Christmas Bells are Ringing

So we (I) have been horrible about updating our blog. Basically life is hectic and I am relieved to say Ty and I will both be graduated by the end of this semester...if we both live that long. I decided to play over-achiever this semester and take 25 credit hours and although it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it was pretty tough. Right now we are trying to make plans for the future (which include finding a place to live!) and see where the next big adventure will take us. Tyler is hoping to find a great job and I am hoping to get into graduate school sooner rather than later. I love Christmas and I love that this year I will have a diploma in my stocking! We hope that everyone is having a good holiday season so far and to continue to have a great holiday season.
P.S. GO UTES!!

Life Since Europe

Prague, Czech Republic
Grindelwald, Switzerland
Salzburg, Austria
Cinque Terra, Italy
Rome, Italy
Ok so life has picked up its pace for us in the Rice familiy.
Last blog mentioned we were in Rome. Oh how I wish I was still there! It seems like a lifetime ago and yet it was only two months. 

Rome was amazing! Those of you who have been know what I mean and those of you who have not been just need to go and see for yourselves. To be in places where you studied in history is truly remarkable. I am trying to make a slide show of our Europe trip but who knows if that will ever come up!

Right now Tyler and I are in our final semester at the University of Utah. Tyler is working for a company called Excend and I have asked him so many different times what he does and each time I forget. Something about consulting. He uses his spanish. I don't know. Ask him. I am taking 25 credit hours and trying to survive the stress of eight classes and Tyler is stressing about finding a job and choosing the right one. We both feel like life is moving really quickly and I can hardly believe the semester is half over.

We are excited to be back with family and friends. We missed being with our nephews and nieces over the summer and going to everyone's weddings. We wouldn't trade our experience for anything, but it is always nice to come home.

Sorry that it has been so long since we posted any news, but compared to Europe, life has become fairly dull. We are excited about the newest addition to our family, little Scott! Molly and Spencer had their baby yesterday and even though I haven't seen him yet, I am sure he is just as adorable as Jaxson and Janie. 

I feel bad that my blog has become so boring so I will look for ways to make it just as great as before, but cut us some slack, we were in EUROPE!

Thanks everyone for your love and support while we were away and whenever something exciting happens I will try to post some news! 

Italy!

Sorry that we haven't been so great at updating the blog on our latest travels. On this lovely Friday evening we find ourselves in the Eternal City of Roma. But let's back up for a bit and let you know what's been going on...
We went from Venice (our last update) to the Cinque Terra where we had a blast hiking the whole thing. The Cinque Terra is five cities along the Italian Riviera that take about 6 hours to hike through each one. We had a blast and even though the path was sketchy in some parts (a german man in front of us actually fell off the edge to a terrace 6 or 7 feet below) we made it through safe and sore. Safe and sore pretty much describes our whole vacation thus far. Tyler got a quick swim in the Mediterranean and we had a lovely time relaxing in the countryside. Next we went to Florence. It was SO HOT there. I wasn't feeling to great and I think the heat is starting to get to me a bit. But Florence was lovely and before we arrived in Florence we stopped in Pisa to see the leaning tower. It was actually pretty cool. We saw the David in Florence and I think they used Tylers bum as a model because it is just as good as David's (if not better...sorry Grandma!). Our favorite part of Florence, and Italy in general, is starting to become the gelatto. We are trying to not splurge too much but gosh it is so good I can't hardly walk by a gelatto stand and not stare at all the different flavors.
So now we find ourselves in Rome and for our Friday night date we wondered over to the Colosseum (spelling? a note on spelling, I looked up how to spell wienerschnitzel Scott, so don't be too impressed with my last post). Ok it wasn't a night in Vegas or anything but we saw the REAL Caesar's Palace and they even had guys dressed up as Gladiators and Soldiers (although the costuming is better in Vegas). Tomorrow morning we are off to see the Vatican and explore the rest of Rome. We fly back to Madrid on Monday morning and we will be in the USofA by Tuesday! Yeah baby! We miss you so much and hope all are doing well. We sure love ya!

Buongiorno!

Greetings from the homeland...well Tyler's homeland. We arrived in Venice this afternoon and have been having an awesome time so far. Here is the update...
We went from Prague to Salzburg, Austria about four days ago. Really? Only four days? It seems like a lifetime when you are country hopping. Salzburg was one of my favorite stops thus far. It was such a beautiful and quiet place. The buildings were really well preserved and there were not too many tourists which was a relief from Prague. We decided to be ambitious in Austria and do two things...Try the local food, and go on a bike ride through the country. First came the food. Tyler had bratwurst (Sorry Scott we are going to butcher the spelling on these!) and I had wienerschnitzel. We were both hesitant about what would come out on my order because none of us really knew what wienerschnitzel was. Well it came out and guess what. It was amazing! Tyler's food was good too, but man that wienerschnitzel sure hit the spot. Until I found out what exactly wienerschnitzel was made of...veal. Ok so while we were in Spain I was on this PETA crusade to not eat the local baby pig dish and here I am in Austria enjoying baby cow to my heart's content. I am sorry for all you animal lovers out there. I am hooked and there is simply nothing I can do about it.
So the second part of the trip was the bike ride. We decided to go to a mountain lake just outside of the city. It was, according to my dear husband, "not too far" so we rented some bikes and set out. It was mostly uphill and pretty difficult after awhile. But the countryside was gorgeous and the villages we passed through were just picturesque. I loved it. Until the trouble started. Tyler is a pretty fit bike rider so he was ahead of me most of the time. When I started to notice him stopping quite a bit, I knew things were taking a turn for the worse. At first I thought he was not feeling his best, but then I noticed he kept getting off and fixing the pedal of his bike. When we finally caught up to each other he told me that his pedal was loose and he had to stop every so often to fix it. Well, we were about half way to the lake by then so we decided to keep going and try to find a bike shop along the way. Slowly and surely the pedal got worse and worse. It came to the point where when you rode the bike you didn't have any power in your left leg so your right leg began to really get sore. A little more than 2/3 of the way to the lake was uphill so it was pretty hard to get there. We were exhausted by the time we pulled in. We did find a bike shop and they were able to give us a wrench and some glue for the screw but unfortunately we found out on the way back that didn't help. Side note to the bike drama. The lake was AMAZING! It was the most beautiful color of blue I have ever seen and sat right between two large mountains. I really wish we could have spent some more time there. So back to the bike drama...On the way back we thought we would be ok because most of the trip would be downhill. Well when I was taking a turn on the dud-bike the pedal actually fell off completely! It was a disaster. We were able to screw the dumb thing back together and continue hobbling our way back to the hostel. 11 hours after we had set out, we pulled back into Salzburg exhausted. For some reason the "not that far" experience seemed a bit too far. So we did the math and found out that we biked over 37 miles! That may not seem a lot but factor in the mountains and the bum-bike and see if you can do any better. Tyler was furious and had a speech ready to demand his money back on the bike because we discovered the problem was due to a long overlooked repair on the pedal, but luckily for her, the receptionist was nice enough to offer a refund and the speech was put away for another time. All in all, Austria was wonderful.
Then we set out for Switzerland. We decided to go to a small town called Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps. It was Tyler's favorite part of the trip so far. The town was beautiful and I felt like we were Heidi and Peter off to find our goats on the mountaintop. Well, sort of. It was great and as if our 37 mile excursion wasn't enough to kick our pants off, we decided to go on a hike as well. Our consisted of 7 hours of hiking, 900 meters up in elevation (2952 feet), and one heck of a steep trail. They don't believe in switch back trails obviously so we pretty much were going straight up the darn mountain! But it was amazing and we got to see some pretty cool glaciers and tried some local soup on the mountain top while looking over the valleys below us. To inspire us to keep hiking we borrowed a phrase from Spencer as we were climbing the Swiss Alps on 08/08/2008. "We are living the dream!" On the hike down we kept seeing curious structures on the side of the path made of rocks, branches, pinecones, etc. Tyler said it was a mark to tell us we were going the right way, but I think the Swiss hikers worship Pagan mountain gods and build these shrines as offerings. If somebody can Wikipedia it for us and let us know to settle our bet that would be great. Thanks! We really loved Switzerland and even better, they had Dr. Pepper! Woot! Woot! So now we find ourselves in Venice, Italy about to embark on the last week of our travels through Italy and are so happy and blessed that we have been able to see what we have seen. Thanks for all the love and support. We miss you all and see you next time!

