The End

Since I leave Granada tomorrow, I guess it's about time to put up some pictures of our love nest! Javi and I have a 1 bedroom apartment very close to the main downtown area, his work, and 2 good running paths. The building doesn't look like much from the outside, since there's lots of graffiti (my favorite says “less mortgage and more disco.” It's a rhyme in Spanish) and it's pretty small. We live next to a gym and a small club for live music. I think the club is open more than the gym. There are only 3 other apartments in the building and everyone pretty much keeps to themselves. Well, with the exception of the man below us who coughs like he is dying every morning, and then smokes various substances all afternoon. We even have a charming violinist who plays for money on the street below. He is very diligent and practices every day. Too bad he only knows TWO SONGS!!!
After trips to the appliance store, giant grocery store, hardware store, and Ikea an hour and a half away (no, Target does not exist here), we finally made an economically cute home. It is a “compact” apartment, so I have had to get used to a few little differences to make it livable. The only thing I would change would be to make the shower big enough for at least 1 person!

I love living here, especially with Javi. He is a very good roommate. I think it helps that he is cleaner than me. I'm going to miss the fresh fruit and veggies, fish, and bread from all the individual markets. I'm also going to miss the lifestyle of walking every where and living so easily without a car. I'll miss the 2 hour lunches, watching soccer, the ability to get to another country in 1 hour, playing polo, the good coffee, speaking in Spanish, a bar on every corner, swimming in a 50 meter pool, and the ice cream.

I will not miss how each bar normally has only 1 kind of beer. Nor will I miss not having a clothes dryer and oven. These are amazing inventions not to be taken for granted! I will also be happy to go to a place where people are not so rude in public. Here, people are either pushing you out of the way or wandering slowly while taking up a lot of space; they don't seem to notice there are other people near them. It will also be nice to go for a run without someone blowing smoke in my face.

I really don't want to leave, but it helps that I will be going straight to Southern California. I'll be living in Escondido starting May 1st, and begin studying to become a Physical Therapist May 6th! Javi got the big envelope comes for him from UCSD! We can just relocate the love nest! I fly out of Madrid on Wednesday morning. These have been an extremely fast and happy 2 months for me. I think not having any obligations or responsibilities had a lot to do with that, but I really do love this country and will miss it a lot!

The Never-Ending Journey

So, a few weeks ago, Javi and I decided to visit a European city outside of Spain. Paris seemed too expensive, and we found really cheap flights to Milan. When I realized how small Italy was, we stretched out the trip a bit and planned to take trains from Milan to Venice, then to Florence, the back to Milan to catch a flight back to Granada. We would make a triangle and get to see 3 very distinct Italian cities, plus eat lots of pasta. It sounded like the perfect plan until . . . Iceland decided to get involved.
If you are the cave-dweller sort, European airspace was shut down last week due to ash from a volcano in Iceland. There were no flights to and from the US or within Europe for a few days. We didn't find out this news til we arrived in Milan on the first day of our trip. We overheard a lot of British people talking about travel plans, and then saw it on the news. We figured things would clear up before we had to fly home, since we had 6 days to travel by train, as planned. We were wrong. I'll recap the highlights of the trip before I tell of our epic journey home.

Venice
This was the most beautiful place I have ever been and it was way better than Venice Beach. Everything looked fake, like Disneyland. It's tiny; you can walk the entire city in less than 1 day. Well, not the entire city because to get from one side to the other you have to take a boat. I expected it to be like some canals and some roads, but it is literally all pedestrian and boat accessible. Even the buses and taxis are boats! I wondered how people kept their off-leash dogs from jumping in. Swimming was not an option though, as it was super dirty. Too bad, because it might have been faster. From here, I could see how Italians get the stereotype of being late! We stayed off of the main island of Venice on a smaller island, Lido. Yes, like the song. The first good luck came when the hotel guy took about 40 Euros off of our bill! We visited another smaller island, Murano, where they are famous for their blown glass. Of all we saw, the Piazza San Marco was one of the most interesting, since it had a beautiful church, Basilica San Marco, and it was slightly flooded! Trying to get out of Venice to take the train to Florence, we first noticed the effect of the plane issue. Everyone being grounded, trains became very popular, which in turn made standing in line to get tickets popular. Luckily, the automated ticket machines were overlooked and we were able to book our seats. It seemed that people wanted to stand in the lines to talk to an actual person because they didn't actually know where they wanted to go, but just wanted to try to get closer to home.

