Te echo de menos..

Another update...

It has been a crazy week since I wrote last so I'll give a little update. I officially signed up to go to Lagos, Portugal for three days in April so I am incredibly excited to touch sand and turquoise waters and soak up the Portuguese sun :) I am trying to plan other trips but it is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Before I got here it seemed like so much time to travel around but now that I'm here and looking at the calendar its like, when am I going to fit all of this in?! I came with the attitude that I may never get to do this again but I sure as hell better be able to come to Europe again because there is soooo much that I want to see. I think top of my list is Italy and then either Greece or France, then England and Prague and Germany and Ireland...see the problem? I suppose it is time to put my mom's favorite phrase to use....it's all about choices....

Well that was a small tangent. Moving on. My classes are going really well. The final line up is Contemporary Film, Contemporary Literature, Spanish Phonetics, and Flamenco Culture. I switched into the Flamenco one instead of the three cultures so I haven't had it yet but I really like all the others. Classes are so different than at Madison. I'm so used to having to read sooo much everyday and never, ever being caught up. In fact I usually have to make some sacrifices on what to read because it just isn't practical. And also at Madison there are many more daily/weekly assignments. Here, basically your whole grade is based on a midterm, a final, and maybe a report, as well as attendance. I'm not used to having free time...what a concept! It will be a beast to go back to real school in the fall after having this and then summer in between!

I also had my first meeting with my interest group on human rights and I really like it. Our trip to Morocco is 4 days and it sounds like its going to be awesome. We get to do a lot of stuff that you usually don't do on a 'tourist' trip, like visit a women's center, which is totally something I would love. And something I'd love to maybe work it someday. I'm also going to start doing some volunteering, I think I'm going to work with little kids either at a school or in a hospital.

Last week Wednesday was insane. People had been talking about the Spain vs. England soccer (futbol) game for like a week and a lot of people had tickets to go, but I didn't get myself organized quick enough to get them ahead of time. The streets were fulllllll of crazy drunk englishmen all thinking we were spanish and offering our first english kiss. How sweet. If only they weren't old men. But on the day of the game me and a friend signed up for our Portugal trip and the guy who worked there offered to help us find tickets at the game. So after an hour run/walk to the stadium, we finally found him and he got me and my friend Amber tickets for 30euros which was not bad at all, most people had paid over 40. We weren't sitting together but I was so excited to be there, I didn't care at all. It was crazier than any Wisconsin game I've ever been to, so exciting and emotional! I sat in the middle of a bunch of Spanish people and even though I didn't know the cheers or the songs, I felt more a part of Spain than I have my entire time here. And my seat was so close!! I was about a 20 foot hypotenus from David Beckam!! I got a great view of him stretching his glutes...haha. He was there because it was a friendly game that didn't count for anything so he came back to play for England. It didn't help them though because we beat them 2-0! It was a great experience and I definetely want to go to more of them.

The weekend of Valentine's Day was fun, and spent with not one, but many many Valentines. Unfortunately, none of them were Spanish or boys. Oh well :) On Saturday me and some friends went to Gibraltar which is an island off of Spain that is a British colony so everyone there speaks English and Spanish. I was totally expecting it to be a beautiful hot sunny day, but it was completely the opposite, which really brought down the whole experience. It was still really cool because we went to a place on the island called Europa Point where you can see Africa right across the water. Algeria, Morrocco, and one other country I can't think of. It's crazy to remember how close we are to Africa and how different things are there. Then we went to Saint Michael's Cave which was really cool and kind of creepy with stalagtites and stalagmites all over and water dripping on us haha. After that we walked outside and were greeted by tons of monkeys!!! They are actually what Gibraltar is really famous for and they were hilarious. They let you get so close, and some of them got a little too close haha. A little one crawled up my friend Danielle and sat on her head and she freeeeeeaked out. Then there was a huge one behind Danielle that I assume was the mom because she opened her mouth and bared her teeth and was about to pounce on Danielle but thankfully the little one jumped off. It was equally hilarious and terrifying. After that we got free time to look around the city. It was a cool trip but I hate being a part of a huge tourist group and the weather could have made it so much better. It was right on the ocean and the water was so pretty but the sun would have made it sparkle even more. The rock of Gibraltar itself was really awesome too though.

Life in Sevilla just continues to get more and more beautiful by the day. The rain has officially said adios and we have had 70+ temperatures all last week and cloudless skies. People hang out by the river all day just drinking sangria or beer and hanging out....I want to be friends with all of them! It is much harder to make Spanish friends than I thought it would be though. You have to find boys who aren't creepy and girls who actually want to be your friend and in general you have to find people who want to take the time to try and understand you. But it will come with time.

Well, it has officially been a month. I can hardly believe it. It is so weird to think about because imagining being at home in Neenah or Madison gets harder and harder by the day. Sometimes it feels like I've been here so long, but at the same time, one fourth of my journey is over and at times I feel like I don't have enough to show for it. Through all these entries I keep saying how I'm not homesick yet, I'm not homesick yet, but I think I am beginning to feel it start to set in. It isn't all the time but I will get short and intense bouts of it lately when certain things happen. I really miss being around people who know me, really know me. I love the friends I have made here but they just can't compare to the ones that know everything about me and love me all the time regardless, and that includes my family above all. Being at home I start feeling really isolated especially without internet—not in an American internet addiction way, but just because I feel so disconnected only being able to talk to people once a week, or less. But a really interesting thing happened to me the first day I was feeling really down. That night I had a dream that it was time for me to go back home to the States and I was so excited to be home and see everyone. And I saw everyone; all my friends and family and Madison and Neenah. And then the dream lasted for awhile and it was like I had been there for awhile and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to go back to Spain and how much I regretted being homesick. It was interesting because I know that one day before I know it, this will all be over, and I will want to be back more than anything. It was just another reminder from myself that I am very very lucky to be where I am. My dreams rarely make sense, much less are they prophetic, but this dream was like a kick in the butt from my subconcious. But of course, I can't help thinking about all of you all the time and wishing you were here :) Love you all, missing you as you know! And I am planning to go online on Sundays at 11:30-12 your time, so if you want to Skype we can do it then! Or at another predetermined time but weekends always work better because of the time change. Besossss!!