Something

I think I've mentioned recently how I've been feeling a lot of pressure to "make the most of" these last few weeks here. I mentioned that to Lauren the other day, and she said that maybe instead of focusing on making "the most" of this, I should focus on making "something" of it. I think that was good advice. And I think I've been doing a decent job of that lately. In the past week I've done several fun things: I went to the Mercadillo, I went to the Alcazar, I had a picnic, I went to see a movie (in Spanish!), and last night I went to a free Flamenco show. And for lunch yesterday I ate french fries and squid. I mean, you really can't get much more Spanish than that, can you? (Although actually, I didn't love it that much. It tasted okay, but all day I imagined those little squidies squishing around in my stomach. Um...that's less than appetizing.) I've done very little homework this week, but I think it's been really good for me to get out of the house a bit more.

I'm a little nervous though because suddenly it feels like there are about a bajillion things to squeeze into the time here. After vacation next week, we'll have one full week and then the week of exams and going home. There are a lot of things that need to happen during that week. I'm supposed to go bowling with Pablo, I want to take Erin to the cathedral, I want to go shopping with Sarah, I might go to a bull fight, I might go to Granada, and I want to eat more ice cream (perhaps multiple times). And this list does not include school work. In addition to all of those other cool Spanish things, I do want to do well on my last exams. Aaaaaaggggghhhh!!!! So much!

In other news, Feria (a big festival in Sevilla) starts Monday. Hence, tomorrow begins Spring Break 2.0. Here is a rough itinerary:

Friday afternoon: Fly to Germany (Frankfort) with Erin. Take bus to Mainz to meet Angy. Spend night in hotel in Mainz.

Saturday: Send Erin on her merry way (to Israel!!!). View Mainz with Angy. Go to Enkenbach.

Sunday: Enkenbach

Monday afternoon: Fly from Germany (Frankfort) to Madrid. Take metro to bus station. Take bus to Burgos. Meet Brian at bus station.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Burgos with the other Foxes in Spain!

Thursday (or Friday...not sure which yet): Return to Sevilla (most likely via bus)

I honestly don't really know much more than that. I'm looking forward to the trip. I'm really looking forward to being more north than here. It's been really hot lately. And I'm also looking forward to doing a little traveling by myself. I feel so much more experienced now after all of our Semana Santa traveling. I think this trip will be good.

Um...I'm kind of running out of things to say. For the record I may or may not have Internet again until Thursday or Friday of next week. Have a wonderful week everyone! I love you all!!!

Learning...

As discontent as I've been feeling lately, I'm realizing that I've been learning so much here. And that's good. Very good. I like to learn. Yesterday I learned a lot.

1) The Hepatitis B Virus can live in dried blood for up to a week: So I've been working on these online Swiss Village training session things when I have time. Yesterday I learned all about infectious diseases. But more interesting than that is the fact that the day before I did a session about dementia. That was Monday morning, and every Monday night I go to the convent. It was really interesting to go there and try to apply the things I have learned from Swiss Village. I'm realizing that interacting with dementia patients is so much more difficult when there is a language barrier. It is hard for me to know which people are saying things that nobody can understand and which people are saying things that only I am unable to understand. I am looking forward to returning to nursing homes where I can truly interact with people. But at the same time this has been a very good experience.

2) "Parasol" means "Sun-stopper": I'm not sure why I found this so interesting, but in Art class yesterday we saw a Goya painting of a boy holding a parasol over a girl. In Spanish, a parasol is a "Quita Sol" (basically "gets rid of the sun" or something) as opposed to a regular umbrella which is a "paraguas" (stops water). But in the middle of class, it occurred to me that "parasol" must mean "stops the sun." Hmm...Language excites me!

3) Good things come when you least expect them: I had absolutely no reason to think that I would be getting a package yesterday. I mean, I always eagerly peruse the mail table, but I try not to get my hopes up too high. Yesterday I was so very pleasantly surprised to find a box full of treats (including fish crackers just in time for fish cracker day today!) from my family. Yay!