Czechin' Germany

Ok so far our great European vacation has been just what we expected. FANTASTIC! Now we are in the Czech Republic and I am on a computer that has a foreign keyboard so I can't figure out how to change it to English so there may be a lot of grammar mistakes in this blog. Sorry! Ok so we flew into Germany last Thursday and we flew to a small airport about an hour outside of Frankfurt. We took RyanAir which is a totally cheap European airline and it cost 42€ for both of our tickets. That is amazing! From the airport we took a 90 minute bus ride into Frankfurt am Main which is the main train station. I fell in love with Germany in 90 minutes. The bus took us through the countryside and it was just gorgeous. I couldn't believe how green everything was and how lovely all the towns were. I was already sad that we weren't going to be spending more than three days in Germany. It just wasn't enough!
Originally we were going to go to a town in the Rhein Valley but we mis-counted how many days we were going to be traveling so we had to cut that trip out. Instead we decided to go to the Frankfurt temple and do a session there and see the area. I am really glad we decided to go there. The temple is located outside of Frankfurt in a lovely suburb and we were able to stay in a hostel the church runs on the temple grounds. I guess they figure that because you are married for eternity you can spend a couple of nights apart from each other because Tyler and I had to stay in separate dorms, one for men and one for women (I originally 'wrote one for boys and one for girls' but I figure that because I am now married, I just might have to face womanhood). A great part about Frankfurt was the Chinese food restaurant we found that was cheap and gave you a TON of food. Yeah for good eats! It was also really great for us to start out our trip attending the temple. It brought us so much peace and it was one of the most profound temple experiences I have had thus far. Very spiritual and very peaceful. The church is true!!!
From Frankfurt we took a train to Berlin and again I fell more in love with Germany. Berlin was such an amazing city. There was so much history and it was surreal to be walking those paths. We found an awesome free walking tour that took us through all the major parts of the city. The tour was a tips-only basis because the tour guides believe that everyone, no matter their budget, deserves to experience Europe. It was an amazing and exhausting 3.5 hours but totally worth it. It was an emotional trip for me as we learned more about the Holocaust and the horrors that hatred can bring to people. One of the most profound things I learned was that hatred of the Jewish people stems from the death of Christ and their part in it. However, Christ, as he lay dying on the cross asked the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him. Therefore, how can the Nazi's and others who kill in the name of Christianity even be understand true Christian principles. Christ, who taught us to turn the other cheek, could never be the force behind such hatred. Berlin is a must-see for anyone visiting Europe!
We left Berlin early Sunday morning and are now in the Czech Republic. Prague to be exact. We met a nice Japanese family on the train and I wowed them with my knowledge of Nipon and counting to ten in Japanese. Thanks Dad. Prague is such a great place to visit. It is everything one imagines Europe to be, from the cobblestone streets, to the cathedrals and churches, to the castles and other ancient buildings still standing. Another must-see!!! We have loved our experience here too. Europe has so much to offer. We have heard only good things about Prague and were excited to visit here. The only thing left out was the HILLS...HELLO?!?! Prague is on the side of a mountain practically, so our legs are worn out and we sleep like the dead! We are staying in an elementary school that is converted into a hostel during the summer so it has been a little interesting. But hey, you live and learn. Speaking of learning...Here is a tip for the day...never, Never, NEVER take a taxi from the Prague train station to the Olet Hostel unless you want to pay 400% more than the tram or metro costs, double what a plane ticket to Germany costs, or quadruple what our 2nd fabulous Chinese dinner cost. Trust us.
So in the morning we are heading to Salzburg, Austria...best known as the location where The Sound of Music was filmed. Watch out Julie Andrews, here comes me! We miss you all and can't wait to see you again!

A Final Note from Madrid

So our last week in Madrid is coming to a close. We leave for Germany in three days and I have suddenly realized all the stuff I have left to do! Last week we had some big plans for seeing the city but never fail! Megan´s body has a way of distracting from great plans...that´s right, I got the Flu on Tuesday night and was in bed most of the day every day until Sunday. I did get to watch some great movies on TV and listen to a lot of music and catch up on some sleep...yeah right I need to cut back on the sleep big time! We did some shopping for the missionaries and they invited us to a 24th of July celebration where they had sloppy joes! I still feeling a little under the weather passed on the Joes but did have a ton of delicious watermelon and salad. I miss good food! Another missionary couple fed us on Sunday an AMAZING dinner. We are so sad to leave our new friends behind. We said good-bye to them on Sunday and it is starting to sink in how fast the time is going by. We have almost been gone for three months now! It seems like yesterday we wondering about the pig leg in our kitchen...which was finally removed a few weeks ago.
We did make it to the temple on Saturday morning and it is always so nice to attend the temple. It brings such a peaceful feeling to the day and we are always glad to be there. Plus the temple is air conditioned! It is getting so hot here at night that we are having trouble sleeping. Plus you have to remember that my husband is a heater lying next to me turned on full blast! But we will always remember this summer and all its many up´s and down´s
Tyler and I have really enjoyed being together so much. At home there is a lot that keeps us busy so it is nice to have the opportunity to just hang out. This leads to some pretty interesting conversations, as I think I have mentioned before. We talk a lot about our future plans and I laugh at how different we are. For instance, Tyler says ¨I think the place we live should be near trout fishing¨ I say trout fishing is the farthest down the list as I could possibly think of qualifications on where we live one day. He is so funny sometimes. I know I have my quirks too. We are a good match.
Madrid and Spain have been an amazing experience for us. The city is beautiful and the country is amazing. We have seen and done so many things and we are so blessed to have had this time here. We will never forget the memories that have been created and we are better people for our experiences here. So that brings us to the end of our final post from Spain. We are off on another adventure and are so excited to take on the world! Hasta Luego!

