yesterday, i got to go to the coast in almería. lauren's friend, daniel, drove us over and it took about 2 hours. we fell asleep in the car on the way there and on the way back. but we fell asleep to the music of david bisbal and alejandro sanz. awesome. we got there at about 11am and had breakfast and then found a section of beach. we hung out there for a little bit and then went to find daniel's family, who were also at the beach. two of his aunts have beach-front apartments and they are nice. it's like their summer home. i want a summer home. i've gathered that it's really common for spanish people, and europeans in general, to have apartments/houses all over the place. after a quick stop there, at roquetas del mar, we went to another section of coast. the water was salty, but not so much sandy because it was more a mix of sand and pebbles, so we could see to the bottom of the water. and we were lucky, because the water on this particular day, was super clean. after spending many hours outside, we went back to the apartment and made food for ourselves. i discovered that i should've reapplied my SPF 45 because i got burned. and it totally hurt.

around after we ate, we headed back to granada. we all went home to clean up, and then met up for dinner at the italian restaurant at 11:30pm. the restaurant was packed and some spanish women were having a bachelorette party, so they were just crazy, but it was pretty funny. by then, i think i was suffering from being out in the sun, because i was dehydrated, in pain, and couldn't really eat. after dinner, we drove around for a little bit until we decided to get some ice cream at los italianos. it was an italian themed evening.

when i got home, i went straight to sleep, only to wake up an hour later and find myself suffering from chills. i put on a sweatshirt, socks, mittens [i found them in my backpack] and went back to sleep. 2 hours later, i was dying from the heat, so i got rid of all the extra layers and popped an advil with a ton of water. i kept waking up every 2 hours having to pee and feeling hot/cold. this morning, i couldn't even drag myself out of bed. i popped another advil and slept until 1pm. at that point, i was like, i'll feel better if i just get up and do something. i got up to put my contacts in and i was so exhausted and i had to lie down. an hour later, when i could get back up, i brushed my teeth and washed up. again, had to sit back down because it was too much of an exertion. how weak am i? another hour later, i decided that i'd feel better if i did something. it took a massive effort to walk to the internet cafe. after this, i'm going to try and make it up to plaza nueva. and i think my fever has gone away. yay!

ok. i won't lie. i'm a little irritated. i'm already supposed to be at the coast. but, i'm not. we were supposed to leave around 5pm for the coast in almería. it's 9pm and i'm still in granada. lauren's friend was going to drive us after he got off work. i didn't realize that he works in madrid. so right now, he's on the way back. but, he called her a little bit ago to say that now, he doesn't want to go, with no explanation. he promised to explain once he got here, and we don't know how far he is from granada. this would all be fine, if i hadn't been sitting inside all stinkin' afternoon waiting for them to call me to go. and it was a beautiful, sunny, fantastic afternoon. i could have been taking advantage of one of my last afternoons in granada. instead, i was sitting around waiting for them. they called at 3pm to say that we should be leaving by 6 or 7pm, so not to go out. ok...i waited. 8:15pm...umm...there's a bit of a problem. alright, i can definitely appreciate the fact that antonio, lauren's friend, offered to drive us and take us around the coastal area. however, if we knew he was going flake, we would have rented our own car, or grabbed a bus on our own. either way, lauren and i decided we're going to the coast. it'll probably be by bus tomorrow morning or something. grr.

i forgot to mention that another thing i like about granada, aside from feeling much safer, is that i don't have to deal with skeezy boys...much. in sevilla, in the short 36 hours that we were there, we were invited onto an old guy's boat, spoken to [not in a flattering way], and gestured at - by guys of varying ages, including dirty old guys, i'm talking like old. ewww. seriously, do guys here just think that all foreigners are like loose women? it wasn't like super offensive, more like annoying. but, i did want to take a bat to some of them just to say, "stop that." someone needs to teach them. maleducados.

