bienvenidos a los estados unidos

this is my official "welcome back" post. to myself, yes. can't i welcome myself back to someplace?

in actuality, i've been home since 1am sunday morning. our internet server has been down, however, so i've been forced to go without for a few days. i have survived, though.

the trip home was great. i love international flights, and it turns out that my ears don't bother me a bit on the international flights... only on the in-states flights. hmm. could be a sign. not too shabby, since i'll be taking a whole heck of a lot of international flights in the next year. (read: home to nicaragua, nicaragua to home, home to mexico, mexico to argentina, argentina to spain, somewhere in europe to home, home to india, india to home. good grief. somebody stop me!) shopping overseas was great, might i make the slightest mention of that. i ate more gelato and pizza in a week than pizza and ice cream in my whole lifetime (and don't regret it a BIT!), i survived the constant stare-downs from the italians, i survived a day of the flu during my homestay, there were no thefts at all during the trip, and even during the last week i was still finding different ways for toilets to be flushed. oh, europe. you're so funny.

so, this jetlag stuff. it comes and goes. is that normal?

andy, scott, emily, and tracy... i have little regalos (presents) for each of you. come get 'em, eh! jody, i got you a little somethin' somethin', too. (don't you feel especial! btw... i can't wait to hear about your month w/ the project!)

went to see footloose at starlight tonight w/ grandma, since mom is indefinitely too busy to think about anything but school and church. the show was the best i've seen at starlight. didn't hurt that the movie's soundtrack is one of my favorites, either... it was so nice to be back in the area (swope park). however, memories of last summer came to me, when i went to every show with a certain special somebody (ok, three special somebody's, but only one of them male). this hit me most afterward. maybe if memories of he and i were bad, then emotionally i would be better during these times. but they're all... perfect. is that even possible?, i've thought. but really. hmmm. (thinking.) i'm good. i am. i know he's doing well. and i'm doing well. and that's what matters, i think. no hard feelings, no sadness, just "ok"ness. everything's ok! yep!

so... looks like it's time for leisha to get some sleep. it'll be a hard day of work tomorrow. yes, working in the kitchen qualifies as a hard day (or week) of work. have you seen my family's kitchen? yeah, that's what i thought.

although i loved my month abroad, and can't wait to do it again, i am glad to be back. a little change is always good, i think. more reflections to come at some point and time...

nighty night!

italy

i am at an internet cafe in naples, italy,with onlya few minutes left on my session. this keyboardloves to not obey me, soplease excuse the excessive crappiness ofmytyping!!!

after we left granada, we had a beautiful day in belgium, and then a great adventure on an overnight train from paris to italy,and we have been in italysince then. florence was great, but naples is... well, how wouldone describe naples? extremely dangerous? extremely dirty? i dont know, but there are definitelya lot of gucci bags being sold on the streets fora GREAT PRICE... hehe... and there are definitely no lines on the roads,no stopsigns, andno stoplights... and cars using the sidewalks as the shoulder, while tourists are innocently trying to walk along them...hehehe... naples,yes,is a great, greatplace. tomorrow we leave forrome, and then we are headed home on saturday. this has been the quickestmonth of my life. i amgladfor that, as i would give just about anything to sit with mom on the couch at homeand just chat the night away. of all things, that is definitely whati miss the most.

andy,i read your blogs just now.i havent been online since thursday, so i ama bit behind,but... wow. i amproud to have you fora brother,you know that? that might take you by surprise. i am unsure. but as i have travelled,i have seen the ways in which i think i ama lot like you... if not a lot, then at least a little................. btw, i didnt get you a tshirt, but i did get you something cool, and you are going to love it, gosh darnit! ok...maybe not... but i think you might at least appreciate it some day,lol. yep yep. anyway. i hope to see you when i get back? show you pictures and such.ofcourse!!!

ok, friends and family (andmom,if you read this, i think that is funny! my mom reading myblog... thats if you can even see the link from andys blog...anyway, i love you mom and i cant wait tosee you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), thanks for checking up on me. i will be home after saturday. drop mea line or give mea call! love you all... be home soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

flu?

