Natalia en España

in amsterdam

2005-07-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

i am in amsterdam for four hours waiting for my plane to take me back to madrid. i have been in sweden for the past six days....it was soooo fun! i will write more later....whooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

yesterday...

2005-07-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

well well well. let´s see. tuesday lauren and i went out for our last time together :( our last time this trip anyways. we plan on coming back someday. but anyways. we went to get sangria at one of our favorite places. we then went and sang karaoke, the beatles ¨yesterday¨. the crowd loves it. ok, so really no one paid us any attention but whatever, we enjoyed it. we then met up with some friends at our favorite club and had one last hoorah with the erasmus group. wednesday we went to retiro and rented this little row boat and rowed around and got some sun and enjoyed the beautiful day. i was pretty much in denial that she was actually leaving. even wed night as she was packing up everything i think i was kinda laughing inside, thinking ¨she really thinks i am going to let her leave¨ but...joke´s on me. she really did leave. thursday morning i took her to the airport and not until we were in line for her to go thru the gate did we both start crying as it became clear that IT WAS OVER. i cried all the way home and when i walked into my bedroom to turn on the light, the bulb burnt out. coincidence? i think not!!!! definetly a sign. ~sigh~ but ok. so after she left i started cleaning up the room and even starting packing one of my suitcases. friday (yesterday) i walked around and tried to shop for souveniers but ended up buying a belt. oops. then i went to this party our school held on campus, an end of the year fiesta if you will. pretty cool. then today i woke up early (11am) and then went to the palace which was absolutely gorgeous. the rooms are amazing with ornate EVERYTHING. very royal. then i went to el prado museum to see the parts i hadnt seen before. so yeah basically now i am trying to just keep myself busy with touristy things until wed when i leave for sweden! much lovvvvee.

whoooa its been awhile

2005-06-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

well i hadnt realized how long it has been since i last wrote in my blog! well since my last entry i have started and.....FINISHED with finals!! whoop! i am free, it is finally summmmmerrr!! but lets backtrack so i can talk about what i did when my sister was here....let´s see we went to that brazilian concert which was really more of a mob scene with firefighters hosing the dancing crowd down while me my sister and my roomie lauren looked on in horror and tried not to get run down. then the next day (sunday) lauren left for ireland for a week and i was left alone with my sister who tried her best not to get bored while i tried my best to study. the next week pretty much consisted of amanda going to museums and such while i...you guessed it....studied. we went to eat...and umm yeah...i am a bad tour guide bc i didnt really take her out other than to eat at night. but we did go shopping on friday and we got tons of cute clothes...thanks dad! haha jk jk...kinda..anyways that night lauren came back and we went out dancing with my sister and then on saturday we went to get tapas and sangria for my sisters last night here and then sunday morning bright and early, i took amanda to the airport :( and then today i took my last final and then now i am going to spend the next three days with my roomie lauren bc she is leaving on thursday SOBBBBBBBB. i dont even want to think about it...blah. well now i am going to go grocery shopping bc i have no food other than some old bread. hope everyone is doing well. besos!!!

wahoo!

2005-06-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

yay my sister amanda is here! wed night i went with my friend patricia to meet amanda and her school group. the same teacher that brought patricia and i to spain four years ago was the same one who was leading my sisters group. it was really awesome to see her and to be able to thank her bc if she hadnt brought us here while we were in high school, we may have never come to study abroad here in college! the next morning i went and picked up amanda and brought her back to my apartment and then that night i took her out with some of my friends and she got a little taste of madrid nightlife but we were all pretty tired so we came home (relatively) early...friday she went to a museum with lauren while i studied my life away and then that night we we went to eat some mexican food, yum. then today she went shopping with lauren while i once again studied my life away. and now we are going to get ready to go to this outdoor concert that is going on in madrid where some brazilian salsa guy is playing and its supossed to be really awesome. i am excited. thats about it, pretty much studying a ton and trying to manage my time so amanda doesnt get bored and so that i dont fail. have a great day loves!

well well well

2005-06-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

well. i am currently on campus, trying to find information on a company that i have to write a report about. and it was driving me crazy so i went and bought a huge thing of dietcoke and called my roomie to chat and she told me about the people who are in our apartment that are thinking about buying it bc the landlord is selling it. last time people came to our apartment to look at it, i left them alone in the living room and when i came back i saw cigarette stubs in one of our candle holders. how rude is that!??? argh. yes, i will admit, our apartment is in sub par condition. but that does not give people the right to smoke without asking. anyways this past weekend was pretty chill, went out on friday but stayed home other than that. saturday night i saw the movie, ¨the butterfly effect¨. it was very very disturbing. i hate watching disturbing scenes in movies where there are children and you have to wonder what kind of parent would be like, ¨yes, i think my son would be perfect for that sick and twisted scene!!¨anyways, i have been hanging out at starbucks way too much, i think every day last week pretty much. and the weird thing is...every time i go there i see the same guy with his mom and i think they might live there. one time i was there for almost three hours and the lady was sitting in a chair sleeping the entire time. and this other guy was there, building a model car...ok... random. but its just easier to study outside of my apartment, and there is no barnes and nobles around here and i hate going to libraries. the only bad thing is they dont have the internet so now that i have to write some reports and look up info i have to either try and work at the internet cafe where the peruivan man who owns it is always playing loud music and watching tv OR pay 2 euro for a half hour at the fancy workstation OR make the hour commute to campus. ay yay yay. well the good thing is my sister amanda is going to be arriving in Madrid tomorrow with her school and then on thursday she is going to be coming to stay with me for ten days! i am excited to see her, i think we´re going to have a good time. even though a lot of the time she is here i am going to have to be studying my butt off for my tests....ahhh i am nervous!!! anyways maybe i should get back to work and stop thinking about how much i have to do and actually do it!! have a great day!! love, natalie

long blur of a week

2005-06-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

well this week i have been doing a ton of studying and yet i dont really feel like i have made a ton of progress...hopefully soon i will realize ¨wow, i understand everything!!¨ we shall see....this past week lauren was gone and i was really lonely, but at least i was forced to study due to having no one to talk to. anyways now she is back and we are going to salsa dancing tonight with her mom and that should be fun. not much else is going on....i will make sure to do something worth wrting about before i write again haha. byebye!!

please pray

2005-06-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

this past weekend was just a big reality check with my cell phone and camera getting stolen, lauren´s moms wallet getting stolen, and my friend patricia´s wallet getting stolen. i just feel like there are so many evil people and it just makes me sick to think about. please pray for me to get out of this slump, because i need to get over it and start my studying but all i can think about is how awful people are and how i want to go back to college station where people are kind and decent. anyways i think it doesnt help that lauren and her mom left today to go to barcelona for the week and i am alone in my apartment reading the sad sequel to angels ashs which will make you sad to begin with. well hopefully i will feel better soon bc this stinks. miss you all and please pray for me and for the world. love, nat

sad times....

