homework? what's that?

She needed wide open spaces...

Unfortunately, reality set in this week, and I was reminded of the fact that the REAL reason I came to Spain was for school-related purposes. I wrote a group paper, prepared slides for a presentation that will be given Tuesday, did some reading, worked on normal homework, and gave a 25 minute presentation. In actuality, it wasn't rough; I would have been happy to have such a light load at MSU, but it seemed like a lot this week, but this is probably because I haven't done anything productive in relation to school since finals in December. On the bright side, it's all over (minus the presentation for Tuesday), and I won't have to do anything again until April! I can't complain about that. :)

What other exciting things happened this week? Well, we got stopped by the metro (subway) police for the first time. We actually had tickets this time (we bought them ages ago!), but we haven't been stamping them in the machines before each use like you're supposed to. When the guards came to see our tickets, we handed the unstamped passes over, and they looked them over for a loooong time before telling us that we needed to have them stamped in the machines at each stop. We played dumb and acted like we couldn't understand anything, and then we started talking in English. Well, it worked. We didn't get in trouble. They were really nice, and one of them even helped direct us to the stop we needed. All they did was subtract two stops from our pass, which is not bad considering we've probably used it 20 times without stamping it. Not bad at all. I no longer have a fear of metro guards, and I probably deserve an academy award for the "I'm a dumb American" performance. Still, I hope I don't have to play the role again anytime soon.

The other main excitement of the week happened yesterday (Friday) when we FINALLY got a new shower! The guys came around 11:00AM and worked all day at installing our new tub. After 1.5 weeks of washing in a sink and being kind of gross, we were very happy to be having them install it, despite their loud music and awkwardness. Unfortunately, they left a HUGE mess (dust and dirt everywhere. so gross.) everywhere, but I was able to overlook all of that this morning when I stepped into the new tub and took a really long, hot shower. It was heaven. Now let's juts hope we get a rent discount for the inconvenience! :)


Today we woke up fairly early and headed downtown to hear the mascletas. The mascletas are fireworks that the city does every day at 2pm on the days in March that are leading up to Las Fallas. Unfortunately, they decided not to do them today, so we didn't get to hear them! Still, we explored a bit more of the downtown. We saw City Hall and Valencia's bull ring. We also had our first tasting of churros and banuelos. They are both fried food that are a mix between a funnel cake and a donut. Here in Spain they're just sold by street vendors, sort of like you would see a street vendor selling pretzels or something in NYC. The churros have sugar all over them, and you dip them in liquid chocolate stuff. Yeah, fried dough and chocolate. You can't go wrong. I'm sure it was really healthy, too. :)





We caught a bus from the city center to La Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias (the City of Arts and Sciences). The "city" is composed of several modern looking buildings; they're HUGE! The different buildings house different things, such as a marine aquarium, an opera house, and a planetarium. We didn't actually go in all of it today, although that will come at a later date, but we spent a lot of time walking around and looking at the buildings.



Afterwards we found a nice patch of grass and decided that it was the perfect opportunity to just lay down and relax. I love just being able to lay flat on my back on a warm, sunny day and stare up at the sky and just think about things. I reflected on a lot today, and I also considered the future's possibilities. Life is exciting. I am blessed.

I get to see my family in less than a week. This time next week I'll be in London again. I know I keep saying this, but I AM SO EXCITED!! :) The fact that my family is going to be together in Europe is another thing that I would have never guessed last year. Even better, two of my favorite friends will be here the week after that!!! March is going to be one busy, exciting month. I can't wait!! Anyway, there may be more later, but for now, it's dinner time! Love to all. :)

...room to make her own mistakes.