And I Think to Myself, What a Wonderful World...

I'm going to start by saying that I'm feeling so happy and truly blessed to have met some really amazing people this past week.  I'm not even going to talk about classes anymore because they just bore me so much, although I'm really happy I've found enough classes to take so I can stay here.  I've got a meeting with some lady on Tuesday, so I'm hoping I can officially register for classes, FINALLY. Ok, that's all I'm going to say about school in this post.
So Vicky and I made some new friends (I know, it took a while, but yayyy we have friends to hang out with now if we ever get sick of seeing each other's faces haha!)  Here's a funny story...one of our classmates, Meri, wanted us to meet her boyfriend because they were going to take us to Montserrat during the weekend (I'll talk more about it later!)  Anyway, he approaches us and kisses us on both cheeks (Spanish way of greeting) and we're both in shock but try not to show it.  We totally didn't expect it and it was soooo funny because on our way home, we were just bursting out laughing because we had no idea what just happened.  We seriously had WTF expressions on our faces LOL.  It's something we're definitely going to have to get use to when we meet new people.  I guess no more handshakes for me for the next few months!
On Thursday, I went out and partied Spanish style with some new friends, yeah!!!.  We went to this hole-in-the-wall bar that had really cheap drinks, so we hung out there for a while.  It really sucks that all public transportation stops at midnight, so you'd have to either catch a taxi home, or wait til 6 a.m. when they open again (I went with the latter haha).  We got to the club (they call it disco here)  around 12 ish and it was by the port but I had no idea where exactly because at that point, I was a weeee bit tipsy.  I was completely fine in the club for about an hour, and then when I was outside, you guessed it, I puked everything out--3 times.  Funny because the last time that happened was on my birthday last year, and I remembered telling myself I wasn't going to let that happen again, and for 11 months, it didn't, until that night/morning (can't remember what time it was).  Vicky didn't go, so she wasn't able to hold my hair for me, but thank God, one of my new friends, Cristhina, was there to take care of me.  It reminded me that I'm such a lightweight and it was quite embarrassing but after I was done, two other people in my group started getting sick, and that made me feel a little better that I wasn't the only one =).  We all hung out by the port sitting and laying on benches probably from 4 a.m. until 5 ish when we started walking back to the metro to go home and sleep it off.  I can't wait to do it again, only next time, I'll learn how to control my alcohol intake so I won't be the first one to go down.
Then today, Vicky and I went with Meri and her boyfriend Raul to Montserrat.  It's about a half hour drive from Barcelona, and it was so nice being in a car again and not the bus or metro.  We were suppose to meet them on campus at 9 a.m., but since we're slowly turning Spanish now, we were 45 minutes late. Oops!  It wasn't really our fault though because we didn't know the bus runs every 30 minutes on Sundays, so we had to walk to the metro station instead and catch the train to the university.  We felt terrible that we had to make them wait so long, but they were really nice about it and told us it was fine.  We went on our way, and drove to the mountains to check out some caves where legend has it that some miracles happened there years and years ago and that the Virgin Mary appeared to some shepherds inside the caves.  I was so excited to see this, even though there were 245 steps of stairs I had to take to get to the caves.  I didn't really mind though because it was just like Cowles' Mountain.  Remember how in "The Bucket List," the #1 thing was to experience something majestic?? Well, being inside the caves is definitely up there on my list of seeing something majestic.  I'm just so bummed that they didn't allow flash photography, but it's understandable because they're trying to preserve it.  It was so much fun climbing up and down and crawling and weaving through it and seeing how beautiful it was inside.
After spending almost an hour in the caves, we drove and then took a ziptrain to the actual town of Montserrat, which is on top of a really beautiful mountain.  I think it's one of those really sacred and religious little towns because there were crosses everywhere and there were a lot of priests and monks living in the area as well as a basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary (the one who can work miracles!--yes, I'm a believer ok? Don't make fun of me).  There was a longggg line of people waiting to go inside the basilica to touch the statue and make their wishes or say their prayers, but it was worth the wait because I was able to say my little prayer and ask Mary for some things =).  I'm so happy that Meri and Raul took us here because Vicky and I probably wouldn't have ever gone if we didn't know them.  They're so funny because before going to the caves, they brought us a ton of snacks (energy bars, fruit juices, energy drinks) enough to feed 7 or 8 people, and it was just the 4 of us.  They were like our parents, worried that we wouldn't have enough energy to make it to the caves and the rest of the day haha!  They're such a cute couple and they're already planning our next few trips together and I'm so excited for it!!
One of mine and Vicky's goals while we were here was to go see Coldplay perform somewhere, since they tour through Europe more than the states.  Soooo, I got a text from my phone service provider letting me know that they were going to let their customers buy Coldplay tickets since they were going to have a show in Madrid at the end of August.  Immediately I thought, we're going, I don't even care if it's on a Wednesday, I'm going to fly to Madrid just for that one night to see them and fly back in the morning in time for my classes.  I saw them 2 years ago in San Diego, and it's on the top of my list of the best shows I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot).  However, Vicky wasn't going to be able to go since we still haven't gotten our money yet.  I'm still pretty good with my money, at least for the next 2 or 3 weeks, so seriously financial aid and scholarship peeps, where's our money at???  I was able to get Cristhina to go with me, so we booked our flight and got our tickets (~130 euro).  I can't believe I'm going to see them again, in freaking Madrid!!! How awesome is that??  I'm so sad that Vicky can't go though because we're both ultimate Coldplay fans, and while I'll be having one of the best nights of my life, she'll be at home =(  I'll just try to record the whole show for her so it'll be like she was there haha!
Also, more good news.  One of my good friends from Holland who studied abroad at SDSU last year is coming to visit me in December.  That was such a big surprise because I was already planning to visit her hometown to see her and our other friend again after Christmas.  She'll be visiting for 3 1/2 days and I'm so happy I'll get to see her again after saying a sad goodbye to her a few months ago.  It's gonna be a wonderful December!
I haven't been skyping with my parents for over a week because my brother is in Washington D.C. for some training for his work.  I usually skype with them through his iPhone since they don't have a webcam at home.  I miss them a lot, especially their amazing food.  I'm so sick of eating cereal for breakfast and turkey sandwiches with potato chips for lunch everyday.  I just really miss Asian food!!  Vicky and I went to this Thai restaurant last week because we were craving it and craving Thai tea, but when we asked if they had Thai tea, they said they didn't.  And I just thought to myself, why the hell did you open a Thai restaurant if you don't even have Thai tea??  Makes no sense!! I was not happy about that at all.  I was also not happy that my brother was having fun in D.C., going on his food adventures without me.  Me and him bond over our obsession for food, so I was a little annoyed when he was telling me about all the food he was eating and I couldn't even be there to have some of it with him.  It's ok though because I think he felt bad that I wasn't there, so he said he'll take me sometime next year so I can see for myself.  I love my brotha!
It's Monday tomorrow, meh.  I'm looking forward to Wednesday though because it's a holiday so no classes, yayy!! Soooo, I'm going on this trip for international students to another town called Zaragoza to celebrate some festival that they're having.  It should be fun, but very tiring since they're not taking us back until 3 a.m. and we won't be back on campus until 7 a.m., and then I have class at 8:30.  I'll probably just skip that class anyway haha.
Alright, gonna go shower and head to bed.  Peace and love =)