Florence
A much more commercial city, Florence was faster-paced compared to Venice. We had 2 days here as well, and there was a lot more to see. We got lucky with hotels again, as the girl where we were originally booked made a mistake, so we were upgraded to a nicer hotel nearby! Florence is famous for its leather, so naturally we went shoe shopping. We also had to pick up a large chunk of Parmigiano to take home. We had some really good food and wine (Chianti) in Florence. It's much easier to be a vegetarian in Italy, since about half the pasta doesn't involve meat and the salads are amazing. Don't worry though, we still had gelato about once a day and got to try tiramsu as well! In Florence, we saw the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) that had shops ON the bridge, the Medicis' tombs, a museum with interactive models of Da Vinci's inventions, some beautiful churches, and a monk on a bicycle. The cathedral is amazing; it looks like a dollhouse with its pink and green outside! We continued following the news, which finally said Milan's airport was open. This led us to abort our Plan B (train to Rome, which had a functioning airport, then fly to Spain, where all airports were open).

Milan
We got a late train to Milan (they were booked all day), only to realize that they RE-closed the airport! The news said it was expected to open the next day, which, like fools, we trusted. We only had time to visit the cathedral and fancy mall. I was wrong to think Florence was commercial, there were a total of zero stores that I could afford in Milan. All the fancy designer stores were represented in Milan. We took a shuttle to the airport, where a shuttle for the hotel would meet us. While we were waiting for the 2nd shuttle, I peeked inside the airport, which was frighteningly empty. All the flights were canceled for the night, but still predicted to go out in the morning. Unfortunately, not much changed in the next few hours. We came back to the airport early the next morning, and of course our flight was canceled and no one had answers. I learned that “anullado” means canceled in Italian. We asked around to see what our best option was, and apparently we weren't even allowed to MAKE a reservation til the 25th, which meant we would be flying out even later than that. I am coming back to the US on the 28th, so that was obviously not an option. Cars were too expensive to rent, so we went back to the train station to see how close we could get to Spain.
We skipped the lines by going to a travel agency- it was worth the commission. 1 hour later, we were on a train to Marsielle, France. I must say, the European train system is very impressive. It was at full capacity and still able to transport people efficiently. I'd like to see Amtrak in this same situation! After 8 hours on the train with about 5 minute stops in Ventimiglia and Nice, we stepped out to the beautiful views of Marsielle. We weren't able to get a ticket towards Barcelona til the next morning, so we got a cheap hotel and fell fast asleep. To sell as many tickets as possible, they sell the last ones with no seat assignments, which basically means you sit on the floor or stand. This is an exhausting way to travel. We felt like refugees, fleeing Italy!

France/Spain
The next morning, we were off towards Spain. After a canceled train, we caught the next one heading more or less in the same direction. This led us to a stop in Avignon and a “layover” in Montpelier. I got to have a real French crepe with Nutella! I found their accents ridiculous and had a hard time not laughing when they talked. In Italy, I felt like I at least understood a little bit, since the language shares some similarities with Spanish, but I was totally lost in France. It didn't help that not everyone spoke English. Still, I managed a few make-shift sign language/made-up French conversations with people on the train. These trains were less crowded, so Javi and I were able to at least find seats, but not together. Leaving France, there was a passport check at the border. The officer asked Javi, who speaks French, if I was Spanish too and Javi answered that I was American. The officer then said, “OK, never mind,” which brought a good laugh from the rest of the passengers. I didn't really understand, but apparently they don't care at all if Americans are overstaying visas and such! Another 8 hours on a train later, we arrived in Barcelona. It was so nice to be in a place where I could eavesdrop on people again!
Javi's Dad's cousin picked us up and let us stay at his apartment. His wife made us dinner and breakfast, and then he drove us to the airport in the morning. They were so nice! We had a flight out of Barcelona, which had been functioning all week, so there was no more chaos and lines. We finally made it back to Granada only about 2 days later. The Milan airport opened up the day we made it home, and with all the people who stayed to wait for their flight, I'm sure we actually made it back earlier than if we had waited for the plane. Plus, it was nice to see the seasides of Southern France and Italy. Everyone traveling was much nicer than normal. We chatted with Polish, Spanish, Italian, Australian, and American people who were stranded just like us, all trying to get the hell out of wherever we were. It was exhausting and expensive, but Javi and I enjoyed our little trip “extension” as much as possible. I'll post Javi's Flickr account here soon so you can see pics of Italy, France, and Spain!

