The past week I have been working with my friend Julio at the bar he where he works, called Havana.  Its on the Rambla at the corner of where the Barrio begins.  I first worked Mon and Tues morning putting up posters all over the UNiversity with him then Tues and Wed night I worked from 11-3 passing out drink special flyers on the Rambla and basically walking around the Barrio and getting my friends free drinks.  It wasnt bad but the hours are a little crazy! Dont worry though, I am only working this week filling in for the girl that normally does it thats on vacation.  And I get paid.

I just got a new host sister on Sun.  Her name is Dylana and she is from Long Island, New York.  I love her!  we have become really good friends in the last couple of days, and get this...she leaves before I do!  she leaves the 25th of June.  She has really caught on to my group of friends which is wonderful because they really like her and she likes my friends better than hers :)I'll post pics of us soon!  Anyway, all is well and I am getting ready to go to Mallorca on the 2nd!  One of my best guy friends, Ravi, left this morning so I am a little bit sad.  Luckily last night after work we were able to go out for a little while and say goodbye.

Hasta luego!

Photos from recently!

We got together the other night and had a dinner to say bye to everyone.  My first close friend Robbie leaves tomorrow, then throughout the weekend almost all the ASU and Erskine people will be gone :(

My time in Alicante comes to an end very soon, I just realized. I come home in 5 weeks.

My friends from Arizona and South Carolina are all leaving this weekend, so it will be just us Mizzou kids. Last night Aurora went out the Barrio with Pedro to have a drink and when I went out with all my friends we saw them sitting there at Austin's. It was so fun.  I had ALL my Alicante people in one place :) :)

 I ended up spending the night at Xenia's because I dont like to walk home alone from the Barrio and we were both tired.  I sent Aurora a text message saying I was staying over and she sent one back that said "Me encanta que te diviertes sin beber mucho con tus amigos. I love you."

Which means..I love seeing you have such a great time with your friends without drinking a lot (probably because everyone else in the Barrio was drunk!) and I love you...in English! I am gonna miss her more than anyone when I come home. 

It scares me to think these next few days may be the last I will ever have with some of the amazing friends I have made here.  We have arranged to meet tomorrow after Armando's class to take a group picture, so we can remember everyone before they leave...

hmm.. sad. Well, I'm gonna write a paper so I gotta go (YES! SCHOOLWORK!) Love you all!

And I hope Deb had a fun birthday party!!

For more info about the significance of the Camino and the signs and symbols that guide the way (the shell):

http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/

El Camino

The Camino de Santiago was absolutely AMAZING!  I think I enjoyed it more than any other trip I have taken in Europe.  We walked from Orense after taking the night train all through Spain and we walked a little over 100 kilometers over 4 days, then spent one day in Santiago getting our certifications and such, the took the night train and then another train back to Alicante.  It was quite a trip but we had such a good time.  I was lucky and finished with only a hurting right ankle and a toenail that is about to fall off.  Others ended up with NASTY blisters covering their entire feet that they had to get sewn up.  I thank my wonderful Asics for getting me through it.  The group that went was an awesome group of friends of mine from Mizzou and Arizona, and I can't remember a moment that we weren't laughing throughout the whole trip, even when we had 5 km straight uphill.  All we ate during the day was bread, chorizo, cheese, and wine, then at night we got a hot meal.  Wine on the trail is a bit much and makes the hills more difficult, but more fun.  Almost all the water in Galicia is potable, so we drank from fountains along the way.  The first night, we slept in a gorgeous 12th century monastery and used the monks showers..the second through fourth nights we slept in Albergues, which are pilgrim shelters, and they were actually pretty nice.  My goal was to never get in a bad mood and I didn't the entire time..Even the 3rd day where we hiked 33 km with the final 5km uphill in the pouring rain.  Finally making it to Santiago de Compostela, seeing the cathedral, and going to the pilgrim's mass there was incredible.  The priest personally welcomed our group during the mass and Armando, our director that went with us (and who sang to wake us up every morning) was a lector during the service!  It was amazing.  I will try to post the video of Armando as well, but it may take forever.  The pictures will tell the rest of the story.  Enjoy!

I'm leaving in an hour for the CAMINO! I have my backpack all ready and packed with my stuff..wish me luck! See you Wednesday! If you look closer at the map, we walk from Ourense to Santiago de Compostela.  Ourense is toward the south east.

LONDON!

This weekend I went to LONDON with my friend Lauren.  We had a great time!  The first day, after a slight mix up in our hostel, we basically explored London by foot, the best way.  We didnt yet want to buy an Underground pass or anything so we walked all day.  We went to Hyde Park, Notting Hill, and a bunch of different places.  We ate traditional English food for lunch that day-Fish and Chips! Chips being fries.  The menu had all stuff like cottage pie and shepherds pie--sausage sandwiches and peas!  Peas! Peas with everything!  We saw the Big Ben clock tower, and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (the queen WAS there!), but there were soo many people there that we almost got pushed!  I had to throw a few people off me with my elbows :) It was wild but very cool.  Very traditional.  I loved about London that they had everything--mostly in terms of food, Thai food, Indian food, American food, English food, Chinese food, natural food, organic food, juices, smoothies, salads, everything!  It was great!

The second day we conquered the Underground and went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone and soooo many other neat things and went to Soho and Covent Gardens, two really cool zones of the city.  We walked all around Picadilly Circus and looked for cheap tickets to see either Lion King or Wicked the following day or that night, we finally found tickets for a mere 19 pounds!  I hate pounds!  But...we bought them and went to see WICKED the next day in LONDON! How cool!  The show was great, but it was different with British accents. I liked the Fox better, butttt....still, it's London, and we saw a MUSICAL there!

The last day (sat) we did the changing of the guard and we got there at 10am.  It happens at 11:30.  At 11:20 all these people started to push their way through so I had to get a little serious with them.  I told them the truth, that if they had wanted to see and get a good spot, they should have also arrived at 10:00.  I didnt let anyone in, but then this lady come up with her son using him as an excuse to push their way through, the 8 year old kid walked up and climbed the fence so he was standing in front of all of us.  I said something finally and proclaimed how that was not right and that he did not have the right to be there since he had pushed his way through at the last minute.  Despite being pushed by Australians, Germans, Asians, French people, Russians, and even Spaniards, we decided it was time to get out of there..we saw what we needed to see.  I was astounded because the changing of the guard happens EVERY DAY, but there were probably 2000 people there.  It was WILD.  Such a tourist attraction.  

We saw a couple more things then went back to our hostel after eating in Soho at this Chinese buffet which was healthy, don't worry (i'm not kidding!). Then we prepared our journey for the next morning (3:50 am) and our flight took off at 7:15 am this morning.

 We made it home in time to spend the day on the beach--a weekend well spent.  

Today is Mother's Day in Spain, so Feliz Día de Madre to all the MOMS!