so yesterday was DEFINITELY not my day. woke up before 6am and threw up quite a few times... continued a little throughout the day... missed classes, missed going to the alhambra, missed EATING... missed feeling like there was any good feeling in my body AT ALL throughout the day. oh. crappy, crappy, crappy. it was the first time that i was really homesick... mostly for mom´s home-cooked meals... but also for everyone who speaks the same language i do. as much as i think abuela is adorable, she just didn´t know when to leave me alone yesterday... ay... spaniards... lol!

but, today i was able to get up, i´m able to walk, and that´s improvement in itself. let´s hope i feel 100% better before tomorrow, when we start our crazy, crazy week of constant travel.

tonight: time to pack up and begin saying adios to granada!

costa del sol!!!

went to nerja, right on the costa del sol, on saturday. swam in the mediterranean, played some catch and frisbee in the agua, laid out, read,... it was GREAT! got some pics from the balcon de europa, which, on a clear day, overlooks africa in the distance, across the water. it was cloudy, though, but still amazingly beautiful. wow. i was really at the costa del sol!!! started the second week of classes today. fun, fun. still loving the food, except my stomach has been upsetting me yesterday and today. could it be ALL that olive oil that is put in literally EVERYTHING? my mouth doesnt mind it, but my stomach might. or it might just be a phase, and i'll get over it. i'll hope for that. called home last night... thanks to andy and amanda for talking!!! no thanks to my parents who weren't around to talk, lol. well, this has been boring enough. sorry i'm not more exciting.....!!!!!!!! keep leaving those messages! leish

burger king= el diablo, ¿no?

the gals went into burger king again yesterday. ugh. i doubt i will ever miss american food. and there will definitely be no eating of fast food for me while i am, well, anywhere. bleh!!!!! subway i can do, but there don´t seem to be any here in spain. i could be wrong, but it looks like it just wouldn´t be necessary with all of the bocadillos around here... sandwich places...

last night we went to sacromonte (a famous gypsy cave) to see some FLAMENCO! it was amazing!!!! ahhh... i also bought some castañuelas... not easy to use though...

tomorrow we´re going to nerja, which is a beach town. lots of tomando el sol y leyendo los libros, i think i can handle that pretty well!!!

update: turns out that the group won´t be traveling through switzerland, after all. que triste!!!!!!! but that just means more time in italy, which sounds good to me. switzerland can come later, methinks! (crazy to be able to say that, but it´s true!)

i ordered a sangría the other night when we all went out to the tapas bars and to the dance clubs. i definitely hated it. i knew i would, but i think it was one of those ¨well, sangría´s the most popular drink here, and i can legally order it, and i may as well give it a go¨sort of thing. one sip and i knew i was right to begin with. yuck yuck yuck, i just can´t do alcohol! luckily, it was cheap (just like all the alcohol around here seems to be), so i didn´t lose too much money off of it. and at least i´m less curious now. it´s sort of funny, i haven´t seen a water fountain in europe since the amsterdam airport last week. apparently cerveza and alcohól is the way to go... EVERYwhere... so, when ordering a ¨refresco¨at a restaurant, water is NOT an option... but cerveza IS!!!!! yep... that´s the locoest of all loco that i´ve ever heard of or seen.

oh yeah, that night, i got back to the apartamiento at about 3:15 am. yeah, right on! i sure enjoyed the siesta that next day... but then again i enjoy the siestas EVERY day...

yesterday during la comida we had a really good conversation with la señora. we talked about drinks, family, work... jen had a heck of a time trying to say that her mom was a retail merchandise stockperson and that her real dad lives in guam right now, just for the heck of it, and that her step dad does quality control for rock quarries. was too funny, her attempt. i struggled a little with saying what dad does now, but telling her that my mom is a maestra de música y piano was absolutely no problema. whew! thank goodness, lol.

probably not much more to babble on about. well, likely there is, but you know, i can save that for later.

