Aventuras españolas

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 12:15:07 GMT

Pues...estoy hecho polvo...sorry, just trying to keep some of these 200 vocab words that I´m hammering into my head right now fresh. Really tired but I´d like to write. We´ll see how this goes. So this morning I woke up, showered, left the house on time AGAIN (who´s good) and tried to check on the election before class. Still pretty much up in the air at that point. We spent Ernesto´s class reviewing for the test tomorrow (which I should be studying for right now). Mila´s class seemed long...then had a supershort meeting aobut the trip to Córdoba this Friday. In Lit it was presentation day. I think I did ok. I don´t have strong feelings either way. She re-enforced what I said about " La Prosa del Renacimiento" and so I guess that means my info was correct. No clue how she grades those things. I talked for an ample amount of time. We´ll see. Current Events we spent mostly talking about the election - at this point in the day it was looking like Bush, but no one was quite sure. Hopefully my participation grade in that class will be better than last time. And my presentation in that class is next WEd. Actually, today after my presentation in Lit while other people were giving theirs I made myself a calandar...academically and socially it´s packed from now till the end of the term. Yikes, gonna be fun as hell, but tough. AFter class got on the computer for a short while, then walked home with LIz. Nice day - chilly but not freezing. I like it.

So we came home, ate lunch - something that tasted like chili and some of that marvelous cheese - manchego. Also known as queso viejo. It´s so incredible. Made in Spain from sheep´s milk. I prepared my song for tomorrow and then laid down to sleep from 345 to 5 but ended up sleeping till 630 . oops. OH well. So I went to school, spent 15 minutes on the computer where I found out Kery finally conceeded - go Bush. I can´t believe it´s finally over. AFter all that anticipation and build up. Funny how I still feel in the minority despite the fact that he won the election - popular vote and all. Could be that I´m in Europe. Anyway so went to dance class - José kept telling me how cute I was but when I say cute I mean it - like he was like "I can´t look at you, you´re too cute, like a Cabbage Patch doll, I just wanna pinch your cheeks"...but pinched my ass instead while we were dancing. So I got on the computer again, and was shortly extremely frustrated because the internet network just stopped working and no one could do anything - including I couldn´t talk to Raymond, so I didn´t have much contact with him all day. So I just left, came home, wrote him an e-mail, grabbed my study stuff, and left.

I went to Plaza de Alfalfa and met Ian, Liz, and Cale, who had just gotten his eyebrow pierced. Looks good! But we all know me and piercings. We ate dinner at this AMAZING pizzería. I had a bite of it one night at a botellón there and knew I had to actually eat there someday. Today I feel fulfilled. The pizza was just so damn good. Good food, good company- we were there almost 2 hours. Convo turned interesting at the end when Ian started explaining how he believes Jesus spent hiw "unknown years" in INdia learning from the "masters", being the 3 wise men, and that the star of Bethelehem was really a mystic concept called "the third eye" and Liz told him he was full of shit. Between the 2 of us, I´m the more conservative, and I never would have said something like that. really surprised me. She said she felt bad later. Anyway, when we left we ended up running to catch the 12 o clock bus from Plaza Nueva home and had to sort of yell a goodbye to Cale. So we came home and she went to bed - I´ve been studying and got on the computer to see that Discoversevilla has Gibraltar pics up - yay!! And I really don´t feel prepared but I´m also really tired so I think sleep is more important than study right now.

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:48:27 GMT

So, despite my best intentions, today was one of the most unproductive days I could have had. So, whynot continue that trend and lay in my warm bed and write in my journal, insteadof doing homework.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 830 (so I thought) to get up and get ready for church. I showered, ate breakfast, and was 10 minutes shy of walking out the door when I texted Pam and realized it was an hour earlier than I thought. Damn day-light savings time. Damn me for missing it. so I found ways to occupy my time for an hour - e-mail, journal, until it really was time to leave. I waited in front of the soccer stadium like 10 minutes for Pam, and we in turn waited like 25 for Jacki and amanda. So that´s like an hour and 35 minutes extra of sleep I missed out on. A whole sleep cycle. How frustrating. During which time Pam and I were approached by some sketchy Bulgarian tourist (people are actually from there!?) who in both terrible english and terrible Spanish asked us wehre to find a flamenco show. Kinda weird. so the 4 of us walked to church, during which walk I found out a girl in our program Rhonda (really the only thing I know about her is that she just might be the worst dancer in the whole world) is apparently on a weekend get-away alone at a beach house with the 34 year old guy who works the reception desk at the Center! ¡Que interesante! We´re not sure if that´s kosher or not. So we go to church- which besides being good for me spiritually as I haven´t been since I´ve been here, will also be a cool new setting to experience the language in - so I´m excited.

so we arrive at the Iglesia de Cristo - one of the like 3 Christian but not Catholic churches in Sevilla. It was a great experience. The music was great, and there was a long of singing. Spanish praise and worship is good for the soul, not to mention I don´t get to do a lot of singing in Spanish or singing in general here, so it was fun. I really liked the songs- I wonder if there´s any sort of Spanish contemporary Christan music scene. There´s a small Latino one in the States. The guy who delivered the message was quite passionate and emphatic - hand banging, foot stomping, yelling, tears, and rather comically, visibly spitting on himself once every 10 minutes or so - he would have a little white foamy spit thing somewhere on his face in the vicinity of his mouth. AS far as the sermon goes, yay that I could undersatnd it. Spiritually I would say it wasn´t extremely profound. It was a log of generealities standard in the Church including emphasis on "Jesus is coming soon, are you ready?" which, definitely needs to be said on occasion but the whole sermon was sort of a string of "churchy" generalities like that. The text was the 10 Commandments in Exodus which he mentioned not once- at the end of the sermon he apologized for it thoug. Apparently he´s the pastor who recently retired but the new pastor is out of town or something. Anyway, next was the "Santa Cena", during which i somewhat irreverantly wondered what my Baptist minister father would think of me drinking (not-so-good) wine in church. Finally the offering, then announcements, each element of the service being interspersed with songs, and about an hour and 45 minutes after it began, the service ended.

We turned around to see Amy (a girl in our program) and her *gorgeous* fiance there, as well as her family, who are all in town visiting, and later Jackie informs me that he´s the grandson of Truett Cathy as in founder of Chik-fil-a. um, wow. She is cool too, so I assume he must not be anything less, AKA she got herself a total package. Christian, gorgeous, rich, and I´m assuming good personality because Amy´s awesome. They make one of the most beautiful couples I´ve ever seen. Anyway, we walked back to Nervion, Pam and I walked a ways together, found out she lives closer than I thought. I came home, sat down to write in my journal, when I get a text from Ian. So I leave to go meet him at Café de Indias for a coffee. We stay for about an hour, talked, I managed to, for a while, direct the conversation away from drugs, nutrition/how your body works, and mediation for a chane. I love talking to him but if he had it his way we´d talk about those things all the time, which are interesting for a while as I know littel about them, but not all the time. And right after I left he got up the guts to go talk to a girl who had been staring at him like the whole time, so he now has a new intercambio. I´m proud. I came home for lunch, got red salchicha juince on my white shirt - yay, and then journaled, e-mailed, etc, till 5 when I had just laid down for a nap when Liz texted me. I texted her back and then fell asleep when 2 hours later the text sound woke me up. I was frustrated it had taken her 2 hours to text me back to go see her when she wasn´t home all weekend, so when she invited Ian and i out with her and Cale for coffee, I was tired and irritated so I was like "I´ll just see you when you get home." But I couldn´t fall back asleep.

Next, Ian texted me saying he was really bored, so I met him at Café de Indias and texted Liz and told her and Cale to come. So we all met up and chatted for an hour and a half or so to the sound of random rockets being shot off, loudly, followed by some random bagpipes. AT 10ish, Liz and I needed to go home so Ian and Cale decided to go get dinner together. WE came home, ate some sort of noodle soup and a hamburger - and then despite the fact that it was Halloween and all just didn´t feel like going out and so made a pretty early night of it.

This morning Liz woke me up to ask if I wanted to go with her and her mom and her aunt and their two best friends and Cale around sevilla at like 9, but I had every intention of getting a little more sleep then working hardcore on my project, so I said no. Slept till 11, got up, got on the computer after breakfast with the family who apparently slept late too. REalized when I went to do my project that I actually needed to do research for it, which I can´t do without the library, and since today is El Día de los Santos, the school is closed. So that put a damper on my productive day. So I went to an internet café and talked to Raymond for a short time until time for me to leave. I met liz and the posse for lunch. habanita was full, as was the pizzeria on Alfalfa, so we found a random restaurant which was slightly pricey and had a lot of seafood on the menu. I just got patatas ali-oli, of which I had to scrape half the mayo off. Liz´s mom is cool. compared to say, though, my aunts when they all get together, Liz´s mom´s posse as a group are much quieter and maybe even a little dull. Maybe just different I don´t know. But they took little interest in me and I found them difficult to converse with. Liz´s mom did give Liz and I both a Halloween package with little trinkets and candy, including Reese´s - OMG we´re peanut butter starved here- the Reeses were so good. anyway at least I got a free lunch. So I met with Lindsey in Plaza Nueva to get the picture CD - yay for lots of cute pics though many are kinda blurry. We talked for a few while I ate my ice cream - yay for helado. Then Liz met up with me and we caught bus 23 to nervion plaza and hit up corte ingles for a few things. ONce back here, we tooka late hour and a half siesta, then woke up slowly to start just doing some small homework. Dinner was an egg, french fries, and croquetas. liz just lef to go hang out with Cale in an adorable pink sweater that her mom brought her from Paris. I was supposed to go but don´t feel like it. I´m going to go to the i-net café, hope Raymond´s on, if not just type this up so I´ll have a free day for my project tomorrow, and go to bed early. Blah to projects.

Random Thoughts...

Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:29:04 GMT

to take up the last 2 pages of this journal, so I can start a new one with a new entry!

First, I´m impessed that I´m already at the end of this journal. I´m pretty proud of myself for keeping up with it. Usually journals last me like a week before I give up. This, however, is España, and I think this is worth it. Everytime I mention it to people they´re like "Oh that´s so good thatyou´re actually keeping up with it! I wish I would have done that." So yay for me.

Hmm... Ian. So Friday night when he cut me off I told him I´d only go home if we could make out in the back of the taxi. *Silly drunk Stefanie* He told me no but offered an explanation...said he was very attracted to me but it´s the same reason he quit having sex with his girlfriend a month before he left...has to do with his attempting to avoid physical pleasure in order to reach a higher mental state. Oh well. Raymond mentioned "strong feelings". Not sure how he got that impression but I would definitely not call them that. The fact is the more I hang out with him the less I think of him as a crush and the more I consider him a friend. Other than that I think he´s adorable, I would say any crush feelings are pretty much gone.

I never mentioned my problems with Ilya. I was seeing him all the time... 2 classes everyday, whenever I´d go out, and we were spending every weekend together. It was about to drive me crazy. I could feel myself beginning to be really annoyed and Ididn´t want that to turn into dislike, because I do think he´s a cool kid - he´s just, I´ve learned, someone I can only handle in small doses. Actually our fight turnedout to be a good thing. It gave me space, that and our trip to Barcelona without him. Now I´m fine with him.

I´ve never talked about Thom either. I have never felt dislike for someone as much as I felt for Thom on the Mérida trip. Everything about him is annoying and obnoxious. He´s loud and says really stupid thing andputs on this incredibly obnoxious show for people - why, I have no clue. Low self esteem maybe? I had already disliked him, but on that trip, GEEZ. When we were at the castle in Trujillo he´s like "Do you want me to jump off this wall?" I answered with so much sincerity "Yes, please do." Don´t know if he caught it or not. Don´t know how he couldn´t have. But when we went to Lagos, I got to see a different side of him. I got to see him when he´s not putting on that front, and I actually think he´s not too bad. I didn´t understand because it´s notlike me at all to just dislike someone so much for simply who they are - I´ve never done that before. But now I see I dislike him because that´s not who he is. The real him is ok.

Ok, I´m running out of things to just ramble about. I can´t believe I´m actually finishing this journal. Sometimes I still can´t believe I´m in Spain. But I´m loving it. I will say I can´t wait for Liz to get back.

¡Viva España!

Wed, 13 Oct 2004 12:19:32 GMT

Writing from...Barcelona, España!

So I figure if I keep (or try to keep) this thing updated as I go, I wont´spend hours writing the long entry like I did Lagos. But before I get to Barcelona...