Granada

Seriously, I can't believe that we are in our last week here in Madrid. The time has absolutely FLOWN (there is a standing debate between Jordan Badger, Tyler, and I on the validity of this word). We are excited to be going on our big trip next week and excited to be home soon!
So this weekend we went to a town in the south of Spain called Granada. It should have been named "Hottest Place in the Un-Airconditioned Part of Spain" Despite the heat...it was one of the best trips we have been on! Granada is home to the Alhambra. What is the Alhambra you ask? Well, we asked ourselves the same thing. Everyone kept raving about it and we had to discover the magic for ourselves.
The history of the Alhambra began in the 8th century when the Islamic Moors from Northern Africa conquered the Iberian Peninsula (which encompasses all of Spain and Portugal). They built a gigantic fortress in Granada high on a hill surrounded by water. This is the Alhambra. What is so amazing about this place is 1) its size...it is huge! and 2) the fact that the Christians, when they drove out the Islam people, didn't destroy it, but built around it. It is an amazing place to visit. Tyler has told everyone that it was in the running to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but I don't know if that is a fact or not. Not to say my husband is a liar. But you never can tell what is an actual fact or what is thought by Tyler to be a fact.
My favorite part of the Alhambra was the gardens. In Islam I guess it is important to build beautiful gardens to feel like you are in paradise and closer to God. I found my favorite tree...the Soucer Magnolia. It is beautiful and the flowers smell heavenly. Hopefully I can plant one back in the states and keep it alive! These gardens were amazing. The Moors built an intricate irrigation system with fountains and streams to water all the plants. It is SO green there despite the heat. There were all kinds of trees, flowers, plants, and even a staircase that had a waterfall for the railing. Granada is a must see if you ever find yourself in Espana!
Granada also had an amazing cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. Who the heck are they you may ask? Well it is quite important for us Americans to know that Ferdinand and Isabel were the Spanish King and Queen who funded the expedition of a little Italian sailor known as Christopher Colombus who discovered the U-S-of-A!
We are so excited for our upcoming adventures and hope that everyone is doing great back home!
We Love You and Happy 24th of July all you Utahns!

Our Pictures from Tarifa

Ok Picture Captions Top to Bottom; Left to Right: Tyler by an old Fortress; AFRICA YEAH BABY; Megan getting skin cancer as young as possible;  We were on the border of the Atlantic and Mediterranean and therefore a sign for each!

BURNT FRIED RICE

Since the Internet has decided to never work again for our apartment, I am posting our blog a little late this week and without pictures due to the fact I have to use the Internet cafe. If the Internet ever decides to work again I will post pictures from our latest adventures.
So this last weekend we went to the edge of the world. Well the edge of the ancient world. We went to the southern most part of Europe (and Spain) which is a city called Tarifa. We were on the straight of Gibralter and literally had the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Atlantic ocean on our right side. It was amazing to say the least!
The beach was amazing and I couldn´t believe how nice the sand was. It was probably one of the best beaches I have ever been to. Tarifa was hailed in one of our travel books as the ¨Hawaii of Spain¨which I don´t entirely agree with, but the water was awesome and the trip was well worth the time and money. The only drawback was the wind. It caused two major problems. One, the sand was so fine and light that the wind blew it literally everywhere. I had sand in every crack and crevice of my body for two days. The second is that it kept the weather deceitfully cool and therefore the sunscreen was not used as much as it should have been. Thus the title ¨Burnt Fried Rice¨ which is what we both are...extremely
My favorite part of the entire trip was that I could see AFRICA! Literally it was just across the water. At night we saw the lights of Morocco and Tangier and I wanted to go there so badly. It was however around $50 per person to take the ferry over for the day and so Africa must wait for me another time. At least I have had a good glimpse of her though!
I have come to realize as the summer is heating up, just how HOT my husband is. I don´t however, mean attractive necessarily...which I believe he is...extremely so...but his body temperature is literally five degrees above normal at least. At night when I am sweltering in the heat with no relief, his body is like a furnace. This is nothing against poor Ty personally but I hate, Hate, HATE being too hot. Especially as I am trying to sleep. So I have taken to building myself a fort of pillows to keep the heat out and the cool in. I can´t wait for air conditioning again.
I can´t believe that we only have two weeks left in Madrid. The time has gone by so quickly. We are excited for our big trip that is coming up and also very excited to come home once again. A big congratulations goes out to Jackson and Cherese (sorry if I spelled your name wrong!) We are so excited for you two. Em, you are in our prayers and I am sure you will find a babysitter for cute little Danny Boy soon. We miss you all and thanks for your emails!

A Few of Our Videos

Tyler's heaping plate of seafood...notice how much everyone else has eaten comparatively

A lover's fight after a hot day

God Bless America!

First of all...

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

I was going to do that color thing for the whole blog, but guess what...just that part took way too much time, so I am pretty sure I am not going to continue with it. 

Tyler and I really have missed being home this week for some good 4th of July fun. We really wanted to be with the Rice Family in Sun Valley and then with my family this weekend in Burley. But hey, we are in Europe, so we can't complain too much!

This week was a fun one for the Tyler-and-Megan-Rice Fam. It started on Wednesday when Tyler didn't have to go to work. He only had to work Monday and Tuesday this week because his office was closed for training or something. On Wednesday we went to Toledo, a city about an hour outside of Madrid. We decided to take the bus there and it was supposed to be a 50 minute ride. An hour and a half later we realized that we were on the bus that stopped at EVERY stop from Madrid to Toledo and that the bus that takes 50 minutes didn't stop at all of these stops. I don't know what it is about European drivers, but they certainly love to be heavy on the gas and hard on the brakes. I was a little quesy by the time we arrived in Toledo but the fresh air and sunshine did their magic quickly. Toledo was breathtaking. The entire city has been declared a national monument because it is so well preserved. Toledo was the former capitol of Spain and a melting pot for the three major world religions. It was a wonderful day for sight seeing. It was sunny but there was a strong breeze all day. Just lovely. There was a lot to see and even though everything cost money to get into, the outside of the buildings were enough to suit our needs. We went home exhausted because Toledo is literally built up on a hill and to navigate the city you are hiking up and down all day, so we were sore and sleepy...which is always nice when you hit the sack.

