a bacon cheeseburger from Chilis

:) hellooooo!

ahh, how is it that I feel I have been here forever and yet it's been only 2 weeks? In a way I feel like I should be packing up now and saying, "that was fun see ya later!" haha and then I realize I have over 3 more months here! Exciting and scary all at the same time, as usual. But...
"If you risk nothing, you risk everything." :)

Before I forget: for those of you who don't have a facebook and would like to see some pictures, here is a link to some pictures I've taken of the city and my home here :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013730&l=1cc85&id=1042110068

Also, I am officially making the titles of my blogs the name of the food that I am most currently craving from the US. :) hahah

Thank you to alllll of you for the birthday wishes I know you were all sending. My birthday was a lot of funnn. In the evening I had a really nice dinner with my family at the house and was allowed to have Sam come over (Sam is one of my best friends at BU and is the only person I knew coming on this trip). Being a family of musicians, they played me "Happy Birthday" on the violin and guitar and Rocio (mi senora) brought out a cake she made :) It was so sweet of all of them. They put those trickster candles on it so I spent a good 5 minutes blowing them out haha Guille was crying because he wanted it to be his birthday and when I asked him if he wanted to help me blow out the candles he ran up the stairs screaming and crying. haha, true bonding right there. It's okay though, he got a hair cut yesterday and I called him guapo (handsome) so now I think I'm back on his good side. jajaja. But yes, the dinner was so sweet of them, they hung little birthday decorations and even got me a few pieces of jewelry as a gift. Yet again, another birthday full of such fortune and blessings. I am constantly reminded how lucky I am when my birthday comes around, I can feel so much love from everyone (even those of you 6000 miles away on the west coast!). Truly blessed.

So not only was this my birthday weekend it was also all of ours first reaaal weekend here (and my 1st 3 day weekend ever!). So I went out with friends on Thursday, pretty low key, to a nice bar and just chatted until they kicked us out around 2:30am. Friday was a bit more crazy :) I lived the life of a true spanaird haha Basically I took a nap from 11pm-12am and met up with friends at 1am only to stay out until 6am :) I only paid for one drink the entire weekend! haha yesss i love birthdays! haha. It was really fun. I stayed in on Saturday considering how my body was slightly confused as to what the hell i was doing to it. I felt kinda bad though on Saturday the family had over 2 other familes for this huge breakfast and I slept through the whole thing.. haha that's kinda where the gray area comes in as to what I feel is right and wrong. When they tell me about things I don't know if they are telling me as in I have to be there or as a heads up or as an invitation? Meh, hopefully soon I'll understand that a little better.

The days during the weekend were fun too. I visited the Museo de Prado! Craaazy. I also went to a Symphony Orchestra with a few friends on Friday night before we all went out. It was interesting, because I realized I think for the first time, significantly, how universal music can be. I was sitting in this huge place with hundreds of other people and it didn't matter who spoke english or spanish or whatever, it was silent and we could all here the same thing. I don't know, I also had a slightly profound moment when I visited la iglesia de los jeronomes after the Prado. It is this amazing church, I can't even explain how magnificent it is. But I went and sat in the front to pray, for literally, each and every one of you. After, as I was looking/admiring the "decorations", I realized how still everything in the church is. I'm not sure if this is even coming across right, when I tried to explain it to the people I went with they joked around how I was basically crazy haha It was just this intense contrast in motion, how busy life is, how much happens, and during all of it, those figures and "decorations" remain completely constant. Across miles and miles so much takes place, and yet these objects remain completely untouched. I wonder if I am noticing such things because of the huge upheavel my life has seem to undergo in these last 2 weeks. I just don't think I've ever had to take in so much in such a short amount of time and things like motion and the contrast between movement and stillness is something that is obvious to me right now, seeing that I am slightly stuck between both worlds, internally and externally.

Classes are hard. I lovee the staff that works here though. Through out my time at BU I've grown a slight resentment towards lack of connection with the faculty and being basically a number. The office staff here is small and very close, and knows every single one of our names. I had never talked to the director before and when I asked him a question on the 2nd day he knew my name haha, just the energy in the office when you walk in is so great. There is a very obvious vibe that they are all there for us, to help us have an amazing experience and learn. So I've really liked that. Also, the Institute I'm at holds numerous colleges so it's been nice to meet people in different programs from different colleges around the US. Unfortunatly, my number of spanaird friends / legit spanish speaking people are few, so I need to work on that. It's obviously still really early and understandable that the majority of ppl I go out with on the weekend are english speaking, I just really need to start putting myself out there and force myself into those uncomfortable situations where I basically don't know what anyone is saying hahah

I feel I have gotten more quiet as the days go. I think it's starting to sink in more that this is a sink or swim situation and there's kind of no way around feeling so out of place at times. I mentioned I felt my spanish was already getting better after the first few days and now I feel it's worse than before haha I just am very tired of constantly interrupting people and asking, "Que? Que?" And even when they explain it I usually don't get it and just am frankly too embarrassed to ask a hundredth time. I knooow you are all thinking they don't care, which I know the majority of the time they don't, it's still just hard. I also realize once I ask them to repeat it and they write it down, I realize I already knew the word, it was just the way they were saying it that made me not able to understand. So it's a combination of the accent, the pace of speaking, and the language itself. But step by step!

I am really enjoying the meals here. I am eating so healthy. Today for lunch I ate swordfish with some kind of tomatoe rice soup. I've had more fish in these last 2 weeks than I have in my entire life haha. I not only enjoy having actual meals that are soso healthy, I also enjoy having it being made for me :) haha it's almost easier when I don't have to decide what to eat. I never know what I'm about to eat until I sit down and they put it infront of me. The parents always serve everyone at the table, at first it was weird but now I'm getting use to it. Dinner is always the best time with my family because we are all together and relaxed. I come home for lunch too alot but it's never the whole family there. I had one really great dinner last week with the family that made me very happy. Just lots of laughing and communication.

It's already been too long since I've seen all of your beautiful faces and I cannot wait until the time comes when I get to give each and every one of you a hug :)

Besos y Abrazos,
apb