2005-06-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

well this week has begun my time of studying. today i went to my last class in spain, EVER. i am getting really depressed about the fact that my time here is almost up. i dont want to say bye to all the people i have met. my roomie lauren is done with all her finals and is going to be in and out of madrid until june 30th when she leaves to go home. NOOOOOOO. and now i have nothing to do but study until my finals start on june 21. well actually i have to do all my studying and final projects before june 16th when my sister comes so that i can entertain her. which i am excited about. but i am not excited about STRESS. yikes. so now i am going to go, print some stuff out, go study....then tonight i am going to go eat mexican food with lauren and her mom who just arrived today.i dont know why lauren and i feel the need to take people from the usa to eat mexican food in spain...then i am going to go to the erasmus bar for one last fiesta. then tomorrow...lock myself in my room until june 16. sorry this is such a dismal blog entry. i really am still having a great time but the beginning of the end is never fun...love you all and hope ya´ll have a great day!!!

the weekend is here...

2005-05-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

well this week...monday: we went to the flamenco show and it was awesome and the restaraunt gave us a pitcher of sangria on the house so that was nice. tuesday: i had class until 5 and then just met the girls (a&m lauren and steph), went home, ate some dinner and then went to go meet up with some other aggies who are in town visiting my aggie friend robert. wednesday: met up with the girls after class, walked around plaza mayor, saw the palace, ate some kebabs and then went home to shower and then went and met up with the aggies again. thursday: steph left (sob) and then a&m lauren and i were bums and read magazines and snacked all day then went out to the erasmus bar at night. today me and the laurens went shopping. not that interesting of a blog entry, sorrrrryyyyy. a&m lauren leaves tomorrow morning (sob again) and then this weekend is going to consist of me organizing my life away so that i can start studying for my finals that are at the end of june!! ahhh!! well....hope everyone has a great day! ciao.

barcelona

2005-05-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

well thursday night i took the girls out and then we cam home and slept a little and then rushed off to catch yet another bus. we then rode for 7 yucky hours till we arrived in barcelona. once we got there we managed to figure out the metro and then eventually find our hostal which was right off the main street in barcelona, la rambas. our hostal was very...hostalish. lots of young americans traveling thru europe. we checked in, upacked, showered and then went to go eat....some chinese food. haha. we then walked around and gawked at the street performers including a man dressed as a fairy, two guys playing chess one dressed and an angel the other a devil, and other random things. there are sooo many toursit in barcelona. its a little overwhelming. so then we go to the market that is full of wonderfully fresh fruits and food and buy half a kilo of grapes bc i have not had grapes since i have been here...random. we then go back to the hostal bc we dont really know what else to do. we feel like losers. so we hang out with some random people there and then they recommend a club to us and we go and its somewhat fun but i think we were just very tired from the traveling so we go home early and get some rest. the next day we make a schedule o fun and go see: parc guell (beautiful park designed by gaudi...steph and i got tatoos...henna tatoos that only last two weeks...no worries...), la sagrada familia (craazyy modernismo church..also designed by gaudi), la pedrera (apartment and museum with gorgeous roof tops views....designed by...gaudi!), and then we went to see a fountain show that was really beautiful with the fountains changing designs and changing colored lights. then we proceeded to go eat....italian food. we are ridiculous. we then went back to the hostal and met some new random people and went out with them and then came home. the next morning we walked around the city and saw some cute old people dancing in a plaza. we then tried to find the bus station and after an hour finally did. we barely missed the 3pm bus and then had to hang out at the bus station until the 5pm bus. not cool. we then took another yucky 7 hour bus ride home. so thats that. tonight we are going to go see a flamenco show and i am very excited about that. but now i have to go to class and all that jazz soooo...have a great day everyone!! muah.

busy busy busy

2005-05-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

well yesterday lauren and steph came with me to campus and then i went to class while they used the internet and then we went straight to toledo. toledo is a very cute city with lots of beautiful buildings and churches and history. we walked a TON and took pictures and looked at our map a lot and read a lot out of our ¨spain for dummies¨ book. then we sat and drank really good wine lemonade stuff at this place where every time you order a drink they give you a little sandwich and some fries. pretty awesome. then we came back home and were too tired to really do anything at all. so then today i am meeting the girls to go shopping!! yay for that. then I am going to take them out to the erasmus bar i go to every thursday and hopefully show them some cool clubs. then we leave at 8:30am for barcelona!! eekkk! very exciting. so yep, i´ve been pretty busy. but having loads of fun...and of course, keeping up with all my school work, no worries :) have a great day!!!

lauren and steph are here!

2005-05-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

two of my best friends from a&m are here visiting! on friday i picked them up from the airport and we ran a few errands and then came home and took a siesta! haha. but then that night i took them to eat some turkish food and we had some sangria and then we went out around the center of madrid and went to eat chocolate and churros at 5 something in the morning then rushed back to my apartment to pack and then got on a bus for san sebastian. 7 hours later...we arrived in san sebastian. we checked into our hostal and then went walking around and ended up at the beach where we fell blissfully asleep. we then went and ate tapas and went out around the town. sunday...went to church and walked around and saw the sights and had a lovely day. monday...wake up and come back to madrid. monday night we went and...ate mexican food. yes, thats right. my friends come from the states to spain and i take them to first eat turkish food and then mexican food. oops. so now it is tuesday and i had to come to school but i sent the girls off with directions on how to get to the museum so hopefully they will find it. yikes! more details later....love!

ummm...

