Fireworks 3!

yay, more!

Fireworks 2!

yay more fireworks!

Fireworks Video - Las Fallas!

Gorgeous Fireworks, LOTS of FUN!

Más Fotos

okay, those were more of the Fireworks, the Plaza de Toros (bull fighting plaza) in Valencia, and the last one was of a Ninot, here's more of the ninots....

Pictures of Las Fallas and Valencia!

hey here are some pictures of the ninots, enjoy!

Another Fireworks Video

the video worked, so here's the other one, all the smoke that you see is from the fireworks... I even got a tiny little capsule/piece of a firework, all the pieces and lots of ash were falling down on us, it was quite entertaining... I really felt like I was experiencing war during this fireworks exposition, I can assure all of you that I probably won't be enlisting. I believe that i screamed and jumped like 10 feet in the air every time that they set one off. But it was really a lot of fun, I loved it! Hope you enjoy the videos

Pre Las Fallas Craziness!

Okay, so yesterday the school went into Valencia to watch the beginning of 2 weeks of craziness that encompass Las Fallas. Las Fallas is the festival that Valencia is famous for, I need to do some more research on the actual origins and significance of the festival, but one can easily do that on google or wikipedia. What I know about the festival is that the wonderful people of Valencia dedicate quite a bit of their time in a year to constructing these statues called Ninots, the ones I saw were not that big, but I think that they can be larger. Then after two weeks of parading these statues around they burn them. Another thing that encompasses Las Fallas is fireworks, lots of them. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, everyday for two weeks in the main plaza of Valencia the crazy Spaniards have one of the most illegal display of fireworks I have ever seen or felt. It was one of the loudest and earth shattering things that I have ever experienced. I literally felt like I was reenacting the Civil War (the booming of the cannons) or Hiroshima (the atomic bomb). It was intense. I am thankful that I was covering my ears otherwise I would have left there deaf. Anyways it was a lot of fun, good times in crazy Spain.... I will attempt to post a video.

Okay, so a little more concrete synopsis of what I did in Paris.... here goes....

Wednesday:
Brittany and I left the school, caught the train to the airport just in perfect time, got to the airport, checked in and left. Got to Paris that evening, around 8 p.m. I think. We then rode the bus into the city of Paris. When we got there after a tiny bit of wandering, following other bus passengers, and asking questions, we found the metro!! We then rode the metro to hostel and got situated there, that situation was a bit interesting, but it was mostly clean, people were friendly and it all worked out. We went to bed exhausted.

Thursday:
We slept in a tiny bit because we were waiting to meet our friend Amanda. We got ready and went to go see the Sacre Coeur, a 5 minute walk from our hostel. It is a huge, white, grand cathedral and really quite beautiful. We then rode the metro to the Tuleries Gardens, huge and would be more impressive in the summer, but all in all still beautiful. We ate some sandwiches in the park, basked in the sunshine (we had PERFECT weather, sunshine EVERYDAY!), we then went to the Orangerie museum and say Monet's nymph collection, and some other famous artists whose names are evading me at this moment. We then walked down the Champs Elysees, took pictures, wandered over the Royal and Petit Palace. I didn't really understand though why it was called the Petit Palace, there is absolutely NOTHING petit about it. haha. We finally made it all the way down the Champs Elysees after some shopping of course and to the Arc de Triomphe. We walked ALL the way around the arc trying to find a way to get to it, because there is a circular very busy road around it, we finally found the signs for the stairs to go under the road and up to the arc and we were successful. The arc is amazing. There is some really cool carving work done underneath it and it is huge. Brittany and I then walked to the Eiffel Tower, seeing the full length of it for the first time, was just absolutely amazing. Took my breath away. We got to the Eiffel Tower right around sunset and we walked the stairs up it, LOTS of stairs to the first level, then more to the second and then finally an elevator (because there were no stairs) to the very TOP. It was amazing, we saw it all at sunset and then spent time in it at night. We ate chocolate waffles in the Eiffel Tower and just had a wonderful time. The Eiffel Tower at night does this thing like for 10 minutes every hour, where it twinkles, big twinkling bright lights running up and down it, it was amazing, I will try to post a video of it. After all that we went back to our hostel finally met up with Amanda and had a wonderful reunion!! We went and got coffee, my first experience with french/european coffee, amazing! It's in this little cup, it's black and you put in lots of sugar and drink it slowly. Ahhh, SO good, I'm addicted, haha. What a wonderful first day in Paris!!

