Morrocco. Simply amazing, I probably have e-mailed you something about it.

Ronda
I also went to Ronda, in Spain. It’s cool, has amazing views of the Sierra Nevada, tajo means sheer cliff. Doesn’t seem like there is much to do there but it is a pretty little town.

Alhambra
We also went to the Alhambra with our school which is the huge castle/pueblo/fortress that Granada is famous for. The King used to live there, after it was taken from the Moors. Very cool, very pretty, it’s so weird to be somewhere where so much history has taken place. I was trying to picture what would be going on there if I was walking around at the time that people were living there.

Speaking Spanish

I decided that if I leave Spain sans being able to speak Spanish I’m going to be really mad. So…I decided that I am going to try to speak it to people as much as possible. Going out at night, in between classes, walking around…Anna and I tried it the other day while we ran some errands, it’s a bit awkward but it is so good to practice. So far though she has been one of the only ones to actually speak it with me. It’s hard for me to understand that some people just don’t want to speak Spanish, even though they’re in Spain. They’re perfectly fine getting by on what little they know and staying around people who are English speaking. Lately I’ve felt better staying home and not going out, just because I feel like I am around so much more Spanish when at home. I have been having great conversations with my family here, and I feel like that’s so much better than just going out and ending up speaking English. Unless you meet random Spanish people out at night but sometimes that gets a little creepy.

So my host sister’s alarm clocks are going to drive me absolutely insane. She has three that go off, loud enough that they wake me up before my own alarm does, and I am down the hall through two closed doors (hers and mine). One is Will Smith “Switch” haha, the other is just a ringing sound, and the other one is some Spanish dance song where some girl is like leading a dance or something. It’s the best when they happen to all ring at once, that’s a good time.

Sometimes I hear my host family talk about me and I’m not sure what they’re saying…I feel like my host mom thinks I’m a loser and I never talk. I was actually talking to some people about this, like we can’t fully express ourselves in Spanish so it’s so hard to just be yourself. If someone tries to make a joke with me or something I can’t just be like oh ha ha and joke back, because I don’t know have the vocab to be like sarcastic or witty or have a quick come back. I feel like I may not ever be completely comfortable living with the family just because I am always a guest and can’t fully express how I really am. I wish I could just understand Spanish already! Andalucia is such a frustrating place to go to learn the language just because their accents are so strong that it is so hard to understand what everyone is saying. It’s almost like I’m not learning because sometimes when they talk to me I still am like whaaaaaaaaaaaat are you saaaaying??? But when we all talk together I think that they like me and I try to joke around a little…but then when my host mom starts saying stuff about me I’m like great she hates me. That’s the thing, it’s always easier to assume the worst in a situation. She could be saying that I’m a fantastic person and she loves me, but all I hear is my name, and random words, that I can interpret to be good or bad, so clearly I interpret them to be bad. I miss living on my own, being independent, not having to eat meals at specified times, not being able to spontaneously go out for the night because I haven’t told my host mom I wouldn’t be eating….She just came in and said dinner would be ready in 5 minutes, it’s 10:30 so maybe she was saying my name because she didn’t know if I was going out or not because dinner is a little late?

This weekend I’m going to Barcelona, Jes will be there too, it’s gonna be so fun!! We are going to a Barcelona futbol game. I am so excited we are going to dress in maroon and navy and just go absolutely crazy hah hopefully I can see the game from our seats. I love trips.