It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

I have retuuurned from my traipse around Italy and let me tell you, IT WAS AMAZING. I'm getting back into the swing of things here in Alicante. I have an 8 am class this month, which is rather un-fun, because that means I have to leave my house at like 7:20 which means I have to get up at like 6:50 at the VERY latest (such as this morning), and if you know me at all you know I HATE mornings. Hate hate hate hate hate hate haaaaaaaaaaate hate hate mornings.

Not a fan.

Also, the program is HUGE this semester. There are 56 of us, I believe. Poor Pepa, Marisa, and Cristina (our awesome program directors) are so stressed...but it's all good! It feels so, so good to be back in Alicante with my family!

Anyway, let's rewind.

First on the docket: my trip to Italy! I stayed over Christmas with some Italian relatives: my uncle Mirco, aunt Gabriella, and cousins Elisabeta and Sofia. Elisabeta and Sofia speak English pretty well, so I was very glad that that's where I ended up. It was quite the experience! Gabriella was very worried that I wasn't going to enjoy myself or that the food wasn't good or a million other things, so it was very difficult for me since I couldn't communicate with her and tell her that I was having an absolutely wonderful time and that everything was lovely!! Elisabeta and Sofia took me on a bunch of day trips, and I went out one night and met a bunch of Sofi's friends. It was all seriously fun. I even went to midnight mass...that I couldn't understand. Go figure. Overall, it was a very loud, very warm (emotionally...FREEZING outside) Christmas and I enjoyed myself a ton. But then came December 27th! YEAH!

The best of times!
December 27th I hopped on a train and was off to Florence to see Tyler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To say I was extremely excited would be the understatement of a lifetime. Seriously. So, so, so good to see him again. We explored our way around Florence for a few days, headed to Rome and explored around there, and then headed to Barcelona and explored even more. I could write forever about what we did, what we saw, my thoughts on all of that...but I'm seriously tired so I'll give you the sparknotes version. Florence: churches, bridge(s), statues, hike&view. Rome: New Years fireworks, Spanish Steps, beautiful park, Colosseum, the Pope. Barcelona: Sagrada Familia, las Ramblas, best meal of my life, Olympic stuff, THE BEACH, a hike to the park with a gorgeous view.

Okay, that was SUPER sparknotes-ish, but suffice to say it was the best trip I ever could have imagined, exploring Europe with a boy who I'm VERY fond of and think I'll keep around for a while. After 10 days of being together pretty much constantly, I've gotta say that I was SO SAD to watch him leave our hotel room the morning of January 6th. So sad. Which leads me to...the worst of times.

Basically, him leaving. :P Not fun. I could wallow in self pity, but I have an amazing boyfriend, an amazing family, amazing friends in the states and here, and so many people who love me that it just doesn't really feel right. Even though I feel like a big part of me just left Europe and went back to the states...

Anyway. I got "home" to Alicante later that day, feeling kind of sad and lonely, and lo and behold, my host family was there to cheer me up in a jiffy!! The three kings had come and brought me coal (lol...candy coal that tastes REAL good) and a GORGEOUS bracelet!! What a way to come home! I was exhausted (let's be honest, still am), but I'm slowly easing back into the schedule here and realizing more and more each day how much I love this place and how much it has become my home.

Oh, and the other day I turned 21! Yay! It was a Tuesday so I didn't do anything crazy like go out or whatever (because I feel like I'm 90 years old and there is NO way I would have been able to wake up the next day) so we're going to celebrate, nighttime style, this weekend. :) Haha. Don't worry, I'll be safe. No drunkenness for me, thank you very much. On my birthday, my host family got me this GORGEOUS and SUPER delicious cake (thanks Tio Pepe!) and even got me a couple of really pretty bracelets! (I'm becoming known as the girl with all the bracelets...) Then we went up the castle, and Shauna, Zoe, Marisa, Cristina, and David sang happy birthday to me...seriously so cool to be sung to by people you love so much while looking out over the most gorgeous view in the city you have fallen in love with!! Afterwards, Zoe gifted me some nail polish, lip balm, and peanut brittle that is TO DIE FOR. So much for losing weight this semester...

