Dear Nana and Papa,

So here is my response to your letter because I think this will be the easiest way for now because mail takes a long time to arrive and email is confusing.

Thanks for having the patience to try to figure out the whole email thing, but don´t worry, I like getting a letter just as much! Also, I can´t believe you took the time to read some of my spanish paper and could understand it... that must have taken some time!

Man, it sounds like you guys are doing A LOT of entertaining... I cannot even imagine having two families in a row like that. How are the Ilbuovich´s (i´m not sure if that´s how you spell it, it was hard to read)?

I´m sorry to hear about the tennis match, but there will be a lot more of those anyway in the future. Just know you could kick my butt any day and maybe then you will feel better. You guys are 6,000 times better than a 19-yr-old... pretty good if I say so myself.

How is the extention of the lanai coming? They better be done by May - that´s ridiculous already! Oh well, I´m sure it will be well worth it when it´s done. It´s just sad cuz I don´t know the next time I´ll be able to visit you guys and see it. I sure hope we take more frequent trips because I had the best time ever during winter break!

The botanical gardens sounds really beautiful. Cleveland´s is pretty cool too, so maybe we should take a trip there over the summer during the weekend. How does that sound? (I guess you can answer all these questions by phone cuz I´ll be home in 10 days! Crazy!)

Now, here´s the time where I can respond to your page of questions. Ready, set, go.

Are you taking any more trips?
Yup, you can read about where I´m going for my last trip this weekend in the blog before this. I´ll probably post information when I get back on Sunday or Monday so you will have the full update then. I¨m really excited! It´s to places that come highly-recommended from Aunt Fran and Sanford, so they should be amazing.

Is the Spanish coming any easier?
It´s coming a lot lot lot easier now. I can make sentences... with a little struggle, but it doesn´t take as much effort now. I can sound more natural, but I sitll do need to pause occasionally to think of the word or conjugate the verbs. It´s getting better really fast - I just wish I had more time to develop my language skills. I am sad because I know I´m going to lose most of the things I have learned here about the language when I get home because I won´t have much practice. I´m still taking classes, but that´s only 4 hours a week and it doens´t involve much verbal communication. I also am going to try to attend conversation hour, which is a weekly thing where you go to a restaurant to practice your Spanish. So maybe I´ll be able to retain a little bit.

Do I have enough clothes?
Suprisingly, I do. I only brought 3 pairs of jeans, some sweatpants/pjs, 5 tshirts, 5 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of exercise tights, 5 sweaters, 3 long sleeve shirts, and 3 pairs of shoes (walking, exercise, cute pair), 5 tank tops. spanish people wear a lot of the same clothes pretty often, so it wouldn´t be that weird if I only wore what I brought with me. However, I have shopped a bit and now have 2 more sweaters, 2 more blouses, a pair of flats and a pair of rainboots, and 2 short-sleeved shirts. I feel that I have a good amount because it will probably fit into my suitcase without a problem on the way home. It´s crazy how little clothing you can live on, and you would NEVER believe it nana!

Are clothes expensive here?
SUPER-EXPENSIVE. Everything is on the euro system, so that makes things automatically more expensive because the conversion rate between euros and dollars is really bad right now. Basically, every time I take out 100 euros, it is equal to taking out 133 dollars. There are a few reasonable chain stores where I have gotten shirts from between 9 euro to 17 euro, so that´s not horrible. Most of the other stores are privately owned and really really expensive. Some of the pricier ones just a few minutes from my house sell 600 euro pairs of jeans! I was lucky to be here during after-holiday sales (all through january and especially in february). But it´s sad because I want to buy all kinds of cool stuff, but i can´t fit too much into my suitcase and it adds up really quickly.

Is the food expensive?
AGAIN, SUPER. The thing is, Navarra (the community in which Pamplona is situated) has the highest cost of living in Spain (but also the highest quality of life). Everything here comes in smaller portions, so it´s sad because you never take food home from restaurants. When we go on big excursions with all the kids in my program, we get many-coursed meals, so I never go hungry, but it´s a different system of restaurants. I don´t buy the food that I eat on a normal basis because my host-mom buys and makes it but she says it´s very expensive to buy good food. And by good, I mean healthy. I also have dining hall food at the university 4days a week for lunch. When I go to the grocery store to buy snack foods and such or to a bakery, it adds up really fast because everything comes in smaller quantities, which can be really frusterating at times when I´m used to big quantities. I´m lucky though - my host mom keeps tons of fruit constantly on the table, so I can always take those things with me.

Have I seen my host sister?
If you haven´t yet, you should read my blog entry about Bilbao because I recently spent the whole weekend with her! Unfortunately, she is home right now, and I only say unfortunately because the reason she is home is because she is really sick. She had to come home from college for the weekend and she had tests done today. They don´t know exactly what is wrong now, but it could be something with her kidney. She is staying home because she has more tests to take on Tuesday at the hospital. They said it´s nothing too serious, but still, it´s such a bummer. She spends a lot of time with her boyfriend, so I don´t see her much, but it´s good to have her back. I just wish she was feeeling better!

Do I go out with the kids from Cleveland?
I do go out with them every once in a while, but I travel a lot on the weekends, so that takes up more of my time. I also tend not to go out with them much because they always go to an Irish bar where they speak English, and I don´t feel like I´m getting any benefit out of speaking english in the same old bar every night. I would rather do other things. I know they have fun, but I would rather travel or spend more time keeping in touch with people at home.

Have I met more spanish kids?
Not many. It´s hard because nobody exactly comes up to us at the university and tries to be our friends. We are kinda the American rejects. I do spend time with the girl ¨intercambio¨ (speaking partner) who I got assigned to talk with though the OU program. We meet once a week to talk, walk around, and learn about each other and our cultures. It´s pretty interesting and I enjoy it. Other than that, no! How sad it is, but like I said, it´s hard. Oh, I forgot! My two friends and I decided to break the Irish bar tradition a few weekends ago and we met some really great kids at a spanish bar. They are from all over Spain and they are studying at the private university (I go to the public university) here in Pamplona. They were so nice and showed us around and it was great! I know if I had more time here, I would have more opportunities to meet people, but it´s ok. I have learned a lot from my family and intercambios.

Hope that answered everything! I love you guys so much and can´t wait to talk to you! I should get some sleep!!