2005-05-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

well alright last week after we got back from the lovely north of spain my life pretty much consisted of doing random things around the house and hanging out with friends. not bad huh? then on sunday....i had to go to the hospital!!!! :0 yeah NOT cool. i had noticed some bumps on my arm on saturday but didn´t think anything of it. then on sunday i woke up to find my whole arm covered in awful looking bug bites. AY YAY YAY. so i went to the pharmacy and they were lke honey you need to have a doctor look at that...sooo i go to the hospital and i have to wait in the emergency room for over 2 hours and then i go to the doctor and he was like hmm wait here, brings tow more doctors and they are all stumped as to what the heck is wrong with me and tell me to come back in the morning to see a dermatologist. thanks.....FOR NOTHNG!! argh. so i come back the next morning and the dermo tells me that its just some bug that crawled up my arm and ate me alive. awesome. he gives me some lotion and says it should go away in a few days. DAYS!? arghhhhh....i look like a FREAK. anyways that was monday, it´s now wed and guess what....i still look like a freak. ~sigh~ anyways....i now have to concentrate on getting things ready for my best friendsssssssssss to get here on friday!!! i am sooo excited!!! i will have to keep the bloggy updated on what we are doing....muah!

i am in love with the north of spain

2005-05-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

wow. i just came back from an amazing trip to the north of spain!! well alright it did not start off so wonderful. my roomie and i had set an alarm for 6am bc we had not packed our bags and had to be at the groups meeting point at 7:50. at 8:15 my roomie starts screaming ¨we´re late oh my god!!!¨i wake up and i am like, ¨huh?? for what...?¨(i am dumb) she of course reminds me about that little trip we were going on. enter...chaos. we start running around the appt screaming and almost in tears, call our friend and tell him to hold the bus for us and then continue running around screaming. well the leaders of the trip call us and are like where are you?? we are like ummmm....gran via!! (random street in the middle of madrid) we were in fact...in the lobby of our appt. yikes. so we take a cab and the girl calls us again and is like meet us (aka the two story bus full of 60 people who managed to get there on time) at blah blah blah. we go and our taxi driver drops us off in the middle of this intersection and a police man has to stop traffic for us to run to our bus where we are met with glares from all the people who have been waiting 45 min for the stupid american girls. cool...after that the trip went really well. we stopped in bilbao and went to the guitenheim (spelling??) museum and the building was really awesome but the actual expositions weren´t too impressive. then we continue on our way to san sebastian. we were informed that our hostal was on a mountain. what they did not tell us was that it was LITERALLY at the top of the mountain three million feet away from the center of the city. not convinient. after a ton of confusion with who is rooming with who (originally they had told us we would be in rooms of 30 people....luckily they were mistaken and there actually rooms of 8) we got settled in. we climbed down the mountain and went and drank wine on the beach and were in awe of how absolutely beautiful the city is at night. the next day we went on a guided tour of the city and took amazing pictures and then all headed down to the beach and were bums and then went and ate tapas which are especially delicious in the basque (spelling? i am ignorant...)region. in this part of spain they speak spanish but they all speak basque which is a very very strange sounding language. that night was our friend from daytona beach April´s 21st birthday. we went around to different bars and ended in a club that was literally on the beach. gooood times. next day...this would be sunday...my roomie and i went to church and then to the beach and then more tapas. then our group said adios to san sebastian and went to santander. once again...absolutely beautiful. we got there at night so our group just hung out at the hostal and played really hilarious games that involve lots of languages. confusing yes. but entertaining. next day...to the beach!! i cannot say enough...this place was gorgeous. paradise. everyone got really burned and we took pics and saw sea lions. we then walked around the city and ate some....tapas. then back to the hostal to hang out some more with people who by now we know too much about. me and another aggie Rob taught the foreigners how to play a fish camp game called true colors. you get to know people even more. very entertaining. next day tuesday...get up and leave for madrid. and thats that. lots of pics to show. i will try to post them soon. and nowthe interntet lady just told me i have to go. adios!! peace!!!

what a morning...

2005-04-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

well this morning was just a mess...first off i thought my friend was going to call the house phone at 630am my time and i didnt want to miss the call so i slept on our guest bed that is in the living room right by the phone. i then woke up at 6 to get make some coffee and such that way i would be awake and alert for the phone call...well...i stayed up until about 7ish until i was like forget it i am going to just close my eyes until the phone rings...well eventually my cell phone rang and it was my parents and they were calling from the hotel bc they were leaving that morning....so i rush and get ready and get in a cab to meet them at their hotel. i get there and they leave and i am sad and i get in the cab and am overwhelmed at being tired and possibly missing the phone call and my parents leaving and having to turn in my crappy group project today so i start to cry but i stop bc the taxi driver looks concerned and i dont want him to think i am a nervous wreck (which i somewhat am). so then i go home and go back to sleep, on the guest bed again bc my real bed is completely covered in junk. then i wake up to the shrill sound of our buzzer and i stumble over to it and some guy is like natalie alia?? i am like yeah what...? he tells me i have a package and i go and get it and YAY my friends from home have sent me letters and a magazine and a CD all of which made me very happy but at the same time made me very very emotional so i once again started crying but this time there was nothing to stop me bc i was in fact on my bedroom floor and not in a taxi. so then i was wide awake and cleaned up my room and talked with my roomies and now i am at school. so yep, emotional morning but now i am happy bc i heard from my friends and its a beautiful day outside. this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. right? much love. ciao.

not much during the week...

2005-04-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

first off i have to warn ya´ll that the letter E is really messed up on this keyboard so if you notice a lot of typos that is why...anyways lts see what all happend this past week...hmm i watchd gangs of new york with my roomies. i also went to school. i made friends with the ladies at the sandwich place where i eat lunch evryday. one of them is also named natalia so now we have a special handshake. ok not really but we do share a name. umm...thursday was muster in aggieland. but i am in madrid. so i got together with two othr aggies and we wnt to TGIF´s and go amrican food and talkd about a&m and what a great place it is. then i went out with the erasmus people and we danced a ton. then on friday my parents came back from barcelona and we went out to (surprise!!) eat. the nxt day my parents and their friends went to toledo but i have already been so i just chilled in the hotel and took a bath and slept in the huge bed. very nice. that night we went and watched an amazing flamenco show. then i wnt out and met up with my aggie friend rob who´s birthday was sunday and we celebrated him turning 19. sunday we wnt to the bullfight and saw lots of absurd things happen such as them letting one of the bulls go back with his friends, one of the bullfighters get thrown in the air by the horn of the bull, and a bull knocking down a horse (twice). craazzzyyynesss. now its monday and we shall see what happens this week. adios amigos.

