Lemisia´s World

I'm HOME!!!!

2008-05-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realize this is a bit overdue since I have now been home for over a week... but late is better than never, right?

Well, my flight on the 9th went pretty well except for the initial checking in. Because of that $75 fee that I went to the airport to pay a bazillion times (and they never knew how much to charge me), there were problems in checking in. I ended up having to pay a $200 "penalty fee" for not paying the changing fee before the day of my flight! Needless to say, I have already filed a complaint with Air France and am waiting for a response so that I get my money back. After yelling at the Air France lady for about 30 minutes at 5 in the morning I finally just paid the money and checked in. My flight to Paris from Barcelona was not very pleasant because there was a loud child sitting behind me who thought it was really fun to kick my seat. However, once I got to Paris, I walked quickly through the airport and found my gate for the long flight. After getting through the passport check and security, I really only had about 20 minutes until they started boarding my long flight. While waiting to board, I realized that there weren't a whole lot of people sitting in our area, meaning our flight may not be full. Once I got on, I asked a flight attendant and he told me that the flight was only about half full, maybe even less. YAY!!!! So, I was in a window seat with the seat next to me open, meaning I got to stretch and have a very relaxing 9 hour flight! I watched two movies, tried to sleep a bit, and just sort of stared off into space for a while during the flight, the whole time trying to convince myself that I would not cry when I saw my family in the airport. Once we landed in Detroit, I quickly got off the plane, got through immigration, luggage claim, and customs. It really only took about 45 minutes to get through all of that, which surprised me. As soon as I walked out, I saw my mom and Meghan (my older sister) and immediately started crying! Yeah, it was just a dream to think that after so long I wouldn't cry!! We left the airport pretty quickly and got on the road for the 4 or 5 hour drive back home from Detroit. By the time I got home, I was pretty tired since I was going on 20ish hours without sleep. I said hi to Emily (my little sister) and my dad, ate some pizza, took Meghan to her boyfriend's house, and then came home and attempted to watch a movie with everyone. It was a great first night back!

Since then, I have been searching for a job, catching up with people (I feel like my phone has not stopped ringing), and trying to adjust back from the time difference as fast as possible. I've been driving my sisters around to school and work, which has been fun, and spending lunch breaks with my mom. This weekend I went up to Manchester to see some of my friends and to be there for graduation. It is still sort of unreal to be back, and hard to believe that I've really been gone for so long. So many people have said to me, "You haven't changed a bit...," and I think that may be true. Yes, I have had a lot of new experiences and lived for 9 months in another country, but I am still the same 5-year-old Melissa who loves Disney and junk food. As time goes on I'm sure I'll see more changes in myself from my time abroad, but as of right now it seems that I'm no different than I was when I left at the end of August. The hard part about this going to be seeing how others have changed while I've been away and how that might factor into my return to Manchester. It will all be fine, I know it will, but I just can't help but think about everything... especially after watching graduation yesterday and realizing that it will be me next year up there!

Anyhow, so now I am back to Noblesville, looking for a job for the summer. The good thing is that I have two very real possibilities! Last week I started calling around to counseling centers in Hamilton County to ask if they might need any sort of summer help in the office. One of them said it was a very real possibility and had me fax my resume in. He said they have team meetings on Tuesday mornings and they would discuss the possibility of hiring me at the next one. So, I am waiting to hear back from them tomorrow after their meeting. The other wonderful thing is that I received an email this morning from a family that I nannied for two summers in a row during high school. She asked if I had found a summer job yet, and if not might I be willing to nanny for their family again this summer. Yay again!! I don't particularly love nannying, but it pays well and every once in a while you see the angelic sides of the children. So, we'll see what all comes of this and maybe I'll be able to do both jobs (if I get offered both) and make enough money for my Hawaii trip next January! Alright, this has become super long, so I'll spare you all anymore details from the last week and a half of my life. I'll try and write again soon because I really would like to keep this going at least through the summer... Okay, bye for now!

2 days

2008-05-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

I´m sitting here in the lab, 20 minutes before my lit exam and can´t seem to make myself study for it. Granted, it is an open notes exam, so it shouldn´t be difficult, but still... I should at least re-read my notes, right? I will...

Anywho, I leave in two short days, which is really only one short day because I have the rest of today, tomorrow, and then my host parents and I are leaving the house at 4:30 in the morning on Friday to get to the airport by 5 for my 7 AM flight. After the whole fiasco with the Ireland flight, they don´t want to take any chances with me missing this one! It´s gotten to a point in the last few days that I´ve realized how much I really will miss my host parents. I wish that I would have gotten the email address of one of their children or children-in-laws so that I could stay in touch that way. I may still ask for one, but it is just hard at the moment with David still being in the hospital and all that. By the way, David is doing really well. The surgeries a week and a half ago went well and he is recovering quickly. He got bored in the hospital room the other day and called our apartment just to tell us that he was sitting in a chair... that is really amazing progress considering his pelvic bone was broken in 3 places and dislocated a short week and a half ago!! Ana, David´s youngest daughter, just turned 1 on the 1st of this month, so that is exciting. She is at our apartment right now because my host parents took her to the doctor this morning for her 1 year checkup. He said she is a healthy little girl! I´m really happy that I got to see her again before I leave.

Oh, for those of you that know me and my procrastination skills when it comes to packing, you will be happy to know that I actually started packing last week when I was procrastinating from studying for finals! So, each of my suitcases is half full, and I am waiting until tomorrow to put the rest of the shoes, books, and other random heavy things in. Here´s to hoping that none of the suitcases are overweight...

Hmm... lets see, what else.. I have too many thoughts flowing through my head right now to even focus on putting any of them in words. So, I guess for now this is all I´ll write. I´m going to try and keep blogging (probably less frequently) once I get back home, at least for the summer. After that, we´ll see what happens. Anywho, I´m out for now. Wish me luck on this exam!!!

One Week

2008-05-02T01:56:00.001-07:00

Well, my time here is officially coming to an end. I fly home next Friday, a week from today... and I am super super excited. I am also really sad...

My host mom and I were sitting on the couch together lastnight watching our favorite game show when she asked what time I had to be at the airport. I said, "5 in the morning" and made a scrunchy face because it is so early. She said "te llevaremos..." meaning "we´ll take you." How sweet is that?!? The thing is, I am afraid for my host parents to take me because I know I will be even more of an emotional mess if I have to say goodbye to them at the airport rather than in the house the night before I leave. My host dad even looked at me the other day and asked me not to leave yet!! We´ve really become family to eachother this year, and to say goodbye is going to be so hard. A very wise professor told me just after I got here that I would cry when I left to come here, and cry again when it was time to go back... he was right! Back then when he said it, I missed home and everyone there so much that I didn´t think I would really let Barcelona become a new home to me. But I guess you can´t stop that from happening when you live somewhere for over 8 months! In any case, it is going to be hard to leave, especially since I don´t know the next time I´ll be able to come back and visit.

However, I am going home!!!!! I get to see my mom three days after her birthday and I´ll be there for Mother´s Day! I get to take my little sister out to breakfast and drop her off at school! I get to meet my older sister for her lunch break! I get to go to choir practice with my dad and talk him into stopping for ice cream on the way home! I get to watch my Manchester friends who are seniors graduate on the 18th! I get to spend hours eating junk food (which I´ve not had enough of here) and watching movies and talking and laughing and crying with my best friends who I´ve been away from for so long. Sure, I know things will be different and I am a little worried about reverse culture shock... but overall I´ve learned that I can adjust and I can handle change, no matter how much I hate it. So, for now I am just absorbing the bittersweet emotions running through me and taking advantage of the sunshine and beach and time with my host parents and friends here in Barcelona. I´ll worry some other time.

In between times.

2008-04-25T07:01:00.001-07:00

I think I am getting anxious about being here. Pretty much all this week I have had a stomach ache and I don´t know what it is from. My host mom bought bananas for the first time since I´ve been living there and I´ve eaten quite a few of them... she thinks that might be the cause of my aching stomach. I, however, think it might be from all of the stress and anxiety about finishing out the semester and leaving. Right now, I sort of feel like I am just waiting things out until the 9th of May when I leave. I haven´t seen a whole lot of my host parents this week because they have been spending so much time at the hospital with David. I pretty much see them in the morning before I leave for class, and then at night when we eat dinner. I´ve been trying to motivate myself to finish the papers (or actually start them) that are due by the time I leave, but somehow I haven´t found that motivation yet. As a quick update on David.. he dislocated his pelvic bone and broke it in 3 spots. He has two surgeries scheduled for Monday to try and set it back in place and to assess any other damage done. All-in-all he is pretty lucky, though he does have many months of recovery with limited or no movement at all. He seems to be keeping his spirits up, according to my host parents, though he gets frustrated at times of being so still all the time because it is just uncomfortable. One really nice thing is that he told my host mom the other day to tell me he was sorry that he wouldn´t be able to see me and say goodbye before I left. That made me sad, but also happy to know that I am a part of this family.

In other news, Wednesday was a Catalan holiday and I didn´t have my class, so I went to the beach. I sort of forgot to put sunscreen on because the sun didn´t feel all that strong... that night we had our last BCA dinner together at a restaurant called "El Cangrejo Loco" and my face fit the theme of that very well. I looked very much like a crazy lobster. Oh well, it has faded into a sort of tan now, and I hope I find some more time to take advantage of the beach and beautiful weather before I leave. I can´t believe that I will be on a plane halfway between Indiana and Barcelona at this time in two weeks. Here is to praying that I get to finish all I need to before leaving...

This weekend...

2008-04-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I´ve posted, and a lot of things have happened.

After the initial shock and disappointment of not getting to go to Ireland, I recovered and was actually happy to be able to spend the weekend in Barcelona with my host parents. On Sunday, my host dad´s brother and sister-in-law came over for lunch, stayed most of the afternoon, and then were joined by my host dad´s other brother and sister-in-law. Then, David (my host parents´ son) came over with his two daughters to drop Ana off with us for the week. My apartment was full of fun festivities and lots of delicious food (including a homemade flan) in honor of all of the guests.

Last week went pretty well, and I just realized that I have very little time to finish all that I need to finish in relation to my classes. Ana was with us all week, and I got to play with her quite a bit, so that was exciting. She turns 1 on May 1st, so I´m pretty excited... I´ve been here for over half of her life, weird, huh?!?

Here is the scary/sad/bad news. On Friday evening my host parents drove to David and Marta´s apartment to drop Ana off. Only Marta was home because David was still at work. On their way back to our apartment for dinner, they got a phone call on their cell phone from Marta telling them that David had fallen at work and was on his way to the hospital. The whole time, I was watching Pasapalabra (my favorite Spanish game show) at our apartment... when all of a sudden my host parents came running in the house and yelled my name. I went to go see what was wrong and they handed me a baguette and then quickly explained that they were going to the hospital. This was around 8:30, and they didn´t get back until after 1 in the morning. The next morning I was getting ready to leave because I had a friend from Austrailia who is studying in the UK this semester who I met in Brussels (confusing, I know) visiting. I went to ask how David was, and my host mom started crying, saying that he wasn´t well. I´m not sure exactly how far he fell, but quite a ways, enough to break his pelvic bone and do some internal damage to some organs. At that point he was still in critical condition and my host parents hadn´t been allowed to see him yet. They went back on Saturday and spent over 9 hours at the hospital. When they called to update me around 9 pm, my host mom seemed a lot calmer, which was good. As of right now things seem to be okay. David ate for the first time yesterday and the doctors say that his intestines and stomach seem to be functioning alright. They are going to see the status of the broken pelvis today to see whether or not they can go in for surgery on some of the other damaged organs. He got moved to a different part of the hospital since he is stable now, but he will have a long recovery period in front of him. In any case, it has been a stressful, sad weekend, but my host parents seem to be doing just fine, and I was happy to be able to just sit and watch a movie with my host mom lastnight. She seemed so happy just to have someone to sit with her... So, please, just pray for David and Marta and for the rest of the family as they deal with this whole recovery period and the surgeries that may take place in the near future. Alright, that turned out a lot longer than I thought it would... I have to go to class. I´ll write more later.

"That girl"

2008-04-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I am officially "that girl," you know, the one that always leaves the party early and drinks about 1/100 the amount of what everyone else drinks? There, of course, is a story that goes along with this...

I should be in Dublin, Ireland right now. Instead, I am in my apartment, using my friend's computer, which she left here earlier, while she and another one of my friends are still out going to some bar or disco somewhere in the city of Barcelona. Here is why I'm not in Dublin... See, we were supposed to fly out lastnight, but a lot of things happened to keep us from getting on the plane... We got to the airport a little late, but in plenty of time to check in. However, there was no counter for aer lingus.. so we went to information and asked which it was. They told us two different numbers, and we went to both those check in counters and talked to the woman working the counter and she said it wasn't the right one. So we went back to information and they told us two different numbers. when we got to those counters, there was absolutely noone there. so, we went back to the information counter to ask where the aer lingus office was so we could talk to them and check in. We already had all of our printed documents and just needed our boarding passes. They told us that the airline didnt have an office in the barcelona airport, and after about 10 minutes of arguing with them to call the gate or something they gave us 3 numbers to call the airline, one of which ended up being a fax number. We tried about 5 or 6 times to call each of the other 2 numbers but nobody answered. At this point we were getting really frustrated, but realized the flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so we thought it would all still work out. Finally, after not being able to reach anyone at the numbers, we went to another information desk since the 2 girls at the first desk were being very unhelpful. The woman at the other information desk was very helpful and called the gate to see why there was noone at the checkin counter. They told us that the door was already closed and that it was too late for us to get on the flight. The woman got off the phone and told us that it didn't make sense because the boards and her records on the computer said that they hadn't even begun boarding yet, but she was only the information woman and couldnt do anything else. so she looked up some more flights for us, but the next one didn't leave until today sometime. We tried calling all the numbers again to reach aer lingus, but still nobody answered at any of the lines. Needless to say we were/are all really pissed off because we payed for the flights and there was noone there to check us in... plus, i was just excited to go to ireland.. i mean, this was supposed to be my one big trip this semester after all my travel in january. So we stayed at the airport to document all the times from the board about boarding/last call/and others so that we could write a complaint.

Then, this morning, first thing, we went to a wifi cafe to skype the numbers and try to reach someone... still there is nobody answering any number that we found for any of the offices throughout the world. We wrote an official complaint email asking them to do something about it because it is just ridiculous, the whole thing, especially since we were at the airport a whole 2 hours before the last call for the flight. Now we are just waiting to see what might happen.

Which brings me to now... Since we obviously aren't in Ireland, we decided to go out tonight with one of Melania's friend and some of his friends. We hung out at his apartment for a while, had a few drinks (by had a few I mean I had a total of one and the other finished almost 2 entire bottles of vodka), and then decided to head out to a bar or a club. I have no problem going to clubs and bars, but after the stress of lastnight, my 30 minute conversation at 3:45 in the morning with my host mom about what had happened, and my altogether lack of sleep in the last week, I just didn't feel like going to the club with them. So, I am "that girl." You know, the one that leaves early... I don't like having to be that person, but when I am ready to go, I want to go, and the more you try to tell me that I'm not leaving, the more determined I am to go. So here I am, writing this before I go to sleep so that I can get it all out and actually get some rest before the awkward lunch with my host dad's 80 year old brother and sister-in-law tomorrow.

Yes, I am really upset and disappointed that I didn't get my trip to Ireland. And yes, I am sad that I disappointed my friends by leaving early tonight. But, maybe there was a reason that I wasn't supposed to go to Ireland this weekend and God just kept me from going. And sometimes you've got to do what you know is best for yourself, even if that requires skipping out early and going home to bed. Which is exactly where I'm going right now. Goodnight.

Almost down to 4 weeks!!

