The little things in life sometimes mean the most

Monday

Went to class as usual and then it was nice enough(i.e. not raining) to walk back. I walked backed with a friend from class and had a good conversation, a good enough conversation that I took the long way back. We said goodbye and as I was headed to the house I saw some of my friends from the ERASMUS group and talked to them for a little while. I was feeling pretty good after this, i am sure the sun helped, so I got adventurous and decided to run to a part of the city I hadn't been to yet. I was feeling good on my run and kind of knew where i was going, but apparently blatantly ignored the train station i was supposed to turn at. Instead of exploring a different part of the city I had turned out of town and went into a neighboring town(oops). Oh well I was feeling good on the run, so I just turned around made the correct turn and had a very good run for the day. I was in a very good mood until I finished taking a shower. When i went to turn off the shower, like i always do the handle came loose and the water kept going. i tried again and this time i ended up holding the handle. After a few frantic minutes and figuring out some spanish tool vocabulary I managed to shut of the water with a hammer and screwdriver, so the rest of the house could have water. I apologized to my mom multiple times and asked what I could do, but she told me not to worry. That was quite a bit of excitement.

Tuesday

Yea, If i haven't mentioned it already It has been raining for the last 2 weeks at least a little bit each day, it is currently Sunday and we still have rain in the forecast. With that in mind Tuesday was one of the worst days we have had here in our groups excellent spanglish the weather could be described as "Que cruddy". I managed to walk to school, I also walked back in record time 26:00 min. as there was a huge storm cloud coming over the mountain as I left. However, the weather was quite uncooperative today, so I didn't run. During lunch we had hail, we had HAIL actual HAIL in Spain, followed by more downpours of rain. Yes definitely didn't expect this in Spain. Anyways that night I found a soccer game on between Barcelona and German team. It was actually pretty interesting as it was the UEFA(European Champions League), soccer equivalent of the NFL. My mom brought me the standard drink for watching sports and some bread with a spicy spread with my meal, which was really nice. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, and it may be american, but i hate ties. However, i have decided Barcelona is now my team, so hopefully I will get to see some more games on TV.By the way Barcelona and Real Madrid have one of the biggest rivalry in sports(lasted over 100 years) and they have dominated soccer for awhile(Bracelona is the defending UEFA champs as well as Spanish league champs). All in all a good time, like i said the small things...

Wednesday

Same basic stuff class and walked home. I decided to be adventurous again and go to a new part of town(I have pretty much run out of new parts of town to see Caceres is small) a little park called the Paseo Alto. I went up to the park through intermittent showers(yep trying avoid the rain here is like trying to avoid the cold in Iowa, you just can't do it). However, it was beautiful on one side you could see for at least a 100 miles across the plain to the mountains, on the other you could see the city(the old part with the churches poking out among the houses, the mountain in the background, as well as the new part of town and the Parque Principe(Prince Park) nestled in the valley. I managed to continue my run in the Parque Principe where almost all of my runs go through and push the pace a little(felt good I am getting into decent shape here). Also just to note i have gone down three holes in my belt(probably partly due to stretching, but i am getting back into a good weight which i am excited about.) That night we went to meet the spaniards at a small bar around 8:00. However, there weren't many there and I saw the Czech girls that had gone on the trip with us to Granada and Cordoba, so me a few other people from Iowa talked to them for awhile. They had to leave to go eat ,so I moved over and talked to one of the spanish guys we had met a couple of weeks earlier with a few people from the iowa group. It was a real good time, again the small things...

Thursday

Went to class, today is the only day I had a break, so I usually go down to cafeteria and hang out with the other people for an hour we talk and such it was a good time. In case you haven't got it yet it was raining when we left class of course so we all took the bus back(even Tim my roommate, that was the first time he has taken the bus to or from class). When we were walking back we saw the ERASMUS kids again, so we chatted for a little bit. I finished all my plans for Italy today(booked the last few hostels and got a Eurorail pass). That night I went out with a few other people to some of our favorite places and had a pretty good time.

Friday

Woke up and went for a run today. It was a good run, but all the smoke that i was around from the night before made breathing a little challenging. I mainly just chilled around the house for most of the day doing a few things that needed to be done and such. That evening I went to a warehouse type sale that my host mom had told me about. It was mostly stuff targeted at females, but i found a small soccer bag that can hold enough clothes for 7 days as well as my nicer shoes and a guidebook. I will be using it for my trip to Italy at the end of march. After the night before I retired early.

Saturday

Today got up and just hung around on facebook for awhile talking to one of my friends. We decided to meet up around 1:00 to do a few things. So i went to go take a shower and there was a lady in the house i didn't recognize that was cleaning the kitchen, natural thought was that it was a cleaning lady, i just tried to avoid her(later found out it was Manoli's mom who i met earlier...oops). Anyways got ready and went to meet my friend. It was a nice at that time(no rain), but Spain decided that 60 mph winds would be fun. Oh by the way these were the calmest winds in the country up north by france on the atlantic coast the winds were 120mph +(yea crazy weather everywhere) Beginning to think if buildings aren't being damaged by the weather in your part of the world you are pretty lucky. Just to illustrate how strong they are my friend saw a little girl(3-5 years old) that literally couldn't walk because the winds were so strong. Anyways I stopped at a candy store and bought some dried fruit and candy for later. We met up and went to a photo studio because my friend needed a passport photo. Afterwards we went for a walk in the Parque Principe that my friend had never seen before. We walked and talked(well tried it was kind of hard to here with the wind) around the park for about an hour until i had to go back for lunch. Chilled for a little bit at home until that night when i went out again with a couple of girls from the group again a good time. This was probably the best day of the week as you can see nothing to big, but the little things...

Sunday(Today) woke at 11 realizing my body hates me and doesn't want me to sleep. But anyways went for a run today at the city track(had gone there before last week and run a 6:10 mile with a little effort) I ran there and felt pretty solid, though i felt the altitude and smoke from last night(again). Other than that i have taken a nap and avoided doing all my hw. It is about 11:45 PM now and this is the last thing i can do to avoid my homework so i guess i better do it now. Will write about next week as a whole probably because i don't have any plans