parents in town

2005-04-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

well this past friday my parents came into town along another couple, the duartes, and that couples brother and sister in law. first off my parents drove the rental car to my school and came and picked me up and then my dad proceeded to almost kill us on the way to my apartment. then i gave my folks the grand tour of my apartment and my mom said that the last time i slept in a bed that small was when i slept in my crib. that night we went out to eat and my parents thought the place was bad but it was the best meal i had eaten in the past month so i don´t know what that says about either of us. then i took my parents and the other couples to a salsa club but they didn´t dance too much bc they were tired even tho it was pretty early...i guess that´s what happens when you get old....haha jk...anyways on saturday we went to el prado which is the most famous museum here and it´s HUGE and there is just no way you can see all of it in one day. then we went to eat and then we did some shopping before they headed back to the hotel. after some siestas we met up again to....eat. notice the theme of how me and my parents spend our time?? this time we went to the guiness book of world records´ oldest restaurant. good times. then we walked around and i tried to control all the crazy old people. sunday we went to a bull fight which was really traumatizing and somewhat sickening. i´ve been before but i just didn´t remember how gruesome it truly is. then that night we went to dinner at this GREAT aregentian restaurant that apparently penelope cruz recommended in some magazine. delicious. i brought my roomie lauren and we were like WOW we will never eat at a restaurant this nice ever again. so naturally we stuffed ourselves. then today my parents left for barcelona with their friends and they will be back on friday to spend some more time here in madrid. then today i gave a crappy presentation in class and i think i might fail out of school. not really but the presentation did in fact suck. ahhh. anyways i am going to go now and try to find some food, something cheap now that the rents are gone. adios amigos.

home sweet home

2005-04-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

well yesterday i finally was able to head home at a reasonable hour so i decided to go to this store which translates into, ¨house paradise¨. a small scale bed bath and beyond if you will. sooo...i got some new things for my apartment including a table cloth that i am unhealthily in love with. i really just think it makes the whole appartment look so much cuter. it finally looks like girls live there and i am so excited. on my home from ¨paradise¨i walked by this store called ¨nativo¨which has all sorts of south american food and found some mexican stuff so now i have chile sauce and tortillas and that also made me happy. then i kept walking and found a home appliance type store and went in and finally bought one of those things that you can hang dry (indoors) your clothes on that folds out. which is a very important purchase bc until now we have been drying our clothes all over the house so yeah no more panties and bras on the dining room table, always a plus. annnndddd we can put that in the junk room which....is now junk free!!!! wahoo!!! so basically the point of this blog is just that yay my house is now pleasant to be in bc it is clean and pretty. somewhat anyways. on a completely unrelated topic...last night i went to a mass for the pope and it was really amazing to see how many people showed up and moving to see what an huge impact the pope made on so many people. i would just like to ask that everyone pray for the future of the church. thanks and have a great day!!

RANDOM weekend

2005-04-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

well alright this past weekend was quite fun and full of random people. on thursday night my roomie and i went and first went to a friend´s appartment with some other people including other americans and we put on some country music and me and my friend robert from a&m two stepped and everyone, especially the non americans, looked at us as if we were from another planet. after that we went out and we ended up hanging out with two guys studying to be chefs from new york that robert had met at his hostal when he went to venice and that he had run into completely randomly walking around madrid earlier that day. on friday lauren and i just ran some errands and then that night went and overpaid for sangria and calamares in plaza mayor. on saturday morning we got on a bus for salamanca with a group of americans. salamanca was really really beautiful, i think it was my favorite spanish town to visit so far. it´s really small and quaint but with tons going on. we had gone with five other people but they all left at about 8 pm. Lauren and i didnt really see the point in travelling 8 hours total only to spend 5 hours actually in salamanca. so we stayed...with no hostal. but our bus was leaving at 8:30 am. so after our friends left we were like ookkk...we have 12 hours to have fun! it really wasn´t that hard to stay out that late, we went and ate some mexican food, walked around the plazas, went to some clubs that our guide book said were ¨¨hoppin´¨, and then went and got some breakfast before leaving. we then proceeded to fall asleep hardcore on the bus and make it home by 1pm. then another random night was sunday night...i went to hang out at a friend´s apartment and on the way there he was telling me about how he had met two guys who like us were from texas and how they were staying at his appt this weekend. i was like that´s cool, gotta take care of texas people. so then the guys come home and they go into the kitchen and i am in the living room. one of the texas guys comes in and is like hey i´m from el paso i go to rice in houston, where are you from?? i am like i go to a&m and i am from fort worth. he´s like ooooooooohhhh really so´s ryan...he went to some nolan christian school...ever heard of it??? i am like uhhh yeahhhh i went there...so the other guy comes in and is like hi nice to meet you....i´m ryan simonak. i was like ummm yeah i´ve heard of you...i went to nolan i was a sophmore when u were a senior and whoa this is random. isn´t that just like wow it´s a small world after all?!!! seriously i mean this guy was homecoming king. and now he plays football at rice and is going to go to medical school next year. it was just sooooo unexpected and RANDOM. so anyways now i am going to go meet with my group before we go give a presentation on the glorious world of spanish wine. hope you all have a wonderful day!!!!

school is running my life!!

2005-04-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

AHHH! i am suppossed to be chilling and not doing any school work but that is NOT the case. every day i go straight from class to work on group projects and i still never seem to have enough time to meet with all of them and i am always THAT girl who is like ¨sorry, i know we´re not finished but i have to go...¨but it´s not like i am going to go play outside and eat ice cream!! i am scurrying away to another computer lab to work with another group of people to do MORE WORK. and due to my presentations i am not going to portugual after all. :( but thats ok bc we are still going to go to Salamanca which is only 3 hours away, and we are only going for sat and sunday and i can at least get my work done on thursday and friday and then relax and have some fun. anyways i am sorry that i don´t have any cool stories or cultural facts to share but really all i have done is go to class go work and go home. now i get to....you guessed it....go meet a girl from one of my classes to....WORK. but at least we are meeting at starbucks!!! :) hey you gotta find joy in the little things right??? adios!!!

