Life is really slow and hot right now. Its a typical Texas summer and for the second one in a row, I don't AC in my car. All I have to do is bring a cup of water with me and I have a moving sauna. I have just been working a lot lately. Its going fairly well, except sometimes the restaurant is incredibly slow and it seems that a lot of people have decided to combat the recession by not tipping me. Don't be a jerk, tip your waiter..yes, over a dollar. This isn't the 1950s anymore.Also, since its been so hot, the air conditionar in the restaurant decided to act up. So for about two weeks the restaurant has been kind of hot. Really the only really bad part is the kitchen, honestly I do not know how they can cook back there, it is miserable. Sometimes though, the dining area gets a little toasty. I don't even notice it since I've been developing a pretty strong tolerance to high temperatures but some people feel the need to get a little dramatic about it. Its funny because its always fat people who complain. I hate to be rude but I want to tell them that if they lost about 100 pounds and weren't stuffing their face with free bread and potatoe soup, it might be a little more bearable. This last week has been really tiring. I took a job with my landlord mowing lawns and doing yardwork in the mornings and I had to work three doubles at Spano's also. It was also sad because my kitten Tucker, died of feline leukemia. I took him to the vet and they said that his chance of survival was next to nothing. They rehydrated his body and then I just tried to keep him warm at home, unfortunately, he died two hours later.

On a happier note, I spent my afternoon today at the pool, watching three overweight men jumping off the diving board. They started off seeing who could make the biggest splash and then they got pretty fancy. One of them kept trying to dive, but he was really not very good. Instead of landing straight into the water, his legs would flop foward and creating a shamoo tail splash effect. He finally gave up on diving and went for a front flip..it was the most hilarious and ungracefull thing that I have ever seen. The best part though, came when the biggest of them, jumped a little two forcefully and really almost broke the board. The board bent all the way down to the water and would not come back up, so he just kind of fell off. Last week, it rained quite a bit one day and if you have ever driven in Abilene when there is rain, you will know that the entire city turns into a shallow lake, on account of having no drainage system. I would like to thank the city planners for a job well done. Anyways, (this story has a point) I was driving down Pine and switched lanes to pass a minivan in front of me. As I was passing the minivan, we both hit one of the giant puddles left in the road from the rain. What would have just been a free car wash for both of us, turned into a really unpleasant situation for the minivan because the lady in the passanger seat had her window completely down. I don't think that I will ever forget the look on her face, when a tidal wave of muddy water hit her directly in the face, covering both her and the driver completely in street water. I felt bad, but when I saw it happen, I immediately doubled over my steering wheel in a hysterical fit of laughter, I seriously could not control myself . I did however, drive off as fast as I could, to avoid getting chased down and rammed by the unlucky vehicle..

In closing, SYTYCD is amazing and if you don't know what SYTYCD stands for..too bad because I'm not writing it out, and oh, we can't be friends anymore. Kapono is still annoying and the guest judge they had last week was legitamately creeping me out. He was more useless and obscure than Little C. I LOVE REGINA SPEKTOR! I have been listening to her new CD nonstop, and I would like to marry her. Also, does anyone else get annoyed that the news can't follow anything else but the death of the talented and insane Michael Jackson? I mean, really America? Let's move on. I think that that is a wrap on everything going on with me. Just remember, keep your windows up in a rainy Abilene.

Woe is me. The cat has fleas.

