4 Semanas Mas

I only have 4 weeks left of school. Not counting this one....
But still. School is boring! I am going to go to a different class though for an hour during the day for French class. I should probably know a few words of French before I go to Paris for a week... I don't want to get lost..

Anyways. This past weekend I went out with my classmates to the discoteca. We stayed there until 4am. :/ and then I slept at Clara's house. We slept for one hour before we had to get up and go to a small city near Málaga. We went with the curch of the school. We walked about ten miles around the town and sang church songs. The town was incredible though. Huge mountains surrounded it and the sky was perfect. I was dead tired though. I fell asleep on the concrete steps outside the church, and got sunburnt on my face. I made friends with the little girls of the school. They all wrote their names on my hand. It was really cute. We had a church service that lasted way too long and sang contemporary Christian music. It was lovely. :/

But really, the town was amazing. I want to return with my parents.

I created a new food. There wasn't a lot of ingedients in the house the other day that I could use to make food for dinner. I found an onion, a tomato, a can of tuna, two eggs, and tortialls. So, of course, I made scrambled eggs with tuna and onions, rolled in a tortilla, with tomato, onion, and curry powder salsa. It was surprisingly really good. I am pretty sure in the future when I have kids they are going to call it "Mom's Tuna Surprise."

Because of my incredible lack of sleep, I slept for 13 hours on Saturday night. On Sunday we went to a café and then to the park. Franco and Rafa brought their guitars and we had a good time. It was really cold yesterday though.

I bought some peanut butter over the weekend. Last night I had a really great sandwich and an apple with peanut butter. The Spanish people are not so down on peanut butter. It was hard to find and only the really big supermarkets carry it.

The quality of a Spanish sandwich is so much better than American sandwiches. They get a baguette and put really good meat on it with olive oil. They are delicious.

My friend Inma said that we can ride bikes to the lake the weekend after next. This will be really fun. I have been wanting to hang out with her. I eat with her and her friends during break at school. They are all very nice and funny. I think I am going to start walking to the library or riding a bike instead of riding on the motorbike with Marta. It is only like 3 kilometers away.

Alright well that's about it.

We're at War with Libya?

Happy Wednesday everyone! To my 12 followers. I have been studying all morning. I am trying to be fluent in more than one verb tense. My extreme studying efforts are helping though. I study for three straight hours and then speak Spanish for the rest of the day. I now know how to say "My mother has lived here for eight years." I feel like a success. Me perezco a mi madre. I look like my mom. Oh my mad Spanish skills.

Apparently America is now in another war? I heard it yesterday on Murphy in the Morning. I was very surprised. I guess I need to keep up on the news. Not that I really want to go back to America. I was talking to my friend Franco yesterday and we have come up with a plan. I will go home to have my amazing American education and then move back to Spain. In the mean time he is coming to visit. Obviously, I am very happy here. I really want to travel around Europe too. I really need to get busy on buying a ticket to Paris. Note to self: talk to mom about plane ticket. Only 8 more days til I go to Madrid! I am too too excited. Estoy bastante emocionada.

I made a video about my life in Spain. It does not include school. Because school is boring. Yesterday I did not go to school because I am sick. I was sitting outside and I was stung by a bee. It really pissed me off. Right on my hand! In Spain, when you're sick, they think it's from the change in weather or from the sun. They also think you can get sick from not wearing slippers in the house. I am pretty sure I got sick from the kid who sits next to me in class who has sneezed in my dirrection more than once. They also think I am blonde here. In my Spanish class a girl described me as "rubia." I was like whaaaa??? I am so not blonde. Also, it is not rude to call someone fat. Franco and Lola's nicknames are gordo and gorda. I refuse to call them this. Just because it is mean to call someone fat normally for me.

Sunblock is 22€ here. It broke my heart to spend that much on sunblock. But I had to do it. I don't really think I have much to write about. I just really can't study any more today. I do not have a 6 hour attention span. Sorry.

Someone please update me on the news.

Castilla

Yesterday I explored a castle. I feel really cool because I can say that. I guess I am excited because there arent any castles in America.. It is in an old Arabian town near Cordoba. It overlooks the river and is huge. It was also probably around 80 degrees yesterday. At the castle we had a traditional medieval lunch. About 50 people were in this big room and a jester guided our little experience. He made Marta and I play a game in front of everyone. We had to jump across a rope when he said a certain thing. I got third place but I still had to go sit in the jail. We had to eat with our hands because in medieval times apparently they did not have forks. We had salmorejo ( a traditional Spanish dip.) and a salad thing and lots of meat: chicken, pork, beef, and lamb. It was delicious. The gift shop sold real swords. I loved it. The view was amazing too. Oh, it was father's day here yesterday. For dinner Marta and I went to Fosters, the American restaurant. It was exactly like Friday's or Ruby Tuesdays. We had ribs, bacon cheese fries, and a quesedilla. Oh and unlimited Pepsi. I asked the waiter for a to go box and he said he didnt understand my accent. I think that he did, but he was trying to be rude because I ordered the food in English, because the menu was in English.

