It's been awhile.

Hey all...

I know it's been a long time since I last updated, stuff has been busy. I was in Paris for the long weekend, which was absolutely incredible. I'm in the process of uploading photos - those of you who get my Snapfish photos should already have them, and if Facebook weren't being absolutely infuriating and only letting me upload two photos at a time, those would be up too.

It was so great...we saw all of the sights - the Eiffel Tower, a visit during the day and up to the top at night (which I'd never done - SO MUCH better at night, fyi), the top of the Arc d'Triomph, the Louvre, Notre Dame, St. Denis, a day trip to Normandy, walking along the Seine, the Jardines Tuileries...gah! Haha, and it was so great to see Charlie and Shika and hear about Nova and Paris and everything that's happening with them. Definitely the most fun I've had in a very very long time.

Classes are going along here...I just realized yesterday that my midterms start next week, so I should probably start studying those. These are the first actual "exam" midterms I'm going to have had in forever - I have to go back to the memorizing thing, when I've gotten so used to papers! So hopefully those go well.

I'm hoping that I'll be going on a trip to the north of Spain this weekend with two of my friends here, if we can figure out transportation. Buses are proving to be difficult to come by. I went to an organ concert at the old University with one of those girls last night, which was really awesome as well. And I finally bought myself a USAL sweatshirt, haha - it's pink. Did anyone pass out from shock?

Anyway. I'll probably give up on Facebook uploading soon (it's taken me two hours to upload 66 pictures, when I can usually upload 120 in 10 minutes or less) and head over to Spanish class. Then back home for lunch, and probably going to meet Whitney's mom and stepdad (they're here visiting and then they're all going to Germany this weekend). One class in the afternoon, and I might go to one of the Latin dance clubs here tonight, El Sabor. Depending on whether I'm getting on a bus at dawn, haha.

Love you and miss you all - comments or emails or other forms of saying hi would most definitely be appreciated.

Quick entry.

Okay, I don't have that long to write this (Whitney and I are heading out to a concert in Plaza Mayor), but I wanted to update my photo situation because I know people have been asking (those of you who aren't on Facebook [okay, just my family, haha]).

Flickr decided to be annoying and tell me I'd used up my bandwidth, so I went back to faithful Snapfish. Unfortunately this means I have to invite you by email if you want to see my albums, so leave me a comment / email me if you want me to invite you. (I already sent invites to Mom, Dad, Stella, and Auntie B.)

Buenas noches!

Pues...las tiendas en Espana estan cerradas los domingos.

For the non-Spanish speakers among us, that means that basically everything in Spain (or Salamanca, anyway) is closed on Sundays, except for a few of the smaller cafes and candy stores here and there. So even though this is the first day where I've honestly had nothing to do (I decided to skip the flea market and catch up on my sleep, since I think it happens every Sunday and I have a huuuuge sleep debt I'm still paying off), I can't actually do anything, because there's nowhere I can go. Ahh, the irony.

So anyway. Yesterday was quite fun. We got a bus to the mall (centro comercial!) for an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch - deliciousss. I, for one, was very excited to have a slightly wider array of food choices. There was even pizza! Admittedly nowhere near as good as pizza in the U.S., but it had sauce, and cheese, and tomatoes, and a crust. Good enough for me! And there was frozen yogurt for dessert!! I need to stop getting so enthusiastic about food, haha. Afterwards we shopped around the mall for a little while (stupid exchange rate) and then saw a movie - Viaje al Centro de la Tierra (that would be Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring the esteemed Brendan Fraser - true cinematic gold, I assure you). It was a good time, though, and the McFlurry has returned to my life. Alas, not the Flake McFlurry a la Spranceland '06, but they have an Oreo one with fudge here that is also quite delicious.

Whitney and I met some friends for dinner after the mall at a bar/cafe/pub place called Erasmus. It was nice to have a meal out a restaurant - it feels like so long since I've done things like that, or like riding in a car, even though it's only been a week. After dinner we hung out in a little cafe we found until everyone else came out, since we didn't feel like going home and coming all the way back.

Salamanca is crazy at night right now because this is festival week, so there are hundreds (maybe thousands? I'm bad with numbers) of people in the streets starting at 8ish and going until at least 3 (later than that, I have no authoritative evidence, haha - I'm not a true salamantina who stays out till 7). The little casetas, which I think I mentioned before, are hugely popular. They set up high tables all around where people can bring their drinks and little plates of tapas, and everybody kind of just mills around socializing and enjoying the music. I think there are also going to be bullfights in the Plaza de Toros, so hopefully I get to go see one of those this week! I have to find out what time they are, plus I couldn't figure out whether Mary told me they cost a lot of money, or nothing (you would think that would be semi-obvious, no? Hah) so we'll see.

Lunch today was seafood paella - honestly one of the most delicious things I've ever had. We also had a pork chop, but I was still too happy about the paella to care haha. And then a chocolate pudding, yum. (By the way, sorry if this totally reads as a daily catalog of my meals. However, I enjoy food.) We watched the news with lunch today too, instead of what we usually watch - either Los Simpsons (haha) or a really bad Spanish reality dating show. So that was pretty cool.

I'm in the midst of uploading some photos from the past week to Flickr.com, so you'll be able to view them here: . Right now I'm having a little trouble uploading in bulk, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Segovia, which is supposed to be a fantastic city. So hopefully I will have lots of pictures to show from that trip! Then the rest of the week will just be more Spanish classes (we have our oral exam to place us in our classes for the semester on Thursday, yikes), salsa and flamenco classes two nights this week (!), and actually registering for classes. Hopefully I will find a laundromat soon, because I'm running out of clothes (yeah, and they told me, "No one ever complains that they didn't have enough clothing" in the stupid guidebook. Lies!)...