Have you ever had the need to just write? That's what's happening to me right now. I have been back from Spain for over a month now and it still feels weird being back. Sometimes someone will ask me a question and I will almost respond in Spanish. I really miss getting to learn more Spanish every day and improve little by little. Don't get me wrong, I love getting to see my family and friends but I also left friends behind and unlike my friends and family in Texas, they live in over fifteen different countries, so I wonder if I will ever get to see some of them again. Its a little depressing right now because they are all still back in Spain but I hopefully see some of them again some day.
I don't want to be depressing so I am going to just move on to what's going in life currently. I started a new job at Spano's Italian Restaurant this week. I really like it, I wouldn't have thought that I would have liked waiting tables, but I do. I really like everyone I work with and it helps that the hours are great and the food is delicious. I also moved into a house in a pretty shady part of Abilene..but hey, I wouldn't want to live in a place where there is no chance of being shot at or mugged, that's just plain boring. I also have a little kitten named Tucker, courtesy of my family who found four kittens in a brush pile by our house. He's a really cute, grey, fluffly little guy but he is really energetic and loves to try to climb up my leg and he always is trying to play fight with me and bite me. I think he had fleas so I bought him a flea collar at pets mart, which he trys to to scratch off constantly.
I have work tomorrow and I just hope that I don't get some of the not so classy ogres that Abilene can produce at my tables. I would like to avoid waiting on jerks but I know its unavoidable. I'll just take it as patience building, I could always use some of that. Right now, I'm just wondering why I just wasted a few minutes of my life by watching Natalie Portman's rap video. I know it was supposed to be funny because she is about as far from rapper material as possible but I was just a little disturbed by it. Stick to shaving your head and looking sickly.

Go, fight, get run over!

I am sorry I havn't written a blog in a really long time. I would like to point out that I have been busy lately and my computer charger fried. My time in Spain is moving so fast. I wish that I could stay longer to learn more but I miss home really bad sometimes. What I don't miss, is having to live in the music building..I might have to be gone a few years before I'd miss that. This last week has been so ridiculous. It was Carnaval and I have never seen so many people dress up for something. Its really funny because its not like how we dress up in the U.S. In the U.S. if you dress up you just have your costume and you can be a witch and someone else a ghost. Here, they dress in like groups of ten people. So you don't just have your regular Draculas running around, you have a whole herd of vampires in the exact same costume. It's all fun and games until you go in a bull fighter costume and happen upon a group of ten people dressed as cows. Then they all charge you acting like bulls. Also, I think every other person that we passed in the street would scream ¡Torero, Torero! and wait for me to make some bullfighter pose or say something bullfightery. At first I thought it was really funny but then after a certain point I just wanted to punch somebody. I mean, I think it had something to do with the massive amount of alcohol consumed because of Carnaval but it got annoying anyways. The funnest thing about Carnaval was definately running with the bulls. I'm sorry mom, but I couldn't come to Spain and have an opportunity to run with the bulls and not take it. Needless to say, I actually did it. I didn't think that all the runners would be so hardcore though, not many of them wore costumes to run in..probably smarter than me running in my bullfighter costume and barefoot because I forgot to wear my tennis shoes.

I walked down to the very beginning where they let all the bulls out. I thought that was where everyone was supposed to go. Nobody told me that that's where all the really experienced runners go. Thanks Spain. The run is like one and a half miles long and the not so experienced runners usually wait a little ways off so the bulls are a little slower. I got down by the beginning and the church bells started tolling which signals the start of the run. Like ten freaking bulls charged out of a trailer and tore off down the alley. I had enough sense not to be right by the starting place, I was probably 100 yards down the alley and when I saw the bulls get let out, I started to run as fast as I could. Once I saw that there was no hope of outrunning ten angry cattle, I ran to the fence and jumped up on it. One of the bulls started to go for the guy right in front of me on the fence but luckily he got distracted and veered away at the last second. After all of them passed, I kept on walking up the alley towards the bull ring. Once I got about half way, I noticed that there were a lot of people all crowded around something. One of the bulls had decided that he didn't want to run all the way down and turned around and started chasing people. There were some guys running up and trying to touch it (didn't work out so well), I was not about to go slap it on the back so I just settled on running by him a few times. I don't think I fully realized how dangerous the whole thing was until I saw a guy get gored. He had his back to a wall and didn't move fast enough when the bull came after him. The bull picked him up with his horns and I saw his pant leg get ripped all the way down buy the horn. Then the bull started slamming him on the wall and when he fell started to go after him on the ground. Finally, some people close enough got the bull away. I think the guy was ok, but I am definately glad that I was not in his place. The road finally ended in this big sand arena where the bull fights took place. We ran in and then they shut the gates and there was no way out. I thought that we would be able to mess with the bull but there were "trained" people there, basically old men in goofy looking t-shirts, and if you messed with the bull, you could get arrested. So instead of getting to do anything we all just had to wait for them to get the bull out of the ring, and I listened to drunk old ladies tell me to go fight the bull. It took a good hour and a half, hence the, "I'm bored out of my mind pictures".