Mom's visit

I'm not so hot at this blog deal. We've had our apartment for almost 2 months, it's almost time for me to go home, and still no pictures of it! That will come in time. I had 4 days back in Granada between trips, and now I'm spending most of my time doing an anatomy review before school starts. I'm trying to remember how to balance daily life and school- this is a good warm-up!
Mom just left last Saturday. Javi and I drove down to Malaga to pick her up. On the way back, we had a fried fish lunch typical of a beach town nearby and gave Mom a tour along the coast and through the Sierra Nevadas. I don't think her stomach much appreciated it after 3 flights! The next day we set off on an epic walking tour of Granada. We walked for 8 hours with a long lunch break, but saw all the sights of Granada in 1 day, thanks to our experienced tour guide (Javi). He had also woke up early to try to get us tickets to tour the Alhambra, but no luck. The next day, Mom and I got up at 6:30 and staked out places in the line for tickets. We got lucky and headed off for Mom to see her first palace. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace from the 1300's that's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There are tons of gardens, fountains, and really detailed ceilings. I suggest a Google image search! For Mom's last day in Granada, I showed her how I live a typical day. Going grocery shopping at 3 different stores, drinking great coffee from tiny cups, eating Javi's mom's food, packing for the next trip, relaxing at the Arab baths, the usual. We spent an hour in a cave with plinky music, cold, medium and hot baths, a lavender steam room, tea, meditation rooms, aaaaand a massage. We were all gelatinous after.
The next day, Mom and I flew to Barcelona to resume our rigorous walking training. And see some sights. While there, we saw all the Gaudi buildings and his crazy park again. We walked on the port, in Las Ramblas where we saw good mimes, the Gothic quarter, the markets, the cathedral, but the best of all was the Chocolate Museum. It had the history and production of chocolate plus amazing sculptures. It made our Christmas gingerbread houses look pretty lame.
After that it was off to Madrid! First, we went to the royal palace. Too bad Javi wasn't with us, or he could have hung out with his new buddy, the king. No, they don't really live there. It's too big, they might get lost walking around. My favorite room inside is the Gasparini room. This website gives a little tour, so you don't even have to go! After checking out the royal pharmacy and armory, we walked all through the downtown of Madrid via their Broadway street, Gran Via. On the way, we saw 2 mariachi bands and a lot of bad mimes. The mimes are people that dress up and stand on the streets and expect money. The good ones have amazing costumes and stand so still they look like statues. The bad ones have cheap Hello Kitty outfits and take their heads off to smoke. Gran Via turned 100 this month, and while walking on it, we saw the president of its restoration and maintenance group being filmed for the news while he was walking down the street. I recognized him because he's been on TV a lot recently. We missed our opportunity to be in the background of Spanish news! When we got to the end of Gran Via, we went to go meet up for Indian dinner with Javi, who had stayed in Granada to work. The 2nd day in Madrid, we wandered around the huge park there, where they have the only statue dedicated to the devil. Then we spent time just walking around the neighborhoods in Madrid. Javi went to go running shoe shopping while Mom and I visited museums. We went to the Reina Sofia museum, which is mostly modern art. We spent 2 hours on just 1 floor! There are a lot of Picassos and Dalis there, most importantly the Guernica. Then for an extreme change, we walked across the street to El Prado, which is all old art. It was mostly portraits and religious art, and they all started to look the same to me after a while! For dinner, we went to a really famous Basque restaurant. We were lucky to get seated because we went early (at 9:00pm). They served sooooo much food and it was incredible. One of the dishes you could order was “carne a la piedra” (meat a la rock), where they brought you raw meat and a really hot rock and expected you to cook your own food, causing the entire restaurant to be filled with icky meat smoke. I was not a fan of this part, but I did like the champagne with lemon sorbet and free house plants they gave us after!
The next day, we drove Mom to the airport to see her off. It was a fun, busy trip! There are a ton more details to all those stories, but I have to go pack for Italy! Javi and I are visiting Milan, Florence, and Venice on a “long weekend” (6 days). Let's hope this adventure goes well too!

