London, baby!!

That's right, Lindsay and I are going to London in 3 weeks!! We booked our plane tickets and everything. I am so excited to go! Lindsay has a friend studying in London so she'll be able to take us around and show us all the hot spots. Planning trips is so much fun, but I am suddenly realizing how much everything costs and that I will probably have no money to my name when I return in May. I mean it will be worth it, but I just can't afford to go everywhere. There are possibly 3 other trips I will be going on. Two are through programs called We Love Spain and they give you a flat rate which covers hotel, transportation, and most meals. So I think I'm going to go to Morocco and Portugal. And also, we are thinking of going to Italy for a few days during Semana Santa (Holy Week) which would be really awesome. Like I said, though, everything is adding up quickly. So I pretty much am going to try to pack as many snacks as I can so I don't have to pay for food at a nice restaurant. There are these Chinese markets here in Sevilla which remind me of the Dollar Store back in the States, where you can buy food and other things for really cheap. So we'll probably stock up and just try to snack for the 3 days we're in London. I'd rather pay to see sights than for food. I have plenty of food when I return to my homestay, what's 3 days without eating much? It'll be so worth it.

So last night a bunch of us went out to a flamenco bar. It was really cool and you got to see a live flamenco dancer for free! Usually you have to pay, but at this bar you didn't have to pay anything (well, unless you bought drinks of course). The only thing is that we realized you have to get there early to get a good seat. It was super crowded! When Liz comes, I think I'm going to take her there because you can't come to Sevilla without seeing some flamenco.

I have my final exam for my 2-week intensive grammar class today at 3. For some reason I'm not as nervous about this test even though it's worth 40% of my grade. I'm just excited for this class to be over and to start my real classes on Monday. To celebrate finishing our first class here in Spain, my friends and I are going out for tapas y tinto de verano (tapas=small dishes of food, kind of like appetizers which you share with everyone at the table and tinto de verano=half red wine, half lemonade, it tastes very fruity and not much like alcohol at all which is probably why I like it so much!) I can't wait!