where in the world is carmen sandiego?

Well hello, all - I've finally resurfaced from across the big puddle. It's been awhile since I last updated you - and alot has happened since then, so I may need a couple posts to get caught up on everything..

But first, to explain my title - it does actually have significance and isn't totally random. Well, define random.. Anyways my Spanish name in school was always Carmen. Not really sure why, I guess it was as close as you could come to Lauren that could morph me into a fast-talking Spaniard from a Southern little Dutch girl. Secondly, it is the name of the game that my little sister and I played together when we were little. I guess you can say I'm reminiscing back to the good 'ole days...

So what have I been up to? To start, we have spent the past several days in the beautiful cities that form Andalucia. We have been in Cordoba, Sevilla and Granada touring numerous cathedrals, mezquitas and other monuments. We left Madrid behind us, but unfortunately, didn't leave all of it's diseases behind either.

I'm sure most of you current-event savvy kids have heard about the e-coli problems with vegetables in Europe in the past few weeks, well - we got a little dabble of that. My roommate, Nina, had eaten the bocadillio (Spanish term for a sandwich for lunch) that our madre had made us right before we left Madrid for lunch that day. Later in the day, she began to feel dizzy and the next day was very sick. Turns out, Spain still has house doctors- and one came to our hotel room and diagnosed her with a bacteria in her stomach. So, we think it was some sort of salmonella case, but Whitney and I have never been happier with our decision to pass on that sandwich, or we all would have been sick.

But in the end all is well, and after our grueling 6 hour bus ride in the heat (pretty sure we all almost passed out from a heat stroke) we made it to Plaza del Torres in hermosa Alicante, Spain. We were greeted by one of our roommates and Paula, our new madre's 16 year old sassy daughter who has proved to be a hilarious addition to our experience here.