I'm HOME!!!!

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

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

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.

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...

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"

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!!

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

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

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.

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...

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

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

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..

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

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...

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...

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!

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!