i made it.

well, i'm finally home. it was a long trip. it was an emotional trip. it was a sleepless trip. but i finally made it. i arrived in chicago to receive a voicemail from american airlines that my flight was canceled and rescheduled for the following night. begin tears. i make my way to the AA counter, at the same time saying goodbye to good friends, and ask them to explain. she says, "we've booked you on an earlier flight with united airlines. today. in an hour. please go to their counter to print your boarding pass." at this point i jump across the counter and give the woman a hug. i was so excited. i get to united airlines and they print my boarding pass. no problems. i also give the united man a hug. i'm on my way home! i get to security and they choose me for additional screening. clearly, i am a terrorist carrying a bomb on my being. but i don't care. i'm going home. i tell the security woman to have a "very merry christmas" and i mean it. i get to my gate with half an hour to spare and a gentleman on my flight asks if i'm headed to harrisburg. he then tells me that the flight was canceled. world comes crashing down. i make my way to the line of people trying to reschedule flights and find out that i'm on a flight the next day at 130pm. they ask if i would like to be on standby for a 730am flight. of course i do. i say goodbye to the last of my friends and snuggle in to the chair for a good night's sleep. only the airport speakers were playing christmas music (not my favorite) and it wasn't tuned in right so there was a lot of static. i rise at 5am from my cold, hard, uncomfortable bench and start to walk to my new gate. on the way i see a cinnabon with its lights on. i am the happiest kid ever. i love cinnabon. but as i get closer i realize that they are not yet open. i should have known better. i check in with the woman at the counter and she tells me they will call me if my ticket is chosen for the standby seat. two hours later, my name is called. i am going home! for real this time. i make it in to harrisburg despite the ice storm that is blanketing the region. my parents take me to taco bell where i consume two beef baja gorditas. life is good. i will miss spain and the people i met, but i am so glad to be home.

say what?

last night we had a good talk with miguel (our spanish dad) in which he informed us that he knows lots of english phrases. here are a few of the better ones:

sank you bery much.
zhour welcome.
meddy chrishmas.
happy babay.
zhou ahre my destiny. (learned from the song by paul anka.)

each phrase was followed by maría luisa trying to repeat it and then giggling at herself like a fool.

it was hilarious and sad all at the same time. i´m going to miss those two.

this is basically what i know now.

add to that list:

ricochet - karen brown. not a good story at all, but the characters really got me.

the poisonwood bible - barbara kingsolver. one of the best novels i have read in a long time. everyone should read this one.

i can now count the days i have left in spain on two hands. one week from today i'll be back in the good old US of A. weird.

a strange haze seems to have descended upon sevilla as of late. i don´t understand what it is, but it makes all of the lights on the streets blur. kind of like when it´s snowing lightly, except it´s still warm enough to just be in long sleeves.

also, i am a reading machine. i have read 17 books since being in spain. they are, in no particular order, as follows:
-anne of green gables, l. m. montgomery: it gets better every time i read it.
-empire falls, richard russo: eh. not as funny as they said it would be and definitely not good enough for the awards it won.
-the nanny diaries, emma mclaughlin: not my favorite, but cute nonetheless.
-angels and demons, dan brown: good action book. i would recommend it.
-deception point, dan brown: i don´t know why, but i couldn´t put it down. i would also recommend this one.
-the club dumas, arturo perez-reverte: very interesting book. i enjoyed it a lot.
-smashed, the story of a drunken girlhood, koren zailckas: a true story about a girl who drinks too much. very enlightening.
-the god of small things, arhundati roy: incredible. i loved every page. read it now.
-midnight in the garden of good and evil, john berendt: true story of a murder in the south. mostly just stories of the people he met. i enjoyed it.
-the insiders, j. minter: crappy, crappy book. don´t read it. ever.
-pretense, lori wick: everyone i´ve ever talked to about this book has told me i would love it. well, i didn´t. it was ok, but not very well written. it did make me cry, though.
-p.s. i love you, cecelia ahern: irish story about a woman who loses her husband. it could have been 200 pages shorter and still would have been fine. not my favorite. and now they´re making a movie about it with hillary swank. why?
-the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, mark haddon: don´t let the title fool you, it´s not that good.
-driving over lemons, chris stewart: it´s about life here in adalucía, not all that exciting.
-fame, karen kingsbury: crappy christian novel. not so good.
-90 minutes in heaven, don piper: true story of a man who dies and goes to heaven for 90 minutes. very interesting for the first 3 chapters, and then it´s just about his recovery.
-tales of a drama queen, lee nichols: not very good. i laughed a few times, but is was lacking.

