February 24

Today is February 24. That means I´ve been in Spain for a month! It´s kind of hard to believe. In some respects, it feels like it´s been longer than that, especially the first couple weeks. (Although when I look back at that, it seems like it´s been much longer than just a month.) But in most ways it´s gone by really fast. This is a good thing and a bad thing, I suppose. I am just as glad now to have the time go by fast, so that I can come home and see all my family and friends sooner. But I´m sure once the time comes, I won´t want to leave. I also feel a little guilty because I had intended to start speaking Spanish with my friends after the first week, and it hasn´t happened yet. And now all of the sudden it´s been a month! We to speak in Spanish every once in a while, and I´m finding that even when I´m speaking in English I sometimes incorporate a little Spanish, either in a phrase or sentence construction or something, but I had far better intentions. So that´s going to be my goal for the next month. Hopefully less than a month. It´s also weird to think that I´ve known the people I met here for only a month. Since we´ve done so much together it seems like I´ve known them for much longer. I still don´t know them all well, but it seems like it´s been more than a month.
Barcelona plans are well underway. We´re taking the bus Friday night, and we decided this morning to for sure take a flight back on Monday morning. Our hostel has a 2 night stay minimum, so we figured we´d take advantage of that and then catch an 7:30am flight back and get back around 8:30 or 9. Then I can have some time to sleep before classes start at 4. That´s the wonderful thing about having Monday mornings off! Janny gave me some recommendations of Gaudi sites to see there, so I think we´re going to take advantage of most of those. I´m getting really excited, I´ve heard Barcelona is one of the best cities in Spain.
I´ve hit a snag on my spring break planning. I can´t remember how much of this I´ve told before, so I´m going to briefly sum it up. Jen and I were going to fly to Budapest, then take the train to Vienna and Salzburg, and then fly home from Salzburg. Later that night (after we bought the tickets), she decided that would be too much money, so we decided to cancel those tickets and do a round trip from Budapest, and from there a round trip bus to Vienna. We would scrap Salzburg entirely. I found out last night that my ticket home from Salzburg is nonrefundable. So I either have to absorb the 164 euro ticket and buy a new one, or find a way to get to Salzburg, probably on my own. I´m not really sure what I´m going to do yet. I messaged Jen but haven´t heard anything back yet. This whole planning thing is so complicated!! It´s so much easier when someone else plans and I just tag along! But I guess it´s a good learning experience. And if I do have to travel alone, it´ll be practice for June when I think I´m going to end up going from Athens to Madrid to Chicago on my own. So I´m trying to think positively.
I can´t think of anything more of interest that´s happened lately, so I´m going to go catch the bus home now. Bye!
Bethany