2008-04-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

Well, things are going pretty well here in Barcelona at the moment. The weather is turning out to be lovely and I am very much enjoying that. I also had a visitor this week, Colleen, who is studying in France this year. She got here Sunday and left yesterday, which left the two of us with some very great visiting time. It was really nice to talk to someone who has also been gone as long as I have from Manchester and to hear about one another's experiences. I really enjoyed the visit, and was sad to see her go. Besides Colleen's visit, though, this week has just been busy with classes and stuff. Today is one of my friend's birthdays, so we are going out to celebrate this evening, but I am also leaving for Ireland tomorrow night and spending the weekend in Dublin. This means that I have very little sleep ahead of me for the next 3 or 4 days, which I'm not too excited about. I am still very excited about the trip, though!! Other than the nice weather and my trip, I don't have much going on. I have two papers to write by the end of the semester, and I started reading one of the books for one of the papers. I finally purchased the other book for the other paper and feel better about that one. It will be strange next year to go back to actually having a lot of work throughout the semester since we don't even have textbooks here for any of my classes! I sent in my list of classes for next year that I want to register for, and Lila sent me an email saying that all of them looked fine. That is soooo exciting, if you knew all that I'd been through with classes this year, to actually have an email saying everything looks good was wonderful! Another random/fun thing is that my little sister sent me an email the other day with a countdown in it until I come home. I thought it was really cute that she actually wants me to come home that badly!!! I still have no idea about the job situation this summer, but if any of you hear anything, let me know. I'm looking, and I'm not worried about not finding a job, so that is good. Anyway, that is about all for now... I'll post again after my trip to Ireland!!!

School, RAness, Ireland, and life

2008-04-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can´t believe it is already the 5th of April!! I have less than 5 weeks left until I go home... I am getting soooo excited. But then again, I am also getting sad as my time here starts to come to an end. Meanwhile, I still have a ton of stuff to do in the next 5 weeks before it is time to go! I still have two papers to write before the end of the semester as well as a pretty big project for my photography class. I´m not really too concerned because I know I´ll find a time to force myself to sit down and do all of it.

The rest of my life is pretty exciting at the moment. I got an email this week saying that I was rehired as an RA for this coming school year. The weird thing is that I was placed in Schwalm Hall... which wasn´t on my list of choices at all. The reason it is so strange is because last year I was an RA in East, which is the all women´s residence hall, and Schwalm is 4 floors of males and only 2 of females... so yeah... strange. Oh well, I´m not really sure who all is on my staff yet, but I think it will be a challenge nonetheless, and I am excited about the experience of a co-ed staff.

Next weekend I am going to Ireland with a few of my girlfriends that are here for the year with me. It should be a really fun trip. Unfortunately, my funds have pretty much been depleted, so I think this is my last trip of the semester. I was hoping to be able to make it to Madrid, but I just don´t think it is going to happen. I have already started a list of places I want to go next time I get to come back to Europe, so Madrid is just another addition. I´m not really disappointed because I have been able to travel so many places since I have been here on a pretty tight budget. We´re just going to hope that maybe next time I come to Europe, I have a little more money and can hit the other places I want to see.

Let´s see... RA, Ireland, school... I think that is about it. Life in the apartment with the host parents is back to normal. We had Ana (the youngest granddaughter) with us again this week until Wednesday and it was fun. My host parents are at a wedding this weekend in a pueblo just outside of Barcelona, so I again have the apartment to myself. I am enjoying it, but also kind of sad that my host parents are gone this weekend and I´ll be gone next weekend... then I only have a few more weekends left with them before I go home! They have already started talking to me about when I am coming back to visit and all that, so I know I´ll always be welcomed back, but it is still sad to talk about leaving. Hmmm... growing up is just hard. Growing and changing is not one of my favorite things, but I am definitely much better at dealing with it now than I ever was before. Maybe that means I´m maturing a little...?! Who knows... well, that´s all for now.

Change

2008-03-26T03:56:00.000-07:00

Well, Spring Break is officially over and I start classes again today. I didn´t really go anywhere far away on my break, but I enjoyed my time. For most of last week I just relaxed, read, and enjoyed the beautiful weather that has invaded Barcelona. On Thursday, my host parents left for their 5 day vacation, meaning I had the apartment to myself until Monday evening. It was spectacular to not have a schedule, to watch some TV in English, and to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich!! Don´t get me wrong, I am incredibly happy to be with my host parents, and I am grateful that they feed me and do my laundry and provide me with company. But it is nice to have just "me" time sometimes... and it is nice to be able to make food that I want to eat or am craving rather than just eating what is served to me. On Saturday morning, Trisha´s family came in to visit from the US. We all went together to mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was in Catalan, but I understood quite a bit of it. After lunch, I went with Trisha and her family to Park Guëll and we had a fantastic afternoon sightseeing. I´m getting quite used to this whole tour guide thing after having Kacie here two weeks ago!! On Monday morning, I spent more time with Trisha and her family, helping play tour guide. Then, yesterday, we went to Montserrat, which is a monastery about an hour (by train) outside of Barcelona. It was soooooo beautiful, and the weather was absolutely perfect. It has been so nice to spend some time with Trisha´s family, and I am so grateful that they invited me to do so much with them. Another exciting thing about their visit is that they brought girl scout cookies and other delicious sweets... Since Easter is over, I can eat sweets again, and believe me, I definitely ate my fill of them in the past few days!

On other topics, I have started to look at classes and registration stuff for next year, and I´m having a difficult time finding a way to fit everything in. I basically just have gen eds left, but the ones that I was hoping to take don´t seem to be offered in the Fall. I know I´ll figure it all out though. I am feeling better about all of my frustrations that I wrote about in my last post. I got a lovely email from one of my professors who reassured me that people at Manchester do care, and it helped me a lot. I also know that I would probably be frustrated with different or similar things even if I were on campus this year, because this just seems to be the time of year where I always get antsy and ready to be done. So, yes, I may still be slightly frustrated about things, but I know everything will work out..

Random, while walking down the street the other day, Trisha´s dad looked at her and me and said, "It just amazes me how comfortable you two are here!" It´s true, I am comfortable here in Barcelona... It is a home to me now. And as excited as I am about going home in less than 6 and a half weeks, I´ve started to realize how difficult it will be to say goodbye to my host parents, to my neighborhood, to the University, and to the city itself. I´ve cried tears over leaving home and coming here, and in a month and a half I´ll be crying tears over leaving this new home to go back to the old one. You know, for as much as I hate change, I sure put myself in "changing" situations quite frequently. Maybe that´s how I grow.

Things I just need to say.

2008-03-20T04:00:00.001-07:00

Warning: This post is a complaint and some people may not be so happy about reading it... so you can skip this one if you´d like.

Okay, I love Manchester College and I know I made the right decision in going there. I also know that I made the right decision to study abroad, and I am so happy that the people at Manchester encourage studying abroad so much. However, I think one thing is often forgotten... once the student gets abroad, you are not supposed to forget about them!!! So, I know a lot of people who read this are from Manchester, either students or faculty, but I just have to state some of my frustrations without mentioning any names from the past month or so.

1. A group from Manchester took a Jan-term trip to France and Spain, and visited Barcelona. I didn´t get any sort of email or message or anything from that professor to mention they would be here and to ask if I wanted to possibly meet up with them. This wouldn´t be a big deal, except for the fact that I know that this professor knows I am here and knows me well... I guess it just sort of hurts my feelings that I wasn´t even informed that they would be visiting MY city...

2. Communicating from abroad is very difficult, but I have tried very hard to be in communication with everyone about job applications, class registration, and anything else that matters. I started emailing OCS about summer grants that I could apply for to do research last November or December. I was told about a grant that I could apply for to do research for ECR... so I continued to email and ask for the application and how to go about it. I got a response telling me about the Scout Fuller grant, which I appreciated, but continued to ask about the other grant as well. See, I know that there is only one Scout Fuller grant, and a lot of applicants, so I thought if I applied for both grants, I would have a higher chance of getting one of them. One day while I was looking on the MC website, I saw that ECR had been chosen as one of the half and half grants, meaning that I couldn´t apply for the full grant which I had been asking about. When I emailed and asked, the response was that I couldn´t apply for the grant because it was the same internship I had last year and OCS couldn´t give two grants to the same organization, which is why they told me about the Scout Fuller grant... I definitely understand this, but I feel that an email should have been sent to me to explain why I couldn´t apply for the one grant rather than just ignoring my questions. It shouldn´t have been my responsibility to find out accidentally online and have to email and ask.

3. Continuing with the whole communication is difficult thing... I have been emailing since December with Res Life to ask about the Senior RA position and how and when to apply. I got all the emails with the application and stuff... I spent a lot of time working on the application, my resume and cover letter... and I sent it in. I got an email asking what time I could do interviews last Friday and I responded. The next thing I knew, I got an email Thursday saying that the position was no longer available because Res Life now has the funds to hire a full time HD for East next year. I understand that this is a good thing, but I also feel like that is something that should have been decided WAY before the SRA position was announced and we all turned in our applications. I know that I spent a lot of time on the application, and I´m sure that the others spent a lot of time and hard work on them as well... I just feel like Res Life handled the whole situation very inappropriately. Plus, a phone call would have been nice, especially after I worked so hard... I mean, I know I´m in Spain, but a short email just saying the position isn´t available anymore just doesn´t cut it.

4. Registration and seeing whether or not classes will count for the credits I need them to count for... I don´t need to say more about this one since I have blogged about it before.

So basically I guess I´m just frustrated that people at Manchester feel that once the student is abroad, the communication can stop. I have worked hard to stay in contact with people about important things, and I have other things going on in my life too!! So, why can´t others have the common courtesy to do the same? Alright, I´m done complaining, I promise my next post will be a happier one!

Tortilla de alcochofas y pies de cerdo...

2008-03-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

So my host mom has taken up a new pasttime... trying to trick me into eating seafood. She sort of succeeded (or thought she did) when I tried the crab spread she made the other day. I knew what it was I was trying, but thought I would just appease her and eat some of it. Afterwards, I did let her know that I didn´t like it. This is after trying about two weeks ago to make me eat pieces of crab on my salad. Again, I tried a piece of the crab and spit it out, reminding her that I don´t like seafood, and crab is no acception to that. So, the other night at dinner I was eating my salad and pondering what was on the plate in the middle of the table. My host mom turned to me and said "you´re going to like that!!" while pointing to the plate. I asked what it was and she just smiled and told me to try it first. This is how it always begins when I´m tricked into tasting the seafood and get sick later from it. So, after eating my salad, I had a piece of tortilla de alcochofas, which is pretty much an artichoke omelette. I have learned to like artichokes since being here, so that was no problem. After I finished chewing the tortilla, though, both my host parents were staring at me, waiting for me to try the mystery food. So I sort of awkwardly laughed, told them I was scared, but that I would try a small piece. So, my host mom cut me a piece and put it on my plate... I examined it for a moment or so before putting it in my mouth. EWWWW!!!!! That was the first reaction of my mouth because I felt like I had just put a firm piece of fat in to be chewed on.. I honestly can´t even remember the taste very much because I couldn´t get over the texture. So, needless to say, I told my host parents that I didn´t really like it and asked if they could finally tell me what it was that I just ate. Pigs feet. That´s right, I ate pigs feet... GROSS!!! Fun times once again in my apartment.

Besides the gross food at my table, there are a few other exciting things in my life right now. Today begins vacation for "semana santa" which means I don´t have class again until a week from this coming Tuesday or Wednesday... I´m not quite sure because I think there is some sort of university holiday on Tuesday the 25th, but one of my professors didn´t say anything about it, so I´ll probably still go and see if we have class. Kacie, from Manchester (who is studying in England this semester) is coming in tonight and I am meeting her at the airport. She is staying until Tuesday, and I am super super excited!!!! Wednesday and/or Thursday of next week I´ll probably be taking a day trip with Trisha to some of the cities in Spain that I have yet to visit even though I´ve lived here for over 6 months. And then on Friday, Trisha´s family comes in to visit for just over a week, so I´m going to help her play tour guide. I´m pretty excited about a relaxed break where I don´t really have to do anything if I don´t want to. After my January travels, I´m sort of travelled out. I am excited about my trip to Ireland in April, but until then, I think I´ll just stick to Spain.

And back to the apartment again.. Ana (the 11 month old grandbaby) has been with us since last Sunday, and the whole week before that, and a few days of the week before that. But, I think she is actually going home tonight and we might get a week break from babysitting during Semana Santa!! I really actually enjoy having the baby around, but sometimes it´s a little overwhelming... I mean, when I´m the one who is now giving her the bottle at night... well, that may mean she´s been there too long. It will be interesting to see how my host parents adjust back to their normal lives without the baby. My host mom was just telling me this morning that she is excited about being able to go to the gym in the mornings again and go on evening walks with my host dad in the evenings. So, hopefully they will get a rest next week during their vacation from taking care of the baby too!!

Alright, that´s it, I think. I´ll let you know if there are any more gross foods that I am tricked into eating in the next week...

Rambling

2008-03-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

The protests are officially over... for now. And we have classes again this week. Here is how my week has been so far.

Monday morning: I went to the class that I didn´t have either Monday or Tuesday last week because of the protests and found out that we were still going to have our exam Tuesday (meaning today). I wasn´t excited.

Monday afternoon: I went to my class that I did have last week and realized that I still love the professor because he is crazy and tells funny jokes.. that only one other girl and I seem to get.

Monday night: I finished editing my senior RA application for the last time and sent it in. I left the university and met Trisha to study for our exam. I copied her outline she made and talked to her. I went to my apartment and entertained Ana (the 11 month old granddaughter of my host parents who is with us for a third week) while watching Pasapalabra (a game show about words that I watch religiously every night with my host parents). After dinner I went to my room and studied for about an hour or so and then went to bed.

Tuesday morning: I woke up early to study for the exam and then left at 10 to go with Trisha to The Bagel Shop, which is the only place in Barcelona that serves bagels. Over our breakfast we studied, made up an acronym to remember the order of events since it was an exam over the foundation of europe, and wasted some time. I took the exam and did pretty well (I hope).

Tuesday afternoon: I ate my bocadillo (sandwich) on my way to Catalan class, which I haven´t been to in over a week because I was sick, the protests, and I had another exam in another class. Catalan was... entertaining, as usual, and I learned how to say f*** you in catalan because the verb was actually in our workbook. My professor seemed a little nervous as he was talking about it, but quickly moved on and got over it.

And now I am here. That´s all.. my life isn´t too exciting. I have another class in 15 minutes and then I´ll head home to entertain the baby until it is time for her to go to bed. I do have the returning RA application to finish, and I think I may also apply to be a SOL (student orientation leader) since I got an email personally inviting me to do so... I think they just don´t have very many applicants this year. But it would be fun to be a SOL, so I´ll probably do it. The most exciting thing about my week is that I have another exam tomorrow afternoon that I have yet to study for and the fact that Kacie is coming to visit on Friday!!! Okay, so they aren´t really in the same category, Kacie is way more exciting!!! I´m not quite sure what we´ll be doing yet, but I also have to find some time on Friday to be able to get to a phone for my senior RA interview... we´ll see how it all works out. Anywho, that´s life right now. Less than 9 weeks until I go home! And another one of my friends here is going home for holy week and is going to bring back some cheese pringles, skittles, and other foods that I miss from home, so that makes me super super happy. Hmm.. this is a really random and sort of boring post. I´ll try to make the next one more organized and not rambly... until then, have a good week all of my readers!!!

Protests

2008-03-05T02:04:00.000-08:00

I am very irritated with the Spanish students right now. Why, you ask! Because they are standing in front of the door of the Geografía and Historia building and will not let me in for class. They have been doing this since Monday. Now, usually I would not complain about having no class... but I HAVE MIDTERMS NEXT WEEK!!!! And I haven´t had any of my classes that are held in the morning in that building all week. I understand that the students are protesting the privatization of the university, but that doesn´t mean that they have to block the doors and not allow anyone in the building! I can´t even get to the BCA office to sign up for our outing later this month or to talk to the director of our program. I think the most frustrating thing is that I have had to come to campus everyday just to find the situation the same. It would be really nice if the directors of BCA here (whose office is in that building) would call us students and tell us that there will be no class rather than making us come all the way here everyday and worry that we are missing it. I have heard NOTHING all week from any of the people who work in the BCA office telling us what to do until today when Trisha finally called the office to ask. This is a problem seeing as we have no idea what is on our midterm exams next week... Basically I am frustrated with the protesting spanish students, the directors of BCA, and the fact that it is really windy and cold today.

In other news, I have a sinus infection. Yes, green snot and all... it is not good and I want it to go away. But, that´s life.

