The weather is shaping up again! it has been raining for a week or so now and it was getting to be a bummer. i need my daily hour of sunshine or i get cranky!

finals are finally coming up. :( again with the catching up with the hundreds of pages of texts and what not. but it will feel good when they are over! (not because the semester is coming to a close, because frankly i'm not too excited about going home. simply for the fact that i don't have any more silly finals at complutense to stress out about).

things are pretty tranquilo aqui. still attempting to learn italian (which many of my italian friends have told me is a useless ability). lol. at least i'm still learning to cook italian. and a little czech goulash too.

i've also spoken with a couple of my friends back home, and they've been telling me how much things have changed and continue to change back home. not necessarily for the better, and not necessarily the people themselves, just circumstances and dynamic are changing. i guess that's ok. my roommate adeline has already told me that it's common for students who do year-long (even semester-long) study abroad always end up gravitating towards each other to reminisce about their old international friends and complain about being home. haha. i suppose i wouldn't mind that. especially since a lot of my friends are graduating or moving away! it'll be good to identify with people who have the same feelings/experiences.

i was going to go to the sigur ros concert with some really awesome people, and it was going to be freaking amazing to see them again, but it turns out i mixed up my months, and i'll be missing the concert and a couple of my friends by about a month and 3 days. tronzo. :(

on the lighter side, roberto and i decided where we are going to go in italy for a few days right before i leave for the states... we're going to camp out. :-D

7 days, 7 kilos... who cares! it's ITALY!

it's been a while friends! sorry i've been lazy.

since i last blogged many things have happened. the weather has improved greatly: 73 and sunny today, 80 and sunny tomorrow! i'm enjoying laying myself in the forcefully grown grass of Somosaguas (as madrid is a desert...no real grass) with my friends and soaking up the sun like a once-dying plant, relieved for another chance to photosynthesize. i think without the sun i'd be extremely cranky.


i went to italy with seven of my friends the last week of march/first week of april. we started off in the fashion city of Milan, though as the italians showed us around we came to agree with them that in itself, the city isn't SUPER impressive. it still has a beauty that is unique to italy, and it has a fun atmosphere.. but...the reason it ended up being (possibly) my favourite because we spent the majority of the two days and two nights in that rich city with roberto's personality-rich friends and family. best food i've ever eated: made joyfully by Roberto's mother, and roberto's friends used what english they had to really show us a great time. though i lost five euros in poker, i got to drink a little too much amazing italian wine and laugh myself to death. it was marvelous.












then we headed to Venice, in which we only spent (not even) a day. it was beautiful, but Roberto informed me (and i later realized first hand) that the majority of the people that make up the city arent' even italians, they are tourists. ha.











the next city we enjoyed was Florence, which ended up being (in reality) my favourite. it's big enough to be a city, but small enough to not be New-Yorkish. the older part of the city is separated from the newer part by a smooth, cheerful river, over which the brick-lined bridges carry the beautiful italians. the art and the architecture and everything about the city is quite enchanting. the streets are charming, lined with beautiful lampposts and most likely with historical somethings. i could see myself living in Florence some day.












the last city we were privileged to visit was the ancient and most well known city: Rome! the ruins (i have to talk about the ruins!) were magnificent, taking my imagination back to a mystical time in a way that my textbooks never could. it's not an exaggeration when they say that every time you turn a corner there's another historically-relevant building or place. it was ridiculous.
we saw the Sistene Chapel/the vatican. i climbed to the top of a castle and looked out over the beautiful city, surrouned by small mountains, the pointy tops of the old churches poking up through the ancient buildings surrounding them. it was a phenomenal experience.










as always, spending time with my amazing friends was an experience that i will cherish forever. they are nothing short of incredible. easy-going, fun-loving, intelligent, this list could go on a while. i am very lucky to have them here. :)
Between the panzeroti and the people, the awe-inspiring sites from the tops of churches and the beautifully-historical everything-elses, i think i'm in love... see you soon italy!



















p.s. about London/general life in a couple days. ciao friends.