One month later...

Good afternoon readers...

I"ve been home for exactly a month now and I still don't really know what to think. I don't really think I miss Seville yet. Strange huh... I think it's because I got home a month ago and I really havne't stopped moving since. I've been working a lot and trying to catch up with people. Trying to recooperate the bank accounts after their hard hit in Spain. It is kinda different to look at my accounts online and now instead of seeing a currency conversion fee and addresses from all over Europe, I see ATM withdrawls from Urbandale and Waukee. Asi es la vida... you know... my card just isn't international anymore.

So yeah, work is good. I've started my internship at Principal here in DSM. I am working as an IT Business Analyst. It's very hard to explain so ask me at the 4th if you are unsure. Basically I translate business speak into developer speak to try to fix problems. I'm the middle man I guess you could say. It's been fun, challenging, and tiring. But all together worth it. I'm also still working at the course which we now lovingly call "the Sugar Shack." Although there are certain people in the city of Waukee I'd like to punch, it's still one of my favorite places at home. And although I'm not working at HyVee anymore, I go in periodically to check in with everyone and say hello. They seem appreciative. Everything except the fact that they are working and I am not. Owell... I like having weekends off most of the time.

As for the boy, he's good. Still a dork but good. He doesn't have access to the blog yet and he does know I call him a dork. So it's all good! He's met the fam and I've met his fam and all is good. He's spending the summer doing research at St. Olaf. He's working on some project but his professor lost the grant that was supposed to fund their summer so now he's doing minimal tasks because there isn't any money to do something better. He's still content though. I would be too... he get to play in a lab all day getting paid for 8 hours when he really does maybe 6 a day. His life is rough... The distance is different but really... I kinda like it... I'm not as dependent on him and he isn't dependent on me. We're both content living our lives and being with eachother when we can. So... buttons on your underwear... hopefully things will work out... for once!

Other than that, life is pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at the 4th celebration. I may or may not have more pictures... just ask anything if you want to know more.

See you soon!

¿Speakenzie English?

So that is most definitely not spelled correctly but you will soon get the point! Hello out there blog readers... I know it´s been awhile since I´ve blogged... I´ve been busy! But I don´t have anything to do now that I finally finished my paper. Yes mom and dad... I FINISHED it!

So... About a 2 weeks ago my cousin from up north, Jennifer came to Sevilla to visit me. Let me tell ya... that first day was rough! I´m sure it was worse for Jen and she didn´t speak the language and had no idea where she was. At least when I was dropped here I spoke the language! Anyway... in the middle of my business language class I received a call from a frenzied Jennifer who couldn´t get on the bus because it was too full and didn´t really know what to do. I was trying to help her out when we got cut off. I returned to class and explained to my prof that my cousin was stuck at the airport and didn´t speak spanish nor did she have a cell. Hehe... she laughed. And wished me luck in finding my cousin.

About 2 hours later, after an hour of waiting in the lobby of Jen´s hotel making friends with the awkward man behind the desk, Jen finally arrived and was never so happy to see me! She got situated in her room and then we headed out for some lunch. I took her to the italian place right by school I had eaten at before and we enjoyed some good food. Then I had to go back and study for a crappy test and Jen was off to explore. Ask her about her trip thru the barrio and the old guy she ran into twice. It was be more than hilarious. Let´s just say she got lost and it took her a few hours to get out. After I was done with class we went for dinner and then called it a night. She was exhausted and I was tired!