i am currently reading into thin air which is the true story of a mount everest climb gone bad. it´s interesting. so, as you can see, i have read some pretty crappy books here in spain, but i have a lot of down time and the library at school is just a bookshelf. my goal is to read 20. i think i will succeed.

thank you for everyone´s birthday wishes. my actual birthday was uneventful but enjoyable nonetheless. i mostly studied for my test that was today and slept off the weekend. and what a weekend it was! jackie came to visit me from madrid! it was delightful. and it´s still blowing my mind that i´m five hours older than i would be if i were in the united states right now.

El día de acción de gracias (yes, that´s actually how they say thanksgiving here)

feliz thanksgiving kids! today has not been a typical thanksgiving for me. normally i would wake up in time to catch the end of the macy´s day parade while i ate some of mom´s homemade cinnamon rolls. then the purina one dog show comes on (my favorite part of the day) and my sister and i argue over which dogs are cute, which deserve to win, etc. then we help mom finish up with the cooking and eat the best lunch ever. seriously, no one can top my mother. then, drunk on turkey, i fall asleep on the couch while dad watches a football game that he doesn´t really care about. then we get up from our naps and eat leftovers. thanksgiving always produces the best leftovers.

well, today i woke up at the crack of dawn to come to school to catch a bus to itálica, an ancient roman city just outside of sevilla. we walked amongst the ruins, which are really nothing more than piles of bricks and rocks, and are so not impressive (other than the fact that they are from the 2nd century). we arrived home to find our señora´s best china on the table and her busily cooking in the kitchen. she made us a huge meal (lasagna and like 5 different kinds of tapas plus three desserts!), and gave us wine. at least i think that´s what it was. it was so strong. it was called "la gitana, manzanilla" which has something to do with gypsies and apples. it was literally like drinking straight liquor. it was awful. and just when i thought i was in the clear she passes us glasses with ice and whips out another bottle of liquor. this time it was "la crema de catalana." it was light orange and smelled like room freshener. and it tasted like my grandmother´s perfume used to smell. really gross. but, i gagged it down and lied when my señora asked if i liked it. then she brings out dessert, which was a really pretty apple tart cake she had made and two plates of various cookies and chocolates. she cuts us each a piece of cake and says, "esperate." (wait.) at which point i had flashbacks to the firewater cake incident. sure enough, she pulls out a bottle of liquor and dumps some on the cake. this time it was sweet, though. an all through lunch she kept saying, "drink, drink. you´re just going to siesta anyway..." it was so bizzare and un-thanksgiving like. at one point after two glasses of wine and a cup of the crema she said something to the effect of not being able to have anymore because she wouldn´t be able to see or walk if she did. she is hilarious.

tonight we have a fancy dinner at a cuban resturaunt (but they´re making us a traditional meal), followed by salsa dancing. this is the weirdest thanksgiving ever.

mallorca (said: my-zhor-cah)

well, it´s official. i am sick of traveling. however, we had a lovely time in mallorca where i got to play with the kids (nate, patti, and barden). it was great to see family, especially in the setting of a spanish island paradise. we ate incredible meals and risked our lives on the wooden train across the island. the train ride provided breathtaking views and led us to port de sóller in the north. we drank lemon beer and orange liquor in honor of the island´s main produce. we saw baby jesus in a cave (which was kind of creepy). we froze our baguettes off (or at least i did...) and we had a great time! plus, i got to play with da babay!! i like to call this "baby genius. philosophying."

mail call! and, translation, please?

in the last two days i have received two packages and four letters! woohoo! and the packages both contained pringles and slim jims. my family knows me so well...

