more pictures.

i see the light - in Sos.

the courtyard where the kiddies in Sos play

a night of spanish bars



Here´s some spanish that i typed up for class for all you spanish speakers.

Mis diarios

14/1/07
Vivir con una familia española
Vivir con una familia aquí es mi parte favorita de toda esta experiencia. Aunque había mucho de mi familia española en mi primero entrada, hay más hablar. Cuando estoy con mi familia española es necesario que use español para comunicarme. Al contrario, con mis compañeros del programa, es más difícil hablar español porque todos los compañeros saben inglés. No solo mis destrezas en la conversación están mejorando, pero estoy aprendiendo mucho sobre la cultura en España. Cada día, veo cómo una familia española vive. Veo cómo come, relaje y hace cosas en general. Afortunadamente, mi familia ha cambiado unas cosas para ayudarme. Por ejemplo, hablan más lentamente, mi madre cocina comida que me gusta (aunque le he dicho que me gustaría probar toda la comida típica) y se asegura del apoyo que tengo cómodo. Agredido todo su ayuda mucho porque sin la, estaría perdida en esta país.

17/1/07
La juventud española y sus costumbres
El sábado pasado fue mi noche favorita de todas – tuve suerte de ver un ejemplo real de las costumbres y los hábitos de los jóvenes en Pamplona. Mi hermana española (Amaia) me invitó a cenar y a salir con ella, su prima y su amiga Beatriz. ¡Nos divertimos mucho! Para mi, fue muy guay (guay es una palabra que Amaia me enseñó) pasar tiempo con estas chicas. Me mostraron los bares que le gustan la más y me dijeron sobre las calles que debo evitar. Una calle mal es Jarauta – quizás debemos discutirla en clase. Aprendí muchas otras cosas esta noche porque las chicas eran corteses y repitieron frases e ideas que no entendía. También bailamos juntos y me gustó porque bailar es universal; no se necesita saber la lengua de una canción bailar. Estaba divertido porque los bares ponen música inglés y española. Por lo tanto, pude explicar unas canciones a Amaia y ella me explicó otras. Aunque la mitad de la noche pasó bien, había una situación que me tuvo miedo. Cuando andábamos por las calles, escuchamos un cañonazo. Amaia me explicó que era un disturbio por las terroristas en Pamplona (supongo ETA, pero no estoy segura). Me dijeron correr con ellas porque no eran seguras.

19/1/07
La televisión en España
Estoy sorprendida que los programas de televisión en España son muy similares a los de los Estados Unidos. Hay muchos programas que tenemos en los Estados Unidos que tienen aquí con traducciones. Amaia mira mucho ¨Sexo en la ciudad,¨ un programa muy popular en los Estados Unidos. También, muchas películas están traducidas del inglés al español. Otra sorpresa que encontré es que entiendo mucho más televisión en español aquí que hice cuando probaba mirarla antes de mi viaje. No es tan fácil entender como mis profesoras aquí, pero es más fácil entender que las personas en las calles o mi familia. Mi familia aquí mira mucha televisión pasar el tiempo. Por ejemplo, mi familia en Ohio mira un programa que se llama ¨American Idol¨ y también mira ¨Dancing With the Stars.¨ Aunque no he visto estos programas aquí, hay programas muy similar que mi madre española le gusta mucho. Ojalá que tenga mucho tiempo mirar la televisión para aprender más, pero mucho del tiempo que estoy en mi casa, hago tarea. ¡Hay muchas cosas hacer!

7/2/07
La comida
Mi intercambio y yo fuimos a varios bares a comer pinchos el otro día. ¡Fue una experiencia muy diferente para mí! Nunca he comido poca comida en muchos bares antes de cenar. Esta tradición es interesente – en España, hay mucha gente que suele seguir esta tradición. Vi mucha gente en las calles y los bares estaban muy llenos. Es algo que no pasa en los Estados Unidos. Pienso que es una de muchas partes de la cultura española que no ya entiendo. Porque la gente come pinchos a las ocho o a las nueve, cena luego y sale otra vez (mucho más tarde) durante la noche. En los Estados Unidos, porque los bares cierran muy temprano, necesitamos cenar más temprano y salir de la casa más temprano. Si salimos luego, no tendremos mucho tiempo para divertirnos. Es normal volver a la casa (o en mi caso, a la residencia de estudiantes) a las dos de la mañana y dormir cuando llego a mi residencia. Me divertí comiendo los pincho – fueron deliciosos. Mi intercambio pidió pimientos, bacalao y berenjena con setas. Sin embargo, los pimientos fueron muy ricos. Fernando (mi intercambio) me dijo que los pimientos son pinchos muy comunes y populares. Ahora, sé por qué. Otra vez, fui con mi hermana Amaia y su amiga Beatriz tomar algo a un bar que se llama Bar Aldapa. Me gusta el bar mucho porque la decoración es muy moderna e interesante. Fuimos antes de cenar también – una tradición que necesito acostumbrarme.

16/2/07
La moda y los estilos
Me la daba cuenta que los estilos de vestir in España son tan formales. Parece que es muy raro ir a la escuela en la ropa que muchos estudiantes llevan en los Estados Unidos – sudaderas y pantalones cómodos. Cada día, los estudiantes universitarios llevan suéteres y zapatos formales (como botas para las chicas) en vez de zapatos de deportes. En los Estados Unidos es muy popular llevar ropa casual y si llevas ropa formal, mucha gente te pregunta, ¨¿Por qué estás llevando tú ropa tan elegante?¨
Aquí, también no veo muchas chicas que se visten para parecer ¨sexy.¨ La ropa es más de una manera de expresión de personalidad que una forma atraer atención del otro sexo o demostrar el cuerpo. Tal vez, solo he visto la moda en Pamplona y puede ser diferente en otras partes de España. En Granada, por ejemplo, vi mucha más variedad y modas diferentes, pero es posible que la razón sea la cantidad de turistas es más grande en Granada a este tiempo del año.

17/2/07
Las cosas que puede comprar
En España, todas las cantidades de comida son más pequeñas que las que se compran en los Estados Unidos. Es un poco frustrante porque siempre pago más por una comida aquí y necesito comprar cosas más a menudo.
También, tengo un problema. Me encantan los dulces, pero es muy raro encontrar las cosas que me gustan en España. Los españoles prefieren postres con menos azúcar (tartas con menos sabor que los pasteles que como normalmente y con una formar diferente de cocinar) y muchas veces, ansío una galleta flexible o un pastel de chocolate (brownie en inglés – ¡No hay una traducción porque no existen aquí!) Es una pena. Como mucho chocolate porque no hay otras sustituciones tan dulces y echo de menos dulces de los Estados Unidos.

varias cosas.

ok get ready for many types of random. ready, set, go.

i read this spanish article about kids somewhere in asia who are going through treatment for addiction to the internet. it works because it gives them electric shocks and they know it will physically hurt to go online. i need this treatment immediately. i have looked at two full screens of people´s pictures on facebook... probably like 40 albums in the past two days, maybe more. it is this constant need to feel connected to the world i left behind i guess. i need some shock therapy for this.

spanish people created the best things ever and i didn´t even realize it until now. they are something in between a cookie and a cracker. they are crackers, with just a little bit of sweet. i bought about 200 cookies for one euro yesterday and i am in heaven because i finally have something other than chocolate to snack on (and believe me, even i do not feel right about snacking on chocolate). they are healthy - semi-healthy - and i am happy. i also bought honey-nut cornflakes. yay!

i miss my sarcasm. i cannot even be sarcastic in spanish because something wouldn´t translate correctly and i´d just be talking like a fool or a mean person, neither of which would be suitable for everday life. plus, i don´t get the jokes that people make in spanish. they are above my head. oh, how i miss dad´s stupid jokes (i love them dad!) and laughing about stupid things with nood in the room when we are delirious from too much work. (and laughing with anyone in general i guess.) it´s not like i don´t laugh. it´s like i don´t laugh as much.

i ate lunch with amaia today and it was grand. she told me she is going to take me to an american restaurant where we can eat REAL BROWNIES. ahhhhhhhhhhh!

i went running today and it was like discovering a parallel universe. (geez, this is weird. i just realized that in two consecutive blogs i have talked about aliens and parallel universes... where is all this sci-fi stuff coming from?) i descended this huge hill. (can you say descended without saying down after?) and then all of a sudden there was the river! how could i have not discovered this section of pamplona before? it´s like a hidden part. there were a gazillion people going for walks with their family etc, and it was supercool. bridges, little tents of veggie growing, a park with softball fields, etc, people canoing in the river, winding paths. so much new stuff for discovering!

it´s only too bad that the hill i had to run back up on my way home was like morton hill (the same steepness/grade) but 7 times as long. that was fun. i almost followed these three guys that were running down another street after we went up the big hill, but i decided i would remember where it was and go back another day. it looked pretty sweet.

i can´t get myself together right now. no motivation for the whole homework thing. although i do have a large amount of energy right now, i can´t seem to target where to put it.

oh sundays. sundays in spain are bumdays. everything is closed. and i mean everything. ok, not everything. but most things. i´m kinda irritated that my sentences are 3 words long right now, but i´m not going to fix that because i´m lazy.

