the beginning of the end

I guess i would say the way way beginning of the end started with my sister. The lovely lady come to visit me in spain if yall didnt already know that. After a small mix up at the airport (which involved me getting mixed up with the gate number) we went home and WENT TO THE BEACH.

What a great welcomer i am. I honestly don't know how to sum up such a trip. We definitely got a little special attention for our height, and there were even a few people who went as far as to ASK how tall we were. Those idiots.... how shameful. Anyway, things we did. Went to the beach, slept, watched friends, went out to eat, went the the beach, went out, walked around the city. You get the picture. I'm not the best tour guide since i also need a tour person to tell me what i'm looking at, and quite possibly a map to get around. I could be looking right at some extremely famous, religious sanctuary where an old and important person is buried and pass by it saying.... oh, and this is ANOTHER church without thinking twice. But i don't think she particularly cared. (if you did sorry) i guess i wouldnt really want to walk around a bunch of old churches that look exactly the same on my vacation in spain, so i just kinda took that concept and ran with it. We ended up on the beach 2 times... once for the whole day, spent a lot of money on needless items, ate a lot of crap and did very little boring things.... although i did take her to class one day. I guess you could call that boring, since i actually had to pay attention a little bit since it was finals week (yes i had 2 finals when nora was here.... PASSED BOTH OF THEM.... not with flying colors though) but i managed to dip out early a few days, and skipped the friday entirely. School was as cool as i thought. I mean they were impressed with the whole height thing, and the class got into a class discussion about if i did or did not look alike (i think the final decision was that no, we look nothing alike) To sum things up, we ended up spending a lot of time with the rather tall, very nice, Argentinian boyfriend of mine named Nicolas (that i'm sure you all know about from my mom) which may have been a subconscious way for me to feel really short for once in my life. We went out with 2 swedish people, although i dont think that was fair because swedish people are all really pretty, and me and nora were putting on quite the circus with our largeness. But those are just little details compared to the awesomeness of the zoo we went to. It's called 'oceanografico' if you'd like to look it up, and it was probably he best thing that ever happened to me. First of all, its a LOT of money to get in, but guess what. For once in my life it was worth it. The shark place was awesome... nora says its like the one in the mall of america, but it was a new experience for me.... there was a tunnel with shark or all shapes and sizes swimming above you. And after, we payed a visit to walruses who were extremely difficult to get a picture of, but enjoyed bouncing of the walls of their tank.

After that and feeling a little hungry, we went to the fancy zoo restaurant which had a fish tank as a wall, so there'd be fish swimming around while you ate. Well turns out i'm going to have to kill everyone that works there... talk about expensive food and bad service. We sat there for 20 minutes (exaggeration) waiting for MENUS ONLY. Once they figured out to deal with an immense amount of about 5 customers int he whole restaurant, things started to go a little smoother. After the initial shock of the food prices, i settled on a nice pasta, and nora got a salad. They of course took our order after a very 'reasonable' decision making time of half an hour. Right after ordering, a group of business men came in for a meal and a chat (i never did understand that... why to business men bust all their money of 8 course meals and then complain that they dont get paid enough) They ended up getting their food before us, and being offered things like nice bread and stuff. Upon getting my food i had had enough. i got served but 2 large round noodle, half filled with pesto. It might have been enough food for an infant of 2 year, but i doubt it. i decided to show them whos boss, and went the unfancy way and ate the whole thing in 3 or 4 minutes to show them that normal people can eat more than 4 bites. After paying an unreasonable bill which included a hefty price for the bread which is normally free if offered without saying anything, we left. The idiots.

To lift the spirits, we took a trip to the dolphin show. normally having to pay to get in (a whole 15 euros) we just walked right up there without paying and no one said anything. I think thats good karma. The show really gives the minnesota zoo a run for it's money. I'd just like to give valencia kudos for having a profesional diving/dancing squad there to make the dolphin jumping just THAT much more exciting. Not the mention the dolphin trainers all look like sims... i enjoyed imagining the show as a computer game. But i think i have to give the most credit to the amazingly pumped up crowd who started a dancing mob in the middle of the audience. I never knew a dolphin show could be so emotional. The last stop was at the sea lions (i think thats what they were) They we hilarious. and cranky. There was obviously a couple with a bunch of kids. The dad was the ugliest thing id ever seen, but the little chillin were adorable. Theyd yell at each other if one would wake up another one. There was one little guy who was sleeping standing up, and he just sorta fell backwards every once in a while (considering these creatures dont have bones basically) He was funny. We gave them all names. And that basically ends the trip.

