The last couple weeks have begun to shift my mindset as this untold year of adventures is more than half over and therefore no longer so "untold". I've begun focusing more on getting through a list of priorities and being more proactive rather than waiting for things to come my way. I have about four months left and it looks like I'll be able to do just about everything I wanted to do while I was here, so I'm not feeling too uneasy. There is definitely a part of me, though, that would love to stay another year or two and really get this Spanish down. However, I've befriended many spaniards as of recently and the language is coming along fine.

I'll be home JULY 15th! Its final!

So, What's new in my life? Plenty! The most exciting addition to my list of distractions (er... hobbies?) is a GUITAR! About a month ago I bought a Spanish guitar off of my friend, Jake. He and another friend, Luce, have been teaching me bit by bit and I've been messing around with it a bunch on my own. I am really enjoying playing it! When I play, I have an excuse to sing! I'd been missing singing regularly, but now I can do it whenever I want, so I do! RELENTLESSLY! I've been catching on rather quickly! A lot faster than I thought I would. After playing for 3 weeks I happened to be at Open Mic Night and since there was hardly anyone there, I got up and played a few songs!!! It went pretty well for a first performance and made me feel really great! I hope to keep up with learning, which I hear is rare for a beginning guitar player (heck, I've started to learn 3 or 4 times before this), but now that I can play some sings and am making it part of my every-day itinerary, it's looking hopeful!

Last weekend I went skiing with my roommates in the Sierra Nevada mountains about an hour away from Granada. It was my second time skiing and it was really scary, but really fun. I didn't fall too much. Well, that's a lie. The thing is almost every time I fell, I wasn't actually skiing... just standing there. Here's a picture of me trying to be cool for a photo, but falling instead... From watching other people I noticed that people most often fall right after you can tell that they've stopped trusting their bodies to be able to balance and recover. So, what I tried to do was remain calm and trust myself when my footing was shaky rather than panic and fall. It worked! I'm no pro by any means! I couldn't just let myself go straight down, but I had a really great time and I enjoyed learning how to use my body that way. I learned a lot that day about how my physically abilities work and how to discover them.

I love living in Granada because you can go skiing one day and go to the beach the next! And that's what I did! The weather has been amazing here, so I've been to the coast every weekend for the last 5 weeks. GOOD TIMES! The time I went after skiing, a few friends and I rented a car and drove to Nerja, a town with a gigantic famous cave! If you've been to the Moaning caverns in California, imagine that about 6 or 7 times bigger. AMAZING! We explored there for the morning and then spent the rest of the day on the beach playing guitar, frisbee, what have you. This is my life: Playing!



The weekend after that my program took us on a trip to Jerez and Cadiz, about 4 or 5 hours West of Granada on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We left at 7 in the morning, which everyone grumbled about, but you know what? It turned out fine. How often do you watch the sun rise? How often do you watch it rise over the hills and vineyards of Andalucia? It was a real gift.

Jerez is evidently famous for their horses, so we watched a horse show there. The horses were rather amazing and there was a bit of time before and after the show to meet them in their stables. For what it's worth, meet the crew:














This is the last unicorn. Unfortunately the gate got in the way of showing his horn, but if you imagine real hard, I'm sure you can see the magic in this beautiful horse!







This is Gothic horse. He was down just to be down. He had a majesty about him, but was more mystery and gloom than anything. I think he needs to listen to some more uplifting music...








This guy is the life of the party. I'm gonna assume the picture speaks for itself. He was a friendly one. I liked meeting him the most.









This stud had a thing for Lynzy. He nuzzled her quite a bit, but never when my camera was ready... anyway, they hit it off well!









This is the cold shoulder horse. Or maybe the deaf horse. Whoever he was, he was the only one who refused to acknowledge me... I guess everyone needs their alone time now and then?






The word Jerez means Sherry - like the drink. Accordingly, we went to a winery called Tio Pepe for a tour and to taste their sherry. I found out I don't like sherry. But I still drank it and had a really nice time with the friends. Something was hilarious... or maybe sherry is just a lot more alcoholic than any of us realized. It's photos like these that I know I'll look back on in 50 years and recall warmly all the wonderful memories and friendships I've made here.
It was St. Patrick's Day when we went to Cadiz, which happens to be the birthday of my red-haired, Irish-descent, shamrock tatoo-having best friend Katy. We'd been looking forward to celebrating her birthday for several months, but since we were on our group trip, one of our best friends, Luce, wasn't included. Well, Luce wasn't about to let the one birthday in their life that they would spend together slip away like that, so she rented a car and drove all the way there as a surprise. It was my job to keep Katy in the hotel room while everyone gathered and schemed around her. Basically I just took a really long shower and by the time I came out she was sleeping haha! Well, here's the video of Katy being surprised by Luce. My voice is kinda loud on it... sorry 'bout that!



From there we had a wonderful time. Our hotel was right by the beach so we went down and made a bon-fire. Turns out you can't do that in Spain. It also turns out you can't steal wood from construction sites. Ahem. One of our buddies didn't think through that one too well. We had fun while it lasted, but soon enough, we attracted the police and it was all over. And no, no one got in trouble. It was just another episode for the journal.

I have to give credit and mad props to my friend and fellow SJSU kid CAITLIN for taking the vast majority of these awesome pictures. I get to take her back to San Jose with me :) HOORAY!!!




I'm taking a class about teaching music to children. The class requires that we learn a repertoire of kiddy songs (in Spanish!!!) and be able to sing them and perform them on the recorder flute and the xylophone. The xylophone is no problem, but I was a bit unsure of the recorder. However, two days ago I realized that the recorder has all the same fingerings as the alto sax (which I played all through school), so YAY! I know how to play the recorder!!!!

This weekend I plan to go to the northern coast of Spain (up above Portugal) to Gijon with some Spanish friends for an electronic music festival I'm stoked about! On Wednesday, Nina arrives from Germany to spend the weekend with me. The Monday she leaves is the day my parents and baby sis arrive in Spain for Holy Week and Easter with me!!!! I'm going to Amsterdam in May! SRVHS Choir is coming to Spain for my birthday in June!! Everything about this year is so incredibly amazing! My travel priorities that I have yet to accomplish are Italy, Morocco, Prague, Barcelona, and a proper tour through the UK. I think I'm gonna get to do it all!!!!!

LOVE LOVE and more LOVE from Spain!