Rudolph the Red Nosed Melissa

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.

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

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

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!!!!

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.

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

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

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!!!!!

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

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!

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.