I went to Madrid this past weekend because my aunt and grandma came to Spain! It was really fun and my grandma got to have her birthday in Madrid. What wasn't fun was a three hour train ride at five-thirty in the morning. I finally got to Madrid and I had to find their hotel. I knew the name of it, but I forgot to get directions off of the internet. Luckily I just asked enough people and happened to take a metro line semi close to the area. When I found it, I thought that they would have been waiting for me but I ended up showing up first. We went to the Reina Sofia Museum and saw Picasso's 'Guernica' and walked around Madrid for awhile. We ended up eating at a really cool restaurant and it was a nice break from the oh so wonderful fish lasagne and tuna pizza that I get at my cafeteria. The following day we went to lunch and then went to the Prado museum. It had the biggest line that I have ever seen in my life, Six Flags and Sea-World included. Luckily, we found out that you could pay 8 euros to get in, instead of waiting for three hours for the free admission. The Prado was cool, except the art was all very old and very similar. Still good, but I got kind of sick of seeing the same little angel flying around in every picture and creepy looking men in women with frowns and funny hats. This being said, I am definately a fan of variety. I left that night at nine oclock and I was so tired. I fell asleep on the train and when I woke up, I thought that I had missed my stop in Salamanca and was on the late train to Portugal. There was nobody on the train and all the screens that had scheduled stops had been turned off. Luckily, it just took awhile to get to Salamanca and I made it there fine. When I got back, It was about 12 thirty and I was still really tired, lucky for me though, I only have a forty-five minute walk back to my dorm from the train station.

Deadly pigeon fight.

Just like every big city, Salamanca is well off in the pigeon department. I havn't had any problems with the pigeon population yet but apparently some residents of the city are fed up with their behavior. A few days ago a girl in my class told me that she had seen an old woman trying to kill pigeons outside her window. I didn't believe her but she had a picture of it and sure enough; there was an old woman leaning out of her window with a sling shot and the meanest look that I have ever seen on an elerly woman's face. I don't think that she killed any that day but the sling shot looked pretty legit. No telling how many birds have lost their lives outside that window. Also, in Kaki's grammar class they had some problems with birds. Her class was interrupted when two pigeons started fighting on the ledge of the building right outside the window. She said that it was hilarious because it lasted for like five minutes and everyone just watched two birds claw and peck each other while they slapped each other with their wings. They tried to scare the birds off but they continued fighting. Finally, a brave soul opened to the window and threw pieces of chalk at them until they flew away.

Yesterday, Kaki and I were walking back from class, when I heard a grunting noice beside me. I thought at first that it was someone's cell phone going off. But than I heard squealing too and looked over again. For some reason, I guy about my age was carrying a small pig around in one of those little doggy cages. I don't know if it was dinner for that night or just his pet but I busted out laughing of course, because I thought it had been his cell phone all along. He just kind of looked at me like, what's your problem? It's not like he could blame me for laughing though. I mean, I'm from Texas and I've never seen anyone in Abilene or Mason for that matter hauling an unhappy pig around in a dog cage. Needless to say, the pig continued to squeal even louder and I continued to laugh.

Today was such a good day though. I woke up early to study for my test but of course I didn't study (it was easy though). Instead I had breakfast and a devotional time and then I listened to Sufjan Stevens. I often forget, but prayer is so essential to our lives. I felt so energized and happy today and I think that all of it was because I merely asked God for help. I love this magnet that my mom has on our fridge at home, it says: "A day hemmed in prayer, seldomly comes unravelled". As cliche as that sounds to some people, it really is the truth. I was really pumped today, because some Spanish people asked me for directions. Directions aren't terribly dificult but I was just really happy that I knew the city and Spanish well enough to explain where it was and that I didn't stick out so much that they didn't ask me. I have been really suprised because I thought that I would be a lot taller than everyone here. Thankfuly that's not the case. I have several Spanish friends that are about my height and I pass people in the street all the time that are fairly tall. As a whole, I am still pretty tall here but it isn't near as bad as I thought it would be and I definately don't stick out like I do when I'm in Mexico.

