A sigh of relief

I was really productive today.

First I signed up to go to Valencia on March 19th for a celebration called Las Fallas. Supposedly it's really cool and something you must see if you get the chance. It's some sort of statue burning thing. Only 30 euros!

Then I walked halfway home from the university. It wasn't too cold out so it was nice to see more of the city and get a little exercise.

When I got home I did so much research! I found tourism websites for Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris. AND I found plane tickets from Alicante to Madrid on RyanAir for 2.77 euros (one way)!! That's like an $8 round trip! I'm making my schedule tomorrow so after that I'll knew when I can travel. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't have classes on Fridays and/or Mondays.

So things are looking up. I'm not as stressed about having to find my way around Paris because I found a nice hostel and I've done a little research about Paris. Can you believe that I was so stressed that a few days ago I had a dream that my friend was studying in Paris this semester and I only realized it was a dream during class the next day when I remembered the dream and remembered that that friend isn't in Paris. It was depressing. But now I'm not so concerned.

This girl in my program, Sohae, and I have the same birthday and she was planning a trip to Madrid that weekend to hang out and go to a football game. I haven't really decided yet if I want to spend my birthday weekend traveling or if I want my host family to make a cake and have a special dinner for me. It sounds like a lot of people from my program want to go to Madrid that weekend so I kinda want to go with. So I have some thinking to do.

Also, about the tourism websites, I'm doing research for when my family gets here. I'm trying to plan my own trips but then always keep in mind what my family will want to do when they get here.

One of my best friends, Melissa, flies into Spain today to start her semester abroad. She'll be in north Spain, in Burgos, so I won't see her that often, but we're going to travel together. And in real life, she goes to school in Boston, so really, I'll see her a lot more this semester than any other semester! I hope we get to meet up soon. Maybe we can meet in Madrid the weekend before my birthday! Or maybe she can come the weekend all my other friends are going to Madrid. A lot depends on how my schedule works out tomorrow.

Oh, speaking of scheduling, I told you I was going to do a week long pilgrimage for class credit but I just found out how much it costs.... something like 400 euros! That's about $550! There's no way I'm paying that much money for essentially a week of camping! I hate camping! Sure it would be cool to do the walk with Armando because he knows everything about Spain, but I'd much rather book my own transportation and do the walk with other frugal friends for a couple hundred dollars less. So that means I'll need to add another 3 class hours to my schedule. It's a little bit sad but hey, I'm in Spain. I can't be that sad.

Miss you guys.