¡Hola!
So here is just a quick update from Spain. I am still alive and kicking over here. I survived my first week of classes (and the stupid sickness that came with them). The best thing now (besides being in Spain) is that I can breathe through my nose again! Gotta appreciate the little things :) I haven't been up to much else lately. I bought my tickets to London, for the weekend of February 11-13th, to see one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables :). It was a bit expensive, but completely worth it.
 I am also currently looking for a gym to join here. The fresh bread (that my host mom buys for every meal!), extremely large dinners that are hard to turn down and chocolate here are starting to take a toll on my body, haha. But I think I found a good gym nearby that my host sister is going to join with me. We were looking around today, and at one of the gyms, the desk person asked for our names for some forms. When I gave mine, I had to spell out my first name and when I told him my last name, he got a panicked look and had me write it out instead haha. This the common reaction to my name, I have had to teach all my professors how to pronounce my name numerous times.
I watched a few movies with my host family in Spanish, and the voiceovers are killing me. I keep laughing at all the wrong parts because of the accents they use, haha. My personal favorite was the voice over for Will Smith in the movie Independence Day. I was laughing almost every time he said something! :) And Spanish TV is something else entirely, I have yet to figure out their talk shows yet, because the content is so bizarre.
I also had a busy weekend watching fútbol, which did not go quite as well as I had hoped. Coming here as a Real Madrid fan, I have been told that it is my job to despise the Barcelona team. Which isn't hard to do ever since my host sister told me that Barcelona thinks they should be their own country. I cannot support the 'Texas' of Spain (aka ridiculously large egos and thinking that they are above the rest of the country). Unfortunately Barcelona is playing extremely well and Real Madrid, well I don't know if I can call what they are doing fútbol.. They have been playing poorly due to some management problems. Well this weekend, Barcelona won their game against Alicante's team (3-0) and 2nd ranked Madrid lost to a team that was ranked around 15th in La Liga Española (0-1). The game was so sad that my host sister, a long time fan, said it was time for her to switch teams..
Things to look forward to this week:
Cooking class tomorrow (I am hoping for a chance to flambe something again..aka set it on fire;)
Meeting the two girls (ages 8 and 11) that I am going to tutor in English on Wed. 
Finally joining a gym
Things I still need to get used to:
The Spaniards are very animated when they talk ( I keep thinking they are mad, when they are talking about something as simple as the weather)
The fact that being a blond/blue eyed person, I will get stared at, along with some very disturbing full body glances by the more daring men here (it's kinda creeping me out)
The deodorant here doesn't work quite as well as it does in the states... 
Instead of living in a place where everyone wears sweats to school, I now live in a place where sweats should never leave the house, haha 
We walk everywhere! I love it :)
The drivers here think that sidewalks are merely extensions of the road, and do not understand why people keep walking on them..


Ah well, thats all I believe :) I hope everyone is having a good day so far. And make sure to leave comments so I know that people are reading this! Otherwise I might just get lazy and stop updating, lol. Here are some more pictures from another hike up the castle.
♥torin