Vienna and Salzburg, Austria

Vienna, Austria!

After 3 nights in Budapest, we hopped on a train Monday morning and 3.5 hours later we were in Vienna! Our routine for arriving in new cities was very simple, we had the directions to our hostels with numbers, address, etc..then we would get a map at the train station/airport and try to find it ourselves. Well Vienna is a huge city and we spent about 10 min trying to just locate the Train Station on the map so we had some sort of idea of our location in the city. Since we couldn´t figure it out, I approached a man selling magazines and asked if he spoke English, he said a little.. so with my huge map of Vienna I asked him, "Where are we (the train station) on the map?" and he replied with just the name of the train station. So I said, well I know that sir, but where on the map are we and I put it in his face and expected him to point somewhere. Then in German he tried to explain to me something and he kept waving his hand in his face. I rephrased my question a few times and still did not get a helpful response...then out of nowhere I awkwardly and very embarrassed-ly realized he was blind, and shoving a huge map in his face was not helping myself nor the situation. I thanked the man and on my way to find another person to bother, also realized that he was selling nude magazines....So after more failed attempts with 2 different taxi drivers, a delivery man and 3 girls on cell phones, we finally put our finger on that damn train station on the map, and I think it was Adam or myself who found it too...the visit was off to a great start.

Then we arrived at Happy Hostel, and we were so happy. Vienna was much colder though and we just wanted to set our bags down and again, our first priority became finding a meal. We had a relaxing evening in Vienna the first night, and we ate some very delicious Chinese food which gave us leftovers for the next day too. Our room had a tv with CNN in English, which was so amazing, altho for 3 days all they talked about was China/Tibet, Barack Obama and Paul McCartney´s divorce, can you believe she only got 50 million?...Either way, German and Hungarian dubbing just wasn´t doing it for us, so we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Our 2nd day in Vienna was incredible. Again, we were blessed with beautiful weather, and by that I just mean the sun decided to join us..to me though, that´s all I really need a little sol for the soul...there were some small flurries in the morning and some clouds on and off.. but those also provided us with some pretty awesome pictures. Our adventure for the day was quite a few hours touring the Schönbrunn Palace, (and on a whim getting Adam´s ear pierced which really only took a total of 10 min to decide, walk into the place, ask some questions, fill out some papers shove the needle in, and get outa there) it was SO NEAT!! (the castle, haha) We briefly walked through the inside of the Palace, pretty much all 50 rooms we saw were accented in gold and Adam was very sneaky and got some secret video of it (you´ll have to watch the Vienna video)...So, here are some fotos, enjoy..

A not so intimidating Palace guard

There it is: The Schönbrunn Palace, check out those clouds

The backside of the Palace and me

They call this the Gloriette... It is in the Palace´s backyard, and it is beautiful

Those clouds

After our foto sesh of the Palace and the Gloriette, Adam and I realized the tickets we bought were valid for the Labyrinth (not an easy word to spell), also in the Palace´s backyard, and of course, we were down. So we got lost in the maze, actually, I got lost, onlookers helped Adam cheat and I wandered around by myself for a bit. Then after the labyrinth we discovered another brilliant European playground with fun mirrors, like the kind at the fair that make you have super long limbs or a really fat body... there were other fun toys that we spent a fair amount of time playing with because, it was very necessary. More fotos...

Adam and the labyrinth....Shortly after he helped me find the end.

Here are those fun mirrors!

"Tracka Man" (My family will understand)

On our way out, 1 last foto of us and the Schönbrunn

On our way out, there were tons of food booths set up, they love their pretzels, cheese, wheat, pizza, plain, salt, chocolate, etc etc etc.. .yummm

Later that night we just went exploring some more and got to see a lot of the city!

