i found this awesome internet place thats air conditioned and i can use my own laptop with the wireless here..i have yet to find an actual internet cafe with actual coffee..but maybe i just havent been lookin hard cuz the school has a comp lab.

anyway! spain has been pretty crazie..i go somewhere every weekend, which makes time fly i guess. 6 weeks in a country really isnt enough...i feel like i barely improved my spanish. i learned more vocab and grammar but its still tough to speak and listen. the spanish here is diff from the mexican spanish we hear in cali..they pronounce their "z"s like "th"s and other things. i can definatley see how someone can come here and not improve spanish AT ALL because eveerryone here is an extranjero (outsider) comin here to learn but everyone just speaks english..

so this is my host family...its the old couple...the two girls to the left are my housemates/roommates




i mainly hang out with mika my roommate and a girl named brook. this is us eating churros con chocolate at sevilla, which is in the south of spain




hmm..wat else...this is the plaza mayor..which is the center of the city where everyone just chills...i loooove it...its one of the most beautiful structures ive ever seen.



so one of the biggest symbols of spain is the bull, so i bought a lil bull (toro) n i called him Torito. here he is in a real bullring =)



i did a lil bull fight thing with a baby bull n i almost got ran over...i have a video but i derno how to load it.

i just had my 21st birthday yesterday. it was interesting but i think i would have prefered to be home =) i was more homesick yesterday than i ever was on the whole trip. i just wanted to be with my friends n family...but instead i was on a tour in segovia and the day was sorta slow. the thing i looked forward to most was bernie's bday card which she gave me to before i left n said i could only open it on my bday. well..at midnight before all of that i did open my first bottle of champagne and drank a cup off on a balcony overlooking some streets of salamanca..which was nice.

this was when we got some dessert:


one of the nicest things was getting the emails n facebook wall tags when i checked today =) well i hope we can still celebrate in december when most of us are 21 already!
heres some other pix from espana:

the cathedral in sevilla
 


the spanish countryside...it reminded me of those scenes u hafta look at when ur at the optometrist so they can determine ur perscription..


flamenco:



being abroad is making me think about things alot more...though even here its hard to think about things differently than the way i do in my normal life. its always easier to stick to ur usual thinking pattern...surprisingly even in another country.  i find that being abroad shows me God's faithfulness alot more clearly and how He provides because I can't rely on the Christian friends i have to be around me. it is interesting to see different peoples perspective on faith...though the things ive heard here arent anything new that i havent heard at home. even if i try to explain that Christianity the relationship between u n God..most ppl see it as..."religion". the question i get most is "what happens to all the innocent people who have never heard about Jesus?" any thoughts? ok i gotta go eat dinner now...hasta luego...or as they say here..."taluego"! =)

yay time to blog again! this is the start of my spain journal hehe...

it started with the end of finals on friday at 10pm. after our physics n ochem finals, lauren was actin a bit strange n was tryin to do all she could to keep me from going home lol. it dint occur to me that anythin would b goin on at home..i just thot she was bein wierd =) anywho..i got home and the aptmates quickly shoved me into my room bc "the dessert wasnt ready yet." my mom cleared out my room so there was nothing there except my laptop. as i sat there on my empty side of the room i got kind of sad n started tearing up. then angel came in n said the dessert was finally ready. i went outside n walked into the living room n then all of a sudden i heard ppl yell "BOO!" and it scared me so much that i jumped n almost fell backwards lol n then i saw alllll these PEOPLE!! lol aw that was the greatest surprise evar! i was so exhausted from finals but that totally woke me up. i cant believe all those people were there just to send me off =) then amy presented her amaazing nemo jello thing! lol i LOVED it...ill post pictures later after i get them from my moms camera. my junior class also presented me with some notes n pix they put together for me. gah..the whole thing was so sweet that i couldnt take it all in at one time. we were chillin for a couple of hours n my family got to meet some of my friends..eventually my family said we had to go..n that was sad...i was beaming the whole way to LA tho. as cheezy as it sounds..all the songs on the radio reminded me of all the memories we have together. hehe..n then i read all the notes at the hotel. u guys are amazing...n my aptmates are crazie =) i shall miss my aptmates so very much...at least i have wallet sized pix of u guys to bring to espana!