I read a short story by Borges, a supposedly very famous and important spanish surrealist writer. i can´t really get the jist of it. (jist? is that word and did i spell it right? is it gist?) this man is poor because he bought a very secluded plot of farming land. and he reads Mil y Una Noches (1001 nights - i´m thinking that´s the whole thing that aladdin, etc came from) and has horrible nightmares about it and realizes that his life has nothing to offer him. so he goes to a doctor, becomes very sick, and eventually recuperates. he is traveling back to his farm and stops at a grocery store to eat. at this grocery store there is another group of three poor farmers and a old guy dressed like a gaucho (olden days in the south of spain). the three poor farmers start a fight with him and he doesn´t have a weapon to fight back. all of a sudden, the old gaucho guy gives him a dagger. so he has this dagger to fight and then... i believe... the three guys just leave. and the man thinks that he would have preferred to die in this situation, above any others - in the situation of a fight these three men. then he starts walking home with the dagger in hand.

what does that even mean? surrealism. i don´t get it.

I believe it is time to answer some of the questions i am supposed to prepare about the Borges story now. Ok.

hasta luego.

oh baby, i can barely move.

i have never been so relaxed in my life. i can not even imagine any sudden movements anytime in my future. the thing is, 3 hours in a spa will do that to you i guess. when we heard about this deal, $30 for three hours that is, we couldn´t pass it up. one hour on a bus ride to san sebastian, and a world of relaxation opens up to you.

it goes like this.

you walk along the coast of cantabrica and observe the sand and waves as you do so. you enter la perla (the pearl, aw, how nice). you descend. hello spa. you talk to the lady who looks up your reservation. that´s the simple part to explain.

you go in this nasty little part with wet ground and tiny dressing rooms and ladies hosing off the ground and strange rows of lockers that are hard to figure out.

then, paradise. there is a room with various spa activities to choose from. everyone is wearing a swim cap and looks like a bunch of aliens wandering around. there is this huge pool. it´s luke-warm, there is mist coming up. there are about 15 stations, each with a jet massage for a different part of your body or at varying pressures. you know, legs, abs, shoulders, feet, etc. there are strange submerged water bikes and weight machines. and people just float around to different stations.

then there´s the other big pool. it´s slightly warmer. not quite hot tub, but getting closer. there´s a little waterfall to massage your shoulders, then my favorite. you lay down in this section where you rest your head. the bubbles surround the rest of your body and push you up. so you are laying down and the jets keep you in a flat position. and you just lay there and almost fall asleep. when you open your eyes, they burn really bad of the seawater. but a small price to pay. then you go to the little whirlpool section within the large pool. it fits three people and you hold on with your arms and it pushes your legs up. i had a hard time manuevering this one because my legs kept sinking. then there are little seats, and it alternates between a bubbles seat and a seat with jets. aliens are surrounding you with their matching blue swim caps. there are a few couples displaying much affection for each other. all is calmer than calm.

then there are heating beds. you pull a lever, they heat up, you lay down, and you have a view of the beach.

then the hot tub. it´s normal, but it´s huge and it also looks right out onto the beach. i can still feel the warmth and the jets. sigh. what a strange experience. i guess i never really thought i would be at an alien spa in san sebastian, looking at the beach, in spain. my life is so out of the ordinary right now. how is this all possibly happening to me?

the amelie soundtrack is so incredibly beautiful that i cannot comprehend it. it gives me the chills. yann tiersen is a genius.

i´m going to go read sur, a spanish short story. homework cannot be abandoned forever i guess. less than 25 days until i return. time is flying by.

and so it goes.

we have it good. we all have it good and i think sometimes we don´t realize. maybe i´m speaking too generally. maybe other people realize it all the time. maybe we don´t all have it good. but i do. but it takes time for me sometimes to step back and realize that this life is good. and i am blessed.

quick health update: forked over the cash for the derm yesterday and we have finally diagnosed the mysterious red bumps on my body. sigh. phew. relief. turns out, my body is pretty freaky and weird. you see, i received some kind of bug bites when this all started. then, my immune system didn´t want to respond normally... by just getting rid of them. it found some allergy to, or something it couldn´t fix about these bug bites. so it started making it´s own bug bites. my body is producing these red bumps all by itself, and it seems that it´s having a grand old time doing it. my left arm is infested with them at this point in time. annoyance. however, the extremely sarcastic and english-speaking doctor prescribed me a foamy cream to put on them and a little antihystamine (yea, right, like i can even get close to spelling that correctly and like i have any desire to waste my time looking it up. ha, to say ¨have any desire¨in spanish is tener ganas de and it´s really common. that just popped in my head. wow, i stray from topic really easy.) to put these bumps to rest. AMEN. my vision is still fine. i had a little scare because my left eye vision isn´t as good as it was before, but the inflamation isn´t back and i have another appt. in a week to check up on it.

so. back to real life. last night was grand. kristen, melissa and i decided to be a bit more adventurous and venture to a real spanish bar, not the fake irish pub kind that our group tends to cluster towards. we wandered around asking a bunch of spanish people where this one amaia told me about was because we forgot what street it was on. we got there and met a really great group of five spaniards who are studying biology at the private university in Navarra. (we go to the public one) We went with them to another bar after. It was just so great because it´s always interesting to meet new people, and not only are we interested to hear what their lives and customs are like, but they like to hear about what we are like too. And it´s all very fun in the bar atmosphere because it´s not some formal meeting with an intercambio. It´s real life fun combined with learning which makes me feel like I´m not a complete waste of life. So yay. More Spanish friends.

Today we had our last group excursion to a bunch of towns around Navarra (the autonomous community where Pamplona is situated). We visited Sos (where Ferdinand the Catholic - you know, the guy married to Isabel who united almost all of Spain, sent Columbus over to America, and expelled all the Jews and Arabs from Spain? - was born in a castle), Javier (the town of San Francisco, an evangelist who traveled all over including to Asia), Sanguesa (another town that I believe is part of the Camino de Santiago), and Oibar (gee, I think that´s the basque spelling of the name of the city, but who knows. I can´t keep these things straight. By the way, basque is another language spoken in this region of Spain that has existed before the Romans even came to Spain and spanish (technically called castellano) was even spoken... in the b.c. times.

Here´s a little fact of the day, if you didn´t know. Spanish (castellano) isn´t the only language spoken in Spain. There´s also Basque (I´m not sure if that´s how you spell it in English, but it´s vasco or vasquence in spanish.), Catalán, and Gallego. Again, I don´t know any of these words in English, it gets a little bit confusing for me here while I´m describing. I have this intense linguistics class where the material is so in depth that I honestly don´t know most of the stuff in english because they aren´t common words and I have learned the subject only in spanish. so words like catalán (the language) i just don´t know how to say in english. and words like yeísmo (a characteristic of the southern dialect of spanish where they do not distinguish a difference between the sound of ll and y... yea, confusing, i know). i have no idea how to say these things in english! isn´t that crazy?

Anyhow, these villages were really very beautiful, but there´s only so much wonder I can find in seeing the difference in the arches of a romantic church and a gothic church. And you can only see so many carvings of religious people before they all start to meld into the same things.

I find much joy in eating on these excursions. It´s always like a 7 course meal. On today´s menu?
fresh bread
a mini sausage
little tiny pepper
bean soup
fish (maybe cod?)
block of ice cream
coffee
yup, 7 i was right. can we say full?

I would like to post pictures at a later date.

I bought these little truffles for my host family and Pilar was superhappy with me. Yay! Even though she has been grinding my nerves a little lately. She gets a little opinionated sometimes, something the teacher in charge of the study abroud program, Nelson, says is pretty common for Spanish moms. She can be a bit rude sometimes, but I think it´s just how they work here... she doesn´t know it. But you can never have a perfect, always happy relationship with anyone, and that´s what I have to remember. I loooooooooooove my real parents, but that doeesn´t mean I never get mad at them or they never get mad at me. That´s just how I have to look at it here. She´s going to act like a mom, regardless of whether or not she really is my mom. So, I´ll still be forced to drink whole milk, eat cold burnt toast, and throw away all my garbage in the one garbage can that the house has. It´s just my Spanish way of life.

