Spanish Word of the Week: Guay (Cool)

So, to recap the last few weeks:

-Sitges: UNREAL! I thought Madison Halloween was crazy, nope... not compared to Carnaval in Sitges. Sitges is a small coastal town about a half hour from here and it is the main place to celebrate Carnaval in Catalonia. Trains were free all throughout the night, and man did people take advantage of that! There was no place to move in this town! Literally, you got off the train and were herded like cattle. It was fun to see everyone's costumes though and meet people from all over the europe. It's known as a town with a high gay population and did that sure show! There were drags walking around left and right and on all of the parade floats. I do have to say though- the majority of them were really good drags! Needless to say, the night ended at 6:30 in the morning and class started at 9:30.

-Madrid: Such a beautiful city! If I had to compare it to one, it would be St. Paul. That may be because St. Paul is the capital as well as Madrid...... but it was so clean, with beautiful, intricate buildings! And the air was so much more fresh there. I wasn't in a very touristy mode that weekend, so I just wondered the streets and went to some amazing parks. I DID see La Bella y la Bestia- highlight of my trip! Such a cute play and I was surprised as to how much I understood.

-Seville: SO AMAZING! The weekend was extremely relaxing. My friend and I went to celebrate her 21st for the weekend and I was able to see a bunch of LaX ppl, along with a friend from the Maht. It was nice to get some Midwest love because these coasties sureeee do not know what that is. The majority of the weekend I spent walking around Seville, taking in the beautiful weather and site seeing. You can see all of the things I did on facebook, but I went to one of europe's oldest cathedrals where the journey around the world began and ended, christopher columbus' tomb is held, and one of the thorn's from Jesus' crown is kept. Nonetheless, it was the most breathtaking church I have been to yet (and trust me, I've been to plennnty). I also visited a castle in seville where they made a bunch of plans for the Americas (including the creation of the US dollar). There were endless amounts of beautiful gardens here, which I just walked around and got lost in. Seville also has the worlds oldest bullfighting ring. It was sweet to hear about the details of a match- hopefully I'll get the chance to go sometime this summer. :) Even though I wish the bull didn't die. :( Aside from this, we did some shopping, eating (they have ammmmazzzingggg tapas (appetizers) in seville), and watched some flamenco dancing. Our hostel was unreal and we met people from all over the world, literally (china, canada, london, australia, germany, you name it).

Overall, it was nice to escape the madness of the city and have some time to think. Lately I've been having trouble enjoying myself (I know- ridiculous, right?) and I couldn't put my finger one why. But this weekend, I realized that it is because I don't deserve to experience any of this. I don't know if anyone does. To be surrounded by all of this history and culture and beauty, it's difficult for me to comprehend the wonderful things God has done here, so why am I one of the ones that is fortunate enough to experience it? I guess it's one of those questions that can't really be answered...

But, anyway, for the next three weekends, I will be HERE, in Barcelona! I am extremely excited about it because there are so many more things I want to do here and now I'll have a chance to do them. A bunch of chicos are coming this weekend to visit, so it'll be nice to show them around my new home. And the following weekend I have an excursion to the Dalí Museum and then a small town near here with a bunch of roman ruins. Then the weekend after that MY FAMILY IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There isn't enough space for all the exclamation points I need to express my excitement. When they come we'll be traveling to Paris and London. :D

Well, I best be getting to my endless amount of studying. :/ Big exam tomorrow. But, I hope that you are all surviving the MASSIVE snow storm I keep hearing about! And please voteeeeeeee in the primaries! I don't know when they are or if they've already passed, but VOTE VOTE VOTE! Side note: If any of your are up for talking politics, I've been deprived, so I'm your girl!

Love you all, take care, and stay warm!

Nessa

PS- How is everything going with that Illinois shooting! How horrible!

PPS- Does anyone have any idea on how I can get the Darfur Now movie?

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