On Thursday we slept in and had a late lunch and then went to wait in a two hour line for a final Spanish train tickets. We are going to Tarifa this weekend and then Granada next weekend. I can't believe that we have been here for two months already and that in a little over a month we will be home again! After the wait at the train station we went home to get ready for the Fourth of July celebration at the Embassy. It was awesome!! There were all of these American franchises that provided free food and I ate the best Hard Rock Cafe cheeseburger a girl could wish for. There were so, So, SO many people crowded onto the front lawn of the Ambassador's house. The dresscode was hilarious. The invitation said that "cowboy dress" was ideal but if you couldn't wear that then dress nicely. Well, we had everything from your typical cowboy, to a woman that looked like Pocahontas, to an Eastern European with a blonde mullet who claimed to be the Southern Belle and randomly yelled Yee-Haw as she performed with her band. The Spanish interns that worked with Tyler were convinced she was from the USA and I kept trying to tell them she had a foreign accent. I guess the southern drawl she pulled off every once in awhile was enough to convince her audience. Crazies. The best part of the night was the free Houston Astros stuff we got because the owner was at the party! Go Baseball!

Friday we were going to go to Segovia and on the way to the bus station I started to feel a little down. We got to the bus station with only a bit of cash and Tyler's credit card and found out that we couldn't pay with a credit card so the hour long metro ride to the bus station was worthless. We couldn't buy a ticket to Segovia so we decided to sight-see around Madrid a little more. We walked to the Goya cathedral and by the time we got there I was SICK. It was probably a blessing that I didn't go to Segovia because I would have been miserable all day. I PROMISE I AM NOT PREGNANT!!! So Tyler took me home where I crashed for a few hours, woke up for dinner, and crashed again. Saturday I was still feeling yucky so I stayed home and watched TV because the people we live with weren't home watching it...for once! I got to watch part of High School Musical, the Phantom of the Opera and Mr. Bean all in English on a movie channel they have that you can change to english or spanish. We also started our fast at 3 on Saturday so I wasn't feeling too great after that either. In fact, I felt miserable all night but I am sure that is because I am a horrible faster (that is not the correct word I am sure). Tyler decided to go out into the city and take some pictures and read. When he got home he showed me his video and apparently he stumbled upon Gay Pride Week here in Madrid. There was a huge parade downtown and Tyler naively walked right into it! Gosh he has all the fun!

Sunday we went to a lovely church meeting and had dinner at the Rust's house again. They are so nice to us and they always have good food! My favorite story of the week comes from Tyler. We were on the internet one night double checking our bank accounts and I was doing the typing. We checked my account and all was good and then we logged onto Ty's. For those of you who are familiar with Zions Online Checking, you have your login name, then a security question and then a password. Well for one of the security questions it asks for the name of a certain member in your family. Since i knew the answer to that I started to type it in. Tyler said no, that is wrong, type this name. And I said "Oh you're trying to trick people if they break into your account" (Tyler is CONSTANTLY worrying about security issues which is not a bad thing) and he said reluctantly "no the question tricked me" meaning that he read the question wrong when he was setting up the account and now he has the answer mixed up every time you log in. I guess it was the way he said it, but I just love him. He is so hilarious without ever trying to be. Oh yeah and I was trying to run in the metro the other day in a skirt and flip flops after Tyler to catch a train and I made the train, but lost my balance and rather gracefully slid onto the floor as the doors were closing. Ok, I slipt and fell flat on my butt and everyone was watching and I was laughing on the floor and Tyler had run in another door so he had to run down the train to help me. Somebody tell my husband we don't always have to be in a hurry!

I hope you all have a super great week and keep emailing! We love you!

Costa Del Sol

So here we are nearly two months into our great adventure in Europe. And oh what an adventure we are having! This week was pretty mellow. We had the missionaries over for cinnamon rolls and peanut butter sandwiches. I love taking care of the missionaries and they just about passed out when I brought out the root-beer! We are helping them to find investigators and so far all they have is a full belly, but I hope that helps at least a little bit! We also booked all of our hostels for our big trip at the end of July. For those of you who don´t know, Tyler and I are going to tour around Europe for 20 days before we come back to the states. We are both really excited about the trip and are really excited at the amazing deals we got on all of our hostels!
This weekend we decided to take a beach vacation and relax. Well...we got exactly what we hoped for with a few minor gliches. The first of which is that we nearly missed our train! We got stuck in rush hour traffic in the early morning and literally had to run from metro station to metro station to make it on time. Second gliche...we forgot our camera!! No pictures for this weekend! But you can Google the city we stayed in and photo shop our pictures in for sure! Because we were there!
We arrived in Malaga, a city in the South of Spain on the Costa del Sol at about 11:30 on Friday morning. Then we took a smaller train to a city just outside Malaga called Fuengirola. It was a beautiful little beach town and we were planning to hit the beach for two days and then explore Malaga on Sunday. When we arrived at our hostel, we were impressed with how nice it was. There was air conditioning, cable TV, and a small refridgerator in every room! However, the problems began at check-in. For some reason the hostel´s card machine wouldn´t read Tyler´s credit card and we were not able to pay for our hostel for two nights. We tried EVERYTHING. We even went to the hostel´s bank and tried to pay with the card there, but it wouldn´t work. We were starting to get a little worried and found another hostel. We hoped the card would work there because we only brought one credit card and 50 Euros in cash. It was 40€ a night for us to stay in either of the two hostels. So after a 4:00am (Utah time) call to Tyler´s awesome parents, we found out the credit card which we had used to book our 10 hostels for our big trip was frozen because Zions was trying to ¨take care of us¨ Yeah, thanks for that. So we were able to pay in cash for one hostel one night and pay with Scott´s credit card for the other hostel the other night. Which left us with 10 Euros for three days of eating and entertainment. Luckily the beach is free and I packed a lot of sandwiches and snacks for us to have and even though we were starving on Sunday night when we got home, we survived and it was a blast. Fuengirola was an amazing city and the beach was awesome! There weren´t ¨big waves¨ which is Tyler´s response to how the beach was, but the water was refreshing and we both got a lot of sun. We love the Spanish riviera! The worst part of the whole trip would have to be our second hostel. Not because it was unclean or anything but because it was MURDEROUSLY hot inside. I don´t think I slept a full hour the whole night. On Sunday, we slept in, read books, and went home. It is nice to have lazy vacations every once in awhile...
Last night we watched the Eurocup final and I am happy to say SPAIN WON! I don´t even like soccer! It was exciting to be in Spain for the eurocup though and to see how excited people were to watch the game. Except a small part of me was hoping they would lose because when they won the semi-finals the people were out all night shooting fireworks and honking horns. Last night was action times ten of that! Not the best night sleep, but it was good enough! Better than Hostel Sante Fe for sure!
Well that is it for this week. We sure love all the emails and updates! Hope you all have a great fourth of July and we sure wish we could have gone to Sun Valley with the Rice Fam! We miss you guys!