This morning I woke up too late to shower...was supposed to get to school early to type up a paper but decided breakfast of bread with that divine chocolate spread was more important. So didn´t get to type up the paper. Went to class...after that, clas some more. Ilya´s presentation was "Yo no lo Sabía" by Los Elefantes, which song I love, so that was enjoyable. After class Lindsey and I went to ask Ernesto about Barcelona, he gave us al ist of good places to go. Then we went to the computer lab and booked the hostal - 15 € per person per night, which is an awesome deal. I wrote an e-mail or 2, discoversevilla STILL does not have the Lagos pictures up, blah, and went home. ´Twas only after I rode the 15 -20 min but ride home that I remembered I had yet to type that paper, so I went back to the Center and typed it in time to hand it in before 2. Found Liz, rode the bus home together this time, and had a lazy afternoon mostly taking a shower, cat naps, and packing.

Finally after a "We dont´have clothes to wear because she has yet to give us our laundry back" crisis was averted, we walked down to the designated meeting place - a fountain in the center of town. Only in Sevilla... there was a botellón. Yes, on Thursday; yes, at 6 in the afternoon. Yes, I love Sevilla. We were stopped by some drunken Spanish boys and talked to them, one of whome told me this was normal for the month of October...geez. We found Lindsey and Adam and progressed to the bus stop. Let´s see... 2.50 bus to the airport or 17 € cab... definitely bus. So I got to see the side of Sevilla I never see, which was cool. We arrived, got our tickets which was easier than we had thought, and hung out at this café waiting for time to board. Jazmin showed up, eventually we went through security and to the gate, where boarding time was supposedly 830 but didnt´actually occur till almost 5 till 9. This does not bode well for impatient Stefanie. ¡Por fin! We are allowed to board. I love flying. Take off was exhilerating as usual. On the short, hour and a half flight, Lindsey and I scour the travel guide, lamenting that there´s so much to do. Then we put it away and talk incessantly till we arrive, sharing sketchy Spanish boy stories and discussing studying abroad in general, how it´s such a life-changing experience, how we´re afraid no one will undersatnd. She said she spent 3 weeks in Italy this summer and was miserable for 2 after she got home, wishing she was still in europe. Yikes. So the plane lands and the big lights say Barcelona, and I am pumped.

We disembark, ride this way too crowded bus (with our big ass bags taking up more room than we do) to the airport, and Liz and I and Jasmine and Tiffany leave to come secure the hostel while Adam and Lindsey stay at the airport to wait for Jazmin, who was on a different flight. The 4 of us find the right bus which takes us the 12 km from the airport to Plaça Catalunya, in the center of town. Wait, two things: "Have a good Vueling" and "Way out." Ok. So from Plaça Catalunya we walk about 10 blocks down La Rambla, a major street that everything´s on, to our hostel. Name: Ideal Youth Hostel. Yeah, not so ideal. Eh, it´s 15 € a night. So after almost 45 minutes of first waiting for everyone to show up, then having to figure out how to pay, cash only, people don´t have cash, need change, total chaos, we finally are shown up the stairs to our room, which is really one big ass long room with 20 beds or more, some people sleeping, one shower out of order, not much personal space. This is gonna be interesting.

(Interjection: Much, much later now. Totally fell asleep while attempting to write that entry. Therefore, this entry is now going to encompass the entire weekend and will probably take me a very long time to write...some combination of tonight (monday the 11th) andt omorrow. Note: to avoid confusion, Jasmine will be referred to as JD and Jazmin as JC - this is what we did all weekend and I think the nicknames might stick. We were going to go with Jasmine B and Jazmine Pr (for black and puertorican) but we like the initials better...ok, I think that´s all the necessary initial information...here goes!)

So we choose beds, (I always pick a top bunk) and get our stuff in lockers which we had locks and itty bitty keys for , make our beds with a pillow, pillowcase, and one sheet (paid 3 € for that) and then decide to go out - of course! First Liz and I make a run to an ATM, which was an adventure in itself. On our way back i had to physically dodge this guy randomly trying to grab my hip (looked kinda funny) and next this guy walks by us and says to Liz (imagine a really bad accent) "I like your figure, really." So we get back and LIz decides to sit this one out. The rest of us walked up La Rambla to meet Tori, LIndsey´s friend from the states who is studying in Barcelona. ON the way ran into Thomas, this guy JD is seeing in Sevilla who happened to be in Barcelona at the same time, and his oh-my-God-this-boy-is-ridiculously-hott friend Eduardo, tall, dark, handsome, Cuban background. Wow. I talked to him a bit, he got my number, then Tori showed and so the tow of them left, JC skipped out too, and the rest of us went on to what looked from the outside like this hole in the wall bar but turned out pretty cool. Adam, LIndsey, and I split a 7 € pitcher of Sangria and sat down at a table with a bunch of friends of Tori´s. Ivan - crazy Spanish boy; Rafa - cute boy from Barcelona; other random Spaniard I didn´t catch his name, Shane - stereotypicial American guy, knows zero Spanish; and Kiera - cool ass chick, Puerto Rican background. So we all sat around and talked for a while in a beautiful mezcla of Spanish and English. (Oh, as I had not eaten since lunch, we stopped and got some weird version of a pizza pocket...eh it was food). So the bar kicked us out at 3, we took the sangria with us in plastic Pepsi cups. Convo with Rafa was great. He made fun of me for saying "vale" (they don´t use it quite as much up there) and discussed the differences between Spanish in Barcelona and in andalusía. Actually, they speak Catalán in Barcelona, but luckily for me everyone speaks Spanish as well. He told me the people in northern Spain consider Andalusía like a lot of Americans consider the South...very backwards, lots of hicks. So he and his friends bid us goodnight. On our way to, well actually just wandering looking for something to do, one of the many, many he´she prostitutes accosts Adam - grabs his dick and says "Bon Appetit" in this scary man voice coming from what looks like a woman. That was a joke for the rest of the trip... I honestly think adam was traumatized. Random guy gives us ppasses to a club, but by the time we get there, they´re too late to use and although we met a guy in line who let 1-2 of us in, JD, Tiffany, and Adam weren´t in and we couldn´t leave them so we left. I was disappointed - I love to dance. We decided there was nothing to do and we headed back to the hostel. Surprisingly, JC and LIz were still awake, they had been talking to these 2 guys Kevin and arman who we met downstairs and were sleeping right next to us. Then I attempted to write in my journal, but when someone turned out the light, I didn´t object, and fell asleep.

Day 2 - Friday morning we have big aims, and wake up at 830ish. But, by the time 7 people shower and get ready to go it´s like 10 before we leave. Downstairs is free breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate. We try to plan out our day a little, and decide on first the Museu d´Art Contemporani (MACBA). On our way, we alk by this strip of music stores and I insist on stopping. We stop in one and spend probably 20 minutes walking around looking. Being in Barcelona, I decide some CDs in Catalán would be appropriate. So I asked a dude that worked there for help - he recommended 2 artists. I bought Lluís Llach - El Meu Amic el Mar , which is a little more traditional - awesome soft, mellow music which I have since fallen asleep to a few times. Also, Sopa de Cabra , self titled I guess, which is a popular group right now which when I listened to it thought was weird because they sound really indie. But that was exciting - my first music purchase in Spain! Amounted to about 20 €. The way to the contemporary art museum thereafter was dotted with graffiti, and lots of it - which I thought appropriate. And some of it was amazing. With the exception of the whole defacing public buildigns part, I think the term "grafitti artist" is very accurate. So we arrived at this massive white building, walked inside, found to our disappointment that only one floor was open - the other 2 are being renovated. But we went in anyway. The first couple of exhibits were odd - "sculptures" like a port-a-potty combined with a telephone booth, etc. I really enjoyed that place - some completely random shit - most of it really thought provoking though some of it made me wonder exactly how it made it in a museum. One picture I swear Corrie drew a few years ago. Others I loved. A photograph of a man sitting in a position of complete dejection, but from a specific angle. One room had videos in it - this guy bouncing off an inverted wall corner repeatedly. There was a wooden chair randomly set up in a room with a sign that said (in Spanish) "sit in this chair and you will surely die". Those were probably the most interesting. At 2 of the more ridiculous portraits/paintings Liz and I posed "pensively " and took photos.

We left the museum and walked back towards the hostel to decide where we wanted lunch. Cool thing about La Rambla - all up and down the street are street performers. People dress up in these elaborate costumes and pose until someone puts money in their jar - at which point they come alive and act out something or/and you can take a picture of/with them. Over the course of the trip we saw so many fun ones - evil elf things, Fidel Castro, silver guys on bikes, an Egyptian princess, boys at war, a flamenco dancer, a guy who really looked like a stone sculpture, guy walking "against the wind", a silver fairy who gave me a heart charm "for all my wishes to come true" which I wore on my necklace for the rest of the trip; the list goes on and on. It´s so random and so much fun - every few feet there´s a fun surprise. So we finally decided lunch was a priority and backtracked to eat in this restaurant really close to MACBA named Pla dels Angels. When we got there it lacked 30 minutes till opening, so we stopped by this random architecture exhibit inside an old building. Liz was in heaven (wants to be an architect). It would have been more interesting to me (kind of an architecture around the world thing) had I not been so very hungry. Finally it was 130 and we went back to the restaurant. It was a really cute kind trendy place. The menu was on pieces of colored paper taped to wine glasses. Different colors were different languages. I (and most of the table) ordered gnocchi with a broccoli and pistachio sauce - wow so good. Gnocchi is now way up there on my list of foods. After lunch we made a pit stop for gelatto - nobody understands this phenomenon. You walk by and cannot say no. It just looks so damn pretty. And tastes just as good. I´ll never be able to eat ice cream in the states again.

We picked a new destination- JC left us to take a nap at the hostel, and made our way down La Rambla. On the way we hear music and look to see where it´s coming from. It´s coming from this market where on the sidewalk is this band of aobut 10 people, mixed races, mixed instruments, playing this amazing, lively, totally Latin fun music. Not only do the performers look like they´re totally loving what they do, the people in the streets are dancing. Everybody is having fun. So we stop and join the party (now would be a good time to mention how much I love Spain). My favorite was the crazy percussion guy with bleach blonde short hair, neon blue big sunglasses, who looked like he was having the msot fun of all, and actually reminded me a lot of Sam. We stood there for like 20 minutes listening to them...could´ve stayed longer. But at the end Lindsey and I each bought a CD. It´s a CD with a bunch of indie Latin pop from Barcelona, like what they were playing, called "¿De Donde Son Los Cantantes?" It´s excellent. Then onwards towards our destination. On the way, at the end of La Rambla is Plaça Catalunya, where balloon sellers, sculptures of nude people, people lying in the grass by the fountain, and pigeons proliferate. Pigeons like something scary from "The Birds". There was a man standing in the midst of them who must have had like 10 pigeons on him - his head, shoulders, arms. We passed by - these pigenos have no fear! You have to put effort into not stepping on them, and walked down the Passeig de Gracia. We passed La Manzana de Discordia, where stand 3 houses of very different architectural styles all next to each other - the most famous of which is Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona´s claim to fame. It´s cool - interesting interpretation of it is that it represents St. George´s slaying of the dragon. The chimney with a cross on top represents the sword, stuck into the scaly roof colored gree, and the "bony balconies are the remains of his victimes". (copied from the Bible, will explain that later). Actually, chupa chups now owns Casa Batlló. That crazy building was only a taste of what was to come.

On the way we passed this wedding dress shop with 2 of the most beautiful wedding dresses I´ve ever seen. Adam made the comment about one on a model "Look you can almost see her cooter" then complained when we didn´t laugh "Man, other guys would have laughed...sucks traveling with all girls" (totally his decision, I didn´t wanna hear it, he invited himself). We finlaly approached our destination - actually the place I wanted to visit most in Barcelona - La Sagrada Familia. This Gaudí building was just...incredible. I don´t have the vocabulary to describe it, architecturally and otherwise. It´s a Modernist cathedral, huge, weird, beautiful. From the engravings of people in the bottom at the Passion Façade to the "forest" inside to what look like bunches of grapes at the top of the 8 huge towers...and it´s not even finished. Something like 120 years of construction and counting. i can´t describe it. We went inside and climbed the nver-ending, slightly claustrophobic stone spiral staircase to the top, where the view was amazing plus you could see in more detail the intricacies of the architecture. Adam and Lindsey and I did this together, the others didn´t come in (well Liz did later). So many picture to take... I had bought the wrong film and only discovered it there, luckily the gift shop sold some (at an engorged price). It was without a doubt one of te most incredible things I have ever seen in my life. What a sick, beautiful mind Gaudí had. I can´t say more. Underneath there was a museum of the history of the building. What a tragedy: during the Spanish Civil war the church was ransacked and Gaudís plans burned. Now they´re doing the best they can to reconstruct what must have been his ideas (lots of controversy over what was his original intent). I can´t understand who would ever do something like that. Those plans were priceless. But the monument stands as a tribute to his genius. As we were so far away we met up with theothers outside (after a dizzying descent) and took the metro back. My first time! It was really fun and so fast and efficient. On the way from the metro stop to the hostel we encountered a liquor store, where we stopped. It sold absinthe, which had never seen so that was a fun first yet again. Liz and I bought a huge bottle ofvodka for 4.50 € and some juice to mix with it, while Lindsey spazzed over nutella, and rightfully so, as it is possibly the most divine spread/dip/cream ever invented.

