most popular song in spain

Whew

Whew, I am already over to the ISA office with a duplicate key made. Either my Spanish has greatly improved and suddently become quite understandable or the key shop is quite accustomed to making duplicate keys whenever someone pulls out a pair, mumbles anything outloud, and hands them over. I´d prefer to think the former.

pray for me

I'm running out the door right now to  hopefully go get a duplicate of key that says do not duplicate made. Pray for me because I have no clue how to say any of this in Spanish. I'm bring a dictionary and I'm quite nervous.
Much Love,
T

short hair

Also, Lately I've been considering cutting my hair short. I've had a problem with mineral deficiencies and perhaps a gluten intolerance so to be honest...my hair hasn't been as thick as it should be over the past couple of years...so a shorter cut would be absolutely perfect. I stumbled across "Fashion is a playground"- a french fashion blog and fell in love with one of the featured model's haircuts.
The pictures are taken from http://fashionisaplayground.blogspot.com/2010/07/entree-des-artistes.html

What do you think? Should I go for it? or find something a little bit longer? Or perhaps even shorter?

a girl can hope

"I've been losing lots of keys lately,
I don't know what that means
But maybe I've been better off with things that can't be locked at all"

- Jack Johnson 

It's silly to think how perfectly this song fits my predicament right now. I'm sitting here alone in my room in Sevilla, Spain, quite terrified to explain to my host mom that I lost my keys this morning. I just keep eating dark chocolate and reading Time's Arrow ( which I will comment on soon because it's quite intriguing and I would regard as brilliant) and attempting to focus on how this might be the best chocolate of my life. It's 70% cocca and without sugar. Meaning, yes, it is bitter and would tangibly encompass the definition of bittersweet perfectly.

Tomorrow I have to figure out how to get duplicates of my keys made. I'm hoping that I can get duplicates made and then only tell Angeles the day before I leave what happened. One of the keys says " DO NOT DUPLICATE". But it's in English.....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that perhaps no one will know what that means. Highly unlikely. But whatever. A girl can hope. 

I look back and I'm not sure how or why I believe Angeles was warm and enjoyed our company. Mother, if you're reading...I want you to know that I just thought that I loved you before....but now you just have no idea how much my love for you has grown. I'm sure you think that that alone makes this entire trip well worth the money. Your daughter finally grows up and realizes you're completely wonderful. I'm giggling because I know you'll laugh when you read this.  I cannot wait to taste your cooking. I'm finally ready to learn to cook. I cannot bear more than 3 weeks more of frozen food dumped into a bucket of grease, fried to crisps, and dumped back onto my plate. I have taken pictures of most of my meals. I've also taken pictures of all the ways Sarah and I have devised to remove the food from our plates and relocate....to the trash. She also makes my clothes so starchy that they could stand up on their own. Which, of course, is not a big deal at all, but in the domestic department I would say her only skills reside in her ability to clean. Also, her ability to fuss at me about anything in my room being out of place.

I'm going to come home and scatter my clothes all about the room and just then lay down on top of them all and giggle and then just leave them there. For at least a few days. I will revel in the disarray and delight in the fact that no one will tell me in loud Spanish to " something something something la ropa".  I haven't quite figured out what she says before 'la ropa'. The thing is...I'm rather tidy. I make an effort every morning to tidy up my room and make sure everything is put away before I leave.

I've made plans to go to Morocco this weekend. Should be enlightening and absolutely different from anything I'm used to. Perfect. I'm ready to go.

I'll get to ride a camel again. and this around...No hot pink shorts, SDad's sunglasses, velcro sandales, and Mom's visor. Don't believe I could ever commit such a fashion atrocity? Well you clearly don't know me that well so check out this glamor shot from Egypt.

Just listen. Losing Keys. My life.

go hard

What I'm missing them most right now

my front yard

my little abby

Granda

Reminiscent of Hitchcock's, The Birds?

My camera has died and I only had the flip and well uploading anything longer than 5 seconds doesn't ever really happen so I'm just googling some gorgeous garden images. It was really incredible. 

I listen to this on my class every afternoon

I need to be bold

Lagos, Portugal

The End of the World

It's the end of the world....and no...this is not an R.E.M. but what once was believed to be end of world by the Portuguese ( prior to Columbus' expedition to our homeland)

No showers for Taylor

Well I just got in trouble again...but this time I understood what was going on. I'm quite proud of myself.

Apparently, if I go away for 3 days and then come straight home from the beach to change clothes and run out to watch the world cup and then out of politeness do not shower at 3:30 in the morning....I am not allowed to shower before class and then shower after sweating in my AC/Fan less room in 105 degree weather before going to bed. I suppose I was supposed to go to class with sand still in my hair and the Spain flag painted on my face.

