Spain: Week 28

Platja Montrog 

Our home for the week

Tarragona

On the outskirts of the city was a Roman Colosseum. Because we were visiting from America they let us in free. My imagination wandered all over that place! The gladiators fighting wild animals and men.  

We also spent time wandering around trying to find food. Of course, I found fries. They were good and hit the spot as they always do.

One day we went for a drive and found some neat sights.

Barcelona

I loved Barcelona!!! We started off at a market. They had all sorts of food including fish, candy, and fruits.

 Even a whole booth for OLIVES!!!

Most of our trip was on a bus. It was so nice to be able to just sit and get a tour of the city. Learning as we rode. We got off at a couple of stops. Barcelona is famous for a few things. Gaudi's work is ALL over this city.

A monument to Christopher Columbus. 

Gaudi designed his own "neighborhood" for the upperclass called Parc Guell. It was beautiful!

It is now an open park that anyone can enter. Street vendors bring their products to sell in the Marketplace. The walkways and all the mosaics all over the place were incredible. I would have lived in this neighborhood if I could. 

I just LOVED the Barcelona balconies.  The house on the left is designed by Gaudi.

The Sagrada Familia. The never ending cathedral.

One of the last days we went for a drive and found an old aqueduct built by the Romans. Kelli also found a snake... or so she says.

 

 

Other images from our trip.

England: Week 27

Erin and I made it back to England!! Took us a whole day but it was a very smooth trip. I am grateful that I've traveled here before. I knew exactly what to expect and how to proceed. It was great! I wasn't nervous at all. I did notice though, that with my previous experience I was also not as excited about seeing all the very English things.

I am still very excited to be here. It is surreal to be home. In England. It just isn't as new and exciting.

A few things I noticed today. People are all so different and yet we are all so the same. We are each individuals and different in our physical, emotional and mental characteristics. Yet we are all children of God. We all have good in each of us. I had a lot of time to watch people at the airports. I loved it.

Immigration today is so much easier than it used to be (back in the early 1900s). Thank all that is good!

England is GREEN!!!! And warmer than Provo was (when I left it - now that I'm gone it is all warm).

Jet lag isn't as bad... yet. Though I haven't slept a whole lot in the past 3 days.

The light switch on the outside of the bathroom still throws me off. Why would anyone do that?

We are leaving for Spain tomorrow. Time in the sun. I'm excited. Pictures to come.

Random thoughts...

The England posts begin again starting next week. Erin and I leave for home tomorrow! I can't believe it has come so quickly. I don't feel ready at all. My bag is packed, but I am sure I'm forgetting stuff. It doesn't seem real yet. Then again, it doesn't seem real that I'm done with school or that I have a job with Ancestry.com.

The other day I met someone new and we were chatting. The typical get to know you questions about work and school. It was so weird to not say anything about school and start off by saying I work at Ancestry.com. Nothing about classes or my degree. Just my job. It was awesome!!!

This past week has been one of self discovery. Not super in-depth, but still I learned stuff about me. I can be very loyal. I knew this before, but apparently needed to rediscover it. I am also have a bit of pride. There are things I wouldn't do this week because my pride wouldn't let me. Which probably turned out to be a good thing.

End and Beginning

Yesterday

• Took my last final... EVER. (And passed!)
• I got a job with Ancestry.com as a Contract Researcher

Today

• Started my new job at Ancestry.com!!!!

Future

• Continue job at Ancestry.com
• Pack for England
• Leave for England
• Arrive in England
• Leave for Spain

My Last Day

I thought it would be fun and a good memory to write about my last day of school in my undergraduate program at BYU.

I woke up at 7 before my alarm went off. I tried to sleep for the next thirty minutes. The alarm finally went off at 7:30 and I proceeded to hit the snooze button several times while I laid there in bed. I may have been freaking out.

In my last class ever at BYU I may have fallen asleep. (Don't judge). I really appreciated what my professor ended the class with. He wanted us to know that we had a professor who believed in God. I love being at BYU for that reason. My professors and peers believe in God. What a blessing.

After class I went to work out of habit. I needed a distraction from the rest of the day. I looked up interview questions and tried to figure out what I may be asked at my interview. I had a job interview at Ancestry.com. Yes, the Ancestry.com. So I did some freaking out about it before hand. 