On Thursday I went to class and Jen went exploring. Then I took her home for some spanish cuisine. My señora cooked tortilla and pureed vegetables. It was actually a very tasty vegetarian meal. Then I had more class and a test and then we came back for dinner. Then, at 12:15 AM we took off for the bus station to board our bus to Madrid to catch our plane to Munich. A little over 7 hours later we had arrived in Madrid at the bus station and taken the metro to the airport. There we got a little lost, it´s a huge airport... ask my sister! And we got on our plane to Munich. Turns out there was a wind advisory and we weren´t able to take off for about 2 hours. Didn´t matter... I slept the whole time, including air time and landing. We got to Munich a few hours later and tried to figure out just how we were going to get to our hotel. Lets just say... I wish I knew more german than... Speakenzie English? Either way... it was helpful to know how to say "do you speak english" because neither of us knew a lick of german! We traveled around on the metro system to see the glockenspiel... so cool... and one of our biggest landmarks. Then we went to the English Gardens for dinner. Dinner consisted of a very large, very tasty beer, and a pretzel! Equally large and equally tasty! It was an amazing dinner. So amazing that we went back on Saturday for the same thing! Friday we called it an early night and went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and wandered the city. On foot this time. The metro was expensive! We went to some of the bigger churches and then had lunch at the Haufbrau Haus. Here... was an even larger, even tastier dark beer, and some soup. Yum yum! Lunch of champions! After a litre of bier, the afternoon was a little more interesting for awhile! We went up the fromekirche (sp?) dome and St. Peter´s church which was rediculous! It was a crapload of stairs. And by stairs I mean extremely narrow and extremely steep. And lots of them! Either way it was worth it... The views from the tops of these churches were breath taking. We could see the snow-covered alps and everything. I feel in love with Munich then and there. Ok... it might have had a little more to do with the bier and pretzels but whatever! After all that, we went back to the English Gardens for dinner and then walked an hour back to our Hotel. Earlier that day we went to the big open air market where some other tourist made fun of me for pronouncing one of the street names something to the effect of schlopengoober. Or something of that nature. You know... nothing remotely close to what the actual name was! I forgot to mention that I didn´t know what the metro system was called in Germany so I called it the goober. After a few times Jen picked it up and that is what it was known as.

Sunday morning we took the goober out Daucau (sp?) the old nazi concentration camp. It is very hard for me to descibe this experience because it was very hard for me to be there. I saw where prisoners lived, and slept, and worked, and even the gas chambers and incinerators where a lot of them lost their lives. As I walked around in awe, realizing that because of the nature of my geneology, being Blonde with blue eyes and being a christian, I would have been saved. I would have been saved because I was "perfect" according to Hitler. Both Jen and I had a very unsettling feeling after being there but we were both glad we got to experience it. After seeing so many historical monuments in Europe I´ve realized so much about myself and history. I had always read about concentration camps, or bull fights, or gold routes and trade, and the fight between the moors and the christians, and romans and all their influence, but I never realized just how important all those things were until I´ve seen them with my own eyes. Absolutely incredible...

Anyway... sorry this was brief. I gotta run to class! Hope everything is still going well. 24 days!!

Love ya,
the bloned

Love Rome, Hate the Romans!

So... it´s been a few weeks since I was in Rome... but trust me... it´s still on my mind. I´m officially convinced that everyone needs to go to Rome once in their life. Especially if they are studying abroad and are this close to where some of the most important and influential times and events took place in history. Amazing...

So to start things off, we had to sleep on the cold, hard floor in the Madrid airport for about 4 hours before our flight left early Friday morning. We had to take the 8:00 bus from Sevilla to Madrid because the midnight bus was cutting it WAY too closely. Needless to say... I didn´t get much sleep before I went to Rome. On Friday we checked into our hostel and left to venture the city. After lunch of course. On Friday we saw the collesseum. Oh... my... goodness! The architectre, the history, the massiveness... we ended up paying for a tour... the tour of the collesseum was pretty crappy but it paid off. We got a free tour of the Palantine Hill after the Collesseum with an amazing girl from Austrailia. Like she said, she loves Rome, but HATES Romans... we all felt the same after our time there. She was amazing. Funny, nice, and very informative. She really knew her stuff. At the Palantine hill we saw the Roman Forum, the remains of where every Roman emperor lived, walked down the street that all Roman soldiers walk down before battle, saw where they left Cesar to burn on a rock for a week, and so much more. I have pictures... but flickr is dumm.