Part of the museum quarter

Stephensdom Church

Boy in front of the Viennese Boys Choir School...2nd best in the world(?) I think


Adam tried so long for the perfect shot, I gave up after a few..anyways, I forget what this place is called, it was golden and pretty though

Vienna treated us well, unfortunately, I don´t feel like we gave ourselves enough time, to enjoy the city or to get to know it. A highlight of the stay there was a dinner recommendation by our hostel.. We were sent to a little Ma and Pa joint around the corner from our hostel that is owned by a Viennese woman and her American husband, from good ol Cali! He was a real character, I think we maybe got 20 words in with him, but he told us lots of stories about nor cal (woo woo represent) and so cal and his highschool and his camping trips and his sisters friend and this and that and we were kept entertained the whole night by shots of apple shnapps on the house and a visit from 2 regulars of Gary and Inge´s restaurante.. 2 very intoxicated Austrians made conversation with us and we were lucky enough to have 1 of them invite himself to sit down next to me, and for 45 minutes ask Adam about 15 times if he was Jewish because of his hair... and then he would reply that he was Jewish also and that he was only 52 years old and the night ended (before his wife called looking for him for the 5th time) with him putting his arm around me and telling Adam´s video camera that he loved me. I´m not sure what it is, I am drawn to old people..especially as dance partners...but I do believe, over some shnitzel and schpatzel, that Michel and I had a moment. (Just go watch Adam´s video and you tell me if there were sparks or not)....We slept great that night, our faces were wind burned and our feet were going to fall off (mine anyways)............

Then before we knew it, we were on yet another train ride, this time through the musical hills of

Salzburg, Austria!

Salzburg is a very quaint, very adorable Austrian pueblo. We could´ve walked around the whole place in a few hours but instead we were very relaxed, and leisurely explored the city. Salzburg is famous for 2 main things: Mozart´s birthplace/residence and for its rolling green hills that are alive with The Sound of Music...based on a true story, it was here in Salzburg that the VonTrapp family lived, played and sang and here where the musical film was shot. The first day Adam and I, naturally, did our own exploring, which of course includes lots of hiking up hills to get to cool looking buildings/castles/churches, and for breath taking views of the city. We had our afternoon coffee (we tried to find Mozart´s cafe but were too cold to continue searching) and didn´t stay up too late that night because we had a special early morning planned out the next day...

Cute, colorful Salzburg

There he is... Amadeus, in his hometown.... Salzburg has just capitalized on his name and they sell these things called: Mozart Balls.. they are chocolate/marzipan ball shaped candies and they have nothing to do with Mozart.. they just put his name on them. I got 2 of Mozart´s balls for my mom. (which I´m sending home with Mark and Patty by the way, you´ll be getting them soon!)

We stayed at a youth hostel, most known for being pretty much themed the sound of music, with the movie playing at various times during the day..upon recommendation, we reserved tickets for the Sound of Music tour through our hostel as well.... I haven´t seen this movie since I was 7 or 8 maybe and I most likely was very uninterested in it at the time, and Adam was in the same boat as me, so.. we didn´t get a chance to watch the movie before the tour which made it a little difficult to get as excited as everyone else to see THE gazebo or the lake.. however, as overpriced and dorky as the tour was (you have to see Adam´s video..our guide was amazing) , we had a really fun time.. they played the soundtrack throughout the bus ride, we saw some incredible scenery and there was a bar on the bus...that is where Adam and I discovered a very delicious brew called Stiegl (Salzburger´s very own)...anyways, enjoy these fotos, maybe you´ll be able to recognize some of these places!

I guess we´re just big dorks too!!

Mirabell Gardens.. the kids danced around the fountain in a scene, Do-Ray-Me perhaps? Anyways, that is the Festung fortress in the background, we hiked all the way up the hill and got denied entrance, but we still got a pretty cool view of Salzburg.

Remember that canoe scene??!!! I didn´t either but everyone on our bus did!! They showed us the clip, it is actually pretty cool, but this is the lake where all the kids tipped over!