In which I embark on a mission and learn the value of perseverance

Yesterday I wanted to buy ribbon. The first step was figuring out how to say ribbon. I asked my trusted dictionary (also known as Javi) and he told me it's “lazo.” Ok, now where do I get this? Obviously, I went to one of the many fabric stores near my apartment. They kept telling me I had to go to a “mercería.” So I went home and looked up what the heck this was. It's a sewing store. One would think that they would have the sewing supplies in the same store as the fabric, but no. So after asking around some more, I finally figured out the area of where a sewing store was (they don't give street names, just “near the cathedral” is supposed to suffice). So heading in that general direction, I came across a store filled with yarn. This MUST be a sewing store, right? Wrong again. The store sold yarn exclusively! After another session of wandering that was prolonged by Semana Santa processions blocking streets, I saw the mecca of my journey. At last, ribbon! So I talked to the shopkeeper and he got me what I wanted. Woo hoo! But silly me, I suck at estimating in meters, so I came home with way less than I needed for my project. I'll go back today and finish the 2 day search for ribbon, once and for all!

Sevilla trip

Sevilla is beautiful! We made the 3 hour drive from Granada Friday afternoon, just when everyone else was starting their Semana Santa vacations. In California, this timing would mean horrible traffic jams, but it's a whole different story here. With everyone relying on buses and trains, even the busy times on the 2 lane roads are easy. Javi even let me drive a bit! It was hard to make myself get the speedometer up to 120, and also to keep it there. The speed changes so drastically in kilometers per hour! 120 kpm is like 70 mph and that's the speed limit on most freeways here. But we made it safe and sound.

To save money, we stayed in a hostel that had great location. We were lucky enough to get at private room with its own bathroom, and no loud people staying there! After dropping our stuff off, we wandered downtown towards the cathedral. This thing was huge. It's the 3rd largest church in the world and THE largest Gothic cathedral. We just walked around the perimeter, which took like 10 minutes. There were people waiting all around it and chairs and walkways all set up for Semana Santa. Holy Week starts the Sunday before Easter and ends on Easter, but in Sevilla, they get really into it and can't wait so they start on the Friday before. Javi says people live for this week! What is basically consists of are processions of people carrying these giant things that look like floats, but are made out of wood and gold and depict scenes from Jesus' death and resurrection. There are people dressed like Ku Klux Klan members (not kidding) with candles that walk after the floats and marching bands that go before. They walk super slow and block many major roads because every church in each city has these. They all walk from their church to the town hall to the cathedral and back. So it sucks if your church is far away. I'll post pictures from Granada's processions later! Anyway, in Sevilla, people with apartments that overlook major roads where many processions will go rent out their balconies to people can watch the parades. It's like a week of 4th of July parades!

