I'm finally home!

Not much else to say. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm home and the blog will be no more. The trip was AMAZING I had soo much fun. I loved the whole experience. It's 2:30 a.m. los angeles time now and that means it's 11:30 a.m. madrid time. meaning I've been awake for a long time. The night before we left I slept about three hours which means that in the past 48+ hours I've had about 6 hours of sleep. I'm exhausted and I just wanted to get this last update out before I fell asleep. Thanks for reading and commenting!

Quick Update

I have 10 minutes to right this so it´s not going to be good. A couple of days ago we went to a salsa club to dance and party. (It was organized by the school so it wasn´t like a hardcore party) It was Nick´s last night so there was a general mood of being sad in the air for everyone but me. I wasn´t really sad that he was leaving because I see him all the time at home and we go a week without seeing each other all the time. Anyway..we were all dancing at the bar but because some of us (including myself) did not get dressed up to go out we got kicked out for looking to young. Legally you have to be 18 to go there and we got away with it for a little but then they were like,"Nope, You´re too young get out." So Pilar escorted us home and we didn´t do anything for the rest of the night. (P.S. Earlier that day we say Nick´s mommy and it made us really happy because it was like america visited us). Nothing has really changed since Nick left except for Nick not being around to talk to so instead I listen to music, it´s not that bad.
Today we went to a water resevoir and it was really fun. We sailed, kayaked and used those boats that you need to pedal to power. It was awesome. Our group consisted of me, the Micheals, and Jordan so it was really fun. We got back to the area where we live about 40 minutes ago and I need to be in two. I´m about five minutes away. Also I didn´t wear sunscreen so I think I´m going to be burnt. I´ll post more later. I´m happy I´ll be home soon.

There's Something About Mary

I wish I had a video camera. Today we went to Sevilla which was RIDICULOUSLY HOT. Even hotter than Granada. The bad part about the trip to Sevilla is the 3 hour bus ride there. The bus is really cramped and the thermometer we had said it was 96 degrees INSIDE the bus. Needless to say everybody is uncomforatable and it is up to us to save the day and start conversations to make the bus ride more enjoyable. Cut to Mary. She has got to be one of the cutest girls I have ever seen. She is as tall as me and really fun. We were making fun of her on the bus (she was okay with it. don't worry) and we asked her, "Hey Mary! How do you spell your name in spanish?". Mary quickly responded, "You think I'm that stupid? M-I-R-I-A!". After a short pause the entire bus erupted with laughter. So we felt bad and wanted to give her another chance; we asked her, "How do you spell 'potato'?". To which she responded, "P-O-T-O-T-E". Again, everyone in the bus started cracking up. Because we felt bad so we asked her again. She got it wrong again. That was definitely the highlight of my day.
We got back to Granada at around 9 so we went home, ate, then went out again. We walked around a little trying to find a good place to go hang out and finally decided to get tapas at this place that was ridiculously busy but when we sat down and saw the menu we realized that it was obsurdly expensive and we only got a plate of olives and some sodas. (I got agua con gas) After our olives we walked our friends back to their house and then we came back home. I took a nice cold shower and got in my PJ's. I have one set of clean clothes left (for tomorrow) and I'm washing all of my other clothes tomorrow as well.
Sleeping sounds really good right now so I'll post some more info later.

I can't even tell the difference between English and Spanish. I don't know either anymore...

This picture has nothing to do with my blog entry but I laughed really hard when I saw it.
Today we didn't have to go to school because it is the weekend!! WOO! Instead we slept in really late and hung out with our friends all day. Event after event. We decided not to have dinner at home tonight and instead went to the HUGE shopping center with a grocery store as the bottom floor. While we were there we decided making quesadillas was the best possible plan. We all came back to our house and Miguelisimo and I made quesadillas. They were phenomenal.
After that we just sat around for a while and then went out again and just ran around Granada. We stopped somewhere to get churros and coca-cola. I was a rebel and got some bubbly water.
Speaking of bubbly water.... in Spain carbonated drinks are "with gas" so bubbly water is called "agua con gas" and when the Spanish say "con gas" they mean it. The water is SSSSOOOOO ridiculously carbonated that after each sip it feels like you need to burp.
Tomorrow we're going to Sevilla where it is going to be 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It should be hot. Anyhow, I'm about to fall asleep so I will try and post some stuff tomorrow.


P.S. I got a room upgrade. A FAN!

Nobody is cooler than Optimus Justin!

