Why hello again...

So I have received complaints on no new blog posts *cough, cough, D'Ann* so I figured I better get another one up here so that I don't lose all my followers because I know I have oh so many!  It is now officially the fifth week I've been here in Spain so that means I have less than two weeks until David comes (Woohoo!) and less than three weeks until I am back in the good ole' USA (mixed emotions).  I am not terribly homesick, but I do miss everybody.  Why can it not be simpler for people to visit me while I am here?  Oh well, I am enjoying the time I have left while looking forward to home sweet Texas despite the miserable heat I have been hearing about.  

Not to take away from how awful it must feel back home, but Spain finally decided to get HOT.  Maybe it wouldn't seem as hot, but for the most part air conditioning doesn't exist here (at least not where I live) and I have to walk to and from school.  Don't get me wrong, I love getting to walk because it is my excuse for daily exercise.  And in the mornings, walking is refreshing.  But oh my goodness if it isn't hot when I walk home.  Doesn't even matter when I walk home.  Once noon hits, its hot until the sun goes down.  And the sun doesn't go down until almost 10 o'clock.  I appreciate the Spanish dedication to using less energy, but what I would do to have my window unit from Winnsboro with me now haha!

It becomes obvious why swimming pools are so popular here.  Most host families that I have heard of at least have a community pool.  I know my family does and they love it which means I love it.  It opened last Wednesday and I think today might be the first day that I'm not going at least for a little while.  Its about a block away from my house, so it's very easy to just walk down, soak up some sun, take a dip and either relax there or come back here.  It's perfect!  My goal is to make enough money as an engineer to have my own pool because it makes summertime infinitely more enjoyable.  And David can be my pool boy!  Perfect =)

This weekend has been amazing!  I am sorry that I won't get to see Sevilla while I'm in Spain, but spending time relaxing with my host family was priceless.  Essentially, I ate better lunches (not surprising, I eat at the school everyday), got tan so I look like a native, and took siestas.  What is not to love about that?!?  I have to say, it is hot in Spain, but at least they are smart enough to take a siesta during the worst part of the day.  Texas is just as hot and should adopt the same tradition.  Its only reasonable!

So, I had some more amazing food this weekend although that shouldn't come as a surprise.  Friday, my host mom, my host sister and I went to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  It was called La Mafia which I find amazing lol!  I can't remember at the moment what we had Friday night, but I know it was good!  Saturday I had chicken which was made like roast beef with potatoes in the bottom of the pan.  It was delicious along with the sauteed jalapeños that went with it!  Again, can't remember dinner from Saturday night (I've slept since then!) but Sunday was great.  For lunch we had a dish that I cannot remember the name of.  It was essentially paella with the same seasonings, same meets, etc, but it had pasta (macaroni type noodles to be exact) instead of rice.  It was amazing!  I have been hoping my host mom would make some paella because I wanted some homemade paella, but this was just as good!  You should have seen the pan it was cooked in!  Absolutely huge!!!  And then last night, we had a Mediterranean type salad, some melon with bacon-esque style "jamón" on top (LOVE) and some fish.  Going off of what my host dad says, fish isn't as common, but my host mom and host sister like he.  He always makes sure I know what is typical Spanish food and what isn't.  Sometimes, I even learn if its Modern Spanish food (like last night).  My host mom says that if he likes something, he says its typical Spanish but if he doesn't like it, it isn't typical Spanish.  They're funny :)

Okay, so I've covered the weekend, but I still actually did something cool today!  Today, we got to go see windmills!!! YAY!  I think it's so cool that we did considering how popular Don Quijote is in the region I'm living in (just to clarify, I'm in Castilla-La Mancha).  Don Quijote is everywhere!  And today we got to see windmills that are some that could have been the ones Don Quijote was supposed to have fought.  We also got to see modern day windmills which was amazing.  The company that told us about the wind energy is the fifth largest company in Wind Energy in the world.  I think.  And the four companies ahead of them are owned by the government while they are still a public company.  They even have windfarms in the US (even in Texas!)  How awesome is that?!?  Wind energy is very interesting to me and it's definitely a popular concept in Spain so I think our visit was very informative.  

Anyways, I think that covers everything you might have missed since last Wednesday.  I could probably add more, but I have two exams on Wednesday and then I leave for Barcelona on Thursday so I need to get some things done (i.e. studying).  I hope everyone is surviving the heat and I'm praying for rain in Texas.  I love and miss y'all!

 Windmills!

 This flowers are intimidating...

 Look how many!

 Inside of an old windmill 

 These look very flimsy up close..