¡Hola!

I left for Spain exactly a month ago today. That's hard to believe. It's flown by, but I feel like I've been here forever, and living at home seems like such a distant concept... I'm getting to the point where I'm pretty much used to my routine, to my surroundings, to the meals, to my classes... I've been getting a little homesick, but it comes and goes. I've heard that when you study abroad you usually get homesick too after going through the "honeymoon stage," aka after the first few weeks or months when everything is new and exciting. Then, when everything becomes routine, you might get a little homesick... and later, when it's time to go home, you don't want to leave! It gets exhausting constantly trying SO hard to understand what people say here... at home, I don't even think about communicating as a challenge. Simply talking shouldn't be hard, right?? Right, until you go to a foreign country... but I'm getting better at Spanish and I can usually get the gist of everything that people say to me. I've also heard from various people that I speak well (from the random bookshop keeper that Kristen and I talked to for awhile on Tuesday, from various orchestra members, etc...) so that's encouraging! I've learned SO much, but I'm so used the new knowledge that I don't even really realize I have it... Something familiar would be nice sometime, that I don't have to learn, that I've been accustomed to for a long time. Completely leaving everything you know works for awhile, but it gets to a point where you want some of your roots back... Kristen and I have seen two Domino's pizza shops here and we were joking that we should order sometime, just for fun! And tomorrow, Peñi (my host mom) and I are making banana bread! She hadn't even heard of it before I brought it up... that should be fun. :)

Europe is built for pedestrians. I've walked home from school three times this week, and it's about a 2.2 mile walk each way... it takes about 40 minutes, which is only about ten minutes more than taking the bus. AND it's free. Peñi told us that soon we'll be thin with all of that exercise... I was thinking about it, and America really is kind of lazy... like, I would have never thought about walking 40 minutes to school in Moorhead, but here, it's completely normal. Not a lot of people seem to have cars, lots of people take the bus, and tons of people walk. Even older people with canes walk... it's funny because sometimes in the morning on the way to the bus stop Kristen and I see this old short man with a cane who starts to run, cane in hand and hunched over, to make the bus! It makes me smile :) I guess in Minnesota though, the cold harsh winters make walking kind of impossible. It's not exactly sweatshirt weather there in January like it usually is here... I guess this winter has been a lot colder than usual, and the coldest it's gotten is 25 or 30 degrees! So weather does have an affect on overall health... today was nice (50s probably), and I spent about an hour and a half walking, between getting to school, going to the bookstore to return a book, and walking to the Carrefour (like a Wal-Mart) to get a loaf pan for making the banana bread. It's pretty amazing. I feel a lot more in shape now than when I arrived, and I want to keep it up when I get back. It's a way of life here though, so it's so easy to do...

Paris plans are ready to go for next week!! We leave early afternoon Wednesday on a bus after school, switch to a train around the French border, and have until Saturday night to experience an amazing weekend! We're staying in a well-rated hostel that's really close to most major attractions, and taking a night train, then bus, back to Pamplona on Saturday night. We plan to take the free city tour, visit the Louvre (free for European students!), see Notre Dame, and go to the top of the Eiffel Tour, among many other things! And, we'll get to see the romantic city right before Valentine's Day :)

Recent adventures with food (like, the last couple of days):
Fried, butterflied sardines (skin still on...)
Mussels in the shell
Whole large shrimp, in shell with legs and head
Rabbit stew, with bones and all (Peñi was eating a piece today that still had a rabbit tooth sticking out of it ... and she proceeded to say that she's the only one in her family that will eat the lamb's head when they have it...)
Gula (a substitute for the real thing (made out of eel), is in the form of a noodle, and is made out of fish) (yikes!)

The adventure never ends.


One last thing: I switched my computer's keyboard to the Spanish layout... so I'm still getting used to the different keys! It's nice though, because now I can use Spanish punctuation much more easily... just something random, and kind of funny :)

Pictures to come, especially after Paris!!!