Does the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain?

One thing I found that's different is that every day when we come in, our teacher asks us if we went out partying the night before and expects the answer to be yes. Yesterday she told us that we really should go out, because "everyone in Spain goes out on Thursdays." So, almost all the Erasmus students went to a dinner they put together for us (it took them forever to get us our food, but at least the company was good) and when dinner finished, at midnight, the teachers/instructors/mentors that put it together led us to a bar a few blocks down. I guess I'm a wimp and so are my roommates, because we didn't stay at the bar long. We had to get up for class in the morning (and yes, mom, we finished our homework before we went out).

My apartment is on the first floor and there are two large glass doors out to the balcony and when we were getting ready, we all had to use the long mirror in our living room to get ready, because there's only one small one in the bathroom. So, one of us used that and the others lined up in the living room. It was funny, because we had our Spanish music playing and the door was open so people we know that passed our building all saw us. I wish I had a picture to send you, because it was pretty funny. There are four of us total in our apartment here (it's only for two weeks...then I'm going to go to school in Valencia - about a hour north by train). One is Jenny, my friend from middle school/high school/college, there's one girl from Finland, and another from Italy. We all get along really well and have fun. Everyday we have to remind each other that we can only speak Spanish in our apartment (the Italian girl doesn't speak English, so that's really good for her).

I walked to Sagrada Familia and it was amazing! Its size along would be big enough to make it famous and flying in during the daytime, it's probably the one thing on the skyline you can recognize. It is still under construction apparently but they're cleaning it too, so there was lots of scaffolding. I went before sunrise, because I had to catch an early train to meet Jenny in Valencia. The train ride was three hours long and I was so tired and crabby from traveling and waking up early, but my first view of the Mediterranean cheered me right up. The apartment Jenny and I found that we will be sharing with two Spanish speaking girls from the Czech Republic is about three blocks from the beach and so is the apartment I'm at now in Gandia. Most days it's nice enough to go to the beach. Today is VERY windy though. We had an excursion planned to go to a castle up in the mountains (it's cool that we're in between mountains and the sea) and it got changed to Wednesday because of it.

They definitely party hard here. They get together to drink at someone's house or apartment around 11, go to a bar between 1 and 4 and THEN go to club until dawn. Our first Saturday here the same people that organized our dinner last night took us out to the bars and club and Jenny and I lasted longer than most, but ended up walking along the beach back to our apartment at six. We felt a little disappointed, because we wanted to see the sunrise. We'll give it another go tonight or later this weekend. The club we went to was named 'Cocoloco' (Dad-I asked, because I know we've looked long and hard since that first time with the King of Cozumel for the drink Cocoloco, but, go figure, they don't have it! I guess it wasn't meant to be).

It's kind of had adjusting to their eating schedule too. They eat breakfast between 8 and 9, coffee or a small sandwich at noon, lunch between 3 and 4, tapas around 7 or 8, and dinner at 10 or later. I am usually tired enough by 10 to want to go to bed, because I can't take my siesta...It's weird, because I'm usually pretty good at that. ;)

Those of you who know me pretty well know I love Chinese food so much and that was one of those things I knew I was going to miss, but on our way back from the bar last night, Jenny and I found a restaurant called 'Feliz China' and I got VERY excited. So, before we leave next week, I have a feeling we might go there. Other than that and the historical palaces and stuff here, I want to go to this tapas bar that for tables, it has barrels and the barrel is tapped and there is a meter so you can just get beer there. Not much of us are big beer fans, but we all agreed it would be really neat to go to one night for tapas.

I've resisted getting a phone so far and all the other exchange students have gotten them. There's one that's way cheaper than all the rest so I might do it, but I really like not having one and having to take it everywhere. My camera is now what's always attached to me. I just have to start taking it out to use it.

(We just put a sign on our door that anyone who comes in here can only speak Spanish and the Italian girl got a phone call and Jenny pointed to the door and she started to leave. Hahahahah! Then we told her she didn't have to.)

I don't have much else that I remember right now to tell you all except that Spain is fun and I've met tons of cool people and I miss you all lots! Oh! And I'm going to put the song that my class wrote below. It won't work if you plug it into a translator, because I still don't know how to put accents on my words, but I know some of you know enough Spanish to pick out parts of it. It was just supposed to be a silly song about Spain. Jenny's group wrote a hilarious one, but she's doing her homework so I can't steal her notebook to give it to you. (Sra. Kiser, Jenny said she would send it to you though when she's done!)

Here it is (don't worry Sra. Kiser, Altadonna, and Myer, I know not all the grammar is right, but it had to rhyme!):

Se llama 'Mi semana en Espana'

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