Half Marathon Training!!!!

Yes, I've decided to run another half marathon. And keeping with my past theme of traveling to run, I will be heading to Segovia, Spain for the race on March 21st! Segovia is about an hour north of Madrid, so I'm hoping to spend some time there during that weekend too. I just started my first day of training and it went pretty well. There are a ton of hills here, so that keeps things interesting! I know, I never thought I'd be excited about hills either.

In other news, I also bought a bus ticket to Granada with my friends! Four of us girls will be heading down Wednesday night and will get there some time early morning. We don't have class on Thursday, so we're just skipping one day to squeeze in a weekend of distant travel. I'm very excited to see the Alhambra! I've heard it's absolutely amazing. I guess soon I will be able to tell you myself! After Granada, we're going to head to Sevilla for a couple days. Then we'll take a bus home Sunday night and roll into town in time for class on Monday morning! Let's just say I'll be taking some major siestas next week! But hey, when you're in Europe, who has time to sleep?

Tonight we're having another meeting followed by salsa lessons I think. Then tomorrow I'm going to an international party and we're supposed to bring a dish from our country. My friend Kayla and I were trying to think of some "American" dishes (that we have access to the ingredients of) to make. We kind of wanted to make puppy chow or scotcheroos, but I'm kind of hoarding my beloved peanut butter...Just kidding! We might try that if we can find plain Rice Krispies, I think they only have chocolate ones here. Weird, I know. But we decided Macaroni and Cheese would be a pretty tasty American dish. Hopefully the Italians won't be outraged by our imitation of pasta...

It's funny being on the "international" side of things. At UNI I always like to have a foreign conversation partner and try their food, go to their events, and learn about their cultures. This experience is definitely opening my eyes to how it feels being an outsider studying in a country really different from your own. And even though I speak Spanish, it's still not at the best level for fluent communication.

I met my conversation partner today! Her name is Alba. She's really nice and lives in a nearby town of Gijon. She's studying English and hopes to teach Spanish abroad someday. It was kind of scary to speak Spanish so quickly and for so long, but she was really helpful and said I spoke well. It's nice because we talk in English half the time and I get to help her too.

I'll keep you all posted on what I'm up to! Thanks for your comments! It's good to know I'm not writing to a completely unknown internet audience. Miss you all!

Un beso!!