At the interview I was calm and felt good about what was going on. There was an interview, a test and a second interview. I'm not sure if I got the job yet. But here is to hoping. Everything went really well. Like really well. They called back with some follow up questions and said I was perfect for the job. I need to see if the job would work with my schedule. 

I really wish I could just call my parents. I could really use their calming words of advice. Their encouragement and support. It is hard having them so far away and even farther now that they are in Holland. I have no real way to contact them other than email. Even then the time difference sucks. 

I spent the evening trying not to freak out about the job by finishing the first season of Glee. Yes, I have been hooked by the Glee. Not my favorite show but still fun. 

So that was my day. The end of one chapter and hopefully the beginning of another.

The End

I'm done with my undergraduate classes in a week. A week. To be honest, the idea hasn't really set in yet. This semester has gone so fast. It has been super busy. There have been a few things on my mind as I think about the end.

1) I'm gonna need a hobby. After graduation, I'm gonna have a lot of time on my hands that I'm not gonna know what to do with. I'm taking suggestions for hobbies. Genealogy is out as one because, well, I do that full time. So cooking is a great option, reading books for FUN (what is that?) and sewing a quilt is another option (though I need a sewing machine for that one). I'm kinda excited and yet terrified. I need hobbies!!!

2) I have also had this huge fear confront me. One I've never thought of until this week. How do I keep learning after college? How do I keep up with everything (technology, writing styles etc)? Obviously there is reading to learn. I can also keep writing and practicing. I can always take classes from community colleges or online classes. I'm really going to miss the classroom/lecture setting though. Just a scary thought.

RootsTech Genealogy Conference

Workshops
by Ann Roach: Letting Technology Work for You

Gift of more time
Text to Speech
Naturalsoft - Website and download free version (Mac); If you purchase the full version you can convert it into MP3s. Free version lets you take any website and have it read the content. Called Screen Readers.
Google Translate - Translate and play it for you
Word Lens - App to translate with iPhone
Dragon Speech Recognition Software

Dictation/Speech Recognition

iPhone Apps: Dragon (transcribes), Speak it (reads)
Be aware of surrounding noise and calibration time

OneNote for Mac now exists. Great for organizing notes.
Wave is better than MP3

Names in Stone/Gateway Mapping
Cemeteries need to pay to get their information online. Only 300 cemeteries at present.
YOU can help. Go online and follow the three step process to gather info from cemeteries. Plan out what you are going to do. Go to cemeteries with your clipboard and paper. Put the information on the Internet. Use it as a Eagle Scout Project.

FamilySearch Now and in the Future
Making things available for the world. Connecting all of our knowledge together in one place = FamilySearch


The Expo Center
Oh my goodness!!! This is the best Expo Center I've been to at a Genealogy Conference. Thank you techy people for making this awesome! The Microsoft Playplace with pool tables, massages and Kinects is great. The Internet Café in the middle of the room is so nice. And the glass room for the conference bloggers is intriguing to walk past.

The poster and signs are well put together and really tie the place together. This is great!

Keynote Speaker from Allen County Public Library

The FamilySearch Center

Blogger Center (Media Center)

The Media Café

Old men playing chess in the Play Place

Microsoft Playplace

Clark Planetarium
As part of the conference BrightSolid rented out the Clark Planetarium Thursday evening. I took my sister Erin as my date and we had a blast! They had food including nachos, Philly cheese steak sandwiches and cookies. The food was great! The movies were awesome! The prizes were awesome genealogy things and the music was spot on. It was such a fun environment. It was funny too because Erin and I stuck out like sore thumbs. We were younger than anyone there by far. We got attention from the young planetarium staff as well as the older genealogists and techy people. Super fun!

Cheesecake, Men, and Fries

Friday night Ashlie and I got some friends together and went to a new dessert shop in Alpine Village.

 This place has amazing desserts! You should go! Click here

Saturday, the VanGenderen brothers came down and we all went to the Men's Volleyball game. It was awesome!!!

Images from byucougars.com

Sunday, Ashlie, Erin and I made homemade french fries and pretzels. Both were amazing!!!