Hello hello!

I cant believe that it is already wednesday! Another busy school week here in Caceres, and as the week comes to a close we are all getting excited for our first excursion to Granada and Cordoba this weekend.

Monday was a pretty typical day. Classes in the morning and catching up on some emails and homework in the afternoon. Ginny and I took it pretty easy that night and spent some time trying to plan for future trips. We are slowly running out of weekends! There are still so many places that I want to see, but its looking like I will be able to do London and Lisbon in March, Italy for spring break, and hopefully Switzerland in April.

With Caitlin coming in a week I have been busy trying to coordinate our Barcelona trip as well as plan for when my other friend Danielle comes to visit in March. It makes things a lot harder when I dont have a computer, but Ginny has been kind enough to let me use hers when I need it. Searching for flights isnt usually the hard part, but timing out everything with our 4 hour bus trips to Madrid can be kind of a hindrance on our plans. But, I am very excited for the next two weekends of travel coming up.

We leave friday morning for Cordoba and Granada as a whole group. We will be gone the entire weekend and are taking buses to each place. We will be visiting the Alahmbra as well as one of the more famous churches in Cordoba...cant seem to remeber the name. But both places sound wonderful! I previously visited the Alahmbra last time I was in Spain and absolutely loved it. It will be great to re-visit. I think everyone in our group is excited to all be able to go somewhere together. Im sure we will get some good bonding time in with our 8 hour bus ride friday.

Last night, a group of us decided to suck up our pride and go to a dance class in town. The class is for people who want to learn the cha cha or salsa, among other spanish dances. It was a blast! I definitely made a fool out of myself, but I did pick up a few good moves. There were about 10 ISU students and 20 some other Caceres residents. A good way to practice our spanish as well as our dance skills.

With so much going on back home (Ryan both getting engaged and him leaving for Japan) I was a little homesick for the first time last night. Thank God that we have technology like Skype so I can both see and talk to my family. I just wished I couldve been home for all the excitement and seeing him before he took off. Ginny was there to cheer me up, and it helped a lot to have someone else here with me, but it did make me miss my family a lot! Keeping busy this weekend with help a lot.

Ginny and I got a good lecture this morning about getting ready quietly by our mother here. People here in Spain are very very conscious of water and electricity use, so Ginny and I are only allowed to shower every other day. This isnt that big of a deal, but sometimes I think they can be a little obsessive over it. I left the bathroom the other day to grab my brush from my room, and when I came back my mom had already turned off the light. Crazy. Our dog, Paula, barks at everything. So this morning when I was blow drying my hair, in my room...with my door shut...she heard it and started barking and woke up our mom. Lets just say that she wasnt too happy about it. She told Ginny that we need to start showering at night now. We will see how that goes. We are trying to be as courteous as we can be it gets hard when our room is right next to hers. Hopefully we can find a happy medium. Maybe slip ear plugs in our moms ears while she sleeps? Have a blow dryer that doesnt make any noise? Or quit showering all together...but I just dont see that happening.

Tonight is Acustados, as well as a party for all foreign exchange students here in Caceres. Apparently they are having some welcoming party at a bar tonight for all of the students from around the world that are studying here. Ginny and I are planning on going. Should be a good time and a way to meet some other students.

Looking forward to a weekend with the group! More to come next week.