Kephart Family Adventure

christmas/new years 2k8

honestly, i dont know where to start.. as you could imagine, my christmas vacation was 2 weeks of mayhem and not stop laughing and of course ended in tears having to say goodbye for 6 more months...BUT, tears were definitely vale de pena....

lets see, KFA started in plaza catalunya around 10am on christmas eve (day) when my familia arrived from the airport. it took them a few seconds to recognize me for one because i hadn´t seen them in almost 5 months and secondly because i chopped all my hair off and am now a brunette (dave is thrilled)... so after hugs and kisses and smiles and excitement i walked them to the apartment that we rented for 2 weeks while in barcelona.. a few days before they got here i called the landlord and asked if i could come by and see the place and when i was there i secretly dropped off a decorated christmas tree and a few presents for the fam, i really wanted it to feel comfortable and as much like xmas as i could... so when they saw the place they were all as excited as they could be due to the fact that they were extremely jet lagged and fighting sleep. as much as i wanted to run around bcn and show them my new city, i eventually had to admit that if this trip was going to be as crazy as i wanted it, they needed to take a 4 hour nap. when everyone woke up we made a lovely xmas even dinner of steak, rice, salad, bread and wine and upon kellys request we attended midnight mass at the incredibly old and beautiful cathedral in the gothic area and everyone slept very well that night.

(bros at the bcn beach)

Christmas wasn´t anything over the top nor did it really feel like xmas, but the fact that we were all together was everything i was looking forward to. since before i left for spain, id been looking forward to a candle lit christmas dinner listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas CD and being with the familia...so that was my gift (and the next 6 months in bcn, claro)...i got the boys euro scarves and music, dave and kelly got some spanish music and i got some books (typical kephart gift) and a jellyfish hat...youll have to ask cameron about that, i have too much to blog about, but trust me, ASK HIM. the next few days we toured the city went to my favorite places and luckily we had INCREDIBLE weather, it literally stopped raining the day they arrived and thankfully only rained once, the day before they left. i felt like i was on top of the world the first few days, i honestly didnt stop smiling nor laughing...its funny, i kind of forgot about my culture shock when i first got here, but seeing my parents and brothers in a foreign place reminded me how much this city has become my home...my parents dont really speak spanish, actually they dont at all, BUT to their credit, by the end of the trip, they braved the streets and markets by themselves, and it was silly to see them in a different element. the last day my parents when grocery shopping without us, and they were looking for salad dressing in the supermercado but spaniards usually just use olive oil and vinegar, so my dad confident and all asked a worker, "salsa para ensalada?" and he found it! it was pretty cool to see how happy that made him..its extremely refreshing to have seen my family finally because they always remind me that it doesn´t take much to make us happy or smile. all it took for big dave was to ask someone a question in spanish and to hear EURO sirens on the ambulances and police cars.. (he has a thing with noises) it was also really fun to take my brothers out at night to my favorite bars and of course, La Rambla... if they could, caleb and cameron wouldve just sat on la rambla (the main, very touristy but very colorful and fun street in bcn) allllllll night long, buying 1euro beers and these potatoe wedge pockets from the pakistanis.(brothers and i on montjuïc, flying over the barcelona port)

(parentals on top of la padrera, designed by gaudí)

