Soy una Granadiña

Hola todos!

Alright lots to talk about and not very many minutes left on my card at the internet cafe!

Lets start with Barcelona. Me encanta Barcelona! Definitely my favorite city in Spain (besides Granada of course).  There is so much energy and I am in love with Gaudi the architect. If you don't know who he is, he designed a ton of awesome building in Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, and Park Guella and you should look him up because he is one cool dude.  So me and 3 other girls took our first flight on Ryanair.  Lets just say this was an interesting experience.  First of all the Granada airport is tiny and only has 3 gates.  Security took a total of 3 seconds and I am pretty positive you can take anything through.  I took a full tube of toothpaste, Devin brought her razor, Ashley told them about her leg and they were like ok cool and didn't even check her! So weird! Also, at the end of every flight they play this song when you land that sounds like a song they would play at horse races or something and it says that Ryanair has once again had another ontime flight or something.  And everyone claps.... strange.  So we got to the airport outside of Barcelona and had to take an hour and a half busride into the city and we got there around 9 at night.  We had to take the metro and find our hostel which we weren't even sure was going to have room for us! But we found it and it was just like you would imagine a youth hostel would be like.  There were young people lounging all over the steps, people screaming, loud music, etc.  We got put in a 12 bed room but there were only two other girls in there with us which was nice.  They were from Japan but they were Chinese and they were precious but they turned the heater on high at night and I thought I was going to die! The hostel only gave us a fitted sheet and a pillow case and you had to pay for everything else so we had to sleep with our jackets on top of us! Before bed we walked around outside our hostel which was in a really nice part of the city near Gucci and Valentino so that was cool!

The next day we went to Park Guella which was designed by Gaudi and it was so awesome! We stayed there for hours exploring and after that we saw another one of Gaudi's awesome creations, Sagrada Familia.  This is the coolest cathderal ever, or it will be because it is not finished being built.  It is gorgeous and unlike anything I have ever seen before! Ah I loved it! We did a few other things and wandered around and then went to a NEW hostel which was outside of the city but right by a metro station so it didn't matter! It was absolutely adorable, 6 euros cheaper, and they gave you a top sheet, a blanket, and free towels! It was quiet and quaint and precious! The only weird thing was the coed bathrooms and showers.  But there weren't that many people so it wasn't a huge deal.  We stayed in a 8 bed room with a couple who slept in the same twin bed and the guy sang to the girl all morning and a guy from Canada.  The guy was very interesting. 

He was a talker and the typical against society trying to test the boundaries kind of guy but he was very strange.  He was asleep when we came in to get ready for bed and he sat up and started sleep talking in French and then woke up and took a shower and talked to all of us (in his towel) for an hour and then kept making horse noises all night.  Weird.  But overall it was much better than the first one.  Hostels are fun for the experience but weird.  So Saturday we went to the pier and watched all the boats for a bit (the weather was AWESOME) and then we went to an antique flea market type thing that was precious.  We walked on the main street Las Ramblas and went to a huge awesome outside food market where tons of fresh fruit, pastries, candy, meat,  and fish (ew) were on sale and you could get stuff for so cheap so we just grabbed things and ate breakfast and then wandered some more and had to fly back to Granada. 

It was so weird when I got back to Granada I was sad to leave Barcelona but it was such a relief to be "home". It's weird to me that it is becoming home to me but it really is, it's so comfortable  and I know where MOST things are and I don't have to hold on to my purse for dear life.  I definitely think Granada was a perfect choice to live.  I feel like I am becoming a Granadiña even though I am still working on the language! As a result of me trying to learn the language, my accent has gone crazy!! Every time I talk to someone from home they say "Wow, you sound Northern!"  I spend most of my days trying to mimic the Spanish accent that I guess it has carried over into my English because all of my friends here are from the North.  I have also had tons of trouble with my spelling lately in English with just common words.  The other day I was trying to write clear but I wrote cleer and could not figure out why it was wrong! My brain is confusing itself!  The sun has been shining in Granada for the past few days and it is awesome! I appreciate it so much more after a month and a half of rain and it is perfect weather! 65 degrees and sun for the next week! 

My walk is so much better when it is nice outside! The only problem with my 30 minute walk to and from school every day is that I have shin splints from wearing bad shoes and walking on hard marble sidewalks all the time and they hurt so bad! There is also an old man that stands on this one street corner every morning and walks up and down and creepily talks to every woman that walks by and I don't know what he is saying but I can tell by how he is saying it and hand gestures that he is not saying "Good morning".  So I have started walking on the other side of the street!  This weekend I think we are finally going skiing and then the next weekend we head to Italy for 11 days! lots of planning still to do for that! This is the first time that I have had to do all of this flights, hotels, busses, trains business and it is very hard! So much still to do but we are working on it and I cannot wait!
Buenas Noches!!