only a few more days left. how sad. i just finished taking my "final" exam. i say "final" because it was multiple choice and only about 40 questions. i chose not to study [read: cram] last night, and chose to go and walk around more of granada, in the northeast direction. so, for having not studied, i think i did well. tomorrow is the last day of class and we're watching a movie. woohoo.

i have to start packing up my stuff because the four salvajes [marian calls them savages and i think it's because they're texas boys...hahaha] are arriving today and i have to switch rooms into marian's room until i leave, that way the guys who are staying for the summer don't have to keep moving their stuff around. this is good anyway, i'll be able to see if i need to buy another bag to carry stuff, though i probably won't since i haven't actually bought all that much for all the times i've been out shopping. eh.

on friday, lauren and i bought our bus tickets to sevilla and got our hotel stuff all worked out. we weren't able to get tickets to isla mágica because the internet wasn't working, which turned out to be divine intervention because when we saw it in person, it was dinky. i was picturing magic mountain proportions, and it definitely wasn't even close, more like the size of the portland rose festival...ok, maybe twice as big as that, but that's it. anywho, later that night, our class had planned to go to a tetería, teahouse, to sample different teas, but when we met up, we decided on tapas and drinks. we barhopped for a little bit and then i went home, since i had to be up by 6am the next morning to catch the 8am bus to sevilla. [ok, i don't know if it was really barhopping the way other people barhop, we just went to 3 different places to try different tapas.]

saturday morning, i dragged my tired self out of bed and met up with lauren to catch the bus to the bus station. the trip was about 3 hours and they showed john q in spanish. i had to try and not cry, as i was on a bus full of people, but i pretty much failed. it was pretty darn sad - the movie...and i suppose me too. we arrived in sevilla around 11am and caught a bus to our hotel, where we checked in and made a game plan. we decided to do the big double-decker red bus city tour, which took us around to la plaza de españa, a government building [i think], la catedral de sevilla, el real alcázar, la plaza de toros, la torre de oro, over some bridges, and around isla mágica. this is where we were glad the ticket buying process didn't work out as we were very much disappointed upon seeing it. we got on and off the bus to look at the different areas as we wanted and spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the center of sevilla and shopping. that pretty much took up the entire day. we stopped a couple of times to have bocadillos [baguette type sandwiches] and ice cream. one of the many things i love about spain is that there are heladerías [ice cream places] on every corner, like starbucks in the US, but better because it's ice cream. we went back to the hotel briefly to sit and rest because we were exhausted from walking around all day in the hot sun. we went back out again for tapas and drinks and as we were walking home, there was a shifty looking character who had walked past us, and then decided to turn around and walk in our direction. needless to say, we walked much faster and turned onto a highly populated street. mr. shifty then went another direction. i liked sevilla, a lot, but i feel so much safer in granada. granada just doesn't feel as sketchy as sevilla.

the next morning, sunday, we slept in, checked out, stored out bags with the hotel, and went to visit for free the insides of la catedral [free because it was sunday] and el real alcázar [always free for students]. both were fabulous. after that, we went to la plaza de toros because they do short 20 minute tours and take you to see the bullring and let you sit in the stands and explore a little bit, but we were too late. they had finished giving tours for the day because there was a bullfight that evening. so we had to make do with just looking at the gift shop and taking pictures of the outside of the building. we hopped back onto the tour bus one last time before we went to some pizza. after that, we got our stuff from the hotel and caught a bus to the bus station. once we got off the bus, we got a little lost and had to be pointed in the right direction for the actual station. we thought we were going to miss the last bus back to granada, but lucky for us, our bus was late. on the way back, they showed pirates of the caribbean. it was fun to watch in spanish. we arrived in granada at about 10:30pm and the only thing i wanted to do was shower and sleep. that's how tired we were - our whole bodies hurt, from head to toe. we had burnt scalps and blistered feet, but it was so worth it. lots of pictures were taken, so there shall be lots to see, mostly of places, not so much people. i need to start taking more pictures of people.

the spanish plants have waged a war, and i have lost. i've been going through kleenex like crazy. all of a sudden, i'm sneezing every 5 seconds and wiping the snot from my nose. how attractive an image is that?

