Big Plans Ahead

Hello again everyone! Sorry my posting has not been very consistent lately. I'm trying my best to write every other days but it doesn't always work out as I hope--but hey if I'm having trouble finding time to blog then that's probably a good thing, right? Anyways Sunday was a very lazy day for me. I slept in embarassingly late to try to get rid of my cold (which by the way is now almost completely gone!) and then the only noteworthy thing I did was go on a nice long run around the city. I had my iPod on the loudest it would go but still heard the sounds of 2 cars honking at me (women don't run too often here and if they do they certainly don't wear the short Nike running shorts like we do in America!).

After that I booked some very exciting trips with some other friends to Carnaval in Cadiz on February 18th and to Morocco for the weekend of March 16th through the 18th. Carnaval in Cadiz is apparently the 3rd largest carnaval in the world. I'm on the lookout for cool costume ideas if anyone has any! And Morocco is also going to be really cool. Our trip includes some tours and a camel ride--which if nothing else I want to do just to have the picture of! Plus I'd like to be able to say I've been to Africa. 

As if these plans weren't enough, I think tomorrow a group of us are going to try to book a flight to Rome for a very long weekend in late February. We want to fly into Rome on a Thursday, stay there til Sunday and then visit Florence Sunday through Tuesday. I'm probably most excited about the prospects of this trip! (Let's just hope I don't exceed my credit card limit for this month!)

Yesterday Colleen and I explored the city for a while looking for this plaza called Plaza de America. We'd seen pictures of other people feeding birds there and we thought the photo opp was too good to pass up. After a short detour for a cafe con leche (which by the way are absolutely delicious here--I've even got Colleen who previously didn't like coffee drinking them), we bought some bird feed and had quite the adventure. Once they realize you have food there is no stopping them from swarming you! It was very very fun but I was just glad I had on longsleeves since they're claws are extra sharp. Once we ran out of food, I still had one stubborn one that wouldn't get off my head! It all made for a very good time and some very funny pictures!

These past few nights have been very interesting. Carmen, the four year old, has had a terrible cough and wakes up throughout the night. Now in the U.S., or at least in my house, if a child is little and wakes up in the middle of the night and wants their parents, the child simply gets out of his or her bed and goes to the parents room. Here, or at least in our house, Carmen simply screams at the top of her lungs PAPA! MAMA! over and over again til they come in. It's been a little hard to sleep through to say the least. These past 2 days there has been a bit of tension in the air in the house just because Luis (the dad, not the son) has been relaying messages to us through Pilar. Pilar is the sweetest homestay mom anyone could ask for but I guess Luis can be a little cranky (although he's always pretty nice to our face). Anyways we were told we close the doors too loudly at night, but honestly I don't think I could possibly close them any quieter. The walls to our apartment are just paper thin and for some reason everyone leaves their bedroom doors wide open! It will take some practicing I guess. And then today Colleen was asked not to take showers before 8 or after 10 because Luis always wakes up at the slightest noises. That one is a little more manageable although the kids are often showering for bed around 9:30 and we finish dinner around 9. I guess its just adapting to a different culture. Hopefully we've been doing a pretty good job about keeping our showers short (I've never showered this fast in my life), not having too much laundry (we try to rewear everything before putting it in the hamper), etc. We actually just got our first load of laundry back today. It only took 3 or 4 days (they hang things on clothing lines here--no one has a dryer and they iron EVERYTHING....yes underwear and old t-shirts included.)

Today we also went to visit the cathedral and did a tour of it with our teacher Fernando. It was pretty inside, but honestly it was much prettier outside. My favorite part was the view from the tower. There are no stairs getting up to the top but instead one long winding ramp (so that people could ride horses up it). You can see the entire city from up there! 

View from the top!

Some friends and I on the ramp getting up to the cathedral!

No real other news to show for now! I have a powerpoint presentation tomorrow in my Language class on homosexual marriage in Spain--which is legal by the way. So I best get to working on it! Hasta pronto :)