on the 27th, we flew to florence, italy..we stayed in an incredibly old and very tuscan hotel that kelly booked right in the middle of the city..we arrived at night, all the streets were lit up and it was beautiful!! it was especially exciting for me because i was able to experience a new place in europe with my family, instead of just showing them what i already know. so we all got to be tourists together which was fun, except at times we all got sick of eachother....one day, we were walking to find a place to eat making our way to the museum accademia (where the david currently resides) and we lost dave(kephart). he didn´t see us go into a church and he probably did some wandering anyways like he usually does, so then everyone is a little grumpy and hungry and the boys want to keep moving on without him but kelly doesn´t want to and we couldn´t remember what he was wearing and it just turned into an ordeal. it all worked out in the end because florence just isn´t that big of a city and sure enough we see a white guy in a baseball hat, shorts and a large backpack on walking our way...(by the way, NO ONE in europe wears shorts right now, and baseball hats are very rare, i wouldn´t change dave´s style, but ya´ll have to know, NOTHING could get dave to stop wearing bball hats and shorts in the middle of winter, even if its snowing in grass valley and under 40degrees) SO florence was beautiful and the arno river is fantastic, but florence is freeeeezing!! defenitely makes me think twice about going to the netherlands or germany or london during winter, and of course, made it so much easier to come back to barcelona where i am spoiled with everything nice, including 15 degree warmer weather. we drank good wine, ate good pasta/pizza/(GELATO, dave was in heaven!), saw lots of museums, lots of historia and made lots of good observations. florence is inhabited by tourists and hotels, there are NO overweight people in europe (en general), you cant turn one street corner in florence without another Dolce and Gabbana in your vision, and really, europeans dislike americans. we were in milan for less than 1 day waiting to catch our plane and i swear to you, we were getting stalked by the italian mafia.. everyone in my family was uneasy for about 4 hours straight, but we couldn´t really talk about how uncomfortable we felt slash how nervous we were for our lives and our belongings until we FINALLY made it back to barcelona safely. that was a very refreshing feeling for everyone, and so that concludes our trip in italia....after our return to bcn, we toured around the city some more and celebrated new years all together (there´s more about that in a bit) and before i knew it, it was january 4th and the familia (minus cam) was on a plane back to cali while my twin left one day later for morocco, africa for 2 weeks (side note: he went without plans ni a place to stay but i made him promise to email me and check in as often as he can, so everyone, so far, so good, he´s safe and on his way to rabat).. there´s pictures at the bottom and a made a list of my top 10 favorite events of the Kephart Family Adventure in Europe.. some of them are stupid family jokes, but they really just made the familia´s visit that much more special.(our favorite italian meal...florence, italy)

(family shot infront of the David replica)

(the duomo, most beautiful builiding i´ve ever seen...florence, italy)

KARLI´S top 10 FAVORITEs of KFA in EUROPE
1. cdk: one night a few friends of mine and the bro´s were walking home from a bar and caleb was a few steps ahead of everyone.. then we yelled to tell him something and he turned around but was still walking and he tripped over a parked vespa and on the way he grabbed the moto and it fell with him. the best part is that it was in front of us, and another bar and then after he got up, we were still steps behind him so he was solo for a few seconds and he couldn´t find the kickstand, so at his expense, while he was probably pretty embarassed, we just laughed so hard till we cried.
2. crk: there is a beautiful park in barcelona called parc güell... there are a few houses and just some incredible architecture and mosaic done by antoni gaudí, who has lots of work all over the city.. well one of the most famous pieces by gaudí is a mosaic lizard at the base of parc güell. on our way out we stopped to take pictures but naturally there are a million other tourists doing the same and everyone has to wait their own turn to touch the lizard and snap a foto. well i said cam, you should jump on it and like not wait your turn, and he asks, you think i should? and i said, no you probably shouldn´t and he said, really? i said, REALLY. well i was just going to take a normal pic of him when it was his turn but out of nowhere, he jumps up on top of the lizard and about .5 seconds later someone is blowing a loud whistle and the park literally is silent and this short old spanish man, runs up to cameron and starts screaming at him in spanish and cameron looks at me very confused and at this point, everyone is staring and i dont want to be seen with him either because this old man was obviously offended. in the end, we just had to walk away, embarassed and all... dave and kelly were on the outskirsts of the whole ordeal and DAVE was just trying to get pictures of cameron and i while this man yelled at us and everyone else stared...ha ha ha, now we can laugh about it, but he will always be "that guy" that crotch hugged the gaudí lizard.