And of course, the wedding scene, they were married here.... Although this church is in a town 45 minutes or so outside of Salzburg. We finished our tour with a warming Goulash soup meal and some Apfel strudel to top things off. Again, go watch Adam´s video!

to watch the video....CLICK HERE: http://adamprimack.blogspot.com

The rest of the day was spent warming up in our hostel, some rummy of course, and a few more Stiegl beers at our hostel´s bar...then the next day, we packed our bags and we were headed to our final destination....

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest Parliament Building on the Danube river

Adam and I began our 12 day, central European spring break adventure in the city of Budapest (country: Hungary) which actually is two different cities, Buda and Pest, split in 2 by the Danube river, connected by a few bridges. We flew in on a very overcast, stormy afternoon, bummed at our bad luck.. our hostel (which turned out to be a HUGE apartment all to ourselves- kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc) was on the far Pest side, just outside or in the Jewish quarter. It turned out to be an excellent location, walking distance to most things, but it didn´t matter because we actually walked EVERYWHERE, including numerous hikes up mountains, hills, etc..

The arrival into Hungary was confusing for a lot of reasons:
1) IT was really cold, and raining. A huge change from the blue skies and warm sunshine we left in Barcelona
2) Currency exchange.. after 7 months in Spain, we are finally adjusted to the euro and can convert into US dollars pretty easily (although it is only getting more painful)..When we got to Hungary we needed to exchange our euros for the Forint which is about 2.64 to 1 euro... what turned us around the most is that things like pretzels cost 800 forint and they had 200 forint bills which are actually worth less then one euro, but it was hard to grasp the concept that the coins were pretty much worthless. In our confusion, we accidently spent 30 euro on a dinner at a pizza place (obviously in a very touristy area)...thankfully it was good pizza and we probably would´ve passed out if we didnt eat at that restaurant anyways, so it made it a little easier to deal with the fact that we just spent 6000 forints on our first meal.
3) The language barrier: We actually didn´t know 1 word of Hungarian before we arrived, and we tried asking our taxi driver for a few phrases but we were finally in a position where the majoirity of people do not speak a language we know/mostly understand (English/Spanish).. It was entertaining and interesting...We learned a few words: hello, goodbye, thank you and cheers... I would type them but we didn´t ask how to spell them, and I think it would just confuse myself even more.

Once we felt more comfortable (a good night rest, satisfied apetite) we had an amazing 3 days in the city. As luck would have it, we got sunny, clear skies everday (except for drizzle one evening) AND we arrived just in time to celebrate National Hungarian Day with the people of Budapest. It was a wonderful festival, with street fairs, food booths of Hungarian cuisine (one of my favorite meals of the trip!), traditional Hungarian music performers, dancers, historical activities for the children, and lots of foot traffic everywhere! It was colorful, and warm and very entertaining for us.

Lots of horse parades and men in crowns and capes

There weren´t actually any words exchanged in this photograph sesh.. which could´ve been awkward for them, but...it was necessary, plus.....

I got a crown! Viva Hungaria!

Hiding in the Hungarian flags



Hungarian babies and old people are the cutest...Chess must be a pasttime because there were chess matches going on everywhere!


Check it out: a Hungarian dance team performing during the all day festivities, and they are good! I doubt my skills could challenge

Dohány Synagogue, largest in Europe, 2nd largest in the world..it is really beautiful, and gold.

St. Stephen´s Basilica.. Adam kept saying Basilisk..which is that snake from Harry Potter..dont look at its eyes!

This picture is for Dave...this Hungarian harmonica player got the thumbs up and a tip for representing the Pirates on the otherside of the pond

This was such a cool castle...which was actually a church..but it also had an incredible view of the city from above.


A not so cheerful encounter...if you look closely you can see that the dark things along the river are iron shoes. This is a simple but very powerful memorial for those who were murdered along the Danube river during WWII. Although..it is very beautiful with the Chain Bridge and Palace in the background.

One of the reasons why Budapest was my favorite cities.. We spent a few hours at this place called the Széchenyi thermal baths.. all the pools outside were heated and had whirlpools, plus, there were lots of Hungarian old men in speedos.. There were saunas all over the place and heated baths inside as well which had medicated water.