We obviously went to a toy store today..... AND IT WAS SWEET! The day started off with a very boring day of school and during break I was told we had no more classes for the day and instead we had to listen to spanish music. So after the break we didn't go to anymore classes and we listened to spanish music and tried to catch the lyrics. It was way harder than I thought it would be and I was the only one in our group that liked it. Anyhow after that we went home where we ate lunch and watched stuff on youtube.
After lunch we went over to our friends' house to meet them and walk over to the HUGE shopping center. The top floor of the shopping center was filled with toys!!!!! That's where we got the Optimus Prime helmet and gun. The helmet belongs to Nick (once he pays me back) and I got the water gun. It's totally rad. We left the mall and went to another store where I got Amanda a present and after that we just ran around being cool in our Transformers gear. We decided it was about time to head home when we ran into two of our other friends who were going to get tapas, so we tagged along, ate some food and they paid for us. Then we came home ate dinner and when I finish writing I'm going to shower then we're going out to a cafe with another group of friends. Overall today has been sweet and I'm pretty sure it will just continue being ridiculously fun. I'll post more later.

Perfect day

Today we hiked in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. The walk was beautiful but the best part by far is what we did when we got to our final destination. It was a beautiful creek and beaver-made dam. The damn made a nice little pool that we could swim in. Most of us got in. I tried to be the first one in but I couldn't take off my shoes fast enough so I was second. It was already hot as we were walking there and by the time we got there we were just burning so I figured getting in the water would be relaxing. What I didn't realize is that the water in this creek is freshly melted from the snow caps. In other words IT WAS COLD. Although it was cold the blazing heat of the sun made it all okay. The instructor said the water was clean and it tasted AMAZING so I drank a bunch. I now realize that this was a bad decision on my part. Overall it was incredibly fun. By the time we got home we were both so incredibly tired that we just sat around until dinner and after dinner we continued sitting.
Today for the first time the home-sickness hit me. I cannot wait to take a long shower, sleep in my bed, watch American T.V., see Transformers in English and last but not least eat some In 'N' Out. Dad this means that on our way home from LAX we get to stop at an In N Out. I need me a burger. Spanish Burger King doesn't cut it. Well I'm going to go to bed. I'll post more later.

Sorry it´s been so long.

Well I just haven´t had time to blog....until now. The past couple of days have been soo tiring. We went to the beach (which was awesome) and the next day we went to a water park and today we ate A LOT of paella. Sadly I really don´t have anything funny to say. Today we chose not to eat at our house so when our new friends come out of their houses we will go out but until then we are at an internet café. We purchased some swords for battle the other day. (they´re not sharp, so we can use them) I freaking love them. Nick and I have memorized this city and we love it. It´s really pretty and everday we just find things that are prettier than what we saw the day before. It is really awesome. The weird thing about being around spanish all the time is now some of us are starting to think in spanish. Instead of thinking ¨I´m going to shower¨ we think ¨I shower me now.¨ It´s weird.
Well.... I have 2 minutes left at the internet cafe so I´m going to post this and I´ll think of some more things to write later. I hope everybody is having fun in America.
Speaking of America. Tomorrow is July 4 and Nick and I are going to be loud obnoxious Americans all day. Except for our time in the movie theater. TRANSFORMERS COMES OUT TOMORROW!!!! (here too. just in spanish.) WOOOOOO!!!!!!

Spain hit a nice relaxing temperature of 5 million degrees today.

As you can see we went Salsa Dancing last night and it was sooo much fun. Nick and I were definitely the coolest guys there....that is until they started playing techno and Miles danced like a maniac. It was incredible. I have never seen anybody dance like Miles. It could have very well been the best dancing I've ever seen. Anyhow, in the picture is (from left to right) Jordan, Michael, Nick, Shalyn. They're all pretty fun and we like them.

So Spain is ridiculously sweet but there are obviously some problems. Here's the biggest one. When you wake up the first thing you can think is, "Holy crap it's hot here!" but you deal with it and you go get breakfast where you drink HOT coffee. At this point you have been awake for thiry minutes and you're hot on the outside because of the heat and you're hot on the inside because of the coffee. After breakfast you walk to school and by the time you get there you're in a pool of your own sweat because it's so hot. (Also the school is over a mile from our house and it's all up-hill) Then you get to school and you get a break from walking and you can sit in the shade (which is still hot). So after that little break you go into the classroom where it's 100 degrees and sit there for 4 hours. Class is finally over and you get to walk in the sun for another 20+ minutes to get home. Of course you get home and it's even hotter inside the apartment. After boiling in your own body for a while you get to eat a hot lunch then go out...into the sun. You hang out in the sun and think, "Well it's about 4 o'clock the hottest part of the day has passed." WRONG! Nope, in Spain the hottest part is at about 7. And after the hottest part, guess what! It's still hot! So now it's 10 o' clock and it's still hot so you go inside and rest for a little then eat a nice and hot dinner. When dinner is over you're pretty tired so you want to take a shower and go to bed. (the shower can also be in the morning and this point is still valid) So you get in the shower which is cold and relaxing then you get out and it's hot again. At this point you feel like you have accomplished nothing because the second you get out of the shower you're sweating again. So finally you try to go to sleep but you can't because it's too hot to think straight. When you finally fall asleep you get to wake up the next day and do it again. Other than that Spain is amazing.