in other news, as you know, i tutor two older gentlemen once a week so they can practice their english. this week, miguel angel was talking about a formal affair he had to attend the previous weekend, and was trying to describe the type of suit he wore. he called it a smokin. to which i replied, "nice. smokin´." but i don´t think he got it. and then augustine says, "what are these called?"(while pointing to his suit jacket.) and i said, "the lappels?" and he said, "yes. the napples are of glossy...with bright." it was awesome.

photos!

well i finally got all of switzerland loaded. next step, portugal.

photos!

shamrocks and pasta...

ireland: in a nutshell: we went to dublin, where we saw trinity college, temple bar, grafton street, and all of the other typical things you´re supposed to see in dublin. we went to the pub across the street from our hostel (which was previously the recording studio for u2, van morrison, and david bowie!), and met a man named ishmael. to which i replied, "is that what they call you?" either he didn´t hear me, or doesn´t read, because i don´t think he got it. i thought it was funny though. after meeting ishmael, a very old man danced on his knees in front of us. apparently the irish are always drunk because the only things open after 6pm are bars. they were crazy. our roommates at the hostel were interesting, to say the least. but i guess that´s what you get when you pay 20 euros a night. we decided we were over the city and wanted to see some legitimate irish country side. so we went to the bus station and asked the man where to find some. he said we should take a bus to drogheda. so we did. when we got there, it was not the country side at all, so we got on another bus to newgrange. which turned out to be the oldest thing ever! newgrange is a neolithic burial tomb from something like 4000 b.c. it´s older than the great wall, the pryamids, and stonehenge. and we went inside it. not only that, but it was surrounded by sheep and cows and beautiful country side! also, when the man was giving us the tour he said, "do you see that wee little mound over there?" all in all, i would most definitely return to ireland. and the people were very nice. and i like the cut of their jib.

italy: in a nutshell: roma! the eternal city. it was beautiful. whoever said you can´t see all of rome in one day lied. because we did. we saw everything there was to see and more the first day we were there. despite the bitter cold and rain, we conquered at the colosseum, threw coins in the trevi fountain, went to the pantheon, ate gelato, ate pasta, ate pizza, ate more gelato, and the list goes on. we saved day two for the vatican city. well, it turns out that day two was actually day one, that is, november 1st, which means that it was a vatican holiday. which means that the sistine chapel was CLOSED. we blamed this on throwing coins in the trevi the day before because legend says that if you throw a coin in you are guaranteed a speedy return to rome. what better reason to return than to see the sistine chapel? damn fountain. however, our luck quickly changed when we found out that the pope would be making an appearance that afternoon. that´s right, i saw the holy man himself! he stuck his head out of a window and spoke in italian for 15 minutes, followed by a blessing in six different languages. plus, i got a really awesome pope keychain and postcard. so it was a good day after all. after rome, we took a train to florence which is beautiful, but extremely crowded. it was very stressful and we didn´t see micheangelo´s david because the line was three hours long and we had to go to pisa. i´m ok with that though. i figure if i have to go back to rome, i might as well hit up florence again too. however, in florence we did have the best gelato ever. and the little man who served it to us spent a good 15 minutes trying to get his tv to play MTV for us, but to no avail. i think it just ended up being broken instead. it was a very nice gesture though. after we were too stressed out to stay in florence any longer, we went to pisa and practically ran through the town to get to the tower (which happens to be as far away from the train station as possible) before dark. it really does lean. after one last incredible italian meal, we headed to the airport to wait the night for our 6am flight. it turns out that the airport closes for three hours every night, during which we were forced to sit outside and "freeze our baguettes off" to quote a favorite movie of mine (10 points to anyone who can name it). i was very thankful for my impulse buy of wool mittens at the market earlier that day. but, we made it back to sevilla in one piece and with all of our extremities, so all in all, it was a good trip. even if i didn´t have to go back, i think i would. not to mention the fact that italians are SO nice. all of them. it was so not like spain...where it smells weird and im still missing a shirt.

no. that´s mine. get your own!

yesterday maría luisa came into my room looking for a shirt she had lost. she said it was a white tank top that was a gift from the mother of a former student. i said, "well, i have a white tank top, but it´s mine." and i showed it to her. she said, "sí, sí, esa es la mía." (yes, yes, that is mine.) and i said, "no i don´t think so." and she went and got a beige one out of her drawer that happened to be the exact same brand. but i know that it´s mine. she went on to tell me that she had washed hers this week and that it was missing. and i went on to tell her that i had also washed mine and that i was pretty sure it was mine. and then she took it. communication is ridiculous when you don´t speak the same language...

