Mi casa es su casa

Well folks, I made it to Logroño, which is a city in the providence of La Rioja. Here is a little map for you visual people. 

I´ve been here for about 2.5 weeks, and I must say that I am in love with it. Apparently, it was voted the number one place to live in Spain because of the quality of life here. Technically I live in a small town called Ladero, which is right on the border on Logroño. I take a bus into town, but you can pretty much walk everywhere you need to be with in 10 or 15 minutes. 

The downtown looks like a typical Spanish town with narrow streets and old buildings, but it is surrounded by mountains and vineyards that I love. I live in a newer development, so my surroundings are quite spacious. 

The dark building in the middle is where I live. Sorry that this photo is kind of dark, but you get the idea if you look close enough.

This is my front door. Notice the Hobbit-like door knob. 

This building is only about a year or two old, and it looks an IKEA display because everything is IKEA! But I loves me the IKEA, so I feel right at home.

I don´t have any pictures of them yet, but my host family is better than I could have ever dreamed. They are a Chilean family that moved here for the Wine scene. La Rioja is world famous for it´s wine (wine is cheaper than water here), and my host dad is a wine maker. They are a couple in their late 30´s with three kids, who are adorable. They are really laid back, super nice, and just a good time to be around. We get along really well. 

I have nothing to really compare this experience to, but living with a host family in Spain is the life. I get up for dance class with the magical Veronica (yes I have a Spanish dance class),

 and then go 2.5 hours of language class taught by this firey Spanish chica.

I can´t even tell you how much I love Ines. She is loud, always looks fantastic, halarious, and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She makes learning grammer a very entertaining event. 

Here is my class (all USU students) with our history teacher the first week we were here. But history class is no more. 

At around 2:00pm, I take the bust back home (this sign is how I know when to get off. I have yet to figure out what it means)

 and find lunch and a made bed (when I run out of time in the morning to make it myself) waiting for me. Lunch is always followed by my favorite thing about Spain: Siestas.

Here is my made bed where I endulge in siesta goodness.

Upon arising from a delicious nap I do homework, watch some TV (which I have in my room), or go out to my personal patio and do some yoga.

So far in the evenings I´ve had a cooking class with the beloved and masterful Paco. No words can describe my love for this man. He calls me his American daughter. 

And he feeds us the most delicious food in places like this:

This is a underground tunnel from the 1400´s. It used to be used for hiding when the city was being threatened. And now it feeds hungry Spaniards and their guests! 

 

I should also note the Paco made us his award winning ice cream. It won first place at the international ice cream tournament. First place! I have offically eaten the best ice cream in the world. And boy was it!

They eat dinner around 9 or 10 here, so after cooking class I usually go straight home to bed. 

And then I wake up the next morning and do it again. Not too shabby, eh? And we only have classes Monday through Thursday, so I have the whole weekend for adventures. I will post about the adventures thus far soon.

And that is my life in a nut shell. I can´t believe I only have a few weeks left.

Stay tuned for San Fermin craziness and climbing in The Pyreneese! 

Barcelona or bust!

After moving, online classes, and running Ragnar (which I will post about one of these days), I made it on a plane that whisked me away to Spain! After three plane rides and time travelling, I was painfully reminded about how flying and jet lag quickly kills the magic of going to a foreign land. But, stick around long enough and the magic comes back. And it doesn´t take long in a place like Barcelona.

Yes, my reason for coming to Spain is for a Study Abroad program through Utah State in La Rioja, but I figured I would visit some friends since I was in the neighborhood. Meet Susie:

She was one of my roommates when I lived in Costa Rica studying Yoga. She lives in Barcelona teaching dance and yoga, and it was so lovely to meet up with her after two years of being apart. She was my saving grace while I recovered from travelling, and she helped me learn the ways of the Spaniards. Honestly, if you ever need someone to help you kick jet lag where it hurts, Susie is the one to do it. Man oh man. But I loved her for it. 

Barcelona really is a magical city. It seems that each brick in the cobblestone streets has centuries worth of stories to tell. Majestic cathedrals mingle inbetween restaurants and shops, and each round about is home to a fountain or statue of some explorer or war  hero. Palm trees wave with the breeze coming in from the Mediterranean, which you can get a peek of if you leave the narrow streets. Susie lives in a neighborhood called Gracia, which is more like a village that hooks onto the bigger city. Sadly, my time there was short, and I was mostly in a jet lag haze, but here are a few things that I got to do.

The weekend I arrived was the weekend where they celebrate the saint San Juan. People of all ages gather in the streets at all hours of the night to eat, drink, and set off fireworks. I had the pleasure of being startled by cracks and booms many-a-time while walking around and while I was trying to sleep. One of Susie´s british friends, Kate, had a few of us over for dinner to celebrate.  