we got to the hotel late on fri nite...got a good nites sleep...dropped off my bro in LA for summer school...he took Rocky (my car) with him as well. we got back to sf at around 7 and i had to go to target to get some last minute stuff. steph, june, n bernadette came over to visit as i packed n we hung out for a bit. it was sorta hard to pack bc i dint kno where my mom put everything. so i ended up sleepin for an hour before heading to the airport. to make a long story short, when i tried to check in...they said my flight got cancelled n that it was too late to board the 8:00am one that was about to leave in 10 min. so basically...i have to go tomorrow. i was a bit depressed...a bit relieved as well bc i was in such a cruddy mood by then. i was completely sleep deprived, emotionally drained from a spat i had with my mother the nite before, and just..unprepared.

i was sulking all the way back to the car but the breakfast i had with my dad n bro cheered me up. i had almost forgotten that it was fathers day. i felt especially lucky n blessed to have spent this fathers day with my dad! he tried to cheer me up by telling me random funny stories of when he was in the air force n stuff. the woman at the lil restuarant also had a really genuine friendly smile and that helped too. it reminded me of how far a smile like that can go. she had no clue that i just missed a flight to spain, but her smile brightened my day a bit.

so i went home n took the longest nap ever...for 7 hours. at nite i ate a nice chinese dinnar with my family n "raaandomly" bumped into 3 different childhood friends at that restuarant. i was thinkin recently of when id ever see those friends again...n yea..it was just crazie =) my friend is goin to china for a year so it was awesome that we got to see each other before she left.

alsoooo...at first i thought for sure that id hafta take a taxi by myself to the hotel after i get out from the airport..the thought of it was makin me nervous cuz my spanish sucks right now. i emailed the program bout the cancelled flight n they told me that another group for another city is coming in tomorrow n that i could just go with them to the hotel!

soo...it seems like God is already doing some awesome things for this trip..despite and through supposedly bad circumstances such as cancelled flights. ok i gotta leave for the airport again in a couple of hours. keep in touch! =)

hey im back at home! wow it is seriously so refreshing. u dont know how stressed u really are until finals are over and all of a sudden...ur 200% happier and more relieved

my lil brother is almost as tall as me now..ahhh n hes only 11..n im 20! hes so cute. haha my dad n matt picked me up at the airport n the first thing he told me was that he got hit by a baseball AGAIN. poor guy...hes sometimes the catcher and sometimes the shortstop and sometimes the pitcher for his team. seriously im glad that him n i are on better terms now. for all of high school n beginning of college i thought he was kind of a brat n he thought i was mean cuz i wanted to discipline him.

some people dont even know i have brothers because i hardly mention them. but praise God for the work He's been doing in my relationships with them. i can sense that the rift between us is slowly closing. the more i get to know him...the more i think hes one of the most amusing kids i know..lol he has to wear a headgear to bed...hes known the stats of all the baseball n basketball teams since he was like..8. he started to memorize the types of cars there are from his car seat at the age of 4 so now hes an expert on cars. he used to sing along to "ill never break ur heart" when he was just like..4-5..he used to zoom around in our old condo in his gigantic plastic car that that u hafta move with ur own legs and knock everyone over. when he was 6 he ran really fast n crashed into the corner of the fridge and my mom n i were crying n freaking out cuz his head was bleeding so bad...he also got his arm broken when this grl was chasing him around in the playground...n then he hurt his collerbone when the SAME girl fell on him from the monkeybars...when he was a tiny squishy baby, i kept pressing his nose so now its kind of flat..it used to have lil spots on it and id call him kumquat nose...i remember looking at him in the crib when he was a few days old n i said to him, "hey..ur my brother..." and just looking at this baby in front of my eyes and not really believing that he was really related to me hahah... he acts as the navigator when my mom and i are desperately lost. hes totally attached to this one pochacco doll wearing a kimono i gave him when he was a baby..the same way im attached to nemo hehe. he has this spongebob laundry hamper in the shape of a pineapple under the sea...he loves green and has these wacky lil green slippers he wears around the house...when my cousins played bball with each other..he was on the girls team lol n he helped us win...he used to rock out to the disney channel but now he listens to classical music with my dad in the car.. he really enjoys making cookies LoL. i dunno man..hes just funny...

when i went to my room..i found this big piece of chocolate in the shape of nemo. its soo cute..matt told me he found it at walgreens..then my mom told me later that he bought it with his own allowance money =))