It has been wayyyy too long since, i've posted in this. To be honest i'm not exactly the sure the order of the weekends anymore. My last post is about barcelona, so that should make this next post about Almeria? not sure, but i'll go for it.
         Anyway, this weekend started out with a little bit of a scare, because we were 95% sure we missed the bus, while waiting at the bus station. I mean that sounds a little ridiculous, but I wouldn't put it past me and my friends, honestly. But turns out the bus just came late, we made it on the bus, and we actually got to ride on the deluxe bus which was reallly nice. A group of about 4 of us from API study abroad went to Almeria with Ryan's friend Christian, who studies in Granada but is from Almeria, so we were going to his house. It's kind of a long story but Ryan came to Almeria about 4 years ago for a spanish language exchange and he go to know christian and his friends in his town.
         So we get to Almeria, and it seems like a decent size city, and thennn we drive about 45 minutes of out town, and arrive in what looks like rural mexico with nicer buildings.

Mexico or Spain?

 So I'm thinking not exactly what I was expecting, but hey i'll take it. Turns out this is just a little farming town outside of Almeria, which is weird because the city was still built as if there was no room. This entire place was surrounded by miles of greenhouses, So I thought the farmers would have typical farm houses, but instead it was built like a city (small streets, 2 story townhouses, and very limited room). I guess that's just how the spaniards do it, seems a little weird, but it was actually cool being in a small town. At night we went out to the local bar, Morrison's, another Irish pub, because apparently spaniards just don't have cool bars? It was cool though because it seemed like everyone in this town was at morrisons, and i'm fairly certain it was the only place open in the town at that time. Same thing at lunch, we saw a few places to eat, but most people we're at my friend Christian's uncles' little tapas bar watching soccer.
        The second night we went up with christian to his house up in the mountains. I use the word 'house' lightly, because again, i was thinking this would have to be like a cabin or something in the mountains, but no; it was still just a little pueblo up there wayyy on the mountain. Tiny little streets and houses, but it worked out there was enough room for us there, I made pretty good friends with Christians friends: Alberto, Gema, and Macarena (great name, I know). It was a little difficult, because none of the spaniards spoke english, so i had to try and get by with just spanish, pretty sure it worked out. Anyway, we hung out made dinner, drank a little bit and just had a good time up in the mountain village, I wish I had taken more pictures before I got up to the mountains, but only have a few to document it.

Jon in the middle from API, and the new spanish friends (none of them spoke a word of english).

Our little mini-bottelon in the streets of Almeria with the

whole  API group and christian (the spaniard who refuses

to smile).

Barcelona

  So this weekend was the long-awaited Barcelona trip, partly to go to sensation, but also to hopefully see the city also. Traveling there was a little bit of a pain, I'll be honest, but after taking a cab to the bus station, bus to malaga, plane to barcelona, bus to the city center, then metro to my hostel, I made it! 
  The first night wasn't real eventful, we explored the town a little the first day, and ended up taking naps at like 6 for an hour or two. I guess I felt like a little bit of a bum traveling somewhere and then sleepin, but I love the siesta, not sure how i'm gonna survive back in Los Estados Unidos. That night we went out a bar and a club in barcelona, which were both out of control expensive, but I wasn't gonna just sit in my hostel all night. To our surprise, the club ended at 4 (somehow i've become accustomed to coming back after that in Spain). And unfortunately the metro didn't open until 5am, so we had to kill some time, and eventually made our way to mcdonalds. Once we got there, we realized it was only open for drive thru; Luckily, we gave some money to some spaniards in a car and had them get us food,I might have gotten ripped off by a euro or two, but i was content.

  Finally, the metro reopened at 5am and it was down to just me and my friend parker. We were beyond exhausted from our flight and then late night out, and we actually both fell asleep waiting for the metro. Luckily, I woke up a minute before it came, I had to wake parker up, and we got on. He then proceeded to fall asleep standing up in the subway, But we did eventually make it home awake and alive.
  Our hostel was actually really nice, we stayed at yellownest, and it was only about 15 euro or so per night. It was a pretty standard hostel with just a large room with tons of beds, but it also had like basement where everyone could hang out and also a roof terrace. As my first experience in a hostel I'd say it went pretty well. Except, when I came back after sensation, the room was roughlly 90 degrees, and smelled like someone wrung out their sweaty socks all over the room. i came to find out my friends had turned on the A/C but the spanish kids turned it off, dang spaniards.






