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