Y’all, 2019 has been a wild year!!!  In the past 12 months I have gotten to live in Spain, backpack Europe, start nursing school, open my photography business, and so much more.  Keep reading for a recap of the highlights of my year + pictures!

January Highlights

• Moving to Madrid, Spain
• Meeting and spending time with my 2 au pair kiddos
• Exploring Madrid by myself and with my classmates from spanish school
• Meeting up with my friend Brena and showing her around Madrid
• Visiting my friend Reyno in Malaga

Overall, this month was filled with a lot of new experiences and getting settled in my new home.  I explored our neighborhood, ventured out into Madrid a bit, tried new foods, was thrown into speaking spanish and somehow survived, and got to meet up with old friends and catch up.  As this month ended, I was excited about the months to come to see all that would happen.

 

February Highlights

• Visited Valencia for the weekend and saw my friend Brena again who was living there for 2 months
• Saw my friend Miriam who lives in Madrid and was an exchange student at my high school
• Went on lots of fun outings with my spanish class
• Toured Real Madrid stadium & saw a game!  It was such a fun experience
• Really got out of my comfort zone and went to a lot of stuff alone including a “talk abroad” language exchange
• Visited Dublin, Ireland and saw my friend Phoebe

This month was full of lots of travel and exploration.  It was a month of beginning to be pushed past my comfort zone and forcing myself into those situations that were difficult, but that I knew would benefit me.  I started to feel very at home in Madrid with my host family, spanish class, and daily activities.

March Highlights

• Day trip to Cuenca
• Weekend trip to Morocco!! (got to ride a camel!)
• Fun nights out with friends
• Exploring more of Madrid
• Hanging with the kids
• Running & working out more
• Last minute weekend trip to Cordoba & Sevilla
• Weekend trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands

This was no doubt a very busy month!  When this month hit, I adopted a “now or never” attitude and tried to use all my free time to explore as much of Madrid as possible.  I also used my weekends off to travel to new cities.  Looking back, I have to say that March was a pretty amazing month.  I’m proud of myself for the courage I had to try new things, especially by myself.

April Highlights

• Attending 2 Rayo Vallecano soccer games
• More fun with the kids
• Took a day trip by myself to Toledo
• Toured Athletico Madrid with friends
• Cooking class where I learned to make 2 spanish foods: tortilla patata & croquetas
• The parents visited for a week and we had so much fun in Madrid, Segovia, & Barcelona
• Ran the Madrid Rock N Roll 10K (such a cool experience!)
• Parque Europa with my host fam
• Moving up to level B1 in spanish class and doing fun activities every Friday with my spanish school

This month was bitter sweet.  I knew it was my last month and so I wanted to make the most of my time.  But the time felt like it just flew by!  I finished checking off as much as I could off my Madrid bucket list and treasured my time with the kiddos.  My parents got to visit me and we had so much fun.  It was so good to show them around the city and country that had become my home.  Finally, running in the Madrid Rock N Roll 10k was the perfect way to end my time in Madrid.  It was the coolest experience running through the streets of Madrid taking it all in.

May Highlights

• Started my solo backpacking journey…spent my last few days in Madrid hanging out & then took the overnight train to Lisbon and began my adventure!
• Portugal: Lisbon, Sintra
  • Went surfing for the 1st time!
• Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Pompeii, Capri, Pisa, Burano
  • Got food poisoning but survived
  • Visited so many amazing museums & historical sights
  • Met up with my friend Anne
  • Made a wish in the Trevi Fountain like Lizzie McGuire
  • Went to the Vatican, Colosseum, Pantheon, & Roman Forum
• Switzerland: Interlaken
  • Went hang gliding & canyoning
• Germany: Stuttgart, Munich
  • Visited my friend Dasha!

May was obviously a very eventful month.  I would have to say May was probably the best month of the year.  I got to live my dream and begin my amazing adventure of solo backpacking through Europe!  All I can say is that I grew so much, met some amazing people, saw incredible things, and became a million times more confident in myself and my abilities.  How lucky are we to have a world this cool to explore?  Every day was a new adventure and my favorite part was not knowing what the next day would bring.  I’m a spontaneous person naturally, but traveling like this allowed me to be spontaneous to the uttermost and I thrived on that.  I will never forget this amazing month, the places I went, or the people I met.

