London

Well, London is a pretty cool city. I’ve been having a blast the last couple nights, just hanging out here at my hostel – its a very very cool hostel. There’s a bar basicly inside of it where you get discounts… last night they had karaoke.

Yesterday I went and saw the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge – both very very cool, and also just wandered around being lost. The Tower of London is very cool, and definetly my favorite place. The free guided tour by a Beefeater was, quite surpisingly very good. Quite a funny guy, really good at his job.

Today I went to St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben/House of Parlimant, Harrod’s… I think that was it. In anycase basicly all day was spent wandering around. I even managed to find a tourist info place and got a FREE guide-book/map!! Oh. And I found a bookstore. So I now have 3 new english books to read! Woot!!

In anycase, London’s been fun… though I definetly like spanish cities better. They’re just more interesting, somehow. London just seems a lot like any other big, oldish city in the US. It’s lacking the little twisty one-way, cobblestone streets that cities in most of Europe seem to have. But, its been fun. Also been very, very, very expensive.

In anycase I’m looking forward to getting to Prague tommorrow. Everyone keeps telling me that its very cool, so thats nice to hear…

Travelin’

Wow… what an incredible past few days.

I went down to Granada on Tuesday getting in there around 2am on Wednesday morning. Long train ride, but totally worth it. The next day (Wednesday), I went and saw La Alhambra, and ended up having an absolutely awesome day. Right away I met a couple who had just graduated from some college out in Portland, Oregan. They were/are traveling with his parents, little sister and two of her friends. I ended up hanging out with them all day long and having an absolute blast.

It was, really, the first time I’d spoken much english in a long time, and whats more about really geek/environmental stuff. It was just really cool. They totally reminded me of my old compu-high friends.

In anycase, we spent the better part of the entire day (from about 11:00am-7:30pm), wandering around and seeing all the palaces, gardens, mosques-converted-into-churches, actual churches, etc. Then in the evening we all went out for tapas for a couple hours together. Twas lots of fun.

Then the next day and a half I spent wandering around the city of Granada itself, checking out the other churches, parks etc which are not actually inside the Alhambra. On Thursday night I ended up going out with a some old English guy, and another guy from sweden… we met some other old Scotish guy who’s actually a poet (apparently he used to have a buisiness, but he sold it, and now just ‘write poetry and drink beer’).

On Friday I took my Uncle Elfego’s advice and went to see Ronda – what an awesome little city!! I totally wish I’d had a good 2 or so days to really explore it better. Definetly a place I wouldn’t mind going back to. That night I then took the bus up to Sevila…

In Sevilla yesterday I just wandered around for the most part, seeing the sites, etc. My favorite places in Sevilla are definetly the Real Alcazar and the Parque de Maria Luisa. The Real Alcazar is the old muslim palaces/gardins and is just really really pretty. The Parque de Maria Luisa (or something like that), is the botanical gardens which were donated to the city by (you guessed it), Maria Luisa. Or something like that. In anycase, its huge, and very very cool. They have all kinds of different trees and plants from ALL over the world, all labeld with both common and scientific names, what the name means/where its from, and other random, general info on the species. And theres a little island with ducks, peacocks and chickens in the middle of a pond which has lots and lots of fish – mostly goldfish, but I think there were some carp or something in there too.

In anycase, I’m now in London. I took the bus from Sevilla back to Salamanca last night, got into Salamanca at 4:30, woke up at 8:30, got a shower, and ran off to the bus station to fly here. Long day. But its been fun.

I’m going to goto Prague this Wednesday, so that should be good… Tommorrow I’m exploring london though =). When I finally get back to Salamanca for another quarter in a week or so I’ll start uploading pictures…

One quarter done!!

I can´t believe I´ve already been in Spain for another whole quarter, already. It seems like this quarter went super super fast – although thats also true for the one before. In anycase, I´m done with school for a couple weeks. In case anybody´s wondering, I got a C in Spanish Grammar (its grammar. its hard.), and B´s in Spanish Literature, Communation and Oral Skills. So I´m pretty happy overall. In anycase I have another 6 or so odd weeks to perfect my spanish, so tis all good.

In anycase I´m looking forward to these couple weeks off I have before April. I´m gonna travel around Spain, though I think I´ll just “play it by ear” as such – not really have any plans. I want to visit Granada, Sevilla & Cordoba, but aside from them, I really don´t know. Ask around and see what little cities are cool to visit.

I have a job!!

Wow. Well, I officially have a job for the summer now! I just took a job as the Horse Barn Director at YMCA Camp Greenville, for this summer… So pending them receiving all my reference forms thats what I´ll be doing this summer. Making $300 per week, living in a house with other staff (not campers!!).

Pretty exciting. I didn´t initially expect to be offered/given a director´s job at a Camp… but hey, I´m not going to complain. Make more money =) So yeah, thats my news for today. A nice feeling, not having to look for a job anymore. Knowing what I´ll be doing this summer!! So cool. So very very cool.

Spanish Stuff

Just thought I´d let everyone know that I finally got around to creating a little site where I´m uploading all the random little essays, reports, speeches, etc, that I´ve written for my classes here in Spain.

There´s a perma-link on the right (“Essays and Reports in Spanish”), or else you can just click: http://emilyyrose.googlepages.com

New species!!

Wow, nifty. Awesome!

Scientists have discovered a new species, a new genus, a new family of crustaceans in the South Pacific. They´ve named it Kiwaida (after the Polynisian crustacean god =)…

Its covered in “sinuous, hair-like strands”… Quite nifty. We´re always finding new species in the oceans, but new genus aren´t all that common, let alone new family´s!!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/08/furry.lobster.ap/index.html