spring fever!

Hey people! I feel like I always find myself saying, "I don't know where to start," but I mean it now more than ever!! Here's some bullet points to keep things simple.

- Officially left Pilar. I could give details, but I think I might just save it and write a whole book about it one day. For the record, I'm not proud about how things went down and I sometimes feel like a wimp for moving but it really is crazy how much a living situation can affect your state of mind! SO glad I did it, but I don't want Pdog to have any bad thoughts about us either. oohh well one step at a time.

- Moved across the street (yes, we walk outside our gate in fear of running into x-madre).

- NEW FAM = SOOO GREAT. I literally feel like I just woke up from a bad dream. Old house and new house = night and day, black and white. Madre is named Mercedes! She is always smiling and just bopping around. I'm not sure what she does all day because she's been out of a job for a while (apparently the Spanish economy isn't doing so well), but she's happy and hospitable and loves to talk. Which is a nice change. I think we have talked more with the new fam after less than a week than we ever did at you know who's house. So the move is already worth it just for my Spanish skill's sake. Next we have Abuela Julia. She get's the personality award. She got sass and I like it. She is hilarious. She's the one who cooks everything and its tasty too! last night she tried a recipe that we saw on some spanish cooking network. It was like turkey wrapped around onion and then fried (in olive oil of course) with some gravy stuff on top. Pretty good! Can't forget about my new little brother, Alexis. His feminine name isn't the only thing that sets him apart from your average 9 year old, get ready for it.. rattail. yes, alexis has a rattail. Love it. Don't worry I will be posting pictures soon. This kid is ridiculous, in a good way. We don't have to worry about him being shy or anything. He runs the show around here, showing up in our rooms at unexpected times, fighting grandma for the remote, and climbing out of windows.

- This past weekend I went to Barcelona with Jane, Nikki, and Amy. Barcelona is such a cool city. I would say I wish I was studying there, except they don't speak Spanish! They speak Catalan, it's like a mix between Spanish and French. I thought it would be more similar to Spanish but it is really hard to understand. so weird! We got there Thursday night and walked around until we found our hostel. Friday we did all the touristy stuff - Las Ramblas (a famous pedestrian street market), Sagrada Familia ( Gaudi's masterpiece, still under construction!!) which was SOOOO pretty, other gaudi buildings, Park Guell, La Boqueria (food market with anything from nasty meat from any animal part thinkable to all types of fruit juices, nuts, etc). Our favorite Spanish teacher in Auburn is from Barcelona so we followed some tips from him and checked out some of his favorite areas. Saturday we went to the beach, I have never been so pasty in my life so I got my first good sunburn in for 2011. Loved Barcelona

- Now I am stressed because all of a sudden we actually have to do work at school again. There seems to be a paper and a presentation for each class due sometime in the next week or two before our spring break, which comes right before finals... crazy how fast time passes I never thought I'd say this but I'm not going to be ready to leave! so blogging will be brief but I'll do my best.