Today Amaia brought home brownies! Ahh. I thought they didn´t exist. Of course, they said ¨galletas Americanas¨(American cookies) on the front, so really, it´s true. They don´t exist in Spain. They are just something that they think Americans eat. She warmed it up and it was still hard. It´s impossible to find a good soft brownie here.

I´m going to San Sebastian tomorrow, and I can´t wait! We are going to the spa that looks out onto the beach! ($30 for 3 hours in a spa, you cannot beat that, anywhere) There are hot tubs, huge pools of sea water, and I hear it´s paradise. What a life I have!! One hour bus ride gets me three hours in a spa. We are going to walk around and gift shop and get lunch and pintxos (little appetizer things), a specialty in San Sebastian. Can´t wait!

i get by with a little help from my friends.

Nothing as soothing as listening to The Beatles. And some great friends and family - I love you guys.

Hm, I was going to end the blog there, but why not write more? Today is a normal day, you know - school, meeting with my girl intercambio, service project to talk with spanish people in english. pretty standard.

yesterday 20 new bumps sprouted, mostly all over my neck. freaky. maybe it´s a food allergy. who the heck knows? and who the heck wants to go see a spanish dermatologist? not me. but, i figured that means it isn´t the pool that´s giving me bumps, so darnit, i´m going to go swimming.

so i did today. and the fake lifeguard didn´t even disturb me once.

i have been eating chocolate like it´s nobody´s business. why does it taste so good? i just can´t figure it out. how can something so silly make my brain happy?

i don´t feel like being deep or thinking about much today in my blog. thinking is too much effort for me right now. i have had enough. i´d rather be numb right now. i have hit a stagnant point in my trip where, once again, i would prefer to return home. it sounds horribly unappreciative, but there are times when i feel this way.

i just realize that i´m not going to get good enough at spanish where i´m going to be comfortable in a regular public setting. and it´s gonna be this wild thing when i go home to the u.s. and don´t have to think so hard just to order a sandwich or ask for a larger size in a shirt at the store. it´s gonna be wild. just wild. there is no place i can go in spain and just feel comfortable. there is always that challenge... not so much a challenge, but a discomfort in being a foreigner. maybe when i return i´ll have this appreciation for how easy it is to get by on your native language in the world.

today is a blob. an amorphous blob of blobbyness. i feel very indifferent towards it. and everything. everyone´s always telling me not to worry about things. in fact, i would have to say that one of the most popular phrases here is ¨tranquila¨ (calm) or ¨no te preocupes¨ (don´t worry). but i don´t know. i´m not so much worried or needing to be calmed, i´m just always thinking about things. maybe that´s a good thing, but right now, i don´t want to be thinking about anything. i want to sit in complete and utter calm, in a tub of warm chocolate.

there. that´s my blobby blog of today. blob.

off to meet the intercambio and talk nonsense for an hour. ugh. wish me luck.

Ah, Granada, That´s the Life

I´m not quite sure that I´m ready for this blog entry. This blog entry is going to be one to blow other blog entries out of the water. I need to capture a piece of Granada, and I don´t know if I have the strength right now to do that. To capture Granada. I´m feeling that lots of repetition is going to be needed in the following text. Because writing things one time doesn´t get the point across. For example, when I say Granada was amazing, I can´t just say it was amazing. I have to say that Granada was amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing. And that still doesn´t even begin to describe the extent of it´s amazingness. I suppose words like amazingness will need to be made up also to fully get the point across.

Where do I begin? I will begin with the worst of the trip - por supuesto (of course) - the bus ride. Oh, holy ten consecutive hours in a bus. That is never a good idea, by any standard, but it´s what you do when you are a poor student who is spending far too much money on weekend trips and just cannot afford to take a bus to the nearest airport, fly to a city close to Granada, and catch another bus to Granada. You can only afford to sit on a bus next to stinky people, give yourself permanent (ok, ok, only temporary) neck pains, and pray continuously that you will receive more than three hours of sleep. Which, por supuesto, you don´t. You can, however, tune in to several movies that would not normally catch Danielle´s attention in English, let alone in Spanish. Star Wars Episode 2 (where Yoda sounds like a fleghmy (hmm don´t know if that´s spelled right) old man dying of too much cigarette smoke and a far-too-heavy spanish accent). National Security. Sahara. Surviving Christmas. So yea, you stick to iPod, unsuccessful efforts of falling into a deep sleep, and looking out the window longing to arrive.

Well, we made it. In fact, we arrived in Granada when the weather had reached a very satisfiable 75 degree mark. Oh, how I had wished that I was wearing a t-shirt under the two layers of sweaters and winter jacket I was wearing from Pamplona. We trudged across foreign lands with our suitcases, wondering how we were ever going to find our reserva (the place we reserved, not quite sure if i can classify it as a hotel yet). We finally stopped in a bakery where they told us we only had a ten-minute walk and gave us directions. Yay!

As we came closer to our reserva, we were in awe. The route to the reserva was straight through the charming, narrow brick-paths of the central part of Granada. As we walked along the Darro River, we had the perfect view of the Alhambra, a castle that I will get to a bit later. Everything about that journey would have been ideal, had I not had to lug my ridiculous rolling suitcase (without a large strap to pick it up and carry it) up the huge hill to our reserva. But nevertheless, it was thrilling.

We couldn´t find our address - things were pretty complicated up there on the hill - so we walked into a building to ask these two ladies for help. The almost laughed us out of the room and we soon discovered that it was an all-male residence in which we had just entered... for adolescent boys. No wonder all those boys outside the fence were looking at us so funny. We joked after that we probably seemed like a group of three prostitutes coming in for a visit... oh, the embarrassments you get so used to while living your life in a foreign country.

We soon found our real place. It was called ¨Residencia de Invitados Carmen de la Victoria.¨ My spanish dad found it online, and I thought we were only allowed to stay there because we were students studying abroad. However, we discovered that it was a very exclusive place. Probably only open to us because it was winter, non-tourism season, we really lucked out. For 85 euro/person/2 nights, we slept, ate all our meals, and had the view of a lifetime. This is going to be hard to explain.

Ok. Our hotel overlooked all of Granada. All the mountains, all the town, and the huge Alhambra. It was surrounded by these romantic, slightly-overgrown gardens. Arches of bushes, curving twigs, trees covered with flowers, ground covered with pebbles in the patterns of flowers and vines. At night, it was lit up with stained-glass lamps. And through the garden was the view of all the city. It is completely indescribable. We felt like we had fallen into some kind of fairy tale. The rooms were pretty standard - clean, bathroom, all the things we are not accustomed to after staying in that fleabag hostel in Barcelona. The rooms were like a sauna. And were we going to complain after practically being frozen out of our Barcelona hostel? heck no!



The meals however, wow, the meals. Delicious, three course meals, with fancy tables, wine, the whole shebang (shebang? is that even a word?). Yuuuuum. I gained about 10 pounds and will be working that off this week. On our second day there we noticed a series of framed pictures on the wall. About 30 pictures, including THE Paul Simon (and countless other famous people who i wish I recognized). We checked it over with the waiters - yes, they all stayed there. WE STAYED IN THE SAME RESIDENCE AS PAUL SIMON. I felt like royalty. How did these three, ridiculously goofy (come on, all americans in spain are goofy) students get to stay here? We were surrounded by all these really intelligent professors who were staying there for some seminar about animals. And we were just these silly girls, living in the lap of luxury.

Ok, so that´s the residence. On to more important things.

Our first day, Friday, we took some time to look around the city. We saw the famous cathedral, all the other important buildings and churches in town, and started gift shopping. By the time we were settled in the residence, it was pretty late, so we had a few hours to do all this before dinner-time. Then dinner, then much-anticipated sleep in a comfortable bed!

