¡Estoy viajando por España!

I mean... I can't really complain about studying in paradise...

(and no, this is not a postcard. It's legit where I'm studying... This part of Spain was settled by the Greeks in 600 BC.)

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Hey y'all,

So I've been meaning to add an update for like ever now, but I've been really busy and haven't gotten around to it until now. When actually I shouldn't be blogging right now... I should be out on the town--I'm in Cordoba!! But I'm soooo tired. I need to take a morning siesta. Ayer, I was in Madrid, and then I went to Toledo and walked around EVERYWHERE. And by everywhere, I mean, I know the cross streets and plazas of Toledo... lol. You think I'm joking...

Toledo was small, but really pretty. It was on a mountain though, so I felt like I was hiking for seven hours straight! Finally I had enough of Toledo and had to change my train ticket so I could catch an earlier train back to Madrid.

Speaking of Madrid, I was there for like two-ish days. We stayed at the Opera Hotel which was friggin sweet! It's a four-star hotel and we all had suites! I really enjoyed the hotel, but I left my hoodie there, so I'm currently without a warm article of clothing... I hope that it doesn't get cold while I'm traveling!! So Madrid is pretty cool. I think I like Barcelona more, but I suppose if I spent more time in Madrid I would have liked it more. But when we went out at night there really wasn't anything to do. A couple bars with dance floors, but the "club" was wack and we had to show our IDs. hahaha. Oh how we are spoiled in Barca. But the day-life is pretty cool. The city is pretty. All the big buildings and whatnot. We went to a couple museums, one being the Prado or whatever. I think it's famous... but like I said, museums aren't necessarily my thing. It was cool to be there though. Then we went to this really pretty park that had a pond in it and we got a little paddle boat and just hung out on the pond!! That was way fun. We had five peeps though and only four to a boat, so we had to split up 2 and 3. I was on the 2 and the 3 was all girls so guys kept running into their boat life crazy. It's funny to listen to guys try to holler at girls in English when they don't really understand the language... hahahahaha.

Ummm.... oh, so after I got back to Madrid from Toledo I had about 8 hours to kill until my 1am bus to Cordoba. I decided to take a late bus so I could just sleep on the bus and not pay for a hostal. Pretty nifty, huh. Sike. I did sleep all the way here though, so the five our ride felt like fifteen minutes. But then when I got to Cordoba at 6am... nothing was open!! So I decided to walk around and find a place to watch the sunrise. Unfortch, the buildings are too tall and I couldn't see the sunrise. But I had a good 2 n a half hour morning walk around Cordoba! Then I just sat in the bus station playing sudoku until the tourist center opened and I could ask them for hostal information. Cordoba has one youth hostal and I decided to stay here. IT'S GREAT!! Very clean and modern. There are three beds in my room, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in here unless others arrive later today! It's nice. Plus I have wifi "por gratis!" (inside joke... hahaha). Oh and btw, "wifi" is pronounced "weefee" here, so it's really fun to ask, "tienes weefee?" lol.

My vacation is just rolling along! I did Madrid in two-ish days, Toledo in one, I think I'll finish Cordoba between today and tomorrow. Then tomo night I'll take another night bus and go to Granada and find a hostal there and then after that I'll spend the rest of my time in Sevilla until it's time to go back to Barcelona on Sunday!

So I meant for this to be a short blog, but you know how I talk a lot anyway, so imagine me talking without being interrupted! Ahh... I could go forever! But I just wanted to say that I think my Spanish is getting better! I don't think my goal of fluency will happen... but I can definitely get around using only Spanish. I've also been doing pretty well academically, but I don't wanna count my chickens and jinx my grades! haha. I just need to keep doing work and studying! I can't believe that despues de los vacaciones I'll only have four weeks left of classes!! That's loco!

Awe man, I just realized that I left my bag in the locker at the train station. It's safe, but I wanted to just carry around my backpack in Cordoba... but my soap, towel, and clothes are in my duffel bag... hmmm.... lol. Eh. I'll figure something out! Oh, and I meant to post pics with this blog, but I left my adaptor in the duffle, too, so I can't post pics yet. Anyway, I hope that y'all are doing well and everyone is happy!

Now... off to siesta. Then I'm gonna be a lil tourist! Woot woot!

