"City Love"...and a lot of other things I love

I am sorry I have been slacking a little on the blog posts. It's just so hard to decide what's significant and what's not. Everything seems so important to me, but I am sure that it wouldn't seem as exciting to you all. I always start a blog and then realize that I am going nowhere with it and just stop. But now I am determined to write this post. I'm listening to some John Mayer and Jack Johnson and am going to write this post! This blog will be named after the John Mayer song I am listening to at the moment "City Love".

Living in a city is so amazing. Even if it is a small one. I could 100 % see myself living in a European city when I grow up. That was something I always thought I wanted, and being here has only confirmed it. I definitely don't see Miranda de Ebro where I will end up, maybe not even Spain. But I would love to live in Europe, whether Spain, Italy, France, Belgium. I just love walking down the street and there always being people out in the streets. I love how easy it is to catch the bus and go from one place to another. I love how we hang out in the streets. Just walking around, going from cafe to candy store...just walking and talking. And I love how last saturday I went dancing with people, like in crowded bars with amazing music!

Side Note: I have some sad news. My fellow exchange student/australian friend got switched into a different city. So now I am once again the only exchange student in Miranda. It was really sad when she left. When me and some friends from school said bye to her, I said how now I am all alone here. They then all exclaimed "'CRISTINA!! You are NOT alone! We are here for you....we can even speak english if you want!! Badly. but we can speak it!"' That made me really happy.

I love the people here! Another thing I love. My friends are so great. The ones from my school and the ones from the other school in town. Friday I went out with my friends from the other school and we ate a humongous bag of sunflower seeds. I know sunflower seeds are SUPER popular here, but the amount of sunflower seeds consumed was a little ridiculous. Then Saturday I went to see Harry Potter with my friends from school. The movie theater is a lot smaller than what we're used to in the States. We had to wait outside until it opened for that showing of Harry Potter. It's not just open all the time, playing a bunch of different movies. I do have to say though...the chairs in the theater are a lot better than in the U.S.

side note: why is John Mayer so frigen amazing. I wanna see him in concert!!! I want to see Shakira in concert too! Shakira is SOOO popular here. Her Spanish songs and her English songs. Honestly though I don't why I only realized how amazing her music is until this year.

Oh and last but not least...I LOVE SPANISH. I love how people ask "Cuanto tiempo llevas in espana?" (how long has you been here). But literally would translate to how much time do you wear/carry in spain. And I find myself telling random stories about my brother, solely because I love to say "hermano", I love the way the pronunciation sounds!

And to round it out. I love journaling, I love when Concha makes Arroz con Leche, I love my Host grandpa and how he walks with two canes. I love after school when I drive home with Fernando, I always learn something new about Spanish grammar. I love how when you back into someones car, you just say "screw it" and park somewhere else!

Just living in Spain

Well here I am sitting at my computer on this Sunday evening. Another week has come to an end and another one is begining. Today was a lazy day. Took a nice walk to church, came home and had lunch with Concha and Rodrigo, then skyped with my mom, grandparents, and Anna. Anna was drinking a Dunkin Donuts coffee and it made me a little jealous. Now I'm just relaxing. School tomorrow, the normal routine. Been here for 2 months, 60 something days and it starts to feel like real life, like life in NJ seems foreign. I haven't posted in over a week, so I'll just share some significant things that have happened.

Halloween was celebrated on here on Friday the 29th. I went with my friends to the nightclub in our town. It was a lot of fun, everyone dances...no exceptions! The party goes on until 6 in the morning, but I had to leave around 4 to get a ride home with someone. Not many people dressed up and the people that did weren't dressed up slutty like in the states.

After Halloween I went away with my host family for the weekend. We stayed in Fernando's family house in a small town outside of Leon. It was a very old, creepy house and we all joked around how it was the perfect place to spend Halloween. Patricia, Rodrigo and I all slept in the same room cause we were scared to sleep in the other rooms all alone. Above is a picture of me and my host siblings is the courtyard of the house. Sunday we visited Olviedo, which is a beautiful city in Austurias, Spain. It rained the whole day, which made it hard to do much but it was beautiful. Monday we visited Leon, which is another great city. The weather was good that day so we had a good time walking around and seeing the city. Below is a picture of a church in Oviedo.

Some other news. I am now not the only exchange student in my town. There is a girl here from Australia. She came this week but is only here for 3 months. Luckily she is super nice. We went out Saturday night and ran into people from our school so we hung out with them and talked with them in Spanish. My spanish seems to be coming along well. It is definitely easier to understand what people are saying then to speak though.