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!