The next morning, we awoke at the crack of dawn. Ok, we woke up at 8. But it seemed pretty early. We had a tour scheduled at 9 at the Alhambra. We took the ever-famous ¨Alhambra Bus¨ (only famous because we saw them EVERYWHERE and the streets were so narrow, they came close to running me over several times) to the Alhambra. It took us all over the the top of the hill of the town, and it was an experience in itself. I was just in awe of the town - it´s beauty, how it stayed so quaint through all these years and all these tourists, the view, the wonder of how something like this could even exist in life. I had an epiphany at that point - I must someday bring my family back to Granada, when I have kids old enough to appreciate it. It is like nothing I have ever seen in my life. How am I, a 19-year-old, so fortunate to be seeing Granada? I am almost alone in this country across the world, exploring ancient cities, and seeing these incredible things! How is it even possible? Is this real? And why am I so fortunate? How did I just plan a trip to Granada and do it? Just like that! Just a few days before I went! I just went! I didn´t have expectations too high, just the claims of my host family that I needed to see it. And boy were they right. I think it changed my life, although I can´t seem to elaborate on how.

A little bit of background from Wikipedia about the Alhambra:

The Alhambra (Arabic: الحمراء = Al Ħamrā'; literally "the red") is an ancient palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed), occupying a hilly terrace on the south-eastern border of the city of Granada. It was the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and their court, but is currently a museum exhibiting exquisite Islamic architecture.

I guess that makes it sound relatively dull, but it was anything but. It has a section of these palaces covered in this ornate muslim decorations, incredibly detailed ceramics and tile-work, just fantastic fountains and ornamentation. We then saw part of Generalife, the garden section that was added on much later, but was a refuge for the royalty. Unfortunately, it had started raining toward the beginning of our tour, so parts of the Generalife were closed off. We got a pretty yucky day to tour, but it was so beautiful that it didn´t matter. Lastly, we saw the oldest part of the Alhambra, the Alcazaba. It was the fortress part of the castle, the section that you could see from our hotel. The main purpose was for defense, and there were these mazes that were used for military purposes and a huge trench so people could not get into the castle. Pretty cool. We took more pictures than you would think to be humanely possible, and it would take about 6,324 hours to add them all to the blog, so you will all have to wait til we are in person or rely on the excellence of quick facebook uploads if you are in the college population-part of my blog-readers. I traveled with Kristen and Kate, a girl who should forever be known as master photographer. Kristen and I were practically at a photo shoot the whole trip, and this might have explained the fact that we spent 5 hours at the Alhambra.





We then got lunch at the hotel... yum... and did more shopping til dropping. The shops were small and unique closer to our hotel, and then we found some bigger, more mainstream stores closer to where we got off the bus station upon arrival. We checked out a few other buildings, plazas, etc, and headed home for dinner. Not before frequenting yet another bakery, something that´s commonplace for us in Spain. It is always to my disappointment that I can´t just find a simple brownie or soft cookie - I am always stuck with some pastry or ornate cake with too much cream and not enough substance. But I will continue my search.

Dinner was incredible, a typical Granadian meal for us - bread, soup, meatballs with fries, and yogurt (strangely, instead of the normal piece of fruit for dessert) with water and wine. After that we were too exhausted once again, and went to sleep in anticipation of the long bus ride which we had to catch at 8 in the morning.

We did see something a bit strange before falling asleep. The only picture on the wall in the hotel room was of one specific room in the Alhambra - the one where an entire family was assassinated. The fountain in the floor is said to have bloodstains. A leeeeettle bit creepy if you ask me.

Anyhow, we slept well, didn´t get assassinated, caught our bus the next morning, and made our voyage home safely.

Thanks to my staying in on Thursday night before embarking on my trip, I´m ahead in school, feel like I have some free time for once.

One month until I come home. Crazy how time flies. Crazy. I am feeling both horrible and incredibly excited about coming home. We will see how this changes within the month.

kdfjdkjfslkfjdsñlkdjkjfd!!!!!

i can barely contain my excitement. i can´t i can´t i can´t!!!

my eye is back to normal. 100 percent inflamation-free... and you could not give me a better piece of news right now!! now if only the inflamation stays away... we will see.

but yay! it´s the best day ever!

i splurged on a uva-protective pair of sunglasses because i´m still going to have to taper off my medicine, which makes my pupils huge and makes it impossible to see in the sunlight. and i´m going to GRANADA this weekend... and i want to be able to actually see the Alambra (you know, another gorgeous palace). it looks like this:
So yea, I´m a bit excited about the trip. We booked bus round-trip for 80 euro (oh, but the discomfort will make us regret choosing the 10-hour bus ride almost immediately) and found a castle to stay in overnight.

Ok, so I´m not sure we´re sleeping in a castle per say (is that how you write out ¨per say?¨), but I do know that this is the deal. We are a few streets away from the center of the city, in part of the University of Granada. We are only allowed to stay there because we are students studying in Spain (special priveledges, I guess) and because my Spanish dad is a genious and somehow knows everything about travel and Spain. I guess it would make sense because his job requires travel almost every week and he did live in Granada for 6 years (I think... maybe 8). But anyway, we couldn´t find a hotel... all were booked. So we found this opportunity, and it comes with all three meals included... for a bit over 40 per person per night. Wowzer. That´s a snag. He says that all we have to do is walk along the river to get to the center of the city. Um, Granada is in the mountains, it has a river, and is the center of all the most rich of Arab culture from the 15th (i believe) century. COOL.

Kristen and I decided to do our oral presentation about Granada... so were are gonna take some great pictures, pay attention to our tours, and have a really sweet presentation! Much easier to do a presentation on something you actually see, anyway.

Today I went for a run and I was in this really weird state of mind. I am at this point where running is not so much physically taxing (well, it´s not like i´m trying to run fast or anything... ) but it´s a mental struggle for me. I have been treadmilling because the sun hurts my eyes too much and it´s just such a boring activity. It´s not a question of whether I can run for a long time because I practically don´t even feel any strain after 30 minutes or so. It is a question of if I have the mental strength to keep myself going. And the thing that is keeping me going is my constant eating habits here that are out of control. Ok, not out of control... just subject to random binges of muffins and such (I ate 6 and a half yesterday... granted they are about half the size of american muffins), which I think stems from the fact that I don´t eat any foods with processed sugar anymore. The only sugar my body gets is from fruit, and my body is not used to that at all. So I get these cravings, these intense cravings, for real dessert. And I don´t mean all that flakey pastry junk that couldn´t satisfy me in a gazillion years... and I don´t mean stinkin yogurt that they offer you for ¨dessert¨ at the dining hall. So I eat all day and exercise all day and that´s just how it has to be for now. Whatever, my food here is healthier anyway - fruits, veggies, the occasional fish, meat... but seriously. I think i´m obsessed with food... so odd and so unhealthy... but also could be cuz I have so much more free time here than i´m used to.

I have a three page paper to write on a comparison between two short spanish stories... and some reading to do... and about 6 more journal entries to write...and to pack... by 11:30 tonight. Because we leave at 1:30 a.m. for granada and we want some wine in us to help us sleep soundly on that uncomfortable bus (is it weird that i finally see a benefit to the tiring effects of wine?).

well, who knows when i´ll be able to write in this blog next... so have a great weekend everyone! i miss you all!!

food and newspapers and such.

First measure of business for the day. My mom just made me the most massive and delicious hamburger of my life... and I never thought I would be so appreciative of this over-fatty, ridiculously large piece of food. Oh, but it was wonderful... a little piece of American heaven. Cheese, lettuce, onions, oh the joy. And greasy greasy french fries.

What has gotten into me? I hate grease and I hate hamburgers. Anything in moderation I guess.

Second, I just finished my three page spanish paper that has taken up the better part of the past two days (in the moments where I have neglected studying for exams). But midterms are officially over! Yipee!! To relax once again.

I think I will post my very, very rough copy of my paper... good luck reading this one. I´ll translate it when I have time because (maybe it´s just me being a stupid, ugly Scripps kid) I think the fact that there are huge differences from journalism and news published here from those published in the U.S. is pretty fascinating. Here, I´ll put it in italics so you can skip right over it if you are unable to decipher Spanish at this point in your life.