When she left i was suddenly faced with the next day: the 23rd of may. 23RD OF MAY ALREADY. The last time i'd really cared about the date was christmas, but it hit me hard that i really only had a month left. It was sad, and i started think of all the things i had to do. There are a lot.
Now a days, maybe since its so nice outside all the time, or maybe because i now have zero percent mental focus capacity, i spend my days reading books in class or coloring in my text books. I still do the homework and go to school and take tests, but i have to admit that i'm not 'giving it my all' as they would say. I know some of you are all like... it would be such a proud moment to pass all your classes blah blah blah, but honestly id rather pass a few fail a few and still have time to do and see things before i return home. i mean i guess i'd rather like to say, 'oh, and i wen to madrid for the weekend and saw a bunch of cool stuff' than 'oh, i passed my biology test. Go me!' I mean, what are you going to remember for longer, passing a chemistry test or traveling around wherever? If you say chemistry, you're stupid. Anyway, this is my latest project:

I'd actually like to take a moment to talk about the politics here in spain: It's actually pretty complicated, but i've become pretty interested in it, so bare with me. So basically my knowledge on the subject started when my sister came here and we went to the demonstration thing in the city where everyone was sitting down on the ground in the middle of the 'plaza del ayuntamiento' protesting against the spanish politics in general i think. Everyone that i've talked to has given me a different reason as to why they are protesting, so i just going to sum up that everyone it pretty upset. Anyway, what the world is calling it is the 'Spanish revolution' or '15-M' (may 15th which was when it all started.... election day was the 22nd) As says the internet, the people (both democratic and republican) are generally protesting against the politicians, the fact that there are only 2 main parties (PP and PSOE), the immense amount of corruption here in spain (mostly in the south and in valencia), and for the general respect of the basic rights of the people. (they deserve the right to know whats going on, to get an education, to work, to their own culture and mostly to participate in the politics.) There have been a lot of camping out around government buildings and protesting and talking to people on the streets etc etc. The night before elections it was crazy, but the next day when the same people won all over again, you could tell there was a general disappointment about the country. There are still people camped out on the streets all over the place. People have tents up, signs, and it's actually very well organized. They provide food and water for the people who stay there adn live in peace and harmony. The last time i passed by where people are sleeping, it was sort of converting into more of a hippy site, but i guess it stikes me as interesting anyway. They are trying to show that tehy don't agree with what's going on and that the politicians need to recognize that.

Thats all for now....

Pascuas/ Semana Santa

For those who have not found out 'through the grapevine' i took a little trip during my vacation. We had a 2 week (almost) break at the way end of april for easter (i know.... we only get 2 days.... i live in a very religious country) and i decided to take advantage of the time and the continent that i have/live in. I do not regret a single thing, except for a few small mistakes i made in the rode. That is only to be expected when traveling alone and having no way of communication. That being said, the communication problems i have and will have in the future are no longer 'problems'.... they are just normal things that i have figured about to get my way around. My communication problems are comparable to vision problems, you just have to try a little hard and pay a little more attention to the little hints around you and you're just fine. I've learned to read facial and hand expressions so well that it's scary. That is a warning. If you want to try to talk about me behind my back, I WILL KNOW. Anyway, my trip went something like this:
First i went to italy. It sounds like a simple concept, but it turned out to be a little more difficult and annoying than i thought. The plane was fine except it was really small and it was really weird because you go to pick your seats.... that had never happened to me before, but whatever. i decided to sit next to a nice looking lady, but it turns out she was cranky and didn't appreciate the amount i was moving. But it was all worth it when i saw Ambra. That was an awwww moment if i've ever seen one. Very hollywood in the airport hugging and everything. It was really easy to just go back with her.... we get along very well.

