IR AL MONTE

So it's been a LONG time since I've written a blog, to those I'm not keeping in touch with well on facebook or others I'm sorry!!! Here's a quick update before I get to the theme of this entry: school is going well, I had global exams (failed all of them :D ) but did actually study and all my grades I believe were above 1!! One exam I actually studied nine hours and things are making sense to me I'm understanding and learning but them applying what I learn and answering questions is a little more difficult. However I'm feeling very good about my progress in school especially after talking to the other exchange students here who feel that listening is enough and they don't take exams... I would get so bored. The language is a lot better - I have conversations, I've gone on my own to run errands and have talked to strangers and a few times have translated for the students from the states who've been studying the language for years.

This weekend was really busy. Friday was confirmation night so we all got dressed up and went to church for a few hours for a really long service (but special) then to my school where we had dinner all together (see facebook for photos). This was a lot of fun because there was more time to talk with everyone then there is school days and then we all went out fiesta-ing together at a bar. Dancing all night is a lot of fun and I really enjoy my nights out here. Some teachers came to the bar later which was interesting. Seeing classmates buy shots for their teachers and taking pictures with them - definitely would NEVER happen back home. Then at about four o'clock in the morning people either go home or go to the discoteca which is a bigger fancier more expensive bar but with a LOT more people and room to dance. At about six thirty, after wearing heels for ten hours and dancing for five I decided to go barefoot for a while... two minutes later I stepped on a broken beer bottle. So then I went and waited in the rain for my host mom to pick me up. Don't worry I wasn't alone and it didn't hurt that much, having worn heels for so long hurt more. Over all it was a very fun night.

Then Saturday I slept most of the day before going to see Harry Potter at the cinema, in spanish with a group of my friends. Paloma knows EVERYTHING about Harry Potter and I actually understood what they said in the movie. It was scary though - Paloma and I were curled up and holding each-others hand for about 97% of it. I went on a little spanish rant at the end about how that was a terrible place to stop and I can't wait until July to see the rest of it! apparently this was funny.

Now to Sunday - the blog's theme. My school has a mountain club and I joined in for their first excursion of the year. I have quite a few friends in the club and it was really fun. I don't know exactly how high the mountain was but it was really pretty. And wet and cold and steep and slippery and cold and raining. Despite not being in the best shape of my life I stayed at the front with a friend because I have this thing with not liking to be behind people. The whole day was great. At the top there was an old building where we built a fire and made soup on a camping stove and bacon sandwiches. The view was amazing, foggy but really neat. There was a little town at the bottom and a bunch or other mountains surrounding it. I'm really hoping to do more hiking. I'm not sure exactly how many times this group goes but on fiesta days or weekends I'm going to try and go. Someday my goal is to get to the Pyrenees because they're pretty darn close and that would be awesome.