You don't look American.

As I last told you I have been more and more accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle...staying out late at night. The weekend was perfect proof of just how well adjusted I am now after 4 months here. After my late night chatting on Thursday I again dared to go out the next night. Mostly because i hadn't really gone with my American friends since before the Christmas break. The whole idea was, go out for tapas, maybe bar hop a little and then head home relatively early because I was also going out in Cordoba the next night. So here's what happened:

I went to belly dancing class before we went out (I hadn't been in a month and I'd missed it SO much!) and got done around 10pm. Went directly to meet up with the guys after class and we started the night at the tapas bars, bar hoped some more and by the end of the night we had managed to check out about 5 different bars. That night ended at about 3am...of course we had some catching up to do so my 15 minute walk home turned into about 45min. Let me also just add it was literally freezing outside (took me about an hour to warm up my hand and feet).

The next day I woke up again around 2pm. Hmmm...this seems to be a great start of a bad habit. Not much got done that day except talking with Mike and attempting to get some research done for my trips. That night though, my friend and I went to Cordoba (about a 40min drive north) to meet with some friends and go dancing. We met up with another girl around 10pm, got some food, checked out a few places and ended up at a dance club. We were dancing for about 2 hours straight (that doesn't beat my New Years record but it's still a lot) to a mix of salsa music, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson's- Black and White...and then again more salsa. I think we got home around 3am but I didn't even get to bed until past 5...i was chatting with my mom (there's a 9 hr time difference) about their visit coming up.

And THEN AGAIN I found myself waking up at 2pm the next day... What is happening to me? I think I'm turning into my brother...

Amazingly enough when getting up for work this morning, I was surprisingly refreshed. Lesson learned: stay out late, sleep all day and start the week rested and relaxed???

I also thought I should bring up an encounter I had today. I went to go buy some groceries and stopped by this shop (in the market). I'd been there a couple times so he knew me but only now did he ask about me.
His question: Are you English?
My response: No, I'm from the U.S.
His response: Oh, you don't look like you're American. You look more like you're from England.

Still not exactly sure how to take that...

You know you're in Spain when...

Today I got home at...2:30pm. why? I was up until 6am hanging out with my Irish friend Niki drinking some wine...or rather "fino" (much more dangerous) and eating chocolate...and popcorn. Maybe we should hang out more so that we don't have just one night to catch up on 2 months of stories haha. Well normally, in the states, this would be crazy to me to stay out that late but it has now happened so many times over here that I'm actually just used to it haha. This is going to be a dangerous habit (staying out late that is lol) to bring back to the states with me lol.


I also thought I would let yall know that last weekend I went to Granada, one of my most favorite cities in Andalucia! I'm just getting the pics up from it but check it out...its always crazy when I go there.

 This trip I went to meet up with a friend who'd just moved to Granada (only staying for a couple months though) and to visit my spanish brother, Carlos, and my favorite, crazy, multicultural group of Erasmus people. Seriously- its hilarious everytime I visit. In this one apartment there's a mexican girl, italian guy, french guy and my dear american friend Amanda...so pretty much the language of the house is frengspalian (that is french, english, spanish, italian) AND just to top that all of these people (except one) is here on their "year abroad." Doing a year abroad, called Erasmus, is super common in Europe in general and the people just go crazy, party, kind of show up for their classes and then party some more. REALLY- these people go out like 6 times/week. It's great...super unhealthy and exhausting but just hilarious to watch. So those are my friends there and anything we do together means we hang out with other Erasmus people...so other crazy people from all around the world.
 
When I went this weekend I was out until 7am the first night...the evening started at midnight, we went to a "botellon" (remember this word from the xmas eve post? basically a pre-party) where we played spanish trivia (and i was pretty much useless) and THEN went to the club at 3am-ish, danced with some crazy people, watched a girl just fall over and down the few stairs to the dance floor, hit her head, sit in agony for about 10min with a bag of ice on her head (that i got from the bar for her), and then 10min later get up to start dancing again. Also to note- that was not the ONLY time she fell down that night...anyways we danced and danced...until 7am and THEN went to bed. FIRST NIGHT

 

The next day I had to meet with my friend, we hung out, had some super spanish lunch with migas, spanish cheese, croquetas, and tortilla (the egg omelet type thing), walked and explored, had tapas plus a dish of eggplant with a syrup- although they usually use honey- and then the night started AGAIN. This time more calm...just going to a house party full of more Erasmus people (I'm assuming was a mexican pride fiesta because everyone had the mexican flag painted on their face) ...and staying out until 4am.

The next day I was definitely more sluggish haha but had to meet up with the friends again to go to our favorite tea shop where we ate some crepes while sitting on the floor (with cushions though!), hung out with the cat that's always there, then met up with other friends who were late to meet up with us for the first place. We then went to ANOTHER tea shop/cafe where I just spent the whole time cracking up because the conversations going on were just beyond random (not to mention the mix of french, italian and spanish language use). But afterward I had to go because I had to go to work the next day :( Needless to say I came back exhausted and with tons of great memories AND some great clothes and shoes from the sales... I love Granada

the cat that's ALWAYS in the crepe/tea shop

Lucena!

My friend found a little promo video of Lucena (my town). It's in Spanish but you all can at least see what it looks like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZA2vuOeok

Planning my life and other random things

I have a bunch of random things i have forgotten to tell you about since I got here so let's just start with those:

First...
I need your help. I'm right now having to make some crucial decisions about my life and what I want to do with it. I have many options (such as staying in the states, working in Spain for another year, traveling, etc.) and one thing I'm trying to find out more about is working abroad in South America. I'm specifically looking for jobs where I can use my Spanish (although I'm fine using some English too), preferably something in business since that IS my interest, and around 3-6 months. I have been doing research now for weeks (or maybe even longer) just trying to find programs that don't cost an arm and a leg to do and it's been more than difficult to find many result. So what I'm asking of you is if you know or have heard of any jobs/internships/programs like what I'm looking for. I would really appreciate any info that you have since sometimes it's just about talking with people. THANKS so much for your help!!!

Also if you want any info on the program that I'm doing now, just ask! I'd love to help answer questions from anyone interested in the program.
Important note: If you or anyone you know wants to apply for next year (starts in Oct) APPLY NOW!
Website: Cultural Ambassadors

Next up, when I was traveling in Italy with my friend from Scotland she told me about an awesome radio website. Since the UK, in general, is really big in the music scene they have a lot of music that we don't even hear in the states...or that we hear WAY later. On the website you can check out the Top 40, listen to talk shows or even specifically search the type of music you like (Dance, Rock/Indie, R&B/Hip Hop). I suggest you check it out if you're tired of the same old, like me:

                                 Radio One (BBC)


Moving onto the next random topic...
there's a show in Spain called "Españoles en el mundo" (translation: Spanish people in the world) and about a month ago they had an episode on Seattle. In the show they basically talk with people from Spain living in a particular city and they show them around. I thought I'd attach the video so you can all watch it if you'd like...it's about 30min long. FYI- it's in Spanish

Youtube.com- espanoles en el mundo Seattle

(i also have it downloaded on my netbook but it seems it's too long to upload on here...)