This is Heroe´s Square.. Right outside the biggest city park, where the Széchenyi baths are located... This was literally a 2 minute walk from our apartment.

We saw a lot of amazing architecture in Budapest, and had some pretty incredible picturesque views from various hikes.....we also learned a thing or two...Mr. Rubik of the Rubix cube was Hungarian..our hostel guide also informed us that Hungary was a communist country only 18 years ago which would explain why English is not as widely spoken as most European countries...the people were warm and the food was amazing...Adam and I miss GOULASH soup so much!

If I had to, overall I could definitely say that this was my favorite city of the whole trip.

Adam has finished a compilation of videos from the Hungary portion of our spring break adventure so go watch it!!! (also a lot of these pictures are stolen from him too)
CLICK HERE: http://adamprimack.blogspot.com/

farmhouse

la granja, la garriga, españa..

our friend marc is 1/2 catalan and will soon inherit a 17th century farmhouse that has been in his family for....ever? its located just outside barcelona, and sometimes we go up there for the weekend to relax and take a break from city life.

this is the farmhouse



this is 1 of 12 bedrooms

we spend our time doing farmhouse-ish things like...

throwing rocks on the train tracks...

taking naps on stone walls


hanging out at the swimming hole



oh, this is the battlefield where we....




fight with big sticks



make tree swings


play dress up with the spanish clothing in the wardrobes that all look like they go to Narnia



play cards


make fires for warmth (house is all concrete!)

and the boys play us music by candelight

ALL pictures stolen from Ross, the official Granja photographer.

Viva Cataluña

party outdoors...

a weekend before last, i was walking through plaza diamant in my neighborhood called grácia...in the plaza there was a huge pile of wood with dirt and sand around it on the bottom and it appeared to be something like a bonfire. this obviously got me very excited but i also had no idea what was going on and no one seemed to be able to answer our questions. later that night, i had plans to meet a group of my friends at our favorite local shwarma restaurant and as i was walking there my friend nick and i heard fireworks and the second we turned the corner, we could see that my neighborhood was ALIVE with people and music and food and fireworks and REAL fire.. real bon fires everywhere. we thought it was just this plaza, we kept walking and realized that every plaza every space that could potentially hold a group of people was filled with drinking catalans, old and young. we didnt really need to ask around to find out what was happening because the graffiti and signs helped us figure it out. the catalans were celebrating the independence of mallorca but the main reason for the gathering was to rally and support the movement of CATALONIAN independence! im going to explain this one with videos but.....plaza sant joan was the coolest because they had a big stage set up and the crowd was circling around doing their own sardana (traditional catalan dance)...we tried to learn it but mostly it looked like the hoky poky slash follow the leader. outdoor fiestas rule, and so does españa.

Andorra

Andorra...

(Vallnord Ski Resort, Andorra)

A few weeks ago, a group of my friends and i went to the french/spanish pyrenees for a weekend of snowboarding.

(side note: officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra) is a small landlocked country in western Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain (Catalonia) and France (Northern Catalonia and old Occitania). Once isolated, it is currently a prosperous country mainly because of tourism and its status as a tax haven. The people of Andorra are currently listed as having the highest human life expectancies on Earth at an average of 83.52 years) thanks wiki

