Winding Down

Everything is pretty much winding down over here. One more week of class and then finals and a lot of things are swirling around my head right now. I'm really excited to be home and see my family and friends but whats more is to just see how I have changed. I'm really curious to see how I will adapt to life back at home as API does a lot to warn us about the transition. Apparently this reverse culture shock stuff is the real deal and they have given us a lot of reading on what to expect and how to deal with it. There are a bunch of statements from past API students on the API website about their experiences with returning to school and home and they aren't pretty. A lot of frustrations with returning to a more fast paced society and feeling as though they have had this experience that no one else can understand. I feel so lucky that I have so much to go home to and so much to look forward to and keep me busy this summer(job, sister getting married, amazing family and friends, etc) and feel that I will be more than fine on returning home. I don't feel as though I need to worry, I feel really ready to go home, a lot more so than a lot of the people here, the biggest thing I feel that I have learned while being here is how great my life at home really is. I love where i'm from, where I go to school, my friends, and my family. I have so much more pride for being an American now and having what I have. A lot of the people here have become "Anti-American" but I feel the exact opposite. I love America! I think it's pretty sad actually. I just don't understand how you can have so much disdain for where you are from. Who knows, this could all change the second I step off the plane but I feel like I have become so much more patriotic since being here and I am really proud of that change! I don't know, i'm just really curious to see myself adapt and see what I miss about my time abroad and what I don't. It will definitely be very interesting, I just hope I don't become one of those people who can't ever stop talking about or comparing their time abroad to real life. Please tell me to shut up if I do.

Spring "can't catch a" Break

Don't make plans in life because when you get so excited about visiting so many different amazing places a volcano in Iceland can go off and ruin it all. A little bit of turmoil this week with everything that could go wrong going wrong(cancelled flights were the least of our worries, I could write a whole blog on everything else that went wrong but that probably wouldn't be the most fun read) but although Prague and Dublin will have to wait I did get to see a lot of Italy and it was an experience nonetheless.

We sat in the Pisa airport, outside of Florence which we did get to see and was amazing, for pretty much a whole day just staring at eachother after realizing we weren't making it to Prague or Dublin wondering what the heck we were going to do for a week while stranded in Italy. We eventually went to the train station and hopped on the first train to Rome. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, there could be worse things than being stranded in Italy, but when you have plans to do something really amazing and all of a sudden they fall through, it kinda sucks. Not knowing where you are going to stay that night or what the heck we should do in Rome for four days is pretty exhilirating at first but then reality sets in and you realize you have no idea where you are going to stay that night or what the heck we should do in Rome for four days! Rome was beautiful nonetheless with so many things to see, we were defnitely not pressed for things to do, and I also got to go to Cinque Terre(the most beautiful region on the coast north west of Florence), and Pisa for a night. I will always be able to tell the story about how I got stranded in Italy for a week because a Volcano(since when are there even volcanos in Iceland) went off in Iceland(Iceland? Really?) and now have an even bigger desire to return to Europe in the future. Everything happens for a reason?

Anyways, here are some highlights from the most stressful trip in the history of trips...

Amazing views

Think I ate pizza for pretty much every meal

Hadn't had a whisky sour(my favorite drink) in three months(there are 6000 american students in Florence)

Beautiful Cinque Terre

You can kinda make out the Pope coincidentily holding mass while we were touring the Vatican

At the Colosseum where of course we got stood up by our tour guide

Happened to be Rome's 2763rd birthday while were there

A motorized Cart, probably the most amusing part of the trip

Toros

Just got back from a bullfight and have to say it is one of my favorite things I have done in Sevilla. I feel like a boy, but I actually thought it was really cool, and am surprised at how much it didn't bother me.

It's huge to these people, like a Spanish Kentucky Derby except they kill the animal instead of race it. They all dress up really nice and go out and drink before and during the event. Tickets are pretty expensive(ours were 86 euro although API paid for them)and the people are very well to do. Great cultural experience though, got to see five fights and one bull snap its horn out of its socket from running into a wall too hard. Pretty graphic and it was obviously in a lot of pain, but the other bulls were stabbed about seven times before they were actually killed so at least it didn't have to go through that! Probably not the most humane thing, but who doesn't like a man in tight pants!

Una broma, here are some pics. I wanted to add a video but blogger is being lame and is taking thirty minutes to upload it.

Maroc

I don't even know where to begin. Four days in a different country you see a lot of things especially when that country is in Africa and is extremely different culturally, economically, and politically! The food was amazing, the people a little strange and creepy, the shopping cheap, and the countryside beautiful. I had amazing couscous, was followed by strange men asking "how many camels for you?"(among other things), had a great time perusing the millions of shops, and saw some amazing views. All in all we went to three Moroccan cities, Fez, Chef Chaouen, and Tetuan. Fez is the largest Moroccan city but my favorite by far was Chef Chaouen. It is a really beautiful town that looks like it came straight out of the Greek Isles. Everything is painted blue and white and the city is surrounded by some amazing mountains. It is beautiful! I also had a great time getting to know all of our different tour guides. Our main guide, Mohammad, was a very interesting man who liked to tell us all about the Moroccan culture. For example, one of the first things he told us on one of our many bus rides(about 17 hours in total) was how Moroccan men like their women strong and fat. This way their bones don't poke them when they are laying on the ground, they provide good warmth in the winter and good shade in the summer, and they don't have to buy a washing machine because the strong ones are good with a washing board! It's funny how open and straightfoward they are with women considering they don't let them out of the house with being completely covered and having asked permission first. One of our other tour guides was introduced to us by Mohammad as having two wives and always looking for a third and that "maybe after today he will have four." Ya, he had one arm and was missing a few teeth so I don't think any of us were going after that. Such characters those Moroccans! Very nice people though, I really enjoyed their humor although I'm pretty sure they were not joking most of the time. Here are some pics from my cultural experience.