i just finished having lunch, well we finished eating awhile ago, but we just left the restaurant. as a class, we went out to il gondoliere, an italian restaurant, as a good-bye gesture for one of the people in class, samuel, this really nice 60-70 year-old grandfatherly guy. it's us, a bunch of young 20 somethings and samuel. it's awesome. he has a lot of latin american vocab that he shares with the class. he's heading to france after class tomorrow and then back to the states.

day after tomorrow, i'm going to sevilla...wahoo. and the weekend after, a drive to tarifa, stopping along different coastal points. our plan is to rent a car and make our way over after our last day of class. i love how we keep changing our plans - because we can.

there's a pack of cigarettes sitting in the right pocket of my fleece jacket. it goes against every fiber of my being to allow it to sit there. marian, my homestay mom, asked me to buy her a pack of cigarettes on my way to the internet cafe. i could tell her that smoking is incredibly bad for her, but i don't know her well enough to say that. and so, for the first time ever, i have purchased cigarettes. lame. i feel all yucky. ok, i don't really, but it still is lame.

i spent the afternoon sitting outside having tapas and planning my trip to sevilla with lauren, becky, and becky's flatmate, anna. we're so excited! and we decided that for sure, the next weekend, my last weekend here, we're going to the coast. that trip was looking kind of iffy since lauren is headed back to england the same time that i'm headed back to the states and she's got tons of stuff to pack. but we're like, it's our last weekend in spain, we're going to make the most of it. and with that mantra in mind, we went shopping and bought university of granada gear, as if we were real UGR students, and finished the day with gelato at an italian place, where the names are actually in italian. shopping and ice cream...ha..i love it. and there shall be plenty more shopping and ice cream before we're through.

i never made it to the park yesterday. libby and i somehow ended up at the internet cafe for almost 5 hours. 5 hours! goodness. she had a good excuse...she was looking up summaries of a play to help with her final exams. i have no idea what i was doing.

i bought some cds today - bootlegged, pirated cds. and they're not even like pirated ones that have like crappy imaging on the cd, they're just like cd-rs stuck in sleeves with a color copy of the actual cd insert. awesome. i got chambao, alejandro sanz, david bisbal, and ramón - the last two being more cheese, yet catchy.

i found out today that four guys from the university of texas will be moving in on the 27th [libby is leaving friday morning for málaga for her flight to germany and the rest of her summer european travels]. the letter the program sent to marian [my homestay mom] describes the guys as all more or less bio/engineering guys who are like 20/21. libby and i were trying to figure out if they would be nerds, or crazy party animals. we shall see.

if anyone knows if it's possible to rent/download telenovelas [like korean soap operas] from anywhere, let me know. i just realized that i will not be able to see the rest of the episodes from my beloved telenovela before i leave spain. sad.

thursday night, i went out to nuevo cafe with my housemate and a friend of hers from UCSD to hear some live music from an english girl that goes to the centro de lenguas modernas. she played piano and sang. her own music and songs, not that great, but when she sang another person's songs while he played guitar, she was really, really good. and when she did cover songs, she was really, really good. so that was fun, except for the fact that most of the audience was comprised of the more obnoxious americans from the school, including, and i kid you not, the most stereotypical frat boy, who has the voice of a 12 year-old. as mean as it sounds, there was actually something about him and made me want to run up and kick him in the head. i don't often come across people who incite violence within me merely by their presence.

friday, i went to see the prince and me, and it was so much harder to understand because the sound quality was really bad. the theater was also tiny and there was lauren, me, some other people our age, and then like a gaggle of 12 year-old girls who were throwing popcorn at one another and giggling whenever julia stiles and the prince kissed. it was hilarious. the movie was ok, but i get the feeling that we lost the sarcasm and some of the funny/cute stuff in translation. afterwards, we went for tapas and then to the school, where they were having a party to celebrate the end of the course for some of the students in the program. there was a live band, playing some random music and that had hand motions. it was half greek wedding dancing and have that chicken dance. it was kind of confusing too. there were a ton of people in a small space and lots of smoking and beer being spilt. lauren and i were like, ok...let's go home now. her friend paul was having a party later that night, later being like 1am, and we were like...uh...no. on the way home, we ran into two of her welsh friends from university who were visiting for the weekend from extremadura. they had fabulous accents. seriously you guys, i love british people [which i have learned includes scottish, welsh, english, and irish peoples so it is necessary to differentiate.]