June Highlights

• Austria: Vienna
  • Visited my friend Jorge
• Spain: Palma de Mallorca
  • Spontaneously decided to fly down to Mallorca and spend a couple days on the beach (it was SO good to be back in Spain!)
• Czech Republic: Prague
  • Met some awesome people and stayed at the most fun & quaint little hostel
• Germany: Berlin
  • So many museums!
• France: Paris
  • Eiffel tower, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, & the women’s world cup soccer game!!
• Went back to America after almost 6 months abroad…it felt good to be home!
  • Showed my friend Sarah around Austin
  • Got family photos taken
  • Went to Candyland with Faith
  • Went to the Thomas Rhett concert

This month was a lot of fun.  I was starting month number 2 traveling and I was finally getting the hang of it all.  I took the days slower and relaxed more.  I usually would do one activity per day and then relax at the hostel or walk around the town the rest of the time.  I enjoyed using the Rick Steves Europe Audio app to do self paced & self guided walking tours in each city.  At this point in the trip, I had been traveling so long that it became hard to get excited about all the sights I was seeing.  This feeing frustrated me because I was in these amazing cities, but didn’t feel that I was appreciating it as much as I should.  Despite this feeling, I was still able to make the most of every day and see so much.  Finally, in the end of June I flew from Paris to LA staying awake for almost a full 24 hours to get home to Dallas.  While back home, I saw friends and family and jumped right back in to being busy with life.

July Highlights

• 2 of my friends came to visit me in Austin-Sarah from Tennessee & Brena from Brazil!  It was fun to show them around Austin!
• Attended the North America College Training, a week long Christian training for college students, and had a great week gaining the Lord more and seeing friends
• Hung out with my cousins who live in Austin a few times
• US women’s national soccer team won the world cup
• Worked all month on starting my photography business
• Volunteered at Truth School, a 1 week camp for middle & high schoolers, with my church in Austin

This month was pretty chill, for me at least.  I spent a lot of days just hanging out at my apartment in Austin.  I spent many days working on getting my photography business off the ground.  And in the hours in between then, I explored Austin a bit more and enjoyed summer.

August Highlights

• Visited my grandparents in Houston for a few days
• Celebrated my cousin Luci’s birthday at Build-A-Bear
• Took a trip to Ecuador with Travel World Culture & 2 of my friends
• Officially launched my photography business!
• Started nursing school & the Healthy Horns peer educator program
• 1st tailgate & football game of the season!  Hook em horns!

A month full of family, friends, & beginnings.  Junior year, here we go.

September Highlights

• Flew to Seattle to be a bridesmaid & watch my bestie get married!
• Turned 21 & celebrated at dinner with the best friends
• Got Invisalign
• Won Freshmen Connect with the best pink team
• Went to Fredericksburg to celebrate my 21st
• Drove to Dallas on a Wednesday to meet the JONAS BROTHERS & attend their concert

A busy month full of a lot of celebrating.

October Highlights

• OU vs UT game at the Cotton Bowl & state fair of Texas with Em
• Painting with a twist with friends
• A lot more photography
• Family in town for dad’s 50th birthday and walking the race for the cure for my mom’s 5 year cancer free anniversary

This was an extremely busy month with me going home 2 weekends and having never ending assignments and tests, but I survived.

November Highlights

• Spending many hours in open lab with our lovely mannequin patients
• Lucianna’s wedding
• Barnyard Bash & Semi-formal
• Realizing that I don’t take advantage of all Austin has to offer enough & making an Austin bucket list and instagram to change that
• Jimmy Fallon coming to UT and hosting The Tonight Show for the first time on a college campus & getting to be in the audience #hookem!!
• Becoming intramural champs for another season with my girls soccer team
• Joined Orange Theory Fitness & absolutely love it
• Celebrated Thanksgiving in Houston with my family
• Girls retreat for CSOC in a beautiful airbnb
• Driving to Waco for the UT vs Baylor game and seeing my friend Spencer and his family

Another busy month!

December Highlights

• Checking more off my Austin bucket list (Mozart’s Christmas light show, Sprinkles cupcakes, Glossier pop up shop, South Congress)
• My first ever photography show at my house where I sold a lot of my photos
• Stars game with the fam
• Jonas Brothers round 2 in Austin
• Christmas party with my nursing friends
• Star Wars with my momma
• Intramural champs again with my coed soccer team
• Continued going to Orange Theory Fitness and got my personal record on my all out sprint on the treadmill
• Celebrated Christmas with the fam
• Did a little more photography in Austin and back home

Last month of the year!!!  It was a good month.

Cheers to 2019!!!  I have a feeling 2020 is going to be just as great.  I can’t wait to see what the upcoming year brings.  Thanks for reading my little recap.

 

XOXO

Texan On The Go