We Sure Are Cute for Two Ugly People

Well this week the heat has been turned on here in Madrid! It has been so hot and I think the worst part for me is that our apartment doesn't have air conditioning so in order to stay cool we have to keep it dark during the day and open all the windows at night. Tyler is not a fan of opening the windows at night because of the bugs that come in. For me I would chose bugs over the heat any day, but Tyler doesn't concur. I think my favorite moment thus far was when we had a huge moth in our room for a couple of nights. It was driving Tyler insane and the fluttering of it was making me crazy too. So finally on the second or third night of this annoying moth, Tyler took action. Sometimes Tyler goes to bed earlier than I do and so he wears this really cute sleeping mask over his eyes. He hadn't fallen asleep quite yet and I told him the moth was out(it would go above our dresser where neither of us could get it and Tyler wanted me to tell him when it came out). He was mad and got up and moved the sleeping mask to his forehead. I said "Ty, I can get it, you go back to bed" and with total seriousness wearing only his garments and the blue shiny sleeping mask crooked across his forehead, he said "No Megan, this is a man's job" I was laughing so hard and wanted to take a picture but Tyler wouldn't let me. It was just one of those moments. 

I am having a lot of fun learning about Tyler's personality. He is...picky isn't the right word...peculiar doesn't quite fit either...but he is so exact. For Ty, everything in the world has to follow a certain order otherwise the world simply cannot continue revolving. He makes me laugh when he says things like "That movie was good, but a little crude" or when he is finished washing dishes he goes into the bathroom to wash his hands to get the "spongy" smell off. I think my favorite thing is at night when he has his hearing aides out and tries to carry on conversations with me. Most of the time he just talks like he is talking to himself and I just happen to be there listening. I am sure Tyler has a list of things for me too...but luckily he is too nice to expose me for what I truly am.

So this week was good for us. Like I said, it is HOT here in Madrid. The week went by quickly. I went to the National Library one afternoon and Tyler and I went to the Prado one evening. The Prado is sort of the Louvre of Madrid. The major event of the week was the wedding of Max and Sandra. Max is the son of the lady we rent our room from and he is always super nice to us. I wanted to get him a copy of the proclamation to the family in spanish for a wedding present but like Paris, the distribution center by the temple hates me. I went there THREE different times on THREE different days and it was never opened. I made sure that I went when the posted hours said it would be open and nada...nothing. So maybe this week I will be able to go there even though there wedding is already over.

Max and Sandra's wedding was awesome! They weren't married in the temple, but they plan to be sealed in the temple in Ecuador next year. (Max is from Ecuador). They were married in a courthouse outside of Madrid and they had "the best wedding ever" according to Tyler. Don't take his word for it though because he says that about every wedding he likes. The wedding was quite the international affair. We were driven to the Spanish wedding in a French car, by a Romanian friend of Zuela's, who is married to a girl from Ecuador and were seated at the wedding dinner by a Venezuelan and a Columbian and my favorite part was the all you can drink American soda! What a party it was! First there were cocktails (no alcohol) and appetizers and gosh they were good! I kept eating them that by the time dinner was supposed to start I was almost full. Dinner was a full five course meal (which Tyler ate like he had never ate before--he loved it!). Our table had all members of the church and even though Max and Sandra are also members, they did serve alcohol for their guests at dinner. It was funny that whenever a drink was brought out, the entire table had a debate over whether it was alcoholic or not. The waitress would say no and then the waiter would say yes and then the bottle would be examined we all would agree that it didn't have alcohol until someone would try it and confirm that it did. We finally just stuck to our grape juice and water. Finally at 12:45am the dancing began. We got home at 3 in the morning! It was a fun night and we were glad to be apart of the event.

On Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed to go and visit Elder Ott's ward. Elder Ott is in Tyler's parents ward and is serving here in Madrid. We got there at 10am only to find out that Elder Ott's ward starts at 12:00. No problem, we will just hang out for two hours feeling like we are hung over from the previous night...not really! We did get to see Elder Ott for a few minutes but he had a family of investigators there with him that day and he was really busy. So we went home after church and crashed for a few hours. So that brings us to the end of another week. This weekend we are going to Malaga for a beach vacation. 

Welcome home Jackson! Tyler is really excited to meet you! Hope you all are great. We love you and miss you!

A Love That Will Last

Ok all you chuckle-nuggets out there. Let's set the record straight. MEGAN IS NOT PREGNANT! Girls have built in pregnancy tests that come once a month and mine has come CONSISTENTLY this month and the months previous. So you can stop your speculating and gossiping. There is no Spanish bun in my oven. 

Now on to more important matters. This week was awesome for us. Tyler got to go the press briefing and he was asked to present an article! Wahoo! Tyler is awesome! I am always so proud of how great he is doing and how humble he is. We had family night again with the family we live with on Monday and we are glad to invite the spirit into this home every week. It brings not only Tyler and I closer together, but the family expresses how much they enjoy listening to Tyler's lessons (I haven't braved FHE in Spanish yet) and feel the spirit. The week was pretty mellow because we were preparing for our trip to Barcelona.

We left for Barcelona on the 6:00 am speed train on Friday morning. It was an adventure getting to the train station because we bought the earliest train ticket but didn't take into account that the metro doesn't open until 6:00 and our train was supposed to leave at 6:00. Luckily we found out there was a bus route that runs all night. The speed train was really nice and went 300 km per hour (That's about 186.3 miles for all of you who don't like the mental math thing) so it only took us about two and half hours to get to Barcelona. The night before Tyler and I were not really tired and stayed up most of the night reading and surfing the net. So when we arrived in Barcelona we only had a few hours of sleep under our belt and wanted to take a nap at our hostel before going out and seeing the sights. Plus it was only 9:00 am so we had plenty of time. When we got to our hostel, they told us that we couldn't check in until 1:00 pm! When we booked the hostels it didn't say anything about that! So we had to take our luggage and find a place to hang out for the next few hours. Well I was SUPER tired and SUPER grumpy so we walked in silence for about half an hour before finding a nice park and crashing for awhile. I felt a lot better after that nap and eating a sandwich. By then it was close to check in time so we went to our hostel and checked in. 