Overall, I'm blessed and SUPER happy to be back. I miss everyone mucho mucho, but I'm feeling pretty good. My classes are good (although I still don't have the grade from my history exam...grrr) and I like my new classmates.

:D Besos!!

I apologize.

I have not posted in 20 days. That is three weeks! I realize that this is borderline unacceptable, but I've been really busy. I'll try to make this sort of a sparknotes version as to not bore you all to tears but, uh, no promises.

Shall we? We shall.

Week One: Hannah!

That's right, people, my best friend HANNAH FREAKING BITTNER showed up in Alicante, making me one heck of a happy girl!! It was so good to have her here. I'm pretty sure we were just talking constantly the entire 5 or 6 days that we were together, and we still didn't get everything out. Having to translate was an interesting experience. Haha, but I think I did a pretty good job.

Basically all we did was walk around the city and chat. I showed her the major points, we went shopping (and somehow ended up buying me a super cute black dress...). One night we went out with Zoe and Harley and Kali...ha! Quite the experience! We had a lot of fun though. Then we went to Valencia for a couple of days and enjoyed exploring the city. By then it was quite cold (or so I thought before I came to Italy...BRR!), but we still had fun! Then we came back to Alicante, and I had to leave eeaarrly in the morning for ITALY. Saying goodbye to Hannah suuucked, I wanted her to stay forever. She ended up staying with my hostfamily, which I think is sort of funny, but I'm sure they were just thrilled to have her because she's lovely.

Week Two: ITALY, mom, grandparents, and so much more!
Eeeearly in the morning Zoe and I headed out, Italy-bound! We had to go through London, which is weird, but eventually we ended up in Italy, greeted by my grandma and mother!!! (And Valter, my great uncle) My grandpa was there too, but there wasn't room in the car for him to go to the airport. :) We then began the craziest whirlwind of meeting my 30+ relatives here...which was absolutely amazing! Only three or four of my cousins speak English, so communication was interesting, but when my grandma is around she's the best translator there is! :)

We went to Venice one day (which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I officially love Venice. It was FREEZING cold [and I didn't have my new snazzy coat yet] but the city was just extremely charming! Zoe and I also just fell in love with Patrizia and Valter, my grandma's sister and sister's husband. I would love to go back to Venice when I'm not so freezing that I think I might freeze on the spot and never be able to move again), went to Marostica (even though it was foggy and we couldn't see much), had a lot of meals with a lot of loud Italians (which I spent mostly trying to figure out who's-who and how they're related to me...Zoe was better at that than I was), had one lunch that took five hours (!! I'm not kidding!!), and tried to squeeze in as much study time as we could, because we had a big final the day after we got back to Alicante!!!

Leaving was hard. It was SO awesome to see my grandma and grandpa and mom again!! I had really, really missed them. And it was really awesome that I got to meet my great grandma in Italy!!! Overall, it was an amazing trip but it seriously FLEW by. I could have lived like that another week and probably just started to feel ready to go back to my life in Alicante.

Week Three: THE EXAM, and the return to Italy
Guys, I cannot explain to you how much Zoe and I studied for our STUPID history test. I'm telling you, we were little hermits with our nose in our notes the entire time. It was not a pretty sight. The test was on Tuesday and I've gotta say...I feel pretty good about it. As in, I think I probably passed. Not my usual "I think I passed" and I end up getting an A, but more of an "I think I passed" and I'm hoping I got a C or, if I'm really lucky, a B. Hahaha. But either way...I'll just be pumped if I pass.

After the test, I was literally just exhausted. I almost fell asleep at dinner. All the excitement from people being here, travelling to Italy, studying way too much, and then spitting out a six page outline for the test, along with being sick :(, just completely wiped me out. Zoe and I had plans to go out to celebrate that everything was done, but we just ended up sleeping. Hahaha. We made up for it by going out the next night, though. :)

The weirdest thing of the week for me was having our goodbye lunch and saying goodbye to everybody else in the program! I can't imagine going home now. I have learned a ton, but I still have so much more to learn and experience! I wouldn't be ready to go home yet. I love it in Alicante way too much.

