A crazy few weeks...

Oh man, I feel like right now is the first time I've had to even really stop and breathe lately! I've been working nonstop on this program for my class. I finished it last weekend, but of course "finishing the program" just means that I got all the code written for all of the functions it is supposed to have. So I've spent the past week working out the bugs, making the code more efficient, etc.

Also, last Friday I felt kinda sick, so I didn't go to school because I only had one class that day. I figured I would get the notes from a classmate on Monday. So I wake up and go to campus for that class on Monday (which again, was my only class that day). I get to campus with a few minutes to spare, so I check my email. I had a few emails, but I had one from my mom saying that the time changed in the United States for Daylight Savings Time, and did we need to reschedule our Skype time? So I freaked out a bit, because I was sure that the clock in the kitchen had said 10:00 when I left, which is when I'm supposed to leave the house. So I ran over to my classroom building and got there five minutes before class was supposed to start, by my watch. But no one was there. No students that I recognized waiting outside the classroom, nothing. And the teacher usually has a class right before mine in the room next door, but that room was completely empty. So I asked a girl sitting there if there had been a time change, but she said no. She said her class was also late, so I figured I would just wait a while. Ten minutes after class was supposed to start I still didn't see anyone I recognized, so I went across the street to another building to get some material printed out for another class. Then I came back and still, half an hour later, no one was there. Well, the class is only an hour long, so I just left!

I sent an email to the teacher, but he still hasn't responded. So, tomorrow is supposed to be that class again, but I don't even know if we have it or not! I guess I'll go anyways, because I have other stuff I can do on campus if the class is canceled (*cough PROGRAMMING *cough).

The weather here is gorgeous!!! I have been walking around in jeans and a tank top every day and it has just been sooooo nice. I'm spending a lot of time on the beach too, on the weekends. It's super awesome.

I'm way excited for break to start! Break starts Wednesday of next week, and we basically have two weeks off. And then another week three days after we get back. It's gonna be way cool. And my parents are coming out here to visit. So that'll be awesome.

Oh, speaking of which, I gotta go add to the list of stuff I need them to bring me and email it to them again! I'll post more later!

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Life in Alicante

Well I figure I'm pretty much settled in here in Alicante. My class schedule is finally worked out, and I pretty much have my routine down.

I have an awesome friend from back in the Bay Area who says he can help me with my programming stuff, which is super cool! I freaked out a bit because we have our first program due in three weeks (we have to make a two player chess program) and I don't really know the language yet. Apparently the kids in the first semester class learned a bit of C/C++ in that class, and so we are supposed to be able to do this chess game with just that knowledge, but I don't have any of that knowledge yet! So I've been trying to go to class, learn new parts of the language, go to "labs" and work on the program, and teach myself the language through internet tutorials in English (cuz it's super hard to learn another language in another language!) and it's just been a bit crazy. But Mike's a savior and he says he can help. So that's awesome!

Also, one of my "intercambios" turned out pretty well. This girl Raquel is studying to be an English teacher for native Spanish speakers, and she has her official licensing exams in June. So she wants to practice speaking and have me help her with pronunciation and grammar and all that stuff. It works pretty well actually because you really learn a lot about a language when you have to explain it to another person. Also, she studied in Scotland for a semester as an Erasmus student, so she knows the drill, and she is answering all of my "dumb" questions like "How do I make photocopies?" It's pretty cool. And she says in return for me helping her with her work, she'll help me with mine, which is awesome because I have a literature class where I have to write a paper type thing. So having a native speaker check it over will be awesome!

All in all things are working out pretty well here. I miss everyone from back home, but I'm having fun here also. So it sort of evens out.

My parents are coming out here in three weeks for a week during my "spring break"! I'm way excited about that. We're renting an apartment in Barcelona for a week. Apparently I've been designated as the "DD" for communication in Spanish because (and I quote my father here) "I don't know Spanish and your mom doesn't want to deal with it". I think she underestimates her abilities, but I'm perfectly fine with translating for them. I'm starting to think and dream in Spanish, so I think I'll probably be ok with being the liason!

The culture here is super different. It's 12:15am on Friday night (er, rather Saturday morning) and I'm sitting in this cafe which also happens to have free WiFi. Usually they close right around midnight, but apparently not today. At midnight there were three big groups of people here besides me. Fifteen minutes later the cafe is completely full! It's insane! But I enjoy it, since I'm sort of a night owl anyways. Most kids don't even go out until right about now anyways. From about midnight to 4am is the "going out" time for most kids here. Crazy...

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I don't have any brilliant title ideas...

Alright, so it's the weekend again...but this last week went so much better than my first week!

First things first, I went to the other section of the programming class on Wednesday, and it was absolutely perfect! I understood the teacher perfectly, I understood the material he was teaching us, and I think the class is going to be one of my favorites! So, that was exciting.

Also, I found out last week that I got the job I applied for at school next year, as an RA (Resident Assistant) in one of the small houses on the East Side (which is where I have lived for the past two years). So that is also really cool. I'm super excited to be an RA, it's going to be amazing!

I'm slowly getting to know more people here, which is good because it's a little hard to find things to do when you don't know anyone. Walking around by yourself at night is mostly not a good idea... But, I'm meeting a bunch of Erasmus students in all of my classes. And I also found a cool thing through the Sociedad de Relaciones Internacionales on campus. They have "intercambios lingüísticos" (language exchanges) that you can sign up for on their website. Basically they just have a message board of sorts where you can post a little personal advertisement based on what languages you can speak and what languages you want to practice. So I posted a thing saying that I was an American student here for a semester and I spoke English and wanted to practice Spanish, and in the past four days I have gotten more than 20 email responses! It's pretty cool. So I've replied back to some people, and I've already met with two different people yesterday and today, and it's a pretty cool program. Basically, you just get in touch with the other person and meet them somewhere and sit and talk. So today after class I met with a guy named Daniel who is a student at the University who studied abroad in Ireland to learn English, and we talked for like an hour in Spanish. It was really cool because a) I understood him completely, b) we actually had things to talk about (like TV shows we liked, travel, etc.), and c) my ability to carry on a conversation in Spanish was pretty impressive. It wasn't difficult or awkward, and there were only a few times when I had to ask for a word or how to conjugate something. So anyways, that's gonna be a pretty cool thing for me to do. We're gonna meet up again sometime next week and speak in English so that he can practice.

Umm...I think that's about it for now. The weather got a bit colder here these last few days, so I haven't been going out to sit on the beach or in the park. The wind is pretty nasty when it's cold out. But hopefully it will get better in the next few days. I'm still working out a few kinks in my class schedule, but I mostly know what I'm doing, so that's good.

Oh, I got my first phone bill since being here in Spain. It wasn't too horrible, but I'm gonna have to be more careful. My parents also got their first phone bill since I've been in Spain...that one was pretty bad. We realized before I left that it was cheaper for them to call me than for me to call them, so most of our calls have gone on their bill. Well, let's just say that now that I'm settled into a house and school and stuff, Skype is going to be our new way of communicating, cuz the phone thing is pretty expensive! Oh, by the way, if any of you use Skype and wanna chat with me while I'm here, that would be awesome! My Skype name is the same as my email: phoenixrisen41.

So, that's all for now. I'll keep you posted!

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