¿Cómo pueden las diferencias entre las noticias en Los Estados Unidos y España afectar la forma de pensar?
Los príncipes de Asturias lloran la muerte de la hermana la princesa. Temperaturas de este invierno han alcanzado a niveles peligrosos en Ohio. Varias líderes consientan a apagar las luces por cinco minutes para simbolizar la necesidad poner fin a calentamiento del planeta. Hace poco, todos estos titulares han estado publicados en los periódicos y en las revistas y han aparecido en la televisión y en el Internet. Las noticias son noticias por todas partes. Sin embargo, las cosas que constituyen noticias importantes en un país, una ciudad, o un área local son diferentes. Además, las noticias son comunicadas en maneras distintas en varias regiones.
Desde mi llegada en España, me he dado cuenta de las muchas diferencias que existen entre la materia presentada en las noticias en España y la que es presentada en Los Estados Unidos. Tan una estudiante de periodismo, también veo que el estilo de escribir es diferente entre los dos países.
En mi primera clase de periodismo de periódicos en Ohio University, mi profesor nos enseñó nunca tener perjuicios cuando escribimos. No está permitido escribir noticias a la izquierda o a la derecha porque viola las leyes de ética. Por otro lado, en España, muchos de los periódicos toman partidos y esté es aceptado. La gente española puede elegir el tipo de noticias que prefiere leer.
Otra lección que se destaca es como usar nombres en un artículo del periódico. En Los Estados Unidos, solo títulos de una persona pueden ser usados en la primera oración porque nombres no están usados hasta la segunda oración. A menudo, he visto nombres en la primera oración aquí. Otra cosa que es extraña es el uso de iniciales de un nombre en los artículos que no pueden usar el nombre entero. En mis clases, he aprendido que es correcto usar la edad y la ciudad de origen/residencia de la persona.
En los periódicos y en otras noticias, otro tema controversial es el tipo de fotografía que puede ser usado. Étnicamente, es incorrecto en Los Estados Unidos usar fotos de personas en angustia cuando otras fotos son disponibles para usar. En un accidente de coches, un periodista en Los Estados Unidos es ensañado ilustrar la historia con una foto del coche, no de las personas heridas. Hay menos censura en España en este tema.
Las noticias de televisión también difieren en los aspectos de materiales elegidos, la fotografía, y el estilo de las noticias. Una regla básica en Los Estados Unidos dice que la persona entrevistada debe solo ser en la tercera parte del video. Sin embargo, muchas entrevistas en España no siguen esta fórmula. Además, los reporteros aquí llevan ropa más informal durante las entrevistas y tienen voces con menos inflexión y menos estrés en ciertas palabras.
En conjunto, la diferencia más significativa es el tipo de noticias y el mensaje que la gente de una región o del país en general recibe. Antes de hablar de la más profunda diferencia, necesito expresar los detalles pequeños que separan las noticias de Los Estados Unidos con las de España. Primero, hay más cobertura en España de fútbol que fútbol americano o béisbol, dos deportes más popular en Los Estados Unidos.
También, el radio es usado mucho más comúnmente. En Los Estados Unidos es raro escuchar las noticias por radio cuando se está en la casa. Escuchar el radio solo es común mientras se conduce. Hay varios programas del radio con pensadores muy famosos y respetados, las noticias duran tiempos largos y disculpan temas locales e internacionales.
La puntuación también difiere. Por ejemplo, las revistas usan <> en vez de ¨comillas.¨ Además, los periódicos en España usan periodos o signos de interrogación a fuera de las comillas en vez de a dentro las comillas. Son diferencias mínimas, pero las son muy importantes por periodistas.
Pero, sobre todo es la idea grande del estado del mundo y la interpretación de los eventos pertinentes en la vida que hace esas diferencias algo en que pensar.
Me parece que la necesidad para estar bien informado es más grande en España. Hay estudios sobre todos los países europeas que son bien conocido por mucha de la población. Cuando hay una conciencia de las cosas que pasan en otros países y partes del mundo además de las del propio país, se recibe una vista diferente de la vida. Es un dato que la gente de Los Estados Unidos pone poco atención a las noticias. La población general de telespectadores de las noticias de televisión tiene más que sesenta años.
Otra cosa que puede afectar el periodismo en regiones diferentes es la lengua. En cada lengua, hay maneras separadas para transmitir una idea o un pensamiento. Una razón que más lenguas no han desaparecido con el paso del tiempo es que las mismas cosas dicen en lenguas distintas puede ser interpretadas tan dos conceptos completamente diferente. Solo la gente que tiene una comprensión profunda de una lengua puede entender ideas expresadas en las noticias de esta lengua.
¿Forma la cultura a través de las noticias o forman las noticias a través de la cultura? Es posible que exista un círculo en el tipo de pensamiento porque los dos dependen en el uno al otro. No obstante, la manera de informar el público, incluyendo la moda de transmitir, los eventos que son estimados son significantes y la estructura de las noticias, será distinta en varios lugares.

Yea, so that´s my life. Journalism in Spanish.

Today my friend Alex and I had a strange lunch conversation about our amazement with life. He was telling me how he is, for the first time ever, starting to feel completely balanced and whole spiritually, mentally, and physically - everything is just starting to make sense to him. And I responded that since I arrived in Spain, I have been doing nothing but questioning everything about my life. I do not even feel close to reaching a point of understanding about where I am right now. Or what I am doing. Or what the point of this is. Or whether I´m running away from things or just getting closer to them.

But Alex made a good point. In doing all this questioning, that is the beginning of finding who we are. And yea, I have never been so confused in my life. But YEA, I have never opened my mind to think about so many things in life. So that alone is worth it. Well, it´s worth it if these red bumps aren´t a fatal skin disease and if the inflamation in my eye isn´t being worsened by the advice and medicine of spanish doctors. But as long as I make it out alive and happy, Spain has been a good thing for me.

There is one thing I cannot figure out for the life of me. Going to OU was relatively easy for me (well, duh, I guess college isn´t that huge of a transition when you are prepared). But I was one of the most dependent people I knew before going off to Athens. I couldn´t see my life outside of the care of my parents and the wrath of my lovely little sister. But I got to OU, and I did fine. I love school and I love my friends and I love it there. And that didn´t take too much time at all - I was practically settled after a month.

That´s not happening in Spain. I can´t seem to come to grips that I´m so far from everyone. I know it´s a lot longer and Athens gives me the piece of mind that home is only a four hour drive away, but it´s more than that. I cannot, no matter how hard I try, accept that being in Spain is real. I keep thinking, ok, I´m adjusting, I am getting this lifestyle down. But I can´t do it like I did in OU. Maybe overseas adjusting takes more time. I just don´t understand this constant feeling of emptiness despite my love for the country, culture, etc.

I kinda just wanna be dancing to 99 luft balloons and eating some peanut butter with my too-green bananas. Isn´t that weird?

OH, how am I ever going to leave Spain? And oh, how am I going to last another month here? This double-life is killing me.


Zaragoza baby.

exercise - does it tire you out or does it energize you?

What was wrong with me?!

I don´t know what I have been thinking. Yesterday I slept in until 11, sat in my house all day doing various homework assignments, online chores, etc, and attempted to go to sleep at midnight. WHAT? I layed in my bed for two and a half hours... no response. I couldn´t even come close to sleep. When I woke up this morning, I felt fatigued, dehydrated, and altogether horrible. My idea for this past weekend was to relax and restore my health by relaxing around the house. And that idea? A really bad one.

All it took was a little trip to the pool this morning for me to figure out what was really wrong with me. My body had so much extra energy that it hated itself! I thought I could swim for five days straight... that´s how good it felt to just exercise.

Before my swim, I had this impending sense of doom and such a stressed out, frustrated outlook on life. After my swim, it as as if this big blanket of darkness was lifted and I knew I would be able to do everything I needed to do today. So yea, letting myself recooperate without exercise was a horrific idea... I´m never trying that again. A certain amount of exercise is necessary for mental health I guess.

My adventures at the pool... well, they were adventures. They always are. There´s the really fake lifeguard who has this huge, fake, glued-on smile and always makes me feel like a pile of dirt on the ground. There are all these rules to follow at the pool and I´m just so confused! The sporting good store was closed this morning, so as usual, I came without a swim cap and had to borrow one (because it is prohibited to go without in pools here). She gave me her big, fake smile and told me I should have gotten one this weekend. The one I borrowed today was all stretched out and fell off during each lap. It got so annoying that i put my goggles on over it so it would just stay around my ponytail so nobody could yell at me for not ¨trying¨to wear it. Sigh. I finally bought a swim cap after school today and I can´t wait to enter the pool without the narrowing eyes of mrs. fake-nice lifeguard who secretly hates me (or so it seems). How much do normal swim caps cost? Because mine was the equivalent to about 6.50 for a stupid cloth one. Ugh, the things I spend my money on in Spain.

I had my second mid-term today, and my last one is tomorrow! Whew! Then I have my three page newspaper article due the next day. Oy! What a week, I´ll say.

I think the plan is to get to Granada this weekend... the only sadness involved in this is the 10 hour bus ride that stops in Madrid in the middle of the night for an hour. What a bummer. No sleep and no comfort and barely any time to spend in Granada. I wish this program would give us like 8 days of class in a row and 8 days of break so we could spend more time in the locations that we travel to. That would be ideal... I have heard about other programs that do that. However, it´s 80 euro round trip by bus, which isn´t too horrible. Now, to find a hostel that´s clean! And to find flights to Paris and Lisbon!