Tourists suck. We don't classify ourselves as tourists. We're students. Tourists will buy anything as long as they're being told to buy it in spanish. As silly as this sounds it's true. Next to the Cathedral, about 20 feet away, there are these spanish women selling a stringy green plant for one euro a piece and saying something about their powers in spanish. At first you would think they're just vendors but no. They're malicious plant selling soldiers. They will make sure that you have these plants. Here's the catch all along the floor next to the big Cathedral there are these long green plants. The worst part about it is that people buy it all the time.

Well it's siesta time for me, I'll be sure to update some more soon.

A little filler...

Yesterday we went to the Alhambra for a magnificent tour led by one of our teachers named Miguel. He's really cool and makes learning Spanish super easy. The Alhambra is one of the prettiest things in the world and it has a crazy history. I really liked going there. That is a picture of the last entrance way before the throne room. I'm really enjoying learning the history of Granada. Even though that is fun I think the best part by far is hanging out with some of the people in our group.
This trip has taught me and Nick a valuable lesson. Coffee is good.
Today we are going to go see a movie at the school about the History of the Alhambra. It could be fun but I'm sure I'll end up not understanding some of it. Not much has happened since we went to the Alhambra so I'm out of things to write. I'll post more later. :)

TODAY ROCKED!

Well we arrived in Granada last night and hung out with our host family. It´s this 51 year old lady named Yolanda and neither of her kids are at her house but there are two american girls there. (I don´t remember their names) They´re in college so they´re alway condensending but overall their fun. It´s 5 o´clock now and we have to be at the school for our tour of Granada at 6. It takes about 40 minutes to get there by foot. It´s pretty hot here.
We had our first classes today and those were pretty cool. We spent the first half of the day taking placement tests to see which of the two groups we would be in. So far I like all of the kids here (except one, I gave him plenty of chances but he just continues to suck. Whatever. He only annoys me when he talks) Anyhow, I know WAY more spanish than I thought. Today in the class it was only me and two other kids (who are flapping hilarious) that understood everything. We spent a lot of time making a lot of jokes and so far it was the best day of the trip. Also the 2 hour period the three of us spent joking and screwing around was one of the funniest times I´ve ever had. EVER. I´ve already learned a lot of spanish as well. It´s really cool that we learn some stuff in the school and when that is finished we put what we learned immediately into use. There are plenty of internet cafes so I´ll be sure to continue posting. Actually we like a specific interent cafe that is a little more expensive but it´s totally worth it. The place we´re at now is cheaper but the computers are slower so you have to spend WAY more time waiting for things to load and then it feels like a waste of money. Speaking of money.....the exchange rate sucks. I had to exchange (cambiar) money today and I got like $0.68 to €1. It blew but I need money.
I needed to leave 2 minutes ago but I lost track of time. I´ll post more later. Adios.

This is crazy.

I did my last post approximately thirty minutes ago and since then a bunch of people of come into the internet place and sat down and talked to me. I feel like I´m sincerely better at speaking spanish after the past thirty minutes (treinta minutos). I can´t wait for Granada.

WTF....

I´m so flipping confused. It took us a while to have the difference hit us. At first I was thinking, ¨Wow. Everything looks the same....¨ that thought went away fast. The culture is crazy different. It´s really fun though. 1 big problem is that when you screw up it´s nearly impossible to explain what you did wrong. Although a lot of people speak English nobody tries talking in English until they watch you struggle for like 15 minutes then they´re like, ¨oh, you speak english?¨ That´s soooo annoying. Why can´t they just start speaking English when you start? It´s totally absurd.

Right now we´re in Madrid and it´s pretty cool. I expected the food here to be way different but it´s not that different. There is a lot of ham (jamon) everywhere. Lots of cool people here but of course everybody is following Nick and I around.
I got a phone and it works. In order to make international calls I need to use a seperate card so I don´t know the number I will call from but if you need me my number is 675-234-464. (that´s all the info I know about that. I don´t know what to do with the country code and whatnot)
I just got back to a museum that was pretty sweet. But I ditched all the cool kids and went with Pilar because I wanted to learn stuff and nobody else did. Now I get to spend the next 45 minutes hanging out in an internet cafe. GOOD NEWS! The girl that is sitting next to me is pretty and she keeps looking at me.
TTYL!

Almost there...

I'm still at home. Waiting. I leave my house tomorrow morning at 7. The program I'm going with requires me to be at LAX at 8:00 so we can organize everything and they can give me all the information I will need to get there. The flight is about 9 hours but I stop in New York. I land in Madrid and I stay there for a couple of days in a hotel (where I room with Nick). Then I get to take a 5 hour bus ride to Granada which I'm actually excited for. I don't know why.

In Granada I'm staying at C/ Carril del Picón 26, 6º B 18010. There is a movie theater 2 km away from the apartment so maybe I'll be able to see Transformers after all. I think that Spain is 9 hours ahead so if you need to contact me I'll have an EMERGENCY cell phone. I only say emergency because it's like $1.29 per minute. But I'll be calling the US (that's fun to say) to check in.
Wish me luck!