Friday evening we went back to our room and took showers and dressed for dinner. We went to this cute little place aroudn the corner from our Hostel where we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. I had the most amazing pesto pasta I have ever had. And some authentic Bruschetta (sp?). Later we went to see the Trevi fountain at night. Qué bonita! It was so pretty. We took the traditional throwing coins over your shoulder pictures and lots more. Then we went to the little place across the street for some gelato. Here is where my night got hilarious! So the gelato man was hitting on all three of us as we entered. Well he ended up helping me with my Maxi! cone of Gelato which was delicious! I wanted Banana ice cream because it is my favorite. Gelato man proceeded to ask me if I wanted big banana or little banana. At first I just looked at him and didn´t respond... then I started laughing histerically at which point he realized what he said and laughed too. And then he asked me again if I prefered big banana or little banana. Of course I said big banana because it is my favorite and of course he had a huge smile on his face and gave me a high five. It was probably the funniest thing that had happend that day. Didn´t help that I was real tired by this point. Friday was good, long, but good.

Saturday morning, after falling asleep and waking up in the EXACT same position (sweatshirt over me head and all which NEVER happens), we got up to meet our favorite tour guide for a tour of the Vatican City. Holy crap... it was gorgeous! They said that if you were to look at all the art in the public collecion for one minute each piece, you´d be in the Vatican for over 8 weeks. If you were to do the same for the private and public collections together, you´d be there for over 12 years! How sweet is that! I got to see the Sistine Chapel and all of Michaelangelo´s work. There just aren´t words to describe some of the things that I saw there. And St. Peter´s Basilica... seriously... I´ve never seen anything that big and magnificent in my life! The lifesize statue of Mary holding a dying Jesus almost brought me to tears it was so beautiful. The marble in the place, the entire Vatican really, was just incredible. I saw the largest bathtub I´ve ever seen in my life! It was so cool! And made out of really expensive marble... it belonged to a king... go figure! I guess I gotta become royalty to have a bathtub that big! The Vatican was sweet and everything we did on Saturday was well worth it. After the Vatican we had lunch and went back to see the Trevi during the day. Definitely way cooler at night but it was well worth it to see it during the day too. Highly reccommended. So of course... since we were back by the trevi, we went back to the gelato place where gelato man was oh so excited to see me! Again, I got Banana gelato and I got lots of strange questions from him and the other guy. Then... gelato man kissed me! Kissed me! It was so funny. Him and the other gelato man were in a competition to give Amy and I more ice cream and decorations for our cones. Finally I won when gelato man put two heart shaped cookies in my cone and said, "one heart is mine, and one is yours... we will be together forever." Yeah... then gelato man asked me out for a drink in which I replied I had to stay with my friends. I was wearing my rings and he said oh... you have boyfriend... which is what I normally say to avoid europeans, but he said he didn´t care, he had a girlfriend too and we would just have a drink and talk. Yeah... I don´t think so! But it was hilarious none the less. Amazing!

That´s pretty much all of Rome... it was so cool. I can´t believe I got to see it. Really.... London and Rome go up there on my list of favorite places. I could´ve spent weeks in both places. Seriously... if you ever get the chance... go to Rome... go to London! It´s well worth the trip. More when I can... Hope all is well...

Te amo,
Grande

Lo Siento Poozie

Alrighty... I know I´ve been extremely behind here. But I was without internet for an entire week! I lived. It was actually quite nice! Anyway... during that week a lot went down!



For starter... MY POOZIE CAME TO SEE ME! We had so much fun. You should see some of the pictures we took together. We looked goooood. What can I say, it´s kinda hard to take pictures together when you are traveling in a pair. I took Pooz to the Palace in Madrid which was a favorite of ours when Mom and I were here the first time. She loved it! I believe we will be stealing a few of the chandeliers to put up in our homes when we grow up. We also went to the Prado and looked around and the Botanical Gardens as well. And of course... we went shopping! Pooz bought some sweet shoes and I am VERY jealous! But... she can pull them off better than I can. Our hostal in Madrid was... interesting so to speak. I´m pretty sure it was run by a male gay couple and one of their female friends. It was on the 4th floor of an apartment building in this little street off Calle Gran Vía. It had the worlds SMALLEST shower. In which the two big Americans couldn´t put our arms on our heads to scrub in the shampoo. Somehow we managed... I think Poozies ways of doing this were more entertaining than mine! We wandered and shopped and looked and everything for two days. We were exhausted! Another strange characteristic to note was the amount of Asian influenced restaurants and stores in our area. I was starting to wonder what would happen if you mixed and Asian and a Spainaird. I found out on Monday night when I got hit by a ball kicked by one and she looked scared to death! so funny... anyway... it was an interesting neighborhood...