On the way home, her family took me to a pizza place to eat, and even though there was a language barrier, it didn't seem to get in the way much. Their house and neighborhood is wonderful. Their house has a certain charm to it. Everything flows together quite nicely. Their kitchen has an interesting ceiling that slopes down really low, so i hit me head quite a number of times getting snacks and things from the kitchen. I actually hit a lot of things in their house..... Ambra had a really annoying light in her room right above my bed to every morning i stood up and hit my head. It was always right in my blind spot so i would also just run into it if i was walking across the room or getting dressed or something. You could always hear when i hit my head on that lamp. Whenever it happened i could hear people in the other room giggling. The other time i ran into the bathroom door. i was a little disoriented from sleepiness and it was early in the morning and everything was dark, so i though the darkness of the door what just the darkness of the bathroom, so i kinda just walked right into it. That one kind of hurt. I'm sure there were more times, but it might be best not to share everything.
Anyway, i went to rome with their family for 2 days. It was amazing.... i love how when i think of rome, i always think of mary kate and ashely but really it's so much more. The Olson twins really ruined the whole historial aspect rome's got going on. I saw columns from ancient Egypt apparently brought over my Caesar. And the coliseum where actual gladiators fought adn famous sites like the fountain and saint peters church which was supposedly the first catholic church WHICH CONTAINS MICHAELANGELO'S PAINTING which i didnt actually get to see, but just the knowledge that i was near it impresses me. Literally around every corner there's something at least 800 years old, and it was just really impressive. Having commented ont the historical aspect, theres actually a lot of new stuff going on as well. Theres a lot of street artists and new little cool hipster neighborhood s going on as well. There was this really cool and funny and awesome artist there who did a bunch or street art. Not like graffiti, but just little clever things. I think he was crazy, but thats ok.

column from egypt





cool street artist

cool street artist

Returning from rome, we went by florence just for the day. (it's really cool to say i 'stopped by florence on the way home') THAT was an artsy city. i guess it was only to be expected since a bunch of really famous artist were born there. I think my favorite part was all the really expensive shops on the bridge. That would be a very expensive bridge collapse.... I don't really know how to sum this all up. Italy is amazing and old and historical and has yummy food. It's way more than pizza, pasta, the mafia and super mario. I promise.

expensive stores on a bridge

Back at the house, we didn't really do so many super exciting things, although i had just as good of a time there as i did exploring rome. That says something about good company. One night, we went to go see a group of gypsys play music. It was amazing. That was probably one of the best live concerts ive seen in a while. His name was Goran Bregović, and i'm pretty sure he sings in his own language, although i am ignorant to what he is actually speaking. Anyway, here's a link:

Good Music

The last night there, i spent trying to figure out my train tickets (not an easy or fun task having to speak to a german train company) and making friends with their cat manon. He was cute.
THEN I WENT TO AUSTRIA. The train ride there was a little more than notable. I feel like i could write an entire book about my train ride there. Well it all started when i got to the train platform. I was saying goodbye to ambra, and there was an older man watching us and giggling to himself. I was at first annoyed because he was kind of a mood killer, but i tolerated it and continued saying my goodbyes. When i finally go on the train, this man offered to help me with my suitcase which i readily accepted since the first time i tried to put it up on the rack, it almost fell and killed someone. So once that was all said and done, i awkwardly looked of a seat seeing as the only one left was next to the older man that had helped me. He seemed a little more than content to have me sit next to him, which was annoying and kind of creepy. Anyway, staying away from all little details, and avoiding freaking you all out, he decided to do his little flirting thing which i obviously ignored, trying ot do everything in my power to seem unattractive and annoying (listen to music really loud while air drumming, sniffing and blowing nose loudly, reading a philosophy book, calling people on the phone, coughing on him, moving around a lot...) which didn't quite work out. turns out you need to be very direct with the italian grandpas. So after a while when i thought he had given up, he asked if i was married and if he could have my number. I dont know exactly what he was thinking considering the fact i was reading a high school philosophy text book, dont look any older than 18 or 19, and obviously a lot younger than him, but i decided to be as clear as i could just saying 'no' like they teach us in kindergarten, but even then he persisted by asking why, and when i didn't answer, he offered a few posible reasons as to why i wouldn't give him my number. The best one was: if i were dating 'that girl i was hugging' (asking if i were a lesbian) as if that was the only reasonable explanation as to why i wouldn't want to date a man 50 years my senior. Anyway, after a firm 'no please leave me alone' he left. Just as a side note, i was sitting next to a young mother and her child, 2 grandmas and a group of bicyclists so no harm could have been done. Please dont worry about me.
Anyway, once he got off, a middle age African woman came one. She was traditionally dressed from nigeria, very pleasant and spoke english. She was very interested in my travels, and shortly after all of my plans had been told and we had made friends, she took her opportunity to slip me a Christianity pamphlet. Somehow i knew deep down that it would end in a religious discussion. Anyway, after she thought she had converted me to the catholic church and pushing me to get reconciled, she had to leave as well, leaving me awkwardly with the grandmas and the young mother and her child. Teh young mom and i ended up bonding a little as she had though that the old guy was my boyfriend or something, but when i told her what had actaully happened, she seemed very relived by telling me that she would have 'kicked his ass' (her words, not mine) if i had said something to her about him bothering me. I liked her. She spoke 4 or 5 languages and traveled around Asia half her life. Crossing the italy-austria border was gorgeous which all the mountains and houses and stuff.