4) You can't actually eat in the Alcazar: Erin, Sarah, and I had planned to have a picnic in the Alcazar (Castle gardens that are beautiful! Also, sometimes affectionately known as "Alcatraz" because that's easier to pronounce than Alcazar with an Andalucian lisp.) Sarah and Erin bought some food at the market and met me after class, we went into the garden and got all set up, and a guard came and told us that we weren't allowed to eat there. Oops. But we moved our happy little picnic out to the Plaza del Triunfo which was nice as well. It's been pretty hot here the past couple days though. I'm not sure if I'd rather have that or the snow I hear they're expecting back home.

5) Medium sized popcorn is definitely big enough: During the first weekend of the semester Sarah, Erin, Michelle, and I participated in a photo scavenger hunt from the school. We won (!) and received free movie tickets (including popcorn and soda!). So last night, Sarah and I finally went to the movies. Historically when Sarah and I go out, if she orders, we always get the wrong size. (For example, twice we've gotten a lot less ice cream than we wanted because I let Sarah order.) But it's a good thing that I ordered last night because otherwise we would have ended up with Grande popcorn instead of Medium. Medium was enough even for someone who loves popcorn as much as I do. It was pretty good. And somewhat interestingly, it was the first time I've ever gotten refreshments in a movie theater. (Oh, the things we do when spending money that isn't ours!)

6) I know a bit more Spanish than I thought: Sarah and I bought tickets for "El Curioso Caso de Benjamin Button." We weren't sure if it was going to be in English or Spanish. It was in Spanish. But we were actually really glad of that. We were surprised how much we were able to understand. I mean, I'm sure we missed some things, but for the most part we followed pretty well. That made me feel really good about myself and my (slowly) increasing Spanish abilities. Yay! I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I thought I would. It was a fun way to spend an evening.

7) Neither the buses nor the metro run at night: It was about 11:30 when we got out of the movie, and we were going to hop on the bus to come home. But when we got on, the bus driver said he couldn't take us because it was too late. So we got off. We were going to take a night bus, but we didn't want to wait so we just walked. We hadn't walked from Nervion since the time we did it with Shirel so we weren't exactly sure if we would be able to find our way. But we did it. Another thing to feel good about!

8) Taking the Los Remedios bridge is not the best way to get back to Triana: The funny thing was that though we didn't get lost on our way from Nervion, I did get a little lost after dropping Sarah off. She lives in the neighborhood Los Remedios. I live in Triana. I've been in Los Remedios many times, but for some reason I got kind of twisted around last night. I'll blame it on the streets that don't run at right angles. I thought I knew where I was headed, but then all of a sudden I was in a completely different street. But I found my way home and lived to tell about it.

Yep. I think that's it. There was much to learn yesterday. I guess there is always much to learn. So that's why I have to try to keep enjoying this. I just have to keep chugging along for about 3 more weeks. 3 weeks? I think I can handle that.

A Broken Promise

I generally try to make it a practice to keep my promises. For this reason I am sorry that I am about to break a promise. Perhaps you will cut me some slack if I say that breaking a promise will keep me from going completely insane. For some reason the thought of blogging about Semana Santa just makes me want to go crazy. So I think I will feel better if I just don't do it. Sorry. For now I'll just say that our trip was incredible. I liked London, and I loved Switzerland. I'm so glad I got to go. Feel free to ask all the questions you want when I come home.

I do believe, however, that I can continue blogging about my Spain life without losing my head. So that is what I am going to attempt to do. Last week was a weird week because we only had 3 day of class (not that I'm complaining!). On Wednesday we went to Italica (ancient Roman ruins). That was fairly interesting. We also got to see a Greek play (Lysistrata) (in Spanish) in the old Roman ampitheater. It was interesting. Actually, the play was pretty raunchy, but it was a good experience.

On Thursday, Gaulo returned! I have no idea where he was, but now my days can start right again with a free newspaper and a friendly "Buenos Dias!" from my favorite 20 Minutos man!

Friday instead of school we went to Ronda which is one of the oldest cities in Spain. It was beautiful! I loved looking at the old buildings and the mountains and such. It was kind of raining, but that wasn't bad because then it wasn't so hot. It was a really good day.

