Well i realized today that I start every blog with the word "SO" soooo i'm not going to do that anymore. Hopefully if the video works there will be a nice video of some carnival parade above, but i havent had any luck so far uploading videos because the internet is really slow here. I noticed today that our main electical line is hanging from the roof down to the door where it conviently connects to us in the building. I am so hoping that there isnt a big storm with lightning while Im here because that would be tragic. Yesterday I played on this girls soccer team here at the residence and I think that it is a little tournamet that the residence is having inbetween itself. a week ago we played another team that was ok, but the team we played this week was amazing. they pretty much juggled the ball the whole time and when they felt like it was time to score they headed it in or something. luckily they werent too mean and didnt let the score go above ohhhh 20 to 2. i scored one of those 2 goals on a penalty kick, for some reason they always pick me to do the penalty kick and i havent missed one yet. Last weekend however me Rosario and phillip went to this city called Sitigs about 30 mins away and celebrated carnival. it was nice, supposedly it was going to be way better than mardi gras in new orleans, but honestly i think it was about the same. the only plus sitgis has on new orleans is that its on the beach. but the city is really small, and is also the gay capital of spain. why? im not sure. we left on the last train that went out at 10;20 but when we were walking in a policeman stopped us and told us we couldnt go in the door, i almost had a heart attack because that was the last train and we were going to have to camp out or something if we didnt get on it. So i already had a plan in my head about how i was going to james bond repel myself down the side of the train station and hop on the top of the train or something, but then the police man told us that we had to walk around and that the train was free tonight. so the night was saved and all of our anxiety was due to some miscommunication. whew* This weekend is probably going to be fun, my parents are coming to visit for spring break and we are going to hit up some more tourist hot spots, and go eat *hopefully* some good food for once. today at lunch we had ...suckatash, this omlete thing, and mystery mashed potatoes. i swear they put those mashed potatoes in everything here its scary. spainards also eat alot of bread, so all i eat is pastries and bread, so either im going to have a heart attack soon or nothing at all is going to happen im not sure. my friend kendra would probably be in heaven here cause they love bread and so does she.
its starting to warm up here, so Im just waiting for that perfect day where i can rush out to the beach and begin work on my spanish tan.

fly like paper high like planes.....kinda

so i walk into my international business class and its covered in paper planes. they are everywhere and everyone in the class is throwing them at each other and screaming and laughing. so i missed what happened but it was cool nonetheless. we managed to postpone class for like 15 mins and the teacher made paper plane references for the next hour. but luckily thanks to everyone emailing me messages with "sun" in them the past two days have actually been pretty nice. there still is a huge amount of wind and i think there is dust or something in the mountains because when it is windy there is this brown haze that coveres everything. probably dust. but i was HOPING to have like 5 pictures of me and rosario's new apartment, but when we went to go look at it, not only was the lady we talked to not the landlord she was a tennant there, and there were two other guys living in the apartment so that would make it a total of 5 people if me and rosario moved in. so it would have been wierd, and it was a huge dissapointment because that apartment was perfect. but i called an agentcy for students today and made an apointment to go look at another apartment tomorrow which looks really promising.

so today is thursday which means the begining of the weekend, and i believe we are all headed to gecko again tonight. it would be a really nice place to hangout but i hate cigarette smoke and that place is the worst. the bar is really cool it has modern music playing but they play these old 70's music videos that are projected on the wall, its neat. ill try to take some pictures tonight.

yesterday inbetween class and apartment hunting me and rosario went and got crepes in placa catalunya at this place called patagonia. it was amazing. i had one with strawberries in it and i think i was in a diabetic coma for like 4 hours after because it had soooooo much chocolate on it. everything here has chocolate on it. i think actually everything tastes bad so they just put chocoltate on it and call it a day.

ummm my spanish is getting better, but no one really gives me a chance to try, most people at school speak english, and no one at the residence does, so people at school automatically talk to me in english, and people at the residence just dont talk to me cause they think i wont understand them. but all the same i mean catalyn is a silly language and its really difficult to understand because of the accent. most people speak mostly spanish but you can tell when you have met a native spainard because its like hearing another language. rosario says she cant understand them most of the time. heres an example from my phrase book
"que hora es" = what time is it in spanish
"quin es l'horari"= what time is it in catalyn. yea annoying i know
but im doing alot better homesick wise, i still miss everyone because well i dont have a WHOLE lot to do all the time, but im keeping busy trust me especially with trying to find an apartment. and sight seeing. so i should be pretty busy for a while.