Back from Paris!

Hello everyone, or should I say Bonjour! Unfortunately, that is only 1 of the 3 french words I learned while traveling. My favorite phrase, was "speak english." I usually got a head shake "no" or someone saying "a little." The "little" was VERY encouraging and I would then ask directions, ask a question about a food or how much something cost, what something was, etc... Overall I found that the French are not as snooty as previously though (unless you are referring to airline people, grr). The French will like you if: you are giving them your money, or asking them a question with a smile on your face. Otherwise, mind your own business, don't take TOO many tourist photos, try not to speak english too obnoxiously loud, give them your money and enjoy the things that you are paying for (in other words food). I also tried to enjoy having to pay ridiculously high prices to get into "famous" French places, aka, the Palace of Versailles, the Orangerie Museum and the Eiffel Tower. Yes I know that these are in fact very famous, but having to pay the equivalent of $22 to get into Versailles was a tid bit frustrating especially after riding the wrong train for 45 minutes and having to buy another train ticket. BUT, it was WORTH IT, that's why I say ENJOY IT. Versailles was amazing, the palace is SO BIG and ornate and gaudy and just overall astounding and beautiful. I would not have minded being a princess or queen in France, unless I had to be Marie Antoinette, getting my head chopped off is not so appealing. We got to see the king and queen's crown's and jewlerey, bedroom's and living areas, life couldn't be too hard if all that was included... : ) Overall, Paris was amazing, I want to go back in June because I need to be able to see the gardens in full life and bloom and see all the fountains properly working with water actually inside them. Please go if you have the chance. I have heard that Paris is overrated, but in my opinion, I would say that it is underrated. I only spent 3 full days there, but I wish it could have been longer. There is SO MUCH to do. Paris is made up of a million wonderful things, history, architecture, art, trees, gardens, amazing food, better dessert, shopping, romance and so much more. I would have to say that it was the most romantic place I've ever been in my life. The romance is actually palpable. I don't know how to correctly describe it, but I'll try. The city is filled with the expressions of millions of people's hearts. Architects, artists, fashion designers, chefs, bakers, musicians, and so many others have poured the dreams of their hearts out into reality in Paris. Someone's dream of the eiffel tower, the millions of artists contained in the Louvre, King Louis XIV love of gold and ornate things poured into Versailles, how the Arc de Triomphe honors the soldiers who fought for the love of their country and so much more. The city is exquisite and absolutely amazing. I had an amazing time and I would go back in a heartbeat, I took 350 pictures, but I honestly don't think that was enough... haha. It was one of the most amazing opportunities of a lifetime. It was a great trip!

Planning Paris

planning paris, and am so lost, one because I do not speak French, 2 because map reading has never been my forte (BUT I am getting better, much better actually) and 3 because there are SO many things that I want to do and so little time... It's so hard for my roomate and I to decide what is important and what is not, but then again it's hard to know because we've never been there and we are relying on friends who have been there, travel guides and the internet... I think it's turning out well though, here's a tentative schedule... also, take note that I am planning this at midnight on a saturday night (this is because we got the chance to go into town (sagunto, puerto) for free and eat good food, kebabs -- not yucky caf food, and AMAZING real Italian gelato, the store opened tonite, quite amazing.

tentative itinerary....

thursday: opera, museums, gardens, champs de elysees, arc de triomphe, boat ride excursion getting to see all the highlights of Paris at night...
friday: versailles, eiffel tower and the Louvre (kinda an intense day I know, but we're getting in free to the Louvre, bonus, we can handle the intensity)
saturday: sacré coeur (a church), notre dame, pantheon and Luxembourg palaces and gardens, sorbonne, latin quarter

we then fly out saturday night and leave for Madrid sunday morning, this is an intense power trip and I am SO excited!!

I leave Wednesday February 6, love you all so much, don't know when I can blog again, maybe when I'm back from my Toledo, Segovia and Madrid trip, but you can be sure that my pictures are going to be amazing and news will be exciting. I promise to travel safely but prayers would be appreciated. Love you all, Happy Early Valentines, xoxoxo from Spain!

