Weekend Number One

Welll the weekend was a success i suppose. Miley should re-write her song and have is say party in Espana...cause that is exactly what the weekend is about. For my age group it is sooo common for them to stay out until 5 or 6 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights. Joy and I made it until 3 haha...we like getting more than 5 hours of sleep. Friday night we went to a birthday party of one of Joy's host brothers friends. It was her 18th, so a big deal because of drinking age. Before the party (which was in a bar) we met all of his friends in the park...very nice. One of his friends spent a year in Iowa so her english was very pretty good...but she helped us out by still talking to us in spanish unless we had questions. It is still a little weird to be able to walk into a bar and not be carded or anything....not even when you order a drink. Another different thing out the bars is that if you want to leave and you havent finished your drink they have disposable cups by the door you poor the rest of it into and you are on your way to the next bar. Last night Joy and I left the apartments at around 4:30 pm and didnt get home until 2am....We first met some friends that are from Chicago and went and walked around to find supper..we found this really good pizza place. We then went to go find somewhere to watch the soccer, i mean futbol game...Bilbao was playing Real Madrid which was a big deal because they havent beat them in a long time but as i understand they are rivals....annnnnd Bilbao won!!! it was really cool to see people so excited...the score was 1-0. We watch the game at this cafe and the 5 of us order chocolate y churros.......sooooooooooooooo good. yum yum yum. It was a fun time. Why were at the restaurant, Joy and I needed to use the restroom so we crowded ourselves into this little bathroom that was one stall but the stall was separated with a door to the sink area.....there were some Spain women in there, but when it was our turn i went ahead and went..when i was done going (sry if this is too much information, but i promise im getting to the point) i could not find the flusher anywhere...so i opened the door a crack to Joy and these three other spanish women crammed into a small room and i said joy i dont know how to flush it and one of the women must have gotten the drift cause she pointed at the ceiling...and sure enough there was a chain hanging from the ceiling that i need to pull...joy and i started to laugh and in spanish, joy said sorry we are from the united states with a giggle. It was pretty funny. [ ok this section is totally off subject but I am currently sitting in Joy's host families apartment, because they have internet and Xabi turned on the radio to listen to and Taylor Swift was on...so funny to me because it is a Spain radio station, but they play so much American music...even in the bars, these kids claim they dont know english but then a American song comes on and they know EVERY word..they love Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga...so funny. ] The rest of the night last night was good...we just walked around...and talked....our group was very indecisive so at times we would just randomly stop along the street cause we didnt know where to go and we would have very in depth conversations... it was a lot of fun though. On the way home last night Joy and i were talking about going to Mass but didnt know what church to go to and didnt know the times....just at that time we crossed paths with one of our friends that we met that is from California, she was with two other kids and the guy that she was with was showing her where the church was because she wanted to go in the morning as well...so we tagged along. We got to the church but there was no sort of sign as to when it started...so we just started asking random people on the street that were passing by the church...it became a very hilarious night at this point....out of everyone we asked...we were told that it started at 7,8,9,10,11,and 12...after someone would say a new hour the 5 of us couldnt help busting out laughing...we contemplated about sleeping on the church steps because we didnt know what hour to pick....we ended up not going, so we will try next week because my Host-mom said it started at noon. Today was a "do nothing all day" day....Sundays are family/ relaxing days...so all i really did was catch up on sleep, eat meals, and worked on some stuff on my computer....it was a good day to have before starting class tomorrow.

It is so amazing to Joy and I how much Spaniards look like Americans, and they dont even know it....so many of these people could be in American and nobody would know except for they dont speak english... alot of them, especially the young kids, have fair skill and blond hair. Joy and I asked Xabi's friends if they knew that they looked like Americans, and they were stunned...they were like uhhh no we dont....yes, yes you do haha. The other thing that isnt really surprising but kinda annoying to Joy and I is that EVERYONE smokes...its awful...you can smoke in any building and just through your buds on the floor when your done...its there way of life but its so sad because they start when they are so young...at the birthday party all of these 18 year olds have a smoke in one hand and a drink in the other....it just screams cancer to me :(.

My mom told me today that my dad and Anne will head to Haiti on Wednesday with one tickets not knowing when they will come back...I pray for safety for them with traveling and all that they do in Haiti...my heart goes out to that country and all that they are going through...

I miss you guys
xoxoxo

Mel