We decided there were not enough people waiting for the Friday procession, so that meant it wasn't going to be for a while. We wandered down a random street and found a fried fish place (a staple in Andalucìa), so we had some of that while waiting for a friend. We were meeting up with Ramón who had also studied abroad in Davis and is from Sevilla. We met him at a bar that had heads of bulls killed in bullfights on the walls. Lovely. After dinner, Javi talked me into getting a Burger King ice cream. I haven't stepped into one of these places in so long! They sell beer at fast food places in Spain! As in, if you get one of those meal package thingies, they ask if you want a soda or beer. We went back to the hostel and went to sleep, which turned out to be my downfall.
When I woke up, I couldn't swallow or speak or anything. It was the worst sore throat I've ever had. On the way to breakfast, we went to a pharmacy to get Ibuprofen and the pharmacist also gave me giant Altoids. He said to dissolve these things on my tongue every 3 hours to make my throat feel better. They worked, but they tasted exactly like Altoids and had the same numbing effect Altoids have. But oh well, my throat felt better AND my breath was minty fresh. We started off on a wandering tour to see all the main attractions in Sevilla. My favorite part about this city was that all the trees along the sidewalks are orange trees, and we were there when they were all blossoming, so the whole city smelled so so so good!

We started off walking along the Guadalquivir River, which had lots of rowing teams practicing in it. Along this is the Gold Tower (Torre de Oro), where all the trading ships used to unload. Actually, that's part of the reason Sevillans' accents are so much more understandable to me (no lisping); there were a lot of South American traders coming through, and their accents stuck in Sevilla. Next came the famous Plaza España, which of course was under construction (like most things I see here). But it was still impressive and had benches all the way around, one for each county in Spain. Across from this was the Parque de Marìa Luisa. It was really gigantic with lots of fearless ducks and geese roaming around. We also saw the University, which used to be a cigar factory, and is where the opera Carmen is supposed to take place. They still use the building for university purposes. It looked a bit different than anything we find at Davis!

Before lunch, we went back to the cathedral via the gardens around the Alcázar, which is a Muslim palace right across from the Catholic cathedral. The cathedral being about 10 Euros cheaper, we opted for Catholic history and wandered in there. I was pretty disappointed by how small it seemed inside. It was so huge from the outside, but it was pretty normal inside. There were courtyards with orange trees that took up a lot of space, and the organ pipes were huge, but I'm not really sure why they needed to make it so big! There were about 10 mini churches inside the main one, all with overwhelming detail. The coolest part was walking up the bell tower. It's super-duper tall, so some very smart person put in a ramp instead of stairs, making it more gradual and less like a stair-master. The signs said we went up 34 flights, but if it had been stairs, I think it would have been more like 15-20 stories. Still, it provided some pretty awesome views. From there, we could see all the places we had just been, as well as get an idea of how big Sevilla was. There were people on their rooftop pools having lunch, the white houses extended out forever, and we could see the main plaza down below with all the tiny people. We got some lunch after (more fried fish) and decided to head home.

We were supposed to stay for 2 days, but I wasn't feeling great still and we had seen most of the sights. By pure luck, the hostel lady gave us our money back without us asking! We headed off for 1 more tourist stop. Across the river, there is an island with a never-used olympic stadium, a theme park and a monastery. Weird combo, I know. The theme park was closed, but we were there to see the monastery. Apparently it was like a mini factory where monks made pottery, but that day it was deserted. We were the only people there for a good 15 minutes! It was nice to get out of the city and just wander around the gardens. There was a museum in there, but that was the only part that was functioning, it was mostly plants and a bunch of huge, old kilns. It could have been really spooky at night, or a great place to play hide-and-go seek.

From here, we headed home to Granada. Again, it was a surprisingly easy drive. I'm getting more sick, but there's no polo this week, so at least I don't have to walk home with wet hair! Oh yeah, we get the worst times here as well: 9-11 PM, and it's a 15 minute walk home! Anyway, I'm going to go to the pharmacy and try to get some decongestants. Even if I don't know what to say to get these, I think once they hear my voice they will know what I need! Mom comes on Friday!