what a weekend

well what havent we done this weekend, is the real question. on thursday ( cause the weekend starts on thursday here) phillip came with me to go appartment hunting in this neighborhood called gracia, and i found quite a few places but it was afternoon so everyone had left. then i tried some spanish mcDonalds, which was amazing, but im never going to eat it again, cause i eat mcdonalds about once a year which is more than enough. thursday night we went to a bar called gecko which a student from lasalle is the bar tender there, and i got to meet alot of students from lasalle, and everyone was very nice, but this was the PRE party, we ended up leaving at 2 and everyone else was going to this discoteque on the beach called opium until who knows when, but we were beat so me phillip, justin, and rosario left and got a cab home. well then we have friday where rosario and i went appartment hunting again, and had a little more luck but not that much, we got to see one this time but it was horrible so we moved on. later we met up with phillip after he got out of class and we went to placa de catalunya which is just downtown barcelona, we wandered around, and got something to eat at a place called ba-ba-bRea or something, and the food was SOOOOOO good, then as we were walking around we got handed some fliers for a bar called irsh bar, so we decided to go there, and it is a nice place. it is run by some irish guys and everyone there is either english or irish, so we fit right in. they also have a room for smoking and non smoking so we actually sit somewhere without getting a black lung. very important. THEN saturday we had big plans to go to guell park and the beach, but once we made it to the beach we walked for ever and ever so guell park was out of the question. after looking at the beach we decided to head back to placa de catalunya and find a place to sit. after making a pit stop at a store called decathalon to buy swim stuff and wait in line for a good 30 mins, we went yet again to irish bar, and sat around and watched a rugby game that everyone was really into. after a brief break one of rosario's friend paula invited us over for dinner, so we went there and had some amazing food. now tonight we are supposed to be heading over to irish bar agian for karoke, but since we cant leave the residence after 1130 on sundays we have to be back by then, so its going to be a short night for us.

aside from all the walking i did this weekend i have had a huge cold, and the weather here has been sucky, all rainy, cold and windy, not fun. but luckily i have kept myself very busy and been getting my daily dose of excercise dont worry.

also in the picture there is a green parrott, they are everywhere, they make so much noise squaking and talking to each other, but they are pretty.

so, i rode the train back from valencia to barcelona again sunday night, and i think i got jyped, cause i looked online at the 4:00 train and it was the super cheap tourist train which is called Talgo and its 20 euros, so i was like super, so i go to the station and i guess something changed that i missed but the train that was there is euromed (doesnt that sound expensive?) and it is about 3x that and they made me buy preferente (1st class i soon found out) because the train was full, which they werent lying because the line to board it was out the door and down the sidewalk, but i get on the train and i sit down in first class, its actually nothing different than the other class, but the seats face each other with a table inbetween, and the lady in front of me was talking on her phone the first 15 mins so loud, i wanted to strangle her, they were talking on the loudspeaker telling us important train stuff and i couldnt hear it over her yapping. but it turned out i was in the wrong seat and i was two cars down in the same seat which was empty except for this old man so it worked out. but the ride was pretty nice, we got a meal and like a hot towel and everything.

so im back in barcelona, and its pretty lonley here still, i have way too much free time and all i can do i wander up and down the streets and see the sights cause i cant hangout in my tiny room that would be a prison sentance literally. so my first day of class was ok, my international business class is interesting, our teacher is irish i think, and its purley discussion socratic method stuff, he asks us a question and everyone in the class just speaks out and anwsers, i was taking notes like crazy but no one else was so im not sure what i missed about that maybe people in spain just absorb information. then i went to spanish class which is 3 hours long, and one day a month is 4 hours long. we get two breaks though but not very long. its really intensive, we arent allowed to speak english in the classroom and its the only class so far that has books. also most of the class is boys and most of them are german. but then we went to lunch in the cafeteria, which we have to pay for, i was informed that lunch at the residencia was horrible so i skipped that and got a ham and cheese. after class me and phillip wandered around downtown and ate dinner. pretty long tiring day. but im still homesick, its pretty lonley, i dont know anyone so im by myself or with phillip most of the day.

