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.

somehow, i stored up enough karma points to be rewarded by the universe this weekend. Not only did i go to Ireland, i went to Ireland for Arthur Guinness's 250th birthday. You can imagine how much of a party that was. So much of a party, that some irish man pulled out some of his belly hair, and tried to give it to me. oh yeah. And then! on top of that, the next night was "culture night" where everything was open late and free! So Kirstie, Jessica and I went to the Guiness brewery and had free pints of Guiness (definitely very cultural), and then we went to Christ's Church to look at the cat and rat that got mummified in the pipe organ a long time ago, and then we went to the Viking museum(!) and took lots of campy pictures with all the recreations. beause that's how we role. We definitely lucked out, because we didn't know about this before hand, so we got to save a lot of money while we were in Dublin.

On Saturday, we woke up early to take the bus to Galway, and we hung out in Galway a bit, and had crepes for dinner. Then on Sunday, we took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Mohar, and to fairy rings, and castles and prehistoric portal tombs. awesome.

Now I'm back in spain, ready to speak some more spanish. woo spanish!!!!

My next trip will probably be to Italy, around October 8th. because that week I have thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday free. Yes, you read that correctly. I have a 6 day weekend in October.

Guys, I am so ready (estoy tan lista) for classes to start here. We've literally had a whole week to sit around in our houses with our madres and watch american shows and made for tv movies (the simpsons, two and a half men, the secret life of the american teenager, etc) that are dubbed over in spanish. And walk around Cordoba. And have a few meetings here and there. And be formally welcomed by the alcade (mayor) of Cordoba (and by mayor, I actually mean the representative of the mayor) for approximately 4 hours of my life that I will never get back. It may sound like alot, but trust me, I've had more thatn enough tiempo libre. I am ready to do something productive.

So I guess I am experiencing a bit of culture shock, in that we (Nina y yo) fuimos a our Madre's piso in Malaga, on the coast of spain, for the weekend. and for all of Saturday, from 10 am to 1 am, we walked from cafe to cafe, and ate and sat, and then sat and ate, and then ate, and then walked maybe a block, and then sat and ate, and talked with relatives and omg by the end of it I was about ready to die of bordom. And it doesn't help that Malaga, being on the coast, is big into mariscos (seafood) and I am not really and aficionada of whole fried squid, or whole raw anchovies, or mussels. I'm not really a fan of wilted lettace covered in mayonaise either. Or whole fried baby birds, which my Madre ordered for lunch today. So fun times.

Yay clases start manana!!!

o, and I'm going to Ireland with Kirstie and Jessica this weekend. nbd. (yayayayayay!!!!!)