The sound of music is actually what it looks like there. Almost everyone got off before my stop so i had the place to myself for a while until an older man came on. He didn't talk to me for a while until the very end when he started blabbing in german. Apparently hes an english teacher, so he had a nice conversation. He was going home from a hiking trip in the mountains, has 4 kids and lives in the german speaking part of italy. He asked me, 'if i were to go to minnesota, what would i find?' i honestly had no idea how to answer that question to i just said 'lakes and trees'. Apparently he liked that i told me quite happily 'i really like flowers. What kind of flowers are there in minnesota?' I don't know how to answer that either so i just said The lady slipper because thats the state flower, but i don't really know if that's so common or not. Anyway, all in all, after 7 hours, i got to Innsbruck just fine.
Innsbruck is amazingly beautiful. It's like a little old city thats being hugged by mountains. And the mountains are TALL. they're not like the little lame ones you see in Spain, they are for real. And the air is so fresh and it smells wonderful and there quite an agreeable chilliness about it. It was fun to have a week of mental relaxation (in the language sense) and sort of reconect with my minnesota roots. I hadn't seen the Thene family in quite a while, but it wasn't that hard to kind of fall back into it with them. We had some fun dinner discussions about my awkward past and did a little reflecting on my spanish year. Their house is amazing as well. They have a gasp worthy sauna in which i go rid of my hacking cough, a fun swing and a few interesting details here and there (if you guys are reading this, i like your door handles, your glass doors and the automatic lights) One day i went biking with the mom (lilli) adn let me tell you, i was the hardest bike ride ive ever had to do. I dont understand the concept of mountain biking, and i don't think i ever want to. Just to touch on the language theme.... German is nothing like english. Do not believe anyone if they tell you is similar because its not. I understood nothing.

The train ride back was calmer. I got everywhere on time which no problems, delays or creepy men. My common sense was tested when i had to get myself from the train station to the airport, but what i bus that said 'airport' came around the corner, i decided to just try that one out. The only problem i had was at the airport. i don't know if this lady was just having a bad day or just decided to mess with the tall american, but she definitely got my on my nerves. i though i was fine with a backpack and a small carry on bag, but apparently that was unacceptable and i had to try to go fit everything in one bag. so i had to leave the extremely long line, go back out side and unpack my things. fitting everything in my backpack was unquestionable so i decided to try to be tricky and but my laptop, books, sweatshirt and things like my ipod and phone in a small purse type thing that i had, but after waiting in line AGAIN she didn't like that idea either. So i was sent out again to try again, so i had no choice but to over dress. Before everything fit i was wearing 2 pairs of pants, 2 or 3 sweaters (one sweater type thing and 2 zip ups) and 2 scarves with a 'decorative scarf' on my backpack all on a 90 degree day. It was not pleasant, and i had to do all of this in the open public. My self esteem went down, crankiness when up and my body temperature skyrocketed. After finally getting her ok, i had to undo everything to pass through security. There was a 20+ person line behind me waiting because of the immense amount of things i had to take out of my backpack and off my body. That just about tipped me over the edge so it's a good thing that the thing didn't beep because i think i probably would have lost it. The first thing i did was unpack everything, put it back in my original 2 bags, and go wash my face in the bathroom. That was not a pleasant day. But i got home in one piece. :)
Happy easter to all!