Back at the hostel, we laid down for a 45 minute siesta or so, then went to explore this place called the Travel Bar, which we had seen a flyer for free dinner with your student ID. We thought it was too good to be true, but checked it out anyway. Sure enough, you had to buy a mixed drink, but somehow we skipped out on that part and just got the free dinner, of pasta with spaghetti sauce. While there, this guy came around with what looked like something you would use to fertilize flowers or kill ants but it had vodka and OJ in it. He sprayed it into mine and Liz´s mouth (and in my hair and on my shirt...) Great picture. How cool is that? On the way home we made an icee stop and also bought 200 galletas for 60 cents to go with the nutella. Party in the hostel time! Our floor had this cool balcony thing so we got to go outside as well. we all drank and hung out with the cool people in the hostel: Kevin and Arman (keep an eye on Kevin and Liz), Jeremiah and Shaina - brother and sister who are traveling together - cool people; Amy and her boy, who we interechanged calling "Oscar the grouch" and "3AM Rob" (he had the night before bitched out Liz, JC, Kevin and Arman for being so loud, but ended up being cool) from Canada. So we all drank, listened to the CD I had bought, attempted and failed miserably to perform the sevillana for Kevin and Arman (I´m blaming the wrong kind of music). With alcohol, nutella, music, and cool people, who could fail to have a good time? This was the birthplace of Zach. I hadned my camera to Arman to take a group pic for us; among the throng of brand new digital cameras being handed him comes my big ass bandged up camera that I´ve had since 7th grade. The look on his face, coupled with his "whoa, this is kinda a Zach Morris camera" I will never forget. We all cracked up and from then on my camera was affectionately known as "Zach". Ej: "You bringing Zach out with you tonight?" "So how much did you use Zach today?"

Finally it was time to go out. We headed to this bar called El Bosq de les Fades, recommended both by Ernesto y Let´s Go Travel Guide. Lindsey and Adam went to meet up with Tori at a jazz bar. JD and Tiffany and JC went to meet up with keira at a different bar. So that left me, Liz, Arman, Kevin, Jeremiah, Shaina, Rob, and Amy. We went to this bar expecting gnomes, and were highly disappointed! No gnomes! One randomly naked fairy and one fully clothed figure levetating somehow, but no gnomes. Lots of gnarly trees though, which was cool. We spent a few hours there - hanging out, talking, etc. jeremiah and I went in search of gnomes - he was sort of holding my hand and suc. Apparently I was falling asleep leaning against a garbage can as well. Don´t remember. Do remember Kevin approaching me saying (for what reason, i know not) "Hey, I totally think you´re really hott, but I really like your roommate." At which point I went to repeat this to liz, adding "Hey, whatever, you go girl, he´s hott, as long as I´m not getting dissed in the process." (which story she thinks is hilarious and still tells). Was told later Arman made a slightly inappropriate comment to an odler man and that necessitated an exit for us. Outside were waiting both random figures of C3PO and Superman on the buildings, and Keira and J2. Rob and Amy skipped out, while the rest of us caught cabs to Port Olimpic, a place on the beach with a big strip of nightclubs. Somewhere we got separated from keira and J2 so the rest of us went first to this club called the Joker, where there were pole dancers, male and female, which caught me off guard. Kinda cool though, actually pretty tasteful. We got like 2 free rounds of these lemonade and vodka shots - again not sure why. a lot of dancing was done at that bar. At some point I kissed both Arman (who is of Armenian background) and Jeremiah (who has an eyebrow ring)- while I was respectively dancing with each of them, of course. At some later point we all had free tequila shots, or maybe the boys bought them, I don´t remember. That last one did me in. After that I was so very tired. However, I managed to make it to 2 more bars/clubs. The 2nd after we left the Joker was a sports bar/Irish pub that was (you know how you remember random details when you´re drunk?) like entirely wooden, with a live band and some sports game on the big screen. Less dancing, well Liz and I danced together, and more chillen, with Arman and Jeremiah sort of vying for my attention. We left there to go home (mostly because I was dead exhausted) but saw a cool place on the way out and stopped there. This one had pole dancers too, but different music - some sort of 80´s music craziness. More dancing here to the sounds of Bon Jovi - Shot through the Heart and cosas así. Then it was really time for home. We walked. What a walk. It rivaled "El Paseo". The cool part was the 3 block piggy back ride I got from Kevin, which both of us were sore from the next day. Then Jeremiah "helped me out" by walking with his arm around me the rest of the way. We arrive back at the hostel where I immediately pass out in my clothes and Kevin and Liz pass out in Liz´s bed together...hmm...by this point it is obvious that Kevin and Liz are really digging each other. This is somewhere around 6AM.

Day 3 - Saturday morning begins to the sound of JC coming home at 930 AM full of stories about her night of sugardaddies - getting into 15 € clubs for free and free drinks all night. I realize both that I´m in my clothes, which I´m not happy about, and that Kevin´s in Liz´s bed, which I am happy about. The room begins stirring, people are getting up to shower when at 10 AM in strolls JD, who was out all night at clubs and then spent the night with Thomas. Scandalous on both their parts! We all sort of threw ourselves together and set off for the Museu de la Xocolat. It was a museum explaining the origens of chocolate, how it was used through the ages, pictures of old advertisements, etc. Pretty interesting for a group of 6 women (and one guy). Perhaps the coolest part was all of the chocolate scuptores - from ben hur, to a correo de toros, to La Sagrada Familia, to Finding Nemo, to Snowflake the famous Barcelonian albino gorilla, to the Pieta. Here´s a story that requires some background. Somebody at some point made the joke that we reference the Let´s Go Guide so much that it might as well be our Bible. As you can imagine, the nickname stuck, and it was a running joke for the rest of thet rip. It went by "The Bible, "La Biblia", "The Vamos Bible" and we would say things like "Consult the Holy Book" or "Open your Bibles to the book of Barcelona, chapter El Raval". We carried the joke so far that the cameras became our rosary beads and the trip to the Chocolate Museum became our pilgrimage to Mecca (sort of a cross-combination of religions I know). So when we saw the Chocolate Pieta we couldn´t resist. We all knelt in front of it and took pictures in poses of prayer. Funny. So after we finished drooling over the Chocolate Museum we went into the gift shop/cafe and had some, appropriately, hot chocolate, which here is very thick and dark and delicious. During this, JD, Tiffany, Liz, JC and I had a convo, really interesting, about interracial dating. The sort of general conclusion at the end was: True, everyone has their preferences, but limiting and putting restrictions on yourself as to what certain races or even shades you would date is pretty stupid and you might miss out on something really amazing. On the way out of the museum, on our way back to La Rambla we came across this mini-market of street vendors selling all kinds of cool stuff, from awesome and funky jewelry to these leather with pictures journal covers (I wanted one really bad) to these hand-made all kinds of original and weird skirts. I saw one that I absolutely had to have, and promptly bought. 30 € is really steep for my taste but... Can´t find this anywhere else. Dont´know exactly how to describe it. It´s longer, right past my knees, sort of A shaped, dark grey almost black with this funky red, white and tan pattern on the pockets and in a slit in the front. So cute. Liz got a skirt too...country blue with some Spanish writing on it. (So proud of myself that my last 2 clothing purchases have been skirts!)

Next was the important item of the day´s agenda... lunch. We ate at the Café de lÓpera right on La RAmbla- this tapas bar which used to be a favorite after opera snack (hence the name) for the people of Barcelona. I had croquetas de pollo and I was excited when I saw garlic bread on the menu because JC and I had just been talking about how we were craving some, but it turned out to be pretty gross. Next stop (appropriate for after lunch) was the Museu de LÉrotica, Spains only erotic museum. That was an adventure, I must say - especially for my roomie who in Caceres couldn´t watch more than one frame of porn. Right when you enter is a 7 foot phallus - irresistable photo op. Irresisitable slightly vulgar photo op. The museum had old statues of erotic positions from Japan, India, pages out of Kamasutra books, weird photos and drawings in general, from the very old to the very modern, all about sex. There was a section devoted to S&M, some of which freaked me out rather badly, a wall of Playboy pics, more statuettes, some in very odd positions, the "vagina room" with various pictures representing vaginas, a place where you could pick up the phone and listen to phone sex, in 4 languages. There Spanish was definitely fun. Some of the exhibits were quite vulgar, some of them really portrayed the beautiful side of sex and sexuality. Possibly the most interesting (and disgusting) part was this room where you could watch a porn- silent film probably from the early 1900´s sometime, so weird - I totally thought porn was an invention of the sexual revolution in the 60´s, I was wrong. The guys were gross and ugly, the women extremely fat and au natural - ew. And it was so weird! The maid and the husband got it on and then the maid went upstairs and got it on with the wife. Then the wife went and got it on with the husbadn. Then I left and came back and the wife and maid were fooling around in the bathroom with random other guy while the husband watched through a peephole and jacked off. Overall, these fat and ugly people were rather comical but slightly distrubing. What was fun though was the group of spanish college kids that came in and watched it with us - the girls said things like "Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay!" while the guys taught us the dirty vocabulary for what was going on.

So we leave when the film ends and go back to the hostel for a short siesta. I get up and take a cold shower - there was for some reason no hot water in our bathroom - and get dressed. Finally wear my Mango outfit - it´s so cute! We were supposed to go to dinner at a certain restaurant but the girls who never stop eating (liz and lindsey) came back too full from the Travel Bar to go, so JD, Tiffany and I go up the street to a sandwich store called Bocatta to get dinner where I had a toasted ham and cheese bocadillo, followed by a shared platter of french fries. This is totally dorky and ridiculous but it´s the first time I´ve carried a tray in a long time and as I was walking I stopped and realized how I was carrying it and it actually made me really miss my job and all the people associated with it. So we went back to the hotel room to join the party which was almost exactly what it had been the night before. Lindsey had bought another jar of nutella and we proceeded to have yet another "nutella feast" - 2 jars in 2 days. Sad. We put in the CD I bought off the streets, gave the sevillana another go (more successful this time) and actually I just sort of watched everyone else get drunk. I was holding out, for which reason shall soon be seen.

So this time the group of us heads out together to this bar called Casa Almirall, which is the oldest standing bar in Barcelona. Older crowd, low lighting, couches, real chill place. On the way there we walked through this plaza where in the middle of the night people were playing cricket, others were skateboarding, then a few people standing around drinking. WE were trying to explain, multiply this by 1000 and you have a botellón, but I dont think you get it till you´ve been there. So we grabbed a low-sitting couch and some chairs and relax and chat. I decide it is time for me to finally try absinthe. The hallucinogenic stuff they don´t make anymore, but this absinthe is still illegal in the States. Now it´s essentially a kick your ass liquor with some little different effects. So JC, Liz, and Lindsey come with me because they´re curious and I order "absenta". He sets down a wine glass about half full in front of me. I asked him to help me out so he dropped the sugar cube in the absinthe, took it out with a fork, lit it on fire till it wouldn´t burn anymore and then dropped it in and stirred it. Took the water bottle it came with, added some (like a bizarre mixer) and I was set. I picked it up and chugged it. The second one I had about 30 minutes later I did myself, then Arman bought me a Rum and coke to sip on. It made me feel very much like the cachimba with alcohol did - halfway between drunk and high. Kinda light-headed, relaxed, etc. (I read in a travel guide later that it is supposed to do that, so that´s good). Keira, Tori, Shane, Rafa, and his friends joined us. I was pumped to speak some Spanish with a cute boy so sat down next to Rafa and we jabbered away while pausing to laugh at Ivan and Tori´s sad conversation. Finally we left and walked to the Plaça Reial - plaza with 2 street lamps designed by Gaudí and lots of restaurants and clubs. We first went to this club where we had to walk downstrairs and underneath was this place with a cave-like feel - really fun. Liz and Arman and kevin didn´t come so I didn´t see them for the rest of the night. Here we all danced, well, JC macked on some guy, Ivan and Tori hooked up and I made out with Rafa (yay for a Barcelona boy!). He is such a sweetheart and a gentleman I can´t even explain - it´s a refreshing change fro most of these Spanish boys. That club closed at 3, so we left and went outside and walked across the plaza to this place called Jamboree. Rafa and his friends left; Adam, Lindsey, Keira and JD went inside while Tori, JC, and I were standing outside talking. They punked out and decided to not go in so I had to go in by myself. 8€ but it was worth it. I went downstairs and immediately this black guy grabbed me to dance with me. We must have danced for 30 minutes. He was an extremely sexual dancer, been a while since I´ve danced quite like that. AT some point we stopped and talked and he told me how much he liked my style (I was just matching his) and chatted for a while (in spanish yay!). WE got back on the floor and I finally found the other 4, or rather they found me. When i did, I diteched that guy who was starting to get a little too touchy feely and just danced with my friends for a while. We all went upstairs where the music was a little different - more pop and older R&B. Keira and I get bored with that and go back downstairs to the hardcore hip hop. We had so much fun. You really bond with someone in a different way when you dance with them, when you play "match my style". Which sounds stupid but it´s true. Over the course of the next hour or so we danced with each other and with random black guys who came to dance with us, but always shook them off after a song or two, then a new dance partner would appear. This is worht mentioning because in Sevilla black guys are few and far between while in Barcelona there are so many. No hook-ups with any of them though - guess I wasn´t in the mood really. AT some later date I will expand more on that. Eventually we went back upstairs to meet up with JD. couldn´t find Adam and Lindsey but didn´t think much of it. They´d been acting coupley all weekend and earlier had told me they were hungry and might leave to eat. So JD was sitting at the bar upstairs with these guys from Senegal.