Also fun was that Friday night when we returned, we had a girls night. Sarah, Erin, Chrissa, Santia, and I got pizza and then we ate and watched a movie together in Chrissa and Santia's house. In general, it is not normal for Spanish people to have others over to their houses. But their senora loves students. She even made dessert for us! It was so fun and relaxing.

Saturday was a really lazy day. Chrissa and I went to the gypsy market in the morning, and then I basically didn't do anything else all day. Yesterday was also fairly lazy. But it made for a pretty restful weekend so that's good.

The thing I'm having trouble with right now is motivation. I don't feel like doing school stuff. Or traveling next week. Or making plans so that I can travel next week. Or blogging. But I know that I need to be super intentional about the next few weeks. (It's less than 4 now!) Because if I'm not intentional about enjoying this, I'll have a lot of regrets to bring home with me. And honestly, I'm already worried about everything fitting in my suitcases. I definitely won't have room to bring regrets as well. I feel like if I've made it this far, the next few weeks should be a breeze. But for some reason, this seems so hard. And it seems so hard to keep in touch with everyone. I kind of feel like I should just stop trying. When I get home we can start completely over. Then again, I don't think that's what I really want to do. But please don't take it personally if you don't hear from me much. I promise I do love you. I do miss you. I long to be home and see you all again. But that will come soon enough. Probably much sooner than I think...

A short apology

I must humbly beg your pardon, my faithful readers. It may seem that I have been ignoring you lately. That is partially true. And that is also something that you may (unfortunately) just have to get used to during this last month (yes, that's right...only one more month...crazy!). Life is going to be super crazy during the next few weeks. On Monday I wrote a little blog post just to assure you all that I was indeed alive and safely home in Spain, but somehow it didn't post and part of it got deleted so I never had time to try again. And I know that good intentions only get you so far so I am sorry about that. But I'm writing now. So here you go: I am indeed alive and safely home in Spain.

Wow...Semana Santa. It was such a crazy week. (Crazy in a very very wonderfully good way) You have no idea how much I long to sit down with each of you and have a long talk about this past week, and really, about everything that's happened to me this semester. But for now we will all have to be content with this. And when I come home we can have real story time...complete with loads of photographic illustrations! I don't even really have time for a quick recap now. I'll try to write something this weekend and get it posted Sunday or Monday.

I'm sorry everyone. I hate neglecting you. But there is so much crazy stuff that is going to happen in the next week. Even if I don't talk to you, please know that I love you all so very very much!

Itinerary

Okay. This should be a quick post because I really should be studying for the two tests that I have to take yet today. But I did want to take a little time to let you know what my plans are for the next week or so. Here we go...

Friday: Defeat exams of Cuentos and Arte (after defeating Historia yesterday)

Saturday: Fly from Sevilla to London with Erin. Wait for Sarah in London airport. Locate hostel (hopefully without too much trouble).

Sunday, Monday: Explore London and surrounding area with absolutely no obligations.

Tuesday: Say goodbye to Sarah and fly with Erin to Basel, Switzerland in the afternoon. Take train to find Kristen's relatives in the Bern area. (I'm going to Bern! I'm going to see the real Bern!!!!!)

Wednesday: Bern and surrounding area

Thursday: Take train to Zurich to find Erin's friends.

Friday: Zurich and surrounding area

Saturday: Fly out of Basel in the afternoon to Alicante, Spain (Oh, the bane of my existence!). Catch bus to Sevilla at 9:00 pm.

Sunday: Arrive in Sevilla at 9:30 am. Quite possibly in time for church on Easter Sunday?

Yep. It's going to be a crazy week. I hope it is incredible. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Please pray for us while we are gone. I'm still kind of nervous about how things are going to work out...especially with the hostel stuff in London. But I'm sure it will be good. And really...this is incredible! I'm going to London and Switzerland!!!!!

Things are looking good right now though. After today we only have 15 days of school left! And only one more exam week! And yesterday I got a package from Lauren. It was the best thing ever!!!! And now, I should stop writing and do some last minute test cramming. Whew. Life is amazingly insane.

(By the way, I may or may not have Internet access until April 13.)

I love you all!!!!!