Also, Ana is with us again this week until later tonight, which means that my host parents have been pretty much consumed with taking care of her since Sunday. This means that they haven´t yet noticed how sick I am and I´m not sure how I feel about that. I just want some soup. And I want to go home and be with my Mommy.. she makes things better when I´m sick and I´ve been sick way to many times here without her in the past 6 months.

I´m really not unhappy, just frustrated. Hopefully once the protests stop and the weather gets less windy and more sunny my mood will do the same. Until then, I´m going back to bed.

Routine..

2008-02-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

I know that I´m getting pretty bad at this updating the blog thing. It really has to do with the fact that I spend less time at the University this semester than I did last semester. My classes this semester (which I´ve finally settled on) are actually closer together, so I don´t have as much down time to spend in the labs waiting for my next class to start. So I apologize for not updating very often. I´ll try to do better.

Meanwhile, not much has changed here in the last week. I am still thrilled about getting Conceptos Fundamentales passed to count as Western Civilization back at school. I finally decided which classes, exactly, I am taking this semester even though it is the 4th week of class and midterms are only 2 weeks away. I went out both Friday and Saturday night for about an hour or so against my will, and didn´t drink at all. I´m trying not to spend any money at all on anything but school stuff or my trip to Madrid or my trip to Ireland. I finally booked my flight to Ireland (for April) and am excited that two of my friends who are also BCA year students will be going as well. I´m also excited that I talked Brandon into coming down from Northern Ireland that weekend to visit Dublin with my friends and me. It should be really really fun!!! That´s about it... like I´ve said before, life here is pretty normal and routine once the semester and classes start.

Okay, one quick thing... my host parents´ youngest granddaughter is staying with us for a couple of days and she is only about a year old... I think she is actually about 9 or 10 months. Her name is Ana, and she is absolutely adorable!!!! She came over Sunday night and is with us until Wednesday evening... It has just been so much fun to have her in the house and to get to play babysitter for her! This morning she crawled all the way to my room and just started smiling and laughing when she saw me once she got there. It was so cute!! So yeah, it was a fun way to start my day, with the smiles and laughter of a beautiful little girl. I´m going to be kind of sad when she leaves on Wednesday!

Eventful Week

2008-02-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

After an eventful week full of two 21st birthday celebrations, a Valentine´s Day emotional breakdown that had nothing to do with boys or love, and a really wonderful email from a friend at home, I am doing pretty well.

Last Tuesday was Trisha´s birthday and we went to Hardrock Cafe to eat dinner. Afterwards we went to our favorite Irish pub and enjoyed chatting with the bartender. Around 2, when the bar closed and I was ready to go home, two of the girls had met a couple of guys in the bar who wanted to go somewhere else. So, we loaded up in taxis and headed to a discoteca called "Up and Down". One of the girls had thought ahead and already put our names on the list, so we got in for free, which was very nice. Since I don´t dance, I enjoyed people watching and taking incriminating photos of all of the other girls! Finally, around 4:30 we decided it was time to leave... and about an hour later I finally got home. It was a good night, but I would prefer not to stay out so late again on a weeknight.

Thursday was Valentine´s Day and it was fine... until the afternoon when I found out that the grant I´m trying to get for the summer may not even be worth it because the organization I want to do research for already got a grant to have a summer intern. I also realized that two of the classes I was going to take to count for General Education requirements that I need won´t work. And I was just super emotional for some reason... So, after my last class, I went home and had dinner and then retired to my room. For some reason, I just had a meltdown and had to talk to my mom. So, I called her at work... Imagine, my mom coworker tells her she has a phone call from her daughter in Spain while she is in the middle of working with a customer (she works at a bank). She sort of freaked out, picked up the phone and said "What´s wrong, are you okay?" I told her I was fine, but I just wanted her to call me when she got home from work because I just needed someone to talk to. She still sounded like she thought something was really wrong, but promised to call. She did call, about an hour and a half later, and even though we just talked for an hour and nothing changed, I felt SOOOO much better, like everything was fixed. I don´t know how moms have the power to fix everything without even doing anything, but I love it. So, I made it through Thursday with the help of my lovely mother.

Then came the weekend, and Melania wanted to celebrate her 21st since it was on Monday (yesterday). So, we went out to a bar where they sold drinks in 1 liter, 2 liters, 6 liters, or 13 liters. It was a pretty fun place, but I didn´t really feel like drinking anything. So I sort of just stood around and tried to avoid as much smoke as possible. (You have to remember that I am still dealing with my sinus and allergy problems, so the smoke was not helping me breathe and get better at all.) Around 2:30 we left with a huge group of Americans who were friends with one of the girls we went out with. They all wanted to go to a discoteca called "Elephant", but they didn´t have any idea how to get there. At this point, I decided I was ready to go home... and so Trisha and Melania said they would leave too. I sort of felt bad about cutting Melania´s birthday celebration short, but I needed to get away from the smoke and just get into my bed.

Which leads us to yesterday night when we actually went out to dinner to celebrate Melania´s birthday. We went to a Catalan tapas restaurant, and had a really great time. I tried Cava sangria, which is about a thousand times better than regular sangria. We had a dinner of a bunch of different tapas, and it was perfect. Afterwards, I headed home and was in bed by midnight.

So now it is Tuesday and I am getting ready for my first Catalan class of the semester. I think I have officially figured out which classes I´ll be taking, and though I´m a little dissapointed that I won´t be getting as many of my gen eds out of the way as I´d like, I think everything will work out. I´m happy that all of the classes are actually starting and I´ll get into my normal routine. All of the stuff for the summer will work itself out, and I´m confident that God will place me where He needs me, so I´m not worrying as much about that anymore. And I got a wonderful email out of nowhere yesterday from one of my friends who I´ve known forever and haven´t talked to in a long time. So everything is fine, life is good, and I am enjoying getting to know all sorts of new people. Anywho, I need to head out so I´m not late to Catalan.. I hope all is good in your lives, and please just keep praying that He leads me and that I´ll follow so that I´ll end up where I´m supposed to be this summer.

Week two of classes...

2008-02-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

Well, it is officially the second week of school and I have still only been to two of my classes, which actually only means one. See, I went to this one literature class last week and decided I didn´t like it and was going to take this other one which I have yet to go to, but another one of the year long BCA students is taking it too. So, that means out of my 5 classes, I´ve been to 1 of them. Tomorrow the classes in the Geografía y Historia building begin, meaning I´ll go to the first of two of my classes, and then Catalan starts next week. I´m really not excited about any of them starting, but I guess I feel like the sooner they start, the sooner they will end. Like I´ve said before, it isn´t that I don´t like being here in Barcelona. I actually really enjoy living here. It is just that I don´t like the classes and their subjects... I´m no good at History and Literature and all that stuff... plus you add the whole "they are taught in Spanish" part on top of it, and I am REALLY not good at it!! So, needless to say, I will be happy to be back on campus next Fall taking classes in English and at least one Psych course.... Anyway, other than that, there isn´t too much going on here. I am still a little sick, but it is basically allergies. Once Barcelona picks a temperature and sticks with it, my body will be very happy. Oh, and today is Trisha´s 21st birthday, so we are going out to dinner to celebrate. That´s about it right now. Hope you are all doing well... when something exciting happens in my life, I´ll be sure to let you know!

Ouch...

2008-02-07T08:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, ouch... my head hurts, my throat hurts, and pretty much my entire body hurts. I´m thinking I just have sinus problems again, but I´m tired of it! And the whole body ache has been a signal of the flu or a cold coming on in the past... So, hopefully a restfull weekend will rejuvinate me and I´ll be back to healthy again by Monday. I don´t have much else to say besides the fact that I´m tired of trying to figure out which classes to take... I´ll figure it out eventually, though. And meanwhile I´ll try to get healthy.

Also, I´m not eating sweets until Easter. This is something I do pretty much every year during Lent, usually just because it gives me an excuse to detox my body for a while. But this year I am also adding in at least a 30 minute Bible reading/study time every day. I´ve tried doing this at school, but I always seem to fail because I´m so incredibly busy. So, hopefully I´ll start the habit now and continue it on once I get home! Alright, that´s all for today. Please pray that I don´t get more sick and that I get better soonerish rather than later! Hope things are going well with all of you.

Classes, applications, new students and all that fun stuff!

2008-02-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it is the second day of classes and I am slightly stressed. I still have no idea which classes I am actually taking, and I've only been to one so far. If I go with the classes I would "like" (meaning I need to take and these are those that are higher on my list of options) to take, then I'll have 1 class on Mondays, 3 on Tuesdays, 1 on Wednesdays, 4 on Thursdays, and 1 on Fridays. I could possibly take a different lit course and have 2, 2, 2, 3, and 1, but that still means I'll have class on Friday and I don't want to take the Lit class alone since it is a University course and I'm scared!!! Plus, the director of BCA isn't really being very helpful at the moment because she keeps telling me that it will be no problem to get anything approved as my gen eds... but the responses I am getting from the school are that things aren't really going to count for the gen eds I need. It is just really super frustrating because I had my whole schedule worked out so that I can do a full time field placement next Spring, but it looks as though it might not work out that way and I'll be taking classes and only doing a part time field placement. Needless to say, I will be very happy when I hear back from the school officially and know what each class counts for so I can finalize my schedule here.

I have decided that I would like to pursue the research that I originally wanted to do this summer. Not only do I need more research experience before applying to grad schools, but I also truly believe that doing this research for ECR (the non-profit organization I interned for last summer) will really benefit them and in turn help the community. So, I am in the process of trying to find grants that will fund me to do this research since I definitely need to make some money this summer after a whole year of not working. Luckily, I received two replies from two wonderful professors at my school who said they would be happy to be my references on one of the applications. I also got a suggestion from another professor to ask one of my professors to apply for a student/professor collaboration grant, which I hadn't thought about before. So I sent that email out and am waiting for a reply. Along with thinking about this summer comes thinking about next fall and the whole RA thing... so I got an email today saying that it is fine for me to apply to be an RA and do a phone interview, which is great. Now I just have to find out the same information about the Senior RA position and get moving on that as well... There is just so much to do!!! Plus, as soon as I return from Spain, I'll need to start moving on grad school applications to high application fees and take advantage of early acceptance possibilities, which means my summer is going to be sooooo fun!!!! Haha, it really isn't as bad as it all sounds, it is kind of exciting to know that there is so much going on and so many opportunities. However, when I look at them all together like this, it begins to get a little overwhelming. So, I'm going to try taking everything one step at a time and just apply as things come. Luckily I have a supportive staff at Manchester and super supportive parents who have helped me along every step of the way.

Meanwhile, things in Barcelona are pretty good. I've met a few of the new semester students, one of which goes to Manchester! She had no idea there was another student from Manchester already here and I had no idea she was coming! It's pretty exciting to see things up and running again and to reunite with the other 4 year-long students who all went home for Christmas. I know this semester will be different, and I'm not yet sure how it will unfold, but I'm excited about watching it happen! Now, if I could only figure out the whole class thing....

Really Long Update!!

2008-02-02T03:31:00.001-08:00

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG UPDATE!!! READ IN SEGMENTS IF YOU WISH SO NOT TO WARE YOUR EYES OUT!!!

I am alive!!! I am back!!! I know, it has been quite a while since I've written on here... which was not the plan at the beginning of my travels. But the last few cities I went to had very limited internet and I couldn't get enough time on a computer to actually write on here. So, let me give you a summary of my trip since Budapest.

Budapest: I did not get arrested or fined or anything, but was VERY happy when I successfully made it through the metro to the train station to leave without being stopped by one ticket inspector, though I saw at least 12 of them checking others.

Munich: My hostel was very close to the train station, so I did not have to worry about any sort of metro or bus or ticket inspectors or anything, which was a huge relief. I saw most of the old town on my first full day and visited Olympiapark on my second day. Even though Olympiapark was quite a ways from my hostel, the weather was absolutely beautiful and I decided to walk there so that I could see more of the city. My walk was really great because I had a long talk with God, and it was wonderful. Later on, my last night in the hostel, I began chatting with two Brazilian girls and an Austrailian boy who were traveling together. They told me that I didn't have a choice and that I was going to go out with them. So, I had a really fun time going out and talking with them until about 2 in the morning. I had one beer (the first alcoholic beverage on this entire trip), and it was one that was actually brewed in Munich. I really liked it and would have loved to take or send one home to my parents because I think they would have liked it as well. Anyway, it was just a fun way to end my time in Munich. I got up the next morning and was on my 11 hour train ride to Rome by 9:30.

Rome: What a wonderful city! Well.. sort of. My first impression of Rome was not a really great one because I got there around 8:30 PM and had to walk to my hostel from the train station. It wasn't a really far walk, but I did have a few guys following me and had to step over a few people laying on the ground to get to the door of my hostel. I noticed that there was also a woman there every night sort of working that corner as well... But, my hostel really was in a fantastic location and actually very safe. I ended up having my own room all three nights there because there were only a few of us staying there. One of the other people staying there was a woman named Sheri, who was from Hawaii! She was an artist and getting ready to start studying art for a semester in Florence, but was doing a little traveling before orientation. Because we were both traveling alone and didn't like going out at night by ourselves, we decided to go out together. So, one night she and I cooked ourselves a delicious dinner and then went out and found a place to get desserts. Another night we decided to try and go to the "night spot of the town," which one of the hostel workers had told us about. We got on the right bus, but didn't know which stop to get off at, so we rode all the way to the end of the line and walked around in the middle of nowhere until we found a large grocery store. We went in and walked around for a bit, made a small purchase of chocolate and feminine hygeine products and then got back on the bus and made our way back to the hostel. It was pretty fun to have someone to do something with both nights I was there. Anywho, I did see all the sights and was completely in awe of seeing everything in real life rather than just in pictures. I spent my first full day seeing the ruins, coliseum, pantheon, and a bunch of other amazing buildings that I stumbled upon. My second day was spent entirely in Vatican city visiting the Vatican Museum, Sistene Chapel, and Saint Peter's Basilica. It was an incredibly exciting but also incredibly exhausting day. I climbed to the top of the Basilica and had an amazing view of Rome. I walked through almost the entirety of the Vatican Museums, and was completely emotionally wasted by the time I got to the end and saw the Sistene Chapel. I would definitely love to go back sometime in my life because I know I missed so much, but it is just impossible to experience the entirety of the Vatican City in one day... sort of reminded me of trying to see all of the Louvre in Paris in a couple of hours...

Venice: I left Rome at about 9:00 in the morning on the 24th to head to Venice. The train ride was absolutely beautiful because we went through all of the mountains in Italy. I remembered on the train that I had booked a hostel on Mestre, the mainland, rather than actually on the Venezia island when I made my reservations because of Carnaval (catalan spelling) and the ridiculous prices of the other hostels. So, when I got to the Mestre train station, I got off and began following my directions, which were VERY specific. Finally, after about a 10 minute walk through an underground tunnel, a side street, and an alley behind a gas station, I found my hostel which actually turned out to be a hotel that offered a few "shared" rooms. The first night I had three other people in the room with me who I never met because they got back (and turned on the lights and made a lot of noise) at about 1 in the morning, and then their alarm went off at 5:45 and they again turned on the lights and left by 7. Luckily I didn't have hostelmates like this along all of my travels or else I would have been one frumpy person. Anywho, I only had one whole day in Venice and left around 8:30 to catch the 1 euro, 10 minute train ride into Venice. For the most part, I got completely lost as soon as I tried to follow my map and realized that I saw much more of what Venice actually was this way. So, the entirety of my day was spent walking around looking for nothing in particular and taking a few pictures. I ate some delicious pizza, bought a really beautiful mask from a maskmaker in his shop after talking to him for a long time and watching him work, found an awesome free museum exhibit with classical music and string instruments from hundreds of years ago, bought some gifts for my family and host parents, and realized that it was beginning to get dark and that I didn't want to have to walk down that alleyway when there was no light. It was really a wonderful day, and it was fun to see all of the excitement about the beginning of Carnaval. Later that night I ended up going against what I usually do and walking down scary streets in the dark to find something to eat. I ended up buying a whole pizza for 4.50 euros and taking it back with me. I offered some to the front desk worker, but she didn't want any... so I proceded to eat 5 of the 8 pieces for dinner and the other 3 for breakfast very early in the morning. Nothing better than that!!!