bumming around has come to an end

2005-04-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

well this past weekend i sadly didn´t do anything too interesting. me and my roomie were basically bums who slept all day and went out at night. during the day, while we were lounging around in our pj´s, our third roomie asked us if we were waiting for the sun to go down before going outside since we were vampires. :( so me and my roomie have decided that while we love the crazy madrid nightlife we are going to make a list of things we want to see and actually enjoy the cultural activities of being in spain. we are going to go to portugual this weekend. which isn´t really a good place to enjoy the culutral activities of spain, but it´s still interesting and fun. on another note, the work load at school has really picked up and i have a ton of group projects to work on. one of my groups has to do a presentation on this wine company and we are going to bring some bottles so that our class can taste the product. i think that´s pretty cool bc that would never fly in the usa without a million liability and risk management forms. but here...anything goes. and hey if our presentation stinks, we can just keep refilling the prof´s glass until he thinks we are the smartest people he has ever met. haha just kidding of course. this week should be really busy with school work and cleaning my appartment. cleaning my appartment really consists of cleaning out ¨the junk room¨. there is a little room right when you walk into my appartment that is filled with boxes filled with junk and a nasty ottoman that i am sure has some diseases on it. we have been wanting to clean that room out since we got here but our third roomie had said she would call the people who have to come pick it up with a truck but...she has not. so enough is enough i am going to figure it out and get rid of it bc it is embaressing when people come over and see that we have a trash collection. alright well thats all for now! have a great day.

2005-03-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

this is the group i hung out with when i took a trip to granada

2005-03-29T23:43:00.000-08:00

me and my roomie Lauren!!

2005-03-29T23:41:00.000-08:00

A bunch of American's that are in my roomie's program out to celebrate one of the girl's birthdays

flamenco and bathrooms

2005-03-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

this is a random post but whatever...sunday night i went out with some friends to this small bar to watch some flamenco. it was AMAZING. the dancers were really good and the lady who sang was really really intense and she put so much into her performance bc her family was in town watching her show. and the bar wasn´t very big so it was like a secret performance that only the cool kids knew about. i could have stayed there all night watching them but then they had to go bc the bar turned into a rap club at one. rannndom. but that was very fun. i really recommend anyone who comes to spain to make sure to watch a flamenco show. on a completely random unrelated note...the bathrooms here are very unusual. first off, each stall has a door that goes all the way to the ground and to the ceiling. so if you get stuck in there there´s no crawling out. you will die in there. secondly, each stall has its own light that is a touch light. meaning you touch it to turn it on, but it goes off after awhile. so if u go in and the light is on...ten seconds later the light will turn off in the middle of ur business. not cool. thirdly, toilet paper...is not always a given. i would say you have about a 50/50 chance of finding some in there. so a lot of the women here carry tissues in their purse so that they can always be prepared. i know that is random but hey, it´s somewhat interesting right?? have a great day!

spring break has come to an end...

2005-03-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

well alright so this past week has been my spring break and as you can imagine a lot has happened but i will try to cut out the boring stuff and remember the interesting stuff...well here it goes..i left monday with my friends lauren and patricia. we took a six hour bus to malaga which really wasnt too bad since the bus was really nice and played oceans eleven and my big fat greek wedding, both very hilarious movies. once we got there we went to our hostal which was ok, kinda far out but clean so that was fine. then we went to the beach and drank sangria and were spanish beach bums for a bit. after that we went and watched the processions. the processions are religious parade type things that go along the streets and there are bands and religious floats that have statues of jesus or of the virgin mary. they are very beautifully decorated with candles and flowers and gold etc. the floats are carried by men dressed in robes and masks on. the reason for the masks is that it´s an honor to be carrying the floats and to be in the procession but its suppossed to be a humble honor bc no one knows who it is that is receiving the honor. it can all look scary if you don´t know what is going on bc the masks are in the shape of the klu klux klan masks so thats a bit odd at first. after that we went to the hostal and met this guy there who is from canada but studying in england and was in spain by himself and doesnt know a word of spanish so he came out to eat with us. then we walked around some plazas, people watched and then headed back home. tuesday we went to the picasso musuem bc malaga is the home town of picasso. some of his stuff seems so normal and other stuff you really have to wonder what the heck he was smoking. after that...more time on the beach and then more procession watching. that night we went out with our canadian friend again to get some tapas and go dancing and that was good times. wed we said goodbye to malaga and got on a bus for cadiz. well actually we missed our bus (oops) and ended up getting on a bus that they said got us in the direction of cadiz and then went to some random town then from there got on a bus to cadiz but we ended up in cadiz all the same. alright so we get there and try to find our hostal where we were staying with our three american girl friends. oookkk this man helps us find it and i dont know how we would have found it without him bc it was just a blue door with a shell painted on it and there was no sign. we get there and our room isnt ready and it´s super shady more of an area than a room bc there isn´t really a door. but it ended up being a really fun experience all the people who were staying in the hostel were interesting hippy type people and told us where everything was going on and stuff. most of the time we were in cadiz we spent on the absolutely beautiful beaches just relaxing. we bought lots of really pretty earings and ate lots of good food. there were also lots of processions in cadiz and they went on till morning so that was fun. we got in to madrid last night at about midnight after the NINE hour bus ride from cadiz. if ur thinking...nine hours seems like a long time...IT IS. very very long. but thats ok bc then we just went to bed and woke up this morning and went to easter mass and then went and ate italian food and it has been a very nice end to a very nice week. i am glad to be home but not glad to have to start thinking about my paper that is due this week. which i should go get started on.....hope you all have a very blessed easter!!

