fun couple of weeks!

Well sadly these last couple of weeks have flown by!  I will start off with last week and then tell you about our pretty exciting weekend. We pretty much had normal classes last week except one day we started a little late because when we walked into the building, there was another strike going on (very odd) a lot of teachers were clapping, chanting something we couldn't understand, and blowing loud horns. Haha we all kind of stood there and watched and then eventually they stopped and we weren't too happy we had to go to class because we thought they were going to cancel it. One day after class we went to the back of this ice cream shop and they explained to us how it was made which was really interesting (the ice cream is soo amazing here we definitely have been eating too much of it). A little update on our family is that our mom definitely has a mood swing issue haha.. some days she decides she wants to be super nice and cute and talk to us for awhile during our meals and other days she acts like she is a little bit miserable that we are there. Me and Natalie just think it is funny because we are the easiest host daughters to have and we eat everything she makes (which has been very good still) and we don't ever complain about anything (ofcourse we are the ideal host students :). Our mom is not mean at all she just doesn't show a huge interest to talk to us alot... our main topic of discussion usually consists of food, if we like the food, if we want more food, when we will be eating food next, etc. you get the picture. Our favorite aunt, however, visited the other day and we enjoyed talking to her and playing with her son Jesus for awhile again. The longer we have been here we have realized that our house is very nice and is in an awesome location which has been very convenient. A lot of times when we meet up with our friends from the group we always meet in a plaza right next to our house. Anywho we went to the beach of course last week and had a couple of picnics there (our mom will make us sandwhiches for us to take straight to the beach from class which is nice). One day there was this breakdancing show in the plaza near our house. These three guys just were in the middle of the plaza doing a performance and their were a bunch of kids and people surrounding them. I will put a picture of then on this post! A fun story from last week was that on Thursday we were all in a little restaurant bar watching a Spain soccer game and this guy walked in..a few of us were like hmm he looks kind of familiar and then we all realized he was a guy we had met at our hostel in Portugal a couple of weekends before. He had continued to travel around and was spending a couple of days in Cadiz. It was so funny when we all realized and he ended up watching the game with us. We also met some Canadian girls and Ireland guys while watching the game and along with our Portugal friend we all went out together that night. It was fun to talk to all the different people and we all worked on some of our spanish together haha.



And now to the big weekend...fortunately I can post this on the blog because everything worked out exactly as planned (Im not sure I would have shared this spontaneous weekend if we messed it all up)...soo this whole trip occurs within 24 hours. We began on a bus from Cadiz to Seville from about 9 oclock Saturday morning to 11 oclock. We then took a bus from the bus station in Seville to the airport in Seville. We all got on a 1 oclock flight to Barcelona (we were a tad nervous about the validity of the flight because it was extremely cheap and sounded a litttle sketchy but no worries it actually was really nice) We made it safely to Barcelona around 3 and then took a bus to the center of the city. Barcelona is huge and beautiful and I am glad I got to go even for a ilttle while. We got there and we wanted a quick meal and I hate to admit it but we did all had McDonalds. After my delicious cheeseburger and fries we all bought a day bas for the metro and headed to the Segrada Familia Cathedral. The Cathedral was unbelievable and I cannot imagine how they built it. It was beautiful and definitely worth seeing. We the hopped back on the metro to a really cool park that I don't remember the name of but I will get on that. The park overlooked the entire city and we got some great pictures. The park was very pretty and we walked around there for a long time. By this time we grabbed a little dinner and then started heading to the place where the Sonar Music Festival was. There was a big music festival all weekend in Barcelona and we decided to buy a night pass for Saturday night. We headed into the concert around 1030 and the place was huge. I guess the Spaniards weren't as into the first couple bands as we were because we marched right up to the front row wiggling through people and all 12 of us were against the gate of the front row. This place was PACKED with people and somehow we were in the front row (I have been to a lot of concerts and do not think i have ever been in the front row) Anyways we decided then that I guess we weren't going to move the entire time since we had the best spot. We saw Pretty Lights, Die Antwood, Madeon, and Deadmau5 (which I'm sure most of you have no clue who or what any of those things are) but they were awesome. Pretty Lights, who I have seen before, was awesome and then Die Antwood was these random 2 people from South Africa that the fans were going nuts over. People were literally diving on us from behind since we were at the front and they were obsessed with this random band..haha it was a ton of fun tho and we somehow all stuck together. Well the best part of this while trip is that we did not book anywhere to stay or bring anything but what we were wearing and our small purses with money in them... the concert went until 4 oclock in the morning and we took taxis straight from the concert to the airport. Thank the lord we all made it to our 6 oclock flight back to Seville. We got to Seville around 8 and got on the 9 oclock bus Sunday morning back to our home in Cadiz. I think we all took a deep breath when every person made it back and none of us missed any of the buses or flights. Needless to say I didn't see anyone until Monday morning because people spent all day Sunday sleeping at their houses or on the beach. It was a trip well worth it and I don't think I will ever go on such a quick trip to a different place again. We were glad we got to see some of Barcelona during the day and we all had the best time at the concert. So props to the 12 of us that planned that trip all by ourselves :)

 By monday we had all recovered from our lack of sleep and we went to class as usual. We are preparing for our finals this week that are on thursday. Monday after school we had our last soccer game which was a ton of fun because a lot of the group played and we think we have all gotten better playing together (probably not but we like to say that). I took a little picture of the field we have been playing on so that you all can imagine it. Well today is Tuesday and this morning instead of class we had an "intercambio" which is where our class and a class of spanish students who are learning english come together and talk. Me and my friend Blair talked to a 25 year old spanish girl named Dessire. We talked in english for an hour so that she could practice and then we talked in spanish for the next hour. We talked about a ton of random things and had a great time meeting her. Her english was alright but I'd have to say I think our spanish was better ;). I'm currently just in the plaza about to study for a little while and read and thought I would write this blog. Friday we are all going to some big ballet performance and then saturday night we have our last big dinner together! We make the long bus ride back to Madrid on Sunday and then our flight is on Monday. Can't believe it has gone so quick!! I'll fill you in on my last few days probably Sunday sometime! Miss everyone!!!