I have been doing a lot less general thinking about Spain... and a lot more thinking about the little details in my life, which I think is a sign that I´m finally understanding and embracing the fact that this is real life, not a dream. I´m now used to the fact that the only garbage can in the house is on the outside porch. I´m used to the fact that I walk or take the bus places. I´m used to the fact that I have my own room and a host mom who does all my laundry and makes all my food for me (oh, how i´m going to miss these luxuries when back in Athens... and not miss the fact that my sweaters are shrinking). I´m used to the fact that all my classes are in spanish and that everything I write is in spanish and all these things are becoming more easy for me.... like I once hoped it would be. I have embraced the relaxed lifestyle and siestas and the way store-owners always say ¨see ya later¨ when you leave the store. It´s undeniable that there are things about spanish life that i will indefinitely miss. The reverse culture shock is going to be really disappointing. I will be more than thrilled to be back with the people I love and the customs I am used to, but oh, there are so many things it´s good to escape in Spain. The mindless ¨college¨life that I like, but hate at the same time... how there´s this attitude that getting drunk and stupid is so cool or being obnoxious in public places is completely acceptable. It seems so ridiculous and embarrassing now. Nobody uses public transportation in the u.s. Fresh fruit, meat, bread, and more is either inobtainable in Ohio or very expensive. I´m not going to like re-entering a country that has a president hated by the rest of the world (and myself). I´m finding it´s true what they warned me about before I came to Spain - there´s not much that the rest of the world approves of being done in the U.S. Not that I´m not proud of my country, but hearing bad news about companies, pollution, politics, war, and everything else in the United States all day is hard to accept. The only things about the United States that seem to meet approval here are the music and movie industries. This negative attitude coming from Spain (and from what I can gather, Europe... and pretty much everywhere) is hurtful but it´s the truth.

It´s strange that most times I think about what I miss about home, but I´m starting to see parts of the grass that are greener over here. And I know I will forever have this feeling in me, no matter how much I suppress it, that my life in the United States is so sheltered, that there are things so disappointing that I will never be able to change, that I have to live with these things that I have done without, am happier without, but I will always live with them. Because I cannot see myself living in Spain, or any other country for that matter. Not permanently at least, not for long periods of time. It´s the sadness and the fear that I will never be able to just pick up my life and move to another country ever again. That right now is as free as I´m gonna get? And never again will I have this opportunity to see beyond what I have seen all my life. But I guess I cannot permit myself to think along these lines because nothing is impossible, nothing is certain, and life throws you a lot of curveballs and unexpected things.

OH, the heaviness of these thoughts. I´m listening to Radiohead now, which makes everything seem 2,000 times more serious and emotional... even though I know it´s not.

My sister Amaia went back to Bilbao for school... how did those three weeks pass so quickly? I know I should have taken more advantage of her company and all the things she could have taught me... but it´s too late for that now. I´m just so lucky I have met her and gotten to know her. And I did learn a great deal with her. I´m so lucky.

Health updates: my left eye is still dialated, which is what the medicine should be doing to it, according to nelson. No floating spots for now... just hypersensitivity to the sun. No bug bites lately. I am hoping this is a step in the right, healthy direction.

Proposed schedule for next quarter: graphics for journalism, history of spanish america, philosophy of ethics, philosophy of logic. 17 hours i believe. should be a fun one. :) spring quarter is always lovely. never thought i would be saying i was excited to get back to woub and acrn, but i am. i am in new-music withdrawal and i fear that i have forgotten how to write a proper news story!

cd´s to remember to get:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Shins
The Arcade Fire
Kaiser Chiefs
let me know if there are more that i´m forgetting...
p.s. I think I need to see Franz Ferdinand live before I die.

this weekend...

mejorar la vida.

things are feeling a lot better. i have a small cough and am feeling a little under the weather, but i think it´s just from the stress and rush of emotions and mixing medicinces and all that stuff together. the vision in my left eye is always blurry because the drops i am putting in dialate the pupil.

my only issue with this is that it makes studying for exams, etc. slightly more difficult because all the reading and seeing and stuff is only using my right eye, giving me a little headache.

other than that, i´m just praying for the inflamation to go away and for everything to be back to normal within a week. i have two more bumps (very small, almost not even raised, but slighlty pink) on my face this morning. maybe they are just pimples. i hope so, but i don´t think so.

yesterday i had a very spanish day. kristen and i went shopping in the old part of town in the morning. We went in search of some little, uniquely spanish shops. In Spain, there are the normal chain stores (like The Gap or Forever 21, etc.)called Zara, Mango, and Bershka, and there are the little stores in the old part of town where everything is special and not brand-named and all that jazz.

So I found more gifts for people (yay!) and the first wallet I have ever bought for myself. I figured I would enjoy it because everytime I see it, I will think of the old part of Pamplona and cherish that memory.

There seems to be a parade or festival in the old part of the city every weekend... and what do ya know? There was! There were huge muppet-like stilted people walking through the streets, music, dancers, and everything you would expect from a Spanish parade! How cool!

And we stumbled upon my favorite chocolate store (the one where the chocolate is imported from a village in another part of Spain) and of course had to stop and eat a chunk of chocolate. Later, we felt the need to get a muffin. Not just an ordinary muffin, a muffin in the most packed bakery I have ever seen, a muffin with chocolate chips and huge nuts. Kristen insisted. We waited in line behind all these people ordering dozens of pastries and stuff for our one muffin. Then we realized our dilemma - we didn´t even know how to say muffin! And out of nowhere, it popped into my head. Magdelena! Muffin! That´s it! So we ordered it with no problem and sat on a wet bench and savored our magdelena split in half. That´s the problem, we feel like we must indulge on these things in Spain. And we have to. Cuz when am I gonna go into a small family-owned bakery and order a magdalena ever again?

After I did some studying and eating of lunch, it was time for adventures with my intercambio, Fernando.

He took me to the stupid Gallipot again, that bar he took me to on our first meeting. But i guess we are getting used to each other, and even if he speaks too much in english, i still reply in spanish... getting some practice rather than none. later, we went to eat pintxos (i think that´s how you spell it). it´s kinda what i did with amaia and beatriz the other night... it´s when the spaniards go out before dinner for little appetizers and drinks. it´s definitely not something i´m used to, and after two of these little bars in a row, with a glass of wine at each (you can´t order water... it´s, in fernando´s words, too big(they give you a big water bottle rather than a small glass of wine or a small cup of beer)... because you have to drink something small at each place, which apparently means alcohol. it´s what they do. it´s not very suitable for me.. i was feeling pretty happy after the two bars we went to. a bit weird to be feeling tipsy after a ¨school-related event,¨ but, then again, my spanish seemed to flow out of my mouth much more easily (haha, great).

I came home around 10, but i was in no state to resume my studies, so i translated my spanish music magazine into english and went to sleep. i get to learn all the news about the new clap your hands say yeah cd in spanish. woo! better than no information.

my sister is watching the family guy in spanish.

today i intend to do all the fun stuff in life - study, work out my spring schedule (for which i have to wake up at 3 in the morning here in order to schedule at the respective u.s. time), figure out internship and scholarship applications, more homework, etc. there are some things you just cannot escape no matter what country you flee to.

time for fun stuff! i miss you all!!!!

hasta luego. (pronounced here as ¨hastloogo¨ really quickly and almost indistinguishable)

weakness and recovery.

i hate being such a downer, and i think this entry will be a bit more positive than the previous. i received 4 medicines from an optometrist here and a vitamin from the other doctor for the mosquito bites (as he diagnoses the several strange bumps) on my skin. that was yesterday.

today i´m feeling sick. sick because my body is weak from this and sick because my mind is tired and scared. i reached another low today... the fear of all this stuff caught up with me and the fact that i´m so far from being myself and just comfortable here in spain. i think the adjustments would have been a lot easier had i been healthy like i normally am. it´s just weird that all these crazy things should be happening to my body at the same time... i have had years where nothing this serious has happened at all.

i broke down. i cried, in my room, by myself. i utterly felt alone and didn´t see the necessity in racking up a huge phone bill for another call home. i don´t know why i couldn´t just calm myself or just call someone. but i think the crying needed to come... it is one of those releases that sometimes i cannot prevent.

my spanish parents were horrified (maybe that´s not the exact right word... they felt horrible) when they saw me so upset. and after 5 minutes of trying to explain to my spanish mom how i was feeling and that, NO I didn´t want to go back to the United States, I wasn´t THAT upset, i think she understood just what i was feeling.

