its been too long

I have to apologize for my lack of blogging lately. To be honest, I've been traveling a lot and I just haven't been able to find the time to sit down to update everyone. As I am writing now, I only have 11 days left in Sevilla- it truly is one of the most bitter sweet moments I have ever felt in my life. I'm excited to go home to see everyone and to sleep in my own bed, and to get a hug from my own mom, and to drink REAL diet coke- non of this coke light crap, but at the same time I am going to miss Sevilla dearly. It truly has become my second home.
I'm taking a break right now from finishing up a 5 page paper and two presentations to give you a quick summary of what has been going on since Feria- then its back to work for me.
Gareth visited for 10 days and we traveled to Toledo, and to Portugal. It was a great time all around. It was so good to spend time with him and to show him around Sevilla, as well as travel to different parts of the country and to Portugal. Portugal was AMAZING and so beautiful. It was so relaxing just sitting on the beach doing nothing. Unfortunately I don't have any funny stories so I'm sure you will find this entry rather boring.
The weekend after Gareth and I were in Portugal, I went back to Portugal with some of friends that are in a different program here in Sevilla. There were 10 of us and we rented two cars and drove to Lagos, Portugal. We stayed in a villa, and cooked our own food and it was SOOOOO FUN!! We did a lot of hiking through the cliffs and had our own little private beach. It was a great weekend, except for the fact that I had a near death experience in the ocean during high tide and high waves. I caught caught on the shore where the waves were breaking and I got sucked in and lost my bathing suit bottoms and couldn't breath or get out of the water. It sucked me back in twice and when I was finally able to get to the surface and get to shore, I was crawling up the beach covered in seaweed and sand clinging onto my bathing suit bottoms with my big toe. It was SOOO SCARY, yet after I finished gagging and vomiting up all the salt water it was pretty funny, and there are some pretty funny pictures of the whole thing that I am waiting to get from my friend's camera.
There are 4 new albums on my picture website for you to check out. I hope you enjoy all of them.
We're getting into crunch time with school. Classes end on Thursday and finals start on Monday. I have 3 finals on Monday-boo!!! but with that being said I will be home 1 week from this Saturday! I can't believe I am saying that. This weekend is our last weekend in Sevilla. We're going to go to the gypsy market on Saturday. We'll see what else we get up too, its been in the high 80s low 90s this week and let me just say it is TOO HOT! its seriously unbearable heat. There is no ocean breeze that I am usually used to, so its definitely hard to handle. We sleep most of the afternoons because thats what you have to do in order to survive. Don't worry though I'm drinking lots of water and doing the best I can.
Oh I'm really tan right now- probably the tannest I have ever been in my life this early on in the summer.
what else...OH!!! bad news- on Saturday night Mama got mugged by two men and she broke her arm and has all these scrapes and bruises all over her body. Thankfully she held on tight to her bag, which is probably why she is so banged up, but they didn't take anything from her. She was pretty shook up, but shes in much better spirits now. I told her that in the US when someone breaks a bone and has a cast people sign their casts, and she was like OOOO OK!!! so we are all going to sign her cast!
So the things I am looking forward to the most when I get home...lets see
1.my family and my friends!
2.cheeseburgers- spaniards don't eat beef. I have gone through such a beef withdrawal here its insane. I neeeeeed a burger!
3. my own bed with soft sheets
4. a pillow- not a clump of rags in a pillow case
5. diet coke- not coke light

Thats all for now, I've got to get back to work and then I need to go to bed! I miss you all so much and I can't believe I will be seeing most of you in such a short amount of time! I hope all everything is well back in the good ole U.S. of A!!!

see you soon!!!