yesterday, i went out to walk and shop. i bought postcards, a pair of cute black flats [with a cute little butterflies, instead of the cute tacky flower that the pair i returned had...for those of you that saw...], and some trinkety things. that was how i passed the afternoon and then i went home and watched a little news. later, libby and i went to carrefour, like a wal-mart type store. i loved it. it reminded me of brasil because we went to one there too. we walked there...it was super far, ok, it was only like a 30 minute walk, but it became clear that no one actually walks there since there are few sidewalks to get there. we cabbed it home with our loot. junk food and cheap sandals. awesome.

today is beautifully sunny, and in a little bit, i'm going to go to the park and sit on the bench and enjoy the fact that it's not raining. the garcía lorca park is having a book fair/festival, and i'm hoping that there will still be events, even though it's a sunday and everything, i mean everything, is generally closed, well, except internet cafes. :)

neat vocabulary [spanish = british english = american english]

caradura [literally tough/hard face] = cheeky = nervy

los aseos/los servicios = loo = bathroom/restroom

ascensor = lift = elevator

piso = flat = apartment

cursi = naff = cheesy

anuncio = advert = commercial

vacaciones = holiday = vacation

cola = queue = line

and if you made it this far, here's what garrett calls a "cheap laugh" - lauren was trying to describe a spanish friend of hers to her friend becky, because she was sure becky had met him before. for whatever reason, she was describing him in english and then spanish, and then it turned to spanglish, and she meant to say "he's really flaco" as in really thin, and she said "he's really flaccid" instead. then it went silent, and then becky and i started cracking up and lauren totally went red. cheap laugh of the day.

the butterfly effect was surprisingly enjoyable, but i suppose that's what happens when you have low expectations for something. but since ashton kutcher was in it, i kept waiting for him to jump up and down and yell, "you got punk'd!" actually, all of us were waiting for it. it wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be to understand the movie in spanish, and so, on friday, we're going to what el príncipe y yo, that's right, the prince and me. wahoo.

it is still cold here. i'm no longer going to sevilla this weekend, since i'll be going with lauren, my english friend, and a bunch of her friends that are going next weekend and staying overnight. the coast trip this weekend might not happen either, since the weather sucks, but we decided that we'd do that two weekends from now, and then on that sunday, we're going to see david bisbal in concert. we're such geeks. i love it.

and i got both lauren and elena, my italian friend, hooked on my telenovela. we love it. and we're always like talking about it the next day in class. sadly, i couldn't watch today's episode since my homestay mom's son stopped by and wanted to take a nap on the couch. for whatever reason, he didn't want to sleep in the extra room that marian has. man...doesn't he realize i have my telenovela to watch? :) as wendy pointed out, i'm seth. haha.

in class today, we talked about commercials and slogans. it was an exercise to get us to use different vocabulary. anyway, it reminded me of this super hilarious commercial that is on TV here in spain. it starts with an aerial view of something that looks like the oval office and then it moves in on a clinton look-alike and then appears a monica look-alike and you know what they're peddling? mejillones...oysters/mussels. how funny is that?

anyway, there are days when i feel like i'm totally improving in my speaking ability and then on other days, it's like i can't get the words past my lips to actually talk to another person. oi... but i suppose this is how it always is when you're learning another language, eh?

later, i'm going to see my first movie here in spain, well, at the theater anyway. it's the butterfly effect, you know, the lame movie with ashton kutcher. it's dubbed in spanish so it should be an interesting experience.

and it's raining here...again. boo.