Dancing in the streets happened, of course. Here is Madalena and Susie shakin´it.

Gaudi is a famous Spanish architect who creates crazy buildings such as this:

And this:

One day we chilled at a beautiful beach right outside of Barcelona. Here is Kate and her adorable son Oscar enjoying the day.

Here is the beach, but this photo doesn´t do it justice. It´s near the airport so we could see airplanes come and go. They were so close I felt like I could reach up and touch them.

We went to a huge market that seemed to have every food under the sun.

This is a plaza where the royality used to live. 

One of the many cathedrals. We were able to see a wedding going on inside.

Susie and her delightful boyfriend Alejandro. I´m so thankful for them. They took such good care of me!

And that is a brief rundown of my time in Barcelona. I was so fortunate to have Susie and her wonderful friends there to show me a good time. 

Now, I am living in La Rioja and have a week of my program under my belt. But I´ll post more on that later. Feel free to follow me on this blog to stay updated on my time living in Spain and other European adventures.

Chau! 

.

Update Montage

Hello Folks,

Well, summer is finally here, and while there is a very brief lull in the Martin happenings, I'll  provide a little update for those of you out there who care.

This past semester...

We celebrated this many years of being wed:

I switched from snowboarding to this:

We cross-country skied four miles up to this for Valentine's Day:

I was in a play where I did a lot of this:

We went to Albuquerque to visit Chris's dad and adorable half-siblings and did this:

For Spring Break we got this little guy:

And then went up to Bear Lake and stayed in a cabin where we saw this:

And did this:

With these people:

I also rolled my first one of these:

Then we went to Escalante where we did this:

And made our dogs to this:

Later in March, we held another successful tournament in which we played this:

And did this:

The day after the tournament I did this:

Chris had a conference in the Bahamas, so I tagged along and did a lot of this:

For my 26th birthday I got to eat this:

Followed by this:

Oh, and Chris was awarded this for being Utah State University's Man of the Year.

During finals week we did this in the library:

 

And finished the semester off by doing this:

Graduation was followed by packing up, saying goodbye to Logan, and saying hello to Utah Valley. As much as Utah Valley isn't our scene, Chris got a really great job in north Orem, and we are moving into a real nice place at the point of the mountain in Lehi.

We move into our new place on Saturday, I'm running the Wasatch Back next Friday and Saturday, then the following Tuesday I'm leaving for Spain for seven weeks. The fun just never stops with the Martin crew, but I'll post more about those adventures as they unfold.

Peace.

The Story of Dexter

Oh, hello blog-o-sphere. It's been a while, hasn't it?

 Being a Creative Writing major means that I'm too burnt out to write anything more than I have to for class, so the blog gets neglected. But, it's Spring Break, and I've got nothing but time. So, I'm back, bloggin' up a storm.

I'm here to tell you about the lastest member of the Martin family.

 Meet Dexter.

Border Collie/ Australian Shepherd mix. 10 months old. Male. 

Chris and I have talked about getting a second dog for a while, but it was always something we would do eventually. It would come up in conversation every once in a blue moon, and we would say, "Yeah, maybe someday." Our first dog, Maeby, fulfilled my dog desires and honestly, I couldn't imagine having loving another dog as much as I loved Maeby. I didn't think I had enough room in my heart for another dog. 

Two weeks ago we were watching our friend's dog. We had another dog around constantly for about five days. It was so fun to see Maeby with another dog. She was better behaved, and her separation anxiety was a lot better. The idea of a second dog started to more and more into our conversations.

Late August was the soonest we would get another dog. With our move to Salt Lake coming up in May, we figured that August would be the perfect time for us. To satiate our second puppy thoughts we started looking at what we call "Puppy Porn." Ksl.com has a classified section just for dogs for sale. We have spent hours and hours fawning over puppies. In fact, it's how we found Maeby. 

Warning: Never look at puppy porn unless you are ready to get one. 

This is where, on our very first look, we found Dexter, who was called Buddy at the time. There was just something about him when we looked at his profile. He had to be ours. So we texted the number that night. With in minutes we got a text back saying he had already been sold. We were crushed. I went to bed that night aching for Dexter. 

The next day Pet Smart was hosting Four Paws Adoption dogs at their store. To deal with our Dexter devastation, we decided to look. Here we found Peggy. An airedale/healer mix, super cute, perfect size, really cuddly, doesn't shed. On paper, she was the perfect dog. But I just wasn't excited about it. It didn't feel right, so I figured that it just wasn't the right time for a second dog. We had filled out paperwork for Peggy to come home with us on Sunday, but Saturday night we planned to call on Sunday to say we'd changed our mind.