Our hostel was...interesting. It was called "Graffiti Hostel" and for the record, Tyler booked this one. The hostel was covered in, well, graffiti! It was actually pretty cool and we stayed in the "London" dorm (there was New York and I think Prague?). All the rooms had writing on them from the guests and I was sad that we forgot to sign our names on the wall when we left. We stayed in an 8 bedroom dorm and had to pay extra for clean sheets, which isn't totally uncommon, but Tyler wasn't totally convinced the sheets were actually clean. Plus, because we were staying in dorm on bunk-beds and the hostel was full, Tyler and I both had top bunks across the room for each other. It was fun to watch Ty in his first "Europe on a shoe-string" experience. Especially with the group of 26 Poles who were staying in our hostel and just seemed to be everywhere at once all the time. 

The rest of Friday we walked all around the city. First we went to a cathedral called "Sagrada Familia" or the Sacred Family which was designed by an architect named Gaudi, who had a huge influence on Barcelona. When Gaudi graduated from architectural school, his professor said he was either a nut or a genius and when you look at these buildings, you think the same thing! The buildings are just crazy! The Sagrada Familia was started in the late 1800's and will not be finished until 2022! Just because there are so many details and crazy little things that need to be done.

After the Sagrada Familia, we walked around Barcelona. We went everywhere! Barcelona is a very interesting city that has really funky buildings (from Gaudi), really old buildings (from Roman times), and really modern buildings (mostly from the Olympics in the early 90's). One of my favorite buildings was the Cathedral in the Old Town. The patron saint of Barcelona is buried there. Her name is Eulalia and she was tortured by Romans when she was 13 for being Christian and then killed. The church was beautiful and the picture of me drinking water from a fountain is in one of it's courtyards (The water was for drinking and it was holy! I had to try it! It came from an underground well). The cathedral was huge but there were buildings all around it, so you couldn't tell how big it was until you were inside. It took over 600 years to complete and was amazing! 

The old city was really beautiful. All the streets are really narrow and close together. The architecture is really unique and it was fun to get lost in the streets. Barcelona was originally rumored to be built by Hercules before Rome but more accurate records for sure have it settled by the Romans about 15 bc. It was a beautiful city. I wish that I felt as great in Paris as I did in Barcelona...but we can't have everything we want now can we?

The next day, we went to a city outside Barcelona that was supposed to have amazing beaches. Sitges, the name of the town, was awesome! It was a small resort town that we found out was a gay resort which was fine with us, but we did feel a little uncomfortable with the beach dress code. Let's just say Tyler's choice of wearing a swimsuit and not a speedo and my choice of not being topless put us as the two most overdressed people on the beach that day. Ah Europe! Never a dull moment! But we got some surf and sun in the sand and it was a really relaxing day. As I was laying on the sand, I had a small moment taking in how blessed I really am. I love traveling and I have been able to do so much of it. I have Tyler in my life and he is really my best friend. We laugh and talk and I love to hang out with him. Laying in the sun of the Spanish Riviera will be a memory that will last us a lifetime!

On Sunday we decided to hike a nearby mountain called Montjuic. Well we didn't really decide to hike, but we started walking up it and never really stopped until we were at the top! The thing about walking that really kills you is that it doesn't catch up to you until the day is over and you are on a train back to Madrid and so sore you can barely sit down! But we got to see the rest Barcelona had to offer us. My favorite thing about walking around is all the time I got to spend talking to Tyler. I learn new things about him all the time. He is so funny and so unique and just perfect for me. It is hard to talk about your marriage without sounding corny or mushy, but sometimes you can't help it. I like that Tyler and I can agree on most things and other things we simply agree to disagree. We have a love that will last!

We got home late Sunday night and were happy to be home in Madrid. I spent Monday doing all the laundry and by the time I had hung up the last of it outside on the line and we were eating dinner, a torrential downpour soaked it all. We just laughed and I guess our clothes will be extra clean this week! I also got to talk to the returned missionary, Joey on his way out the door to Florida and I was happy to hear he was doing so well. Tyler and I really miss you all and we hope that you are having a great summer! Keep writing!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Well this has been an eventful week and since I posted the Paris blog so late the week before, I didn't post a blog last week. So this blog is long and you might want to sit down as we give you the run down on our latest and greatest...Also, I know I have apologized for my grammatical madness in typing blogs. I can't apologize enough for the pain of reading my mistakes but I have to type as fast as I can because I never know when the internet connection will cut out. Just know it pains me far more than any of you to read this with mistakes...ha ha!

Last Friday, the 30th, we were invited to eat dinner at the Taylor's apartment. Dr. Taylor and his wife are here in Europe on a medical mission for the church and they are friends with the Tyler's family. They were so nice and dinner was so good. Ty and I are really starting to crave good home cooking! It was great to visit with them and to hear about what they are doing here in Spain.

On Saturday, we went shopping for the missionaries. Since the temple missionaries have been so nice to us, we told them we would help get them some things that they can't find here in Madrid. While shopping, I still wasn't feeling great from the previous week's adventures and my mysterious Parisian illness wasn't quite gone. So we went and delivered the groceries and went home.

Sunday we went to church and got another long list from the missionaries and then I went home still not feeling too great and Tyler went out to explore the city.

On Monday we had family home evening with the family we live with and it was great. They are really sweet people and are really nice to us. They help us out whenever they can and are always thanking us for our example.

Later in the week our internet was finally working and then the people we live with decided that they didn't want it anymore and cancelled it all together. So that means no steady Internet connection, just a random wireless connection whenever we can get one. They did sign up for some new cable though and we get a few American channels and you can even watch them in English!

On Wednesday it was Emily's big 24th birthday so I was excited to call her and talk to her. It was so fun to hear about how her life is going and I could hear baby Daniel giggling in the background and it made me a little homesick. That night, Tyler and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate one month in Madrid! Can you believe we have been gone that long already? Even though it cost an arm and a leg, it was awesome food and this Hard Rock even had free refills on soda! Woot! Woot! (Free refills in Europe are rare and priceless).