Really eventful month part 2

Hello again

This would bring me to my trip to italy. Well sicily. What a wonderful life i'm living right now, let me tell you. If you ever get the chance to visit sicily, PLEASE do becasue it is wonderful. I had a somewhat intense experiance seeing as i was with an exchange program and i lived with yet another unkown family. Again, i suffered quite the sleep deprivation, but who needs sleep? i guess i don't anymore. Anyway, i was with the same girl i was with before (adriana). She is an only child, lives with her mom, normal (not really) hippy teenager. Stays out late, doesn't brush her hair (it would be impossible), wears kinda weird alternative clothes, listens to screamo and rock heavy metal type music, smokes, has skateboarding stickers in her room, doesn't care what people think etc. etc. Her mom is quite the opposite, dresses nicely, has everything organized, nice, heldback, a police officer, blonde, well groomed, very heathy, has pictures of god in her room etc. etc. You would think that maybe these two individuals would not get along so well, but GUESS WHAT, they're like best friends. They get ready together in the morning and like... joke around in the bathroom and share clothes (sometimes... they dont really have the same style) and talk about personal things. It was quite impressive. Anyway, i lived in this little town on a mountain called Scordia where everyone knows everyone so OF COURSE i got looked at funny considering i was the only tall blonde white girl around (no surprises there). I dont even know where to start honestly. The first day i understood absolutely nothing of italian, not even when they said 'welcome' (at which i had to turn to adriana to translate..... lamest moment of the trip) but by the end of the trip i sorta got the hang of it. sorta. The language didnt seem to be such a barrier for me since i like to think my personality just SHINES through, but i honestly think people just knew me as the weird tall white girl, so a lot of kids came to me just to joke around (which im fine with). After a while the italians warmed up to me and we all ended up making friends. My italian host sister and i actually got along famously. We were always like the two weird ones, considering she doesnt really fit in with the regular teenage crowd, and i just kinda followed her around. We'd always come up to everyone singing a song, and weirdly enough we always managed to dress distinctly compared to everyone else in the crowd (she does it on purpose.... i do it because i have a hard time following fashion trends) I dont know what exactly happened, but there was a real great friendship developing there. Stupid time limit had to go on and ruin it all. Anyway, heres the run down.

First of all we were living in small town EXTREME edition, so everyone knew everyone. This does not help the starring factor at all, and i ended up getting looked at a lot (not just me,but all the spanish), not saying it isnt anything i wasnt expecting, just something that bugs me a little. Anyway, the fist 8 days or so went perfectly as planned. We did touristy things, went shopping, went out to eat, had pizza, took a nap, went to a dance party, jane got sick, went to hang out, etc etc. i was welcomed with an entire pizza just for myself. it was fantastic. To be more specific, we went to Etna- the tallest and yet still active volcano in europe- which was actually pretty fun. i had no idea was a volcano was actually like. turns out it's a lot different than the idea we have in minnesota. At least to what i understood, it has a bunch of places of explosion (no idea what they're called) , and even though it has an active status, it is not continuously exploding all the time, everyday. There is snow on the top, but its interesting to know that its not cold. The rocks are actually warmish and let off a steamy wonder. When i sat down on the top, its actually warm on the skin, and you can see the heat waves coming off of the surface. i stole a piece of etna just to remember. Driving up there i saw a few houses buried under the rock. That is also noteworthy. I'd never seen that before.

One other noteworthy comment would be that of the immense amount of 18th birthday parties we went to. Let me tell you right now that these 18th birthday parties are nothing normal. I dont know if the people just have a lot of money or if they save it up especially for this occasion, but they really go all out. If you've ever seen my super sweet 16 on MTV, it's like that but slightly toned down, usually without a car, free of drama and everything's in italian. The first one i went to really blew my mind. The birthday girl had a nice prom type dress, high heels, a waiter, a birthday cake, presents, wine, and a whole lot of group photos at the end. It was like a wedding reception.... Her family even made a speech. One thing that blew my mind was they way they dance. they do this line dance type thing to EVERY SINGLE SONG, and each song has a specific dance. i learned a few, but to be completely honest it just ended up getting a little annoying and repetitive.

Everything was going fine UNTIL THE SECOND TO LAST DAY. We arrive to school completely normal only to find everyone is crying. All the spanish kids were confused until our correspondences let us in on what had happened, WHICH WAS that a classmate of theirs had died the night before in a motorcycle accident. We didn't know exactly how to react to such news, but when they brought the spanish kids down to explain what had happened, most of us sorta just broke down. I don't know how it actually happened, but everyone sorta just opened up to everyone, telling stories of they're own lives or if something similar had happened to them. I'm not going to give any sort of details, but just seeing how many people that something like this can affect kind of blew my mind. And on top of it all, having seen my classmates open up about their own stories, it never really goes away completely either.