fallas de valencia

2005-03-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

well yesterday i went to las fallas de valencia with the erasmus people. there were three buses of students and it took about four hours to get there. we met at 8:30 on saturday morning....not cool. anyways so alright there are some erasmus ¨leaders¨ . really they are just old guys who like to be around foreign kids. so when we went to granada they gave us like a schedule of activities and meeting points and we went on some tours. not in valencia. this time they dropped us off at this department store and gave us a general schedule of what was going in valencia and said peace out see you guys here at 4:30 AM on sunday, don´t be late or we will leave you. awesome. sooo...now what? we had no idea where to go or where anything was. and on top of that, valencia had been in a state of crazy festivals for a week. so it was FILTHY. plus there were constant fireworks going off...during the day. and not just organized fireworks but people in the streets lighting fireworks. it looked all smoky and there was constant popping that sounded like gunfire so it felt like a warzone. ggrrreeaaat. but despite all that we managed to find our way around the city and find a place to eat some really good paella. after that we went to the beach which was really beautiful even though it was pretty chilly so it wasn´t exactly great beach weather but it was still nice to be by the water. after that we met up with some other people and went and got tapas and sangria and just walked around valenica. so you might be wondering what the heck ¨las fallas de valencia¨ even is. every area in the city builds a HUGE paper mache doll/piñata/building. they are seriously about 15 stories high. they are really beautiful and have different themes. anyways on the last day (which was last night).....they burn them. so everyone gathers around and watches them burn and it´s a huge fire and ash is falling all over everyone and there are firefighters with hoses and it´s just really a mob scene but lots of fun. so then after that lauren and i met up with some of her friends from home that were studying there and ate churros and chocolate. yummm. then they left and lauren and i were tired and freezing but it was only about 3:15 and the buses didn´t get there till 4:30 so we walked around until we found this random bar and we walk in and there really aren´t very many ppl but we sit down and we start to notice that everyone there knew each other and that there were kids and parents and we think we may have crashed some sort of private party. then finally it was time to go home and we finally arrived in madrid at about 9:30 completely exhausted. tomorrow i am leaving for my spring break trip to malaga and cadiz which are coast towns in the south of spain. should be very very fun. well happy palm sunday everyone!!!

starbucks is the DEVIL

2005-03-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

alright well ok i am going to make this quick seeing as how i am in starbucks and they are closing in 8 min but they are the devil. ok i do not have internet at my house but i have a laptop and for some reason even tho i have rewritable cd's i cannot make my laptop save my work onto them so i have all this work on my laptop but no way to get it sent to my professor. enter...starbucks, aka my saving grace. WRONG. i came here last night with my laptop to send something and i had to buy a 30min internet card for 4.50 euro. then i sent my stuff and was done in ten min. today i came back to send something something and whipped out my little card which should in theory have 20min of credit on it. WRONG. it doesnt work that way here in HELL also known as starbucks. you can only sign in once using the card. so now there is only about 15 min left till they close and i have to buy ANOTHER 4.50 euro card to send ONE assignment to my prof. so now i have spent almost 12 dollars to use the internet for a total of 25 min. can u say....RIPOFF!?!?! ahhhhhhhhhhhh. ok so i will never go to starbucks EVER AGAIN. at least to use the internet......i mean c'mon....their tazo chai tea....amazing. adios.

lots and lots of work

2005-03-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

well this week i have been super swamped with tons of school work. not fun at all. i have a ton of group work in three of my classes which is good in that it forces me to meet people in my classes and make friends and learn spanish and all that jazz. but it also makes all the work take longer since we have to figure out when everyone can meet and since we all get along we often get side tracked and start chatting. i also have a lot of individual work that i have to do in power point form and be ready to present it. IN SPANISH. yikes!!! that makes me really nervous mostly bc i am sure i have grammatical errors and i am sure i seem horribly foreign and awkward. but there are lots of exchange students in all of my classes so i can at the very least rest assured that one of them speaks spanish worse than me. well i will be free of all this work soon bc tomorrow is my last day of class and then starts my spring break!!! wahoo!!! and then i dont have school again until next next tuesday. whoop for that. anyways this is a super boring entry but i just wanted to let ya´ll know that i am alive but that sadly nothing really fun has happened bc i have been studying my life away. adios!!!

el fin de semana

2005-03-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

well here the weekends start on thursday night since a lot of people (myself included) don´t have class on friday. so thursday night i went out with (surprise surprise) the erasmus people on thursday which was fun we went to a club that is basically a huge mansion with tons of different rooms and thursday night is international night so everyone gets a name tag with what country you´re from. cool stuff. then on friday morning some other american girls came over to lauren and i´s appt and we planned out exactly what we are doing for spring break which is in a week!! very exciting. we decided to go to some towns in the south of spain that are on the beach. i am definetly ready to go somewhere warm even though it has thankfully gotten much warmer here in madrid. that night the spring break group went out with one of my spanish friends that i met in one of my classes. saturday i had to work on a group project for another one of my classes. i am in a group with three other girls who all live in sweden but one is originally from mexico, another one is from peru and the third is half swedish half spanish. interesting mix i think. sometimes when we are working they will switch into swedish and start asking me stuff in swedish and i am like uhhhhhhhhh????? random. oh and something else that is random is that usually the students here are a little older, around 22-26. last night i went out to eat dinner with the swedish girls and i found out the one from peru is 34!!!! what in the world. i had no idea. anyways now it is sunday and i am going to work on some homework and then go to mass and then me, lauren, patricia, and valerie (lauren´s friend from Rome who is visiting) are going to go eat MEXICAN FOOD. very very VERY exciting. hope you all have a wonderful day!

randomness

2005-03-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

well i am here in an internet cafe and i was going to try and do some homework on powerpoint that i need to email to my prof buuuut the particular computer that i am on doesn´t have powerpoint so i have to wait until the man next to me is done so i can use his computer that is in fact better than mine bc it has the glory of powerpoint. soooo i have some time to write about some random things that i feel are somewhat worth noting.....first off ya´ll know how when you are waiting to cross the street you see the red standing man and when you are able to cross then you see the green walking man?? well they have that here in spain as well but when the green man comes on.....there is this loud high pitched bird chirping/dog yapping sound. the chirping/yapping gets faster when you have less time. i asked someone once and they said it was too help the blind people get around. i think that´s pretty interesting. another completely unrelated random thing is that the students here are RUDE to the teachers. They come in super late, leave super early, talk amongst themselves incredibly loudly, and just giggle and act as if they are in sixth grade. Several times in class the prof has to stop and look at them and be like ¨excuse me i am trying to teach ¨ It´s really annoying and sometimes i want to shush them and be the teacher´s pet but i don´t think that´s a good way to make friends. Other random things you may not know...about the metro...there are people everywhere playing music. Not just like in the hallways when you are changing lines or going out. They actually get on the actual metro with their guitar or sometimes with a karaoke box and microphone and sing. They are usually gypsy people singing in another language. Then they walk around and ask for money and I have to admit i don´t give any but instead stare off into space and act as if i am deep in thought. that´s another thing. people here STARE at you on the metro. you will look up, see them staring, look away, look back, awkwardly smile, and the whole time they are just staring at you stone faced. very odd. YESSS the guy next to me got off his computer sooo YAY i can go work on powerpoint. i am the luckiest girl in the world. adios amigos!!!

