Livin' la Vida Española: Pues....

Hola amigos,

Lo siento que no he escrito en los ultimos semanas. Hoy es el ultimo dia antes de Semana Santa en Espana y manana salgo para...Hahah just kidding - not in Spanish. Haven't written in a while - tomorrow marks the first day of our first spring break. We have off all next week for Semana Santa (Holy Week) and just wanted to give a quick update before I leave for Athens tomorrow night!

The weather has been beautiful lately - almost a little too beautiful at times. It's been about high 70s and sunny for the last 2 weeks...there was even a couple days where it's been over 90 degrees. Thus, there's been a lot of laying out in the park and hanging out by the river to "tomar el sol" (sunbathe) and hang out. The Spaniards are crazy and still wear long pants and shirts...and then look at us like we're crazy wearing shorts and t-shirts. Conveniently located by the river is the "Festival de Naciones" - a festival where you can buy different meals and desserts from stands representative of different countries around the world. Heaven? Not quite yet...One of the stands offers Mexican food. Heaven. Contrary to popular belief, Spain food is actually NOTHING like Mexican food and Mexican restaurants tend to be very unsuccessful here. So we of course went straight to Mexico :) The sun, the river, friends and Mexican food all in one place makes it easy to see why we've been doing this all weekend for the last couple weeks.

[@ the Festival de las Naciones]

For my finance class, we visited a company that produces Jamon Iberico - a popular type of ham that requires specific upbringing of pigs and a time-consuming production process. Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but at most restaurants and even some houses, it's common for there to be pig legs mounted on some sort of contraption where the ham is then sliced off of and consumed. The company we visited was the most prestigious Jamon Iberico producer (about 18 euros for about 5 little slices) so it was interesting to see the process and of course all the pig legs. After the company visit, we walked through a cave - which was crazy cool.

Went on another hike where it rained (more like downpoured) all day. So that was fun. Also checked out the Museo of Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) - which is the 2nd best/biggest museum in Spain.

Other than that, just trying to live up to good student standards (not). Group projects are really starting to be a pain - all conveniently due this week or the week in between our 2 spring breaks. Trying to get those done in addition to finishing up the rest of the homework for the semester to avoid having to worry about it during our 2 weeks off/travel time has been taking up most of the time during the week.

Random updates:

The man who lives above me has FINALLY (knock on wood) stopped singing/dancing flamenco.
After 7 weeks without a phone, I FINALLY got my movil back from the hostel in Portugal.
My group members and I took 2nd place in our Gymkhana competition (scavenger hunt). We won a free boat ride on the river :)
Rum & coke's are called "Cuba Libre" which translates to "Free Cuba". Reason: Cuba was under the Spanish reign prior to the 1890s when the 2 countries went to war over Cuba's independence. The US (neutral at the time) sent it's ship the USS Maine to protect their interests in Cuba when it exploded, at the fault of Spain. The US, ticked at Spain, entered the war to help Cuba after this catastrophic event and won, thus allowing Cuba to gain independence. It was later found out that it was actually NOT Spain's fault that the ship exploded. This story has huge historical impact for Spain - so much, that they apparently name alcoholic drinks after it. Anyhoo, the point of this randomness is when a Spaniard asked me if I knew why it was called a "Cuba Libre", I actually knew why (thanks to my history class I'm taking here) and after I explained it to him he replied, "You're the only person I've ever asked that question and received the correct response" (in Spanish, of course). Yay me for learning historical facts, conversing with Spaniards and conveniently finding a way to connect drinking to class :-D
Time is moving much too fast. 4 weeks until I'm back in the US....probably the definition of bitter sweet.
ALMOST 22 - can't believe it's been a year since I turned 21 haha.
Leaving for Athens, Greece tomorrow. Then Istanbul, Turkey. Then Barcelona. Then Easter, 4 days of class and my birthday. Then Madrid. Then Rome. Craziest 3 weeks ever? Yes. Real life? Still trying to find the answer that one...