Geneva: Who knew it was so expensive?!?! And why didn't you warn me?!? It all turned out fine, though. Basically, I didn't do a whole lot of touristing in Geneva because a friend met me there and we spent a lot of time just chatting and wandering around. We played checkers on a giant board painted on the ground where we used our feet to hold the checkers to jump eachother. We posed with statues. We went ice skating for 2 and a half hours. It was wonderful!!! So, besides everything being totally expensive in Geneva, I tried my first Toblerone bar ever and fell in love. I got to catch up with a friend, and we met some pretty aweosme girls in our hostel room (one from South Korea and another from Poland). OH!!!! And I saw the most BEAUTIFUL castle in the middle of the Swiss mountains on the train ride from Venice to Geneva.... I couldn't have asked for a better few days!!!

And now I am back here. My friend came back to Barcelona with me and just left this morning, which is why I haven't really had a chance to write until now. We had a good time just talking and spending time together. We did a lot with another one of my friends who studies here with me.. Shopping was one of those things, and now that we are at the end of January, the sales are AMAZING!!! So, my super cute Diesel tennis shoes cost me 19.90 euro. I got a really nice shirt for 1.95 euro, and a wonderfully warm brown sweater for 5.95 euro.... What a successful shopping trip! Now, however, I am totally exhausted and need to catch up on my sleep before classes start on Monday. SO, I am sorry this is so long, but I wanted you to be all updated. I'll try and write again soon, and hopefully it won't be such a novel next time!!!

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts while I was on my trip. And thank you to those of you who were worried about me when I hadn't updated this for two weeks. I love and miss you all!!!

Viaje - Budapest

2008-01-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I am now in Budapest, the 6th city of the 10 that I am traveling to. This is day13 of my trip and I have just about 2 more weeks left. As you can see from the numbers above, I am spending more time in the cities at the end of the trip. The first couple cities I basically just spent 2 nights and about a day and a half in, but Prague, Budapest, and the others following Budapest I am spending 3 nights and 2 whole days in!! I have found that I can take things much slower when I have 2 full days because I'm pretty good about seeing all of the sights very quickly... in half a day usually. So, this is why I have the time to write on here today! About the weather, it has definitely been colder in all of the cities I've been to than Barcelona, but I knew to expect that. However, I have been quite impressed with the lack of snow and how adequate my coat has been. I was pretty positive before I left that I would be living in layers throughout this trip, but so far I have been completely fine with just a tshirt and my winter coat. Oh, I forgot to write that I went to the opera in Vienna and it was really amazing and beautiful and funny and really great. The best part was that it only cost me 3.50 euro!! Yes, the tickets were for standing room only, but it ended up not being too bad, and I got to see the opera!!!!! I mean, that's pretty cool, right?!?! And the other really exciting thing that happened to me in the last few days was that I almost got a 6000 ft fine yesterday on the bus on the way to my hostel. (That translates to about $30.) This is what happened... first I took the BUS number 73 eight stops like my directions told me to do. When I got to the 8th stop and saw that it wasn't called what it was supposed to be called, I figured out that I messed up. So I got back on the bus and went back to the train station. I asked someone where the TROLLEY-BUS number 73 was, and headed in that direction. Before I left the station, though, I decided that I should probably buy a bus ticket since I finally saw a machine in which to buy one. So, I got a ticket, punched it in the little orange box, and stuffed it in my coat pocket to head around the block to catch the trolley-bus. On the bus I found a seat and started counting the stops. We were at stop number 6, when this weird looking lady gets on and sort of just stands in front of me. So I sort of shifted in my seat so that I could look at the names of the stops that were flashing in the front of the bus. All of a sudden, the lady in front of me pulls out a badge and asks for my ticket. I was sort of confused at first, but I reached into my pocket... AND MY TICKET WASN'T THERE!!!!! I sort of started freaking out because I didn't want to miss my stop and we were already at the 7th one. So I looked at her frantically and tried to explain that it was in my pocket but must have fallen out and she just stared at me. Finally, because I was almost in tears and they wouldn't let me off at my stop, the two women made me go to the metro station with them and buy a ticket and showed me how to punch it in the machines. So, basically they didn't understand that I knew how to buy a ticket and use the validation machines, but I was lucky that they decided not to charge me the fine for not having a ticket. It was scary, though, and I was really happy to get to my hostel, finally, two hours later than I had originally planned. Anywho, let this be a lesson to you all: When in Budapest, be sure to know where you put your metro/bus tickets, because they WILL check your ticket at some point, and the fine is NOT cheap like everything else in Budapest. Alright, this is long enough. I'm sure I'll have other adventures to share with you eventually...

Viaje - Vienna

2008-01-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I have posted and I am now in Vienna. I had a really great time in Prague, saw lots and lots of things, and met some super nice girls. I took lots of pictures, so you will all get to see them at some point. I did hit a spell of homesickness, which sort of took me by surprise since I have been away from home for so long already. After thinking about it, I realized that it was exactly a week since I had talked to my mom on the phone, and I had also just been talking to two girls who were getting ready to go back to their homes in New Zealand and Chile. So, add that all up along with my traveling alone, it made me really miss home. But, my amazing mother sent me a wonderful email and everything was all better after that. So I got here (Vienna) this afternoon and already wandered about for a bit. I'm going to take the rest of the evening off and then take all day tomorrow to explore the rest of the city. I hope you are all doing well.. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to travel. Almost 95% of the time I feel perfectly safe, but there are those few moments on the streets when men come up to me and won't leave me alone that I get scared. Alright, I'm off to shower and relax... I'll write again as soon as I can!!

Viaje - Amsterdam 2

2008-01-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

So I learned something today... when you get yourself lost in a city, you accidentally stumble across all sorts of really cool things. I figured this out this morning when I pulled my map out and started to plan my day here in Amsterdam since my train doesn't leave until later this evening. I started to make a mental list of everywhere I would like to go, and I headed out to go see these amazing things. Well, within about 5 minutes of walking, I realized that I had already accidentally seen the first thing on my list yesterday. So I turned around to go to item number two... and then I realized I had already been there too. I decided to take a moment to sit down and study my map once again, and then I realized that there wasn't one thing on my list that I hadn't already seen!! Yes, I admit that I let myself get lost in the city yesterday because I always feel that is the best way to actually get to know a city. But by doing that I left nothing for myself to do today!! I did go wander through some of the shops, but seeing as I am on a very limited budget, I couldn't buy anything. So, I wandered a little more and then took refuge here in the hostel lobby because it is warm. I now have a couple more hours until my train leaves, so I may go on one more excursion before heading to the train station just to stretch my legs a bit. Meanwhile, I had a really great time lastnight with the 4 guys from Chile that were in my hostel room. We just sat around and talked for quite a while. One of them is a Psychology major in Chile, so we talked a bit about that. It is so fun meeting people and talking to them!! I also got to practice my Spanish a little, which was fun. So all in all, Amsterdam has been wonderful!!!

Viaje - Amsterdam

2008-01-08T04:44:00.000-08:00

So I am in Amsterdam right now and have been since about 5 yesterday afternoon. Brussels was really great. I met two girls from Austrailia who are traveling for a bit before they start their semester in England. It was fun to talk to them about the differences between Europe and each of our homes. The train ride to Brussels wasn't exactly fun, but luckily I know the metro system in Paris, so the station switch wasn't too bad at all. I actually got to the other station before they even announced which platform the train was on. The train from Brussels to Amsterdam was great as well, so there have been no problems so far on that note. I already have my overnight train ticket to Prague from Amsterdam for tomorrow night, so that should go well. I'm thinking I'm going to use all of my 10 train passes and buy a plane ticket from Geneva to Barcelona for my trip home because I can get a ticket for $28 and I have a friend joining me in Geneva.. so it would be easier for me to go back to Barcelona with her that way. Yeah, so I know that sentence was a big rambling thing. Anywho, I'm hungry, so I'm going to run to the grocery store and get myself a little lunch. Hope all is going well with you! I'll update again as soon as I can!

Viaje: Marseille

2008-01-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so things have already been changed from their original plan and I'm already learning to be flexible on this trip. Yesterday after finally getting to Marseille, I tried to reserve my seat on the 1:13 train to Brussels for today... well, they were all full. So now I have to go to Paris, transfer from one train station to another, and then go on to Brussels. The whole reason I came to Marseille to begin with was because I wanted to find another way of getting through France without going there since I've already been there. Well, I guess I won't be seeing much of it as I run to the metro to try and catch my next train within an hour time-span. So I'll be coming back to Marseille at some point in my life if I would like to see any of it in the daylight!! Meanwhile, this hostel was really nice and everyone working here is super nice. So, I had a good experience... and I'm prepared for worse hostels along the way after this (this was one of the more expensive ones of my journey). Okay, I'm off to catch my train. Wish me luck today!!

One More Thing!

2008-01-02T07:46:00.000-08:00

One more thing: I GOT MY TRAIN TICKETS IN THE MAIL TODAY!!!! So I am officially leaving for my European tour on the 4th. I reserved my seat on the train and everything, so now all I have left is the packing part... I´m really a procrastinate when it comes to that, just ask Will or Emily about the night before I left for France for 17 days... Yeah. Well, that´s all!!!

Four Things

2008-01-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

First thing: I want to apologize for not posting any pictures anytime recently. I have a great one of the grandkids hitting the Caga Tio on Christmas and a shot of the whole family too, but I cannot post them on the University computers. For some reason the computer doesn´t like my camera and won´t recognize it. So, I have to wait until my lovely friend, Trisha, gets back at the end of January and see if she will so kindly let me upload my pictures to the internet once again on her computer.

Second thing: My trip is officially delayed one day because I still have not received my train ticket in the mail. My mom sent it to me over three weeks ago so that I would get it in time, but the post office here has been closed so much in the last few weeks I´m sure it is just sitting in a pile waiting to be delivered to my house. So far not too many plans have been messed up, I just cancelled my first night in the hostel in Marseille and will only spend one night there now instead of two. If, however, the ticket does not come by tomorrow then I will have to do some major rearranging of plans. It´s okay, though.. I learned on a trip to Bolivia two years ago the phrase "flop like a mop" because things on trips rarely go exactly as planned. So, luckily I have plenty of time and I am the one in charge, so whatever happens, happens, and there.

Third thing: All of the family came over again yesterday for a New Year´s lunch. We had every kind of seafood imaginable!!! Well, I don´t eat seafood... So my host mom looked at me and told me that I wasn´t going to eat before she started laughing and brought me my own little dish of canalones that we had made on Christmas and put in the freezer. The family all got there about 2 in the afternoon and we ate shortly after that. My host mom made a HUGE cheesecake and another lemon-cake that she makes sometimes. So after our tapas, huge meal, cava, and pineapple, she brought out the cakes. For some reason she things that I won´t take the food when it is just in the middle of the table (this is really because I haven´t been taking it because I´ve been so full!), so she has taken to putting five or six pieces of anything on my plate directly in front of me so that I´ll eat it. Needless to say, I was stuffed after the 2 straight hours of eating. I finally escaped to my room after Maria and Alida (two of the grandkids) drew pictures for me and then started to run around like crazy. Shortly after I went to my room and started reading, the buzzer rang. It was my host dad´s brother and sister-in-law. Then, the buzzer rang again and another couple came up! Our apartment was not made to hold 17 people... so I just stuck to my room with frequent visits from the grandkids. Finally, around 8:15 everyone had left, so I joined my host parents on the couch to watch the news. We just had yogurt and fruit for dinner, and then my host mom brought me a plate of two pieces of lemon cake and two of cheesecake... Harry Potter was on, so we watched that for a while and then I headed to bed.

Fourth thing: This is probably my last post for a while since I don´t know how much internet usage I´ll get at the hostels I´ll be staying at. I´ll try to update while I´m traveling as often as possible, but no promises. Meanwhile, I hope you all had a wonderful New Year´s celebration and haven´t given up on your resolutions yet!

The World is Flat

2007-12-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

There is still no luck with the airport stuff. I asked this time if it is okay if I come back sometime in February or March to check and they said that was fine. They don´t know why it is taking so long to get a response telling them how much I owe, but my ticket has already been changed to May, so there are no worries there. So I am not going to worry about it until classes start in February and I have a free morning or afternoon to take a trip back to the airport.

In other news, I have NO idea how I´ll be spending my New Year´s Eve. Today at lunch my host parents asked me if we ate grapes on New Year´s at home. I sort of looked at her funny and she explained that the tradition here is that they each eat a grape every time the bell rings at midnight on New Year´s. So everyone eats a total of twelve grapes to bring in the new year, and then they all run out on the streets. Apparently you can´t run on the street alone, though. You must have a friend with you or a lover... so I guess that means I´ll be watching the street running from my balcony!! I thought about going downtown to the touristy spots to see what kinds of things are going on there on New Year´s, but I think that I´ll probably get more of a cultural experience if I just hang out with my host parents. On the 1st all of the family is coming over for another large family meal. I´m not sure what the food will be this time, but I´m sure it will be delicious and the family will be entertaining as usual.

The last couple days since Christmas have been pretty good. I´ve spent a lot of time reading a book that one of the other BCA girls left with me when she went home. It is called The World is Flat and written by Thomas Friedman. It is "a brief history of the twenty-first century" and is really really interesting. I don´t usually read books like this, full of facts and statistics, but this one is so fascinating that I think everyone needs to read it to get a little dose of reality about how our education systems need to change to keep the United States where it is and prepare for the future of a flat world. Anywho, besides reading I´ve spent quite a bit of time with my host parents just around the apartment. Then, the other night, I got a really great surprise! The house phone rang and my host mom answered and looked all confused and said it was for me. It was Tim Polakowski calling me!!! He and I talked for quite a while catching up on the last semester. I found out that I had three of the same professors as he had when he was here two years ago. It was also nice to talk to him about Christmas because he knew exactly how hard it was since he spent it here as well during his year abroad. When I got off the phone my host mom was very confused because Tim had spoken to her in Spanish and I talked to him in English... She thought that he was a boy I had met here!! I explained that he had studied here two years ago and she understood, but was still impressed by how polite he was and how good his Spanish on the phone was.

Well, that´s about all for now. You should all look at Kacie´s blog (I added the link today) because she starts her semester in England in a week and has already been in Europe for about a week. I´ll try and write again at least once before I leave for my trip!

Christmas Novel

2007-12-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I did it!! I made it through Christmas here in Spain!!

Our Christmas festivities began on Monday night "La Noche Buena" with a very large meal at my host parent´s oldest daughter, Luisa´s, house. Luisa and her husband Jordi are wonderful, as are their two children, Maria and Ariadna. We got to their house around 7 PM on Monday night and I played with the girls for about an hour. Then we went back downstairs from the playroom and sang Christmas songs with Iaia (pronounced Yaya, which is what they call their grandma, my host mom). Eventually, around 8:45, we started the process of eating. After about 4 courses and lots and lots of turrón (the special Spanish Christmas sweet) it was almost 11 and my phone rang!! So I talked to my mom for about 20 minutes while posing for pictures because the girls kept running in with the camera to take pictures of me. A little after midnight my host parents decided it was time to go. So we made the 25 minute drive back into Barcelona in about 20 minutes and when we were parking my host mom all of a sudden turned to me and said that midnight mass was still going on if I would like to go and see. So she and I gave our things to my host dad and we ran to the church around the corner to go to the second half of the mass. It was in Catalan, but really beautiful. Because I am an emotional mess, when they started singing "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him" I started crying because it made me really miss home and our Christmas Eve services at my church. This is the first one I have ever missed, and also the first one in many many years that I haven´t sung at! So when the service ended, we went out into the Plaça outside the church to watch the beginning of the festivities there, and my host dad was standing out there waiting for us!! He said he couldn´t get into the church because there were too many people. Anywho, after the service, a lot of people just hang out celebrating Christmas in the Plaça eating turrón and drinking coffee while standing around a big bonfire. My host parents and I were all pretty tired, so we walked back to our apartment and went to bed.