On Wednesday we got up at the crack of dawn to catch our flight back to Sevilla. We got here and of course... in the city where it NEVER rains... it was raining! Que mala suerte! It rained on and off on Wednesday and Thursday but we still managed to see some cool things. I took Sarah up the tower of the Cathedral that I climbed a few weeks ago. Her reactions were the same as mine. It was so cool! By now I have my pictures up so you can see the views we had from the top. So beautiful. Then we went to the Plaza de España. I had never been there and so I decided I was using Sarah as my excuse to go. It was amazing! It was gorgeous even after it had been raining all week. I have to go back. Perhaps when Jennifer is here. Otherwise some afternoon I decide not to siesta... ha... that´s got a snowball´s chance in hell of happening!

My Poozie left me early Friday morning. Mommy said I would cry... As I sat their staring at the clock waiting for it to be time to leave I kept hearing her voice in my head telling me I was going to cry and it was going to be hard. I was fighting it so bad and surprisingly I held it together while Pooz was still with me. Trust me pooz... as soon and I turned around I was crying... I stood in the parking lot waiting for the bus and cried. It was depressing. I was mostly ticked that mom was right! Thanks Mommy... I hear your voice in my head half way around the world!

After Pooz left I went home and packed my bags again. I headed down to Malaga with my roommate Dani and my friend Amy. We were staying in a 4 star hotel becuase it was a vacation week and ALL the cheap ones were booked. It was a double with 2 huge twin beds and a couch so it didn´t really matter. We all had a place to sleep and it was cheaper than a hostel when you divided it between 3 people. It was pretty amazing! We laid on the beach for a little bit and then had dinner and called it an early night. We got up the next morning and went to the beach. It was GORGEOUS! The Meditteranean is so blue! After some lunch and some beach we got back on the train and headed home. It was a good way to end the weekend. Very relaxing...

On Sunday we got up WAY early to go see a paso. It was Semana Santa here, right before Easter, which is actually a bigger deal in the states. Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday are more important here than Easter itself. Anyway... all week the city was FULL of Sevillanos and visitors here to see the pasos. The pasos were big parades basically where each church in the area took their most prized alter out of their church and carried it around the city. There were also what I like to call the rainbow KKK. Now I´m sure that sounds funny to you all but ask Pooz... they are kinda creepy. Here they are called Nazarenes and they are actually like the Easter Bunny to kids here. They hand out candy and little gifts to children. They are really a holy symbol in the Catholic church which sucks because we, as Americans, associate pointy hats and full body masks and capes with death and hatred. Whereas here they are celebrated for completely different reasons. The reason I refer to them as the Rainbow KKK is that they come in multiple different colors to include: red, white, purple, black, blue, etc. It was an experience but I´m glad the city has calmed down a bit.

Anyway... that was my week with Pooz. I had a cold ham sandwich for Easter dinner. My family here went to be with their family so she made us sandwiches... yummy... so please don´t tell me about all the delicious things you ate over Easter!

Love ya,
Grande

My roommate licks her food too!

IT´S NOT JUST ME AND MOM!! Sorry to those of you who have NO idea what I am talking about. However, to my family you should know that I discovered this the other night and just about fell out of my chair laughing. She was seriously confused! Anyway... there are other food lickers out there too! We are not alone mommy!