she called nelson, the teacher in charge of all my program-mates and i while we are in spain, the man who takes me to all the doctors, is there to help whenever i need it.... basically one of the best people i have ever met. he has never-ending support for all of us, and everything would be infinitely harder without him always helping out. anyway, she called him to get the full story of what the doctors had said about my health. i finally understand a little better. i had this inflamation in my eye back in ohio, but the inflamation has just stayed there, and the medicine i had been prescribed was either wrong, or just not working. it´s a serious case because by no means should an infection this serious still be there - it needs to be eliminated immediately. however, i guess they caught it in an ok stage where things still should be able to be fixed. but i´m being highly medicated with strong strong medicine. at least that is what i have deduced because it stings when i put the eyeddrops in, and the pill he gave me was so strong that he had to give me another one to take with it that will prevent it from upsetting my stomach. probably, that is why i´m so weak right now. i´m assuming the two varieties of eye drops are stronger types of steriods (because they were steroids that they prescribed me in the u.s.)... the doctor said the treatment needs to be brief and aggressive. and one of the reasons i´m not seeing very well in my left eye is that they dialated it so much yesterday and it needs to go back to normal.

oh, spanish mom is calling. we´re going out for a bit to wake me up a little. i just slept almost all the day. more updates later.

p.s. i´m gonna be fine. i am.

updates as of midnight....

i wanted to write more before, but my spanish mom wanted me to come out and run some errands with her... she thought it would be good for me to get out, and it definitely was great. we looked for some matresses... and sheesh, everything is sooooo expensive in pamplona. can´t imagine permanently living here. although i did find a cashmere sweater for myself today for 15 euro (maybe 22ish dollars?). i tell myself i deserve to shop because it´s the time of ¨rebajas segundas¨ and it´s pretty much all huge sales now. and also, because i love clothes and i will appreciate tehm even after i have returned to the united states.

anyway, what i wanted to say before was that i really really really am so lucky i have a great host family. i sometimes forget to appreciate them fully. they may not be my real family, but they treat me with so much care that i might as well be there kid. today, when i was upset, pilar and pepe kept telling me everythign was gonna be fine, i´m gonna be healthy, i´m still young... blah blah blah, hugging me, telling me i just needed to relax, take a nap, and stop worrying. it was really so sweet... i can´t really describe it in words. but the thing is, they were just there for me the second i needed them, and it´s so sweet.

after i went on some errands with pilar, i went out with amaia and her friend beatriz before dinner. i guess it´s really common for people to go to bars before and after dinner on the weekends. they were packed, and it was only like 8! imagine starting to drink before you even officially go out. it was strange. what customs they have in spain...

anyway, i am pretty sure that amaia and beatriz are my favorite people here. they are such fun girls to hang out with and we miraculously have so much in common. it´s a shame that i have to keep seeing my intercambios, two people with which i have little in common... and that i could care less if i ever saw again in my life... rather than getting my school credit for hanging out with spanish kids who i actually like. they are great. beatriz is a real music fiend and she´s just so cute. anne hu, if you are reading this... she reminds me of you!! and amaia is beyond description - i dont´know if i have ever met someone quite so upbeat/crazy/fun/cute in my life. she just makes you happy to be around her (most of the time... but i can tell there´s the whole ugh, my parents annoy me a lot syndrome when the whole family is together... just like in any situation). amaia will just start humming a song or dancing around the kitchen while she cooks, she´s just random and happy and so in love with her boyfriend that it makes everyone around happy. and i enjoy being in their company because they can talk about serious, intelligent stuff like the terrorist activity here, or problems with the universities, etc, and they can talk about stupid things like chicos guapos (good-looking boys, of course!) and maquillarse (putting on make-up) and music and all that fun stuff that girls like to bond over. it´s a nice balance.

amaia and beatriz
i am not going out with them tonight (regretfully) because i want to focus on my health. i just get so exhausted and feel yucky the next day because it´s like against the law to return to your house before 4 in the morning, and i am not good at adjusting to that time.

so yea, i have talked about my health problems, my spanish friends and family, and i think that´s what´s occupying my thoughts right now.

i finished my book and was really bummed out (mom)... in conclusion, i think it´s dull. i´m sorry. that´s the truth... but i guess it kept me busy for a while.

i´m updating some pictures in my blog, so check back to the barcelona entry for some displays of beauty...

beware of rant that follows.

Have you ever read the children´s book entitled ¨Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day¨? That is exactly how I would like to describe February 7, 2007.

It all started when I discovered the hole in the new blue sweater that I received lovingly from my family for Hannukah, and it didn´t get much better from there. I discovered that there were more red bumps on my body - two small ones on the other side of my face and a slightly enlarged one on my right hand.

When I got to the swimming pool, I swallowed water and felt uncomfortable with the spanish lifeguard and spanish male water polo players who kept splashing my lane. And the lifeguard made me move lanes cuz she had to test someone and she threw a kickboard on my head to get my attention.

When I went to change into normal clothes (WARNING, THE FOLLOWING MAY MAKE YOU SLIGHTLY UNCOMFORTABLE.), I discovered that, ha, I had forgotten my underpants in my house. Going without for the entire school day was a very new experience for me, and not a pleasant one. And here more frustrations began.

I realized during my walk from the gym to school that I forgot to write down three topics for the news article I need to write for my class... the class that started in 15 minutes. I rushed to the hallway, found a chair, and scribbled down three ideas, one of which, miraculously, my teacher was fine with. (If that isn´t a run-on sentence for a Scripps kid, I don´t know what is.) So my article will be about the differences between journalism in Spain and the U.S. Suprisingly, there are several HUGE differences, including the way the first sentence is written, what details are allowed to be included, and whether or not they are politically biased. Perhaps I can publish the article when it´s done... translated into english.

Anyway, before my next class, Kristen, Kate, and I looked for Paris hostels, for a trip that is not going to materialize this weekend. We realized this after we looked for a train and it costed over 140 bucks each way... and that we need more time to look.

After school, I decided that it was a bit scary that I have been seeing floating black dots in my left eye whenever I go outside, so I told my mom to ask the eye doctor. Apparently, he thinks that it is correlated to the previous inflamation that I had in my iris before I came to Spain, that it has spread to the back of my eye, and that it´s a serious issue that needs immediate medical attention.

So I started bawling my eyes out. I have mysterious bumps everywhere, my eye is going blind, and I am stuck in a country where I cannot even understand what the doctor is telling me. Plus, an appointment with a dermatologist or an eyedoctor costs about 100 buck a piece cuz we don´t have spanish insurance. That´s my train fare for France! Come on!

I talked to my spanish mom, and she said she saw floating dots at one point in her life too. And that´s just wonderful because her retina completely dropped and she is practically blind in one eye. Just the kind of reassurance I wanted to hear. Yup, my half blind spanish mom had the same eye problems that I´m having now. Uh huh, great.

My first midterm´s tomorrow, and I think I can do it... then I have one on Monday and one on Tuesday. All fun things come in packages... you know, like midterms, and eye diseases, and plagues of forgetfulness.

And don´t say I didn´t warn you about the rant. It´s in the title. Off to sleep.

almost better.

my leg and bites are almost gone... they are shrinking by the day thanks to some magical spanish cream.

i am not in the habit of taking twice as long to write my blog because i have to erase every other word after i misspell it. spanish has taken a toll on my english spelling and i try to leave out letters (letres en español) or putting in extras (action in spanish is acción). anyhow, i would like to thank grandma and all others who wrote comments about how stupid i am for staying in that stinky hostel and acquiring bumps. (sarcasm, but thanks, at least i know you are reading about my stupidity) i already heard long lectures from my spanish parents that i need to search very hard for a good ¨albergue¨ to stay in if i got to france this weekend. they keep telling me the same things, and it´s the one thing that i continually want to smack them about.

i made a mistake, yes. but does that make me a total idiot, NO. at least that´s what i want to believe. i get the point, spanish parents! i will not stay in another cheap hostel in my life, whether you lecture me or not! sheesh. i do learn from my mistakes.

anyhow, all else is well, for the most part. i still sat there on the bus this morning at amazement at the fact that i´m in spain. i just cannot seem to grasp the fact that this is really happening, that i am really doing this. this is just crazy. i don´t know why it´s so strange for me still. i´m used to life here for the most part, my spanish is getting better, but i still cannot believe these things are happening to me.

i have an exam thursday, and i believe another on monday and another on tuesday. i am beyond lost in the class with the exam this thursday, but i think with some studying, i´ll be able to figure it all out. the clarity has been emerging from the dark whole that seems to be my brain nowadays.

