Heading to Seville for the night to catch a flight tomorrow to Barcelona. It's exciting!

Wells Fargo is officially the worst bank ever for traveling abroad, as they have now frozen my account a grand total of 3 times in the past month, maybe four. If you count each time they freeze each individual card, I think those idiots are about up to 7. and for once in my life, IT IS NOT MY FAULT. its totally theirs and their inability to keep anything straight.

i hate them.

Love you all, be back this weekend.

Just Visual Proof that I Still Exist

Had trouble with the internet this past week, more or less, so I suppose I should give you some photo evidence that I am alive.

Here is Seville. I am in front of the fountain at the PLAZA DE ESPAÑA with Mason and Chris, two of my closest friends here, and definitely the best guys on the program.


Here is proof that Katie came to visit, we are seated in the CORDOBA area of the PLAZA DE ESPAÑA, they have an area for each major city in Spain.


MONKEY ON MY HEAD IN GIBRALTAR DURING SPRING BREAK!

Here I am in Cádiz with friends in a tree being goofy.


This is me trying sea urchin... it was disgusting.


And last but not least, here I am, alive and playing Chris' guitar in the park today adorned in daisy chains.


I am very happy here. My mom arrives in Córdoba today, and we're going to head to Barcelona. She'll be here till next Tuesday, and I'm sure I'll have more adventures for you then.

easter sunday

Happy Easter everyone! I love you all so much, and holidays of course, make me miss you (and American food and traditional egg dishes) that much more.

Woke up to go to Mass today with my family, but when I asked them ARE YOU GOING TO MASS? They said, ehhhh we don’t know, but not right now. So I put my pjs back on and went to bed. And then I woke up 4 hours later at noon and my family was gone. Lovely.

Lunch was a traditional Córdobesan-Spanish dish, which is usually an appetizer, but they made it a first course. It’s tomato pureed with something else and its light coral in color, with tiny ham pieces and hard boiled egg on top. It’s kind of like eating cold pasta sauce... not my favorite, but I’ve gotten used to it. Although, usually it comes in a small bowl and you share with friends.... not an entire plate to yourself. We all know how much I love tomato... false.

Mason got home from his amazing journey today so Jenny Chris and I met him in the park with Kayla... we all hung out on my sheet (best idea EVER to bring a sheet to spain with me) in the sun and had a great time. Then we grabbed some icecream, I changed my clothes, and we went to mass at 8pm.

Apparently they dont dress up to go to church here, which is so weird because they are wearing jeans and sweaters inside a giant gorgeous stone carved, gold laced church and it seems so weird to NOT be dressed up. I followed the general structure but had trouble with the words AND its really hard reciting the creeds I have memorized in English when everyone around you is doing them in SPANISH. Ugh. Also went to confession for the first time in YEARS and it was nearly impossible to do in Spanish. The priest knew some English, so that was somewhat helpful, but mostly awkward. He said that even if he doesn't fully understand me, that God does and as long as I am trying to improve myself, that's all that matters to God. Cool.

I hope all of your easters are going well... or your seders or your rain god dances or whatever it may be. I realized that last year for Easter, I was in CHINA. My life is so blessed, it is unbelievable. Thank you to everyone who has ever helped me in life, whether it has been the smallest things like a smile or words of encouragement and love, to helping me financially on this trip. Your help doesn’t go unnoticed and I am eternally grateful for it.

In other news, the Spanish ATM ate my secondary bank card. Fabulous. I am SO grateful it wasn’t my primary one. Called up Wellsfargo, told them Spain ate my card and I needed a new one, hopefully it will arrive in time for my Mom to bring it over with her. OH! And I can definitely last a week with the remaining deodorant. Am having mom bring me over my favorite, so never fear, I will not turn into a smelly European. I know, I know, you are so grateful for my wonderful personal hygiene.

I MISS PEOPLE WHO SHOWER EVERYDAY AND USE DEODORANT. THANK YOU AMERICA, FOR MAKING US SELF CONSCIOUS OF OUR BODIES. Spain isn’t too bad, but some places seriously lack that simple pleasure of not smelling like trash.

Speaking of which, Katie Ollis wasn’t in Italy when the earthquake hit, she was off in Eastern Europe or something, so she’s fine, and Wiggin slept through it. No worries. Katie’s program lets her travel far more than mine does, and she’s seen so much. I can’t help but feel like its more like just trying to cram in a thousand places without really experiencing it, but I guess you do what you can, because who knows when you’ll get back or what you’ll be able to do if you do come back.

Slightly bummed I didn’t get to go to Greece, especially since I won’t be able to go after the program with Mason since he went in January. But I’m starting to chat with people about their favorite places, and I know I have a place to stay in Slovakia and maybe Vienna too, so that’s all good. Working on that couch surfing profile too, so wish me luck!

first half of semana santa

so spring break started out very interestingly....

cancelled greece, packed my bags, and at 2.45 on friday i decided to catch the 3.15 to algeciras, stay the night (no hostel planned), and get on a bus to tarifa the next day to meet up with aliyah, toni, graham, dani, and chris.

