miss you guys
xoxoxo

Mel

well I spoke too soon....after I logged off of here yesterday I went to go eat dinner with my host mom...and it was great. At dinner I started to point to things and name them in spanish to get the idea to her that I really want to learn...she then got up in the middle of dinner and started pulling out her dishes and food to tell me all of the right names...I just couldnt help but laugh. After naming a few more things she started waving her hands like she was hot meaning that I was on fire because i was doing so well with the spanish vocab she was teaching me. She then said you have been here only 4 days and you know this...in four months you will be great. She then got these two things out for me for dessert...she says that they usually eat them at christmas but she still had some and she wanted me to eat it...she says she cant cause she is too fat...which she isnt haha....but that I need to eat all I want....she is so much like my grandma, always wanting me to eat and be comfortable. Before I left the kitchen she asked if i was contento...meaning content or happy...I said yes very and thank you...I think this allowed her to relax as well because she is always wanting everything to be perfect for me. After dinner Joy and I taught Xabi how to play Phase 10....he picked up on it very quickly and it was a good time.

It is finally not raining in Bilbao today...sooo nice out...still need a jacket, but you can see the sun. It is so fun to wake up and see mountains since it is something Joy and I obviously dont see at home. We went to the Guggenheim museum today...gorgeous inside and out...lets just say it has some unique and quite simple peices...we enjoyed the Frank Lloyd Wright floor...interesting. It is our first weekend here and Joy and I dont really know what we will do tonight...since partying isnt really in our schedules at home we will have many new experiences im sure. We may possibly be going with Xabi ..joys host brother...to one of his friends birthday party...should be fun.

My heart still goes out to Haiti...keep up the prayers.

xoxoxoxo

Mel

Well I have been in Spain for 4 days and I can say that this has been quite the experience. To be quite honest things did not start off to well…We were delayed in Chicago which all in all messed up the rest of the trip. We then knew that we would not get to Frankfurt on time, considering Joy and I were supposed to land 7 minutes before our other plane was supposed to take off. They then made an announcement of flight changes before we landed and they said that the flight to Bilbao had been canceled and rescheduled to take off at 4:10 pm….we were supposed to take off at 11:30 am. This may seem like a life saver, but that would have Joy and I arrive in Bilbao at about 6:20pm, and we were supposed to be at the airport at 5 if we wanted someone from our program to pick us up. Good thing Joy and I met up with other Americans that were in our same boat. We then gathered up all of your luggage and proceeded outside to get a taxi to take us to who knows where in a city that we are not at all familiar with….let me tell you, it’s a tad intimidating. Luckily Joy and I befriended a girl from California who speaks fluent Spanish and we got things figured out after about an hour. Arriving to our apartment building was one of the scariest things….the taxi driver dropped us and our 5 months worth of luggage of on the curb and said adddiiios! Joy and I just looked at the apartment building and I don’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry…we had no idea what floor or anything to go to. As we hauled our bags to the door we had two people that lived in that building get there the same time we did and they opened doors for us help us with our luggage and personally take us to the rooms we were supposed to go too…Joy and I call them our angels. That was by far the best thing that happened to me that day…the night only got worse. I guess even though I had written my host mom and told her I didn’t speak much Spanish and my papers from the university said I didn’t, she didn’t quite get the clue until she started rambling to me and I had no idea how to respond. She then told me to unpack and went to go get Joy’s host mom to help (who is right next door). Lets just say as she was probably freaking out about having an American girl in her house that couldn’t speak much Spanish, I was freaking out as well. I told Joy I couldn’t do this and that I needed to go to the dorms or else this was going to be a brutal 5 months. Turns out Amelia, my host mom, is doing this for the first time in comparison to Joy’s host mom who is doing this for the 7th time. That night was pretty much sleepless…I was so nervous and also verging on homesickness already. With just my luck others things weren’t so great either, such as, the whole apartment building didn’t have heat or hot water, so Joy and I had the privilege of taking very cold showers that night. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTT things have gotten way better…I can understand way more than I can speak so at least I know what she is saying to me most of the time. Amelia is in her 60’s and a pretty much a perfectionist. She is also one of those people who wants you to be comfortable all the time. Meals are sometimes awkward cause there isn’t a lot said, but she is always wanting me to eat a lot….she says I am old I do not need to eat a lot, but you are young you need to eat lots and lots. She is very gracious and tells me to help myself to anything . Took the placement exam….brutal….I will see what classes I will get into tomorrow….it’s just a struggle for me I guess because first off im way behind in spanish compared to everyone else and also it seems like everyone else is at least a jr and most have studied abroad before. Just a lot to get used to all at one time, but I know it will make me a stronger person. We were showed around Bilbao the other day, but it’s so hard to find your way….everything looks the same, but some day Joy and I will be able to get where we want to go without wandering around for 25 minutes. Im doing a lot of praying to keep me going and I keep reminding myself that this is the right thing to do…hopefully.
Last night was a fun night….Joy’s host brother and one of his friends took us out to eat and then to a small pub for a beer....(yes mom, a beer). It was good and they will help us a lot with speaking the language because at home Amelia isn’t really the person that will help teach me the language....
It can only get better! sry for the million typos that i am sure are in here....have to do this quick because of not much internet availability...

An off subject topic, but I found out about Haiti today, and my heart totally goes out to all of them….I had to hold back the tears when I found out because it makes me wonder about all the people that I became so close to when I was there….makes me sick to my stomach, and for as much as I know this is a great opportunity for me, it makes me want to be there rather than here.

Love and miss all of you…
Mel

It's not goodbye, It's see ya later!

It is 5:00 AM and I am headed to bed for a quick nap. We are planning on leaving no later than 8 AM so my alarm is set for 6:30 AM....oh goodness. Fitting 5 months into a couple suitcases is a little harder than I had originally thought, but thanks to my friends I have cut down on some jewelery, shoes, and a few clothing items :). Joy and I will fly out of Lincoln at 2:38 PM and will make stops in Chicago and Frankfurt before finally arriving in Bilbao, Espana. Thanks for the prayers and the good lucks, they will be greatly needed. I will miss you all..and until next time ADIOS!

<3 Mel