I have few regrets in life. Every where I've been, place I've seen, experience I've had and person I've come to call 'friend' has created me little by little into the person I am today. But ever since I was young, my life has been a transitory one. College was the first time in 14+ years that I slept in the same bed for more than a month in a row and my wanderings have taken me to over 15 states and now 3 continents. My heart somehow finds ways to root itself wherever it goes and as such pieces of it lie with several wonderful people whose paths have at some point crossed with mine and is scattered. It hurts to always be away from people I love because honestly, there will never be a point where they are all in one place at one time. Coming to Granada, it was so difficult to try and put roots down because the knowledge that I would be leaving made me hesitant to get too attached. Must it always be this way? Travel is an integral part of my life and always will be but it's awful always being so torn! To be in college is away from family and to be at home is away from most of my closest friends. Skype covers miles but it's not the same as being present to hug, goof around, or simply be with someone. In times of transition such as now I'm looking ahead at the rest of my life and wondering where it will go. Will God take me far from home or put me in the US? Where is my home now even? No matter where I am, it always seems a world apart from someone or something. Ceasing to grow is not ever an option but for the time being, I want more than anything to just stay put in one place for an extended period of time without yanking out my roots and starting over. It's not that I'm as homesick now as I was, just looking for a place of my own I guess. Granada isn't it but I can't say for certain that it's Seattle or California either. This is where faith comes into it all I guess, so we'll see where I finally end up. In the meantime, there's a beautiful city just outside my window and a ready kitchen to go and make some delicious dinner tonight with friends. Future bring what it may, I'll do my best to make the present as great as possible no matter what comes my way. Cheers.

Classes, activities, planning, budgeting, job applying, more classes: life’s been a little hectic lately. I’ve finally gotten into a regular schedule and now that I look at it, I’m probably a little over involved. The current list consists of five classes, cooking class, Kung Fu, teaching ESL and intercambio (soon to be two); it’s more than enough to keep me busy. Not to mention I’m obtaining this strange new thing called a social life, ever heard of it? They’re a bit nice to have sometimes. Okay, sorry, I’m done being stressed.

This week has been fantastic! The sun is finally making an appearance and flower buds are beginning to peak their heads out for the first time meaning it’s SPRING!! Time to bring out the dresses, sit in plazas, and enjoy the fact that it’s now possible to eat ice cream without your hand freezing. Now that it’s actually possible to do so, I’m beginning to understand why the Spanish love their paseos (walks around the city) and spending time in plazas. With the motto of ‘life is in the streets’ the cities are made for people to spend all of their social time in public; the city is absolutely full of great walks, parks and plazas and people are hired to keep it all scrupulously clean. I can only imagine what they all think when they come to New York, the difference is a little sad for NYC’s end. Vegas might have been a bit worse though if only for the fact that the trash isn’t just unseemly, it’s also covered with things I’d rather not see.

After the trip with Jamie to Guadix, the pueblo with caves and the castle we discovered, was such a hit my friends and I decided to take another day trip last Saturday. I had the idea that we should show up in the morning and take the first bus out of town. So, like Journey sings in “Don’t Stop Believing” we took the first midnight train (bus) going an-y-where (please tell me you all read that with the melody in mind). Don’t stop be-liev-in, hold on to that looooovin’ feelin. Ok, I’ll stop now. The first bus out, after a bit of problems with tickets, ended up taking us to Salobrena, a cute little pueblo next to…..THE OCEAN!!!! Have I ever mentioned exactly how much I love the beach? When it was finally in sight I gave my bag and jacket to Ruth and made a run for the water, barely taking the time to de-shoe and roll up my pants before jumping in. And you know what? The Mediterranean really is that blue, it’s not just photoshop on postcards. After the initial plunge, Ruth, Daniel and I spent quite a bit of time climbing around a huge rock pile that jutted out a bit into the sea. The white stone in contrast with the aquamarine of sea and sky were absolutely gorgeous, much more than picture perfect as I was actually able to see for myself the beauty of it all. For the rest of the day we lost ourselves in the hill of the city and explored the castle that overlooked it all. Europe has some of the best lunching places. Honestly, where else on earth would you be able to each your boca-d (sandwich) while dangling your legs over castle ramparts and looking at the Mediterranean? Ruth, Daniel and I headed back from the day very tired but very happy.

ESL is one of the biggest highlights of my experience here. Jamie and I still only have two students, but we’ve been able to accomplish much since the class started. Today while teaching the class alone Ricardo, a Peruvian immigrant around 40ish, read out loud a few pages of The Last of the Mohicans to me—I never thought I could ever be so proud of bad English. It was amazing! Knowing that he’s learned so much in such a short amount of time, it’s incredible. He couldn’t even pronounce ‘purple’ a month ago and he was reading off Indian names like nobody’s business. Maybe this is what it’s like to be a parent and somehow find yourself absurdly proud of your child’s slightly hideous glitter-glue-feathers creation. Either way, the fact that I’m having such a direct influence on the betterment of people’s lives is empowering and something I plan on being involved with long past I’ve returned from Spain. Especially after myself being in a country where I don’t know the primary language, I understand just how frustrating not being able to communicate can be. ESL is more needed than one might think and is a necessary step for immigrants to improve their lives in their new countries of residence.