The last 2 days were actually kind of disastrous to be honest. There was a lot of crying and hugging and stuff like that, and honestly, the worst of it was not at the airport. It was the day before when everyone was writing little memories for everyone else when i personally got sad. all the italians wrote little notes for me saying that i was the goofy one or the one who they could always laugh with or just the american (seeing as i was the only one) but also one of my classmates, mariajose, wrote me a little letter herself saying that we had gotten to be really good friends in those 10 days and that i bring out the best in her and all these really nice things that just broke me down. Those types of things really make me thing that i did the right thing in coming here. I guess i always knew it was a good thing, but just to have those little reminders like that does the trick.

At the airport....i dont know why, but i wasn't all that sad. Maybe i was already drained of emotion, or maybe it was the fact that the teacher supervisors were being really stupid. We were all saying goodbye outside the baggage check line, giving hugs and saying our last words. Everyone was crying and obviously you know.... in the moment when the teachers start literally pulling people off of whomever they were hugging. We had like... an hour and a half before boarding more than enough time and yet they would lets us share a nice moment. That wasn't fair. Everyone was mad. And that ends my italian exchange.

Now on to easter break.

Jane

really eventful month PART 1

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
ok, im really slipping on the blog front...... sorry everybody... it may be for the fact that i never have any free time, and i when i DO have free time i usually (stupidly) spend it either doodling or talking to people or roaming around instead of blogging.... so that is my lame excuse to not updating you on my ever so exciting life. I'm happy know know i have very little free time because that means i'm actually doing things unlike back in septemeber when i wrote a blog like... every single day. at least this way you all get the best stories and not stupid little things. I think we ended when the italians left spain, so ill jsut start there which mean LAS FALLAS.
LAS FALLAS
LAS FALLAS!!!!
One of the coolest craziest things that has ever happened to me. I'm not actually sure what it's all about for real, but i can tell you my personal experiance. For teenager and young people it means a week off work and school to relax and hang out with those you love. For parents, it's worrisome having to wait up for your kids to come home, not to mention the immense amount of people roaming around. For the eldery, i'm sure it's just an annoyance. It all starts out with this wonderful thing called a mascletà which is AMAZING for loss of better words. What it is is a bunch of really loud booms and fireworks and colors and people. They start out with a few smallbooms and then they build up to loud squealy noises and fireworks and colorful smoke. The ground shakes and it feels liek the end of the word, and its even cooler when the smoke blows towards you so you cant see anything and it's just a bunch of loud noises. My host host told me i had to open my mouth not to hurd my ears... just to give you a good picture of how loud it actually is. Here is a video.

Mascletà 2010

After everything is over, they end with this goofy song: Valencia en Fallas which i sorta which i would have learned just to seem like a real valencian girl. It's really too bad. The next major event after the mascletà would be the wonderful nit del foc. WHICH IS a huge fireworks show. it's always on march 18 and starts at 1 AM. (which in spanish time is more like... 145 or 2 AM) and lasts a good 30 minutes. It's liek the 4th of July but in march and with a lot more people and alot more noise and a lot more fireworks. The do the fireworks in the 'river' (whichisnt a river... it USED TO BE a river, now its a park.) so you have a bunch of people surrounding you, AND over you (if youre inside the river, liek i was) little did i know that was like.. the most dangerous thing you could do becasue the idiotic people from above throw fireworks down inside the river, AND the idiots inside the river throw these fireworks called borrachos that follow air currents, so if you run, it follows you. i almost got hit like 17 times while ducking out of there at lightning speed. Pictures:

After the big show is like.... a night long party. The streets are crowed, the clubs are open allnight, theres people everywhere, it's impossible to find a cab and the subway runs all night long. I got home before my little sister..... thats hows late the spanish stay out. (dont worry mom i stayed safe and i did not get robbed.
The day after (well the next night) is La Cremà which is when they burn the huge statues they put up (and spend all year making) TO THE GROUND. (the statues are called Fallas.... hence thename of the holiday (fallas usually represent something... like some represented the crises or a political figure or soemthing like that)) anyway, it goes something like this:

I was really close to the statue when it was being burned, and let me telly ou its burns FAST (they douse it with gasoline) it was EXTREMELY hot. i think i got burnt a little ever. AFter like... 5 miutes of ewatching it burn, the people put it out with firehoses which ultimately got ME weta s well. I looked like i had just taken a shower..... thats how wet i got. and i even got a little crabby. but not really. And that ends fallas. I'm not saying its a very environmentally friendly event with all the smoke and fireworks and gas infected burnings, but you know... it's fun.
Other than that, its really just an excuse to not do anything. Theres these people called falleras or falleros (if youre a dude) which i dont have any pictures of unfortunately but you can probably looked them up on google. They dress up in old timey clothes and march in parades and represent their own personal falla. Other than that they have like a week long block party in the city where you can buy snacks and clothes and jewlery and stuff like that. It's really just a touristy type thing. (for people like me) They have concerts and special parties for the young people (again for people like me) and the streets are all decorated. Spain likes their street decorations... i can telly ou that much.
After fallas i had testing, adn yet running on horrible build up of crap sleep, i managed to pass them. I only had a week or so of class before going to italy, which leads me to really long month part 2. To be continued.

I AM STILL LIVING

WELL HI!

warning. this is going to have a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes. i can tell you that right now because i wont have the time or desire to read over this again.

HAPPY HALF WAY CELEBRATION!

well to tell you the truth its more of a crap bin than a celebration. I don't like how i'm ALREADY half way done. please note how ive said already, because quite frankly i cant believe it, but we'll get to all that later. (i plan on talking about my feelings..... you should continue reading just for that. just kidding)

Well, you may ask what ive been doing the past month. The answer is not much, which has actually been quite tiring. I've fallen into some weird routine, which can be a good or bad thing. Most of january i did more or less the same thing everyday, and since then, i've figured out that i don't really lake that, so i've been trying to change things up a bit lately. I don't remember what the last event i talked about was, but all just wing it here.

I've been gettin' on pretty well. i made a few new friends, and everyday i find out wonderful new things about myself. For example(s): i think i'm less awkward when i have to speak a different language (how can that be???) because i rarely have awkward silences, and i rarely get nervous. OF COURSE there are exceptions, like the fact that sometimes i say really dumb things, or do dumb things, and of course i do get embarrassed sometimes, but you know... yah live. yah learn. yah just gotta pretend like somethings just never happened (except its difficult for me becasue when i get embarrassed, i become a tomato, so everyone notices. Those dang spaniards and their tan unblushable skin.)

SPEAKING OF REALLY DUMB THINGS! These past few weeks have been extremely interesting. Reason #1 being that i've reached some kind of mental health equilibrium which has may or may not have something to do with some self realizations and self growth which i have realized in myself and in those surrounding me. This particular theme i will get into later, as it concerns my personal feelings. Reason #2 is that i ran into 2 things recently. Literally. I'm usually not that clumsy, but i guess i proved myself wrong. The first time i did it was when i was leaving school, and i was walking along side a friend talking and not paying attention to anything, and all the sudden there was a large red pillar. Right in front of me. My friend restrained from laughing some how, and all he said was something that loosely translates to 'take that!' which is when i burst out laughing, blushed a lot and ran away like a little kid. The second time was a little more discreet. I just ran into a little construction pole thing, but there was only one old man sitting near by who i SWEAR giggled a little. I'm glad i made his day i guess.

ANYWAY. What have i been up to lately? Well that is actually a really good question. There hasn't been much going on thats super exciting. Lets see...........i learned how to do a rubik's cube. I do homework....

But the coolest thing i've done since my last entry (which was like a month and a half ago.. oops) was probably that i went to Barcelona. That was pretty cool. In all honesty i was walking around the whole time just hoping someone famous would show up or like Tyra Banks would come up because i know she went there one time for americas next top model. I don't know. I DID really like it, but it wasn't as spectacular as we think it is. Well yes it is, but i don't know. What i'm trying to say is that it's amazing, but you'd need a lot of time to soak it all in. And La Sagrada Familia is freaking amazing (the huge church thats been in construction for ever) I had no idea it was so flippin tall. it's huge......

Other than that, i've been doing other things. i don't know if you all have seen them, but i put a lot of video of myself singing on facebook. That was fun, and now all my friends here want me to record one for them, so i've been busy with my musical studies. and ALSO, i started an art class. Probably the most wonderful decision i've ever made because its SO FUN. Just imagine this. This class, its me and like... 10 other kids, all under 5 feet and all under the age of 12. At first when they all figured out i was american, they asked me probably every single question physically possible to ask about my life. i honestly think these young ladies and gentlemen know more about me than most others here, but whatever. It's really fun because they're so interested, and don't seem to be affected my the 'ugly american' image. which is nice for a change. PLUS the teacher is quickly rising to the top of the list of my favorite spanish people. Te other day, he put a rag on his head and walked around for like 20 minutes pretending to be his own grandma. That part wasn't even the funny part. The funny part was that when the lottery ticket guy came in (a lottery guy comes in everyday.... he's kinda old and i dont think im very right in the mind) alvaro (my teachers name is alvaro) went up to him and started talking to him in his little grandmas voice saying the alvaro wasn't there, and that he'd have to come back later and bla bla. After like 5 whole minutes of that, he finally took off the rag, and was like'YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS ME RIGHT???" it was hilarious. Other than that, hes a good teacher, and i'm actually learning stuff.

