Finally reached Ciudad Real!

Sorry I didn't post anything last night; I wanted to spend time with my family and get some rest and I think I accomplished both! (yay!)  Yesterday morning, we woke up early, took our luggage to the bus, and ate our last breakfast at the hotel in Caceres.  We were finally headed to Ciudad Real even though we had many stops in between.  We first saw a presentation on different projects that were related to water resources that were in the area.  After being well informed (well, kind of well informed, there were definitely heads nodding in the warm room), we left with hardhats and neon vests in hand to go look at a dam as it was being built.  I know most of you don't find that as interesting as me, but I really enjoyed it.  They make all the concrete on sight as well which was very interesting to me.  Water resources is definitely a route of civil engineering that I would like to go into.  It remains to be seen if I qualify ;)  After we left the dam, we went to a canal that took water from a reservoir to one of the near-by "ciudads".  Again, this was very interesting, but sad too because there were animals (i.e. ducks and a frog) that were trapped by the gates the canal was using to control the water.  It really is too bad that there are always harms to nature when humans are progressive.  Oh well, that's an entirely different subject that I won't start into on my light-hearted traveling blog!  We next went to a water treatment plant, but unfortunately, I ended up at the back of the group and could hardly hear all that was going on.  The only thing I am fairly certain of is that it wasn't a WASTE-water treatment plant.  There were no smells that I picked up on.  There was one company that was taking us on all these amazing tours and to top it off they took us to an amazing lunch!  We had an extensive meal that could not have been cheap in any way.  Some of the food was little questionable, but I ate most of it anyway because I knew that it was a very nice gesture by this company.  We also got to see the offices these people worked in, but we didn't stay long there.  After that, we loaded up and headed to Ciudad Real!  It was a three-ish hour drive, so of course most people on the bus napped.  When I woke up, I was so nervous because I knew that I was about to meet my host family and I had no idea how that would go.  I got off the bus and one of the wonderful girls that has organized this trip introduced me to a very lovely lady.  Come to find out, she was not my real host mom lol.  My real host family heard my name and fixed the mix-up very quickly!  They are so amazing!  I have had more to eat in the past two days then I have had the rest of the trip.  I even have my own room so everything is just perfect.  I am so thankful I got the opportunity to live with a host family especially one as great as mine!  The ONLY downside to being in Ciudad Real is that real classes inevitably have to start.  Thankfully, I already like my professor and I feel like I am understanding the material so far.  I also like having more a schedule to work with.  For the past week and a half, I have felt like I am running around blindly from day to day.  Now that we are here and are having regular classes, I feel like I have a better grip on what I have to do each day and where I need to be.  Well I am going to try and go to sleep now so that MAYBE I will gain some of the sleep I have lost.  Goodnight to all!

p.s. sorry for the lack of pictures, I haven't taken any in the past two days.