tanning outside in februrary= a dream come true

Yikes, I haven’t written in a while.

Lots has been going on and school just started yesterday.

Leah’s 22^nd birthday was a few days ago and all of us girls pitched in a bought her a flower, a scarf, a new shirt/vest outfit, and some wine. We went out to this Mexican restaurant and then headed to the bars to help her celebrate. Along the way to a new bar we ran into some other Americans from a different program and a few of their Spanish friends. Randomly one of the guys we met goes to KU and knows a bunch of my sister’s friends from living in the dorms. SMALL WORLD. One of the Spaniards, Fran (I think his name is Francisco, but he goes by fran, fron, and frank) was really cool too and invited us to hang out and party in his dorm whenever. He also plays basketball for the University of Granada, so hopefully I can go watch him one of these days.

I got my other class time and its from 1-2:30 on M, W so I have class from 10-2:30 those days and then I’m done. But, on Wednesdays, I’m going to volunteer at an elementary school from 4-6 and sing and dance and play games with the kids!

the babies are the cutest things EVER here. i'm sure the moms get worried because i literally stalk the children.

I just got home from classes today because I decided to wander around the city a little bit. It’s like 65 or 70 here and it feels way hotter because the sun is SO bright. Yesterday I went and laid out on our roof with some jorts (jean shorts, mom) and a tanktop on that I rolled up. So laying out on February 11 is pretty incredible. I think I will do it again today because I think it’s even hotter. I just need to buy some sunscreen because our roof seems like I am laying about 20 feet from the sun.

We have been going out most nights and last night our program paid for our admission into a movie theatre to see a Spanish film. It was the oddest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was about a love triangle, but this quickly turned into a threesome involving a married a couple and the man she was still in love with from before. Our program director loved it, I guess things are a little different in Spain. Afterwards we went to the bar where my friend Fran works and spent most of our night there. And of course afterwards I got my kabob, along with Grayson. This is the best way to end every night, I am convinced. I have decided it tastes like a mixture between a pita pit, a chipotle, and a t-bell. I don’t know how anyone could resist this.

Everywhere you walk at night there are people handing out flyers for free beers/shots/sangria/mojitos (dad, I know you love mojitos..), ANYTHING, basically. Bar promoters even stand outside the only exit of our school to hand them out. I feel like through the 4 of my really good friends here, we know the majority of bartenders and they know us. This really helps cut costs most nights, thankfully! And if we don’t know the bartender, we know most of the promoters, so this also helps.

API took us to the Albacin the other day on a tour. It ended up being a 2 and a half hour walking tour. Had I known this, I probably would not have stayed out as late the night before. Molly was in my group (as always) and our friend Erick was too. It was one of the best tours being with those 2 because they are both hilarious. Erick is Puerto Rican and Latino I think and he is about as sassy as it gets. He is also from the east coast, so he is absolutely ridiculous and I am never not laughing around him. Sometimes we would have to step aside and out of earshot of the tour guide because we would be in hysterics. The tour was really pretty though. It took us into the Sacramonte which are the caves that all the gypsies live in now. There was also an awesome lookout point where you could see the Alhambra and the entire city. I videoed 2 guys playing their guitars and singing who were probably about 40. It was 5 at night and these two men were DRUNK. A huge crowd formed around them and watched them play, but one of the guys was absolutely hammered and missing about half his teeth. Most of my enjoyment came from watching this guy be out of control.

I think my friends and I are going to go to a hookah bar soon since they are all over, so I’m pretty excited for that. After this weekend I am going to Rome with my program, and then the next weekend is the Carnival in Cadiz. I can’t remember if I have written about this yet. What it is is a bus that leaves at 10 am on a Saturday and drives about 50 or so people to Cadiz (about 3 hours away, right on the coast) and everyone wears costumes and attends the carnival which is the 3^rd largest in the WORLD. You party all night and at 6:30 am the next day you get back on the bus and get taken home. I cannot wait. Molly is going as spiderman, she is really mature. Grayson has fortunately already painted one of her friends faces as spiderman, so she very kindly volunteered to help Molly out. I am not sure what I will be, but whatever it is, it has to be better than Molly’s (my only goal).

After Rome weekend and Cadiz weekend I am going to BARCELONA! Katie, my friend from school is studying there and Tara, my roommate in Minnesota, who is in Milan right now, is coming too! We are going to have a nice Minnesota reunion there, I cannot wait. Sara is supposed to be coming too, but I don’t know if she has booked her flight yet. Round trip it only costs 29 Euro, INCREDIBLE. We will all stay in a hostel together and I will be living out of my backpack. YIKES. After Barcelona I think I might have a weekend off, but after that we go to Sevilla with our program. Lots of traveling!

I went to the grocery store today because sometimes I cannot eat the food they serve us at the resi. The other day we were given salmon with ALL of the skin still on it and with tons of little bones in it.. Needless to say I was gagging. Mine was also brown, while other people had pink salmon, I basically wanted to die. They also sometimes fry fish with the skin still on them. So they serve us breaded fish where you can see the SKIN through the bread. I literally want to vomit at this. Usually we at least have a salad to save us if the rest is inedible. The other day we were served a soup that tasted like fire. Yes, fire. It was like eating a bonfire.

So I picked up some turkey and cheese (since we are always given bread) to make food incase the food is too bad to eat from now on. Shopping in the supermarket proved difficult as well. They have fish with their eyes staring at you EVERYWHERE and it reeks. I was holding my nose walking through some of the aisles. Also, sometimes the fish are just cut open and their guts are presented to you, as if that looks good to anyone. There are also pig legs hanging EVERYWHERE. Not just supermarkets, but restaurants too. They still have their HOOVES and the hair on them. It is vile (Grayson abuses this word since she is a vegetarian, so now I do too). But now I’m off to lunch…a daily adventure.