Then I had to pack my bags and wake up WAY too early (gosh, this is a theme...I always book early flights because they're cheaper...and then I have to wake up. Good one, Kieks) and head back to Italy!!! I'm here with some family (two girls that speak English pretty well, thank God) until the 27th. :) My aunt Gabriella is seriously crazy, hahaha, she speaks no English and she always talks in really loud, really fast Italian at me and then gets all worked up that we can't communicate with each other. I wish I knew some Italian so I could communicate with her better!!! Haha! It's an experience, though. ;)

So far I'm having a wonderful time here! I love it. PLUS they have a dog named Maya who is just precious!! I play with her a lot. :) Hahaha.

Wow...if you made it through this post, good work.

Next on the to-do list: spend Christmas with my Italian family, jet off to Florence on the 27th, and spend a week and a half with the boyfriend!! I guess you could say I'm JUST A LITTLE BIT EXCITED!

Miss everyone at home and am wishing you the happiest of holidays!! Enjoy family time and celebrating Jesus and new beginnings! <3

The most un-exciting weekend ever

This week/weekend has been pretty low key. Tutoring was awesome with Paula, as always, I just adore her. I went out to tea with Roberto and Paula (my brother and sister here) and that was fun. It's been nice weather, but I've been stuck inside....why? Because I have to study, that's why! Ugh.

Anyway, highlights of the week:

1) It's been pretty cold, and my hostfamily is pretty worried that I'm going to freeze or something, even though I've really been pretty okay. The other day, my mom came in and was like "here, for if you get cold, it's this really awesome blanket that has sleeves so that you can still do your homework!!" ...yes, guys. My hostmother gifted my a snuggie.

2) Skyping with my mom and the boy yesterday, with the promise of skyping Miche and Hannah and Tyler (again) today! YAY! Always love those study breaks...

3) I got my Blackberry finally! Yay, more distraction, ALL THE TIME!

4) HANNAH COMES IN LIKE TWO DAYS!


That's all. Back to studying. Hope life is treating you well, wherever it finds you! <3

Paris!

Wow, my life has been crazy and is about to get even crazier! I'm trying to be good about updating you all, but other things just seem so much more fun than writing a blog post...haha.

Let's see. Last week on the school front, I had a final paper and a final presentation due. Yikes! It went pretty smoothly now, so that means I'm down to one class: yay! The bad news? It's a history class and the final is going to HURT. We're only learning 3 main themes this whole semester and then for the final he's going to give us one of the topics at random, and we have to write for two hours straight, everything we know about that topic. Ouch. Talk about me being buried in my notes for the next three weeks until my final...too bad my BEST FRIEND is coming in ONE WEEK and then right after that I'm going to ITALY! to see my MOM! and GRANDPARENTS!

Studying? What's that?

So, the 22nd was Thanksgiving. First Thanksgiving really away from family, in another country. It was sort of bizarre. We had a "Thanksgiving dinner" with the program, which consisted of tapas (uhhh), and then some sweet turkey, mashed potatoes with mashed pumpkin (????), sweet gravy, and some weird stuffing-esque (okay, not like stuffing at ALL, more like ground up guts) stuff. Basically, everything was sweet. It was a nice attempt, Spain, but didn't quite meet the 'delicious Thanksgiving dinner' requirements. It was a lot of fun though, and it was nice that they did something for us. Besides, these people are like my family here, so it was nice to all be together enjoying each other's company and being thankful for our experience that we're having here. It was a good Thanksgiving. ...not that they celebrate it here, but whatever. :)

Thennn Friday I took off to Paris with Zoe (and we met up with Diane there). Wooohoooo, Paris!

If you want the short of it: Paris is a beautiful city, but I am glad to be back in Spain.

Now the long of it: Friday we got into Paris in the evening (after taking a train, the tram, a plane, a bus, and then a taxi...) and Diane met us at our hotel. We grabbed some lunch and rushed to the Louvre because it is free on Friday nights for students!! We're all about free stuff! We only got about an hour and little bit in the Louvre, but it's so HUGE that we were overwhelmed anyway. Our mission was to see dear old Mona (you know, Mona Lisa), and we accomplished that, so we were happy. After that, we made plans to meet up Saturday and went to bed. Hahaha.

