Homestay vs. Apartment

It's about 1:45am and this is the latest I have ever been in the homestay before going out. We had dinner around 8:30pm and didn't leave the table until about 15 minutes ago. I remember signing up for the Barcelona program and requesting an apartment. I went into it thinking that I would just have the best time in an apartment with other students trying to live it up. When I found out I had a homestay, I was bummed. I thought this would seriously limit my fun times abroad and would possibly shelter me from meeting other study abroad students. I was completely wrong with both of those assumptions.

It really brings "family" into a new perspective to me. It was just one of those "amazing conversations" that nothing else could come close to. We talked about theatre, food, family, relationships, movies, music, and LIFE. Anna, the sister we are living with, brought up the U.S. and how wonderful it seems. She has traveled to a lot of places over there already, but she talked about how it seemed like the ideal place. I have absolutely nothing against our country. It's a great place with a lot of opportunities. However, we definitely have our share of issues at the moment. Anna described how the U.S. looks like a great place from the movies she has seen. People having so many chances to do great things, traveling from one state to another freely, people with different religions and backgrounds living together, the vast differences in weather (even in the same state), and so forth. These are things that I never ever think about when I'm at home. Then the conversation turned to Roscoes and the mood of the conversation definitely changed. (haha)

I guess my point is that I am starting to feel like I'm becoming the "global citizen" that everyone talks about when they go abroad and our famous motto back at ERC in UCSD. My eyes have opened up so much since I have been here. Yeah, there are many great advant

ages to living back in the U.S. However, seeing and hearing these things through somebody from another country definitely changes my perspective on things. Back home, I feel like I take so many things for granted and a lot of worries and complaints can be so materialistic and pointless at times. Life is good. Real good. I need to always remember that and never forget it.

On another note, I finally touched the Mediterranean Sea today and made it to the beach. It was full of people, along with vendors selling tattoos, massages (which I almost got), beer, coconuts, and club tickets for the night. This city is amazing. Josh (my roommate) and I were walking back to our house and we were talking about how we never know what is going to be for dinner. Our "mom" just tells us what time it will be at. Last night, we had

a conversation about the foods we usually eat back home. Josh and I both LOVE ketchup and do not like mayo. We mentioned how much more popular mayo is here than in the U.S. So, when we got back for dinner tonight, we walked into a table set with some bowls of soup. Afterwards, we were served a plate of hot dogs, french fries, and ketchup. We laughed, because we felt weird eating an American meal here in Spain. It was definitely good though! I couldn't be happier at this homestay situation. d:-)

After being out till about 7am last night, I figured we probably wouldn't go out tonight and just take this only ni

ght (so far) to stay in after our long dinner conversation......but, there is a Spanish bar with a band playing in about 20 minutes. Yeah 2:30am. I think we are going to check it out. I guess tomorrow night will be our first night actually staying in, since we both have early class on Monday. Adios por ahora!