So in other news... there are SIX different languages being spoken in our house right now. Currently Aimee and I live with 2 15 year old girls from Canada who speak/whisper french ALL the time and it´s really annoying when they get up 2 hours before I have to! Dani lives with 2 15 year old boys from Italy who want to be American adults and listen to heavy metal. There are 3 18/19 year old boys from Norway living in Carmen and Pepe´s room who speek norweigan (sp?) and english. Funny how europeans don´t really get my humor. The one with very pretty blue eyes asked me if I was from Canada. As I laughed and told him I was from the states he looked slightly confused. Then I told him that I should be from his country and looked even more confused... I told him we could be brother and sister... you know... blonde hair, blue eyes... he didn´t get it... I thought it was funny... And then of course there is Ronaldo. Ronaldo is the 29 year old deaf man who lives in our old room and we barely see him. Which is good... because he´s kinda creepy and we really don´t care for him all that much. Then of course there is Sara, Carmen and Pepe´s niece who goes to the University of Sevilla and lives with us during the week. So... count that up! That´s a TON of people! I am sharing my bathroom with 11 people right now... I haven´t done that since I was a freshman in college and even then per toilet there weren´t that many people! Ay... it´s just for a few weeks... I can handle this... I hope...

In a lot better news... I went to LONDON! And it was AMAZING! We had so much fun despite the weather and all. It was definitely a HUGE difference between Sevilla and London. I actually wore a coat and mittens for the first time in over a month. I´ve been trying to load pictures all week but I have really crappy internet which doesn´t make me all that happy. Owell... makes me miss my computer less since I don´t have internet that works anyway. So we took the 1:00 AM bus to Madrid from Sevilla, about 6 hours, and then took the metro for an hour to get to the Madrid airport to get on our flight to London. We got into london around 3:00 and checked out our hostal and then ate because we were STARVING! I had a bacon cheeseburger... it was fantastic! Don´t worry... I had the traditional fish and chips the next night with my half pint of english beer. I still prefer others... That night we looked around the city at night. Walked down by the river and saw the London Tower and the Tower Bridge. My friend Amy has a ¨crush¨so to sepak on Big Ben and she seriously has probably 50 pictures of the thing! Ok... so it is pretty sweet that the subway dumped us out right at the base of it and it was sweet all lit up. It was so gorgeous! You should have seen the look on Amy´s face when she realized where she was. All she had been taking about for the week before was how excited she was to see Big Ben. Her look was a mix between pleasantly high and euphoric. Like a little kid on Christmas. Anyway... I can´t tell you house beautiful everything was. On Friday we got up and trecked across Hyde park to get to our Hotel for that night... which was amazing and had a shower and everything and only cost 2 more pounds than the hostal. Anyway... went back and saw Buckingham, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul´s, Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare´s Globe, walked up Picidilly and through St. James park, and so much more! I can´t even tell you how much we did. It was awesome. I´m go glad I got to go. We were so tired when we got back to Sevilla on Sunday morning at 6:30! Took the midnight bus from Madrid back to Sevilla. Then I got home and my señora had torn apart my room and I couldn´t find anything and I had no sheets. I was so tired! I was slightly irritated and then I remembered that she has A LOT going on right now so I forgave her. Slept most of the day Sunday. It was a good weekend!

Overall, I´d say that I am still loving it here. Every day I´m continuously happy that I got to be here. I learned the other day that the neighborhood I live in is not only the richest but also has the most bars than any other in Sevilla. Anyway... still in love... still missing home... I´m trying to convince my parents to bring the gatos to the airport when they come to get me. Also trying to get my sister to sneak them in her suitcase! Somebody webcam me from my house so I can see the gatos! P.S. Mom and Dad... I´ll email tomorrow to set up a time for Sunday... probably afternoon... sorry daddy...

Te amo y te extraño!
Love you and Miss you!

the bloned

I pay for internet here!

Hola friends and family!

So today started out well... I got to sleep in because I don´t have class until 1:00 in the afternoons now. Slept til 9:15, had a leisurely breakfast with Dani. Took a shower BEFORE class which was amazing! And then walked to school with Dani to blog and work on my Wartburg schedule for next year. Upon arriving at the school... I went straight for my favorite computer room only to find that the internet was NOT working as it was promised to when I originally signed up for this program! Yeah... how exciting! Not... So... I walked back down the street I walk every day and now I am paying to use the internet because the network at the school here is about 20 years behind any other network I´ve worked with! So... there´s my little rant for the day.