I've got to hurry up and finish this, (I'm about to go get tapas and coffee), but I'm excited because Saturday I'm going to Madrid!! Yeah for big cities and a Starbucks that I can take a picture in front of (for Lane). I want everyone back home to know that I love all of you and miss you like crazy! Please don't have too much fun until I get back and I'll try to do the same..I can't promise that though..

I would NEVER get a euromullet.

Euromullets. Sick. I would never in a million years get one..but I would try to trick people into thinking that I had one! I was just going to upload a picture of a eurmullet off of the internet for proof of its heinous spread around Europe and what do ya know? I found a replica of the back of my head. This is the other side of the horrible hairdo. Not me at all. Unfortunately there are worst cases than this. I've been trying to take pictures of really good ones, but its kind of hard to get close enough to take their picture and remain unnoticed, so I've just had to learn to take pictures really fast and not get caught. Its kind of like hunting birds or something. They come out of no where and I have to be prepared to pull out my camera, turn it on, aim and fire in one swift motion. Its an art form and my stalking skills are getting pretty amazing.

I am so excited! Because tonight I actually ate authentic Mexican food! Me, Kaki and some friends from class went searching for a Mexican restaurant tonight and happened upon a place called 100% Mexicano. I know what you're thinking. With a classy name like that, how can you go wrong? You really can't. The food was really good and it helped that the place was run and owned by actual Mexicans. I'm just really glad that we found it, because I don't know how much longer I could have lasted chopping up tomatoes in a plastic bowl and trying to make salsa. It's difficult.

Two days ago, Kaki and I were walking back from class when all the sudden somebody started blasting a trumpet behind us. It kind of scared me and I turned around to see this tiny little man, with a trumpet in one hand and his groceries in the other. He was actually really good and he would just walk a little while and then bring up his trumpet and play for a few seconds. It was really cool flamenco sounding music and it made me want to shout ¡Ole!

After he got done playing, and since my high speed photography has gotten so good, of course I had to take a picture. This time however, I wasn't as sneaky as with my euromullet targets. He saw me take a picture and immediately got a really big smile on his face and posed for another picture. He played a few seconds and then came across the street to talk to me and Kaki. He told us that his name was El Gran Pancheco (or something like that)and that we could see him on the channel five news. He also said that he had been recognized as the best trumpet player in all of Spain but he couldn't play so well anymore because his memory was getting bad. After that he told me that I was very tall and that he was married to a model when he was younger. Then he shook our hands and continued on his way, toting groceries in one hand and holding his trumpet in the other.

Classes are continuing to go well but my crazy teacher is well..still crazy. She called me Treg, the entire first week of classes and then about mid way through the next week she all the sudden started to call me James. (Which she pronounces, Yames). Nobody else in the class had any idea why she called me Yames, they just looked at me funny and said,"I thought your name was Treg". So after class, I told her that my first name was James, but I went by my middle name instead. After hearing this she bobbed her head and said, Vaaaale, sí, sí, lo siento Treg. She remebered for like four days and then after the weekend she started calling me Yames again. I don't know if it will do any good to correct her anymore. One thing that's kind of funny and rude about some of the professors, is when they encounter an Asian name. When a professor finds a Chinese name that they can't pronounce, instead of learning to say it, they ask them if they have a Spanish name. At first I thought it was kind of funny but then I thought about it and it really is very rude. I don't know what my reaction would have been if they couldn't pronounce my name and said, "I can't say your name, so I'm going to call you Enrique." Its kind of like Bon Qui Qui saying, "I got a complicated orda" or "no you can have a coke". (If you don't know who Bon Qui Qui is, type it into youtube, its really funny.) And I can't believe that I just compared something to Bon Qui Qui. Some people allude to Shakespear or famous authors.. not me, I'll stick to quoting youtube videos.
In summary: I drink a cup of cafe con leche almost every day. My friend Hello Kitty girl has gone back to Korea. Along with my other thirty Korean neighbors. I think that cat lady must be very rich, because it takes a lot of cat food to feed all the gatos in Salamanca. It might snow tomorrow and I'm really excited. One of the rubber casings to my headphones has fallen off and when I put it in my ear and turned on the computer to listen to music, it started shocking me really hard. It hurt really bad. I still watch the Real World every week and I think that Kaitlyn looks like Andy Roddick. I also have started to eat ice cream at the plaza a lot, even if it is cold. Also I bought a baller umbrella and I hate smelling like smoke everywhere I go because everybody here wants cancer. But I love houka!!