Time for a paragraph break. The club was closing so we all walked outside. Somewhere in the process Keira and I met Patrick, this light -skinned black guy originally from Venezuela, and his friend Fabio. We stood there and talked to them while JD was chatting it up with the Senegal boys. Patrick introduced me to his friend Carlos, which I pronounced Carloh, as they would here, and Patrick gave me good-natured hell about it. Then the Senegal boys get kinda weird insisting that JD go home with them. I stepped in to help her out and got cussed out and yelled at, which has never in my life happened to me from a guy. It pissed me off so bad so I went and got Patrick to help and he and the most huge guy almost got into a fight. It was crazy. His group of friends would calm him down and he´d walk away then change his mind and come after us again. Kinda scary actually. Finally he quits and the 3 of us girls being Patrick and Fabio back to the hostel with us. We had a problem getting them in (not supposed to have late night visitors) but we succeed and get them upstairs and proceed to sit and chat witht hem for a long time. Liz wakes up from sleeping with Kevin and comes to talk to us. Patrick gets frustrated that I won´t be flirty with him and resorts to fourth grade flirting methods - telling me all night to be quiet and how much he hates me, all with a subtle smile and jumping at self made opportunities to lick nutella off my forehead and cheeks ( I´m messy). He kept telling me HE was nutella and I should want him. All of this is while he´s giving Liz a backrub. Fabio doesn´t speak much, but just speaking Spanish all night like that is such a thrill for me. He played us this song called "Lloro", possibly by Alejandro someone (he couldn´t remember) and I must find that song. Anyway at like 730 they finally left and we went to sleep.

Day 4 - Sunday morning was a bit of a later wake-up time, about 1030 (which still only put me at about 3 hours of sleep). I woke Liz and JC woke up on her own and the 3 of us decided to go to the more traditional cathedral in Barcelona. Called the Església Catedral de la Santa Creu, it´s very normal compared to La Sagrada Familia, but still beautiful. It was beautiful - you had to be appropriately dressed to go in (no short shorts, midriffs, or tanktops) and immediately inside is this mini plaza with an open room where is a gated in garden with lots of geese, pretty white ones in a pond. We walked around the square and JC and I walked into the chapel where almost as soon as we got through the doors, mass started - oops! The chapel was cool with a huge pipe organ but we needed to leave so we did. WE got split up and I walked out front to the big plaza in front of the church where a bunch of old people Barcelonaians were performing the sardana, the regional folk dance of Cataluña. I had discussed this with Rafa, he said he hates it. It´s very different than the sevillana which you dance with a partner and is beautiful and can be very sexy. This one is old people holding hands in a circle putting their left foot in and their left foot out...not something I´d want to watch every day but it was interesting to see. After all, regional folk dances are very cultural. And it was fun to watch for a while...could´ve picked it up really fast I think. I went and found Liz and brought her to watch it, then bought a postcard of the front of the cathedral which is beautiful but under construction and you currently can´t see much of it. Ab unch of street vendors were selling scarves so I bought one- really cute - marron with different color threads as well woven in. 5 €. There was a mini museum so we went inside that and that´s where they keep the "treasure of the church" which is mostly a collection of antique figurines; the grave of somebody who used to be important, and a painting of The Pieta by a famous Spanish 15th century artist Bartolomé Bermejo.

We left there and met up with everyone back at the hostel, and we all left together this time. Walking down the street we encountered another small cathedral whose doors were open and from a window in the ceiling was shining down this beam of light on a certain spot on a pew, so we all took pictures there. They turned out really cool looking. Dont´you know that fit in well with our running joke about the Vamos Bible. We continued our walk into an older section of town where stands Museu Picasso in an old mansion. That was a really cool experience. It didn´t have a lot of his later, more famous work, but was a look at his progression from his teenage years till close to the end. Let me say that I now have a totally different perspective on Picasso. I´ve always thought his work was weird but cool, but he was so talented. He painted in so many different styles, from landscaptes to portraits /reliefs; from Cubist to the Blue Period. There was one painting from the Blue Period...I´m not sure I´ve ever been enraptured by a painting like that. It was a woman´s face and I literally could not take my eyes away. That must be how people feel about the expression on the face of the Mona Lisa. It was crazy. After who knows how long I had to foce myself to take a step backwards so I could get some other things in my peripheral vision and move my focus. I didn´t catch the name of it but I did take a picture. Speaking of pictures, we had to take contraband pics the whole way through the museum because they don´t allow photography. We made sort of a fun game of it: "Where´s the guard now? Is he looking? Ok, block me." and we felt like quite the rebels. But we took them without flash of course - we wouldn´t want to damage the paintings. My favorite things were that one painting, the menu for the restaurant Els Quatre Gats that is in Barcelona that Picasso loved so much he designed the cover of the menu, and his interpretations of Velazquezá Las Meniñas, which were so cool. He did something like 58 interpretations of it, and made it his own. At the end it was too late to go in the bookstore so Liz and I waited while I found I had lost my entry ticket and comically sifted through the garbage to find one to keep. Success!

So by the time we left after 3, we were starving and stopped by the falafel place to have lunch. Now I have never had falafel, my first time, and it was so excellent! I got it with hummus - it´s such a cool food! Definitely gotta find that in the states. We made a pit-stop for gelatto (because we can´t life without it...and by the way falafel is really messy) and walked back to the other side of town to the Gaudí building La Casa Milá also known as La Pedrera, where we find a long line awaiting us. Liz, Adam and Lindsey bail but the rest of us figured, eh, we walked this far, why not stay. The outside is this crazy, large, white, bulding with what can only be described as rolling walls - out and in like fluid waves, very round. WE talked to this pretty cool British woman for a while and finally got inside. Upstairs was an exhibit on a bunch of Gaudí architecture, including some original plans which was cool. Tiffany and I split from JC and JD and went for a walk on the roof where are random structures, some of which resemble helmeted soldiers that kind of scared me. Down another 2 flights is an apartment decorated in I think a pre-modern style. An interesting glimpse into the early 1900´s. I loved the child´s playroom and the big ass dollhouse. Finally we made a stop at the huge gift store and looked around a lot - JC and JD caught up with us there and after probably 30 minutes of browsing we left and walked back.

Funny story: We´re walking back to the hostel, passing all these street vendors. one of them is selling CDs, so I stop and pick up this double set called Caribe 2004, got all the hot music they´re playing in the clubs here right now. All of a sudden the guy whips closed his sheet, stuffs it in his bag and runs off. I´m like, what the hell. So I kinda follow him he´s looking back at me like "wait, wait." So eventually I catch up to him and ask him if his is illegal, which of course it is because he´s selling burned CD´s. We continue walking down the street with him continually looking over his shoulder and do this money exchange which feels like we´re dealing drugs. So he walks off and we continue walking towards the hostel and I´m actually all paranoid now. It was funny as hell later though, we had good laughs about it. We make a stop at Hard Rock so JC and JD can buy shirts (they collect) and spend a little too long there - finally get back to the hotel at like 730. We all shower (cold AGAIN) and change - I got to wear my new skirt! Then finally, after waiting for JC who takes longer ot get ready than anyone I´ve ever met, we make an attempt at going to dinner at Els Quatre Gats. On the way Liz and I are walking a little ahead and these 2 black guys from the Caribbean try to talk to me. We ignore them for a good 8 minutes until he finally touches my arm and i¨m like "What!?" So then he continues trying to make conversation. I´m just so trained here to ignore guys on the street, and at this point I was annoyed. He seemed nice enought but Finally when I´m like "we´re all going to dinner, we have to turn here, I´m sorry I don´t really want to talk to you. " He goes "It´s because I¨m black isn´t it," which pisses me off even more so I wait for JD to catch up, link my arm through hers, tell him some of my best friends are black and to go away. That was annoying and JD was cracking up the whole time. So we finally arrive but it was too full for a group of 9 of us to sit down and eat. I was kinda disappointed, I had really wanted to eat there, but at least I got to see Picasso´s old hangout and went inside and such. By this point I am starving so we stop at basically the first restaurant we see called Santa Anna. I really felt weak, like I might faint so I walked up to the bar to order a tapa because those come out fast, but for whatever reason the people at the bar kept making me wait to order, so I gave up and as I walked down to the tabel there were actually tears in my eyes, I was that hungry. It sucked. *Finally* I got croquetas and pizza, and ate JC´s fries who was getting drunk off the bottel of wine that she accidentally ordered. We had brought a French chick named Marika and a Russian chick named Marina from the hostel with us. Totally interesting because when we asked her the biggest difference between Spain and Russia she said the warmth of the people - which was something I totally would have guessed from the cold, standoffish way she carried herself- really intriguing to me.

We went back to the hostel, stopping for mixers at this store where I got piropos from the guy behind the counter which was frustrating because I was in the middle of a business transaction with him and I couldn´t just ignore his whole existence like I do the guys on the streets. We go back to the hostel and drink -Liz and I on that SAME 4.50 bottle of vodka, 3 nights later. We actually chilled there for quite a while - got the party started right before heading to this club called Baha Beach. On the way I spoke Spanish with JC, which was fun, and we learned exactly how aggresive you have to be to get a taxi. Baha Beach was girls in free, plus free drinks for us as well, so we immediately took advantage of that. Rafa was there and Tori told me he had come just to see me and had been waiting all night. I felt kinda bad - he´s an absolute sweetheart but I´m not the type to hang out with one guy all night (again, that goes back to what I have to mention in another entry later). But he introduced me to a girl friend of his with whom I danced the sevillana and she taught me a few things. She was amazing. The place had a cool look, cool atmosphere but only ok music and not a lot of people. It had a lot of potential un-met but was still pretty cool. Danced with Rafa, we kissed a few times, I kept randomly wandering to talk to other people. At about 430 though, I was done. Lindsey and Adam were ready to go too so we split a cab back, and apparently (though it´s odd how I dont´remember just this bit) we encountered some people from Holland who I insisted on speaking Spanish with even though they didn´t speak it and did speak English. I think it´s a good thing htough that Spanish is my drunk language of choice. We got home, I got as far as changing my skirt to pajama pants, and then crashed.

Day 5 - Monday morning i woke up at 9 yet again to the sounds of JC coming home - crazy girl. Liz and I go to get breakfast together, after i had packed all my stuff, at the Cafe de lÓpera for chocolate and churros. She tells me how Patrick had come over to see me while I was sleeping and when he couldn´t wake me up tried to get with Liz to the point where he actually grabbed her and started kissing her and she had to tell him to elave. sucks cuz I had actually thought he was a cool kid. Kevin had left early that morning to go back to the states and Liz was pretty upset about it so we talked about that too. They had that cool kind of chemistry and had gotten in pretty deep in only like 4 days. They had stayed up all night just talking and being together, trying to avoid the morning, which totally sounded familiar and heart wrenching to me. Since it was our last day in Barcelona, everybody had certain things they wanted to see before they left so we all split up and did our own things. Liz went back to that architecture museum, ADam and Lindsey saw the Olympic village and Futbol museum, and I set out by myself for a part of Barcelona called Montjüic. I found my way to the metro station ok, then did a typical Stefanie thing and actually got on the metro instead of the little back and forth funicular, realized my mistake like 3 stops later and had to get off and back on, THEN find the funicular, which I did successfully that time. When I got to Montjüic the cable car that takes you to the top of the hill was broke, so I had to walk, which half way sucked (when there was a shitload of stairs) but mostly was really nice. The hill of Montjüic has a really interesting past. Throughout history, any invader of Barcelona was considered to have successfully conquered the area if he had control of the hill. It has been a Roman temple, a Jewish cemetary, and eventually a castel was constructed there which was modified with every new ruler. Franco is thought to have assassinated the then president of Cataluña there in the 1940´s. So it sounded like a place I wanted to see. To be honest, it wasn´t much of a sight, but the history made it interesting and the view from the top of the hill over Barcelona was beautiful and completely worth it. I got a picture by a canon.