On Christmas morning I woke up and got ready for a full day. After showering and getting dressed I sat down and opened a Christmas card from one of the women at my church who gave me a package of cards for every month and holiday before I left the US. I also read the Christmas story so that I could sort of feel like I was home with my family doing our normal Christmas morning thing. We ended up leaving the apartment around noon to go to David (my host parents´ son) and Marta´s house. David and Marta also have two daughters named Alida and Ana. Alida is about 4 or 5 and Ana is about a year old. So after we got to their house, I played with Alida for two hours or so until it was time to eat. This meal was not quite as large as the one the night before, partly because I don´t eat seafood and the main course was very large shrimp which still had the eyes on them!! But, all of the other food was delicious. Right as we finished eating and were getting ready for the coffee or tea, my phone rang again! My family has perfect timing! So I excused myself and went to the other half of the room to talk to them. This phone call was probably the hardest part of my Christmas... I am pretty sure I cried at least 7 different times. First I talked to my little sister who told me that it was really hard not to have me at the Christmas Eve service the night before, which was the first time I cried. Then I talked to my mom and cried while telling her about the midnight mass I went to. Then I talked to my dad and cried while he said something else about the Christmas Eve service and me not being there. And finally I talked to my big sister and cried just because she said she missed me!! There was a lot of time on the phone, though, when I wasn´t crying, and it was nice to be able to talk to each of my family members. When I finally got off the phone and went back into the main room, Marta´s mom, two sisters, and brother were there! So we all sat around for a while eating turrón and other sweet things while my host mom and one of Marta´s sisters entertained us by singing and dancing! It was pretty fun. Finally, around 7:30 my host parents decided to leave, so we got home around 8. When we got home, my host mom was going to start on the canalones for the next day. I asked if she would like help, so I went into the kitchen and we had a really good conversation. She said that today was a good day but that it was a sad one for me. I told her that it was sad but really good too. I reassured her that I really love living with her and my host dad and that I love their family. I told her thank you for letting me participate in all of the family festivities. She understood that I was happy but also told me that "family is family and there is no replacing them" meaning that she knew it was also a hard time for me. So after our conversation I helped make all of the canalones and clean the kitchen and then we went and crashed on the sofa. Eventually she went to bed and I went shortly after that.

Then came yesterday. Yesterday ALL of the family came to our apartment, meaning including us and all the grandkids, there were 13 people in our apartment. They all got there right around 1:30 and we ate at 2:00. After some more turrón and other sweets we cleaned up and started the real fun! One of the things that is different here from home is that Santa doesn´t bring all the presents to the kids. Here, they have the "Caga Tio" which is a piece of wood with legs and a face and a santa hat which they have to feed and take care of in their own house until Christmas. When they got to their grandparents´ house, the Caga Tio had grown because he was full of presents. Really, we had taken the bigger one from David´s house the night before and set it up before the family came over. So the Caga Tio´s bottom half is covered with blankets to keep him warm. Each of the kids takes a stick and starts beating on the Caga Tio while singing a song to him (which I don´t remember the words to). Then, they lift up the blanket and he has left some gifts for each one of them! As they take the gifts and open them, all of the family distracts them while one person puts more gifts under the blanket. Then the kids to the whole routine again. They did it 5 times, and then when they turned around, the Caga Tio had changed into it´s smaller self again, which meant that it didn´t have any presents left for them. I took a few pictures, so I´ll see if I can get them on here. It is really a fun process, though, and afterwards there was a bag of gifts with one for all of the adults. My host parents got me some star earrings and a beautiful silver bracelet. After the Caga Tio, we pretty much just sat around and played with the girls and their gifts until about 6:30 when everyone started to leave. My host parents and I cleaned up a bit and then went on a walk since we had eaten so much and not left the house all day. Afterwards, we pretty much crashed and watched TV for the rest of the night until one by one we left for bed.

So, now that I truly have written a novel about my Christmas experiences which I´m not sure any of you will get all the way through, I think I should stop!! Only one more week until I leave for my trip, so I´ll definitely try to keep writing until then... Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families!!

Conejo

2007-12-23T09:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday for lunch I had a turkey leg, a really really big turkey leg. Then today for lunch we had "conejo" which is rabbit... The turkey was really random, but the fact that we had rabbit is actually pretty funny. See, about a week ago on the news there was a story about a guy who raised rabbits and how he was having large sales for the holidays. So I asked if a lot of people here eat it. My host mom didn´t really give a definitive yes or no before my host dad started going off about how much he loves conejo but that they never eat it. Then my host mom started to say how it is one of the best meats for you to eat. All the while, the news story was still on. All of a sudden, my host dad said "We´ll buy one tomorrow!" And my host mom started to argue with him and said "No! YOU will buy one tomorrow, not me!!" Apparently this is because she doesn´t like it very much. So then, today when I sat down for lunch, my host dad looked up and smiled at me, pointed to the plate of meat and said "Conejo!!!" So, I can add that to my list of meats that I have tried. It wasn´t too bad, once I got past the fact that I was eating a cute little bunny...

In other news, I had a not so fun experience on the metro the other day. While I was on the metro on Friday a man got on and stood next to me on one of the lean/sit bars. I found this a little strange because there was an empty one right across from me and another one diagonally from me. But, okay, right? So as I am standing there, he puts his stuff down and then I felt his hand on the bar, really close to my rear end... so I scoot over towards the wall a little bit thinking maybe it was just an accident. His hand followed and really was actually touching, REALLY touching my butt. So I immediately move over to the door and get off at the stop we just got to. I switched to another car and was pretty sure that he didn´t see where I went because there weren´t any windows between the car I came from and the one I went to. At the next stop, a lot of people got on, including the man from before. He looks at me, smiles, and walks right over so he is in the exact same spot as he was before on the previous car. At this point I was quite freaked out, so I walked to the opposite end of the car and got off at the next stop. Luckily I was only a stop away from where I was going, so I just left the metro altogether and walked in the most roundabout way possible to my location. It was so weird/scary/annoying... and I think the worst part is that it was the second time in a week that I couldn´t get a guy to leave me alone on the metro. I never had really thought about the dangers of being a female and traveling around Europe alone, but the reality of it just hit me. I know that I´ll be fine and God will protect me, but I just need to be very aware of my surroundings at all times and take extra precautions. Luckily with the two incidents here in the past week I was on metro lines and in a city that I am familiar with. That isn´t going to be the case in January!! So, just pray that I stay safe during my travels and that I don´t have anymore incidents with unagreeable males!!!

And for more happy news, tomorrow begins all of the fiestas for Navidad here in Barcelona! Tomorrow we´ll be going to the oldest daughter´s house for a huge family dinner. Tuesday we´ll be going to the son´s apartment for a big family lunch. And Wednesday they will all be coming to our apartment for another family meal, though I´m not sure which this will be. It should be fun and interesting and awkward and hard and a lot of other things... I´ll let you know how it all went once I can get back into the lab on Thursday! Until then, Merry Christmas, Bones Festes, and Feliz Navidad!!

Good things

2007-12-20T03:13:00.000-08:00

I went back to the airport yesterday to pay that $75, but it was a wasted trip. For some reason, Air France in the US still hasn´t emailed Air France here, so they told me that I would have to come back, AGAIN!!! Now, it´s not that it is an incredibly long trip or anything to the airport, it is just inconvenient and the airport is annoyingly super busy. I also have this really irrational fear of airports, so going twice within a week is a really big thing for me!

Onto more exciting things... I watched Shrek 2 the other night with my host mom, and that was a lot of fun. I bought a sudoku book and have been doing them while watching the news with my host parents at night, and my host mom said she wanted to start doing them because they are "good for your brain." So on my way home from the airport yesterday, I stopped and got her a beginners book of sudokus, which were really really easy. She was really excited when I gave it to her. Then, lastnight I was reading in my room and she ran in at least three times, plopped down on the bed with me, and asked me if she was doing it right. Each time I clarified that you can only have the number once in each row, column, and square. This morning when I got up, she told me that she stayed up until 2 AM trying to do that first sudoku, but she just couldn´t figure it out!! I have really been enjoying my time with my host parents the last few days.

Other than that, life is good. My trip is planned, so now I just have to copy all of the details down onto paper for myself and type them up and send a copy to my parents at home so they don´t worry so much. I´ve been resting a lot, so I hopefully won´t get this cold that I feel coming on. And I think my Spanish is becoming more natural since I´ve been using it more in the last few days. So, I´m off to another wonderful home cooked meal... I think it is homemade chicken noodle soup (at least that is what it smelled like when I left!)...

So far, so good

2007-12-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

So far, so good. I´ve had a few days here by myself without any of the other students and I seem to be doing alright. I booked all of my hostels for January except for two (which I plan to finish right after I write this), and I´ve done 63 sudokus and I´ve played about a thousand games of solitaire, with real cards since I don´t have a computer in my apartment. I know, that sounds really boring, but I´ve actually enjoyed the last few days. On Sunday night I watched Oceans 11 with my host mom after dinner because it came on TV. She and I curled up underneath a big blanket and had a good time laughing at the movie. Then, lastnight, I watched the news with my host parents after dinner again, and just laughed and laughed at them. Manolo (my host dad) likes to comment on everything that is said on the news, so much so that you can´t even hear the news half the time! So Luisa (my host mom) just kept telling him to be quiet over and over again. She finally jumped over and covered his mouth... it was really funny. He chose that moment to say goodnight to us and to go into his room to watch TV there. So we started watching the season finale of Mira Quien Baila and I helped Luisa to wrap some Christmas presents for her girlfriends... I don´t think she has ever wrapped a present before in her life!! It was fun, though, and I think that they are actually enjoying having me around the house for more than just meals. Like before, I am still excited about Christmas next week with all of the family, but I also miss home a lot. Saturday was a very hard day, but a phone call to a wonderful friend really helped me through it. Then, I also got my weekly phone call from my mom, which helped too. I know that I´m going to make it through the next few weeks because I´ve got all of you encouraging me!!! So thank you!

Tomorrow I am going back to the airport to pay the money to change my ticket to May. Hopefully there will be no problems this time! After that, I have NO idea what I´ll do.. but I´m sure I´ll find something to occupy my time. There is still more of Barcelona that I can explore, so that could be on the agenda. I´ll just take it one day at a time, and before I know it I´ll be leaving for my month of travels!! Speaking of which, I changed my schedule from what I last posted!! First, the trip starts on January 3rd when I leave Barcelona and head to Marseille in France. From their I´ll be heading to Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Rome, Venice, Geneva, and back to Barcelona. I have about 2 days, sometimes 3 in each of the cities, and a lot of time on the train. I´ll be back in Barcelona on the 29th, so it is a pretty long trip. I´m really excited because it is so close, but I feel like I still have so many plans to make! I guess that´s a part of my next two weeks, right? If you have any pointers for me or anything that I should see in any of the cities, let me know!

Okay, I´m going to book those last two hostels and get out of here. Hope you are all having fun in the snow!!

Why?

2007-12-14T02:45:00.001-08:00

I didn´t think it would be this hard. I didn´t think I had really become all that close with the students here this semester. I didn´t think I would be so sad to see them go.

I went to the airport with Trisha this morning because she was flying out to France to spend a few days with her sister and I needed to pay the fee to change my ticket home to the Spring. Trisha is kindly taking an entire suitcase full of things home to my family for me. I went out lastnight with a couple of the girls for about an hour to say goodbye. Then I said another goodbye this morning. I´ll say another one this afternoon, and then they are all gone. Trisha is coming back, but the rest I might not ever see again... I don´t know whether it is hard because I am jealous that they all get to go home and see their families for Christmas or because I am afraid of being here alone. I´m not technically alone, I know, because I have my host parents... but I have 7 weeks of none of my friends being here, of traveling by myself, of a lot of me time. I think it scares me more than anything. I just never planned on becoming friends with all of the students and I never thought about them leaving as changing things. I mean, my life is still the same, I´m still living in the same spot with the same family and using the same metro everyday and waking up to construction every morning. But, with all of them being gone... well, that does change things for me. And lastnight when I was saying goodbye to some of the other girls, I got a taste of what it is going to feel like when I leave in the Spring after having been here for so long... that´s going to be hard.

Why am I such a mess sometimes?! I swear, I never used to be as emotional as I have been the last few years... Why do I hate change so much and why is it so hard for me to deal with? It´s not like I don´t know what is coming and that things are going to change. Yet, I think I ignore it until it is actually there and I can´t ignore it anymore... then I get shocked by it!! Oh well, I guess this is life. I think now is a good time to go back to bed.

Done

2007-12-13T02:38:00.001-08:00

I´m done. Officially. The semester is over and I didn´t die. Tuesday I had three exams, just like I did during midterms, and then Wednesday I had two exams (one of them being Catalan). Though I don´t feel like I did spectacularly on any of the tests, I think I did fine.

So now begins my 7 weeks of break, 53 days, to be exact. For the next three days or so most of the BCA kids are still here, so I´ll spend time with them. After that, though, I am on my own. It should be fun, though. I ordered my train pass, finally for the January trip that I´ll be taking. The pass is for 10 trips in 2 months, but I´ll be using all 10 trips in less than a month. The route, for now is Geneva, Venice, Rome, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madrid. Though I don´t really want to use one of my passes to go to Madrid since it is so close to Barcelona, I decided it was better for me to end up back in Spain rather than having to worry about getting a flight home from who knows where. I´ll be spending between 2 or 3 days in each of the countries. I´m actually getting pretty excited about the trip, but I still have a few more things to finish up the planning process. Then, next semester Kacie will be studying in England, and Brandon will be in Ireland... so I´ll probably be taking a trip to Ireland at some point, and I know that Kacie is coming to Barcelona over her Spring break. It will be fun to finally see some familiar faces from home!

I have 22 weeks left until I go home, which sounds like a lot, but when I think about how fast Christmas/January break is going to go it really isn´t much time at all. I finally figured out which classes I´m going to take next semester, which is a huge relief. I only have 4 more classes I need to take to complete my Spanish major, and then I am also throwing in some Gen Eds... so that means when I get home I should be all caught up and only have one semester of classes left to take! Which is perfect, because it means I´ll be able to do a full time field placement in the Spring. Everything just seems to be working out!

Umm.. that´s all really. Life hasn´t been too exciting this week since so much of it was consumed with studying. I´ll try and keep this as updated as possible in th next few weeks, but since I use the computers at the University, I am limited to their Christmas Break hours. I hope you are all enjoying the last few days of exams and school and Christmas shopping. Soon you´ll all be free for a few days, like me (only I get a lot more days of freedom...)!!!!

4 day weekend

2007-12-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

My four day weekend has almost come to an end. Tomorrow I have my last Catalan class. Tuesday I have three finals, and Wednesday I have two. Then I have break for 7 weeks plus a few days (until February 4th)!

So this weekend has had a few interesting/awkward/weird/stupid moments:

Interesting: I realized I still don´t know how to study as I sat in my room trying to force myself to be a good student.

Awkward: Luisa (my host parent´s oldest daughter) shows up at the apartment Friday with her two daughters when my host parents aren´t there. I explain that they went out shopping or walking or something because I had just passed them on the street about 10 minutes earlier on my way back from Hipercor. So she and the girls leave to go find them. About an hour later, after they all come back together, they all leave to go to the park or something. I´m still sitting in my room trying to force myself to study. The apartment buzzer goes off again. I answer it and buzz Jordi in (Luisa´s husband). He comes up and I explain that I don´t know where they all went but they had been gone for a half hour or so. I suggest they might have gone to the park around the corner. So Jordi leaves to go find them. When they all come back together, we have a family lunch and noone says a word about the awkwardness from earlier in the day. Maybe this means I´m really becoming part of the family?

Weird: After dinner lastnight my host mom was talking about the customs and traditions of Christmas here. She explained that they would be going to Luisa´s house on Christmas Eve for a big family dinner. It is pretty much like all of our family meals on Christmas day. Then she said, "And you´re coming with us! Right?" It wasn´t a question, more like a statement with an added "right?" to make me feel as though I made the decision to go. So, though I am excited about really experiencing Christmas the Spanish way, it is going to be very strange to travel with my host parents and not have my room to escape to after a few hours of the whole family. It should be interesting.

Stupid: I went out lastnight with some of the girls and one of the guys from BCA as a last celebration before they all leave next Friday. The guy that was with us had 8 friends visiting who are studying in Budapest this semester. They were supposed to meet us at the bar. We´d already been there for about an hour when all of a sudden, James gets a phone call. The bouncers wouldn´t let the boys in. They were already obnoxiously drunk and were being really dumb and saying really stupid things in front of the club, so they weren´t allowed in. As the rest of us inside all got updated about what was going on outside, the whole group of guys just went down the street a little and continued their loud obnoxiousness. So the bouncers called the police. Yep, that´s right. I came out because we were just going to go somewhere else and the police were standing there telling them they needed to move and get away from the club or else... Once again I understand why so many Europeans have the stereotypes for Americans that they do.

