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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Simply the best...

...better than all the rest! You know you sang it as soon as you saw the title.

I bet you're asking yourself, "What is the best? What is she talking about?" Well, I'm talking about my weekend. This past weekend starting with last Thursday.

As of Thursday, November 20, 2009, I am officially off the market. That's right, I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!

I'm that girl that started dreaming about being married and having a family as soon as I figured out what they were. I've tried very hard to have patience for this time in my life to come, and now it's here!

I guess you want to know how this happened since I'm in Spain and Joel is still in DC, right?

Thursday started like any other day. I got out of bed about 20 minutes later than I should have. I basically jogged to class so I wouldn't be too late. (Incidentally, I was the first person to arrive that day. First time all semester!) We had a lovely Spanish class, and we left the building discussing an emergency room bill and how insurance works in a foreign country. As we turned the corner beside our school, I turned around to tell one of my classmates something. Well, I never finished my sentence because Joel was walking along behind us waiting for me to turn around! He had flown in to surprise me! I, of course, didn't know what to think. I had no reason to think that he would fly to Spain to visit me.

We went back to my apartment to eat and just hung out for a while. At around 1 Joel decided to go back to his hotel to take a nap and I went for a run. We decided to meet up again at 5 to go to Palau Nacional at Montjuic. As far as I knew, we were just going there because I had talked about it so much. The view is A-MAZING, and it has been my favorite spot in Barcelona since I moved here. So, once arrived and walked up the many many steps to get to the top we sat down to talk and just see the city lights come on as the sun set. After a few minutes Joel wanted to go to the corner "to see a different view of the city." It was there that he talked about the last year and a half and got down on one knee. If I remember correctly, the last couple of sentences went something like this, "I'm tired of saying 'I like you' (taking a knee) Amzie Caroline Schell, will you marry me?"

Actually, I don't know if that was really what was said because I can't remember it all. Who actually remembers details in a moment like that?! I do know he said something about being tired of saying "I like you," though. (We decided at the beginning of our relationship to not kiss or say "I love you" until we were engaged. I don't say that to toot our own horn, but rather to explain that we've been stupid in relationships before.)

So, of course I said "YES!!!!"

Then, because of the time difference, and because everyone we wanted to call was at work/school, we got to hang out for a few hours and revel in our engaged-ness. And then we bought peanut butter. I kid you not. That's just how we roll.

That's our story! The rest of the best weekend yet was spent sightseeing and hanging out with my friends from ICB. It was really fun to show Joel what my life has been like here!

And now, what you've been waiting for. Pictures! Actually, these aren't from the night of the proposal. It completely slipped our minds to take pictures! But we went back the next night for a re-enactment. That's what you're seeing. :)


Yep, I got engaged on the terrace of this beauty...

...with this view!


On bended knee

Hanging out at La Sagrada Familia.


Parc Guell is cool.

The bling! Joel's grandmother's diamond and made by my Uncle Robby. Perfect!

Right now everything is roses and rainbows for us. It's yet to get difficult. I don't expect married life to be roses and rainbows. I expect it to be the most difficult thing I've ever done. But I know it's going to be more than worth it, and I consider it a joy to have the opportunity to work on such a relationship. That's infinitely better than roses and rainbows :)

I'm grateful to so many people for helping all of this work.

Thank you,Heather, for lying. :) Heather created a false trip to the Dali museum so that I wouldn't skip town for the weekend. And I really believed her. And I was really excited to see this museum that everyone keeps talking about. I like what happened more, though.

Thank you creator of Google maps for being so user-friendly and for adding street view for Barcelona. You're contribution to the proposal helped Joel find my school. Joel and I had looked at Barcelona on Google maps several times. I didn't think anything about it because it's not uncommon for him to make me look at a random map for hours at a time.

Thank you Tempest for flying in to see Porschia this weekend. If you had not been on the same flight, Porschia would have never recognized Joel in the currency exchange line. Therefore, Joel might not have ever made it through Estacio Sants.

Thank you Balmes Hotel for having reliable internet. There's no way we could have relied on the internet in my apartment to call and spread the news. (I added a link because it's a nice hotel in Barcelona. It's clean.)

Thank you Uncle Robby in being so generous in making my ring! I LOVE IT!!!!

Thank you Lucinda for reminding Joel that I would like a ring from my uncle. :) And more seriously, thank you for encouraging when I was impatient. You're the best best friend ever! (She got on the phone after having her wisdom teeth cut out just to talk to us. That's a good friend!)