I got back into town, trying to decide what to do with my last few hours, and decide that Parc Güell is a must-see. I took a bus from Plaça Catalunya which was MISERABLE. It was a crowded, hot, standing room only 30 minutes bus ride because of the traffic, if not longer. I felt sick. But close to the end of the ride I met Michael from Germany and Andrea from Colombia which worked out because I had someone to walk around the park with. Yet another Gaudí spectacle. Totally glad I went. Originally designed as a neighborhood for the elite, after Gaudís death the town bought it and turned it into a public park. It has lots of cool houses in it as a result, including Gaudís own, where he lived. It has the longest park bench in the world with a mosaic decoration of colors, it winds and bends within the overall shape of a semicircle. We saw the infamous lizard, multi-colored mosaic statue. Generally there´s just cool designs and structures everywhere. The 2 people I met and I took pics and talked, then I bowed out as I had to get lunch. I fell asleep on the bus ride home, which was much less miserable. Once back in town, I couldn´t resist fulfilling the McDonald´s raving that started the night before when Liz and I walked into one to ask directions and the smeel overtook me. Orering McDonald´s in Spanish is interesting, let me tell you; as is listening to Spanish speakers do it. "Quisiera un BIG BIG MAC" with a complete change of flow. But I get my cheeseburger and french fries and coke and sit upstairs reading my travel guide when this old guy asks my permission to sit down. But in Spain there is no just sitting together because the restaurant was full in silence- no, he struck up a big convo which was fine - the more practice the better. I had found out he was from Galícia, which is cool as I had yet to meet someone from there. I wandered around a bit after lunch, took pictures of the Gaudí street lamps in Plaça Reial; the man of an older couple I stopped to ask the time rambled on for 10 minutes about how he couldn´t understand how I wasn´t Spanish because I have a "Spanish face, a Spanish face!" Then I run into LIndsey, ADam, and LIz, we stop for a gelatto one last time in Barcelona, they head back to the hostel and I stopped to buy Liz a small bouquet 1 € of flowers to cheer her up.

When I got back to the hostel, everyone was there already. To get our stuff out of storage we had to pay 3 € a piece, which we had not been told that morning. So we got Adam to pay 3 and go get as many as he could out then I did the same and got away with that just because we confused the lady by not telling her we were under the same booking name and that not all of us had left our stuff. Wouldn´t have been a big deal except they didn´t tell us and then she was a total bitch about it. We left quickly after that to walk to the bus stop which was a pain in the ass for me because somehow I lost the shoulder strap of my bag so the handles hurt my hands and was awkward. During the bus ride to the airport we got to see some of the outskirts of Barcelona and i reviewed the pics in Liz´s digital camera (poor Zach doesn´t have that funciton) which, as everyone knows, was like the highlight of my day. The airport is set up weird, we had to go upstairs to go back downstairs to our gate - then I went to get a coke and totally this amazingly hott guy was checking me out which was so nice because I was convinced I looked like complete crap. During the flight home we all attempted to write in our journals, but ended up just chatting instead of course. WE waited forever for the bus from the airport, almost 45 minutes, but he was nice and dropped us off practically right in front of our house, so that worked out. aFter a dinenr of tortilla española, we had planned to go straight to bed but ended up having such a good time talking to Alejandro and joking around with him that we were up like an hour and a half later than we intended. I told Ángel about our trip, then we could barely stay awake anymore and therefore went to bed and crashed (Oct. 11)

Summary: Barcelona is an incredible city. I think if I studied there I´d never get any work done. It has a completely different feel. It FEELS modern and trendy and it´s so random...every 5 seconds there´s something weird to see. For example, the food ball restaurant of the giant cat wooden disproportional statue in the middle of a street. It´s so diverse too. Nobody in Barcelona is from Barcelona. But it´s kinda cool that way. And the few Barcelonians that I met were cool as hell (and spoke a beautiful spanish). Random: saw a group of the tallest boys I have ever seen in my life walking down thes treet. Like 10 guys, all 6´6 or over. A lot over. Some of them made the 6´6 ones look short. The cool thing about traveling in general is the cool people you meet. In addition to the many I´ve already listed there was a group of Aussie guys who stopped me in the main room that i loved talking to for like 20 minutes then never saw again. The guy I borrowed contraband, weird toothpaste in a metal container from Monday morning I talked to for like 15 minutes and totally enjoyed the convo. Random: totally saw the blonde guy with the blue sunglasses from the band walking down the stree. We definitely made eye contact for like 30 feet. Totallys hould have stopped and talked to him. And oh yeah, Thomas (JD´s boy) came and partied with us in the hostel one night. found out he is a Kappa, and he started dancing for me and doing gnereal Kappa stuff. Don´t you know that made me homesick! Random: I love the little stuff. At Jamboree when I was about to walk upstairs this guy offered me his arm, which I took, walked me up, opened the door, made sure I found my friends and then left. It´s the little stuff, the combination of everything, that made this trip so exceptional. We have so many jokes from this trip, "Zach," "the Bible" imitations of JC´s in your face overly sincere way of telilng a story when she´s drunk, plus all of our sayings: "Clearly", "Pues," "Entonces" "P.S. guys..." "Seriously, not gonna lie". Liz and I discovered our serious co-dependency. I need her as my watch and compass, she needs me to keep her sane and for fashion advice. Or as Liz said " I make sure we get where we´re going, you make sure I look good doing it." REally, we´ve gotten so close. It´s sad how co-dependent we are. The one day I went off by myself, what did I do? Get on the wrong metro. Would not have happened if Liz were there. And she tells me I´m theone reason she has not gotten seriously homesick.

OK, back to summary. So everyone was sick the whole time, especially Lindsey and Liz. Forgot to say that Sat night Lindsey stepped on glass at the club adn ADam had to take her to the hospital, though we didn´t know this till they showed up at the hostel at 7 AM (and yes we were still awake). We got no sleep, probably drank too much, went through 2 jars of nutella in 2 days and who knows how much money... I know I spent way too much total, but it was totally worth it. (oh yeah, bought 3 cute belts..my first belt purchases ever! off a street vendor 3 for 5€). Also definitely took something like 4 and a half rolls of film, most of them were 36 exposures. In spite of and because of everything, we had so much fun. That may be the best time I´ve had in Spain yet, and that would be saying a lot. I love this country so much. Yay for Barcelona! (and for finishing my entry :o)

Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:40:01 GMT

Weird day. Fairly uneventful and slow; for some reason I was completely exhausted all day after getting 4 hours of sleep last night - even though I got 10 the night before. Shouldn´t that average out to a nice 7 each night - approximately what you´re supposed to get?

Woke up, skipped breakfast - generally not a good idea since we don´t eat lunch till 3, but in the mornings my body´s like, "Sleep is more important than food" even if later in the day it changes its mind. So fickle. Classes were fine - I hadn´t read for lit but I´m not sure I would have followed along any better regardless. We´re still reading an older form of Spanish. It´s hard. I was on the computer for quite a while - long enough to wait for Liz and take the bus home with her. Lunch was something called pisto, essentially potato pieces and lots of random veggies smothered in tomato sauce, plus one egg OM. Um, normally I wouldn´t eat it probably -it had mushrooms and I don´t even know what else but the truth is I couldn´t taste anything but a cooked vegetable texture and tomato sauce. I was starving and ate it all -my family was impressed because I never finish what´s on my plate. They accuse me all the time of being skinny and tan. Man I hate living here ;o) My señor said when i came back from the beach Saturday, "Your parents are going to ask if you went to Spain or Africa!" He´s so great. next on the agenda - siesta of course.

Went back to school when I woke up and rode the bus with Antony and Zach - Liz´s friends. They´re cool. So got back on the computer. Lauren and I discussed how weird it is just knowing Megs isn´t here - it´s like I associate everyone in the group with everyone else- so when I´m talking to Lauren Megs is kinda in the back of my head - so it´s weird having to change that to "You know she isn´t here". I saw Sharon this morning, who was out of town last night. She was upset she didn´t get to say goodbye. The biggest thing though is that we´re all afraid she´s going to really regret it in a few days. I got a text from her during her layover in Madrid that said "I´m out like a fat kid in dodgeball." :o) Anyway, finally talked to Christa. Found out she does read my livejournal, which makes me happy. She checks it even before her e-mail, which makes me feel special. Now if she would only write me and tell me about important things like, oh, I don´t know, new boyfriends!! we´d be good. So dance class was fun and hot. But there´s rarely a moment I´m not sweating in Sevilla. As of right now it´s pretty damn miserable in this room - and i´m starting to get that annoying claustrophobic feeling I only get like twice a year because of it. But anyway I´m totally doing awesome and we learned a new part today with lots of flamencoesque "golpes" (stomps) which was a blast. I need to learn that ballerina chick´s name...she´s cool.

So I saw/talked to José for the first time in a few days. It was fine - he flirted like usual and mentioned going out sometime, which is fine. He´s supposed to make me a CD! i´m so excited! Oh, and guess what I found out...he had sex with chick named Mo the 2nd night we were in Spain in the bathroom of his hotel room!! And my crew is too "wild" for him...ha. After class I went to grab a drink with Kevin, Tyler (can´t stand him- sucks that we sometimes run in the same circles), Ilya, Carli, and her crew - Megan, Marri, Katie, Nicki. We went to ·El Atun" - mine and Emily´s place and I got very very buzzed off of 3 tintos while everyone else drank beer. We were there for like an hour and a half and then I came home. Dinner? Salchichas and french fries...anyone surprised? So i had to lie down afterwards - that wine just knocked me out it was weird. Then I woke up and did homework. Now it´s completely miserable in here and I am making an early night of it: 1am.

Odd fact about spain #213: Underwear. They sell thongs here. They do. I´ve seen them. So why do no women wear them!? They wear really tight pants here all the time, I mean really tight, and I´ve seen pantylines with every one of them. It´s a rampant problem. And no strapless bras. With halters, one shoulders, spaghettis, or even tube tops they either wear just their regular bra or one of those incredibly tacky clear strap ones. I don´t understand this underwear problem!

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 19:25:56 GMT

Again, too drunk to write last night. Again, woke up still drunk this morning. Again, less than 3 hours of sleep last night. Again, have I mentioned how much I love this place?

Yesterday morning I woke up still drunk from the night before. Or should I say Mercedes woke me up. Definitely would have missed class otherwise, which would have been bad to use my ONE alloted unexcused absence the 2nd week of class. Anyway, the drunk was nice enough to last me through my 2 morning classes, during which I chugged out of my 1.5 liter agua. Home then siesta then lunch of arroz y carne, pretty good, then siesta then shower and walked to the center with Liz. However, both of my siestas put together were probably only an hour and 45 minutes or so. Odd thing # 187 about Spain: yesterday walking home there are taxi cars flooding all of the streets (they make up like 50% of traffic anyway, but this was ridiculous) and they were ALL, every one, honking their horns. It was the most annoying sound in history plus it was freaking loud which was worse. then random taxi in middle of intersection stopped and 2 guys in really ugly masks with blonde curly hair attatched are directing traffic. found out later there was a taxi strike- but that still seems to me an odd way to do it. Moving on, art history was normal and fine. Afterwards the center had a "fiesta de bienvenidos" so everybody chilled in the patio, ate potato chips, peanuts, and green olives and drank (free!) tinto y cervesa. I had a nice little buzz after my 2 glasses of tinto, which I used to get me through "el paseo." This girl stopped Liz and I on our way out- pretty German girl who speaks 4 languages looking for people to hang out with. Seems intelligent but oh my God...for someone whose native language is not English, well, she dominated, and I mean monopolized the "conversation" if you can call it that, for 20 minutes at least non-stop. She seemed cool but if that is the norm for her, no can do. So we came home, ate leftover lasagna, and I got ready to go out. Liz passed that one up, so I walked down and met Emily.