right, so, for those who are aware of my athletic history and childhood, this will be obvious to you, for those who don´t, well i´ll explain very briefly....i haven´t been snowboarding or skiing for, hmmm probably 7 or 8 years. 8 years ago, i wouldve died to be a snowboarder like the rest of my peers, but i had to follow strict rules, because 8 years ago i probably weighed barely 100 lbs, a few inches shorter then i am now. i had no meat, no cushion on my body to make anyone comfortable with the thought of me flying down a mountain of ice and snow and trees, and not getting seriously injured... plus, i had already dedicated my life to basketball, so my father, also my coach for one of the teams i played for, double banned me going up to northstar on the weekends with my homies. ANYWAYS, back to the point of my athletic history, my last year of playing on an organized sports team was my senior year of highschool, 3 years ago. (whaaaaaa!!!???¿¿¿) sine then, the only exercise ive gotten is riding my bike to the beach a few times in the summer, and hiking around the yuba for the couple weeks i was home in the months of july. so, needless to say, it took about 30 min on the slopes to feel the pain in my thighs, calves, ankles, feet, shoulders, butt, arms, hands, wrists and back. but, since the trip was already paid for, i had to and wanted to stick it out the 2 days. i did. it wasn´t an easy transition back to finals and other stressful items on the agenda, but, totally worth it. the view was beautiful, (as you can see in the first pic) and it was neat to watch my boarder friends who could actually get off the ski lift without taking everyone else out like dominoes.(see, thats me, i´m alive!)

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

my niño

meet gerard....

i have a niño...not biologically, but he´s my little catalan baby, and he´s amazing. he´s a firey read-headed 5 year old with glasses and too much energy. when i say i have a niño, i mean i teach english to him slash babysit him, in english. he can´t read or write in spanish or catalan so its actually impossible to teach him english with words. i read to him, but mostly we just end up drawing pictures or playing hide-and-seek or if its a really boring day, he´ll just sit there picking his nose counting from 0-100 continuously until he gets bored with that. i play with him on wednesdays and fridays for 2 hours each day and its nice because i have a little extra spending money and it has become sort of a hobby. sometimes i go to the cheap china stores and buy him fun games. we play go fish sometimes or yesterday we built an airplane and a helicopter. it was pretty fun. i´ve been doing this for about 2 monthsish now and this is what he can say in english:

numbers 0-100
colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, white
animals: monkey, fish, dog, gat (cat) and elephant
words: house, sun, moon, boy
phrases: do you haves? my name is gerard. four in a row.

he´s 5, so he isn´t really interested in learning english, he just subconsciously picks it up, which just makes me realize how brilliant little kids are. yesterday was the last day i´ll see him for a month because its break now. his mom is very preggers and when i go back in january, gerard will be a big brother and there will be another little fiery red-headed catalan kid in barcelona.

why i like my job: well, my niño is just awesome and its actually good practice for me. he responds to me in spanish and catalan and i surprisingly understand him 95% of the time. i also get to speak with his parents about things, so its nice to have the opportunity for conversation. on wednesday though, i experienced the good side of language barriers...

gerard usually leaves half way through our session to "hacer ka-ka" or to go poop. so, like routine, he left and i heard him on the other side of the house talking to his dad....his dad was repeating something in english, something i figured he wanted gerard to come and tell me, because the parents dont speak much english, they can say a few things and phrases, but for the most part, they don´t know much but sometimes they´ll try their english out on me through gerard...so gerard came running back to me and already forgot what he was supposed to tell me. so his mom came in and kept whispering the phrase in his ear and finally after a few minutes he said: "you are tramper" and they both just looked at me like i was supposed to understand that. so tried asking me if "tramper" in english is like the word "tramposa" in spanish which means cheater or trickster..... and i said, well, you wouldnt really call someone a "tramper" and the dad comes in and says... ohhhhhhhh "you are a tramp". i started laughing and i explained to them that the word "tramp" in english has sort of evolved from meaning cool to more of a derogatory term directed at woman, like the spanish word "prostituta" (is how i compared it)..... then in the end, it all made sense, this was our conversation:

dad: "como el grupo de música, SuperTramp"
me: "OH, (the band SuperTRAMP) te gusta?"
dad: "SÍ, ME GUSTA MUCHO, no significa guai?
me: "ahora no, es como prostituta"
dad: "dios mio, discupalme!"
me: "no pasa nada, todo está bien"

he was actually just trying to compliment me because he really likes the band Super Tramp and thought it was pretty chulo. thank you language barrier for the good laugh.

side note: my family will be here in 2 days. you wanna know A.D.D? story of my life