the weather has finally taken a turn for the sunny and warm. yesterday was a beautifully sunny day and i dragged myself out of bed to go on a school field trip to the abadía [abbey] del sacromonte. it was a long walk uphill - very long. along the way, the same teacher/guide from the trip to the albaicín told us about the history of the areas that we passed. so we learned a little about gypsy history in the area and at the abbey, we sat down on benches in the courtyard and it was kind of like a history lecture. it was cool. afterwards, i decided to spend more time outside enjoying the weather. i found el parque de federico garcía lorca, down a few blocks from where i live and spent the afternoon reading and walking around the park. at one end was an area that had playground equipment, but most of the park was carefully manicured plant life. it sort of looks like the rose gardens, except with less rose bushes and there were plenty of shade trees and benches. 'twas quite pretty. sadly, i started to show signs of sunburn and had to go back home. i spent the rest of the evening reading inside and using a lot of aloe vera.

today i slept in late and it was nice, because i've been super tired from the various exploring - plus i think the sun from yesterday is still sapping away my energy. on sundays, pretty much everything is closed, seriously...not even supermarkets are open, only the occasional internet cafe, as demonstrated by my present posting. typically, spanish families go out to parks and hang out and spend time with each other. how great is that? i think the us should adopt this custom of taking a day to spend quality time with one another. i was just walking around outside, after watching the replacements inside and realized that just taking a walk is really nice. the plan is to incorporate this activity into my regular life.

haha...my second weekend in spain and it was spent being mellow and resting. i love it. but next weekend will be busy with a day trip to sevilla and another trip the day after to the tropical coast of almunecar and nerja. and i now that i've spent a week comparison shopping, it's time to buy some shoes, and other fun things. wahoo.

i feel like i've been on my feet all day, oh wait, that's because i have. after my class, i went home for lunch and then at 4pm, the school had a walking trip through the albaicín, an older part of the city with a lot of muslim history. it was beautiful and interesting, but lots and lots of walking, actually, it was more like hiking. after like 2 or 3 hours, i went back home, and then went back out in search of a bookstore, and also to explore the sidestreets a little bit. i found a fabulous bookstore with english books. i didn't buy anything, but it was just nice to have a pseudo barnes and noble experience. after an hour, i went back home and had dinner. after dinner, i went back out again to meet up with elena and peter, from my class, and some of their other friends. they wanted to go out to different bars, etc, but i wasn't in the mood because i'm exhausted. trekking around the city is more tiring than i thought - plus it's still kind of cold here, so i just wanted to curl up in bed. yet, now i'm sitting at the internet cafe again. but it's only because i need to be connected. not having constant internet access like i do back in seattle is weird. often times, i just want to look something up, and then i realize i can't, unless i visit the internet cafe. it's just less convenient. i like convenience - it's comfortable.

tomorrow, more walking - this time to sacremonte, which is further than the albaicín. wahoo. it'll be good though because it's a pretty place. then it shall be resting for the rest of the weekend.

have i mentioned how europe is pretty much the non-smoker's worst nightmare? everyone smokes here. sometimes, i just want to shout, "hey, i'd like not to die from secondhand smoke...so could you put out that cigarette?" or, yell out, "hey, you're going to die!" but that would make me a crazy person here. this is also one of the reasons why going out all the time doesn't hold that much appeal - i hate smelling like smoke. bleh.

it happened. i got hooked on a cheesier than cheesy telenovela [soap opera]. i think it's from venezuela originally and it just finished it's run on univision in the states, but it is just starting here. two episodes, and i'm hooked. just goes to show, i can adapt to tv anywhere. and... a huge popstar here is a guy named david bisbal. he's got like long and curly hair, and to be honest, he's quite cheesy and greasy looking. he's not a bad-looking guy. but, his image, if you will, is like something we'd very much laugh at. it's almost like the look of a greasy playboy type who wears shirts and leaves the collar wide open so that chest hair can spill out. gross. [what's that? you don't see what's wrong with that? erm...i've no words then.] anyway, i totally thought this guy's music would be equally lame, but his song, "buleria" is actually quite catchy. it's almost like ricky martin's "la copa de vida" before he went all mainstream american and thus, lame. and there's this other group, chambao, and they do a style called "flamenco chill." i am quickly learning that there's a number of descriptive words that may be placed after the word "flamenco."