this is probably the story of the month (2 months?). I got in trouble in school. usually i would be embarrassed to admit this, but lets all face it, we all get in trouble at SOME point in school. and if you say you haven't you're a liar. Anyway, what happened was that i am an idiot. I experienced a cultural difference in extreme. A few weeks ago me and a few friends 'snuck' out of the building (even though the security dude lets us) after testing one day to drink coffee during a free study hour. Considering said circumstances i didn't really think it would matter, even though i admittedly knew that we are not allowed to leave the building. Well that and the fact that everyone always leaves and nothing ever happens. Its a universal thing. Well, my english teacher saw us while we were out, and we had a little panic attack at the moment, but after that, no one said anything so we THOUGHT it was all fine. Little did we know that we had been reported to our counselor. Anyway, one week after we had been caught, we got called into a meeting with our counselor and the principal to discuss the punishment. I thought they were just gonna yell at us for a while and maybe put a little tardy mark or something but no. the principal decided it was fair to suspend us for 2 days. Considering the fact that if i get suspended, i get sent home to minnesota, i immediately started sobbing and trying to explain what MY consequences are and that it's not just being suspended for 2 days, that it's going home forever (a very embarrassing moment of my life) but finally she changed her mind. Now we have to play hall monitor for 2 weeks and possibly miss a field trip (to be determined).

THE ITALIANS CAME!!!!!!! (for those that don't know... im doing an exchange thing in sicily for 10 days, and right now, the italians are in spain. I'm going to sicily in april) My italian is super cool and fun and likes to talk and is teaching me italian and bought me earrings and stuff. The only thing is that i. am. so. tired. I can't even believe it. i spent all day today walking around valencia doing the tourist thing (which still interests me) until 7PM (10AM-7PM) and my feet hurt like crap. The only really cool thing i got out if it was that i got to see a mascleta today, which is this thing they do here during Las Fallas. It's basically just a whole bunch of noise for about 5 minutes with sone fireworks, but the ground shakes and theres a lot of smoke and it felt like the end of the world. and i loved it. I'll post a video at the end.

Other than that, i don't have any really GOOD stories. so now i'll just go right into talking about my feelings.

Concerning this theme, there are two options. I could become really corny and express my feelings in a poetic and loving way, or i could just tell you like it is. considering im not really into the whole poetic touchy feely thing (and never will be, ever) i'm just to to express them plain and simple like i always do.

The bottom line is that now that i've already passed half way point, i'm just here to enjoy myself. By enjoy myself, i do not mean go out and party every single night and never do homework and things like that. What i mean is i'm just trying to become more a part of everything, and if that means that i fail a few assignments, or become a little tired, or whatever, its really fine with me, because you just have to try to experience as many things as you possibly can. I know this blog says i published it like.... 2 weeks ago, but the truth of the matter is that its march 10 or something tomorrow. IS ALREADY MARCH, AND I HAVE TO DO SO MANY THINGS STILL. i only have 4 months left to do like a billion cool things that i still want to do. CRAP.

Honestly that sums up my feelings. I feel crunched for time. BUT i do miss minnesota. like a say every time i write stuff. I was talking with one of the italians the other day, and she was asking what i missed about home, and i was saying stupid stuff like we can't stay out so late, the food it different... blah blah, but then she was like, no really.... what's different. So i had to think a little and came up with the fact that home is Minnesota if i like it or not. Here i can't argue with my parents or leave my crap around or eat a bunch a junk food without having to sneak it. I'm always aware of what i'm doing... It's not as comfortable. That isn't to say that i don't like my family here, it's just to say that the natural comforts of your own home are taken fore granted, and that everyone should be aware that home is wonderful.

OK.

ME AND ADRIANA SAY HELLO AND GOODBYE (the italian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZBVlm1gSyc