Okay, hope you enjoyed your weekends as much as I did! Now about that studying...

Almost there

2007-12-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Today was my last day of classes for all of my BCA classes. I still have Catalan tonight and again on Monday, but other than that classes are over... which means finals are here. Once again, we have the same final schedule, meaning three exams for me on Tuesday and two on Wednesday instead of one because of my Catalan class as well. I'm both excited and not excited about the semester ending. Most of me is excited, but the part of my that is sad is the part that doesn't want to say goodbye to some of the people that I've become friends with. I've never been good at dealing with change though I often find that I put myself in situations where change happens frequently. So when some of the students leave next Friday, it may be the last time I'll ever see them! I guess it isn't so incredibly terrible, though, with all of the modern technology we have as well as Facebook, I'll still be able to communicate with them.

On another topic completely, I had a really good conversation with my host parents today after lunch. Usually after we finish eating I just help clear the table while my host dad starts watching TV and my host mom goes to the kitchen to wash the dishes. (I've offerred to help, but she won't let me!) Lunch today was different! After we had finished eating, my host mom and dad were talking about traveling to the United States and how it is expensive, but you can find cheap tickets if you look in the right places. So I asked them if they had ever been to the US. This started an entire conversation about travel, where they had been, how often they travelled, how much it costs, the difference between the different students that had lived with them, and all sorts of stuff. We literally sat at the table for about 30 minutes after we were finished eating, just talking! They also brought up Christmas again, and I think they are excited about sharing it with me, which makes me more excited about being here. It's so strange.. in one month I'll be getting ready to start my month of travel around Europe!!! And after that, there is only one semester left before I return home..

Speaking of home, I've been worried about what I'm going to be doing this coming summer because I was hoping to do research for the same non-profit organization I interned for last summer on a project I just started before the summer ended. However, after being here for a whole year with no work, I need to get paid next summer, so I could only do the research with a grant. The Lilly grant that funded my internship this past summer ran out, so I had started to look for other research opportunities. After a few emails, I found out that Manchester has a few summer "scholarships" for students who want to do non-profit internships this summer. Yay!! I'm not sure if I will get one of the scholarships, and even if I do, I may have to find another part-time job, but now I at least have something to aim for. If the scholarship/grant thing doesn't work out and I'm not in North Manchester this summer, then I'll probably try to find something in Indianapolis so that I can live at home for the first time since I've left for college! That would be another exciting adventure all by itself...

Campus Store

2007-12-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

So I got an email from someone who works in the campus bookstore.

Hi
This is matt from the campus store. You all have packages that have been sitting over here for a while. We wound appreciate it if you would come and check your boxes and if there is no card in there then come ask someone in the campus store.
thanks, matt

Yeah. Did I mention that I am studying abroad this year?!? Oh, and did they somehow lose the forward-my-mail-home form that I filled out before leaving the country?!? The email was sent to me and about 4 others. One of the others, I noticed, had been kicked out of school last year... which might explain why he, too, has not been in to pick up his package recently. I kindly sent an email back explaining why I have not been in to check my mail this semester, and reminding them that my mail should be sent to my house because some of it could be important. Strange thing is that I haven´t gotten an email back saying thank you for reminding us or anything. Oh well.

Other than that, life here is pretty normal. Today is Monday, which means I have two more days of class this week and then three days of finals next week. We are pretty much just finishing up everything these last few days in each class. I am excited and not so excited about the semester ending. I´m ready for the classes to be over, but the end of finals also means that everyone that is here this semester is leaving. I think I may see some of the people again, but the majority of them I probably won´t, which is sort of sad. I guess that is one thing that I´ve never learned to accept in my life... that you make friends wherever you are but that they don´t all stick with you for life. The mixing of year and semester students in the Spring will be very interesting as well.

Okay, onto other things. I have continued my list of foods that I really miss and have been craving recently. The newest addition is my mom´s hamburgers, cole slaw, and maccaroni casserole. Mmmmm.... yummy. Though my mom thinks I will be a much healthier eater after this year of very few sweets, lots of yogurt, fruits and veggies, I think I might prove her wrong within a week of being home. Meanwhile, we have some really delicious pears in our house right now, and that is enough to make me shuffle out of bed every morning and start my day.

December 1st!!

2007-12-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

It is December 1st, meaning... I GET TO START EATING THE CANDY FROM MY ADVENT CALENDAR!!!

Okay, so I´m not just excited about treating myself to a piece of chocolate every day, I just love this time of year. Though it is really different this year to be here instead of home, and really hard to think that I´ll still be here for Christmas and New Years, I still love this time of year. This is probably going to be one of the hardest Christmas´s ever, and yet I will probably remember it for the rest of my life. You know, one of the hardest parts of being here for Christmas instead of home is going to be missing the Christmas Eve service at my church, missing reading the story of Jesus´ birth with my family before we open presents Christmas morning, missing making desserts with my mom to take over to my grandparents´ house.. Okay, so I guess I´m going to miss a lot. And it will be hard. But I´ll make it through, and I get to have the awesome opportunity to experience Christmas in a new culture and to participate in the traditions and customs of my host family. This is just another step in my life to help me grow... meanwhile the chocolate pieces every day will help, because chocolate solves everything, right?

When did growing up become so hard? As much as it is amazing to see where God leads me in my life, it is hard too... I mean, I trust that He is guiding me, but I´ve never liked change. And the change never ends. Once I come home from here, I just get to deal with more change, only this time I´ll be speaking English.. Hmm.. I think I´ll try and make friends with Peter Pan so I can fly off to Neverland.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Melissa

2007-11-29T07:40:00.000-08:00

I´m pretty sure my host parents, the directors of BCA, all of the BCA students, and all of my professors think that I am chronically ill. Once again I have a cold or sinus problems or whatever... I am all stuffy and my nose won´t stop running. I can´t keep myself from sneezing, and I have a red rash under my nose from blowing it all the time. Yep, it is very pleasant. The weird thing is that I don´t really get that sick at home.. I mean, I had that really bad sinus infection last spring, but that is about it. Normally I´ll get sinus problems every once in a while, but I take psuedophedrine and everything is all better within a few hours. Here, nope, not the case. Maybe it is the constantly changing temperatures or maybe it is being at a different altitude or by the water or I have no idea... Oh well, you can all picture my red nose, which I know will make you happy, because at least I am in the spirit of Christmas, right?! Just call me Rudolph from now on.

In other news, I now only have 3 days of class left for the semester and then 3 days of exams. Next Thursday is a holiday, so we only have classes Monday through Wednesday, and then the following week I have one final on Monday, three on Tuesday, and one on Wednesday. I can´t believe that the semester is actually almost over for real! Now I just have to finish booking all my flights and hostels for January and I´ll be all set.. :-)

I also got a letter from my dad today, which made me the happiest person alive! You can picture me sitting in my room with my red nose and a tissue catching all the snot and tears coming down from my face while reading the letter. Yes, I know, such a cute picture, isn´t it?! But, for real, my dad hates talking on the phone, so he told me he would try and write me letters while I am here... and he finally did. He is super sweet... for those of you that know my dad, he is pretty quiet, but you would never know it when reading a letter from him. He even put "Dodia" on the return address of the envelope (which is a name I made up for him a long time ago, for those of you who didn´t know)!!!! Yeah, it pretty much made my entire day.

Okay, I already skipped my 10 AM class this morning because my head hurt, but I think I´m going to go back home and lay down now. Rest should make me feel better, right?

Birthdays.

2007-11-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend was fun. It was Wendy's 21st birthday and we went out to celebrate Saturday night and went out to dinner on Sunday evening. You know, I never realized how important it is to so many people to be surrounded by lots of people and parties and whatnot on their birthdays until I came to college. I guess since my birthday always falls right around our family reunion in Michigan and I've spent most of my birthdays in the car on the way to Michigan, on the way home from Michigan, or in Michigan with all of our extended family, having a celebration isn't really ever a possibility. I mean, my dad has always gone out the morning of my birthday and bought a cake with a Disney character on it for me, which is the highlight of the day every year, but that is about it. It was fun, though, to make Wendy's day special for her here in a different country, especially since she was so convinced it was not going to be a good day at all! I like doing special things to make people appreciate their special days.. :) I guess I am really appreciative that I usually get to be with my family for or around my birthday, even if I share the birthday with the history of our family, right?

On another note, I think I have decided when I will officially be coming home. I am changing my ticket to either May 9th or 10th, depending on which is better for my parents. I decided that the professors of any University courses that I want to take next semester will have to allow me to take my finals early, or I just won't take the classes. This way I will be home within 3 or 4 days after my mom's birthday and before Mother's Day and graduation at Manchester. It also allows me a short bit of time to adjust back for a week or two before starting an internship or summer job, which will hopefully be lined up before I leave Spain. Ahh... there is so much to think about. At least one decision is made!!!

Lazy Day

2007-11-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

I love lazy days full of yummy snacks, friends, useless outings, and tv in english! Thanks to my host parents for visiting family and leaving me the apartment today, I got to have one of those days... and it has been perfect. It's only Saturday, too!! That means I still have one whole day of weekend, and tomorrow I am going to eat xurros with Trisha while we hopefully get to see more traditional dances at our neighborhood festival. Tonight there was a concert of some sort, but I decided to take advantage of my empty apartment and appreciate the barrio fiestas outside tomorrow.

I counted, two weeks of classes left and then one week of final exams. Then, seven weeks of Christmas/January break for my traveling. Can you believe Christmas is only a month away?!? Now... if only I had remembered to bring Christmas music with me. I'll find a way to get some. The lack of Christmas music everywhere here has helped me to appreciate the abundance of it in every single store in the US from weeks ago until Christmas... I will most definitely have a new appreciation for it next year when I am home!

Yesterday

2007-11-23T03:22:00.000-08:00

It wasn´t as bad as I thought it might be.

Yesterday I had two classes to distract myself from the fact that it was Thanksgiving. I had class in the morning, a makeup test from when I was sick, and then went home for lunch. At lunch, I explained, once again, to my host parents what Thanksgiving was.. and I´m still not quite sure they understand. After lunch I came back to the University for another class and then returned home to get ready. We had a Thanksgiving meal with a mediterranean twist to it lastnight in a restaurant that our BCA directors arranged for us. So, I had an excuse to get all dressed up, met up with a bunch of friends and spent some time together before our dinner. Then dinner was super fun because it was the first time since orientation that most of us have been all together again. The food was... well, not my mom´s... but I got to eat turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. I think the best part was looking around and realizing what a great time everyone in the room was having... we really have made a sort of family here and it was nice to come together and celebrate by stuffing ourselves silly with the familiar flavors from home.

I did talk to my mom and Emily yesterday... I actually talked to Emily for a really long time, which is quite shocking because she hates talking on the phone. But it was really good to be able to wish them Happy Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving... and, we ate at the same time!! My mom was very excited when she told me they were eating at 3 and I told her I was too, only it would be 9 PM here... so, in a strange sort of way I ate Thanksgiving dinner with my family yesterday, only there was an ocean in between us.

It wasn´t bad, not at all... I think I can make it through all of these holidays here. It will be more challenging around Christmas, I know it, but my host parents have started to get very excited about sharing their Christmas traditions with me. So, I know that I have a family here who want me to be here... It really is strange how often I am shown that His plan works out so much better than I think it will.

Yesterday really was a good day.

Thanksgiving!!!!

2007-11-21T09:01:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!!! And I am here... and you are all there... but it is going to be okay! Because, the directors of our BCA program here know the importance of good food on a holiday that is all about eating, so we get to have a Thanksgiving meal with turkey and all the fixings tomorrow in a restaurant down the street. I am pretty excited, first of all about eating in a restaurant for free, and secondly about eating Thanksgiving food!! The last food I had that tasted like something from home was when we went to Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate the end of exams.. and it was expensive. But, turkey and stuffing and mmmmmm... Yes, I am actually mostly excited about the turkey because we really only have ham here. If you know me and my eating habits at all, I don't eat ham at home, and if I do, it is a very special occasion. Needless to say, I often eat sandwiches (called bocadillos) that my host mom makes me with only the cheese and bread because I feel bad telling her yet another meat that I won't eat. I mean... I've already knocked off fish (which my host parents eat A LOT of), most types of sausage (which is the second most common bocadillo meat), and I rarely eat steak if she makes it for me. So, I just choke down the ham if it is served at dinner and throw it away if it is sent with me on a bocadillo... but now I get to eat TURKEY!!!!!

Alright, I just realized that I have been rambling on for an entire paragraph about food. I guess that's what you get when you are a fat kid and you are being denied fat kid friends and food. (For those of you who just got offended by me calling myself a fat kid, let me explain: Being a fat kid does not mean that you think you are fat, it simply means that you enjoy eating a lot, and the types of things you enjoy eating consist of many things that have a tendency to be high in fat and sugar content. This term simply means that at home I eat ALL the time and that I have a tendency to enjoy candy and sweets and ice cream and pizza and other delicious things that are bad for me.) See, at school, my best friends are fat kids with me who are always up for a Dairy Queen run no matter how cold it is outside, and at home I sort of force my non-fatkid friends (and sisters) to be fat kids with me and eat ice cream or any other junk food I can find. Ask my little sister if you would like confirmation. My mom is actually very happy about the change of diet and my high consumption of salads and whatnot since I've been here because she thinks that I am now going to be a much healthier eater. The problem is this: I actually really enjoy fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods, but at school when I have very little money, it is much cheaper to invest in junk food, and it tastes sooooo good!!! So, much to my mother's dismay, my eating habits will not be changed forever once I return home. I am actually quite certain that they will return to their normal state very quickly in order to make up for all the lost junk food consumption time.

Okay, I realize this has been a pretty useless post. All the same, if any of you would like to send a package of candy this way... I wouldn't be too upset by that!! Again, sorry about the randomness... but then again, none of you would expect anything less!!

OH!!! And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!

An experience to remember but not to be repeated.

2007-11-19T06:33:00.000-08:00

The 24 hour or 36 hour or however many hour stomach flue or virus or whatever it is called attacked me this weekend and it was not fun at all. Remember my post about it being so cold on Friday? Well... after I left on Friday and then was coming back to take a test that afternoon, I threw up in the metro. That's right, I THREW UP IN THE METRO!!!! No, it was not a pleasant experience and is one I hope to never ever experience again. Needless to say, I didn't take that test that I was coming for and instead went back to my apartment, where I barely made it before spewing my guts all over the place once again. (Sorry for the graphic details, but it wasn't a fun thing, and I am trying to clearly paint a picture for you.) My host mom was very worried as soon as I walked back in the apartment and told me to get into bed right away.
I basically spent the next two days in my bed, excluding the few trips to the bathroom to throw up some more. My host parents even went to the farmacia to get me some medicine!! It was really sweet how they were taking care of me and fed me only food the pharmacist told them they could give me. They even turned the heat on in the apartment on the second day that I was confined to my bed! As of yesterday I was feeling much much much much much much better, but the stomach is still a bit quesy. It is for this reason I still haven't eaten much of substance, but I know I am getting better.

Besides being deathly ill all weekend, I did have a sort of fun and interesting day yesterday. All of the family came over again, this time to celebrate Ingrid's pregnancy with she and Joel!! So, we had some really delicious food (which I had a little of), some champagne (which I passed on), and these delicious cake things (which I also had a small slice of). It was interesting to see the difference between this dinner together and the first one that we had on my second day living with my host parents. I actually understood the conversation this time and could participate in some of it. It really amazes me how much the family just accepts me into it. I mean, it has got to be interesting for them to see new students come and go from their parents' house all the time, but they are great at just making me feel like I am wanted there. It is still a bit awkward at time, but after yesterday I feel like Christmas will be okay and I won't be intruding. Instead, I think they are happy I'll be there to share it with all of them.

There is also a festival in my neighborhood right now, and there were all sorts of festivities going on yesterday. Since I actually felt good enough to venture outside of my apartment, I went on a walk and saw a group of little kids and a different group of adults doing all sorts of really fun and cool traditional dances dressed in really fun outfits. There were all sorts of vendors there with products from Spain like wine and honey and other fun things. There were even rides for the kids and stuff! Now, I only stayed out for about 25 minutes, but it was a pretty fun excursion around the block. I'm hoping now that I am feeling better it will still be there so that I can get some cotton candy!! (I know, I'm a fat kid... I just can't help it!)