Barcelona Trip

Today is my day to get stuff done! We just spent 3 days in Barcelona with Javi's parents and then he and I are off on a road trip to Sevilla tomorrow. We flew to Barcalona Monday morning out of Granada's airport. It's so small that we walked across a garden and out on the tarmac to board our plane out of the 4th and last gate. On the cab ride to our hotel in Barcelona, Javi's parents were telling the cab driver about how he's going to the US, and the cabbie told him to watch out for American girls. I think he felt a bit awkward when I piped up from right behind him! After getting to the hotel, we went straight to the Boqueria market, which is essentially a food museum. They have fish with creepy eyes that stare at you, giant slabs of icky meat, really colorful fruit and veggies, beautiful handmade candy, and pretty much any Spanish food you want. It smells very interesting with all these things mixed together. We then had a really expensive and bad lunch (accidentally went to a touristy place) and headed back to the hotel. Javi and I had been there exactly a year ago and seen all the sights, and his parents have been a lot so we weren't really into sightseeing.

In fact, we were on a special mission; Javi had a rendezvous with the king of Spain. They're old pals. Actually, Javi got an awesome scholarship to study in the US from a bank here, and part of the official ceremony was shaking hands with the king and queen. There's a video from the news I put on here, and you can actually see Javi shaking hands from 1:07 to 1:13. Now the back of Javi's head is famous!

The ceremony was on Tuesday and he could only bring 2 guests, so he went off with his parents while I hung out with Ana, who had studied abroad at Davis too. We went to Parc Güell, which Gaudì intended to be a village within Barcelona. People found it too weird so that never happened, but now it's a major attraction. We wandered around it and went inside the house where he grew up, which actually had pictures of the insides of all the other buildings he designed in Barcelona, so we saved some money not having to pay to go in those! Then we wandered down to downtown and window shopped at all the designer stores. This is a very common activity in Spain, but also very annoying on the narrow sidewalks of Granada, where you have to choose to step out into traffic to pass a group of stationary women or try to push through them. Normally the 1st option is safer. Ana and I had an awesome lunch and met up for coffee with Javi. It was really fun to reminisce about Davis for a few hours and explore the city with a local. That evening, Javi and I went for a run on paths we found. This was the first time I really felt good running since I got hurt!

On Wednesday, we went to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudì as well. The story is that he designed this elaborate church with all these crazy details, and then got hit by a cable car and died before it was finished. So basically it's been under construction for a really long time. Things take longer in Spain, but I doubt this will ever be finished. It's too bad because the church is so beautiful, but there are all these cranes and construction elevators in it! Then we took the subway to the much quieter gardens of a royal palace. I don't know what they are all called, but there were at least 4 plants in the garden that are also in our yard in Walnut Creek! I'm pretty sure that makes us royalty (by gardening, not blood or marriage). It was a smaller palace (there are lots of houses for the royal family all over Spain), but the gardens where huge and beautiful. For lunch, we went to a newer version of the Boqueria market and a very trendy restaurant that seemed like something you would find in Napa. This was the 1st place I have seen tofu here, and I took advantage of it!

We caught a plane back to Granada, but I didn't think we were going to make it on time. We got caught behind a group of old people who I don't think had ever seen a security line. If this was the case, they should have looked at all the signs and videos telling them exactly what to do! It should have been in a TV show, seriously. One went through holding his coins in his hands, a couple tried to walk through the metal detector at the same time, the person after them just walked around the metal detector, someone shut down one of the x-ray belts, it was chaos! We made it on the plane and as we were starting to descend, I noticed how weird it looked that there were only clumps of lights where there were cities instead of the whole area being utilized. Landing in the US, you can see all the grids of houses and very little open space, but here, there is no sprawl and there are big distances between each town. Everything seems more compact and efficient. We are back in our apartment for a day, I have polo tonight, and we are heading off for more adventures tomorrow after lunch!

On a different note, I got all my registration info for St. Augustine via email today. I'm officially going there. Changed my flight (after battling with all of India) to come home April 28th! The packet is very informative- there's even a dress code. Bye-bye piercings! I've connected with some classmates and found 2 girls to live with who are nice enough to let me bum off their housing search.

I win!

