This past week marked the official 'one month' marker of my time in Spain!! Part of me feels like it's been longer than a month and I can't believe it's only been such a small amount of time and another part of me feels like it's only been a week, and how can that much time be gone already. As I read status updates of friends beginning to study for the oh-so-dreaded midterms weeks I am incredibly grateful that I am here and not there :-) and I wish all of you the best of luck!!
My classes are progressing steadily! I now have homework in some of them, just reading in others. I feel that these classes are all going to be a very light workload until the week before midterms, and then it's just going to be ridiculous. But, such is life, and as long as I get to enjoy my weeks before midterms with little homework and lots of relaxation I will be a happy camper :-)
Compared to last week, this week is chopped liver. I didn't really go anywhere crazy, had no ridiculously fun adventures...in fact, this week was kind of one huge failure of a week...which I still managed to enjoy! I had originally intended to go on a 7 hour hiking trip in the northern area of Andalucia, but then I was told it was full. We changed our plans then to going to a winery or a bodega, meaning they only bottle the wine there, it's not actually a vineyard. My friends Elise, Emily, Jenny and I all dragged ourselves out of beds this morning to catch our 10:45 bus. I realize to all of you that having to be somewhere by 10:45 would be a leisurely morning, but remember, I'm on Sevilla time...and it's the weekend... Anyways, we get slightly confused as to where the bus station is, wander around and end up finding it with 10 minutes to spare, meaning we got there at 10:35 am, only to be told that the bus had left at 10:30. So, our reservations for our 2:00 pm winery tour were cancelled and we were left to spend the day in Sevilla. Not all bad because we decided to go and look around the market they have in Triana which is where you can buy good food, hand made items, books, random things. We walk to Triana, which is a neighborhood within Sevilla, only to fail at finding the market. So, hike-less, winery-less, market-less weekend in Sevilla. But, this weekend we went dancing two times, and everybody knows how much I like to shake my groove thang, so I'm still a very happy camper!!
Also, this weekend, my host family is staying at their other house. Apparently, they have an apartment in the city, and an actual house outside of the city. They said that this time they were going to clean and organize the house, but one of the next times they will bring me with them. So Britt was kind enough to spend the night with me and help fend off the monsters living under my bed, such a sweet gal!
This week did have it's positive aspects as well! I booked my trip to Dublin, Ireland! So on this coming Thursday night I will take a bus to Madrid, and from there I will fly to Dublin. My classes on Monday are cancelled as it is 'Dia de Andalucia' so I will be there almost all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and will return to good ol' Spain on Monday :-) I can't put into words how excited I am...although, had the trip been a little less expensive I may have been a little more excited...$315 for a flight, ouch. Not to mention, this is the first time in, oh I don't know 6 YEARS, where I haven't had an income, so my anal, accounting self is starting to freak out. But as my incredibly wise big brother told me, spend the money because you never know if you'll ever be able to do it again! So, to Ireland I go!!
I have also now booked trips to Lagos, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain. This doesn't include the already planned trips to Cordoba (a city in Spain) and Morocco. Needless to say, I now have France, U.K. and Italy left on my need-to-visit list!! I'm really hoping to add Prague to the destination itinerary, as well as Malta, as I've recently heard that is a must-visit. If anyone has thoughts as to why Germany should be included, let me know, because I'm a little unsure as to whether to spend the money to go there or not!
The biggest, most EXCITING news from this week is that my friend Tracy will be visiting myself and our other friend Leah in Spain over her spring break!!! Leah is currently working as a model in Barcelona, so she'll be flying in there. Ironically, she arrives the same weekend that I had planned to be in Barcelona before I even found out she was coming so I'm pretty sure it was fate helping us out there :-) Unbelievably, beyond excited to see her, and just to have a visitor in general!!!!
Last, but definitely not least, I wanted to say a huge happy birthday to my amazing older brother, Ken! We found out for sure this week that Ken will be leaving for his next 4 month training with the Army in April, so I won't be seeing him until August, unless he can get leave before then! I would be angry about it if I wasn't so incredibly proud of what he's doing!! We will celebrate extra hard in August Ken, I'll bake a cake and everything :-)
Hope you all had an amazing Valentine's day and an even more amazing week! Dad, if you haven't taken Mom out to dinner yet, get on that!!! I sure have missed a lot of big events in Wisconsin, our state has been crazy this past month :-) It's bitter-sweet for me to realize that I will be returning to it in 3 months and one week!
Hasta luego!
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