¡adios, amigos y familia!

p.s. jody... thanks for the comments! i´m so glad your project is going well! i knew it would! keep in touch, chica... i want to hear all about it!

en españa, todavía

today was the third day of classes at mester language school. let me tell you how cool it is. (ok, let me do a really crappy job of telling you how cool it is. i´m horrible at this update stuff. if you want to know how my time has really been, read my journal. andy and em, you´ll be glad to know that i´m using it every single day, and loving it!)

alright. i was put in a class with a good number of other bv students, and a girl from the netherlands, as well as a girl from japan. it´s crazy, they just came here and started learning the language, and now they´re at my level. i´ve been studying español since sophomore year of high school. this is definitely what it takes to get better... living in the culture and living the language... i´ve had some good classes, but nothing comes close to this experience. the classes... actually, EVERYTHING at the school... is COMPLETELY in español. i have a grammar class and then a conversation class every day, with a break in between. everything is VERY laid back here in españa, and it seems that heart attacks would be impossible due to 1. so much walking everywhere, so everyone is waaaaaaaaaay in shape, and 2. the fact that there´s hardly any stress. me gusta mucho.

the girls in the group are in love with burger king and big macs. well, one girl in particular. i´m shocked by this. apparently not everybody absolutely loves being adventurous and trying everything nueva when it comes to la comida. the meals are definitely great. i´ve had TONS of fish. and for cheap, too. it really is easy to get by on very little money here. muy impresivo.

there´s quite a bit of american influence here in spain, with most of the songs played being from america... ¨say a little prayer¨ from ¨my best friend´s wedding¨ just came on here in the internet cafe. i think i´ve only heard like 3 spanish songs since i´ve been in spain. loco.

i live in a house with a really cool 50 year old woman who dresses like she´s 30, and her mother, who we like to call ¨the stinker.¨ she LOVES to talk to us, and really quickly, too, and likely in words that are not in our vocabulario. she´ll talk, then stop, and it´ll seem like she asked a question, then she´ll smile, and continue. meanwhile, i´m thinking, oh good, i don´t have to think of what to say back to her. but she really is adorable. she gives us hugs. and we say ¨hasta luego¨a lot. hehehe... you can never go wrong with ¨hasta luego.¨it explains everything. remember, spain is very laid back. not many explanations needed, thank goodness. oh, did i mention that the señora cooks incredible meals? yeah, the food. very, very good.

last night we all went out to three different places for tapas. a really sweet thing about granada is that, when you go to a bar and order a drink, you get free tapas. tapas... are... incredible. the nightlife is definitely hopping here. plan to go dancing soon. woot. and tonight: a lesson in sevillanas, which is an andalucian type of dance. at the school.

it´s crazy, crazy, crazy hot here.

almost every toilet in spain has a different way to flush it. makes me feel like an adventurous person, using a new toilet. que divertido, no?

welp... looks like my hour of net usage is about up. hope to write later... in the meantime, please keep in touch, friends!!!!! con amor..........

difícil

blogging while on the road is definitely not an easy task. here´s about 5 mins worth of an update...

it´s my last night in madrid. yesterday, went to toledo, and today, went to segovia. tomorrow we head to cordoba, and then to granada for our homestays. two weeks at our houses, two weeks of studying, and i´m super excited about it. spain is a whole other world. sooooooo different from the usa in a million different ways that it´s difficult to compare the two. i think i have the ability of a 1st grader, speaking spanish, and that might very well be optimistic, but we´ll see... i´ll get better eventually...

euros are fun.

i hope i find some good churches to go to. at this point, mass would be fine with me, for once. it´s better than nothing, even though i´m not catholic.

and, indeed, this is a pathetic update, but it´s all i´ve got for now. tengo que usar los servicios, and i´m sort of tired. geesh, it´s midnight and the whole city is awake, probably even eating dinner. aye.

ok, keep in touch, friends. thank you so much for the prayers... please keep them coming!

oh, and........... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wanted to call you from spain, but what do you know, i didn´t bring your number with me after all, and i still have no idea how to really make phone calls to home (i will learn soon enough, i am sure). i love you!

hasta luego!

no puedo creerlo

i am in MADRID, ESPAÑA! i cannot believe it. i haven´t slept in over 30 hours but am still loving it. hello, europe! hello, spain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope to update this later when i have more time. ahora, duermo!!!!!!!!!!!!