(dave y kel at parc güell)

3. kk: bless my mom´s heart, all she wanted to do was come to europe and see a beautiful tuscan sunset and appreciate all the beauty that surrounded us while we were together in barc and italy... well, when she really likes something or wants other people to like it or see it too, she does a lot of pointing and touching, and repeats it over and over again. she touches things too, actually she touches everything just to admire it. she also has a tendency to call natures beauty "gifts"... its really sweet, but naturally, the boys (dave included) and i give her an extremely hard time about it. so then we start calling EVERYTHING gifts and we really just cant let things go..for example, in reference to poor college students eating mac n cheese and cheap meals all the time she once was quoted to say "TORTILLAS, you can put anything in a tortilla. ANYTHING, really, vegetables, etc etc etc.. YOU CAN PUT ANYTHING in a tortilla"...and she repeated it a few times, and so, my smart-ass family started asking if you could put a sunset (also a gift) in a tortilla, or the beautiful mosaic in a tortilla...i have to give her props, she takes a lot of crap from us, but it will just never get old asking her if we can wrap tuscany in a tortilla, or the wicker basket trash can or anything that she points out to us 10 times. (i love you mom)

(the arno in florence, italy...im sure my mom would like to put that in a tortilla)

4. dk: like i mentioned earlier, my dad speaking spanish was definitely a highlight, props to him for trying, but sometimes it was more comical then anything to hear him struggle or just say any words that he knows and put them together. "salsa para ensalada" made me very proud and was definitely great progress through 2 weeks in spain. Another moment that i don´t really want to forget is watching my dad drink our "crunk juice" mixture in the middle of plaza catalunya at new years. watching my mom´s face as he downed a rum and soda mixture was pretty priceless, they both probably cannot remember the last time they drank cheap 10 euro(dollar) alcohol mixed with soda, and on public streets for that matter. and as much as i make fun of my dad when he´s behind the camera taking creepy pictures of people, im pretty glad he was always snapping them fotos because we got some good ones that i´ll have for a very long time.
5. new years: best new years ever. they closed all the streets off leading to plaza catalunya, and everyone was spraying champagne and drinking and eating and singing and the energy was absolutely incredible. we migrated to this group of spaniards who were counting down from 10 every 30 seconds with about 15 minutes to go until it was actually midnight and then theyd break into dancing and singing the beginning of that white stripes song (duh, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, duhhh im goin to wichita) sorry thats the best i could do.. anyways, we dont actually know when the real new years was because there was one clock in the plaza, but it didnt make a noise, and it was off with everybody else´s time, but it was fun either way. the tradition in bcn (prob other places in spain as well) is to eat 12 grapes the last 12 seconds before midnight, 1 grape for good luck for each month in the next year. since we were confused, we just decided to throw them instead so my family and i just chucked them at everybody. the ground was ridiculously wet with drinks and grapes and god knows what and my brothers and i congo´d around and danced and celebrated with the locals... side note: i was trying to meet up with my boyfriend adam but there were too many people, so a little bit after 12, people started clearing out and as i was taking a picture of my parents, i get grabbed around my waist and before i know it im flying in the air and fall on top of someone.. adam had spotted me and ran up to hug me, but he slipped on the ground and brought me with him. then he got up off the dirty sticky ground and introduced himself to my parents....at his expense, we died of laughter, because that was the best introduction in history and my parents were just glad it wasn´t some stranger tackling me to the ground.

(family pic, new years!)

(video clip from new years)

6. museum academmia: museum in florence, italy that is home to the famous Michelangelo statue: the David.. a marble sculpture of the perfect man that is i believe 14 feet tall. florence is a very small city, so one night my brothers and i were walking around, and we found the replica david outside what we thought was the academmia, so the next day we stood in line at the faux-academmia and after buying tickets realized (thanks to rick steves) that the david was on the other side of town, oops. well that museum was really neat still, palazzo vecchio, but we really just needed to get to academmia to see david. we finally got there and kelly was very antsy and we were all really amazed at the beauty of it. there were lots of other neat sculptures, incredible paintings and other musical instrument displays. we spent quite some time in the academmia but, we knew it was finally time to leave when we got to the last room in the museum filled with different depictions of jesus´ crucifiction and all the boys in my family and i had a laugh attack. AS a believer, we were of course not laughing at the crucifiction, but as one brother had to point out, in one painting, HIS hips were very curvy and swinging to one side, and that observation was followed by "look, jesus´ hips dont lie"... i think we were just weary and tired from walking all day and then every painting after that had something to laugh about and we didn´t want to upset any other admirers, so we had to jet out reallllllly quick.
7. wine night: parents went to bed early, traveling wore them out... our first night in florence the bro´s and i decided to have a wine night. we´re in the tuscany right, cheap good wine, why not! turns out wine is most expensive in the wine country and we couldn´t find a bottle under 20 euro. well, we splurged, and found an bar/restaurant with a plastic covered outdoor dining area with live music.. we probably, well we DID spend too much money on tuscan wine, but the boys were on vacation and it just made sense.. it was all worth it in the end, because the musical entertainment played probably the best lineup ever of BAD american songs. so during the awesome musical lineup a drunk old italian guy wearing a suit 4 times too small for his huge belly picked me out of the crowd to share a few dances with him...we dipped, he stole my scarf and once again, naturally, i end up dancing with an old man, its obviously my sweet dance moves, europa cant get enough.