granada

2005-03-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

so this weekend i went to granada with the foreign exchange group. the foregin exchange group is called erasmus so from now on i am going to refer to them as the erasmus people ok? ok. moving on. :) so there were about 50 or so erasmus people from all over. we left at like 9am and the bus ride took six hours. that was pretty uneventful and typical. then when we got there we were all starving and went out to eat. here in spain the main meal of the day is lunch. and they have these specials called ¨menu del dia¨. it means you get a TON of food for like 10 bucks. it usually includes an appetizer, the meal, bread, dessert and wine or beer or whatever. very delicious. after that we went a toured this really beautiful cathederal that looked a lot more like a palace than a church. then we went back to our hostel. i was a little nervous about staying in a hostel bc i thought it was going to be like a huge warehouse with lines and lines of beds filled with scary people. but our hostel was really nice, with three people to a room and private bathrooms. top notch. i roomed with two other american girls, they are from the university of florida and i had met them before. that night all of the erasmus people went out around granada and we ended up in a really awesome club and danced a ton and i would have to say it was one of the bst nights i´ve had in spain. the next day we went to the alambre which is the main attraction of granada. it´s a huge compound that sits on the top of this killer hill (i wanted to pass out while walking up it) with lots of different buildings that have gorgeous carvings and reflection pools and amazing views of the city. that night we went to a club that the erasmus leaders had been hyping up all weekend, telling us how crazy and fun it was. when we got there the club bouncer people wouldn´t let us in bc the club was too full and we were too many people. not cool. major dissappointment followed. some german guy called his friend who studies in granada and his friend sent us to a club they kept referring to what sounded like ¨boogie¨. i was very confused when we showed up at ¨vogue¨. anyways all in all i had a really good time in granada and since my closest friends here didn´t go, it forced me to meet new people and i got to know the erasmus people a lot better. roadtrips really bring people together even when you don´t speak the same language. believe it or not it was a hilarious trip even tho i am falling asleep just skimming over what i have written. i promise to try and make my next entry more amusing!! adios.

hostility and more

2005-03-03T01:38:00.000-08:00

so this week has been pretty chill so far...i have been pretty sick which really stinks bc i am always so tired due to the fact that i pretty much cough all night every night. :( i think my tiredness caused me to enter the infamous ¨hostility¨stage yesterday. for those of you who don´t know, that´s the stage (according to this travel abroad memo a&m gave me) right after the ¨honeymoon¨stage, where you get frustrated with ur host environment and everything just doesn´t seem quite so fun and exotic anymore. let me explain why yesterday i was feeling ¨hostile¨. i wanted to print something out from the computer lab. simple enough request right? wrong. i pressed print, had to logoff my computer, and go downstairs to the print area where i proceeded to wait about five minutes. no biggie. then the guy was like oh you have to go to building fourteen. i was currently in building 9. hmm...ooookkk. so i go to building 14. i wait in line for about 20 min. the lady tells me i still have to wait 5 more minutes. uhhh huuh okk...then she is like oh. hmm. it didn´t get sent here. sorry. next in line please. &?#@!!! enter...hostility. why does it have to be so complicated!? and then i went to try to go buy my textbook. they told me they didn´t have it to go to this other bookstore in the city. so i catch the 30 min bus to take the 15 min metro to the bookstore. haha! jokes on me they didn´t have it there either but the lady told me i could get it in a month. aaaaaaaaaawesome. so i proceeded to have a willpower breakdown and i went to starbucks for some overpriced tazo chai tea aka a taste of home aka a place where everything is simple. so anyways i awoke this morning back in the honeymoon stage so no worries, the hostility is gone. at least until something else goes wrong. alright so positive things about this week: i went and played pool and hustled some germans and an italian. ok maybe i suck at pool and was the one being hustled but it was really fun. then last night i went out with some americans to meet some spaniards for a language exchange type thing where we help them practice english and they help us with spanish. also fun. and tomorrow i am leaving for the weekend to go to granada (a town in spain) with the foreign exchange people. i think we are going to be staying in a hostel, which i have never done, so that should be interesting!! ciao!!

2005-02-28T01:44:00.000-08:00

So let´s just do a quick review of what went on last week and this past weekend: the past week i went to classes, i am taking four classes, three in spanish and one in english. The spanish ones are going fine, only one of my professors is hard to understand. My english class is economics based (yuck) so I am not really looking forward to it but my professor is amusing in that he is from denmark and his english is funny, one day he was like ¨so any id´s?? anyone?? id´s??¨i was like...umm...does he want to see my driver´s license or what??...but then i figured out he meant ideas. so yeah school is school, not too much work so far but it is still early. i don´t have classes on friday (whoop) so i can go out guilt free thursday, friday and saturday. thursday the foreign exchange association had a welcome thing for us and it was fun there are tons of exchange students, 200 or something i think, and it was cool i got to meet a lot of people that are in my classes which is good bc we have to do a lot of group work so at least now i can be like hhhheyyy we met in tha club yo! can i be in ur group?? so then on friday and saturday we went dancing and it was really fun we went to salsa clubs and i think i am actually getting better and am now at a level where i dont embaress all of my mexican ancestors with my non-rhythm. that´s all for now folks!!

it´s snowing and boys are mean

2005-02-23T03:33:00.000-08:00

well i just wanted to let you all know that it is snowing today and that it is beautiful. the campus looks awesome covered in snow and it´s actually not too cold. so here´s a little story to go with that...so i just go out of class and i am walking along the sidewalk next to a building and there is a little fieldish thing where a bunch (seriously like 10) boys are playing and throwing snow at each other. well ok no big deal here i go i just am trying not to fall on my face as i walk thru the snow. then all of a sudden a snow ball hits right by my feet. i am like whoa! ok it´s alright they probably threw it at another boy and the guy ducked or something right?? well i look up and they are all staring at me. i am kinda like ummmmmmmmm....keep walking....then they all start yelling something i don´t understand and start throwing snow at me!!!!!!!!!!! what the heck!??? i didn´t know what to do and i am completely blocked in by the building so i just keep walking (not running bc i would have fallen on my face and then they probably would have run over and lit me on fire or something) and am kinda laughing bc honestly, what did i do to deserve this?? so yeah the building is really long and the snow was hitting the wall and splattering all over me and i just wanted to cry or scream curse words or something. so laugh it up bc apparently i am the campus freak who boys throw snow at unprovoked. oh well at least it is pretty outside. adios amigos!