Adios,

David.

PS. Check out my lil IP Address thing... it shows you where I'm at! So if you see this today, you'll see that I'm in Cordoba!!

In front of the Mediterranean Sea at Sitges

Hola a Todos!
So I'm almost into the middle of the third week in Barcelona and everything is still going pretty well! I just did a money check today and realized how expensive everything is and now I need to take better care of all that nonsense! But it's all good, it's just really expensive to do things in Barcelona, especially because of the sucky exchange rate. Dang it, US dollar, can't you be worth more?!?! Other than that, I also thought I was getting sick last night. I brought random medicines with me and was happy to find some Tylenol PM Cold & Flu, so I took it, fell asleep, and now I feel better today! Yay!
I'm in the little study room at UB just trying to "do homework," but really I'm not doing any work at all. I have an essay to write that is due tomorrow, but I'm not too worried about it because it is pretty short. Although... it is in a different language, so maybe I should get to work on it! Ok... right after this blog entry!
In a couple hours I'm also going to the Art Museum of Barcelona. That should be pretty cool. I'm hoping so anyway. We've been to a few museums and while I think they are cool... it just takes too much time and energy to go to museums. I'd rather be outside playing and site seeing. Like last Saturday for instance, we went to Montsarret, which is a holy place in Catalonia with a monastery and cathedral. There was a wedding taking place and the church was really pretty. But the museum and place was not worth the price of the trip. I'm definitely going to do research on places before I go to them! Though we did get to take the gondola to the top of the mountain where the monastery is located and that was a fun and pretty ride. Other than that, unless you're really into Catalonia and love Virgin Montserrat, I don't recommend visiting this place. But ya know, still pretty cool to say I've been there.
The next day was way better though! On Sunday we went to Sitges, which is a small artsy town about a half hour outside of Barcelona. There are ten beaches there and the water is great! I had soooo much fun. We all took a two hour nap on the beach after swimming with the Mediterranean fish! We also got tapas (which my favorite tapas is now Patatas Breves--cubed potatoes with hot sauce and some kind of garlic-mayo sauce) and we people watched. We also met this guy who wanted us to only speak in Spanish even though he knows English because he believes it is important to maintain culture and whatnot. I agreed, but he kept telling me that I should have learned Spanish a long time ago and then would not stop talking to us. But he did explain that in Europe it's common to have long convos with randos. So whatever. He was really rich though, or so I assume. He is like a movie producer and owns houses in LA, Sitges, Barcelona, and Israel. He was there attending the horror film festival at Sitges that weekend. Pretty nice guy. oh but it was funny because he kept telling me that I knew Spanish better than the people I was with and then whenever they would try to say something he would tell me and then tell me to translate for them... but we are all at the same level of Spanish so we all knew what was going on. haha. Funny stuff.
Other than that, classes are picking up. I actually had to do homework the other night, and like I said, I have a paper due tomorrow. I'm writing about "Te Doy Mis Ojos." a film reflecting domestic violence in Spanish culture. I think I should do pretty well on the essay. Well, hopefully. We will see!!
OMG! In this room there is an older woman with like salt and peppered hair and it sounds like she is chanting! She is speaking very softly, but it's like a loud whisper and is really fast. I'm not sure which language she is speaking in, but it's kind of spooky! Though, I think she is just trying to memorize a speech for class. haha.
Oh, I also started making plans with my friends for after the LSA program ends. I think I'll be traveling with my friends Dee, Juan, Sarah, and Korey. I think Korey, Sarah, and I will eventually split from Dee and Juan, but our travels should be fun! If everything goes right, then I think I'll be traveling outside of spain to Italy, Greece, and France! So hopefully that all works out. Originally I didn't want to leave Spain, but I will be traveling through Spain at the end of this month and visiting various places like Madrid, Cordoba, Toledo, and Sevilla. At some point I would really like to visit Valencia and Granada, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna have the time or dinero to do so. It doesn't really matter where I travel because I'm having so much fun as it is! Woot woot! But I did already book my return ticket home for Dec. 15th and my program ends on the 4th, so I have to do something for ten days. Might as well travel through Europe!
(But seriously, I love life here in Barcelona.)
Hasta la próxima vez!!
David.