I can't believe I have been here for almost a month now...

Hola amigos! I am in such a good mood right now, because I just discovered a new cafe that has internet! Which, when you don't have WiFi at your house, that is kind of a big deal. HA. No, but I think I am becoming addicted to coffee because I have it everyday here. Basi always gives me some at breakfast, and then I usually go to a cafe at some point during the day and feel obligated to order one there. Anyways, I have officially been in Salamanca for 3 and a half weeks now, and have fallen into a daily routine and am adjusted to the daily life here. During the week I have a lot of free time, so I have taken to running. It's hilarious, because when I run around the city here, people stare at me as if I was streaking or something. I never see girls running, and rarely guys. I don't care that they think it is weird, though, because I have discovered new parts of Salamanca that I wouldn't have before while running. Today it is snowing, so I got even more weird looks than usual.

Last week on Thursday, was a huge festival called El Carnaval, which is celebrated throughout all of Spain. It is a lot like Halloween. Everyone got dressed up in costumes and went out that night. It was awesome going to the bars and walking through the streets that night and seeing everyone decked out. I had to explain to someone from Ireland what Halloween was because they don't celebrate it there, which I thought was weird!

On Friday morning, we took a bus to Seville. Our whole API group went, so it was about 38 students. After a 7 hour bus ride we finally arrived in Seville and had free time until the flamenco show that night. The flamenco show was amazing, minus the fact that it was freezing cold because we sat outside. There were 2 men playing the guitar, one man singing , and a woman and man that danced. It was unlike anything I had seen before, and their level of talent was amazing. After the show, some of us went to an ITALIAN restaurant for dinner, which tasted like the best meal I had ever had after eating Spanish food for the past 3 weeks. On Saturday morning we went to the Palace Alcazar and a Cathedral (I can't remember the name). I loved loved loved the gardens. Seville is full of orange trees and beautiful flowers. I climbed to the top of The Giralda Tower, which was cool because we have a Giralda Tower in Kansas City, making KC and Seville sister cities! This was my claim to fame for the trip, and I bragged about it as much as possible since I get numerous hick/ Wizard of Oz comments for being from Kansas. After the tour, we had free time for the rest of the day so some of us walked around and explored the city. Seville has such a different look from Salamanca, with its white houses, flowers on every balcony, and the river, and it is beautiful there! That night Tanya and I decided we didn't want to spend a lot of money on dinner, so we went to the mercado and bought cereal, yogurt, crackers and cheese, and oreos. A bunch of us had a picnic with the food we bought and wine in the hotel room, which was actually a lot more fun than going out to eat! We tried only speaking in Spanish for a while. If I did that more often, I feel like my language would improve much faster. After dinner, we went to a bar and 3 floor dance club. It was pretty cool because each floor played a different type of music and had a different atmosphere. The next day we headed home to Salamanca. As great as it was to get out of Salamanca for a weekend, it was so great going home! I love it here and am glad to be staying here this semester in a smaller city. In the first week or so I was kind of frustrated with Basi and not being able to understand or talk in Spanish very well, but now I love trying to talk with Basi. She is a funny lady, and I really want to work on improving my Spanish so I can talk to her more. I feel like I have so much to say but am very limited in what I can say to her.

On Thursday night a few of us girls are leaving for Madrid because on Friday morning we fly to Ireland! I am soooooo excited because I have only heard great things about it. So I will update this again as soon as I get back on Monday! Hasta luego, miss you all!

Krista