Thank you everyone and their mother than knew about this and kept their mouth shut. :)

Many many thanks to our parents and grandparents for showing us such a wonderful example of marriage. We have conversations about you guys, and we have been blessed by your relationships. You have many years of practice... please pass along some wisdom.

Ditto for all of you recently married friends :) You can pass along some insight that the old pros have forgotten about!

Thank you Joel for choosing me :) You really are the most wonderful man I've ever met. Life is just beginning for us, and it's going to be exciting! I can't wait to be your wife!




Stay tuned!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Posts a plenty and a pickpocket.

Since I'm SO behind on blogging, the forecast calls for a flood of posts over the next few days. Before I get back to the daunting task of trying to upload pictures with this crappy internet (have I mentioned once or a hundred times that I hate it?) I wanted to share a few stories with you guys.

#1: I have a stalker... maybe.
Last Monday, between my two classes, I rushed to the grocery store to find some lunch. As I was walking down Carrer d'Aribau someone called out to me. I didn't know if the person was actually talking to me, so I turned around to check. He was. The conversation that followed went something like this.
(In Spanish)
Guy: Hi, how are you?
Me: Um... I'm okay.
Guy: You're not from Spain are you?
Me: No. Is it obvious?
(Now in English)
Guy: My name is Dennis. I knew you weren't Spanish. I thought maybe you were Russian or German. I can tell now that you're from the United States. I just wanted to stop you and tell you that I think you are very beautiful.
Me: Er... Thanks, I guess.
Guy: I've see you walking down the street all the time, so I figured now was a good time to talk to you. You're going to Consum, right? (Consume is a grocery store, and by this point I was a little creeped out)
Me: Yeah, a girl's gotta eat sometime.
Guy: And when you go to Consum you walk through the little park as a shortcut, don't you? I see you walking through there a lot. (At this point I was really creeped out.) I live in an apartment beside the pharmacy. My window looks over the park.
Me: Um... okay. Well, I'm going to leave now. This is really awkward.
Guy: Don't be scared, I just want to talk to you. Can we go get coffee sometime? How can I get in touch with you again?
Me: I guess you're just going to have to rely on luck, but I don't think it's a good idea anyway. Goodbye...

Then I walked away very very quickly and took the back streets home. Since then I've been very aware when I go out. I'm not scared of the guy, I just want to avoid him as much as possible.


#2: My reflexes make Edward Cullen look like a slug.
Preface: Edward Cullen is a character in my latest book obsession Twilight (and the 3 following books). My reflexes in this situation aren't really any faster than anyone else's would have been in this situation.

This past weekend, a girl in my program and I went to Prague (more on that later). We flew back to Barcelona on Sunday morning, and it was a very hectic morning beginning with us almost missing our flight. Finally, we arrived at the Barcelona airport and could calm down a little. To get to and from the airport it's more economical to take a train from the city center. Well, we were some of the last passengers to get on the train to take us to the city center, so, needless to say, we didn't get seats. A group of guys jumped on the train at the last minute too. Because we didn't have seats, I just plopped my happy self down on my suitcase to ride home. They guys were standing a little too close to us, but I didn't think much about since the train was quite crowded, however, I did think to put my purse in my lap and I was holding on to it. After a little while I could feel my purse moving some. It was almost like something was tugging at it, but I figured that it was just because people's coats were rubbing against it. I looked down and saw that the zipper was halfway open. That's weird, I thought. Maybe I just forgot to zip it after exchanging my money. I just zipped it up and continued talking to Porschia. Then I felt the tug again. I looked down and the guy standing beside me was trying to unzip my purse!!! I quickly slapped his hand away before he could open it any and gave him my glare. The glare that only comes out when I'm really really mad. Only when I'm seething mad. He stared at me, and then kind of jumped at me to intimidate me! It was as if he was trying to make me feel ashamed that he got caught trying to steal my wallet! What an idiot! Well, I wasn't intimidated and the whole thing was over just as soon as it started. The train was stopping at that point and the guys jumped off as soon as they could. I have a feeling that if they had stayed on longer there would be more than one person getting mad, and it wouldn't have been pretty. (Porschia was just as mad as I was when I told her what happened.) If I had not been sitting down I would have kicked him in the shin or kneed him in the groin. Or even poked him in the eyeballs. As Dwight K. Schrute said, "The eyes are the groin of the head."

Moral of the story: Pickpockets are sneaky. I was paying attention and being careful, and the perp still got his grimy paws on my purse zipper. Luckily I have super sensitive senses and stopped the crime before it could even start.

Coming soon...
Granada
Prague
Maybe I'll think of something else