So I've been living here 2 weeks. Here's a report card:


Successes
1. Buying fruit: this is harder than you would think. Here, produce stores have a counter with the shopkeepers and most of the fruits and veggies are behind them. You tell them what you want and how much of it. Pointing doesn't really cut it. Basically, I when I see what I want but don't know the name of it, I pick a veggie I know the name of and direct the person based on the relative location of what I want. For example, “la cosa a la derecha (to the right) de la berenjana (eggplant)” translates to “zucchini” in Kellish. It is like this for fish, bread, and meat/cheese shops. Everything you want is in a separate store (that is, if you want better quality and less lines than the supermarkets), so it's kinda like a treasure hunt. It's hard to be lazy here! But so far, I've come away with everything I need and nothing more!

2. Listening in water polo: Normally, when a coach talks for more than 1 minute, I start to zone out. No offense to any coaches I've had, I just can't help it. Now that I don't speak the language the drills are being taught in, I am the most attentive I have ever been in my life. I often even know what we are doing better than the girls that are from here and can explain it to them! I don't really know how usefull this set of vocab is gonna be for the rest of my life, but it is helping my communication skills a lot.

3. Finding our local spice shop: Best. Idea. EVER. First of all, it smells amazing in there. All the spices are in huge uncovered boxes. There is an open air one nearby, but having all those smells in 1 room is beautiful. They have pretty much every spice you could want and loose leaf teas. It's great because you know how when you are looking at recipes and you're like “ugh, I don't wanna buy a whole thing of cardamom, I'll never use it again”? Well, at this wonderful place, you can just buy 1 teaspoon and continue on your merry way!

4. St. Augustine: I've pretty much decided to go to grad school in San Diego. This means coming back at the end of April (NOT success!), but I looked very closely at the programs I have yet to hear from, and this is the best option. I am really excited to live in So Cal and have been talking on Facebook with people who will be in my class. Technology allows me to find a roommate online!

5. Columbia: Javi has officially been accepted to Columbia (the University, not the country. There was a confusing mix-up with that)!!! It's not exactly close to San Diego, but if I were to guess, I'd say it's closer than Spain. We are waiting to hear if he gets into UCSD, but this is a huge accomplishment. ALSO, Señor Smarty Pantalones got an award for getting the 2nd highest grade in his graduating class!


Fails
1. Laundry: I've gotten it figured out by now, but the first load of laundry I did took about 3 days to dry. Mainly because we don't have a dryer and it was raining. Clothes do NOT dry well inside! Now, I know that in order to do laundry I have to closely watch the weather report. I never realized that clean socks could depend on weather.com's predictions. I want to take pictures of our cute new home, but Javi won't let me because apparently it is embarrassing to have drying laundry visible. In fact, our balconies have a covering over the rails so no one can see our clotheslines. I thought this was weird because since no one has a dryer, who cares if we see each others' undies? It shows that we are actually doing laundry! I don't think this is so much of a cultural difference as it's just that I don't care about things like this. In the US, I'd probably be that hillbilly with my clothes drying in the front yard.

2. The doors: Someone decided it was a good idea to put the door handles in the dead center of the doors. This person was not a physics student. The only way to close them is by slamming them and using momentum. So the first day I left the apartment, I couldn't figure out how close the door. This made me feel great about myself.

3. Old ladies: They are MEAN here! As I described before with the various stores, you are served by the “take a number” technique, and these women have all kinds of tactics to get ahead in line. They take mulitple numbers for their friends, crowd around, completely ignore the system, actually push people . . . it's frightening. I can imagine how hillarious the scene looks, wth all of them swarming around, and me, at least a foot taller than all of them, getting carried away to the back of the store. Javi has learned ways to overcome these struggles, but I am still afraid of them and normally just go shopping early to avoid the chaos.

4. Bars: Cocktails do not exist here. When you go to most bars, you ask for a beer. Literally, you say, "give me a beer" and they give you the 1 kind they have on tap, which is like Bud Light equivilancy. Last night, we found a trendy looking place with 2 bars and lots of people, most of which were not drinking beer. Sounds like a good sign, right? Kinda. Turns out, they were popular because they were one of the few places that made well drinks. I asked for a margarita, which sent 3 bartenders back and forth between the 2 bars and took about 10 minutes. I got lemon juice and tequilla in a martinini glass. Enough said.

I'm "winning" by 1 points! I really love it here. We are planning on traveling a lot, so more to come soon!