My beautiful friends Diane and Zoe judging this painting.

Little Mona

Saturday was the day that we discovered that the metro makes it ABSURDLY easy to see a lot of stuff in Paris in a REALLY short amount of time. Go figure! We met up at the Arc de Triomphe and meandered our way down the Champs Elysees and sort of window shopped/people watched for a while. Then we hit a Christmas fair extravaganza thingy. Really, still not sure what it was, but tons of little booths (with outrageously priced things...), an ice skating rink, and Christmasy decorations. Even Christmas music playing! In English! Hahahaha. :)

Our first view of the Arc. :)

CHRISTMAS?

Santa jammin', Frosty chillin', and an elephant...?

After that, meandered our way along the Seine. It is SO beautiful, and all the fall colors were absolutely gorgeous. I almost felt like I was back in Corvallis...until I realized all the buildings around me were WAY more gorgeous and historic than Corvallis, and that the people around me were all speaking French. Momentary nostalgia: broken. Anyway, we meandered our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral, where all I could think about was talking gargoyles and Quasimodo and Esmerelda. Uhhh...my life is a Disney movie? "God help the outcasts...."

The love locks on a bridge on the Seine

After that, we metro-ed our way to the Luxembourg Gardens where we watched a little kid terrorize the birds. Which for some reason got me mentally singing "Feed the Birds...Tuppence a bag..." Again, this weekend...in movie quotes and songs.

The little bird terrorist.

From the gardens, after the yummiest lunch and tart and tea everrr (sandwiches...always sandwiches with us...) we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. It is pretty dang impressive, I'm not going to lie. We waltzed around for a bit and took some pictures...then headed back to the Christmas bazaar and Champs Elysees and just sort of killed some time...enjoyed the city. We headed back to the Eiffel Tower that night for some champagne and to see it all lit up, which was pretty cool...really cool actually. We had altogether too many giggles and good times. Good company, those two.

The tower by day.

The tower by night, all lit up and having a seizure, aka twinkly lights every hour on the hour.

On Sunday, we hit up Diane's neck of the woods, which meant the Moulin Rouge, the Sacre Cours, and various other sights to see around that area. It was really neat! Then Diane had to leave us, and we headed back to the Arc de Triomphe and found out we could climb it for free since we're students in the EU. NEAT! I'm all for free stuff. Really neat view up there, too.

"It was not, as my father had said, 'A VILLAGE OF SIN!'" was all that was going on in my head.
Also, it's like 200 euro for dinner and a show here. Uhhhh....no.

On top of the Arc de Triomphe, with the Tower in the background

Then we met with my mom's friend, Tammy. She was so nice, and it was neat to meet here and visit for a little while! Afterwards, we did a little souvenir shopping and gift-getting and whatnot, got some yummy desserts and headed back to the hotel.

Tammy and I

On our way home, we had an 8 hour layover in Barcelona. Not fun. Not fun at all. I started to go a little stir crazy, not gonna lie.

This one's a gem...

Overall, everything in Paris was absolutely fabulous but I'd honestly prefer to return to Madrid or Granada. Something about it just wasn't that amazing to me. I'm definitely glad I went, Paris is gorgeous and has tons of history and really awesome things to see, and I enjoyed myself a ton. Maybe the language barrier got to me? Or I had too high of expectations??

Anyway, it was a good weekend. Now, on to a week full of studying. Loooooooovely.

MADRID!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. Oops!