Friday was some sort of holiday. I have no idea what it was called. We went to a middle eastern restaurant (half way fast food) and then went to the bull fighting arena and had a party. We then left and went to a friends house. It was a really fun night.

I finally went shopping this week. I have some new clothes that I love! I am going to Madrid in 10 days and on April 12th my class is going to Grenada. I am excited for both. I don't really miss home too much anymore. I really love it here. It is so beautiful. Mountains surroud my town and lately every day has been perfect. I have six weeks left of school! I am very okay with this fact. It is going by so fast though. I have been here for two months and I am so afraid that I wont be fluent in Spanish by the time I come home.

Speaking of learning Spanish... I love my night Spanish classes. I think I just love learning Spanish in general though. I wish I had the class every night of the week. It is for about an hour and a half-2 hours twice a week. There is a girl from Georgia (country not the state) and a girl from Scottland, and a man from England. They are all very nice. There was a girl from Thailand but I think she quit because I haven't seen her in like 3 weeks. I love talking to the English man because some of our words are differnt. Like the word for mohawk and bangs.

And now for my basic daily schedule:
7am- Wake up and get ready for school
7:45am- Leave for school
8am- School starts
8am-11am- Study Spanish grammar.
Break
12-2pm- Pretend I am studying but actually listen to Murphy in the Morning and surf the web.
2:10pm go home
2:30pm Eat lunch.
3pm- Take a shower
4:30pm- Go to the library
5pm- Go to a cafe with friends
8pm- Go to Spanish class
10pm- Go home
10:15pm- Eat dinner
11pm- Go to sleep.

That is my very exciting day. Normally :)

Lluviendo

It is raining. I am not happy about this because it is cold rain and I would really like the sun. You are welcome for my weather update.

So this week has been quite the week. I have not gone to school and so I haven't done much during the day. I have gotten a lot of sleep which has been GREAT! I am a sleeper. It is what I am good at.. But so I have been going to the library with Marta after she gets home and so I hang out with my friends because they are there and then we go to a cafe or bar. It is fun.

On Friday night I went out with my classmates. I had a really good time with them. All of them are really nice people. I could not stay out long. I am not sure why but Marta said she wanted to be home early so she picked me up early. On Saturday I left home around 1:30 and spent the day with my friend Maryna. Her parents made Mexican food. I was thrilled of course. Her mom also made two different types of cake like desserts. They were delicious. After lunch we watched some tv and then Franko, our other friend came over. He played the guitar while Maryna and I did our hair for Carnival. I dressed up like Peter Pan and Maryna dressed as a Greek goddess. Her mom made the dress. It was very beautiful. Maryna also did my makeup. We looked pretty fantastic.

So her parents packed us a packed dinner of a sandwich and an apple and we went on our merry way to a parking garage to pre-party. We had a really great time. My friends Rafa and Franko and I are like three peas in a pod. At 1am we set off to the party at a club. It was a birthday party but also it was Carnival. Rafa and Franko dressed up as American gangsters. Marta was a fairy, Lola was little red riding hood, and Carmen was a mime. The club was really awesome. It kind of looks like a pirates ship or something on the inside and the birthday boy rented out like all these private rooms and so each group of friends had their own little party room. We also had cupcakes and unlimited coke and a bottle of rum and champagne. We danced the whole night. Lola and I had to go outside because we were too sweaty and hot from dancing.

I ended up having to leave with Marta before everyone else. We left at like 4am and took a cab home. I talked to Franko today and everyone else left at 5:30. So even though I did not want to leave a good time, it was all in all a pretty fantastic night and day.

So now for some observations.
Everyone drives mopeds, not cars.
The roads are really confusing to navigate. Especially with the one way streets and round abouts.
There is not such a thing as free refills. Which is super annoying.
Coffee here is terrible. You can either have cafe bonbon which is just an espresso shot with a kind of condensed milk. It is awful. Or you can have cafe con leche which is just coffee and heated milk. Not good either.
For some reason people love to wear shorts with stockings or tights. I don't understand this. No, it does not look good.
Everyone parts their hair in the middle.
People drink more coke here than in the United States. Everyone also thinks that I drink coke all the time since I am from America... I rarely drink coke.
Peanut butter is a new thing for Spain. Just started being sold in supermarkets.
I love supermarkets. They don't refrigerate eggs or milk.
People don't text as much here as we do at home.
Everything is really close together. People think that the ten minute drive to the downtown is just so bad. I'm like man this is great!

Okay that is it for now! I have to go to school tomorrow... Sadly. But only 16 more days until Madrid!

Spring Break #1

So I have a week off from school. It is exam week and since I don't take exams, I don't go to school. What am I doing with this week, you might ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Today I woke up and read my book and tanned on the terrace. I then watched an episode od Dexter and went to the library with Marta. We were there for like.. 4 hours? I wrote my family emails and did that lame 30 Day Challenge thing on facebook. Some friends were at the library so it ended up being a pretty fun time.