The next exciting event was on Friday. We went shopping for the missionaries again and then Tyler and I were invited to a reception at the Ambassador's house that night to celebrate Latin American leaders and businessmen who have done great work in building opportunities for Latin American kids to further their education. We were both excited to go and hopefully meet the Ambassador too. Before telling you all about the night's events, let me mention a little side note. Tyler's boss, Judy has been so impressed with his work since he has arrived that she wanted to have him come to one of the daily press briefings that Tyler helps her prepare for. The meeting is with the Ambassador and all his counselors and is held daily. It is basically to update news and events and discuss what is being done about problems in Spain. Tyler's boss wanted Tyler to attend this event, but she didn't know if he could. To me that means that Tyler is the first intern she has had that has impressed her enough to grant an invitation to this very private meeting. I mean she had to ask how to get him permission to go! Well, for some reason or another having to do with security, she was told that he wouldn't be able to attend this meeting. However, Tyler never fails to impress and this past week she said that she was going to email the Ambassador himself to see if Ty could come to the meeting. We were still waiting to hear back on that information when we went to the reception.

Right as we walked into the Ambassador's home, two of his counselors were there to meet the guests. We found out later that these two men were quite important to the Ambassador and the Embassy. Tyler introduced us and said he was an intern with Commercial Services, when the two men said, "Sure! You are the intern Judy has been raving about!" And then went on to tell him they were impressed by his reputation with his office and they were excited to have him come to the press briefing next week! Tyler was thrilled but because there were quite a few people behind us in the receiving line, we had to continue on into the reception without much more conversation. The reception was interesting and there were quite a few people there. Tyler was popular with his fellow interns and they were all nice to me. After the Ambassador had made his speech about the Latin American leaders, the formal part of the reception was over and we were able to just mingle and talk and try the many appetizers beings served.

The two counselors we had met previously were among the large throng of important people and I was so proud to say that each of them sought out Tyler to talk to him for a good 15-20 minutes. Furthermore, while visiting with one of these men, the Ambassador came over to ask him a question and we were able to meet him! The counselor said, "This is the intern Judy has been telling us about," and the Ambassador shook Tyler's hand and said that he was excited to have him come to the press meeting next week and he had heard all about him. I was beyond thrilled that the Ambassador of the United States of America, one of the most important figureheads for the U.S. in Spain, had personally heard about Tyler and was interested in seeing more of him. Tyler was deeply humbled by the experience and I was all the more impressed by him. He is such a genuine person, who works hard not to earn the prais of people around him, but because he knows it is the right thing to do. He is not a show off or a brown noser, but someone who deeply values hard work and is truly appreciative of this experience and wants to show is superiors that he respects them and this job. Gosh, I love him! After the reception was over, we walked around the city and stopped to have a local treat of churros with chocolate. It was a fun night to be out and see the city all lit up and to see Tyler lit up with events of the night was great too!

Saturday we went downtown and I was finally feeling better. It is good that I am only sick in the mornings and that even though I haven't been able to eat much, I am actually gaining weight...it is weird really. I am only kidding! My sister keeps teasing me about being pregnant...which I am not! Anyway, we bought tickets to Barcelona for next weekend and then walked around seeing all the sights of the city. My favorite part of the day was when we found a beautiful rose garden in a park downtown. It was such a peaceful place and all the different roses smelled heavenly! I love Madrid.

On Sunday we went to church and delivered the groceries to the missionaries. They were so appreciative of this little act of service and it made me feel really good to help them out. One of the couples invited us over for Sunday dinner and it was so good! We had roast and potatoes with gravy and vegetables and salad and rolls! It was just like Sunday dinner at home. I also talked to the bishop of our ward and have an interview on Wednesday so I can start working in the temple during my endless amounts of free time.

Finally this weekend we went to our first (and last) bull fight. I was nervous to go because I knew that they kill the bull, but I thought it would be a good cultural experience. It was awful! They start with tiring out the bull by having it run around the arena and then they have these two guys on horseback come out and the bull charges the horse (who is wearing some sort of weird shield) and the man on the back stabs the neck of the bull twice. Well, if the bull has put up a good fight until this point, the judges give a green flag and the bull is allowed to live. We saw six bulls in the arena and only one was able to live. The rest of the fight is just torture. I couldn't understand who the crowd was cheering for, the bull or the matador. Clearly a man who stands in a sand pit in a sparkly outfit with pink tights, waving a cape, dancing around like a ballerina, stabbing at his mooing counterpart has issues! Be ready for my next thesis...Bull fights: Is the Matador really stabbing the animal in front of him or the animal in himself? As for the spectators, well, we were among them so I can't judge too harshly. However, the worst part of this hamburger holocaust is after the bull is killed and they tie it up to three donkeys and drag it out of the arena and send it to the beef market. There is no respect for the animal who just put up a good fight and lost its life for the cause. Needless to say, after the fifth Big Mac fell, I was done and ready to join PETA. Honestly, they should have had a booth outside the arena or something. They would have got me to sign on the dotted line. Tyler found the whole thing "interesting" but I think he was just trying to find the good in the experience and a justification for the money we spent on the tickets. On a brighter note, now I can say I have had the experience of watching five innocent creatures be tortured and slain.

So that brings us to another eventful week in Madrid! We hope that you all are having a great time in sunny Utah and a big WELCOME HOME ELDER JOEY RICE will be in our hearts this week. Keep writing, we love your emails and your comments! We miss you tons and love you more!

The City of Love?

So we went to Paris this weekend and I have been waiting my whole life to visit this beautiful city. We took an 11 hour train ride through the North of Spain into Basque country and then on into France. The train ride was really beautiful, but our connecting train into France was full so we had to take a later train. That is when the trouble began...The train we were supposed take would get us into Paris at 7:45pm but because that train was full we had to take a train that put us in Paris at 11:20pm. We were a little worried about finding our hostel in the middle of the night and that the public transportation would close down in the middle of our search. But there was really nothing much we could do, so we walked around the Hendaye for a few hours waiting for our next train. The city was on the coast and really green and beautiful. But in the middle of our walk it started pouring buckets and lightning and thundering. We didn't have an umbrella so we went searching for one frantically. I swear that if someone would set up an umbrella stand in the rain, they would make a killing. We did find an umbrella at a boat store near enough and finally had some relief from the rain. Tyler insisted that we walk to the beach even though it was cold and rainy and miserable, but we did anyway. 