the pic is from the train window, the mediterrenan

so this is where i sleep, its not too exciting, and thats pretty much the whole room, my roommate rosairo is on the other side and then we have a bathroom. so yea. but after coming back from valencia i went to the school and toured around with phillip and we went for like a 2 hour walk. then we met up with justin and went out to eat at this place called bopan which was ok, im still getting used to the food, i hardly ever know what im ordering, so i always go to places that have pictures in the window so when all else fails i can point to something. im feeling better, im still really nervous all the time im not used to being THIS much on my own. but as long as i keep moving i dont get too homesick. the worst is when im going to bed and waking up, there is nothing to distract me from thinking about home. and when i wake up in the morning i still expect to be in my bed at home and i always go through a little shock when i realize that im still in spain and no it isnt a dream. last night after an early 10.00 dinner (yea early) phillip, rosario and i went to a bar down the street and had sangria, me and rosario split one because they were huge. but phillip seems to be adjusting the best out of all of us, he is ready to buy a house and move here, he loves it. rosario said it took her a whole month to get comfotable and justin seems to be just "there". today however we went to sagrada famillia, which is the church that Gaudi built/is building. yea its not going to be done for another 30 years from what i hear. but it was awesome to see, you would definitley need to go there 2 or three times just to see the whole thing in detail. i got a little backache from looking up so much, it is veryyyy tall. ( the pictures will be on facebook) in about an hour or so im going to go to valencia again just for two days, to hangout with my cousins, and make sure i have something to do, its supposed to rain again and i dont want to be cooped up here. today was actually pretty sunny the sun was trying to break the clouds but it never actually did. But i start class on monday for the first time so ill see how that goes.

so some of you may be wondering what amanda has been up to because no one has heard from me since i left, well lets see i was too busy freaking OUT to call anyone. basically heres how it went, wasnt really nervous about going when i got on the plane because hey ive been to spain before i know enough spanish to get around or order food at a resturant so im set. then i get off the plane, and i realize holy crap im going to be here for 4 months, crap i dont know anyone, crap im going to be living by myself. so i freakout. i ran to the bathroom to get a hold of myself then a guy named raul who was are leaizon to spain (sp?) was there to pick us up awesome i feel better. NOT, clearly by his demeanor someone had made him come get us, ive never seen anyone check his watch so many times. so me and phillip were in the car then we were like wait what about justin? the other guy, he was supposed to be here an hour ago. so we couldnt find him, and raul wasnt waiting, so we were forced to LEAVE him at the airport with no phone, no money, and no way to get where he was going. great. so raul basically kicks phillip out of the moving car onto the street and then he takes me to where im supposed to live and does the same. so after seeing the georgous picture in the email they sent me i am super excited and i waltz right into the main building like "luuucccyyy im hooommmeee" only to realize that the picture they sent me was of an elementary school, and im standing right in the hallway of it....so i wander around with my enormous ammount of luggage, and carlos the director finds me and yells for me to follow him. so he shows me around and the takes me all the way to the very back of the complex to this tinnnyy building that looks like a dungeon and hands me the keys, the he helps me with my luggage reluctantly and by the time we all reach the top floor we are out of breath and he is staring at me like im retarted. so i go to my tiny room and my roommate rosario greets me and i begin to freak out some more. then they all leave and im alone in the room, alone in spain, and have no food and no euros because its the weekend and the banks are closed. yea i was freaking out. i go down to try and eat but the food tastes like...ALFONSO food, yea thats right i think they shipped it right from cbu to my plate it was disgusting. so over the next two days i get lonlier and lonlier and more and more miserable, i cant get in touch with justin and phillip because there isnt a phone in the building, mine doesnt work, and the e-mail is slow so our e-mails are delayed. so by sunday night i asked my mom to put me on the next plane home. instead they sent me to my cousins house in valencia, to get over whatever stomach thing i have, get over jet lag, and figure out what the heck im going to do. oh yea and its been raining since i got here. super, not to mention for some reason im homesick, yea me amanda who has gone to 7 different countries in her lifetime is homesick. ive never ever been homesick. well i guess it gets the best of us sometimes.