Life is finally feeling more normal here though American food is still terribly missed. I also have been missing silence and a place of my own, wherever I go I’m being talked at whether it be by my host mom, roommate or people at school. It’s not that I want to be anti-social, but not having silence anywhere I go is starting to get old very fast.

Hope you’re all doing great!

P.s. all pictures stolen from Daniel as I let Nikki rest for the day

Shout outs:
Kate-you might as well come to Spain with how much we’ve been talking, I love it :]
Mo- Skype?
Lisa- I’m working on London plans, I’ll be sure to find out about our guest of honor while there
Ben-ya, a helmet might help

Welcome to March! Honestly, where is time going? I was thinking about it the other day, we’re already half way through the program! Ah! I should be so much better at Spanish at this point. Or have done more things or something. That’s okay, I’ve had my fair share of adventures so far and it’s only going to get better! Today, not two hours ago, Meli and I booked the final pieces for ITALY!!!! Finally. Took us long enough. But still--ten days, five cities, three eurail passes—vale la pena. Not to mention Myles and I have started talking about what we’ll be doing in May and June. At this point it’s looking like a nice five country sweep with our ginomous backpacks, leaving me in Brussels with a week to myself. Northern Europe, watch out! It’s on. But that’s planning for another day; right now I have other things to think of.

Sitting here on a fabulous Saturday night after a day of a photoshoot and getting ready to go out tonight, things are looking more up than they have been for the past few days. It’s been a planning session for the next year with finding jobs and internships, planning trips, and figuring out where I’ll live. Everything is falling into line way better than I could ever have planned, all God, there’s no way I could take credit for all of this.

This past weekend our ILACA school group went to Madrid for five days, visiting Toledo and Segovia along the way. Where to even begin. The first day we were there they hit us with one of the best art museums in the city, La Reina Sofia, and I got to see Guernica by Picasso(!!!!!!). The thing is massive, taking up an entire room with its 25 foot length. In person, the painting is incredible and it's jaw dropping to be able to see Picasso’s own paint strokes and the details that you can’t see over internet pictures. The next day was spent at El Prado, the second best museum in Europe and got to see many of the paintings we’ve studied in classes.

But enough about museums, the city itself was huge and full of fun things to explore and see. One of the most surprising things to happen occurred at the end of a walking tour one day while we sat at a fountain in the middle of the Plaza Del Sol. While we were deciding where to go next my friend and I started to hear shouts and noise coming from the other side of the plaza, looking up to see what looked like a parade coming our way. Thinking we could wait to see it pass then go, we stuck around only to find that it was a loud, angry demonstration that stopped and trapped us between themselves and the fountain. It was hard to tell what their cause was and it was only once we hopped through the fountain area a little illegally to get out of the throng that we figured out what the demonstration was about. A few weeks ago a kid of about fourteen and a group of friends raped, tortured, and killed another girl of fourteen. Without a juvenile court system, the boy was set out on the streets again free of penalty because he is a minor under the Spanish legal system. But it wasn’t just the girl’s death the people were protesting; they were pushing the legalization of the death penalty for minors. Killing kids! Sometimes it’s depressing just how messed up this world is, on both sides of the equation in this instance.

Along with the theme of depressing things was the fact that we visited Franco’s memorial and tomb. If killing over 50,000 people weren’t enough, the man built himself a monument to glorify his cause and dictatorship after the Spanish Civil War of the 30s. The huge, rock cross and arches at right is a picture of the memorial itself. Considering there are so many people alive today that still remember the terror and hardships of his reign, very few Spaniards were at the site so it was mostly just us tourists there learning and looking out at the beautiful vista of Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Silent).

On a happier note, good things did happen this past weekend as well. Ruth, Jamie and I went out to some sushi one night at a chic place that conveyer belted the food throughout the restaurant. Goodness it was delicious. Paired with the scoop of Ben and Jerry’s we got afterward it was the best dinner I’ve had so far in Spain and was totally worth traipsing across the city for. I also managed to find my knight in shining armor! It was slightly a pity he was a little empty headed and hollow hearted. Okay fine, so it was just the shining armor I found, no knight sadly enough. But I don’t blame the guy, if I lived in the castle he was in and had to walk up to the battlements every day I would make myself disappear too. Talk about leg work out of my life going up the 183 steps (I counted). Ick. In the same day Ruth and I managed to buy some pocket knives (ironic because we’re probably the least threatening people in the group), have a bomb picnic overlooking a river, and find our way onto Don Quixote’s trail randomly. Toledo definitely was “un lugar de aventurera” (a place of adventure) as the sign said.

Ten points to whoever can tell me what castle Bunny is in front of! Hint: I can guarantee you’ve seen it in cartoon form.
Another ten points to the person who can give me a better name for the poor little guy.

Ruth: Tully and Pip need to have some more adventures, when shall we hike?
Lisa: roomies again!!!!
Ben: how’d the photoshoot go?
Mom: you are a goddess for giving me chocolate :]
Kate: I can talk to you whenever now! yay! and I like that it literally is whenever, as I am now talking to you with your beautiful bed head :]