I'm not sure what other options I really had...plus I really wanted to point out that I should get to make up the showers I skipped taking here on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday....Too bad I don't know enough Spanish to be sassy. I'm stuck saying "Si" and " Lo Siento".

I know I'm being quite the grouch....but I had just woken up this morning with every intention of attempting to be positive about everything...and to learn to ENJOY sweating in my sleep...when I discovered that Spainish outlets had fried my powercord....long story...but they also fried Sarah's powercord. Roberto is one of my current heros. He's internet-less down the street and has no need for his powercord. Sarah and I have it now.

I snuck a bottle of water into the tiny freezer- I'm going to remove it soon. It's one of those giant water bottles. I think I'll tuck it horizontal under the small of my back and just lay on it until I cool down.

this is not a real update

Wow. Wow. Wow. It's about 3am here in Spain. Spent the last few days in Portugal and came back early to watch the World Cup in Sevilla.
I'm soaking wet, rather cold, slightly muddy, wearing boxer shorts that used to have bright blue surfing boards with bright yellow ducks on them...that are now almost completely white ( I guess they use a lot of bleach here? Along with a lot of starch- my clothes might be able to stand up by themselves) , just having had my first American fast food joint, and trying to be extra extra extra quiet so I don't get yelled at again.

Getting yelled at in languages I don't understand is always especially fun. Portuguese was extra fun. Nothing like experiencing the language when it's full of passionate anger. Oops. Oh well. People shouldn't get so uptight about everything.

I'm about to crawl in my bed without showering. Yes, It's been a while...but when you're swimming in the ocean....I think that counts. Because A) It's salt water and it kills more bacteria than my soap does
B) I'm allowed to stay in the ocean for longer than 4 minutes without getting in trouble and C) I actually don't have a C. Being in Spain has certainly taught me to give up on trying to stay clean...I just sweat all day long anyways. Literally. All day long. Oh wait. I freeze in Spanish class. Got to love it. Or well perhaps not.

People were literally out of their minds tonight. I saw a few completely naked people running around. Some jumped off the bridges. Pictures and videos coming soon.

Exciting.

Tonight might have been one of the most exciting nights of my life.
Spain beat Germany and is advancing to the final round of the FIFA World Cup. It have been absolute chaos since the victory.

I just changed out of my soaking wet clothes. A victory swim in the fountain by the Cathedral? With tons and tons of Spaniards? Surrounds by hundreds of cheering fans?
I think so. It was a must. and absolutely wonderful.

I'm assuming class is cancelled tonight? If Spain wins the world cup...surely they'll give up the day off?

The night was amazing in every single way. I will post pictures soon. I can't get over how exciting was tonight.

 Excitement is one of my favorite things in life. Little beats it. Anything that makes people dance, jump, twist and shout with joy is just phenomenal in my eyes.

* Many more pictures to come! 

I just had to comment...

I saw Eclipse tonight....and honestly....
......I don't want to say this.....
....but..... I'm going to anyways.......so just get ready....
....I'm reconsidering.....and I can do this....

I really liked it.

Also! I LOVED that I understood every word. Every single word. I felt so smart. It was very relaxing and a wonderful break from the constant Spanish gibber gabber.

I just killed a mosquito by snapping it between my fingers. Impressive. One down...quite a few more to go. They buzz in my ears when I'm trying to sleep. If Holly were here...She'd say "grrrrrr"

If anyone knows a great free site online that lets you watch moves...AND that works in Spain...Let me know! I'd love nothing more than to watch Sweet Home Alabama right now before bed.

Career Planless Again

I think I might change my major again.  Perhaps just stay Pre-Business and English...but I don't think I want to have anything to do with Marketing when I grow up. I was bummed out with Biology because I couldn't take any more Literature/History/Religion/Cultural/Economics based classes but now with Pre-B and English....I'm awfully disappointed about the fact that I may never take another biology class again. I've been looking forward to college level biology classes for years and years now. I don't know what I'll do if I can't learn how the inside of the body works. It drives me crazy not knowing. It's fascinating. I think diseases are marvelous in their own twisted and awful way.

But brilliant.

Studying human biology to me is a constant reminder of how magnificent is our Lord. It just blows me away.

What in the world am I supposed to do?

On a side note, I'm going with a group of girls to see Eclipse tonight. We think that it's in English? Let's hope so. Also, let's hope that I can get up early tomorrow to have time to for quiet time and to study. The view of the roof of the ISA office is beautiful. Hopefully it won't be too hot up there.

Sans baggage

Not going to lie....It's wonderful to travel with just a bookbag for a weekend.

Walking through Triana in the evening