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....