Well, basically last weekend I didn't do much, and last week was uneventful. The one exciting thing was that on the 14th there was a huelga general, or 'general strike' all across Spain. (I wasn't aware at the time, but apparently it was all over Europe too.) It was a general strike, which means it affected everything and every business sector and whatnot. Like, they called for people not to go to school, not to go to work, not to buy anything, not to use public transport, not to buy gas, not to use their cell phones (yeah right nobody followed that one), and everything. There were HUGE manifestations all over the country. The one in Alicante wasn't as big as the ones in Madrid or Barcelona or Valencia (clearly, Alicante is smaller), but judging by some pictures and videos my friends took (I stayed home all day, haha), it looked like there was a pretty good turnout. We didn't have class, which was nice. And it was interesting to talk to my host family about it. There was some violence and stuff in the bigger cities, but overall it was pretty peaceful. It just seems bizarre, because they're just sort of telling the government that they're not happy with all the cuts that have been made, but I'm not exactly sure if they're even sure of what they want. Everyone just wants things to be better, I guess. It's interesting to me that we don't really do strikes in the states like they do here. Hmm...

Well, Friday I was off to Madrid with Zoe and her grandma! It was such a fabulous weekend, and Madrid is SUCH a fabulous city! I absolutely loved it there. It was busy, busy, busy, and there were TONS of people, and I wouldn't want to spend toooo much time there, but it was definitely GORGEOUS and lots of fun.

We got there on Friday and just walked around a bit, saw Puerta del Sol where there were TONS of people, made our way over to Plaza Mayor where there were a bunch of street performers (well, really they were all over...), and then toured the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was so beautiful, inside and out. I decided that I wouldn't want to reside there, though. Way too many rooms. Actually, the moral of this trip was basically that I don't particularly want to be a queen. Go figure.

Palacio Real de Madrid

That night, we somehow managed to find our way to this restaurant that was FULL of Spanish people, we were definitely the only tourists, I'm not sure how we managed to find a place like that but there ya have it! We had pinchos (basically toasted bread with different things on it...like cheese and ham, or bacon and mushrooms, or shrimpies, or other things) and sangria, and it was oh so good. Ohhh so good. I was happy.

People, people everywhere!

Saturday we visited Museo del Prado which was really, really...big. Hahaha. Very impressive, but seriously huge. And there I discovered that I have rather dark and morbid taste in art. The cheery pictures didn't really do much for me, but the dark and somewhat creepy or slightly depressing ones were SO interesting to me. Would I ever want one in my house? No. Would I love to just look at them forever and wonder what in the world was going on in the painter's mind? Possibly.

After that, we walked through the botanical garden and oohed and aahed over the fall colors. Guys, it was gorgeous. I was so happy.

FALL!

Then we took a tourist bus thingy all around Madrid and really got to enjoy the scenery and the BEAUTIFUL old buildings and all of that good stuff. :) Gosh, I loved it there. We shopped for a little while (well, walked around the stores haha). For dinner, we had paella in this really awesome little place where we were like the only ones there (because there was a soccer game that night...the waitress said that usually on Saturday nights they're packed). The waitress was really nice, the paella was really good, the wine was fabulous, and the conversation was lovely. We dined for a couple of hours and it was loooooovely. Seriously. What a life I'm living here!


 Sunday we went to el Museo de la Reina Sofia which I really, really liked. It was a bit more modern stuff, which is much more interesting to me. Although some of it is dumb and I'm pretty sure I could do it. Whaaatever. We also saw Guernica by Picasso, which was pretty stinking impressive. Then we went to El Rastro, which is basically a HUGE area of flea market-y stuff. Lots of stuff. Little touristy things at a few places, bracelets, clothes of all sorts, tablecloths, pans, scarves, you name it. It was really neat and I'm really glad we went. Then after some tea, it was time to come home, how sad! I would have loved to have more time in Madrid, but it's also good to be back in Alicante. My home away from home away from home. :)

In a museum full of some of the most famous painters ever, this is what strikes me. Go figure.

On the school front...today I had a final exam in my Social and Cultural Realities class, and I have a presentation and 5ish page paper due on Wednesday that I haven't started yet. Uh, oops? And my history exam is in a month?!? I'm blown away by how quickly this is all coming down. My best friend comes in 2 weeks, I see my mom and grandparents in 23ish days, and my boy in 38 days! This weekend I'll be in Paris (yay!) and then everything is just going so fast! Some of the people in my program are leaving this week and it is making me extremely thankful that I'm here a full year. I just haven't had enough time to soak in everything and be ready to go home yet! (Although I miss you all more than I can put into words!!)