Okay, I'm off... Hope you all had a more pleasant weekend than I did!!

Cold and Snow

2007-11-16T02:06:00.000-08:00

Through some awesome detective skills (aka... checking people´s away messages), I have discovered that it has been snowing back at home. Yay, beautiful snow!!!! This give me mixed emotions... I mean, I love the snow and it signifies that the holidays are coming, which obviously makes me miss home and everyone there. However, in the last few weeks here, I have been FREEZING!!! It isn´t even very cold here, but I feel like the coldness here somehow effects me differently from the coldness at home. Maybe it is just the fact that my host parents don´t believe in turning the heat on in the apartment, so I sit around with 12 layers of clothing on, a hood tied tightly around my head, and gloves on my hands all the time. I honestly don´t know how I am going to handle the cold when I go home if I can´t even handle it here... what has happened to me?!? I´m not even exaggerating when I say that I put my coat on in the morning and don´t take it off until I get home in the evenings and replace it with two sweatshirts. My gloves, they pretty much stay on all the time including in all of my classes. I shivered while I slept lastnight even though I have two comfortors on my bed plus an extra blanket, and I slept in shorts, sweatpants, two shirts, and a sweatshirt. Is there something wrong with me?!?!

Alright, that´s all I have for today. I hope it warms up soon.

Catch-up time

2007-11-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

I know I haven´t done a really good job this week of writing in here. Honestly, I have been so busy with homework it has been difficult to think of anything else when I actually get to a computer. So here are my updates from the last week:

First of all, I probably will not be taking a cruise in January because the one I really wanted to go on (to Egypt and Turkey and Greece and other places) is all sold out for the cabins that I can afford. So, I am looking for other very inexpensive shorter cruises that I may be able to go on while beginning my travel plans to see a lot of Europe. My parents, I´m sure, won´t be too happy about this because they liked the idea of knowing I am on a boat and where I would be each day. They aren´t big fans of me traveling around Europe all by myself. But, they trust me and know I am capable, it just makes them feel a little uneasy. If you have any suggestions of where I should go and something to add to my itinerary, be sure to let me know!

Next, I got all of my grades back from midterms this week and my studying paid off. There was one class I wasn´t to happy with, but it looks like I will be okay with all this Spanish stuff! It´s weird that I am now teaching myself how to study after all those years of school... I just never really needed to study in high school, and now it is kicking me in the butt! I suppose it is better I learn how to study now than to wait and learn in grad school, right?!

Hmm... let´s see what else happened this past week. Well, last Thursday night we went to Hard Rock Café to celebrate being done with exams and got to eat some delicious American food. I basically eat a salad or sandwich sometimes with soup or a piece of meat for every meal here, so the pasta that I got was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed it tremendously. I really like having either a piece of fruit or yogurt for dessert, but the apple cobbler that I shared with a friend was soooooo good, I just had to have it to make up for all the calories I don´t get here!! Friday I pretty much just relaxed. On Saturday, one of my host parents´ daughters and her husband came over for lunch. As soon as I sat down, they told me that she was pregnant! This is my host parents´ youngest daughter and it is her first child. This will be the fifth grandchild! Conversation has centered around the baby pretty much since then. I think Ingrid is already in her second month, so she will be very close to having the baby by the time I leave in May, which is really exciting. Then, on Sunday, I went to the port to watch the beginning of the World Race that started in Barcelona. It is 9 sailboats that are racing around the world without stopping in 80 days... It wasn´t super exciting or anything, but the day was absolutely beautiful, which is a change from the past few weeks. I have been so cold, all the time, that I even wear my gloves in classes!! The professors think this is rather funny and usually say something about it, but that´s fine with me! Oh, random fact, if you want to say "It is cold" (english) or "hace frío" (spanish) in Catalan, you say "Fa fred." I know, it´s a pretty fun phrase. Anywho.. that was my weekend.

The next thing on my to do list is to pick classes for next semester. I have a meeting on the 28th with the director of our program to begin the registration process. So the emails to Lila (my registrar) are beginning, and I am trying to decide how many University courses I think I´ll be able to handle and if any of them really fit the classes that I need to take. It is going to be a long next couple of weeks while I´m trying to figure everything out. But, I have great advisors back at home and I´m sure it will all work out.

I´m trying to think of more exciting things that have happened this past week, but I think that is about it. Wish me luck on picking classes for next semester and for planning my January trip. Hope you´re all doing well, and I promise this time I will write again soon rather than waiting a week.

AAAHHHHH!!!!!

2007-11-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I´ve gotten that out of my system, I AM DONE WITH MIDTERMS!!! I know this doesn´t sound very exciting to any of you, but four large exams in a 25 hour time span on spanish literature, history, and grammar make you want to kill yourself. So, sorry I haven´t written in a few days. I took my last exam this morning at 10, and I can honestly tell you I might not have passed it. It was for Literatura del Siglo Oro and there were only two questions on it. One was about a passage that she pulled from the first book we read in the class and we had to reflect on it and compare it to the rest of the book. I think I might have done fine on that question. The second question, however, asked us to point out the picaresca themes in one of Miguel de Cervantes Novelas Ejemplares... but that is quite impossible because Cervantes hated novelas picarescas... he created a new genre with his short novelas... So, I just wrote anything about the book that I could and pointed out all the ways that it was not a picaresca novel. Blah...

Right, I only have to keep C´s or above to get the credit at school. At first I thought that would be no problem whatsoever, but now I´m hoping that I get at least a 5.66 on each of the exams I took, which is the lowest I can get to have a C. I won´t even begin to talk about the History exam yesterday, it was brutal. However, I will tell you about how rude my history professor was to those of us that finished the final first!! I was the third or fourth person done with my final (which was, again, another essay one). We had the option of answering one very large question about one of the reinados of Spain, or five smaller questions about random facts from the different kings. Since I only felt really comfortable with three of the five smaller questions, I decided to go with the big essay. In writing essays here, they just give you a blank sheet of computer paper and you write. I started my writing on the sheet with the questions that he gave us to save paper (I know, Manchester has drilled it into me), and the questions only took up the first two or three inches of the paper. My handwriting can probably compare to single spaced size 12 font, maybe 13. So I wrote all I could remember about los Reyes Católicos and filled the rest of the front of the sheet. I was just about done when one of my friends finished and walked up to turn in her exam. My professor immediately began to ask her if she was sure she was done because her essay was very short and she didn´t take very much time. She just said sure and walked out of the room. The same thing happened for the next girl that finished. So I reread my essay, added a few more lines of summary, and decided I wasn´t going to think of anything else (even though I knew I had forgotten some stuff) by just staring at my paper longer. So I got up and turned in my essay. Little did I know that the other two filled the front of an entirely blank sheet of paper, not just the front of the paper with the questions, so he started in immediately telling me that I probably didn´t get everything in because my essay was much too short. He kept talking until I walked all the way to the back of the room and had my hand on the door for about two minutes. Finally I just told him that´s all I had and walked out of the room, but AH!! I guess it just makes me angry because I´ve been taking exams for a long enough time in my life that I know myself, and I know just staring at the paper doesn´t help me come up with anything else. Of course I missed some things, but I know that I covered a lot of the important points in my essay, and my handwriting is much smaller than a lot of people´s , so he really couldn´t judge my essay´s length against the length of others without first taking into account the line spacing and font size. I miss computers.

Okay, so that turned out to be a much longer explanation than I´m sure any of you cared about, but welcome to my rantings. Umm, besides that, I had a talk with the directer of BCA today and told her I wasn´t going to work with the immigrant children this semester because it was too frustrating. The last three times I´ve gone the directors won´t listen to me and just try to throw me and the others in with the kids to teach them English, when they won´t give us any time to prepare lessons to teach them English. So, I may work one on one with one of the kids next semester, but seeing as there are only 5 weeks left of this semester, I´m just going to take a break and focus on my classes.

Oh, about January and my traveling, here is the update. Stacey, unfortunately, may not be able to come anymore because it is so expensive to travel to Europe from Korea. So, I am seriously considering the cruise. One of my friends here really wants to go on the cruise with me, but she doesn´t know if her ticket has already been changed to come back too late from home. The cruise leaves January 5th, and it goes to Italy, Turkey, Greece, Egypt... Ahh, so exciting!! If, however, my friend can´t go with me, I´m considering doing the cruise by myself. And, if that doesn´t happen, then I will be traveling around Europe on my own for the month. I don´t really mind the idea of traveling by myself, but my dad much prefers the idea of me being with someone on a cruise. So, if any of you will be in Europe during January, let me know and maybe I´ll be able to come visit! Remember, I have from December 14th until February 4th off!! I really need to make a decision about it this week, so as soon as I do make my decision and start making my plans, I´ll let you know.

Okay, so this is probably long enough for today. One more day of classes and then it´s weekend again!!! I am really beginning to enjoy this four days of class, three day weekend schedule. Hopefully next semester I don´t have any University courses on Fridays to mess that up.. I´ll definitely take that into consideration in the next few weeks while I´m picking classes. Alright, hope all is well at home..

I forgot

2007-11-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

So when I was blabbering on yesterday about my package, I forgot the real reason I felt like such a happy five year old yesterday... I got to watch High School Musical 2!! Yes, the dialogue was in Spanish (the songs were actually in English with Spanish subtitles), but my host mom was flipping through the channels right when it happened to be starting. She stopped and looked a little confused and then asked me if it was a movie and I explained that it was a musical and very popular with the preteen population in the US right now. So she left it on the channel and laughed at it because it is so dumb... I was sooo happy!! So, yes, I have proven once again that I am a 5 year old and I love it. Mmm... I think that´s all for today. Oh, I went out lastnight with one of my friends here and got a Strawberry Daquiri, and it was delicious! Because I am one of the officers of Facts for Life at school, I make all sorts of mocktails, strawberry daquiris being one of them. This, however tasted nothing like anything I´ve made before, probably because it is the first real one I´ve ever had. Anywho, it was just a fun night with the two of us getting a daquiri and talking for about an hour and then heading home. Very different from the usual loud group of 8 girls... fun times.

The wonders of being a 5 year old!

2007-11-02T03:43:00.000-07:00

I GOT A PACKAGE TODAY!!!!

Yes, I know, such a little thing can make me so happy... the wonders of being a 5 year old. I even knew the package was coming and exactly what was going to be inside because they were all things I asked my mom to send, but I am still SUPER excited!! Besides, it really came on Wednesday, but none of us were home, so they left this little paper thing in the box telling me to come to the post office. I, of course, would have gone yesterday, but everything was closed due to it being All Saints Day/Day of the Dead. So, I found my way all by myself to the post office in my barri (neighborhood) and got my package. Yay for gum, facewash, nail files, a Time magazine article on birth order (that one I didn´t request, my mom said she was going to send it to me and then I requested the rest), peanut m&m´s, DARK CHOCOLATE peanut m&m´s, and medicine!!!

Umm... that´s about all I´ve got for you today. Midterms are this coming week, so that should be a very pleasant experience, especially since I have yet to read one of the books in one of my lit classes that the exam is over... Oh well, I have all weekend to prepare, right? More updates and pictures to come soon.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-10-31T03:58:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!

So I thought I would be festive today and write in orange even though I´m sure it is going to look funky on my background.

Back to Halloween... I hope you all are having a fantastic day and that you eat lots of candy! Things here are actually pretty festive for All Saints Day, which is tomorrow. We don´t have classes or anything! But, the holiday tomorrow is very different from Halloween. We don´t get candy at all really, and there is much more meaning to All Saints Day. At least we get some dulces... my host mom (who thinks she is fat and never keeps anything sweet around the house) even baked some delicious little cookies and things! I´m not quite sure what I´ll be doing for my 4 day weekend... I thought about traveling, but tickets to anywhere are about two or three times as expensive this weekend than any other weekend. AND, I have midterms next week, unfortunately. So, I´ll probably just hang around here joining in on some of the festivities while taking advantage of all the time to study.

Meanwhile, there isn´t much else going on here right now. It is getting colder, but I´m sure it isn´t as cold as it is in Indiana. It´s weird to me, though, that I just can´t seem to get warm here! Every day it seems like I just go from class to class and shiver... it doesn´t even matter what shirt I wear anymore because my coat never comes off, so nobody sees it! Anywho, that´s pretty much all the excitement I have for you today. I´ll have better stories later.

And in response to some of your comments... to Nick, no, I already paid $100 and took two trips to Chicago to get my visa, the 5 euros here are to pay for the student card that they are giving me... it´s been a pretty long process that started in the beginning of July and is just now being completed, YAY!! And good luck with your French... if you decide to follow her back to France, let me know and maybe I can come meet you there!! Tanasha... yes, the leaves do change colors here too, kind of. There aren´t really too many trees for me to appreciate the changing of colors since I am in the city. This past weekend when we went up to the northern part of Spain, I saw the most green I´ve seen since leaving Noblesville! I´ll try to post pictures soon. Mike - I love you too, my lil´ bro. I am so proud of you. And to Laura: the Catalan isn´t really too difficult, but I´ve unfortunately picked up the habit of starting to pronounce some of my Spanish words the catalan way... But I will gladly teach you what I know when we get back. Btw, hows the smoking and dancing coming along?

Okay, that´s all for now. Bye!

Random Excitement...

2007-10-29T03:47:00.000-07:00

So... I am thinking about going on a cruise. WHAT?!?! I know!!! See, here´s the thing, it probably won´t happen, but for now I´m just going to be excited while I´m thinking about it. I have the whole month of January off and want to travel around Europe. Stacey is supposed to be coming here and we were going to travel together. However, we need to plan SOON if we are going to do it so that we can book our hostels and all that fun stuff. And, she and I just haven´t been having the best communication about it recently. So, I was thinking, what would help me to see a lot of different places and not have to plan so much? Right, a CRUISE!!! So, I´m just looking right now to see if there are any cheap cruises that I can talk Stacey into going on with me and another friend around Europe or the Mediterranean. Fun, huh?

Another random thing, I get to go get my student card this week from the immigration police! I already had my appointment a month ago to turn in all of my documents and get fingerprinted and stuff, but then I had to wait a month to be able to get my card. So, I´m thinking tomorrow´s agenda will include visiting the bank to pay my 5 euro fee and the immigration police to pick up my card. How exciting!

Okay, now for something weird... yesterday was kind of strange at my apartment. First off, I slept in until 10ish and took a shower. After my shower I could not get warm. I was huddled in a sweatshirt and sweatpants underneath my 3 blankets shivering for about an hour when my host mom walked in to hand me some clean clothes. (Yes, my host mom does my laundry for me, I know, AWESOME!) She asked if I was okay and I just told her I was cold, but that I was fine. Then, the buzzer rang and she was like "Oh, mi hija!" Meaning, once again, I was not informed that the family was coming over for lunch! So her daughter, husband, and two kids came for lunch and while we were eating, my host mom told everyone that I was cold. They had a long discussion about it and decided that I need to start eating breakfast because that is why I was so cold. The son-in-law also decided that I need to start drinking juice with my breakfast because it will help me a lot. So he told my host mom what to buy to make the juice that I should drink every morning. Finally, lunch ended.

I spent pretty much the rest of the day in my room just relaxing, playing war and solitaire with myself, and enjoying not doing anything since I went on a full day trip to a monastery in Girona and out to a club (until 3 AM) the day before. Here is the really awkward part... After dinner was over and we were still sitting at the table, I told my host mom that I was going out to get coffee at 10 with some friends. She then started talking to me about my classes and everything. I told her the classes were okay but that I just didn´t like the subject matter very much. Then, she told me that I was just feeling homesick and that of course I didn´t like my classes because I couldn´t understand. She went on to tell me that I don´t go out with friends enough just because I spent the whole day in the apartment! It was so strange! For about 10 minutes I was told by both my host mom and dad that I would be happier when my friend got here in January to travel with me and that I would be happier if I were to just go out more and not think about home so much. She also told me that I should take some vitamins and they would make me happier... The irony here is that I always feel guilty for spending so much time out and no time in the apartment! On the one day that I decided to just relax and not go out, it is interpreted that I am incredibly homesick!!! WEIRD! So, I guess the moral of the story is that cultural differences really do come out here at times. On the other hand, I won´t feel so bad about spending lots of time out and away from the apartment anymore!