8. http://youtube.com/watch?v=vum3qgoh0x4 .... watch that video. my parents were introduced to soulja boy. if youve never heard of it or seen it or experienced it, you have to now. because then you have to walk around barcelona with the kepharts while my family "superman´s that ho" everywhere we go. funny enough just the video and how popular it is.. even funnier hearing my parents say it and dancing through the streets. ok, another funny thing. i explained to my parents and brothers that the word "guay" or "guai" in spain means COOL (pronounced gwhy) and then..... when people asked where we were from, we started telling them we were from SUPERGUAY, a small country between Uruguay and Paraguay. another fan favorite was telling people we were from the future. it doesn´t take much to entertain us, especially because the language barrier makes everyone 10 times more confused, but thats why its so fun!(brothers tearin it up in a disco)

9. train ride to milan...well, like i mentioned earlier, this was...... HORRRRRRIBLY uncomfortable, but there was nothing we could do but laugh. so europeans already dont like americans.. well we were probably the last ones to board the train and we had a good amount of luggage with us. well, first, we werent even sure if we were on the right train, but when we finally figured that out, we couldnt read our tickets, because they were in italian.. and as we were stuck, trying to make our way down the aisle, there was another american family equally confused with even more luggage then us and also blocking the aisle.. so the train is quiet, the kephart family is HUGE and just towering over everyone, and im not kidding you, 5 min of complete silence except for us trying to figure out where everyone was sitting and finding a place for our luggage.... we also ended up scattered with window seats and made people get up so we could sit down. the feeling of 40 sets of eyes on us in a tiny train car and 40 people wanting to sock the loud, confused americans in the face was VERY uncomfortable, luckily, we weren´t alone and we just had to sit down and laugh about it because if we i didn´t laugh, i was about ready to cry...then cameron and caleb saved the day and pulled out 2 bottles of tuscan wine for the road, making things just a little more bearable for everyone.
10. fc barç... our last hoorah of the trip was buying tickets (and going) to an FC BARCELONA FÚTBOL GAME!!!! although i am a baseball fan (its in my blood, i can´t not be), you have to admit that the european pastime might give american pastime a run for its money on the cool scale. A LOT of americans like baseball, A LOT of americans do not like baseball. EUROPEANS LIKE SOCCER. ALL OF THEM. it is like a continentally uniting idea, belief, game... the energy in the stadium is absolutely incredibly, everyone is bestfriends and everyone acts like fools...even in the gigantic arena that holds easily over 100 thousand people, the spirit is maintained. they even had a studium wide WAVE that continued for about 3 minutes. you dont want to be on the losing side nor do you want to antagonize the losing side, cuz otherwise, your screwed, luckily they do not sell alcohol inside the area, probably for everyone´s benefit. its intense and it can probably be pretty scary if you hang out with the wrong fútbol fans, but a game is something everyone should experience. i never was into fútbol that much, but i can definitely say i am a supporter. my family was so excited and we all bought fc barç gear before the game, we got some good pictures and we cheered our hearts out. (barç pretty much lost, opponent tied with 1 min left, but thats unimportant)

(camp nou, stadium of fc barcelona)

(parentals at camp nou)

(children at camp nou)

that pretty much wraps up the KFA in europe.. i tried to make it as short as i could, although i could really write about the stories and adventures forever. spain is a great place and i hope my family has nothing but good things to say about my city and my new life over here...
feliz año
happy 2008
feliç any