bailar

yesterday was a good day (although i guess i say that about everyday here). i went to class and we went on a field trip to las ramblas, which is an avenue near placa catalyuna that has a bunch of shops and stuff, but i dont particularly like it because it is very touristy. anyways, so we walked around there and went to the market there (which was actually pretty nice with good food and its cheap). im still not used to the markets though with their seafood because all of the fish still have their heads and some of them are still alive! like at one stand some of the crabs were still alive and moving, and at another, we were asking this woman a question (we were doing a little scavenger hunt type deal) and i dont even know what it was, but something that looked like shrimp, only much larger just like bolted and it was trying to get away and moving and stuff. freaked me out. anyways, so after class i went with my friends jill and skylar to el corte-ingles, which is a department store here that is everywhere, but theres one right across the street from ies center 1, and i put more minutes on my phone and they were doing phone stuff. then we met up with christina and went to our irish pub for lunch. today i had chicken kebabs with salad and potato wedges and a beer for 6 euros. awesome. and then we did some shopping. i didnt buy anything (dont worry dad, im trying to spend money wisely, like food, sometimes drinks, and travel!). but we ended up walking to the cathedral and went into a bakery and then went to this other restaurant to have some sangria. it was quite delicious and only 3 euros. i then met back up with piyal and we came home. we were both really tired and i was looking forward to a siesta before dinner and going out last night, but when we came home our senora told us that she found a cheap place for us to take dance classes (we had told her we were interested in taking a spanish dance class while here) so she took us to go sign up! im pretty excited for this class. they teach a bunch of different dances, like the mambo and salsa and cha-cha, etc. and the timing is perfect because its on monday nights starting the first week in october-december 15 which is right before we leave here. so, that was exciting. i just cannot get over how nice people are here. im always expecting them to be rude or un-friendly, but when piyal and i stopped at the consum (its a cheap grocery store here) we were trying to figure out how to ask for face wash and lotion, and this lady overheard us who speaks english. so she helped us which was nice. and my host mom is just adorable. she is friendly and helpful and i have really noticed an improvement in my spanish just by trying to talk to her and communicate. its all still very exciting. so then we came back and had dinner (tortillas but not like how we think in the us, its like an egg thing with different stuff in it, it is a personal fave so far, more of the cauliflower mix, salad and melon for dessert) and then i got ready and went up to christina's neighborhood. we chilled there while waiting for sean to come because we all went out to this club, carpe diem, last night. today was the first day of a national holiday here, so we decided to suck it up and deal with the americans/ies people since the drinks were cheap and we could dance. it was fun. and now today, im relaxing and later will be going back to christina's (she lives in an apartment) where she, jill and i are making dinner for a bunch of people and then we're going to go out to a local place to help celebrate the festival this weekend!