:)

Happy Saturday :)

You guys, I could get REAL used to this whole 4 day weekend every week thing, let me tell you. It's doing HORRIBLE things for my productivity. Ha, as if I've been very productive at any point during my time here. I mean, I'm here to speak Spanish, right...not to do homework. ;)

(Just kidding, mom. I'm doing my homework, I promise.)

Anyway, this week has been lovely, but oh so rainy! I was joking with my family here that everyone had told me that it never rains here and I was so excited, but it's been rainy and gloomy for so long! They laughed along with me and commented on how weird the weather has been lately and how utterly not typical it is. But guys, it's been COLD and rainy here. Okay, I got really used to the idea of it being warm almost the whole time I'm here, so I wasn't prepared for cold and it hasn't been like THAT cold...but there's something about the cold here that just gets straight down into your bones...I'm going to die when I go up north to France and Italy...yikes.

Homework and classes and stuff are really starting to stack up on me. I have so much to do but all I want to do is explore the city or talk to my family, especially when my Tio Jose is here...he's SO RAD. He's this bald guy who is just so funny. Last night when I got home, he and his wife Aurora were home and invited me to sit around and talk. So there I was with my hostpadres and host-tios. Haha. Even though I was tired, they do a really good job of talking to me and explaining things that I don't understand, so it wasn't hard for me to hop right into the conversation. Especially because Tio Jose actually asks me questions about my life, about what I like and what foods I miss from the US (ha, that was a weirdly difficult question). Anyway, today is their 39th wedding anniversary so they're here again. Hahaha and Tio Jose always says things like "Oh, I'm pretty sure Kiersten wants to do blah blah blah...trust me. She's my niece. I know her." Hahaha he kills me...

Also, my mom is making this delicious looking lemon meringue pie looking thing. WIN.

The other day, my mom made this dessert that's called "Tocino del Cielo" which basically means Bacon of Heaven. You guys, it was weird. It was basically egg yolks and sugar, and it just tasted like sweet eggs. Which is weird. And it was sort of a texture mix between flan and jello. WEIRD? Yes. Weird. My hostbrother LOVES it though, along with Pepe, so they ate my share. Hahaha.

WINES OF ALICANTE!

So, uh, Thursday night my gastronomy class was wine tasting. It was so much fun! Although I'm still lost about what people said they were smelling in the wine. "This one smells fruity, like wet earth, a little bit dark." Uhhh, right. It smells like wine and I'd like to drink it now, please, if you don't mind.

Wow, this is thrilling, can I drink it now?

But it was still really fun. Some of the wines were absurdly good. And some of them were really not good, at all. And the red wines were way better than the white wines. At least I thought so. :)

My beautiful friend Shauna contemplating her wines.

Also, I may have been that girl who knocked over her wine glass, which then SHATTERED and sent red wine FLYING all over the white walls of our little cubicle things we were in. Guys, it looked like a murder scene, it was so weird. I don't know how the wine possibly exploded like that. And it scared Harley (the guy next to me) so bad that he ended up spilling his wine everywhere too, haha. Good one, Kieks. Oh well. "No pasa nada", right? :)

Me with my broken wine glass...

Oops...

Yesterday Shauna and I went shopping, that was fun. She really wants to talk in Spanish more so it was nice to actually spend almost a whole day just speaking Spanish. And today I'm making apple crisp with my friend Saki who is Japanese, so the only way we can communicate is in Spanish...haha my brain is getting tired, but in the best way possible!

Also, right now I am watching Moulin Rouge in Spanish. Guys, it's the best of both worlds. The songs are normal and in English, but the dialogue is in Spanish. Spanish in my brain + Ewan McGregor's sexy singing voice? Can't go wrong.

Miss you all!!!

Morocco!

Hello, people! What a weekend I've had!

It all began Thursday night. :) Zoe and I caught an 11:59 pm bus (that time just cracked me up) to Sevilla. Let me tell you, getting on a bus at midnight and knowing that that's your future for the next ten and a half hours is a really bizarre thing. Luckily there were few enough people (is that anywhere near grammatically correct?) that we each basically got our own seat, so we could sort of stretch out and I managed to get some sleep. Haha...some sleep. Not a whole lot. But better than none!