  Anyway, the day of sensation, saturday, we explored the town a little bit, saw the sagrada familia, which was surpisingly amazing. After being in Europe for a month or two now, I didn't think I would get that excited about seeing another cathedral, but this one looks totally different, and it was huge! We didn't have time to make it inside, but even looking from the outside was very impressive. Also that day, I got some paella in barcelona, which is supposed to be the best. I wanted to find a smaller, hole-in-the wall place, but this girl we were with insisted we go to the place that had good looking paella,but it was 15 euro... Needless to say, me and my friends there weren't very aggressive and we caved in, got our 15 euro paella and it was pretty good, not amazing tho. However the girl that wanted it so bad got a plate of cold paella, haha.

  That night was sensation, one of the largest raves in the world. Now, I'm not really a rave guy and i'm not even into house/dubstep music. I had a feeling however, that becuase there were so many people and the stage and everything that this would be really fun, and it was. I heard there was arond 15,000 people in this stadium and just having all those people there all crowded in with the lights and stage setup and everything, it ended up being really fun. The first hour or so, we were in the stands, which was pretty lame, but then we bribed the security guard and got down the main floor where everyone was, and where the music was louder and in your face. We had to pay about 10 euro each to get down there but i say worth it, buying drinks however was outrageous for 10 euro a piece too. Unfortunately, I still bought 3 throughout the night, because i convinced myself i'd never be somewhere like this again. I wouldn't say i regret that, but I feel like i've been telling myself that this whole time in spain in regards to spending money; I guess i'll just have to lay low in granada for a bit.

The group for barcelona (minus jade)

First Timer

Welp, here it is, I finally caved, made a blog. I did this as much for me to look back on it after this trip, as I did for other people to follow it. Also I wanted people to know that I do more in Spain than drink and go to clubs (that just happens to be when everyone takes pictures and posts them to facebook). Before I came here, I told myself I wouldn't be one of those people that makes the fb event saying "follow my blog while I'm abroad!!!", yet here I am (except I'm not making a facebook event, just follow me if you want, I dont care).
So, I sit here, about a month into my study abroad experience. Things no longer feel surreal, I've accepted that I'm actually living here, and reality's gonna kick me in the face today when my real classes start:(. It doesn't stay so bad tho, because I leave tomorrow for Barcelona, and I'm missing my second day of classes, which I didn't know I had (sorry mom and dad:)).
So far this entire trip has been unreal, especially the big events like; going to lagos, being in madrid, going to san jose. But even as I tried to write those, I struggled to remember what I've really done here... This is a good and bad thing; Good because hopefully that means I've been so busy and everything that everything's a blur. Yet, it's bad because I want to remember my trip! Hopefully this blog will help me remember how I felt about all my trips and everything. 
Besides all the big, expensive trips, I think the things I'll remember are all the little things here and there, like yesterday (and the day before, hah) when I got Chinese tapas with some people and was sooo pumped. Not only to be splitting a jug of sangria for 3 euros, But also to be eating Chinese food at the same time.
So time to wrap up my first real blog post; I am absolutely loving Spain right now, I feel like it is my home, I don't feel the pressure to constantly do something, because it doesn't feel like a vacation anymore. That being said I am excited out of my mind for this weekend. But in the long run, I'm not forgetting home, and I'm also very excited to get off that plane, call up spence, cory, and DS and get some in-n-out or something. But right now that seems years away, so I gotta enjoy where I'm at right now!
(I'm gonna try to include some pictures of highlights so far of my trip, I dont know if they're gonna be posted in the right place, cuz i'm kind of a blog rookie.)

 This more or less sums up our nights in madrid

 First couple days exploring granada, found these senegalian 

guys living in cave houses

 the city

 4 guys on a playground toy, enough said.

 The roommates, already miss these guys

 Messing around on the beach in San Jose

 Exploring Lagos, Portugal

Gettin' classy at a beach bar in Lagos

And got a chance to do some surfing!