Farewell, Españas

So I guess this is my last blog from Spain!  I'll do one more in a week or so about what it's like to readjust to life in the states, but that's about it.  Thanks for reading!  Anyway,...
It's sad.  Everyone is so tired from traveling and 6 weeks of sleep deprivation that they don't even have the energy to go out and "burn the town"(english equivalent=taking the town by storm) like we've been talking about.  Therefore we are all just chilling in McDonald's next door (free wifi) and then maybe walking around for a few minutes.  A bit anticlimactic, but I'm ok with it.  I already miss Cádiz though-it was so sad to leave our house-mother.  She watched us out the door, then went to a window to watch us go down the stairs, then a different window to watch us go down the street.  She was crying, I almost cried, and we kissed eachother goodbye/hugged I think 7 times.  I pray sincerely that I get to see that wonderful lady again at some point in my life, and that we can stay in touch in the mean time.  She was truly one of the best, if not the best, parts about this trip.  Anyway, I'm heading home in the morning, so I can't wait to see all of you in person and tell even more stories. Hope you have lots of questions, and that I've sparked your interest in the land that's caught my heart forever.  Adios!

And so the page turns...

Blog:
It's my last week in Cádiz!  Kind of bitter sweet.  I love it here, and would come back in a heart beat.  However, I am at that point at which I miss a lot about home too-I have a jam-pack life there with people, activities, responsibilities, etc. that just won't go into my suitcase, and I am looking forward to coming back to them.  Anyway...
This weekend has been pretty cool.  We went to a Jazz/Bossa Nova concert on Thursday, which was pretty cool.  Then on Friday we had a packed Flamenco night.  FIrst we had flamenco dance lessons (the hardest dance I've ever attempted--including West Coast Swing).  Afterwards we ate really quickly then went to a competition between Flamenco singers, which was very interesting.  Also, this weekend the group that is studying in Valencia through UGA en España came down, so we hung out with them on the beach and took them to tapas and to show them the night life.  It felt cool to be able to share what we've learned in the past few weeks this weekend.  This morning, after finally getting up at 11 (such a hard life), we went to this local flea market that they have every Sunday near our school.  Like any flea market, it was a lot of junk with some really cool stuff mixed in.  However, there were a couple of differences.  For one thing, technology there is still behind what I'm used to-people were buying VHS tapes and music tapes...?  One guy tried to sell me Harry Potter on VHS, and I told him "I don't even have a way to play this."  Another interesting thing about Spain is that Porn is not very taboo here.  There were literally porn magazines sitting next to children's books right in the middle of the street.  It's not like there were many people buying them or anything,  but they were there and none of the locals even gave it a second's thought.  Weird...  Other than that I have just slept in quite a bit today in efforts to rest up from the weekend, and then took a walk with a couple of friends through the streets for nostalgic purposes.  Now I am going to start on homework and studying for my finals later this week.  Hasta Luego!

Blogging Failure???

First off, my sincere apologies for my inconsistent posts (hince the title).  Anyway, moving on...This weekend we went to Granda, and it has officially replaced Madrid as my favorite city in Spain.  It has all the beauty and relaxedness of the countryside with all the resources and vitality of a city.  It's my second time going there, and it was even better than I remembered it (which is impressive).  We saw La Alhombra, of course (google it-it is absolutely amazing.)  I'll also tell you a bit about it.  It was this Palace that Ferdinand and Isabel took over when they conquered the moors, and it is amazing.  My favorite quote by here is something to the tune of "I didn't conquer the Alhombra.  The Alhombra conquered me."  She was so awe-struck by it that she made every effort to preserve it and changed very little.  On our own, we also went to eat at this quaint Morroccan place that was amazing, then a few of us went to see the Cathedral because I wanted them to get to see the resting place of Isabel, Ferdinand, Juana la Loca, and Felipe el Hermoso.  Unfortunately, I remembered incorrectly and we went in the wrong Cathedral at first, but we eventually get it figured out.  Later that night we went and saw a Flamenco show, which was awesome.  ON the way there we shared a bus with this group of elderly travelers.  This gentleman (70s) came and flirted with the girls and sat with us and talked about going to a botellón with us.  It was great-we were so hyped up to go out after the show that we were dancing in the back of the bus, asking the driver to turn up the music.  Later last night we went to a discotech and danced for quite a while.  It was great, and well deserved after a week of tests.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to do any homework, so that's it for my post for the night.  Buena Noche!

P.S.  I promise a ton of pictures will get to facebook eventually.  I just want to wait until I get back home and have time to do some minor editing.  (And I do mean minor-I have taken 1800 pictures and we are only 2/3 through the trip.)

Study Break

Ok, so linguistics is no more interesting of a topic when taught in Spanish than when taught in English.  Everyone is way too stressed by two tests...It's only midterms week and people are stressing like it's finals week and there's no MLC to contain it all.  Anyway, for my study break I figured I would post a few photos. This weekend I went to Gibraltar, so I will post pics/info sometime tomorrow.  Un abrazo desde Cádiz!

The Cathedral in Cádiz

On the Ferry to Santa María

The Beach at Conil