Update... Finally!

Alright, so I'm doing a terrible job of updating this... Whoops! Things are just happening all over the place!
... And I'm lazy. You all knew that though ;) So, let's see here...



I had my first Spanish cine experience! A few weekends ago we went to see Tangled in a theater. I saw it in December in the states (in English, of course), so it was easier for me to understand. So much fun!

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I also had the awesome experience of watching LOS PACKERS win the SUPERBOWL! What a great experience. Some friends of mine know the owners of a bar called El Aire, so they told the owners that there would be quite a few American students coming to watch the Superbowl if they played it, So they opened up on a Sunday night, just for us, and played the Superbowl. It started at 12:30pm here. I didn't actually hit my bed until 5am Monday morning. Let's just say class was tough on Monday. Totally worth it, though!
What made the Superbowl even more interesting, is that not only were there NO COMMERCIALS, but there were Spanish announcers! I really had to pay attention to understand what was going on because I don't know American football terms in Spanish. Plus, they talk so fast! Without commercials it was harder to pay attention, though, because there were so many breaks and pauses where there would normally be commercials. Oh well. No big. We won :)
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This past weekend we had another excursion. We went to three places: Museo de las Villas Romanas, Portillo, and Tordesillas. The museo is an exhibition of Roman ruins about an hour away from Valladolid. While we were there we saw a short play in a reconstructed building that was made to look like what the ruins were back in the day. Does that make sense?

   From there we went to Portillo and saw a sweet castle. It was a lot of fun. We climbed the tower to the top and there was a fabulous view. It reminded me so much of Guatemala at times. They have similar fences around their houses and their roofing is similar. There is graffiti all over the place in Spain, which you actually come to appreciate after a while. The graffiti in the smaller, poorer villages really trigger memories of Guatemala for me. Some of them even have things all over the place like in Guate. It was just so beautiful to me. What an experience.

Later, we went down to the dungeon, where they would apparently just toss people down to break their legs, then leave them there to die. Kind of dark and twisted. I imagine it would have smelled quite terrible.




Next we headed to Tordesillas, which is where the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed. That's the one that gave Spain dominion of most of the Americas and Portugal got some of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Brazil, etc. EXCITINGGGGG hahaha We learned about the treaty this week in history class, though, so it was nice to have a museum visual to remember it by.

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Sunday we had a lunch at my church. That was super fun. Apparently they have a lunch the second Sunday of every month. Cute. Great way to get to know people and use our Spanish!

Wednesday I got lunch with Andrea, the Navigators missionary, again. I really like their family, they are so nice! She took me to the grocery store and helped me find a few American things I was craving. Example: chocolate chips for making chocolate chip cookies!! Yum! Can't wait for those.

This weekend (today, actually... in two hours? crap! I have to pack!) I am heading to the good old Barcelona with my roomie Jessica, and two friends named Lindsay and Courtney. We are staying at a hostel really close to the beach and it should be great weather there :) We plan to see Sagrada Familia, the old Olympic Stadium, Parc Guell, walk Las Ramblas (something on my bucket list!! wooo!! check that baby off!!!), among other things. Don't worry, I'll take plenty of pictures of my first adventure! We will return on Tuesday night, so I will try and update as soon after that as I can. May be difficult, but we will see.

Not sure when my RA interview is going to be yet, I am waiting for an email back. It should be next weekend though. If you have any tips for me, let me know!

Miss you all!