http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4550426007025299507
I spent thanksgiving with old (old like from the past, not old like age; there are different words for this in spanish) friends in Madrid, and it was lovely and I'd love to talk more about it but I have approximately 5000million pages to write and class to go to and trips to plan and budgeting to do etc etc so I'll just leave you with a photo of all of us prepies in a chocolateria en madrid. Its Kirstie, Claire, Me, the bf Austin and Jessica. (Austin doesn't like having his photo out there on the internet so please pretend you can't see him) Kinda crazy that we always talked about traveling the world and meeting up in crazy places when we were awkward developing middle schoolers and we've actually done it now that we are self-actualized motivated real people. I am thankful for growing up into someone that i like to be.

I'll be done with my program in spain in less than a month : ( :( :(

I have pretty complex feelings on this, but mostly I'm just sad.

hello again :)

Our program went to Granada last weekend, and for some reason I had my grumpy pants on. I guess I just needed a bit more time to myself than traveling by bus and sharing a hotel with 34 other people allows. Eventually I got over myself by having the following dialogue.

GrumpyPants: grumblegrumble loud noises

Sara: um, hello, you're in spain and your life is awesome

GP: but...i'm sleepy and people are using bad grammar/laughing obnoxiously/playing music so loudly i can hear it even though they have headphones in.

Sara: Where are you?

GP: In spain.

Sara: and?

GP: and my life is pretty much the most awesome thing in the history of the world.

Sara: exactly.

this conversation works for lots of other assorted bouts of annoyance too. Like when the internet connection is weak, or i can't find boots that i like, or i'm having trouble understanding my homework. doesn't matter. my life is so awesome that these small things do not diminish the awesome in the slightest. its like pennies of annoyance compared to 100000bazillion dollars. I'm like 5 dollars worth annoyed because my trip to Morocco for this weekend fell through, but i'm hoping I can go after thanksgiving so it's probably okay.

anyways, granada. beautiful, a bit chilly. Lots of muslim architecture, which is always super ornate and decorative with lots of text and flowers (because muslims can't draw people or animals because it's considered to be likening yourself to Allah, with the power of creation and all) Oh, and Isabel and Ferdinand are buried there and the famous work Deposition by Roger Van der Weyden is there because Isabel collected Flemish art, among her other hobbies (expelling the jews/muslims from spain, financing columbus's journey, insisting that her chapel be built gothic style even though the renaissance was happening, attending mass every day

Eminent in my life is the arrival of my boyfriend and my best friend in Spain, a super sweet thanksgiving in Madrid, and various and sundry adventurous in Cordoba. I also have to write a 10 page paper in Spanish in a week and 3 days, but I'm in Spain and my life is awesome so no te preocupes por mi.

hello dear readers,

I'm back in Cordoba after a fantabulous trip to Italy with 3 of my Preschita friends.
We started in Firenze(florence) climbed up the dome of the famous duemo there, walked all over the place, saw the replica of michealangelo's david (because it's literally exactly the same as the real one, except its free to visit), and climbed up the hill to san miniato al monte (famous church) to see the excellent view of the whole city, as you can see above, and we went to the famous art museum there (uffizi) We also met some mexican's and columbians in the hostel there, and they speak Spanish sooo much clearer than andalusians. It's amazing. They didn't pronounce z's like th's, and they didn't leave the s's of their words and i understood everything they were saying. Next time i decide to immerse myself in the spanish language, i'll be going to latin america. Also in florence, we visited my wheaton friend who's studying there and had dinner with her. It's always super guay (cool) to meet up with people you know from normal life in extravagently exciting places.

After Florence, we took the train to Venice and spent two nights there. sort of. we really were staying outside of venice in a campground sort of thing in a small trailer with an outside kitchen, and taking the bus into venice. no biggie. Venice was, of course, super super beautiful and I really really want to go back when i have some more time to walk around and get hopelessly lost on all the tiny little streets and maybe ride in an outlandishly expensive gondola.

Then we took the train back to Pisa (the only day it rained was the day were we were in a train for 5 hours, so that was lucky), checked into our hostel, played with the resident kitten, and made pasta by repeatedly pouring boiling water over pasta in glasses, since there wasn't a kitchen. The next day, we visited the leaning tower, which was really quite pretty, and then traveled back home to cordoba. All in all an excellent (and surprisingly affordable) trip.

Tomorrow, our program goes to Granada, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to Morrocco the weekend after that, and then austin/claire visit, then zomg not very much time left at all. (then i go to Paris with kirstie before I fly home) So the only place on my wishlist I'm missing is Portugal, and I'll definitely be okay with that because I'm 100% certain that sometime in my fabulous, wonderful life I'll have another chance to go to Portugal (and maybe to the north of spain because I'm kinda sad I haven't seen the Guggenheim too)

I'm enjoying this semester very much and it makes me feel like there's no reason the rest of my life can't be this fabulous, so I'm very excited to keep living. It's a good feeling.