I think they're American..oh, yep, Northface.

Ok, I'm sorry. I haven't posted a new blog in about a week..but don't worry, I'm not going to pull a Lane, and post one about every two months or so. (Sorry, inside joke.) Anyways, I've been really busy lately. Classes have been going really well and I am so glad that I don't have morning classes because I barely get to my eleven o'clock class. The good thing about Spain though, is that if you're running late, there's a good chance that your proffesor is later than you are. It's amazing! I mean in the states I run late for all sorts of things, but here I'm semi-punctual. My Spanish history professor shows up every day fifteen minutes late and then lets us go on time! Krisi, you would be annoyed a lot, because Spain is a land of turtles. If they say that they are going out at ten, they really mean ten-thirty and then you have to wait some more for the one or two Spaniards that run even later than the rest of the country. Oh, and I have a euromullet. Looks good, huh?
I'm learning a lot of Spanish but sometimes its hard because so many people in my classes speak English. I've met a lot of Americans too. Most of them are really nice but I have to remind myself that I'm here to learn Spanish..not work on my English. It's really funny too because a lot of Spaniards get annoyed by the loud Americans but I'm pretty sure that two Spaniards carrying on a normal conversation are louder than most Americans yelling. Also, its so easy to spot somebody from the U.S. when they're wearing Northface and Sperrys. I'm amazed how much the Spaniards love Obama. I'm pretty sure that he's almost reached sainthood here and he's only been in office for like two days. My professors love to talk about him too and they are amazed if they have a student that does't like him. One of my professors was talking about him they other day and asked us if they were going to change the name of the white house to the black house..yeah, I don't know about that. I am missing Mexican food SO bad right now. This is the longest period of time that I have gone without eating any Tex-Mex. I'm seriously having withdrawls. Yesterday I went to the market and found tortilla chips and bought ingrediants to make salsa. I must have looked really pathetic chopping up tomatoes and jalapeños in a little bowl with a plastic knife. I was so excited to have salsa and when I opened the bag of "cilantro" to mix it in, it turned out it was parsley..sick. I was really confused because it looked like a bag of chopped cilantro and it said something about salsa on the back of the bag, but it was definately not. Even without cilantro, I downed all of the salsa and shared two or three chips with Kaki and Andy.

Things are going pretty well here, I'm learning a whole lot but sometimes I get to the point where I just don't want to here another word of Spanish or my head will explode. When that happens it's usally when I'm really tired and I just kind of zone out when people talk to me. Other than those occasional moments, I really enjoy getting to talk in Spanish every day. I also might come back speaking Korean because thirty of them live on my floor. I felt really bad for them because one of the more immature Spanish freshman kept putting trash cans filled with water leaning on their doors and then when they opened their doors they got really wet..needless to say, he got caught and got in some trouble with the dorm director. Like I said, I felt sorry for them until last night. Last night I think they were having like the Korean olympics or something in the hall way. At four in the morning there were packs of ten to twelve Koreans racing down the hallway. Why they couldn't go outside? I have no clue. Then they had a birthday party for somebody and proceeded to sing a very long happy birthday (the Korean version), followed by screaming. Then I started putting trash cans filled with water on all their doors..just kidding. But really, the thought crossed my mind.

In other news, cat lady is still doing her part in fighting feline hunger, Hello Kitty girl is still repping the stereotype, Kaki was running in her room and slipped and hit the wall with her head, and I am becoming addicted to chocolate con churros, cafe con leche, tapas and these lemon cookies that I found at the market. I'm sad that I'm missing Amerian Idol but I'm sure that I can watch it online and I miss my friends and family. I love all of you!