When I got home I checked my email and I had one from USC. I knew this week I would be finding out about scholarships so I was pretty excited to open it. I have been accepted to be a Capston Scholar. It's a pretty big deal. It is a learning community similar to the honors college. I have a ton of opportunities like study abroad and internships that would not be available to me otherwise. I also get to stay in a really awesome dorm. Perhaps the best dorm on campus. So needless to say, I called my mom with the news. I then went down and had dinner. After dinner Rachel imed me on skype saying I had to call my mom right away. So she starts a video chat on skype. She got a letter from USC saying I have instate tuition and a scholarship on top of that. It is incredible. I would not have been able to go to USC without a scholarship because out of state tuition is really expensive. I am very happy. My future is set in motion. I have a dorm, a learning community, a $70,000 scholarship to hopefully study International Business program in the country, a USC email address. I am officially a Gamecock!!!!

So, I know this post hasn't really been about Spain- but more about my future. I am so excited! I can't wait to shop for dorm stuff with my best friend, Jordan, who will be going to school about 45 minutes away from me.

All in all, good day. I don't like the fact that I will only be home for a little over a month this summer before I have to go to school. It makes me sad. But at least I will be close to Davie County. (Yes, I know. You probably peed your pants when you read that sentence. Anna Derian... miss Davie County?) Being away from home really has made me appreciate my southern home. Don't be fooled though. I am, of course, going to go to Michigan over the summer... Like always. I just will be happy for the first time to come home to swealtering heat and BBQ. But honestly I have made some true friends in Davie County.

So, eat a BBQ sandwich for me. Adios mis amigos.

Estoy muy aburrido en mi clase.

Right now I am in class and I am extremely bored. Hopefully writing a blog will keep me awake.

I found an awesome Spanish learning website. I have been on it all morning. Today is Tuesday and we did not have school yesterday. It was Andalucia Day. I had a really easy weekend and didn't do much. I have been sick lately and I have a continuous headache. I watched Harry Potter yesterday online. It was magical. I honestly don't have much to write about. We had Bull's Tail for lunch yesterday. I love it! My mom tried to convince me it's actually bull's penis. But she has no idea.

I left home over a month ago now. I have nightmares that I won't be fluent in Spanish by the end of my stay. That would be extremely dissapointing. I think it would be impossible not to be fluent though...

Yesterday Marta, Celia, and I went to this country area near our house. There is a really old tressel there that goes over a big stream. It is really high up and there is an awesome cave on the other side. We crossed the bridge and I almost wet my pants. It is way to old to be walking across its so rusty! It is so dangerous. I will not be crossing it again. But the country side was really beautiful. The stream is going to be awesome to swim in when it gets hot in the next month. The cave would have been really cool if multiple people hadn't dumped their trash there. That's what gets me about Spanish people. They just seem to dump trash anywhere. It's disgusting.

On Sunday we went to Juana's sister's restaurant in a nearby town. It was really good I loved the food. I also really enjoyed the drive there. I guess you can't really call them mountains.. but we drove through very tall hills with waves of grass. It reminded me of driving out west last summer, but it looked very different. I really miss driving my car because I can't drive here: 1) I don't have insurance and 2) All cars are manual.

Next week the whole school has exams and since I do not do their classes I really hope I get the week off. It would be really awesome if I did. I could sleep in! And then go to the library with Marta and study Spanish after she gets out of school. It would be very relaxing.

My friend Clara said she is going to take me hang gliding in two weeks. I really hope that it actually happens because I think it might be the coolest thing ever. She also is going to take me to the Arab Baths. Which is like a spa, but an extremely awesome one. I could totally go for a head massage.

I think that Austin might have to go to summer school at WCU this summer. It's going to suck because he will be there when I get home. But it won't be so bad. I'll probably see him every weekend- which is a lot better than not seeing him for five months. I am getting excited for college. I have applied for housing at USC already. I also have a USC email address and everything! I think move in date is around August 13th.

So I am going to Madrid for five days in a month. I go from March 31st-April4th. I am very excited for this. It will be a lot of fun and I get to miss three days of school! Missing school is always a plus for me. No offense to Spanish school... just school in general. If Katherine, my sister, can come to Madrid I will leave a couple days earlier so I can spend time with her. It would be really awesome. I would love to see family. My seventh grade teacher and family friend, Lydia, is going to be in Paris in May and so I am planning a trip to stay in Paris for a few days. From the 16th-the 20th. My last day of school is the 6th I think.

Well I just learned about directo object pronouns! I feel like my life is complete right now. Mostly because I think this is the most complicated thing in Spanish.. And I completely understand it now. I am currently in Philosphy. I love this class because the teacher is awesome. He is the nicest teacher I have and he always jokes with me and mostly lets me be. I also just figured out photobooth on my computer! I got really excited and took like six pictures with my class mates. Anyways... I have written a lot about nothing. Adios!