We finally got on our train to France, a little damper than we arrived, and found that even though we had a reservation, we did not have an assigned seat. So we scrambled to find two seats together and thought we were fine to settle in for the night. Well some smart Frenchman had another idea in store for us. It wasn't literally one guy, but somewhere, someone had the bright idea to give some people reserved seating and some people just general tickets. So we had to change seats three or four times before finally arriving in Paris. Not to mention we arrived at nearly 12:00am. We decided not to brave the public transportation and got a taxi. I thought it was fitting that our taxi was a Mercedes seeing as we were in France, until he started driving through tunnels at 100 miles an hour (not km! I did the conversion Dad!) and I remembered that Princess Diana was also once driving in a Mercedes in Paris at midnight through tunnels going quite fast and I became a little sick to my stomach. Tyler was nauseous too but not because of Princess Di, but because the cab ride cost us 45 Euros! That is over $70! It cost a 40 euros total to buy a plane ticket to Germany. That's what comes from being in Paris. We did pass the Eiffel Tower though and it was all lit up and sparkling and reminded me of my niece Janie and how when we play together she is always "Mywee" and I am "Spahkle Butiful." Tyler and I nicknamed the Eiffel Tower Sparkle Beautiful.

Our hostel was nice though and was not expensive for what we got out of it. And it was really clean, something you don't always see in student hostels in Europe. We found out it was a good thing that we took the taxi after all because the Metro in Paris is open late, but to get to our hostel you have to take an RER train which is a train system that serves Paris' suburbs and those close at 12:00. So we would have made it as far as the Metro goes and then would have had to find a cab in the middle of nowhere or even worse, walk. 

I was excited to start our first day in Paris. I wasn't feeling great, but I didn't sleep well that night so I thought once I got out and about I would feel better. We decided to go to the Louvre first and avoid the crowds. We walked through some beautiful parts of Paris and arrived at the Louvre. 

As we were waiting in line for tickets, I began to feel a little dizzy. I needed to find a bathroom and fast. So I told Ty I was going to check our coats and made my way out of the crowded hall. My stomach was rocking and rolling and I found the bathroom just in time...I will spare the hairy details...and came out a little shaky, my stomach still churning. We decided to see the Mona Lisa first and made our way to the crowded exhibition room. I started to feel that same sort of rumbly in my tumbly and told Tyler I needed to get out and get some Sprite or something. We found a Sprite and a bench and sat there for about 15 minutes and I tried to stand up but was really shaky and weak still. I nibbled on some granola bar and croissant, but that didn't help either. At this rate it would literally take us the entire two days we had to see the Louvre. Tyler however, is a champ and got me a wheelchair right away and I am sure I looked pathetic being rolled around with no apparent handicap, but it was a lifesaver and I was able to enjoy the Louvre. 

After sitting for a few hours, I was feeling a little better, so we decided to check out Notre Dame and the other side of the river. Tyler was starving and I was nauseous at the smell of food so he ordered a kebab and I tried not to smell it. I did try a little bit of it and it was good, but I couldn't eat much. We went through Notre Dame and there was some sort of service going on inside so it was crowded, but the effect of the singing and prayers was magical. I am so amazed at the size of these buildings! After Notre Dame, I wasn't feeling to swell and we started walking towards the Latin District and Luxemborg gardens. By the time we made it to the Pantheon, I was miserable, shivering and achy all over. We rested on the steps for a few minutes and then continued on our way exploring the little side streets. Each step became harder and harder and I became more and more ill. By the time we made it to a park bench I was in tears, I was so miserable. I wanted to see Paris more than anything, but my body was killing me! We decided to at least try for the Luxemborg gardens before going back to the hostel, but that was still a 15 minute walk away and by the time we reached the edge I could barely walk. We stopped in a McDonald's so I could get another Sprite to settle my ever-raging stomach and Tyler got a Nutella crepe from a nearby stand. 

We headed back to the hostel where I took a long hot bath and crashed into bed. I went from hot to cold all night, shivering and sweating and barely sleeping. I woke up at 4 in the morning and took another bath to relax my body and try to sleep better. At 8 I was sick and throwing up three or four times. Tyler went to the concierge to ask him for something to help with my pounding head and he gave him so fizzy lifting drink. Well it was not actually magical lifting soda, but you did have to put it in water and it did fizz and it was the worst tasting thing a person can imagine! Surprisingly, it did help with my headache but after awhile, but stomach didn't need any more fizzy lifting and decided to return the medicine. We had already left to go exploring for the day, and I new I had to see the Eiffel Tower first because who knew how long I would last. Right before the Eiffel Tower, we explored an area with a monument to the bastille with some beautiful side streets and hold aristocratic houses. I managed to get in a few good shots, but most of my pictures looked like the one above.

We made it to the Champs de Mars (the park in front of the Eiffel Tower) and I was feeling worse than ever. I laid down on the ground and crashed! There was no hope for me after that. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon and I had a ginger ale, my scarf, and my bag and I slept until 6:00! I didn't even notice, I was out cold. Tyler went off exploring and by the time he came back, I wasn't feeling any better. Not very many people can say the took a five hour nap in front of the Eiffel Tower I guess...We did walk towards the Eiffel Tower and got me another Sprite and I wanted to go to the top but my stomach just wouldn't let me. So we decided to go on a boat tour instead...I know great alternate. I was miserable the whole time, but luckily because I threw up right before we got on, I didn't throw up on the boat. I was beat by that time and knew that the City of Light only had one light for me....the light at the end of the tunnel. I told Tyler I was going back to the hostel and to stay here and explore and he reluctantly let me go. I was in so much pain. My head ached, my legs ached, my back ached, I had the chills. The only thing that didn't hurt were my feet, thanks to Lesli for buying me some great shoes. 

I made it back to the train station and instead of walking the 20 minutes to our hostel, decided to take the bus. Well I missed the bus by two minutes and the next bus would come in 50 so I thought maybe I should just walk. Then it started to rain. It had poured the day before but Sunday was beautiful weather, so I didn't have the umbrella with me. Like a scene out of a movie, I sat down on the cold cement steps and waited, shivering, for nearly an hour for our bus. When I got to the hostel, I took another bath, and I think I passed out for a little bit because all of a sudden I woke up and the water was getting cold. So I got out and went to bed. In the meantime, Tyler saw all the beautiful sights Paris didn't want me to see. He saw the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, the Luxemborg Gardens, the Jewish quarter, the Guillotine monument, and so much more (sorry if my French spelling is way off!). He came home close to 12 and we both settled in for a quiet night. For me it was another miserable night and when it was time to catch our train in the morning, I would have missed it if Tyler didn't have to work the next day. Tyler said he was worried the whole time to the train station because I was really pale and shaky and he said if I passed out we were done for. Luckily with a lot of prayers we made it to the train station. The train ride was horrible. Tyler laughed at my million different positions trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, and I was literally counting down the minutes until that wretched day would be over. I had barely slept in three days and I was sicker on that day then any of the previous three. Without fail, we hobbled into our apartment where I have crashed the last four days, living on soup and 7up. I finally have access to some medicine so I have been feeling a bit better, but still not great. My conclusion is this...The City of Love has no love for me. And in the words of Janie....I'm ok with that.