the thing is, i have been doing well in my classes (i think... wé haven´t had many grades yet), but i do a smaller amount of homework than usual because
a. i think they don´t give us THAT much
and
b. i would rather spend my time speaking with my family in spanish because i learn a lot more from that than looking at and translating a bunch of bookwork.

i have also dedicated large amounts to reading my one english book that i brought with me, so i hope when i finish that, i will have less distractions. i will just have to wait to read more english books till I come back because i think it is hindering my spanish learning by making me think too much in english about it.

i finished my ridiculous scholarship application for stupid scripps j. school. they are making me mail it over because they need my freakin signature to ¨confirm¨ that i will write thank you notes for any scholarships that i may receive. it´s a bunch of junk, i´ll tell you. this is a big deal here. i had to find a place to print the application, i have to go buy and envelope, go inside the post office to somehow figure out how to ask for a stamp, how to mail to the united states, etc. all for stupid scripps school who cannot accept an emailed application from a busy student studying abroad. i guess they will do anything to make their selection process easier. and there´s my daily rant.

but really, i´m not in a bad mood, as much as this blog entry may make me seem!

today i worked on a group presentation that will take place tomorrow, and i think we are going to be fine. i´m also still rejoicing from this amazing waffle i ate yesterday.

kristen and i went into cafe di roma, where we ordered, get this... waffles with hot fudgy chocolate, whipped cream, and vanilla gelato on top. i pretty much was so happy i wanted to die. and then i ordered hot chocolate, which, coincidentally, happened to be a melted chocolate bar. i have never drank chocolate so thick in my life. in fact, i felt the heart attack forming. but whatever, i swam for a hour that morning and i´m not depriving myself of sweets just because i´m in spain.

so when you go to spain, order un gofre con chocolate y nata and another gofre con helado, and you will probably just want to die of happiness like i did. unless you are a normal person who is not dependent on desserts like i am.

for all the perrysburgers out there reading this (knee, possibly?), there is a girl in my program named kate who went to perrysburg, and we did all the normal perrsyburg gossip, which i thought you would appreciate.

and noodle, my friend kristen here did go to hubbard (i think that´s the name) and we talked all the youngstown gossip too. i guess it is a small world after all.

my spanish mom has taught me that french people are pretty much alcoholics who are unhappy with their lives. maybe that is a generalization, but that´s pretty much what she said. they drink a ton in their houses and made trips to spain for the cheap tobacco and alcohol.

another random fact? the spanish kids here learn the form of english that they use in england, not in the united states. i thought that was weird... but i guess it´s the same. i learned spanish of south american countries, not spanish of spain. and there are very big differences, some of which i didn´t even know until i got here. in spain, they use a lot more informal verbs, different vocab for certain things, and have a very different dialect, to simplify it.

my spanish dad is watching some horrible movie with lots of monster noises and i kinda want to end this blog so i can leave the room.

goodnight!

p.s. my spanish friends and i at bar los portales.

dancing the night away. i believe to the song ¨Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,¨ a classic in every country.

relajando.

today was a good day. which seems to be a strange description for it because it was mostly homework all day. but the work was necessary... i have not picked up a book for a few days. i relaxed a lot, slept late, went for a run in the park, read my (english... yay!) book, and did homework.

i guess yesterday is what i should write about. it was a bit more action packed.

first, we (amaia, pilar, and i) went to the festival of san blas, where there are tons of caramelos (hard candies) and roscos (pastries) in the streets. it was packed with people in the old part of the city, and what a sight to see! we then went in the church to have good luck water splashed on us. then i saw my first authentic pamplonian market. it was a pretty interesting day - and i guess it only comes around once a year.

my spanish sister´s celebration was pretty fun. 12 family/family friends came over for a huge dinner with many appetizers and some seafood, but i was at the table with the semi-young people (her cousins, her boyfriends brother and his girlfriend, all who are on average 25 yrs old). It was alright. the cake she made was delicious, i just wish i could have eaten more. the portions of cake here must be 1/3 of the size of my normal portion in the u.s. healthier, but sadder.

then, some of her friends and her boyfriends friends came over. most were pretty nice, one of which i had met before. beatriz is the girl i know and i really really like her. we talk a lot about music, and she is easier to understand than amaia and we just have some great conversations! it´s so nice... she really tries to make me feel like i fit in (which amaia and her boyfriend also do). there was one really weird friend who came... i think he was friends with iker, amaia´s boyfriend. he is an art student too, i guess. he smelled horrible, like he hadn´t showered for weeks, was wearing a metallica shirt and had this ball exercise thing that spins and is supposed to strengthen your wrists. he creeped me out (even though he was harmless) and i had to hold my breath whenever her walked by. anyhow, we went to a bar to throw darts, which i apparently am horrible at. then we went to a discoteca where all my program-mates where also! it was a crazy coincidence and really exciting. however, it was really crowded, so we soon left. we met some french students who are studying here while we were looking for a bathroom in the plaza. they were interesting to talk to. we couldn´t think of anywhere else to go (it was 5:30 in the morning! and i thought i was gonna fall asleep in the street soon) so we went home. watched some tv, ate some leftovers, and finally went to bed. it was quite a night!

i have a red bump the size of texas (ok, maybe the size of a quarter) on my left shin. if you are a doctor or know one, let me know how to solve this mysterious case of the curious bump on my leg. here are pictures:

there´s good, there´s bad, there´s smelly.

today has been quite a day. a day full of things. full of things.

today was the trip to zaragoza with the entire group of awkward ohioans. zaragoza is two hours from here, we took a bus, we were tired, we were hungry.

my day began like this: i woke up, got ready, went outside to catch the bus. I went outside at 7:30, in hopes that the bus would come within minutes because I needed to be at the school in 15 minutes. They are on 15 minute rotations... and guess what? It came at 7:45. Just My Luck. So, I preceded to get on the bus, ride it past my bus stop that would have taken me closer to my destination, and get off at the wrong stop. At which point it was 7:52 - the bus was leaving at 8. As I sprinted clear across the campus, I thought to myself, ¨Why, this is crazy. Why am I running?¨ And of course, about half the group arrived after me, making my early morning race against time pointless.

I was tired (going on 6 hours of sleep because I cannot seem to stop reading my book when it is time for bed), I was hungry (I ate two pieces of toast and an apple, but I´m always hungry here), and I was frustrated.

¨But,¨ I thought to myself, ¨I am in Spain. This is good. I´m gonna need to get in a bit of a better mood here.¨ So, I did. We had a lovely bus ride, stopped at a cafe/bar where I had some tortilla, and began our day.

We saw El Palacio de Aljafería, the only remaining palace left from a certain period of time that the ¨múselmanes¨ made (the arabs). It was cool... I got some pictures.


We also saw a museum with paintings by Goya, where I snuck a picture of one of the paintings, unbeknownst to the security guard. I felt like such a rebel.

We also saw a few other museums briefly and then saw La Basílica del Pilar,¨ a really really really gorgeous cathedral where, of course, photography was not allowed. I swear I have never seen so much carving of intricate scenes, flowers, designs ever - in my whole life combined. It was gorgeous, painted with gold, each chapel in a separate dome, etc. Just beautiful.

Oh, I forgot to mention the lunch we had. When you go out to lunch in Spain, it´s a BIG deal. There are at least 5 appetizers, which included bread, peppers, bread crumbs with grapes, sausages and rice sausages with pig blood, ham, and cheese. Then comes the main course - lamb and potatoes. Then comes dessert - the most amazing lemon sorbet ever. Then they bring out the coffee, which I skip because I´m the only weird one in Spain who doesn´t drink coffee. But it´s ok because I drank enough wine to make up for it. You see, I was very cold, and my logic was that the wine would warm me up. And perhaps I was a little sleepy the rest of the day, but I was warmer, so mission accomplished.

We had some free time at the end of the day, so of course I scoured the city for candy. (Ok, not scoured, but I found a few things). We also shopped at a pretty unique jewelry store where Larissa got a necklace.

I slept a little bit on the bus ride home, came home and hung out with Amaia, my parents came home, and then the fun began.

I felt some itchyness... and after checking, I discovered three more bites/bumps on my skin! Lucky me! One of them is probably the size of Rhode Island. I just HATE this. So we stripped my bed of covers, sprayed my room again, I shook out all my clothes over the bathtup to see if i coudl find any bugs, showered, and we are washing all my clothes.

So much for going out tonight.

There´s my día. How was yours?