have i mentioned much about my class? i took the placement test and i placed into avanzado A. there are 4 levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and superior and each level has an A and B class. advanced A isn't bad, but i get the feeling i should have placed higher, given the time i spent earning an actual spanish degree. this then leads me to the conclusion that i have forgotten much, or, that i've never actually learned that much at all. how sad. oh well. but, i am happy to report that advances have been made. i am definitely starting to follow along with the newscast and also, i have answered the phone 3 times now, instead of just letting it ring until the caller hangs up. and there's this short program that is on right after the early evening news, and it's with puppets. but they look like various public figures, both locally and internationally, and they're very, very life-like, in a kind of creepy way. anywho, president bush has his own puppet counterpart and he speaks spanish, with a texas accent! it's super funny. i'm going to try and capture a segment with the video function on my digital camera.

earlier this afternoon, i decided to go walking around the city, i was about to say the streets, but that has a bit of a different connotation, doesn't it? anyway, i explored the city a little more and went window shopping. i eyed a whole bunch of shoes that i want to buy and did actually buy una falda [skirt] from a shop called zara. i guess they have a location in new york...who knew? i also found spain's version of sogo, el corte inglés. it's like huge with clothing, shoes, electronics, books, music, movies, toys, food court, grocery store, etc. you name it, and they probably have it. it was fun. sadly, the clothing for the younger peoples are brands like polo, tommy hilfiger, levi's, and lee. there are some other ones, but a lot of them are ones we have in the states and ones from which i do not buy. where's my old navy? anyway, things are kind of expensive here so i might not be shopping as much as i would've thought. boo.

oh, and the other thing that i forgot about in spanish culture, and in latin american culture too, come to think of it, is how you greet people. we americans like to shake hands and maintain and sense of personal space. they don't do that here. they're all about that whole cheek-air kiss thing on both sides of the face. and we know i'm all about personal space. :) it reminds me of being back in brasil, and how i was initially really uncomfortable. haha... i'm learning to not look so spooked when i meet new people and greet them the spanish way. actually, being here has made me miss brasil all over again. i have saudades for brasil.

thanks friends for e-mailing me with tv updates - it keeps me from getting too edgy from the withdrawal...oh goodness i'm like an addict and tv/media, my drug.

new vocab of the day: buitre = spanish for player/guy who thinks he's all that and a bowl of rice to the ladies. buitre is actually a predatory bird that feeds off of the rotting carcasses of other animals - basically, a vulture. nice visual, huh? now...where can i start using that word...

saturday night, i went out with my new housemate libby to have tapas and drinks with her friends who were finished with the program at the language school. i have to say, tapas are good. but equally good are tinto de verano, sangría, and their version of a mojito.

sunday was spent sleeping in. the girls who were leaving came by for breakfast and we all hung out for a little bit. then it was a lot of reading time because it was cold and rainy. i think there was a nap in there somewhere.

monday morning i had a placement test in the morning. in the afternoon, i pretty much sat around the house and read and slept because it was raining like crazy outside. have i mentioned how crazy cold it is here? it's like seattle, y'all. monday was also día de las cruces, day of the cross. obviously, it's supposed to have religious significance, but really, it's just an excuse to go out and party and drink. we went out to look at the different crosses that were displayed in the different plazas, squares. i didn't get to take a picture, but there were just masses and masses of empty liquor bottles everywhere, and broken shards of glass from these bottles too. but amazingly enough, the next morning, the streets were clean. no signs of crazy drunkenness.