After a wonderful morning of skiing, we got out of the canyon and received a text message. "Bad News," Chris said to me. The text stated that the people who were going to by Dexter couldn't have him in their condo, so he was available if we still wanted him. "Oh, no," I replied. All of my feelings of doubt about getting a second dog right now was quickly replaced with feelings of excitement and urgency. Keep in mind, we had just decided the night before that getting a second dog right now wasn't right for us. We quickly drove home, showered, got right back in the car, and drove an hour to Layton to get Dexter. Maeby and Dexter hit it off, and they looked so perfect together. We were sold. 

And now we have him. Maeby was a little territorial at first, but five days later it's like we've always had him. They play so well together and he is the cuddliest dog I know. And, turns out, there is room in my heart for two dogs. I mean, look at him. Honestly. 

                                         

So there you have it. The story of our dear Dexter. 

And just so you know, taking a nap on the couch with two dogs covering me to make a warm puppy blanket is the best. 

Dharma Tree Pics!

Hey ya'll.

Just a quick post to let you know I posted picture of my new massage space, Dharam Tree, on my other blog.

Check it out HERE.

It's very exciting and so far it is keeping me very busy, which makes me even more excited!

And if you haven't already, you should subscribe to my other blog. It is going to be jammed packed of great things and also, the more public subscribers I have, the cooler I will look :) I only want that to happen because I plan on using this blog to help me get a writing job with holistic health publications. So yes, it would help my career if you subscribed, but you won't regret it. It's going to be BIG!

Peace and Loves.

Playing It Safe. Or, Up With Failure!

Well, it's that time of year again.
The slight chill in the wind makes us reach for longer sleeves. The buzz of knowledge floats around as many head back to school for another eventful year. Halloween candy and decorations start to creep into the grocery stores. And we say goodbye to another Summer that, yet again, slipped through our fingers.

But change is good. Change is inevitable. We know it comes and goes with the seasons, so why not embrace it? I don't know about you, but that's what I've been trying to do lately. My lack of blog posts attest to that. It's a hard, busy thing to let go of old, clunky baggage to make room for the new, more space efficient bags.

In my last post I talked about the Summer of Randi. I am happy to report that I feel I fulfilled that Summer theme. More than ever, I am feeling more and more comfortable in my own skin and have allowed myself to evolve. Which is pretty dang neat. I even bought skinny jeans! I always thought that Randi could never do skinny jeans. But I can, even though my hips don't lie.

And now school has started, yet again. This past week and a half has been insane trying to get everything in order. Not only did I start this semester with 17 credits, but I also just opened my own Massage space downtown and I auditioned for two shows!

Thus leading me to the whole point of this blog post.

Newsflash: I'm deathly afraid of failure. I know, I know, so is everyone else, but a lot of the people don't let it stop it from doing things they love. I do. In a bad way. I have perfectly orchestrated my life in such a way that I don't majorly fail at anything. And that means I don't majorly succeed at anything either. Well, I've had enough of that. So, I decided to put myself out there and get involved in theater again, because for all of my fellow thespians out there, I ached for the stage.

Long story short, I auditioned for two different shows that Utah State is putting on this semester. Having got a lead in a previous USU show a few years back, I figured I had a pretty good shot. I made calls backs for both shows; I got rejected for both shows. Pain was had, tears were shed, feeling like I was 18 again and getting rejected for my dream role in a production at Fargo South High that led me to not do a show for five years was felt. I was ready to crawl right back into my play-it-safe shell.

But amongst the pain and tears, I felt a twinge of joy. There was a part of me that loved feeling failure and rejection. It had been so long since I had done anything to feel a major anything. And I found comfort in knowing that feeling this pain now will make it easier when I feel it again. It will also make success that much sweeter when the time comes. Oh, and it will come. It was like I was challenging myself to step it up instead of sheepishly backing down in the game of life. And in my own, still depressed about it at the moment way, I said, "Bring it on!" Isn't this great news??!!

I also learned a lot about preparation, getting my pride bubble significantly popped, working hard for the things I want and all that jazz, but we shall have to save that for another post.

In conclusion, I share this with you because a) posting about the things I learn and go through is very therapeutic for me, and b) perhaps someone out there in the blog-0-sphere is going through something similar and can find comfort in knowing that we are meant to feel all emotions. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All can serve us to our liking, whether we believe it or not.

I shall leave you with a brilliant quote from my favorite Genie:



Until next time.