in other news, i leave tomorrow for a week in dublin, rome, florence, and pisa. i expect that it will be lovely!

romancero gítano

we went to see a flamenco show the other night, and i´m still feel like words are inadequate to describe it. but i will try. the show was called "romancero gitano" which means, gypsy romance. it was based on the poetry of Lorca, who wrote a book of 12 poems based upon the lives of gypsies. these 12 poems were set to music, and were sung by a woman and a man in typical flamenco style. very passionate, and very emotional. if the singing didn´t get your emotions flowing, the dancing did. it was so incredible. i didn´t even know that people´s feet could move that fast! and the scenes were about romance, lost and forbidden love, and the ongoing battle between the spanish civil guard and the gypsies. it was all in spanish, and i didn´t understand most of what they sang about, but it still spoke to my heart and rendered me speechless. music is incredible in its ability to transcend language...

and speaking of music and dance, my señora came home the other day and said "estaba bailando hee-haw (with a throaty j/h sound)" (i was dancing hee-haw.) and jackie and i said, ¿qué? (what?) and she went on to say that it was a modern type of dance, at which point jackie said, "hip-hop?" and my señora nodded and giggled in agreement as she proceeded to show us what she had learned. look out missy elliot, here comes maría luisa! she did all kinds of moves, complete with pelvic thrusts and a crotch grab. i was stunned and paralyzed by laughter, and she was loving every minute of it. and that´s why i love my señora.

fame, fortune, etc.

this is how it all starts. one little article in the pittsburgh post gazette, and the next thing you know, i´m famous. don´t worry, i won´t forget the little people that made this possible...

http://post-gazette.com/pg/07289/825636-298.stm

i´ve added some more photos: http://flickr.com/photos/13920870@N02/
i hope you enjoy them.

well, i just completed report number two of the semester. once again on our friends, the amish. i got suckered into doing that topic again by my professor because he was speaking spanish and i didn´t have another topic in mind. it went well and he was especially impressed by the "levantando los graneros" aka: barn raisings. but i don´t want to do it again. so, next time i´ll be ready for him. i need a 15 minute powerpoint presentation, and i´m open to suggestions. anyone have any ideas?

get out of my nose!

it smells here. i mean, really smells. every day as i walk to school i am greeted with the lovely scents of paint thinner, moped fumes, dog droppings (which causes me to walk with my eyes glued to the sidewalk instead of enjoying the beauty of the city. seriously people. get a pooper-scooper.), horse droppings, dead fish in the river, dead fish on the sidewalk, bus fumes, cigarette smoke (from everyone i pass at 9AM! they are crazy here), and worst of all, the stench of the human body. Body odor. i don´t even know why they sell deoderant in spain. clearly, no one wears it. they must waste millions of dollars every year importing deoderant from factories around the world. not to mention the countless hours of shelving it in stores. i´ve decided that men here forego deoderant and choose aftershave instead. i don´t know why. it doesn´t work. and every day as i walk through the streets of this lovely city, i want to say give it a chance. it´s not all bad. you might even like it! but instead i just hold my breath and pray i don´t pass out on my way.

"portugal? yeah, i´ve been there. it´s nice..."
ha! i love that i can say that. lagos was wonderful. the beach was great. the food was great. the company was great. we went to sagres and stood at the end of the world. or, at least the southwestern-most point in europe. it´s easy to see why they thought it was the end of the world, though. standing there with my feet in the water as huge cliffs shot up around me, i felt very small. it was an awesome emotion. everyone go there. now.

http://flickr.com/photos/13920870@N02/ some photos.

CAUTION: if you would not like to view the photos from the bull fight, please view the pictures in set form (the side column), instead of scrolling through them all.

this is not even close to being all of them, but the computers at school are gank. this is all i could do.

lagos, baby!

this weekend i am taking advantage of our neigboring country and heading to the beach. portugal. my life is so crazy right now.