¿So, are you Catholic or Jewish?

My last few days have been really busy! They have been really good though. Thursday and Friday were our first day of classes and they went very well. I like most of my professors, I don't really care for one that much, though. I don't know if its because it is a two hour grammar class, or because my teacher is painfully annoying, I think that it is definately a combo of severe boredom, with a side of overly dramitic, haughty and loud teacher, with a Spanish diva complex. I'm not mentioning a name, because I'm really scared that for some reason she will come across this and release her diva fury in full force...unlikely, I know but I'm not taking chances. I've met some really cool people in my classes and we have started to make some pretty good friends with the people that live in our residence hall. One thing that I was really worried about, was if we were going to be able to find a church here that wasn't catholic. Almost every student that I have talked to, has said that they either don't believe in God, are agnostic or just attend mass because their parents are Catholic. I met a kid a few nights ago, and he asked me if I were Christian. I said yes, but I'm not Catholic. He for some reason thought that if weren't Catholic I must be Jewish, so he replied by saying, "I'm not an ant-semite. I think Jews are cool." I didn't really see that answer coming, so I just tried to stifle my laughter and shook my head.
Last night though, we were eating with a girl that we met from Oaxaca, Mexico. We were talking about movies and I asked her if she liked Nacho Libre, because its one of my favorite movies. She said that the movie was filmed in her hometown and that she was a receptionist at the hotel that Jack Black and all the actors stayed at! She said that they never really talked to anybody though, so she didn't meet him. Even though she is awesome because she is from the land of Nacho, she is even more awesome because she invited us to church. We went this morning, and it was really amazing. I was really excited because I could understand a lot of the message and we knew some of their songs. The pastor and the college minister are both from England and the pastor invited us and some other new people to his house for lunch. His wife is from Spain and they were both so nice. I'm not sure what exactly she cooked for us, but it was amazing. It definately beat having lunch in the cafeteria. For dessert, we had a cake called the Rascon de los Reyes, which in English means the ring of the kings. Its a cake that they eat for the Christmas holidays, which are kind of different than ours. The day that they actually exchange gifts with their families is called El dia de los Reyes Magos (the day of the kings/magi) and that's on January 6th. Anyways, the cake that we ate had two figures baked into it and I was really pumped because I got a little owl. Sorry, I don't know how to rotate this picture, so that's just gonna have to do. Some other fun facts, The U.S. is not the only country that has crazy cat ladies. Last night I was walking home and their was this old Spanish lady that was feeding like ten stray cats right by our dorm. She had individual bowls of meat and cat food for almost all of them. Also, nobody in Spain can pronounce my name, I didn't think it would be that difficult for them but they tend to say it like T-r-a with flem on the end. So it sounds like they're coughing something up when they say my name. Also, the Koreans can't pronounce it either, one of them sounds like they are saying Crack when they say it.

In other news, the new season of the Real World is sick! But it's going to be a good season. I just can't handle Katelynn, she looks like a six foot three Shreck. Also, while watching the first episode, I predicted that the military guy was going to be the first person to break something and I was right. Maybe I'll do a Real World Spain...

No tengo miedo ( I'm not scared)

