House hunting full force

10:30 am Saturday morning I am in bed sleeping when a loud voice over a megaphone blows through the window: "MONA LISA POTATOES 5 kilograms half-price.... Come and get them, dont pass up this deal! And we have garlic and onion. All brought by the man in the van with the blonde girl straight from the farm this morning." I wasn't planning on waking up quite yet, but since the pitch will probably last another half hour, I might as well. Oh sweet Spain. Its not that uncommon to hear people selling or chanting random things over megaphones. Last year I never understood them, but yep theres no doubt: the dude was determined to sell those Mona lisa potatoes at half price. :)

Well, I just finished Sunday dinner and am all pysched for tomorrow. I'm gonna go with javi's sister Isa (Isabel) to run an errand in the a.m. and then I have 5 dates to see different apartments. I'll report later.

This is a picture from Thursday night, the Birthday of Javi AND give everyone their gifts from America night. I am gonna go ahead and say it was a success, except that everyone was confused by all the "made in china" stickers on their American gifts.

Another picture, because everyone loves pictures..... This is -left to right -me, Dani and David. Dani and I were talking because we weren't quite sure if we were in the picture or not.... Javi's dad has the same shoot at random picture style as my dad :)

Back in the Game

So here I am, writing to you all from Spain. Sigh. My flight and trip was great and flawless. I watched a total of 5 movies. My favorite was... ¨´Away we go.´¨ Something like that. Super cute. I like watching mindless movies to pass time and learn more English.

Speaking of English, today I will be meeting with my boss at 4:45 pm. I am going to get the low-down on my work etc. For those of you that did not get the connection - I will be teaching English.

Anyways nothing exciting to report. In about 15 minutes I will be back in full-swing and busy doing really important stuff. Aside from meeting with my boss, I will be going to the climbing gym, and celebrating Javi´s birthday. Pictures to follow.

The Procrastination Game

Alright so here we go again. After a quick summer at home, 1 niece, two nephews, a wedding and a Happy Birthday to ME (26), I am getting all geared up to fly back to Madrid. We all know I will be singing a different song in about a month, but Im gonna put this on the record anyways: I think I am ready and excited to get back to working.

The transition back goes hand in hand with all those typical 'fresh start resolutions' including writing in my blog more often, climbing more, loving every day I work, being organized, on-time, and reading every evening before I go to bed. I know, all of you are asking- What bed? True, I don't have a home yet, but per the above resolution you will all be updated soon enough.

Okay so jog back up to the top... NOTE: 2 nephews? Yep, the last nephew came early... and looking on the bright side of him coming about 4 weeks premature...I actually got to meet him! Okay now here's the icing on the cake... Henry Alexander (great name isnt it?) is my godson ;) I leave tomorrow and will spend the night in Chicago with my dearest friend Bonnie, on Tuesday she'll take me to the airport and after a short stop in Toronto the title of my Blog will again make sense.

That's how things stand in the latest news, as well as the fact that I am NOT gonna be able to fit all my stuff in my suitcase. time to go solve that problem.....

These are the 3 latest additions to the Collins lineage..... Amaya (July 2), Henry (September 8), Roman (July 31)

East Coast Tour

\Just got back from a two week long East coast tour that included Phily, New York City, Boston/Canton, and Washington D.C. Each trip included both sightseeing and friendseeing. I had a blast with both, but I feel like I should have trained more for the tourism. We probably put on a at least a good 20 miles.

Philadelphia is home to my one and only sister, her husband and their new little bundle of joy: Roman. It is also the birthplace of the constitution. If neither of those interest you, you will probably find the Rocky Steps as a more appealing highlight of the city. If you are still not impressed.... think Philly Cheese Steak or Water Ice :)


New York City is New York City.
It has also been the home of our friend Santi for the past 8 months. We couldnt have had a better tour guide! Javi went ahead of me to see New York City with Santi and one day later I caught up with them. (Luckily THEY did a 15 mile tour the day I wasnt there.) Once I got in we went to see Times Square (which was my favorite part), Central Park (which was my other favorite part), and crossed to see the city from the other side of the Manhattan bridge (which was also my favorite thing in the city). Although Javi was not that impressed with New York, I am glad that he got to see what everyone in the world seems to be talking about......


I didn't realllllllly go to see Boston, and it was never my intention, but of course once we were in Canton (20 minutes outside of Boston) we HAD to see Boston. Boston is maybe the birthplace of America? more or less. Anyways it's a nice crisp city that will always have a special place in my heart (and many childhood memories). Back to the important place.... CANTON. That's where my mom's family is centralized. I saw my Aunt, Uncle, two cousins and GRAMMY :)


The Last stop on our trip was to our nation's Capital. I love it and can always repeat a trip walking around and seeing all the stuff. So we did it. We saw from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial and stopped by Barak's home. Javi's favorite site was the Korean War memorial. I got to have dinner with the one and only Kate Deiss and Becca Horvath along with her lovely two little babes. :)

Catching up again.

After a long gap I have FINALLY got some time to play catch up on my writing. I am about halfway through summer and have been busy running around and playing tour guide to Javi who has been here with me for about 3 weeks now and will be here until the 2nd of September.

What are the highlights of the US for us?

-Chicago and a night out on the town with Katie Pryor and Bonnie

-The Collins household, bbq's and backyard football.

-semi-trucks, flags on all the house, fire escapes and water towers.

-The birth of both Amaya and Roman (my first niece and first nephew)!- Red River Gorge in Kentucky for climbing

-frisbee golf, skateboarding, hot tubs, burgers, ice cream and lots of microwaveable food :)

- Philadelphia

We are on our way to New York this weekend. Then we are hoping to make it to Boston to see my Grammy and Cousins. And Lastly our nation's capital :)

back at home

I spent 5 days at the farm with friends. It was awesome to see everyone and all the new additions!
Now I am back at home with my family and friends in good ol Brookfield. Organizing my ever disorganized life. Haircut, bank errands, unpacking, laundry, seeing people. Tonight I have a soccer game and tomorrow I start work. I will be working for my mom in her clothing store.

Back to Milwaukee

So I JUST finished a 30 hour journey from Madrid to MY HOME. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I think I have done enough traveling for the rest of my life. Seriously. J I could complain, but I will save my complaints for when I call Air Canada.

-I will say I am thankful that my dad saw that the plane was delayed 2 hours and then had auxiliary problems BEFORE he headed to Chicago to pick me up.
- I am also grateful that I had my Spanish fan on the plane during the breakdown when we were all sitting in the dark and non-air-conditioned, full-capacity flight.
- Luckily I was not RIGHT next to the crying baby and I did get to watch movies and television the whole time. Highlights: “He’s just not into you” and a history channel special about Muhammad Ali. He seems to be such a great person.
- I am also happy that after a waiting 1 hour for my luggage and the workers searching the airport, they DID eventually find my luggage.
- I am also glad that, although I had to wait 3 hours for the shuttle to my hotel, I did get to the hotel for free and back to the airport on-time in the morning.
-Although the restaurant had closed when I arrived at the hotel and I went to bed without eating, I did get a solid 4.5 hours of sleep.
-Oh! and the icing on the cake is that they flew me to Milwaukee instead of Chicago. 15 hours later, but I’m sure my dad saved some gas money or something……

People were pissed, crying and there were cat-fights. I am just glad to be home. It was a great refresher course in all that could go wrong in travel so I can teach Javi all the vocabulary he needs to know when he comes to visit.

Well, I have to go and pack now - I am leaving for the airport again in two hours…. I’ll be back in 5 days.