6 hours bus ride. hour 2 a CRAZY lady comes on. and thats when I realize I forgot my camera in my other purse sitting on my bed in my piso in Córdoba. typical.

shes dark, like super tanned.... bright red injected lips, a wig but i can see her real hair under it, a baseball cap. she starts talking nonsense... the guy sitting next to her changes seats, but she continues to talk... and its at this point you realize she has an imaginary friend. about hour 4 she starts smacking this imaginary person... pulls out a bag of potato chips and a beer, cracks them open, and goes to town. hour 5 she's yelling at her mother about french fries and broken shampoo..... and the younger crowd around me starts cracking up laughing....

keep in mind, this is all in spanish. so if the people around me are laughing hysterically, you can only imagine that i am only getting a small part of the craziness... aka broken shampoo and french fries.

made it to algeciras at like 930, checked into the first hostal i saw... the woman looked at me like i was nuts for going on my own, gave me my own room for 20euro, and excellent price. the shower room was a bit grungy, but i was happy to have a shower. got directions to a kebab place around the corner, met up with an american girl, chatted a bit. she was on her way to morocco. returned home and slept.

next morning, the gang came up to algeciras and we went to GIBRALTAR! yes, i went to GREAT BRITAIN! walked around, ate fish and chips at a place called LORD NELSONS. got in a van, saw all the sights, st michael's cave which is just a cave filled with stalagmites and stalagtites, and they were playing beethoven. loved it. and the MONKEYS! i had a monkey climb on my head, slap me in the face when i ran out of peanuts, and sit in my arms like a small child. one got in our van even and tried to drive away with us. amazing.

went to tarifa, made breakfast burritos for dinner, went to the beach, trespassed into an old castle tower and then down onto the beach. next morning we went to the beach and frolicked in the strait of gibraltar. my back is sunburned BUT I PROMISE I USED SUNBLOCK!

i met a lot of nice people in the hostel. i was in a different one than the group, but because i had requested a female dorm, i ended up by myself in a 3 person room. NICE. i went to make myself pasta and instead some australian girls gave me some of their stir fry dinner since they had made too much. met up with the gang and went to a place called the CIRCUS -- watched american TV, played ping pong, and then the locals bought us games of pool and we played together and spoke in spanish. we stayed there until like 2 or 3 am... ridiculous.

the next day we caught the bus to cádiz, walked around the city (we'd been there for one night only before to celebrate CARNAVAL in february), saw the castle and went to the beach again. We saw a man selling sea urchins on the street and people eating them just like that... raw and straight out of the spiny shell. the man gave me one for free, opened it for me, and showed me how to eat it.

it was like eating slightly thick freezing cold salt water. i do not reccommend it. but i was in cádiz and living up the experience. we saw a procession and were amazed, then headed to the bus station.


the idea was for chris and i to catch a bus to algeciras and then head on to ronda. we got there 30 minutes early and yet SOMEHOW missed the bus... how, you ask? BECAUSE IT WASNT LABELED that it was going to Algeciras. so we didnt get on it. so we missed it. ended up begging the woman to give us the last two seats to seville with the rest of the gang. she finally caved and chris and i squeezed on.

Seville is KNOWN for its semana santa processions. It is also known that it is EXPENSIVE during the time and IMPOSSIBLE to find lodging on short notice. However, since I am Jamee, OCD, and incredibly lucky... i had written down the numbers of the hostels we had stayed in LAST week and called up... thank goodness they had a room. We made our way to the italian place i had eaten at with katie and jenny and then on to the hostel.

next morning, we went to the bus station to learn that the bus to ronda wasnt running on its normal schedule due to the traffic and the next one wasnt leaving until late in the afternoon, effectively blowing the whole day, so we opted for a quick lunch and then the trip home to córdoba, where i am now.

i got home around 4, helped a guy from san diego find a hostel, and passed out around 5.... woke up at midnight to hear the procession in the plaza, but was too exhausted. i woke up this morning at 9... effectively 16 hours in my bed completely asleep.

looking at other day trips for the rest of the week. madrid or valencia maybe.



love you all, miss you. if i had internet in my house, this would be easier. i had no electricity apparently, so thank goodness i slept for 16 hours.

Package and Aunt Di's Birthday!

Thank you for my package! I TOLD YOU ID NEED THOSE THINGS YOU WOULDNT LET ME BRING.

Why do I not own a normal pair of shorts? This is a problem. Thank you for my girlscout cookies. Thank goodness I got the box after class so I only had to share with Katie and Stephanie. Delicious, I think I'll have one now. I especially enjoyed the addition to the box. Wonderful. Katie and I laughed SO hard. Very creative.

Ooooh and my jewelry. Far too excited for my own good to have some of my own necklaces here. You should be SO proud... 2 months and I only bought 2 rings and some basic headbands.



And not to be greedy or sound incredibly ungrateful... but is anyone sending me another package any time soon? Because I am running out of deodorant and do not trust the ones here because I cannot read the label. I will give you money and tell you exactly which one I want... I won't even complain about the scent if you pick something different. If I am being extreme, it's okay... I'll have my mom bring me some and hope that I can squeeze three weeks out of this thing. I won't be able to. But I need deodorant for Morroco. Fact. Morroco is hot.



In other news... I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY AUNT DIANE! I called you and spoke to you for 0.6 seconds, but I hope you know I love you and miss you. My internet is so spotty lately that I've missed out on a lot of family time. But I love you all.

spring break.

greece fell through within the last day or so... mostly the last 5 hours at school. so im getting on a train and crashing with aliyah, chris, toni, dani, and graham for a few days at the beach in tarifa.

this isn't what i planned, but that's what i get for not planning. i know better.

well, at least now ill save money and explore spain some more.

planning for after-school begins next monday. fact.