So now that I have moved into the dorm, things are feeling less crazy and foreign. It was really weird the first few days, because we arrived in Salamanca before most other students did; so the city was kind of empty and we knew absolutely nobody. Now that we live in the dorm, we get to eat in the cafeteria (which is about the equivalent of the Hardin-Simmons caf) and we have somewhere to put all our stuff! Which by the way, Kaki desperately needed because she's a girl and packed a whole lot. Even though they cafeteria food isn't the best that Spain has to offer, it's really cool to get to meet different people from around the world. A lot of the students are either Spanish, or have been there long enough to speak the language very well. That kind of scared us at first because they speak very fast, but yesterday a group of thirty Koreans moved into the dorm ,and they were way more shy than us and most of them don't speak Spanish very well. That was a big confidence booster. Take that Korea. Some of them do speak Spanish fairly well though and they are really nice. I can't ever remember their names though, so I just give them nicknames i.e. Hello Kitty Girl, because all she wears are Hello Kitty shoes.
Today we took our placement exam for classes and it was a little bit scary. We got split up in rooms and had to take a scantron test that had eighty questions. We only had thirty minutes to do it and it was pretty hard. After that, we had to have a one on one conversation with a professor for about three minutes. We got our results back this at around six and I was put in the intermediate classes! I'm excited because that's the one that I was shooting for. Classes start tomorrow and I'm pretty pumped about them. The hardest thing to get used to over here, is the eating/sleeping habits. Usually, people don't eat breakfast until around ten thirty or eleven, they don't eat lunch until two or three (which follows by the entire city pretty much shutting down for a two hour siesta.) Dinner is definately the hardest to get used to because the earliest that the cafeteria opens, is at eight thirty or nine. Also, the cafeteria workers, like Hardin-Simmons, are kind of mean. It's really cold here, I think that for the past two or three days, it hasn't been over thirty degrees. Its also been snowing off and on but not much has stuck. I'm slowly overcoming my fear of speaking Spanish to the natives, usually they are very helpful but of course we come across a snotty Spaniard every now and then. The old people are really funny, the old men all wear suits and really old school hats and most of them carry around a cane and a lot of the old woman wear shaws or giant fluffy fur coats. This morning we got up at around seven to get some things before we took our test and we went into an electronic store to get something. The man who owned the shop was an elderly man and was helping us find what we needed. After we were leaving, I said buenos noches ( good night) and wondered why he gave me a confused stare. After I was out the door I realized that I meant to say buenos dias because it was eight in the morning. Its ok though, I'll blame it on not having coffee that morning, and by the way, the coffee is really, really good. In other news, Spain doesn't have very many fat people or gingers, but has a plethora of euromullets and rat tails. Which should never be in style.

My trip and first few day in Spain

So, my trip over went way better than I expected. I can be a bit scatterbrained sometimes and so I was really nervous about traveling by myself. Especially because I had never flown alone before. My parents and I drove to Dallas the night before, (New Years Eve) because my flight was at eight-thirty that morning and we live about four hours away. So for the past two years, I havn't been able to celebrate the new year :( Last year my house almost burned down because of a grass fire and we had to move everything out.. it took awhile. I got through customs without a problem and landed in Detroit at around twelve. I had a four hour layover. That was fun, I just people watched and hoped that I might see Sufjan Stevens. My next flight was to Amsterdam and it lasted from four in the afternoon to six o'clock in the morning. I tried really hard to sleep but it was impossible. You try being six-five and stuffed into kiddy seat. Its not very comfortable, so I just watched movies the whole time. I landed in Amsterdam at six and had to get through customs in time for my flight to Spain at seven. It went pretty well, except I had to deal with a cranky Dutch airport guard who worked the x-ray machine thing. She was convinced that I had something dangerous in my pockets and made me take my paper money and chapstick and hold it over my head while standing with my feet spread apart. After I finally got past Helga, I had ten minutes to find which gate my flight left from and get there. I made it with two minutes to spare. Oh, yeah.

I landed in Madrid at nine-thirty and had to wait for my friends flight to come in at around twelve. I was pretty sure that I knew their flight information but I started second guessing myself when one o'clock rolled around and they still hadn't come. I was starting to freak out but then they came five minutes later and explained that their luggage had been lost for about thirty minutes. After meeting up with them, we got on the metro to the train station and took a three hour train ride from Madrid to Salamanca. When we got to Salamanca, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, but I really wanted to sleep so after finding the hostel and taking a shower, that is exactly what I did. The next day, we got up and grabbed some breakfast and then walked around the city. All the buildings are incredible, I'm not exactly sure how old the city is but I know that most of the buildings have been here since medieval times. Most of the university buildings are located by the two oldest cathedrals. We toured one of the cathedrals today and it was amazing. The pillars inside were probably the size of a big room in a house. I also learned today that Christopher Columbus used to live in Salamanca and taught at the university. I'm really excited, because tomorrow we move into our dorm! Nothing that unusual has happened yet, except for the food..its different. But I am looking foward to the days to come. I will try to keep this updated fairly often. I'm going to miss everyone back home and I love all of you!