My Address

Hi everyone, just wanted to give you all my address in case you wanted to drop me a note and say hello. I hope all is well. It's Sabbath here and I just ate a really good meal (for Spain) of haystacks, it was the best Sabbath meal here so far!! It's a little chilly and gray and so I'm staying in my room. Okay, well here is my address. If you want postcards, you need to give me your addresses, I'll leave my 2 e-mail addresses, love and miss you all! I can't believe it's already February, it's going by so fast and I'm going to be back in no time. xoxoxo from Spain!

livluvnlaf22@yahoo.com
sashasuzanne@gmail.com

--write me an e-mail, I'd love to here from you all, I'll write back too I promise

Address in Spain...

Sasha Sloop
c/o Seminario Adventista Español
Sagunto College (ESDES)
Carretera de Petres s/n, Partado 52
46500 Sagunto (Valencia), SPAIN

oh and you have to use international postage, it's 90 cents. Love you all!

PARIS!!

hey everyone just wanted to let you know that I am taking my first trip! I'm so excited. My roomate and I are going to Paris on Wednesday February 6, just for three days or so... So pray that I travel safely and that everything goes well. I got my airplane ticket and hostel reservations for an amazing price so that was very nice. Now we just have to plan our itinerary for the trip, miss you all!

More pictures...

okay a couple last pictures, a funny store front sign that made me smile. The store was in Sagunto. Also there are some houses in Valencia that we saw on our walk.

Mandarinas! (otherwise known as tangerines)

so, my roomate, Brittany, and I decided that after lunch today we needed to take a walk and pick some oranges/mandarins/mandarinas/tangerines, whatever you want to call them... Anyways, we picked quite a few and we now have the most amazing snack in our dorm room, they are SO good. Very juicy, suculent and sweet! Easy to peel as well. We went for a walk, wandered into a grove, picked some and then concealed/carried them back in my bag. What a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Sagunto, Spain

here are some pictures of the surrounding area and whatnot, my room mate and I took a walk up a hill and took some pictuers of the very beautiful views....

In the first you can see the city of Sagunto and then the ocean behind that, it's the darker blue under the sky (kinda hard to see). The second (the red building) is the girl's dorm in the middle of the trees. It is absolutely amazing that we can see the ocean from here, I can see it from out my dorm room as well.

Having to say goodbye...

The first picture is the going away present that my old roomate and dearest friend Natalie got me before I left, amazing socks to make me laugh and think about all the laughs we shared as wonderful roomates!
The next is of when Josh flew back to Walla Walla, I'm not sure why he looks so happy, but I thought it was a cute picture...

Okay so this is a post that I am just doing now, that I should have done right before I left Spain, but I had too many things to do and didn't do this, so I am doing it now. I left for Spain on Jan 8, a very hard and a very exciting day. There were many people that I did not want to leave and yet I wanted to go to an amazing country and spend time experiencing its culture(and I guess studying too....) So I miss you all lots and lots, but I am so excited to see you when I get back and tell you all my wonderful and exciting stories!
So Goodbye CA and Walla Walla and Hello Spain

I'm in SPAIN!

The first picture is all of the helpers at our water station, kilometer 10, yay!
The second is of Sean, Joni and I, sitting on all the boxes of water and eating mandarins before everyone else came to help, I was really excited to be eating mandarins, since we had to skip breakfast because we left early
The pictures are compliments of my room mate, Brittany!


Hi everyone, I'm safe and situated in Spain!
The dorm is good, food okay, people are all very nice!
Weather is beautiful, much better than Walla Walla
Roomate is great, such a sweety
Lots of school and homework, but once I get used to it,it will be fine
Breakfast is amazing because I get to have nutella (an amazing chocolate hazlenut frosting/spread) on crackers along with other more healthy items of course...
Have seen the beach - the water is too cold to venture in yet though
Gelato shops are closed until warmer weather
Have gotten to see lots of friends from when the last time that I was here, cool that they remember me
Helped out with a marathon today, handed out water to MANY spanish runners, mainly men, got a free duffle bag out of it and some fresh mandarins off the tree from someone's grove + got to hang out with friends and avoid doing homework until now
SIESTA time is very cool, I will miss that when I go back to the states. Although it is only cool if you want to take a nap, not if you need to go into town and everything is closed
Have yet to do any shopping, probably a good thing
Mandarins/Tangerines, called Mandarinas here are very good, so SWEET and JUICY!
Will blog more when I have done more than go to class and eat in the cafeteria
Love to everyone I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
Hope everyone is well!