That´s all for today... updates soon to come on the cruise!!!

Thank you.

2007-10-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. In the last few days I have recieved some emails from some of my closest friends... it is in the kind words they send that I find I can go on each day. I love hearing from home from all of the people that have touched my life over the years. Somehow, being across the ocean from all of them makes me truly realize how important every single one of them is. I know it is a sad thing that it takes me being so far away for this to hit me, but I think we all take what we have for granted every once in a while. While I was at home, I become so comfortable with who and what was around me that I didn´t realize how lucky I was to have all of them. So today is a wonderful day. I am feeling much better with no sneezes, it is the first day of my 3 day weekend, I get to go on a trip to visit a beautiful monastery tomorrow for free, and the sunshine is absolutely gorgeous outside today... I couldn´t really ask for anything more! So thank you to each and every one of you who has sent any sort of encouragement my way in the last few months. You know, the grandfather of one of the other girls in my program died this week, and she immediately left to go home for the funeral. At first I was really jealous that she had the financial ability to go home like that and that I was stuck here when my grandpa died. Then, after thinking about it, I realized that I didn´t really need to go home for the sad funeral service just to be jetlagged and way behind in schoolwork when I got back, because I had so much support from everyone at home while I was here. So thank you all for helping me to be strong while I am here. You all know how much I hate change, and yet how I tend to throw myself into unusual and continually changing situations... but you all still support me. Thank you. I love you all.

More sad news...

2007-10-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know I keep posting not so happy things up here, but I got another phone call from home earlier and my little sister told me that they had to put Grizzly, one of our 3 dogs, to sleep on Monday. For any of you that have ever been to my house, I´m sure you never forgot Grizzly, the big fat brown dog that looked like a mixture of a pig and a bear... but he was really sweet. Apparently he just got really sick in the last few weeks and there wasn´t anything more that could be done for him. This is the second one of my dogs that has died since I went to college. The first one died in the fall of my Freshman year and now Grizzly... They were both 12 or 13 when they died, so they lived good lives, but it will be very strange to go home in May and only have 2 dogs there. The other sad news is that another one of my dogs is pretty sick with arthritis and everything. He is already 13, and my mom isn´t sure that he will make it through the winter. I hope he does because I´m not sure how much more death I can deal with. So here´s to my good old Grizzly Bear...

More not so great news is I AM SICK!!! Like, I thought that I might just get over the cough and feel better, but NO! Now I have moved to nonstop sneezing (I´ve already sneezed 6 times since entering the computer lab) and a very runny nose. I think and I´m hoping this is just sinus problems due to the quick change in temperature here in Barcelona and that a couple days of psuedophedrine will solve the problem... since I only have a 3 day supply of the medicine left. At least the cough has stopped for the most part, right? The good thing is that I only have 3 classes left, one tonight and two tomorrow, and then I am done for the week. Hopefully my three day weekend will be full of plenty of rest and help me to get better.

Hmm... let´s see. I want to give you some good news... I did recieve a package last week as well as a letter from my grandma, so those were both very good things. My package was from Gould Farm, where I lived and worked two summers ago on a Pathways grant. It was a yellow tie-dyed t-shirt from Roadside Cafe, the cafe owned by the farm that I worked at every day. It made me pretty happy! And the letter from my grandma was very sweet and included a copy of my grandpa´s obituary made into a very pretty bookmark. (Oops... 7 sneezes) I also got a couple emails last week that made me very happy. So, life isn´t so bad, it is just full of getting through sicknesses and working past deaths... Hope you all are doing well!

Quick update...

2007-10-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

I went to Tarragona this weekend, which is about an hour train ride south of Barcelona. It was BEAUTIFUL!! It is known for its Roman aquaducts and amphitheater (wow... it was really hard to spell those words in English...). I have pictures, but it will take me a few days to get them posted on here since I have to do it through someone´s laptop rather than the lab ones. Anywho, we left about 9:30 Saturday morning and spent a good part of the day there, just walking around and taking pictures. It was pretty fun. Then we came back. Yep, that was about it.

Meanwhile, there isn´t really anything else going on except that it is starting to get pretty chilly here in Barca. Changing of temperatures apparently means that everyone has to get sick. This means that we have all recently begun to cough, a lot. And, since you can´t just go and easily buy some cold medicine here, it is a pain to get "pastillas" (pills), which is all our host parents can tell us to do. Every time they hear a cough, "Do you have pills?" So, I am afraid that my supply of Dayquil and Nyquil that I brought with me are soon to be depleted and I, too, will be forced to buy pastillas from the farmacia.

On a really random note, I talked to my mom this weekend, and I have decided that I shouldn´t be allowed to leave the country ever again. My mom told me that Mr. Kirk, the janitor of my preschool/kind. died last week. He was one of the nicest men I ever met in my entire life. Years after I left the school, I would go back and visit, and he still remembered my name and everything he knew about me. I was even fortunate enough once to win the raffle of our spring festival, so I got to go out to ice cream and a bookstore with Mr. Kirk. I have only ever been to Ben & Jerry´s that one time, and I still have the book that he bought me. It was called Hailstones and Halibut Bones and was a book of poetry that I must have read about 3 million times. I know that he was ready to go considering he signed a do-not-rescusitate form, but it is still sad to know that such a nice man is gone now. I think I´ll dig that book up when I get home in May...

2007-10-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

So nothing too exciting has really happened since I posted on Tuesday. However, I have had closer to 99% days since then, which is a good thing. I don´t know if I have mentioned it yet, but I am taking a Catalan class through the University on Monday and Wednesday nights. Catalan is the other language spoken in Catalunya, which is where Barcelona is located. It sounds very strange, sort of like a mixture of french, spanish, and latin? I´m not sure... anyway, my reason for telling you that I am in this class is because of something funny that happened at dinner lastnight. My host mom speaks Catalan and Castillano (Spanish), but my host dad only speaks Castillano. They know I am in this class and it makes me late to dinner on Monday and Wednesday nights. Lastnight when I came in, my host mom asked me how class went, and I said three things to her: "Em dic Melissa. Soc dels Estats Units. Estudio psicologia." Now, though this looks very similar to spanish, it sounds like "Om deek Melissa. Soak dehls Ehstots Uneets. Ehstudeeu seekulujiya." When you´ve been working on getting the spanish accent down for over a month, it is sort of difficult to forget it and pronounce things completely differently! Anyway, after I said my three basic phrases in Catalan, my host mom got so excited and couldn´t stop telling me for the next half hour that I had such great pronunciation and that she was very proud of me for learning those phrases. (Did I mention that this is after 4 classes, and all I can really say is "My name is Melissa. I am from the United States. I am studying Psychology."?!?!) Meanwhile, my host dad just looked at me like I was crazy because I was trying to learn a new language when I am not yet really great at Spanish... but, I was happy to make my host mom happy. And now, she has decided that it is a good idea to speak to me only in Catalan... which is not so much fun. Hmm, lunch today should be interesting...

1% day

2007-10-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

I don´t know what it is that makes me feel like I just want to go home sometimes. 99% of the time I am happy to be here experiencing new things and meeting new people, but there is that 1% of the time that I just miss everything that is familiar. I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss my school, I miss my professors, I miss driving my car, I miss AIM... Today, for some reason, is one of those days.

This morning I woke up in no mood to speak or even hear any Spanish, which is pretty ridiculous considering I live in Spain. BUT, I didn´t want to talk to my host parents or go to class and listen to my professors or do anything that required stretching myself. I think that is the real problem.. I have always struggled with change and clung to anything familiar. Here, it isn´t really possible not to change. Whether I want to or not, I have to think in Spanish to be able to communicate with the people I live with. I have been stretching myself since the moment I left my family at the security gates in the Detroit airport. I had to fly here alone, which is the first time I´ve ever flown alone in my life. Then, I had to find all of the BCA students in the airport in Paris and try to make friends with them since I am the only MC student in Barcelona this semester. Then, I had to start the Spanish part of living here, which has obviously been a constant stretching of myself. I know all of these things are helping me to grow, and for the most part I look at the positively. But sometimes it is hard. It is hard to deal with your grandpa´s death alone without the rest of your family. It is hard to listen to all the other groups of students from the same schools talk about people from back home that they all know when you can´t talk about people from your own school. It is hard to feel like you are a member of a family just because you have a room in their apartment and eat dinner with them every day. It is hard to get news about what is going on at home and to realize how much you are missing...

Meanwhile, I want to be here or else I could change it, couldn´t I? Or am I just doing this to prove something? To prove it to myself.. or my family.. or my friends.. or my professors? No, I am the one who decided to come, and I am the one who wants to stay. I´ll just have to live with the 1% of the time that I want to run back to my comfortable life in Indiana knowing that you will all be there for me when I return...

Construction:

2007-10-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, so outside my window they are building a new apartment building, meaning the loud construction begins at about 7:30 every morning, waking me up way before I need to get out of bed. Yesterday was a national holiday in Spain, so luckily there was no construction to wake me up and I definitely slept in. Well.. last night I didn't want to drink when we went out to this bar, so I made the mistake of drinking half of an energy drink that was leftover from one of my friend's vodka and red bull. I didn't really think anything of it.. then I came back home before 2 so I could use the metro instead of a night bus or taxi. Trisha has lovingly left her computer in my apartment this weekend because we discovered that we can get internet from here and I also need it to read some stuff for homework by Tuesday. So I was playing on the computer, then talked to my mom and dad and little sister until 4 AM!!! It was good to talk to them since I only get to about once a week or so, but I still wasn't tired when I got off the phone thanks to that half of an energy drink. I forced myself to lay down at about 4:30 and I think I finally fell asleep sometime after 5... and then the CONSTRUCTION starts at 8:00 in the morning!!! It is a Saturday, and a holiday weekend, why is there construction on a Saturday?!? I just don't understand.. so I was hoping to get a nap today, but my host parents came home from their weekend away and wanted to talk to me forever. Now, I get to look forward to another awkward lunch with their three kids, spouses, and children tomorrow... YAY!!!! (That was a very sarcastic yay considering there are 10 of them when they all come over and it is just really overwhelming.) This is the fourth weekend that I have been here (because one of them I was in Galicia and the other in London) and each weekend at least one of their children and his/her family has come over for lunch.... AHHH!

Anywho.. life is actually good right now. Since I did have the apartment to myself since Thursday morning, I've had a pretty relaxing weekend so far. Some of the girls came over Thursday night and we all hung out here, which was a lot of fun. Lastnight we went to La Fira, which is a pretty fun bar that is decorated like a carnival, so I had fun just people watching like I do most of the time when we go out. I finished reading a book that I was reading.. it was weird. And I get the unusual pleasure of using the internet from my apartment... all in all I would say I have had a great weekend and I even have one day left of it! Maybe I'll try to find a way of getting out of the family lunch tomorrow... I'll have to think about that one a bit.

Pictures

2007-10-11T05:14:00.001-07:00

Fun telephone booth... :)

There were statue people all over the place, and this guy looked like the real Captian Jack Sparrow!!!

Parliament from across the river!! Our hostel was about a 10 minute walk from here.

Yes, my entire goal of going to London was to see Platform 9 3/4... I know I am a nerd, but I LOVED it!!!

I don't have enough time to really write much right now, so I just posted a few pictures from my trip to London and I'll try to write more either tomorrow or Monday... Hope you enjoy!

Since I´ve been here:

2007-10-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I know that I´ve talked to or written most of you so far about my time here in Spain. However, I know there are others that I haven´t talked to at all. So, I am going to give you all a quick update on everything I´ve done here in Spain over the last month.

My plane flew out of Detroit on the evening of September 2nd. I spent the night before and the whole day with my aunt, cousin, her husband, their three kids, and her dad, stepmom, and half sister on a lake in Michigan. Since I usually only get to see all of my family twice a year, it was fun to see them to make up for not seeing them this coming Christmas. We went tubing and swimming and stayed up late playing cards and it was really fun. My mom and sisters were with me, and my dad drove up in the morning to meet us so he could go to the airport too. At the airport, it was really hard to say goodbye for 8 or 9 months to my family. I managed, though, and only cried a bit on the flight to Paris.

Once in Paris, I met up with a lot of the other BCA students and after a 4 hour layover, we flew to Spain. Our first week here in Spain was actually spent in Castelldefels, which is on the outskirts of Barcelona. We were in a hotel and had a language class and a conversation class every day. It was an interesting and long week. At the end of the week, we loaded up all our luggage and headed into the center of Barcelona where we waited at a hotel for a few hours to meet our host families. Let me tell you, that was one of the scariest moments of my life!!! All I kept thinking was "I want to go home... I can´t communicate with them... What if they don´t like me?" Finally, after about a 3 hour wait, my host mom came to pick me up. We chatted for a few minutes there at the hotel and then left to head to my new home. My host family is actually just a couple who have three grown children. All three of their kids are married and have children of their own. My third day at the house (which is actually an apartment) all of the kids and grandchildren came over... which was more scary than fun. But I survived the meal and retreated to my room quickly afterwards.

We moved in with our host families on a Friday. The next week, we continued our conversation and grammar classes at the university in the city while also beginning a History of Art class. We had 3 days of class the following week and then took a trip to Santiago de Compestela in Galicia to finish up our Art History course. The trip was fun, but also somewhat boring because I had already learned so much in ETA about the art and whatnot that I felt it was very repetitious. The day after we got back from Galicia, we started our real classes for the semester. We had a final that Friday over the Art History Pre-semester course and another final the next Friday over the Grammar part of the Pre-semester course. Unfortunately (I know some of you know this), I received a phone call from my mom on the first day of classes to let me know that my grandpa (my dad´s dad) had died the previous day. This wasn´t really the greatest way to start out my semester, and it distracted me quite a bit from studying for the two finals, but I had a lot of support from my host parents, friends that I´ve made here, and Maika (the director of BCA).

Since then, I´ve talked to my mom a few times and feel like I am doing pretty well with my grandpa´s death. I still don´t think it will be real to me until I go back to Michigan and he isn´t there. Meanwhile, I´m trying to do the best I can here. I feel like my language skills have gotten better and hope that they really continue to do so. My host mom keeps telling me that I speak very well, so that is encouraging.

Besides classes, I´ve kept busy with all of the fiestas here in Barcelona! In our first month here, we have already had 2 holidays (meaning there were no classes on those days and lots of fiestas), one of which was the Dia de la Merced (one of the biggest celebrations in Barcelona). I went out with a few of the girls studying here from Elizabethtown who live down the street from me and we had a good time with all of the concerts and parades. There is another holiday this coming Friday, but I already have no classes on Fridays, so it isn´t too exciting. The exciting thing about this weekend is that my host parents are taking a trip, so I have the apartment to myself for 2 whole days!

Okay... so I think that about sums up my life since I´ve been here. Besides London, which I will be posting pictures from in a bit. I´ll write more about that trip in the next entry since this has already turned into a novel... Meanwhile, I hope you are all doing well and can´t wait to hear from you!

Excitement!

2007-10-04T03:24:00.000-07:00

I´m going to London. Some of you know this, I think, but a lot don´t. I leave tonight for London and I´ll come back late Sunday night. I´m going with Emily, Wendy, and Trisha and don´t know what exactly we´ll do while we are there, but I KNOW I will be visiting platform 9 3/4!!! I am pretty easy to please... give me either Disney or Harry Potter and some food and I will be a happy camper. It should be exciting to find my way to the airport though since Wendy and Trisha left lastnight, Emily and I are going together tonight. I´m hoping we get to the airport alright and then easily find our hostel once we get there... if not, it should make for a good story!! Hmm, that´s about it for me right now. I´ll hopefully have good pictures and stories to post once I get back.

I did it!

2007-10-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided that I suck at trying to write emails and send them out to everyone. After considering my other options, I have decided to try this whole blog thing. I know I probably won´t write in it every day, but I´m sure I´ll do better with this than emailing... and then everyone can choose whether or not they want to read about my life here in Spain. Meanwhile, it will take me some time to figure out this whole thing, so have patience. Okay, so that´s it for now... I´m going to try and see what else I can do with this...