Also, woke up at 5:00 this morning and couldn´t breathe and my throat hurt. Laid in bed thinking to myself that most of you were probably still awake either watching the Oscars or doing homework because it´s only 10:00 your time for most of you. Anyway... still can´t breathe and still have a sore throath. My roommate pointed out that it is probably due to the fact that I wandered around ALL day and ALL night on Saturday in the rain. Stupid rain! Altho I shouldn´t complain because the sun is shining and it´s 70 degrees here. Sorry for all of you surrounded by snow!

Anyway... so now I´m at an internet cafe paying for my internet and I can´t access anything from wartburg.edu so I can´t work on my schedule anyway... grrr.... My good morning is turning out to be crap! Um yes... so let´s just go with something new then!

On Saturday I got up really early and went to catch the bus to take me to Jerez and Arcos. Jerez is where the Gonzales Byass winery is that makes Tio Pepe wine, one of the most sought after wines internationally, and some other stuff here. It was kind of interesting and of course we got to take a taste of the Famous Tip Pepe Jerez which Jerez means Sherry. It was kind of interesting and I have some good Pictures. Then we went to another small town and saw half of a horse show. It was pretty good. Not my favorite but whatever. I thought that we were going to get to ride horses but no... they lied! Um then we went to Arcos where it was still raining! Most of us went into a bar and had lunch and of course becasue it was siesta everything was closed and there was NO ONE on the streets! Arcos is a ¨white town¨because all the houses are white and it´s built into the side of a mountain. It would have been gorgeous if it hadn´t been raining. Owell... It was still ok.

This week I have three days of class and then I go to London! I´m so excited! I know it´s going to be super expensive tho... owell... the money train is slowing significantly because I have booked so many trips on my card which means I´ve spent a lot of money so far I just haven´t received any of the benefits yet! I will send out more pictures after my London trip. Those should be a little more interesting!

Let´s see what else... um... Not a whole lot going on really... if I¨m home on Sunday I just hang around the house and do nothing because everything is closed. I met up with some friends for a coffee last night and we spent probably 3 hours talking. It was a good way to kill some time and get out of the house for awhile. Other than that, nothing really went on this weekend. And because it´s the first day of the semester I don´t really have anything going class wise either. Owell... life is life! And I´m thouroughly (sp?) enjoying it here! Sunday´s get a little boring because we can´t do anything... but that´s when I sleep the most or read. It´s not a bad life. Just sucks when it´s raining because then I can´t even go to the park! Yikes!

So my friend Zach will be here next week and I´m so excited for that! And in exactly 3 weeks poozie and I will be in Madrid starting our adventure! I can´t wait! The entire family called me last night from a program that runs through the computer. It was good to talk to them all. So confusing tho because Pooz and Mom have very similar sounding voices here epecially over the computer! Well... I should probably head back to the school. I´m sure I can find someone to talk to... Hasta luego!

Love ya,
Alyssa

Estoy tarde... Yo Sé...

Hola! I know it´s been awhile since I´ve written. I´ve been very busy and it´s a half hour commute on foot to get to a computer. I just sent out a link to the pictures I uploaded. Let me know if you don´t get it and I´ll forward it to you! Um... This is going to be random and kinda long I´m sure... so here goes....

This is what I have eaten since I have been here:

Paella con mariscos - The national dish of rice with veggies and seafood YUM!
Soup with Beans - In various different forms...
Soup a la puré - something the color of the outside of a lime blended into soup!
Soup with fidejos - soup with noodles
Soup a la chicken broth and maccaroni noodles - I mean just that!
Hamburger - litteraly, a HAM burger!
Hamburger - with beef
Bocadillos - Like a hot ham and cheese sandwich... one of my favorites here!
Sardines - I would just like to state that fresh sardines are good... however... you should all know that I was given a plate with 4 WHOLE sardines on it and told to pry them apart and tear out the espinas (spines) and pick the meat off the skin. You should all be so proud of me! It took me a lot but I did it!!!
Ensalada - plain lettuce
Ensalada - plain lettuce with salt
Ensalada - lettuce with salt and vinagre
Ensalada - lettuce with salt and olive oil
Fried ham patti - two pieces of ham with cheese in the middle breaded and deep fried... in olive oil of course
Arroz a la cubana - white rice with tomato sauce to taste and salchicha (like kielbasa)
Croquetas de jamón y pollo - like a chicken nugget but with potato and ham or chicken
Something that reminds me of a mashed potato patti breaded and deep fried
Tortilla de patata - basically like a potato omlet with garlic and onion
Tortilla a la francesa - plain egg omlet
Tortilla con queso - egg omlet with cheese
Fried egg in olive oil - fried egg sunny side up with it´s own pool of olive oil!
Cold tomato soup - not gazpacho... rather something with a TON of garlic and salt and of course, tomatoes!
Fruit - various forms... oranges are the best followed by apples and pears
Yogur - Yogurt... also in various forms and flavors. Aimee´s favorite was RASIN yougurt... if the color and texture weren´t enough... the taste was!Icky! My favorite is banana
Pan Tostada - toast with butter and jam. But not regular toast... more like a small loaf of french bread cut in half and toasted. It´s what I eat every morning but I like it!
Café con leche - coffee with milk... finally my señora has started making me café con leche rather than leche con café.
Tinto de Verano - my favorite drink at the pubs... red wine and something else to be revealed later... trust me... it´s good! Even when you buy the 2 euro bottle at the M.A.S. supermercado!


I think that might be it. Or at least it´s what I can remember! Hope that gives you a better idea of what I´ve been eating over here...

As for me, last week I went to the palace here. It´s called Alcazar. Make sure you pronounce the z with a th sound. Then you will be truly speaking like a spainiard. It´s my goal to come home with a spanish lisp. I´m kinda excited! Um... the palace was beautiful. You can see where the Muslims built and then where the catholics built on to that and it´s just beautiful. The pictures on my website are from Alcazar and the cathedral. I´m not sure if I wrote about the cathedral in my last blog because it´s been awhile. Nvm... I remember it now. It was awesome! This week is the last week of the intensive period here. That means I wont have class for 4 hours every morning any more! And no more class on Friday´s! Heck yes!

What else... Oh! We moved rooms in our piso (apartment). Aimee and I now live in a bigger room at the front of the house with two sets of bunk beds. We live on one and put our crap on the other. It´s worked out ok so far. We are still waiting for our dresser with drawers to put stuff in. Right now the closet is a little cramped! Um... the two beds thing worked out well the other night. On Friday night Aimee and I went with Dani to his friends house and watched Casino Royale. It was pretty good I must say. I´ll have to watch it again in the states tho to actually watch it. Um... Saturday we hung around the house and went to the park in the afternoon. It was gorgeous! I did some homework and then I just laid in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The two bunk beds came in handy Saturday night when no one in the house was really up to going out. So Dani brought in Volver, a newer movie here by Almodovar, a famous Spanish director. We put the laptop on the bunkbed we don´t live on and then the three of us crawled up to the top of our bunk and watched the movie. It worked out pretty well. And it was something cultural to do even tho we sat in my bed in our pj´s and watched a movie! It was a really good movie tho. I´m going to watch it again when I´m not so tired.

Earlier that afternoon I had gone to an internet cafe with some friends to book our flights. It´s official! I´m going to London in 2 weeks!!! And I´m going to Rome later in March. So exciting!!! I probably wont get to all the places I wanted to but I´m doing a lot of traveling through the school so I am going to be away for quite a few weekends. I´m going to Jerez y Arcos this weekend. Small towns outside the city to ride horses through the country side on a wine tour. Then it´s London the next weekend. My friend Zach will be here the following weekend and we are going on an adventure! Then the next weekend I´m thinking of doing a day trip by myself becasue all my friends here are going to Morocco. Then POOZIE gets here!!!!! And then we are going to Madrid and then spending the last part of the week here. Poozie and Mommy... you need to get Euro! Then I think I go to Portugal and some other places April. So fun! I´m really looking forward to it!

Um... I think that´s about all I have so far. I´m going to post this and then try to upload some pictures in another blog.

Hasta Luego!
The Bloned