tuesday was my first day of class and there was that typical "first day of class" feeling. gotta love that - it's like guaranteed. but of course, we played a game, la oca loca, which is pretty much just an icebreaker, which actually served its purpose to loosen everyone up a little bit. after 4 hours of class, i was starving so i went home for lunch. have i mentioned how much i love spanish food? tortilla española is sooo good. then it was off to find a bookstore that actually carried our class text. the italian girl and one of the british girls from class, and i went in search and eventually found a place that had the books. then we walked around some more and made plans to meet up for tapas later. the afternoon was spent doing homework. it's funny, being in class now, i've realized how much i actually miss class, and even the homework...a little anyway. i had always just thought that i missed the lifestyle, which i totally do, but i'm finding that i miss going to classes and learning as well. such a nerd am i. anyway, lauren, the british girl, elena, the italian girl, and i met up around 9pm and lauren brought her friend paul, a british guy, and his roommate juan, a total spanish guy. we ate and then went for ice cream. the ice cream is so good. it's pretty much gelato. i went home and had dinner - because spaniards eat dinner at like 11pm - and went to sleep.

today was rainy...again. i am so tired of rain. i mean, i can get that at home, you know? and plus, i packed for warm weather...therefore i'm freezing my toes off. but it is more reason for me to go shopping. wahoo.

the house-mom is really laidback. she's actually gone for a few days at a time because she works occasionally as a tour guide. she preps all the meals and sticks them in the fridge and we just heat it up when we're hungry. she's got two kids, a daughter who is married and a son who lives in his own apartment somewhere in granada. my housemate libby and i agree that he has no business being that good-looking. i mean, he's seriously good-looking. he stops by to visit his mom pretty often, and yesterday, he and his friend dropped by. they disappeared somewhere for like 10 minutes, and then were like, "bye, we're going." a few minutes later, i went to my room to get something, and i'm passing by the bathroom, and thinking, "hey, why is the door closed?" the answer? he and his friend needed to use the facilities. they just dropped in to poop. and even knowing this, libby and i agree that it does not diminish his attractiveness. haha. this is how we amuse ourselves while it is rainy and dreery outside. also, my other amusement, trying desperately to pick up a british accent. i'm even incorporating british words into my vocab and even thinking my thoughts with a british accent. am i a freak? why, yes i am.

this morning [it is now afternoon as we are 9 hours ahead here], i moved into my new homestay room and truly had a chance to settle in. i unpacked my clothes, put away my toiletries, and let out the breath i didn't know i'd been holding in since i arrived. having a more permanent base goes a long way to ease the transition of living here for a month. i was looking at my calendar as i pinned it up and thought, "gosh, i'm not going to want to leave here at the end of the month. it's too short a time." no worries though, in my mind i'm already planning my return trip - any takers? i have realized that americans are not big on travel. i've been told that only 10% of americans actually have their passports. from the australians i've met, i've learned that it's totally common for them to travel for periods of 6 months to years around the world. that's more or less unheard of in the states. hehehe...i love referring to the us as "the states," along with words like flat, lift, and loo - it makes me feel british, or rather as close as i'll ever be to being british. i've also learned that australians can drink like frat boys on steroids. i'm told it's a cultural thing.

there's another student in the program staying at the house too and she's originally from spokane, studying here on exchange from ucsd. by a wonderful twist of fate, she's kinda like me. neither of us are partiers, nor are we overly interested in living it up with the night life here. we've talked spanish politics over lunch and she's given me some insight into life in granada. come to think of it, i've talked about politics more here than ever in my life...maybe. it's neat - intelligent conversation.

i love granada. everybody loves granada. i've not met a single person who doesn't like it. i've heard it said over and over again that people will come and plan to stay for a day or two, and end up here for weeks. there's just something about granada.

right now, i'm at an internet "cafe," though this particular place is more like a campus computer lab with a 7-11 type snack display. it's run by some asian guy and there are lots of other asians here playing counterstrike. when libby, my housemate, told me that, i laughed...a lot. i mean, honestly, how funny is that? in spain! goodness. actually, i'm trying not to laugh out loud at this very moment.

*note that the time shown for my postings is now in granada time*