Semana Santa

Semana Santa is over! I just got back from Barcelona with Mom and Molly and had a great week! Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong(They arrived about 10 hours later than they were supposed to, didn't have their luggage until monday...) but with all of that we still had a great time in Sevilla and Barcelona. I had the whole week off because of Semana Santa which is the holy week that they celebrate in Spain the week before easter. It is particularly a big deal in the south and especially Sevilla so the city was very crowded this past weekend and there were many processions that we unknowingly and unwillingly got trapped inside of(a little frustrating). It's pretty freaky too because of the resemblance to the KKK. Google it and you will see what I mean. I'm glad I got to see some of that tradition though.

After Sevilla we spent 3 full days in Barcelona and saw all kinds of things like Parc Guell, La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, Gaudi's Casas, La Rambla, the Picasso Museum, the beach, and much more of Barcelona's charm. I absolutely loved it! My favorite place I have been so far. It really is a city that has everything. It is a big city, which I love, with tons of things to do, amazing architecture, the beach, and the mountains. If only they spoke Spanish there and not Catalan! We also got warned a lot by random people to be careful because we are three blondes and stand out quite a bit.(Lots of pickpocketing there) For the most part though I felt really safe and had an amazing time. It was really great to see my family too although I think it has had a reverse effect on me because I have all of a sudden been hit with a strong spell of home sickness! It was absolutely beautiful in Sevilla this weekend though and that has helped my spirits quite a bit. I got to wear shorts today! Anyways, I would definitely recommend Barcelona to anyone coming to Europe and definitely plan on going back someday, something I have not really said about any other place I have been so far. It definitely is a must see.

I am really excited for my last 7 weeks here though because the weather is absolutely beautiful now and I have lots of amazing trips planned! Still is really hard being away from home though, I miss all my friends like crazy it's almost best not to talk to them as much because it makes me miss them even more!!! I know seven weeks is going to fly by though and I will be wishing I had more time! Sorry kinda short this time, I'm exhausted and want to go to bed. I will try and post again in the next couple days! Hope you are enjoying!

Here are some pictures of Barcelona and the fam...

Life lately

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on my oh so amazing blog. I have just been so busy with midterms and traveling and planning for more traveling. I have also been spending a lot more time outside because alas it has stopped raining!!! Knock on wood but we have had lots of 70 plus days where I have just gone down to the river with some friends and hung out and got some sun! Speaking of sun, I just got back from the island of Tenerife which is part of the Canary Islands. We were really only there for two days and I wish we could have stayed there longer so I could have gotten even more sun but I actually wasn't too impressed with the island. Granted all we did was lay by the pool(which I really can't complain about) and really didn't do any exploring at all but I think we were all expecting some tropical paradise. Maybe I am just feeling that way because we were at a resort in which we were the youngest people there by about 50 years and I have now seen enough men in speedos and 60 year old women without swimsuit tops to last me a lifetime! Oh, Europe. I also ate more food than I thought was humanly possible because we upgraded to all inclusive and since we were 10 girls with no one to impress pool side we definitely took advantage of the situation. To have 80 degree weather though and come back with a tan line is pretty exciting even if the beaches weren't the nicest!!! The island was also pretty impoverished which is not what I was expecting. It just makes me realize how lucky I am to live where I live and have what I have!

The weekend before this we went to three cities in the autonomous region of Spain of Extremadura and saw a lot of cultural things like old roman ruins, churches, we stayed in a monastery which is pretty cool, and also went on a 10 mile hike up a mountain. It was pretty rough but a lot of fun with some pretty spectacular views. Unfortunately though I do not have any pictures of it because my camera died half way through. Won't be making that mistake again.

I am now more half way done which I can not believe and am wishing I had more time here. Don't get me wrong, I get extremely home sick sometimes but 4 months is simply not enough time to do all the things I want to do! I guess I will just have to make use of the time I have and start living it up! Have a good rest of your week everyone!

Pasapalabra

Since our dining room table is in the family room it pretty much goes without saying that I know a thing or two about spanish television. For the most part it is a lot different. I absolutely can not watch the news. I thought the news at home were bad, but here there is absolutely no censorship which means the news are more often than not very disturbing and violent. Tons of nudity, violent protestors, war violence, i've seen it all. That being said we have fallen in love with one spanish program called "Pasapalabra" (pass the word) which is a very popular game show or "concurso" here. There are a sequence of alphabet games which earn time for two contestants who then square off in a final test in which they are given a clue to a word that starts with each letter in the alphabet(25 clues in total). If they don't know they word they say "pasapalabra" and it becomes the other contestant's turn. The person with the most correct words wins! Anyways you probably don't really care about this gameshow but it has become one of our little luxuries here and something we look forward to watching at dinner every night. It took us awhile to figure out how exactly the game works but now that we have gotten it we love it and it is even more exciting when we can understand what clues the host is giving(he talks extremely fast). I've added a picture of him, another reason to watch the show. A better looking Ryan Seacrest in my opinion.