We got in to Sevilla at like 10:30 or something and had time to kill until 4:30 when we were supposed to meet at a bus stop to head with the group to Morocco. We were a little bit baffled about what to do with that much time. We meandered our way into Sevilla and managed to find our way to our bus stop (eventually...after walking around the park in every direction except the one we needed like 6 times. Go us). We also decided that we're going to go on The Amazing Race as a team because we're FREAKING AWESOME at traveling together and we balance each other out really well. Anyways. There was a cool Festival of Nations thing going on so we got 'burritos' that really weren't amazing and didn't have beans (dumb, I just want some freaking good Mexican food) and meandered our way about for a bit. We went and found our hostel, too, so that was pretty nice that we wouldn't have to be searching for it when we got back to Sevilla in a few days...

Anyway, eventually 4:30 rolled around and we made our way onto the buses along with 100ish other young people. Lovely. Nothing like traveling in a pack. But really, as much as I don't really love big groups, I was thankful for it in Morocco. It made me feel safer for some reason. Hahaha.

Anyway, we got to our hotel that night and didn't really do much. We were EXHAUSTED after the 10 hour bus ride, so much killed time in Sevilla, a 3ish hour bus ride to the ferry, a ferry ride (that I have no idea how long it was because I freaking CONKED OUT. Something about the rocking motion just put me to sleep and I slept hardddd), and another shorter bus ride...so we slept REALLY well haha.

We got up on Saturday far too early and made our way to Tangier where we rode some camels for like mayybe two minutes haha, and then went to some caves where freaking HERCULES supposedly lived. Guys, HERCULES. Hahaha. Needless to say, it was pretty rad.  Then we went to see this lighthouse that was where the Mediterranean met the Atlantic. Pretty cool! It reminded me of when I was in Puerto Rico and saw where the Caribbean met the Atlantic...except this time I was in Africa. Cool!

After that, we went to Assila and had time to walk around and explore. It was a beautiful little city, white and blue and full of shops and people just begging you to give them your money in exchange for some cheapo little thing. :) There was actually some cool stuff there. I bought some neat-o Moroccan things and we had some of the BEST mint tea I've ever had in my entire life. Guys, it was so good. I wish I could ship it to the US so you all could try it. Mmm. I want some more, please.

On Sunday we went to Tetouan (not to be confused with Tatooine) just to see a palace...uh okay? And then we went to Chefchaouen and had lunch and walked around and whatnot. The city is like a maze, I have no idea how people do it! So pretty, though! And then we shopped around a little bit there, but everything was sort of late and we didn't have much time because we had to catch the ferry back to Spain! Which I, of course, fell asleep on again...

Eventually we made it back to Spain (about 2am), meandered our way to where we were staying for the night (which was freaking nice for how much we paid for it), stayed up talking for far too long (I felt like I was back in the dorms my freshman year!), and finally conked out. We got up on Monday at like 11ish and just sort of meandered our way around Spain. We went and saw the Cathedral and somehow managed to meander our way to Plaza Nueva, pick up a free map, and find the DiscoverSevilla office. They didn't have any money to change back our dirham (dangit), but they did give us a tshirt and a calendar (from 2011...that has all the tour guides pictures mostly naked and lookin' all sexy. Bizarre. Hahaha, but funny.) They also were nice enough to let us drop our stuff there, YES!, and then Dani (our tourguide who was really nice) walked with us for a little while and told us what we really ought to do. :) So then we ended up visiting the Plaza de Espana, walking around some more, getting completely lost in some little streets and managing to find our way back, and having a really pleasant day in Sevilla! Even though we didn't get to see Benni, our other tourguide, again...which was a bummer but I think we'll live. :) Eventually we made our way to the bus station and took another overnighter back home. What a trip! Overall, I'd say it was a fantastic weekend, but I'm glad that this weekend I'm laying low and staying in Alicante. I need some time to recover! Hahaha

I hope everything is going well back in the states!!! Happy election day :)