I can't think of a good title

I feel like I haven't blogged in a while and that is probably because life has been rather boring.

Main things that have happened recently:

-I couldn't do translation so I'm only doing 4 subjects now
-I bought my ticket to go to La Aplujarra next weekend
-It's suddenly got FREEZING (I've had to buy a new coat -how inconvenient..)
-I thought there was a gas leak in my flat (there wasn't)
-I'm coming home for Christmas


SURPRISE MUM! I've actually had my ticket booked for quite a while, it was booked when my parents came out but only my dad knew. It was going to be a surprise and I was going to turn up in Sleaford on 20th December to surprise my mum. I also kept thinking I was surprising the wrong person, my mum kept telling me that she didn't mind if I wanted to spend Christmas in Spain, but it was my dad who really wanted me to come home. However, I can't be bothered to keep the secret any more and it was hard when my mum would ask me if I had sorted my Christmas plans every time we skyped - mainly because I'm a crap liar! This means I'll be home for Christmas with my family and I can go to the christening of my baby cousin which I'm looking forward to. I'm only back until 31st December because then I fly to BARCELONA to spend New Years Eve and the following days with Tara.


The next few weeks are set to be pretty exciting. Tomorrow my friend Emily arrives, I can't wait to show her Granada. We'll do all the Albaicin, Sacromonte and Mirador things, and hopefully we're going to go to a flamenco show.

Next Saturday I am going on a trip to La Alpujarra with 3 of my friends (and maybe their mexican flatmates). La Alpujarra is part of the Sierra Nevada, we'll get a bus up to the highest town then walk through the mountains to visit 3 other towns popping into a secadero de jamón and fábrica de chocolate on the way. We get to taste the jamón serrano, wine, and chocolate! It's only a day trip but for 18 euros I think we've got a pretty good deal, they're apparently some of the most beautiful towns/villages in Spain.

2 weeks after, Tara arrives. We're hopefully going to go on a day trip somewhere...wherever we feel like on the day. We might even use blablacar to make the journey a bit cheaper. Me and Tara have also decided on something pretty big for the summer, we are going to go interrailing. We always talk about the places we want to go in Spain, it then escalated to Europe and after talks we decided to go ahead with it. This will be the best time for us to do it, the summer after (2015) who knows what our situation will be with graduation and looking for a job (scary!). I'm excited but it's now time to be sensible with money but still make sure I enjoy my year abroad.

I've now also been invited to go to Madrid on the first weekend of December because it's a puente, which means we get the Friday and Monday off. All of us seem to know people in Madrid who we would like to see so why not all go together, see who we want to see and then explore Madrid.

We have provisional plans to go skiing the weekend before we come home for Christmas, I'd love to try it and it would be silly not to considering it's right on our doorstep. It won't be cheap but it'll be cheaper than doing it from England so this year is the best time to try it.

So the lead up to Christmas is looking pretty busy for me, whether it'll all happen or not who knows but I like the sound of my plans (although it sounds a pretty expensive 2 months). I'm really looking forward to going home though, I can already taste my Christmas dinner! It is also going to be the first Christmas in 4 years that I haven't worked both Christmas eve and Boxing day which is something to look forward to!


I'm going to leave you with some observations of the Spanish which I've been finding strange:

-Boys with one very long dreadlock/plait down their back. No. This is not cool. It's seen on 1 in 4 guys. Even just dreadlocks in general is very popular. Spain is so hippy.

-Double denim. Enough said really...

-The amount of people apparently acceptable and safe to fit on a bus. I've had a few near death experiences.

-Té ingles con leche. They made a pot of tea with hot milk instead of water and milk on the side...yum

-One day it was 25 degrees, the next it was 10. WHAT

-How much weed there is. You could get high just walking around Granada sometimes..

-Outdoor gyms which are free. Not amazing but they're free! I also enjoy seeing the old people using the equipment. Great idea, Spain.


That's it for now, I'm sure I'll have a new blog after my weekend with Emily about all the fun things we did.

Ellie