Thursday November 15 – Finals Day 1

                Today I had my Spanish Civilization and Culture final; it was three questions, one worth six points and the other two worth two each. The six point question we had to write all we knew about the moral and theater during the reign of Fancisco Franco, the next one was over the running of the bulls which I did not know what that was until someone asked him so I was afraid for a little bit, and the last one was over Don Juan. I do not think I did super on that test. My second final was my English to Spanish Translation and that was easier. We had to translate a web page over information about studying in Spain. I am not sure how well I did on that test.

                I think that Cristina is getting tired of cooking for us because the last few nights we have had very basic, not big meals which are not usually what happens. Also the three Americans eat then when we are done the rest of them eat. I think this is so it is not as crowded at the table and they like to eat super late as well, around 10:30 or 11:00 at night. The food is still good just not as much like tonight we had toasted turkey, egg, tomato, and mayonnaise sandwich with chips. That was it but still good.

Wednesday November 14 – One Week Left in Spain/ Last Day of Class/ Flight Time Change

                Today is the one week marker for time left in Spain. This is the most bittersweet thing that has ever happened to me because I love Spain and do not want to leave but I miss my family and want to be in America for Christmas. Today was also my last day of classes and now I just have to complete five finals; two on Thursday, one on Friday, one on Monday, and one on Tuesday. I received an email from my company that I booked my flight with and they said that the flight from Newark to Omaha that would get me there at 9:00 PM on December 21^st has been cancelled and that I will now be getting to Omaha around 11:30 PM. I emailed them to see if they had any sooner times because I did not want to get home that late or be in the Newark Airport for seven plus hours, but there were no other flights that would get me to Omaha faster.

On my way to the CLM to do some studying for my Spanish Civilization and Culture final tomorrow, a Spaniard caught my attention and asked something that I could not understand because I had headphones in and listening to music. So I asked him to repeat it and he could tell that I was not a born Spanish speaker but he tried again anyway and asked where the cathedral was, and I was able to tell him because I knew where it was. I was so excited that I helped a Spanish speaker find a destination in Spanish. That was the highlight of my day.

Tuesday November 13 – Christmas Tree is Up/ Unlucky Day in Spain

                Tuesday the 13^th is Spain’s Friday the 13^th, it already happened once this semester but luckily nothing unlucky happened to me the first time or this time. Also my host family’s Christmas tree and holiday decorations are up. There is not much and they are not that big but that is because there is not much room to do so.

Monday December 12 – Walking Around Granada

                I could not sleep last night because I think I got too much sleep the past couple of nights. I laid in my bed trying to sleep at 11:00 and then Kevin got back at 12:30 so that woke me up some more. My host family had guests over and they were there until 1:00 and they were really loud so that kept me up. After they left, my host family kept talking until about 1:30 and I was still awake at 2:00, which was the last time that I checked on my alarm.

                I was supposed to volunteer at Almanjáyar today but Carrie could not go and I forgot which bus to take and I only had a 20 Euro bill and the biggest the buses take are 10 Euro bills so I decided to walk around. Oddly enough Avril saw me and so we went shopping for her family and it was fun. I had not seen her for awhile so that was good as well. We went to a churriaria, a place that makes churros (fried sticks of batter), and hot chocolate, this was literally hot melted chocolate in a cup. You eat the churros with the hot chocolate and it is really good, unfortunately it was a lot of chocolate and there were five churros which is a lot. I did not want to eat it all and I tried to get Avril to help but she only did a small bit. She got tea, which she loves since she is Irish, and I ate the rest of the churros. After that we walked around some more to look at stores and lights. She said that her host mom did not make enough food so she needed to buy food for when she was hungry so we did that too.

                My oldest host sister’s boyfriend cooked dinner tonight and it was amazing. The best pasta that I have ever had, I am not sure what was in it but it was good. There was typical Roman cheese that he brought for the pasta. There was also a great salad with tuna. Tonight on El hormiguero (Anthill), basically the Spanish Late Show, Tom Cruise was the guest and was pretty interesting.

Sunday December 11 – Not Much to Do

                Woke up at 1:00 in the afternoon and did not do much the rest of the day. I tried to study but that did not go so well so I just went to bed at 11:00.

Saturday December 10 – Full Lunar Eclipse/ Real Madrid vs. Barcelona

                Last night I got 10 hours of deep sleep, I am starting to get used to not having Kevin here, he is in Moracco for the week, and I have not been woken up from his noise making. I also watched a full lunar eclipse for three hours online since it was not visible in Europe or eastern USA because it was day time or too light out. I sent Chelsea a text about the eclipse and she said she was checking the time right when it got to her so she got up and watched the moon until it went below the horizon. She said that she could see the start of it but it was below the horizon before it started to change to red. In the evening I walked around with Courtney for souvenirs but I did not get any because I have nearly all of mine.

                I watch the Real Madrid versus Barcelona game with Real Madrid being home, this game is called El Clasico (The Classic). I watched it with my host mom, two sisters, and boyfriend. Real Madrid plays very dirty and Barcelona plays great together. Barcelona won three to one, Barcelona’s scorers were Alexis Sánchez in the 30^th minute, Xavi in the 53^rd minute, and Cesc Fábregas in the 66^th minute. Real Madrid’s lone goal came from Karim Benzema only 24 seconds after the game began. It was a fun game to watch even though Real Madrid played very dirty especially when losing. I am forever a Barcelona fan now.