this past weekend

2005-02-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

this weekend was so much fun, the nightlife in Madrid is really amazing. on thursday night we went to this bar where students from our school get a discount and it was so fun. we just went around meeting all the other foreign exchange students. it´s really interesting bc i thought i was going to meet a lot of spanish kids but so far i haven´t met that many. really if you think about it though if i was just hanging around college station with my friends and all of a sudden some foreign person came up and asked in a heavy accent, ¨me be friends with you?? please??¨i don´t think that would really work. now i guess i understand why all the foreign kids hang out with each other. but it´s been really cool we have met people from mexico, italy, sweden, germany, england, all sorts of places. so yeah we (me and my roomie who i really feel has been a godsend because we get along so well and she keeps me from getting lonely) went out friday and saturday as well with some of the people we had met thursday. we went to this one dance club that was seven stories high. pretty amazing. then on sunday we went to church, which in one way is cool because obviously the mass is exactly the same even though i am so far from home. but on the other hand i don´t know the responses in spanish so i just kinda stand there saying the mass to myself in english. i probably look like a crazy fool muttering to myself and not participating. oh well. hmm ok so that the summary of the weekend but here are some just general comments...it is freezing here. so i got a little heater to put in our room so that lauren (my roomie) and i would be able to sleep and not shiver to death. but then it stopped working like the day after i bought it. and then there was no hot water. GGRRR. so i heated water up on the stove to finish washing my hair. i know what you are thinking, just take a cold shower. but if you are cold. and then have to take a cold shower. and then go into a cold room. that is miserable! but no worries we figured out that we just needed to flip this switch in the fuse box thing and hooray the heater works again and we have hot water! ok that might have seemed like a pointless story but really it was a big part of my weekend. haha anyyyyways today was my first day of class and guess what. i went to the wrong room for the first class so i am sitting there and listening to the professor talking about something totally irrevelant and i am thinking, hmmm...i am in the wrong room. ooopsies. oh well. then i go to my second class and the professor doesn´t show up. cool....but my third class,¨business initiatives and the family business¨,....was awesome! i know i am a nerd but it was so interesting and i really like the professor and i think i am really going to enjoy the class. so good things come to those who wait i guess. the classes here are much smaller than at a&m so that is actually somewhat intimidating for me since the prof calls on you and asks ur name and in my case somehow knew i was not native and asked me where i was from. so cool now everyone in my class knows i am american and can harass me about bush and throw eggs at me. jk. well the past few days have really been fun and i really feel more at home here in this country and i know more people around campus and even had people to eat lunch with in the cafeteria so that is always a good thing. i will write more later....ciao!!

2005-02-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

hola amigos. well yesterday i went to my school campus for the first time. it´s about the size of west campus at a&m but really pretty and a lot more modern than i thought it was going to be. they had a little welcome meeting for all the international students and that was cool. there were a lot of people speaking languages i did not know. so not english or spanish. i think i recognized german but let´s be honest i have no clue. anyways then they took us to the cafeteria and told us to wait bc our snacks weren´t ready. well ok something i have noticed about spain. they are allowed to smoke anywhere they want. and the cafeteria is no exception. there were people smoking and drinking HUGE beers. mind you it is about 11:30am. that was funny but then these people started playing cards and this girl comes up with all these cups and some cokes and this huge bottle of rum and starts making drinks for everyone. IN THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA. hilarious. so then they are like ok ur snacks are ready. we go in and they have some snacks foods and this man is walking around in a waiters suit with a tray full of beers. very interesting. something else that is interesting about spain is that they put their doorknobs in the middle of the door. that was random but worth mentioning i think. anways last night i went to the movies and saw a spain movie called ¨mar adentro¨ it was about ethanasia and yes it was sad and made me cry and was not exactly a pick me upper but one of the best movies i have ever seen. if there´s any way you can ever see it, see it. well alright thats all for now adios!

2005-02-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today i went to a park and sat and read until i got really cold and nervous due to the drug deal i am pretty sure was going on in front of me. so i walked around the park and then a gardener man asked me where i got my water bottle but i didn´t really know how to say well i bought it three days ago and having been filling it with tap water ever since bc i get thirsty when i walk around, so i just was like from the ¨tapa¨(the spanish word for appetizer NOT the word for faucet) de mi casa. I then proceeded to scurry away. oh well. then i got really lost but thats ok bc i found a found a cellphone store and bought a cell phone so yay for that. tomorrow i finally go to my school campus so i should be getting busier and have more interesting stories to tell. buenas noches!

the past few days...

2005-02-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

Alright well today is my fourth day in Spain. I arrived on Friday morning and was able to find my appartment without any huge problems. The appartment is small but cute and in a really nice neighborhood so I like it. I met my first roomie right away. She is about half my size, from Puebla, Mexico, and is to say the least...spunky. I met my other roomie Lauren later that day and she is really sweet, from Arizona and is friends with my friend from home Patricia so we get along great. Patricia is also here in Madrid and that makes things a lot easier. The first night I went out with Lauren and Patricia and their study abroad group that is all Americans but from a bunch of different schools. We went and ate Tapas and drank Sangria and had a really cultural time. Saturday I slept in until three and did nothing really until we (me Lauren Pat and the other Americans) went out dancing. Lots of fun. Sunday went to church and thats all mostly bc everything here closes on Sundays. So then today I went and got super lost around my neighborhood trying to find the metro stop. But it´s ok bc hey at least it´s pretty around here and I found a place that does fotocopies so thats handy. Anyways then I went and bought a map bc I have no idea where anything is and also bought some tights bc the women here all wear crazy tights with boots and skirts. Not like crazy as in hooker but definetly not like what they wear in texas. So that´s about it so far no real homesickness other than no one here seems to eat chicken. I think I saw a KFC around here somewhere so I might have to go hunting for it someday when I go crazy from having eaten nothing but cheese, potatoes and seafood. Other than that all is good, my spanish is holding me up. We all speak spanish to each other when we are out in public which at first was like ughhhh why am i struggling with spanish when duuuhh we both know english!?!? But really it´s been super good and some of the American kids even thought I was a spanish student tagging along the first night. Haha JOKES ON THEM. :) Kiss kiss!

2005-02-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

hey this is just me saying hi and that i am in spain and that i am safe and sound. so far so good. adios amigos.