sorry its been a while guys, things get busy.

Okay, so.
since last post, i went to morrocco. It was fantastic. i rode a camel, and drank really good tea and wandered around bazaars in the evenings and just generally enjoyed myself, especially since i was with kirstie and jessica, who are wonderful travel buddies. We were just in the north of morrocco (cueta [which is actually spanish] tetuan, tangier, and a little mountain city called chef chaouen, which was my favorite. all the buildings were painted blue.) and i'm sad i didnt get to hang out in the Sahara dessert, but the Sahara isnt going anywhere, so i'm sure ill visit it another time.

I've also been preparing myself to leave, which is much more difficult than i act like it is. I feel really at home in cordoba, and its not like my actually home in california that i can go back to for breaks. when am i ever going to come to cordoba again? im not worried about the friends i've made here, because im pretty confident we can be friends for life if we make an effort, but im going to miss the actual place quite a bit. it's a very beautiful city, but also unassuming and comfortable. My plan right now is to come back for ferria, which is a huge celebration in may (conveniently after school is over) but even though i could stay with my spanish madre for freesies, a plane ticket accross the atlantic is quite the financial commitment for a broke ass college student like myself. especially after i've spent all my money galavanting about europe for a semester. but anyways. Hay que aprovechar while im here. (have to take advantage of, have to enjoy. its what my spanish madre says when i go out on weekends and sleep late the next day) And i have been enjoying these last few days with my friends. we went to the arab baths here in cordoba and sat in hot water for 2 hours, with a 15 minute massage, and that was fabulous, and i've been taking lots of walks to take fotos, and eating lots of churros. so thats that.

next on my agenda, after leaving cordoba, im spending the night in cordoba saying goodbye to my preshco friends, and then its off to paris for 4 days with kirstie, which will be fantastic. then back in madrid for a day and a bit, then home for the navidad on the 23rd. and i'll be home until january 5th. lots of plane flights.

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.

things i miss about the us (in no particular order)

non-gendered language
's
hamburgers made with cow, instead of pork
cream cheese and bagels
i sort of little miss autumn leaves. but i also appreciate 80 weather here
chlorine pools (instead of the bromine one i have here that is messing with my skin)
classes that arent' 2 hours long
house
mad men
watching house and antm and project runway with people
getting to go to fiestas gratis, instead of paying to get into discotecas
my car
not getting propositioned on the street/assulted in discotecas
the phrase wife, or spouse, or partner, instead of "mi mujer" (my woman) which doesnt really cae bien conmigo
peanut butter
captain crunch


and a few other things, but thats what i have right now.

This viernes, our program went to Sevilla. It's a very beautiful city. I was a bit exhausted from a very spanish night out the noche antes, so i might of missed some cool stuff, but we saw the plaza de espana, and the 3rd largest catedral del mundo. and we climbed a torre, which is becoming a theme of all my trips (next up torre inclinade de piso!)

I only have two months left here, so I'm stepping up my level of immersion. I'm writing words that i learn on the wall, and conjugating them, im talking in spanish when im not talking to you, queridos lectores, (or my madre, or my novio) I'm trying to go out more so i meet more spanish people (i talked to the lg and one of the aerobic instructors at the gimnasio today, and it was mas o menos successful) I'm actually reading all my homework. I'm watching a spanish tv miniseries drama thing that is three hours long each week and super dramatic. I think that I can reach some level of fluidez if i do this. Provided I can find enough spanish people to talk to. so thats my goal. Este es mi meta.

this is all going by so fast! wish me luck!