Sofia Somewhere

It's not yet snowing over here but it's supposed to start snowing this week! I'm so excited but I'm not sure if I'll freeze or not. It's pretty cold though now and it's also raining which makes it extra cold. Classes are great and I think I'm really getting the hang of Spanish. I can basically understand pretty much the whole class and I don't even need to open my dictionary anymore.

Here's a link to my photos. Only problem is there's a 100mb limit, so I was only able to post the pictures of Angelo, Roberto, and Tala's stay here. The site is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sofiainspain I'm still trying to get the hang of it, but I think the easiest thing to do is click on sets, and then you'll see all the pictures combined in an album.

Last week was a pretty hectic week, and I didn’t find much time to blog. By Thursday, I had to have read the prologue and Chapter 1 of El Quijote for my Literature class. On on Friday I had a Redacción Exam, a presentation about El Camino de Santiago, and a paper to hand in about the current law of tabaco in Spain. Needless to say, I spent the whole week researching, studying, preparing, reading, and staying up late. Come Thursday, Literature class went pretty well and I was able to understand what I was reading. The Redacción Exam was pretty hard, and I handed my exam in five minutes before time was up. I was so nervous during the start of the presentation that I completely forgot the history and origin, but thankfully, everything else went well. But at least now, that’s all done!

Hey everybody, Yes, I'm still alive. And happy, and safe, and sane, and well, and fine, and nineteen ! It's been a busy week and weekend and I'll be blogging as soon as I get the chance. Lots of love, Sofia

Yesterday, I and the rest of the ILCE students went on an excursion to Olite, Javier, and Leyre, cities in Navarra. The past few days it had been raining, but yesterday morning it was bright and sunny. Our first stop was to Olite, some 30 minutes away. The city was very pretty. It was old and medieval like and I couldn't stop taking pictures. We visited the Royal Palace where we had a guided tour then had about an hour free time. Olite, beautiful city.

Welcome to winter time in Spain, where a scarf is not merely an accessory but something you wrap around your neck to keep you from freezing and when you wear three layers of coats not caring if it makes you look fat, so long as your warm (and I’m still not). Gloves keep your hands warm and your skin from cracking, and boots are a must if you want to feel your toes. It’s getting really cold here. Really, really cold. And it's not even winter, winter yet. It scares me to think, if I feel cold now, what more when winter really comes. Another thing is that the sun is starting to rise later than usual. It's harder to wake up in the morning and I get so tempted to go back to sleep. Other than that, everything else has been great. Classes are getting a little harder, and I’m forced to think and study. I have a vocabulary test tomorrow, which I should be studying for right now. Halloween here is nonexistent. Especially compared to the Philippines where everyone dresses up and eat

Angelo, Roberto and Tala were here for two days to come see Pamplona and me. It was great having them around; I enjoyed the Filipino company (and two days off from school). They arrived on Monday night. I took the bus to the train station to pick them up. It was raining and we took a taxi to their hostel. Their hostel was pretty nice, and about a 15-minute walk to my apartment. We chilled awhile in their room then walked to my apartment. It was cold and they had a cup of hot chocolate before leaving. We had dinner at a nearby bar with two of my friends, Maria and Winifred. On Tuesday we took a daytrip to Bilbao. We went to the bus station early to buy our tickets then had lunch at the café. It was a long two hour trip and we slept most of the way. When we arrived in Bilbao, it was raining pretty hard. We took the metro and decided to see the Guggenheim first. I had already been in the Guggenheim with my parents, but still, I couldn’t help admiring the building all over again. A