Wednesday

Today was a Wednesday. I woke up, or rather, was woken up, by the Chihuahua next door, my alarm that never fails to stir my sleepy head at 8:15. I proceeded to climb out my crinkly bed and walk to the kitchen, where I had some delicious Muesli (granola) and sat in the sunlight on the balcony of my apartment. It was a glorious day: 72 degrees, one tiny little cloud to the west and nothing else but scary old men and dogs on the path along the river, so I went running. Every person stared at me during the 45 minutes. Have they NEVER seen a girl? In shorts? Exercising? Sweating? I guess not. The old women looked frightened that my calves were on display for the whole world and the dogs/men (interchangeable in this case) proceeded to bark in my direction and thoroughly investigate me through sight and smell. Other than those little bumps in the story, howeva, it was a nice run, got some sun, had some wheezing fun.

Entonces, I finally, finally! feel at home here. It was a loooooong adjustment period, but the weather is perfect every day, I can speak Spanish, I have a relationship with my host family, and I get to go wherever I please every weekend. It's The Life. I like it, and Granada, though I wasn't in love with it at first, has grown into one of my favorite places in the world. You should go! Come visit! I love visitors. And water.

Speaking of water, I recently went to Almuñecar, a small beach town outside of Granada, for the weekend with a couple friends. Expecting a warm, relaxing 2 days, we were unprepared when the water did not work in my host family's apartment. After an hour of talking/yelling in Spanish with my host mother and father, a convo with the handyman, and running up and down the apartment complex looking for someone to help us (the building was empty, BTW-low season), we were told that the landlord had not paid the bill for that week, so we were stuck with a smelly bathroom and no way to fill up our water balloons. Not that upsetting, UNTIL we discovered my host dad had given me the wrong key, so once the building was locked for the night we could not leave or return, so we remained in the cold, stinky prison without food or water until Saturday morning. That morning, one of my friends had eXpLoSivE poo because she drank bad water, so we had to walk to town since the buses weren't running, which was about a 45 minute walk with all of out stuff, where we finally hung out at the beach and hopped on the night bus home. What a trip! I hope everyone gets to experience Almuñecar at some point in their lives...

That's all for now, off to get tapas for St. Patrick's Day

Next up was Paris. Sigh. I loved Paris. It was everything you've ever hope Paris would be (minus the boys on mopeds. for the better this time around I think): The Eiffel Tower twinkling in the foggy February dust, the river winding between lit up cathedrals, centuries-old buildings, and museums (saw the Mona Lisa-not that great, but I still saw it alright?) in the city of lights. Paris also had incredible food. I had steak, salmon tartar, macaroons, crepes, a fromage and broiled tomato sandwich, and endless croissants...not to mention the three-course tasting we got to do at le Cordon Bleu, prepared by some French chef. It was pretty great, though amazingly tiring, I was ready to call it a life by the last day there.

After the longest, most awful day of the trip ( woke up at 5, metro to the airport where our flight was delayed for 2 hours as the little angry French air traffic controllers continued their angry little strike, then a bumpy flight to a rainy, confusing airport, a bus, and another metro, we finally got to London at around 9 and I got to see and stay with my lovely friend Jenny and her family. Her mummy made us a roast dinner, trifle, merengues...we got to watch English TV, what a treat! The best day was when we went to Brighton, a coast town where we had the best (and first for me) fish and chips and homemade doughnuts. It was yumay. The next day we did all the touristy things, saw Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park high tea, did some market shopping, all very British all the while.

But manoman, that trip was and Experience, capital "E", crazy and confusing and wonderful, stressful often, almost relaxing, but full of everything I've ever wanted to see in Europe since I was small.

It's good to be back though, real good. I even slept in a real bed last night.

Happy March

I could smell Spring in the wind today, in the rain that spat upon my washed hair, in the strip of blue sky peeking out of the overcast, and I knew I was (temporarily) home (ish). Before this relaxing day, however, I had been metroing, training, planing, taxiing, walkingwalkingwalkingwalkingabunch, running towards things, running away from people, and being a tourist, complete with camera, walking shoes, and loads of maps for 12 days. As you do.

Barcelona

Ahh, barcybarce, how I love this city. I nearly dug myself a cacoon in the damp sand, 5 days of Mediterranean bliss next to the sea. I was basically in Vicky Christina Barcelona the entire time in case you were wondering. jetting off on a private plane to the little island, living in an artist co-op with some Spanish guys, etc......but not really. You wish it was true, I know, but it's not! Get over it. I did have an amazin time though, my friend Theresa and I rode bikes across the whole city and along the oceanside. We all saw Gaudi's (famous Spanish whimsical architect) Park Guell and Sagrada Familia cathedral, had a paella and sangria dinner in a local restaurant, and visitied a castle that looks over the city. The only downside to barcelona was getting my wallet stolen sadly. Some hippygypsy took it on the metro and I lost everything but my passport-vacation money, IDs, various necessities like my keys and phone card...gah, but it turned out alright after two visits to the police and calls to my parents, though I had to borrow money the rest of the trip.