We couldn´t decide what to do, so I called Maria but she was far away, then José called me and they were at this place called Bubhurra which around here is affectionately known simply as "the shots bar." They serve pitchers of 10-12 flavored shots for 6€. Everybody talks about it, but I hadn´t been so we went there, and ordered a pitcher. Oddly mixed group: Tyler, who i´ve decided I´m not a fan of. He´s fine when he´s drinking but snobby and boring when he´s not. If you can only be a cool person when you´re drunk, the consensus is you suck at life. thom and girl whose name I can´t remember- not cool. Possibly the most obnoxious person I have ever met, thom that is. As for her, it´s easy to see why they are good friends. then Marcia and Lisa, who are very cool -I hung out with them at the beach after La Rabida - then 2 girls I don´t really know but seem cool, then José and me and Emily. Emily and I split a pitcher, and totally that´s all I´d wanted to do, sit down and have a drink with her, but the bar was playing dance music which got me in the mood so when everybody asked about going to the club, what could i do? So Emily and Tyler went home and the rest of us went to this club called Alfonso. First time I´ve been ID´d, but I had it out, started raising it to show, but they just waved me by and no cover charge. It´s an outdoor club, lots of orange lighting. I´d had 2 shots of Josés pitcher and he bought me a shot of Bicardi Limón at the club, so I was good to go. Like as soon as we walked in the door, we ran into like 10 girls from the center including Maria and them, so we talked for a while but soon wanted to hit the dance floor.

This club was awesome. whereas the music mix at funkyclub was fairly even but leaned towards American, at this club it was probably 75-25 Latin to American including one or 2 latin-sounding remixes of American songs like "Crazy in Love". So I danced with the girls then José, then a Spanish guy then José, and then pretty much just José. throughout the course of the night, we flirted a lot and without recording flirty banter, essentially played what I can only call the chapstick game, except this time different because I usually employ the chapstick tactic but he actually started that conversation, plus a bit of the "prove I´m puertoriqueña" thrown in. So we end up kissing a few times while we´re dancing. Pretty good kisser - as far as style like the exact opposite of Adam - more tongue thatn I´m used to but it was fine. Anyway, so after another night of dancing my ass off, we finally leave the club at 5 AM and stop at this hamburger kiosk where José buys me what may have been the best hamburguesa I´ve ever had, but what may have been me being drunk and hungry. Met a cute American boy but José was being a little odd so I resisted flirting. I walked home withthis girl Katie, who I essentially met that night - she´s cool and she lives by me so we made "el paseo" together and stumbled into bed about 6 this morning.

So as far as José, despite the kiss I still can´t decide if I´m attracted. At this point I´m pretty sure I don´t want to start anythinwith him but I´m worried I already did. Ex: he told me he thinks "my crew" is too wild for him (which struck me as really funny coming from him) because he´s heard we hook up and-or make out. I´m like "making out...so?" and he gave methe impression that our kiss meant more to him than it did to me. I hope not. I could definitely be done with him except as someone fun to hang out with and be ok. We´ll see.

So this morning I wake up at 9, still drunk, shower, ready, etc. and head to the Center. Everyone gathers and we go to the Museo de Belles Artes. It was a pretty cool place. The oldest art was from the Gothic era, then all the way up to modern art. It strikes me as so odd that for so long art in Spain (and I think this holds true elsewhere) was SOLELY religious in theme. "Art imitates life", as it should, and I can´t understand why the only part of these people´s lives they choseto portray was religion. That didn´t chane in Spain till like the mid 19th century or later. some of the more modern pieces portraying traditional Spanish folk-life fascinated me. And they did have one painting by El Greco. Some of the older art was just amazing as far as details - one statue to the point you could see veins in his legs. So then I went to the Center to check e'mail.

Not sure exactly what point these events fell so I´ll insert them here. I talked to Josh online for the first time since I´ve been gone. I think maybe yesterday morning. He said: one, JP´s doing much better but two, he and Josh are barely friends at this point. He was kind of upset and couldn´t really give me specifics- just said he´s being JP- which could be one of numerous things. Also, so the hurricane hit and for a time I was really freaked out because I read on CNN that a little girl in Milton was killed when a tree fell on her house. Eventually I went to Pensacolanewsjournal.com and found like a 2 line article on it that said the street she lived on and that it was a mobile home. So now I´m sad and relieved at the same time. I haven´t heard from them but I´m positive their power´s out. If something really bad happened they would have called the Center by now. So I´m sure they´re fine.

Anyway, Emily and I went to lunch at this cute little tapas bar and I got croquetas and papascon Roquefort. And let me just say that that may be the last time I ever eat that kind of cheese. I don´t reccomend it. Then we wandered for awhile, found the Alcazár on accident (the old palace) so now we know, then took "el paseo" to Nervion. It was the most miserable el paseo ever. It was so hot today. The sun was almost unbearable. I changed clothes then we walked to Plaza Nervion and met upwith Liz and Adam(side note: so apparently Liz and Adam have a bit of history, just a little (from the same school) and as of like last night Adam has decided he´s interested in Liz - whether this is real or Spain-inspired or some sort of Ilya response, we don´t know, but it´s a little odd). We went to the movies to see "Mar Adentro" ("Sea Inside"). Wow is all I can say. It was excellent. Every aspect of it - the acting, theme, especially the cinematography. It was directed by Alejandro Amenábar, who is currently only something like...the best director in Spain. He directed "Abre tus Ojos" which is the movie Vanilla Sky was based on (i´ve heard the spanish one is 8 times better). It was an incredible, incredible experience. First, watching the entire movie in Spanish with no subtitles, and finding that I caught like 70% of what was going on. Secondly, watching a movie with so much artistic merit. Some of the camera shots and techniques are just...wow. (I won´t say anything about the plot for you guys because you need to watch it when it comes out with subtitles in the States). So then another long hot walk from Nervion to the center of town, this time, uniquely barefoot! I was not about to walk that in high heels.

I met Lauren and we went to the symphony at the Teatro de la Maestranza. The "Real Orquestral Sinfónica de Sevilla." It was incredible. The first piece was a concierto for piano and orchestra by Brahms, in which the pianist was amazing. The second, a symphony by Dvorák which I liked the better of the two, probably because it was in a minor key and I always like that for whatever reason. The conductor directed without a score - I´ve seen instrumentalists play without music, but never that - it was so impressive. I really enjoyed it. It temporarily satisfies my craving for music, that paired with the clubs. Then lauren, Lindsey (really nice girl in some of my classes - really pretty, ridiculously nice - she had gone to the concer ttoo) and I went for coffee and Café de Indias. Now after 2 crazy nights and a busy day with no siesta, it´s journaling then straight to bed for me.

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 16:37:21 GMT

An apple a day...finally had an apple for breakfast, one of the first fruits I´ve had since I´ve been here. School where Ilya showed up this time, and then I found out Adam was sick yesterday too. Megan´s on stress pills and sleeping pills while Lauren and Liz are starting to complain. Blah to them all. In my lit class, we went over the poem "El Poema de Mio Cid" which was horrible because it´s written in "español antigua". Imagine someone not a native speaker and still struggling with the language coming to America and reading Canterbury Tales. Equivalent. last night when I was reading it, I gave up like 8 times. Anyway in current events Megan (from Mercer) gave a presentation on abuso domestico, which we´ve also been talking about a lot in Ernesto´s class. (He´s fucking crazy, and I love him. Today he busted out singing Kansas - "Dust in the wind" He´s always dancing and singing and he also wears his buttoned up shirts with like the bottom 3 buttons undone). Apparently it´s been on the rise in majorly in Spain, like 41 deaths in 96 and 71 in 04, and so it´s a major issue here right now. Still, even percentage-wise it´s lower than the US. So, lunch consisted of lasagna - yay. Homework and a tiny siesta, then off to meet my intercambio.

We were supposed to meet in front ofthe door of the Plaza de Toros but it was hot so I went in the museum and texted him that I´d be there. He finally walked in, we looked at each other funny and he goes "Estefanie?" (I love the way Spanish people say my name - they all say it like that ) and I´m like " Abel?" so we kiss on both cheeks, go to a "carjera automatico" (if you ask for an A-T-M in Spain, people will look at you funny...Lauren learned this the hard way - ye another translation error) to get money y luego went to this bar by the river and sat outside listening to flamenco music. He´s 25, and I would say above average attractiveness. Very typical Spanish- slicked back long curly black-dark brown hair, really awesome eys, they were this light brown that set off his skin and his hair really nicely, dressed well: nice jeans, button up stylish shirt. I need to meet one of these I can actually hook up with. One problem: he doesn´t speak any English. This is weird because your intercambio is supposed to be someone learning English. I asked him how he got to be an intercambio, and then didn´t understand his response. However, we had a decent converstaion. - I don´t really know much about him, we mostly talked in very general terms, about Spain, comparisons, and questions I had. He bought my Pepsi for me. Overall it was good.

Dance class was so fun tonight! Despite Jose´s banter, he totally sucks worse than me. Weird hting, when I was dancing with him I couldn´t get the arms and legs together but then the teacher called me over to dance with her and I completely kicked that dancés ass. Afew more rounds later, dancing with Tyler and then the ballerina chick (who is the most obvious, stereotypical ballerina ever but she´s cool, I just don´t know her name), like it´s hard to explain how much fun I was having. We were dancing it to flamenco music, and I was having such a blast. It was so nice to finally "get it". It´s a really hard dance. A lot of co-ordination required, and sometimes I lack that (no comments please).

Ok, it is now the next day, I started that entry before I went out and intended to finish it afterwards, but I also hadn´t planned on coming home very drunk at almost 5am. *Whew* continuation: after dance, home to do homework and dinner which was tortilla española, and croquetas!!!! which are my favorite. We ate with carlos, alvaro, y pablo. Carlos is like my favorite person after we made friends the other night. Then Liz and I got ready to go out!

I think first I need to talk about José a little. I´ve said before how he gives off these two completely different images. When Andy and I had that long talk he practially told me Josés life story (they´re roomates), how he´s seen a lot and been through a lot being rasied on the streets in a ghetto-latino neighborhood. I was like "Yeah so when he talks to me I´m always wondering if he´s hitting one me or just talking". Andy´s like "Well he´s good with the ladies and he has told me he thinks you´re cute, so I don´t know either." But he assured me he´s a really good guy (and Andy is one of the most sincere people I´ve met) and etc. So we´ve maintained a distant friendship (back to josé) and talking to him yesterday I found out that the reason he didn´t call was he thought I was calling, so we inadvertantly played that terrible annoying phone game which sucks because it implies more than is there. But then yesterday during dance he was definitely touching me which the teacher hasn´t really said if we´re supposed to do or not, but it sort of caught me off guard. The thing is, there´s no thing because I can´t decided if I´m attracted to him or not. Usually when that happens I infer a no (I have a certain ideal of attraction in my head which that situation doesn´t fit). But he´s cool to talk to and fun to hango ut with...who knows?

OK so back to my night. Liz and I meet Ilya, Deann, maria, and ashley at the torre del oro. Deann is mi gemela´s roomate. and Maria and Ashley I hung out with like my first or 2nd night in spain and havn´t outside of class since. Maria´s really pretty, Italian and dark, really cool. Ashley´s cute, has an awesome voice- like a HINT of a cajun accent but it´s also sort of lower and raspy. I love hearing her talk- and she´s very animated, always has a story, etc. The 3 of them go to the same school in the States. Anyway so we start walking to find funkyclub, which we´ve heard is cool, lots of Americans though but we had these get in free passes so we´re like ok. We totally get lost and wander around Sevilla for like an hour - it´s not lost like we don´t know where we are, just lost like wé can´t find the club. But it was cool I talked to Maria a lot. We FINALLY find it and once we get there wait in line for like 45 minutes to get in. Maria, Deann, and Ashley yell at this guy Jamiah that we met the last time we all went out and he got them in somehow. At that point, we were like 8 minutes form the door anyway. So we finally get inside and this place is awesome. Cool round construction, good lighting, like perfect club size- there´s actually a lot more Spaniards there than Americans, which was cool. I´d rather it be that way. Plus they played this good mix of American hip-hop ("Hotel, "Get Low", Chingy, etc.) and these awesome Spanish dance music songs that are popular here now. It was so fucking cool (Sidenote: these people are sick. They actually have a song called "Vale " in which the chorus is essentially that word over and over again - as if they don´t hear/say it enough). Ok so we got there too late to get in free but we only paid 6€ and included was a free drink. I go to get a vodka and orange, and OMG these people are not stingy with their alcohol! She filled the glass like 3/4 full of vodka - was at least 3 shots. So I drank that really fast and we got out on the dance floor where we ran into other people from our program. Namely Carli - kinda slutty, kinda trashy, didn´t think I´d like her but I do. She drags Liz and I to the bar and buys us shots of tequila (wow those suck) and we get back on the floor. Let me just say how much I´ve missed dancing. I was so so happy last night. It´s like the first thing here that´s made me homesick-standing outside, waiting to get in, totally antsy because I can hear the music and my body wants to move so bad. It actually made me miss Drew too. I need to write him.

Anyway, so we´re dancing and José finally shows. He had originally told me he wasn´t coming but changed his mind "to see if I´m just pretending to be a bad dancer in class." So he shows with random chick from our program and he´s like "Puerto Rico, let´s see what you can do!" So I danced with him a good bit, apparently trying to "prove I´m Puerto Rican" or so he says I need to do. Which I totally did. I rocked out that dance floor last night! I danced with Carli and stole Ilya away from liz for a dance or 2. He´s a really good dancer - not that I was surprised because I know he used to be on a dance team. Liz though did surprise me. Hadn´t pegged her as the dancing type but she´s good. Maria, Ashley, Deann, all good dancers, which totally made it fun. One of the cooler parts of the night: José and I doing the sevillana to club dance music. It was so fun and looked really cool. I danced with this Spanish guy sofr a while and sadly wasn´t impressed. Carli got up on what she thought was the stage but they made her get off. We saw Jorge and Eric from discoversevilla there and I got to dance with Jorge for a while. So anyway, one last tequila shot, again on Carli, and then we realize it´s like 4. So we leave and walk halfway, take a cab halfway home. (I was a little too drunk to walk for an hour). José and I texted each other like 8 times, in which he insists that I have yet to prove myself. Ass. So at like 445 Liz and I roll into the house, me drunk, her exhausted. We had danced like CRAZY. It was incredible. So of course, no journal writing and I crash to get up like 3 hours later...

*¡BAILE!*

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:01:57 GMT

At the moment I feel like quite the loser. José never called, I played phone tag all day with Laura from the beach, and missed 2 text messages and 1 phone call from mi gemela who wanted me to come out but now I´m exhausted from watching an hour and a half of this terribgle spanish drama-sitcom about the 80´s that sucked plus was taxing on my brain. It´s still on. I left. so now I´m just gonna write and go to sleep. It´s quite pathetic.

A fairly typical day - only 2 classes, neither of which Ilya was in. I got a text that said he was sick and found out from Lauren later that Kevin is sick again too. all of us girls are practically scared to death that we´re all going to fall deathly ill because we´re around them all the time. Lunch consisted of another beans and mystery meat dish which was ok. On the way home from the center I somehow confused bus 23 with bus 26 and rode the wrong one. Thankfully it ended quasi-near where I live. Walking home after that I visited a farmacía and found a scale, which weighted me in at 57.2 kg which I computed as 125.86 lbs. Granted my math skills suck but that sounds right and if so I´m not gaining weight and am therefore fine. I did some homework and took a siesta, and had the nicest wake-up call from Raymond. we only talked for like 15 minutes but it was so so good to hear his voice. Then I headed up to the Center and actually caught him online for like 30 minutes.

I miss him so much. My feelings are all still there, and though España is a good suppressant it doesn´t take much to call them up. I have these lingering thoughts and hopes that we can somehow make it work when I come back, but I´m trying so hard not to think them because I don´t want to be disappointed. Because it´s going to take a LOT of work from both of us to fix things to the point that we could actually be together, and I don´t know if either of us are up for it. i don´t know...as of now I think we did the right thing in the wrong way. On the other hand, none of the hook-ups I´ve had have been so wonderful that I couldn´t have done without. *more thoughts even too jumbled to put into words*

I had a meeting with Michelle the director to add my art history class officially and also asked her about local music programs. Andy is in a choir but they practice 3 days a week at 830 (I have class everyday till 840) and are a big weekend commitment. So I´m looking into taking voice lessons so I don´t go the entire semester with no music. Speaking of which I´m craving it. I miss singing and I don´t have a way to listen to music here. Whatever music I don´t care. Then sometimes I crave specific songs - the other day it was Whitney Houston "Waiting to Exhale" and today it was Toto - "Africa". Art History I really enjoy - 1 it´s with Lauren and 2 it´s interesting. OK let me explain how I´m an English major dork. I´ve been so bored in my lit class. We´ve been going over and over shit and I practically fall asleep. I was drifting in class the other day until she finally said "OK, now we´re gonig to read..." and we actually read our first text. So at that point I sat up straight and was perfectly alert and involved the rest of the time. So the development of literature is so interesting. First we read these 2 line poems called jarchas from when the moors lived in southern Spain. Then these longer poems that were so sing-songy they were almost child-like, called villancios de amigos. If i read something like that in English I would question its value. On the other hand, Spanish is a more poetic language and increibly easy to rhyme compared to other languages.

So for dinner we had hot-dogs and mashed potatoes. It´s amazing how often we eat hot dogs, and Liz hates them so it´s funny. I had plans to go out but Mercedes wanted to watching that stupid show- some weird mix of ER, That 70´s show, and I love the 80´s - and weird but it actually drained me. I have homework which I don´t feel like doing actually. I think I´m going to get up early in the morning and do it.

I´m starting to feel again like my Spanish is actually improving. It´s something I´m going to have to make a conscious effort at. Somet things are just beginning to come. I´m starting to pick up a bit of the accent. You just can´t tell when certain sentences take me 5 minutes to et out of my mouth. On those lines, I´m meeting my intercambio tomorrow. I´m a little nervous but in text messages he seems cool. Tonight I got one all in Spanish with English at the end that said "Good night American woman". :o) Also, hoping and praying for my family´s safety - I have no clue what´s going on I´ve just heard there´s a huge huge hurricane.

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 19:11:32 GMT

Where to even begin. I feel like this entry is going to take my 2 hours to write. I definitely had an amazing time...what I remember. ;o)

Yesterday morning (Saturday) Liz and I woke up early to be ready to leave by 845. We had a field trip planned by the center. So we woke up, didn´t shower because we were going to the beach, and ate breakfast. I stop there so I can say I had Smacks for breakfast. Yeah, like the American cereal with the big green frog. Weird thing about Spain: they have milk that doesn´t need to be refrigerated. Translation: lukewarm milk. Completely disturbing. But we dealt and left for the Torre del Oro, this big beautiful landmark downtown that was the meeting place. Emily was almost late but I found her and we sat together. It was about an hour and half ride to where we were going. Let me say that the countryside of Spain is just as incredible as, well, everything else about Spain. There are ruins of what used to be grand estates, really old houses built in a stereotypically Spanish style. Pretty cool. So we arrive at Muelle de las Carabelas, which is a museum on a river close to the ocean. They have replicas of the 3 ships that Colombus sailed with: the Niña, the Pinta, y Santa María. It was pretty cool to see. I like to think about what it would have been like. The ships were actual-size replicas, complete with a manequin of Cristobal Colón. Then you can walk aroun the little bay, and on the other side they had a lot of naked dummies of Native Americans. Apparently in the tribe that he met, no one wore any clothing. That would be a shock when you get there, huh? So inside is a museum with cool stuff like his armor and lots of information all about everything. Then we all had to watch this 20 minute movie which was A-boring, B-in fast Spanish and C- dark, all of which was conducive to the majority of the group falling asleep. The part of the story I like though is they´ve been on the water for 70 days, haven´t seen land for 2 months, don´t know if they´re ever going to find land or where they´ll be if they do. You´re Christopher colombus, sitting in your cabin, stressing over navigation charts and compasses and all of a sudden you hear something. No, couldn´t be. You look back down. But there it is again. "¡Tierra!" Can´t even imagine what he felt at that moment. That´s so incredible

Anyway so the next stop is the monastery of La Rábida. I´ve never been in a monastery, so that was cool. I was trying to picture old-school 15th century monks living there. It´s a cool place with a lot of history and cool architecture. It´s where Christopher Colombus finalized his plans to leave. I saw the room where he held his final discussions. The artwork all over was completely beautiful. In one room on the actual wall was painted scenes depicting columbus´ trip, done by Vazquez Diaz. It was a neat place.

Finally, it´s time to go to the beach. Emily´s señora has a beach house and met her out there so she and Deann left at that point. We all rode the bus to the beach, eating our lunches that our señoras made. My sandwich was interesting, like scrambled eggs and chicken. So we arrive at the beach, and it´s so cool to think that, hey, last fall I stood on the shore of the Atlantic, and this fall I´m again standing on the shore of the Atlantic, but on the other side. Awesome! So, at the beginning of the beach I was hanging out with 3 girls I talked to on the bus- Marcia, Carly, and Lisa. OK, small world. I was talking to Lisa and she told me she is from Trinidad. I was like, "Cool, I´ve only ever met one other person from Trinidad, he goes to my school, he´s a soccer player named Khalil." She said, "Khalil Matura?" She knows him! Toptally weird! Yet another example of how small the world is. I´m constantly amazed (more stories in another entry, this one will be long enough.) So anyway, we laid out for a while, then got in the water (which was freezing!) I love the beach!

So I guess it all began when I saw this group of people standing aruond talking, and decided to make some new friends. I walked up to this random group of people, one of whom >I´d met once and the rest I hadn´t even seen. We started talking and within 5 minutes they were like, "Hey, we´re staying here tonight, want to?" I said sure, sounds like fun. So I hung out with them the rest of the time at the beach. 2 guys, Kevin and Ilya, and 3 girls, Lauren, Sharon, and Megan. We just had a really awesome group dynamic right away. We laid out, played in the water, etc. When everyone else left, Kevin freaked us out by somehow disappesaring in the water for like 10 minutes. Turns out he got caught in a current that pulled him way over, but he was ok. So we got back on the sand, bought a few drinks at the bar (you can drink EVERYWHERE here, it´s insane. At any place they serve food or drinks. At the freaking heladarias they sell alcohol. Alcohol and ice cream? And at the museum we went to too). After we´d been out there for like 5 hours total, we decided to leave. We asked around for an ATM, walked up and around this small town called Mazagón. After we found the ATM, we asked around for a place to stay. The first hostel we tried was full. The second, full except for one room with 2 single beds. As there were six of us, we thought now. The third hostel was full. We switch to hotels. Two, both full. At this point Kevin starts asking people if we can stay in their houses. Surprisingly, some people actually said things like "Well, not all of you, but 2 or 3" = why i love spain. So we´re out of options, we´ve been wandering around for at least and hour and a half. We had circled the entire town (luckily it´s not that big). Our last resort is the hostel with the two single beds, so we go back there. Luckily it´s stilla vailable. For another ten euros, she puts another bed in the room. We walk down some streets and she leads to a house that I guess the hostal owns and upstairs to our room. Once she´s gone, we happen to find a fold out bed int eh bathroom. (why there´s a bed ni the bathroom, I have no clue). So tehre´s barely room but we fit it in. At this point the whole room is bed rather than floor. Anyway, so we put our stuff down and go eat.

OK, a little about everyone. Lauren is really pretty, and I totally expected her to be snobby but she wasn´t at all. She ended up being like my favorite person on the trip. Megs is awesome. Short blonde hair that matches her personality. She has a very vibrant presence about her. Sharon is quieter but when she talks, she´s hilarious. She has such a dry sense of humor. Ilya is originally from Ukraine, so he speaks Russian, English, and spanish. He´s a gymnast and a dancer and such a nice guy. Kevin´s really cute and awesome to sit down and have a conversation with.

So we stop at essentially the first restaurant we see. Us girls ordered 2 pizzas to split. One was "Pizza Margarita" with cheese and oregano. The other I don´t remember the name but it was the weirdest thing. It was supposed to have bacon and sausage on it, but teh sausage was, no lie, a cut up hot dog. Strange. So we all order mixed drinks, then another ound, and another, and another, etc. The people at the restaurant love us and they brought us ree vodka shots. We must have sat there for like 3 hours, and our bill was 113€. Sounds like a lot, but for 6 people and countless drinks, not bad. It was so so so much fun. Twice Lauren and I got up to go look for Spanish boys to hook up with, but no such luck. It was ok, though. So we´re all getting progressively more drunk and at some point leave to go to a bar. This is the point where my memory gets a little shady. I remember booty dancing with Megs to crazy Spanish music, all of us switching from English to very drunk Spanish, adopting Lauren as my temporary best friend so that every time we´d walk away and then come back together we´d both say "¿Mi amiga nueva!" and give each other the kiss on both cheeks. And this is where the shadows turn into nothing. The next thing I remember is waking up at 6 am when Megan couldn´t sleep while the rest of us were passed out and therefore thought a good way to wake us up was to jump from bed to bed. I found out later that both Lauren and I made out with both Ilya y Kevin. And I was slightly surprised apparently they both kissed me first. Ha. This is only the second time i´ve actually been drunk enough to not even remember making out with someone, or in this case, 2 someones. I totally don´t remember the walk back from the bar, and apparently Megs and I went for another walk between me throwing up and passing out. yeah, definitely threw up in the urinal. Apparently they don´t flush as well as a toilet.

So when Megan wakes us up, Lauren was in the bed with Ilya, Kevin was not in the bed with Megan, which was surprising because they had totally been giving each otehr hook'up signals and flirting like crazy all day, and Sharon´s completely sober and just trying to stay out of everything. Megs was pissed at Kevin, but eventually gave in and laid down with him. So we´re all awake now and started talking and got loud and somebody banged on our door and told us to shut up. That was scary. I was like "Lauren, I thought you were going to sleep with me!" She said, " I was, and I did, but Ilya woke me up and moved me." They all told me that I was like the best drunk. They´re like "You´re so cute when you´re drunk! You´re all affectionate and say things like ´The bank has to get money, you know, from the loan place!´" Don´t know where that came from. Raymond might be proud. or embarrassed. Anyway, we all quasi fell back asleep, then woke up, packed up and left. We caught a bus out of town to Huelva, where we changed busses to Sevilla. The plan was to go to the beach again, but when we woke up with hangovers and drama, we scratched that. At teh bus station in Huelva we had a 50 minute wait during which we ate lunch in the station´s cafeteria. That was the most disgusting meal I´ve ever had. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. They gave me a footlong slightly stale hoagie roll with completely randomly cut cheese and ham that was, well, way too easy to tell it was from an animal, tasted like bad beef jerky. I was like " I want processed meat and fake American cheese!" I ate like 3 bites.

The bus from Huelva to Sevilla was completely packed and we all got split up. I sat in the very back seat and met this girl from Germany who´s currently doing an inernship in Spain and had been an aupair in New Jersey for a year. She was cool and she spelled her name like mine! We spoke in English and some spanish. Then the guy ni front of me turns around and it´s like this cute 23 year old Spanish guy and after deciding that he spoke way too fast for ust o understand, he spoke to me in his limited English adn I answered back in my limited Spanish. He´s in the military, first one I´ve met. Anyway that´s totally one of the reasons I love travelling, is you meet some really awesome people. Tehres´always someone cool to talk to. So we finally arrive back in Sevilla and walk to a tapas cafe to eat lunch. I had my first tapa and strongly disliked it. It was an overeasy egg with a bunch of shrimp and beans and ham pieces stuck in it. As we reminisce about the night and remind each other of the stupid stuf we did, we´re totally laughing our asses off. I needed more reminding than most. Then we left and went our separate ways for home. Keep in mind this is a 30 minute (minimum) walk. So at this point, it´s hot as hell, I haven´t showered for 2 days, I´ve been in my bathing suit for over 24 hours, my hair is nappy from the sand and salt, I haven´t eaten really since dinner and I had thrown that up, I got only about 3 or less hours of sleep so I´m exhausted, I´m sunburnt, and it´s the first time I´ve walked by myself so I was worried about getting lost. That was a miserable walk. To top it off, I come back home finally and get immediately in the shower- and the water never warms up! I took a freezing cold shower. It completely sucked.

Despite that, I had so much fun. It was so awesome because it ws completely spontaneous. We had no plans at all. Hell, I didn´t have any money, just now I owe someone like 30 €. We did what we felt like as we went along, and it totally kicked ass. We had to improvise and be creative and had a total blast. That ranks in like my top 5 best nights ever. I started the day not even knowing those people, and now they´re really good friends. Ilya called it "una aventura".

Oh, funny story I omitted. We saw an Amena store while we were searching for a place to sleep. (cell-phone company). Megan needed to do something with her cell, so she and Sharon walk in and walk back out 10 minutes later cracking up. We ask what´s so funny. Apparently they had tried to communicate but it didn´t work well, so in desperation they finally said "somos americanas stupidas, y necesitamos mucho ayuda." What! How do you jsut tell a random Spaniard that you´re a stupid american?

Anyway, after my shower Liz and I met up with Anna and we went to an internet cafe for like an hour. Then we left and went to Cafe de Indias, and I had the most amazing snack. Tortitas, which are essentially pancakes, which chocolate syrup and whipped cream. After we got back I had to call my mom and tell her my cell number and that my debit card doesn´t work. I found out my grandma´s in the hospital with chest pains and her EKG didn´t come back normal so they admitted her. Hopefully it´s nothing too serious. I got on the net in the house for a while and then we ate dinner. I´m still trying to get used to eating dinner at 1030 or later. We had tortillas españolas, essentially an omelette with some other stuff in it like potato is the main one. And hot dogs on the side. Weird. anyway, after dinner Liz and I went out with Antony, Nick, john, and don´t remember his name, these american guys that Liz met on the bus the other day. They had 2 girls named Laruen and Bayh with them, and we were eventually joined by like 8 other girls, whose names I didn´t catch. Teh guys are from ATL, oddly enough (small world) and are studying at the University of Sevilla. We went first to an ice cream place and then stumbled upon a mexican restaurant. I had just eaten but I´m so going back tehre at some point. they´re all pretty cool, Antony speaks Spanish really well and John seems really interesting. For one thing he´s Jewish, I don´t know very many Jewish people. After an eventful walk home, including a scary lady following us on a bike and somebody throwing a big plastic red ball from a car window at us which landed right at my feet (scared me so bad I cried), we said our goodnights.

A few final funny things: (yay for alliteration!) I picked a flower and stuck it behind my ear and wore it the rest of the night. Ilya and I argued for like 15 minutes over whether it was a rose or not. He said, "I´ve worked at a florist for 4 summers, I know roses and that´s not one." 30 minutes later, out of nowhere, he turns to me with this ashamed expression on his face and says: "It´s a rose..." Definitely took an entire roll of film that night, and don´t remember doing it! Those should be interesting pictures, sí? OK, and award for cutest Spanglish phrase Ive ever heard goes to Bayh, who´s telling us how she can´t understand her señora. She goes, "And I´m just looking at her, thinking,´Como se WHAT??!" I love it! And yeah, so as good as I usually am at expressing things. I so didn´t do the night justice. But I have my memories, and my not-memories, actually... :o)

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 19:44:18 GMT

¡Hola todos! ¡Hoy fue maravilloso! Wow, I´ve completely fallen in love with Español again y I remember why I loved it so much in the first place. Oh my God, Sevilla is amazing...

I don´t even know where to start. This morning I guess. A wake-up call at 9:00. How cool is it that Spain pretty much doesn´t wake up till then!? Fits my schedule rather nicely. I woke up, my roomie Liz went for a run(I totally think she´s nuts for that). I got a shower, she came back and got one, and we went down for breakfast (which ends at 11 - I love Spain time). I had had a really bad headache in my sleep, but I took some Tylenol or whatever they call it here and was fine. OK, desayuno... quiere carbohydrates anyone? Two tables, buffet style, one completely full of bread: donuts, churros, mufins, cereal, etc. The other half full of bread and some meat and furit. Liz, who I really like, and I ate breakfast together and then back upstairs to chill until we had to be somewhere. At 11:20 it was my group´s turn to tour the city, Grupo 5. The only person I knew in it was Ian, but I met this guy Jose (go figure). Half cubano y half puertoriqueño. He seems pretty hardcore. Anyway. Our tour guide was ... Ernesto? Enrico? something. Really attractive Spanish man who is a professor at the center and might be gay. I had a little trouble keeping up with his Spanish but I caught at least half of what he said. Not too bad. We toureddowntown Sevilla. I can´t begin to describe the old houses, the bull-ring, the catherdral-wow. They´re completely amazing. We toured the school too. We must have walked for at least una hora y media. (Wow this is so cool- I actually am not intending to slip into Spanish). So then comes lunch. Almuerzo. It is also buffet style. I was originally worried about gaining weight in Spain. I don´t have to worry about that. I don´t like most of what they serve. I found some type of bacon and alfredo pasta and mini-ravioli plus watermelon and ate that. They serve cold vegetables with no flavor or seasoning to make up for the temperature. Peppers and onions and tomatos and cabbage- none of which I like.

OK, so I´m not impressedwith the food. One thing I totally love about Spain-siesta. No joke. The entire city all but shuts down between 2 and at least 4, sometimes 5. It´s the best idea ever. Why America has no siesta, no sé. but we so should. So during siesta, Emily, Liz, Jen, Anna, and random guy Sam walk around Sevilla. I really want a cell-phone, but I´m going to wait a few days. visitamos "El Corte Ingles" basically a big American style department store with a lot of American products and a "supermercado" en el soltano-basement. They´re everywhere. They´re so popular. I bought a blow-dryer and was so excited. My first purchase in Spain! Well, except for that drink I had yesterday. Anyway, so we left to find the phone store and it was closed. "Una Telefonaria" (again, go figure). So at this point Emily and I decide we want to get online and leave the group to find an Internet café. We found one for 5€ cents a minute. I spent one euro there after 20 minutes on AIM and checking my e-mail. Then, because we´re us, time to get a drink. WE go to this Irish pub(which are prevalent in Spain) and order 2 vodkas with Sprite. The bartender was Irish so we spoke to him in English for a while. Meanwhile, 2 of the hottest guys I´ve ever seen walk in and sit down next to us (Flaherty´s is the name of the pub BTW). I mean, gorgeous. I mean, if one was to daydream about going to Sapin and hooking up with a Spanish guy, these would be who one would picture. So we glanced over occasionally, but never did talk to them. Another time, perhaps. But they totally checked us out as we walked out of the bar. So then it´s back to the hotel for orientation. We get an hour and half lecture on everything. Boring, but useful.

After that, we go out again. We went to buy notebooks. Like, mini ones. Emily´s idea. Whenever you see or hear something you don´t know, write it down and look it up later. Coversely, if you want to say somnething and don´t know how, write it down and look itup later. We go to a papeleria but don´t find what we´re looking for, so we, of course, go to the Cafe de Indias for una bebida. She has a tinto de verano, I have a "cafe con Bailey´s" which was excellent. So we walk across the street to Burger King where we see people we know and chat there for a while. We´ve had a craving all day for "papatas fritas" - French fries. Eventually we give in, and head to McDonald´s. What a trip! So American, and yet, so not. They actually have a "McPollo" - which I find hilarious. And a "Big Big Mac". And a "hamburguesa", but still a cheeseburger. (Oh yeah side note: after our drink at Flaherty´s I came back and got a 30 minute siesta- you just don´t understand how incredible this concept is- it´s like the way our bodies are supposed to work. I always knew I was Hispanic at heart. Ended up being glad Emily and I didn´t stay with the group - they got lost and had to take a taxi back).

Ok, so finalmente es la hora para cenar. Dinnertime! They served this weird, gelatinous (no really, wiggled like Jello) vegetable cube with tomato sauce on top. That´s right, cute. Wasn´t asdisgusting as it sounds or as it looked. For dinner, finally something normal. What basically tastes like Chik-fil-A chicken served with mayonesa. So after dinner, a whole group of us get together. Tiffany, Liz, Jazmine (who I spend forever talking about the Kappa´s vs. the APhiA´s with), Maria, Deann, Emily, and myself asll go to t"the guys" room - Tyler, Evan, y Adam. They offer us free drinks so how can we say no? The lemon liquor they give us tastes oddly like licorish, but we mix it with Orange soda and drink it anyway. Then we all alk to the other side of Sevilla, Triana. Across el rio, the river, which I don´t know it´s name. Sevilla is so freaking beautiful. I can´t even describe it. At night,during the day, allthe time. We get these random coupons for free shots at a bar and get those, then continute walking down the street till we get to the Dragón, where it´s 2 for 1. So Emily and I again get vodkas and Sprites, and we all sit down at a table to talk. After a few people dwindled off, these 2Spanish guys walked by and I asked them "¿como se dice ´pool´en Español?" I got the answer, "billa", y a 20 -30 minute conversation. It was so cool. I had a real conversation in real Spanish with 2 real Sevillanos. I can´t desribe what an amazing feeling that is. The language, it´s so beautiful, and when I speak it I can´t believe something that gorgeous is ocming from my mouth. So after that we all walked home and off to bed

OK, oddthings I´ve learned about Spain:
1)The street names are on the sides of buildings (spent too long looking for them)

2)The drivers are fucking crazy. I don´t trust any of them. They drive on the narrow streets until they just can´t go anymore, the lines in the road are essentially suggestions, as are stop-lights, and they park ANYWHERE, especially curbs and corners.

3)Porn is sold on the streets in plain view of everyone-including children and, well, everyone.

4)Siesta is fucking awesome. ´Nough said.

5)Niños are out till almost as late as their parents.

6)Nobody gives a fuck, and this city is just... I love it.

Period.