Hello from my bed surrounded by Kleenex.

Ugh. Yes, I am sick. I don't know if it's just me, or the general bad luck of exchange students with getting sick; either way my head feels like it's about to explode and I can't breathe through my nose. It started last night and when I got up this morning I thought I was about to fall over. Just my luck to feel icky on a perfectly good Saturday. I was going to go see the Christmas play at Evelyn's church tonight too! Urg.

When I left you last, Barcelona and Madrid were about to go head-to-head in the ultimate game of futbol. Apparently, almost everyone thought that Madrid was going to take it all, but it was Barcelona who came out strong in the end, 3-1. My family was so happy, being Barcelona fans. I have officially decided that I am going to support Barcelona for futbol for two main reasons, aside from the fact that they won the match:

1. My host family is for Barcelona, so I'd rather not be rivals with the people who feed me.

2. (Molly's reasoning) Madrid has the most ridiculous uniforms that are almost completely white, and inevitably, have grass stains all over them. For this reason, I simply cannot support Madrid - a smart team would have colored uniforms, like Barcelona, to help with stain control.

Also when I left you last, I was about to head out to a Christmas party at Evelyn's church! Well it turned out to be pretty good. We played games including "Upset the Fruit Basket" (Spanish style), ate a ton of delicious food, and had a gift exchange. At first I got a bunch of Kinder chocolate, but I later traded it for a Spanish Bible! I accidentally forgot it in a friend's (Lydia's) car, but once I get it back I am going to check it out for sure! I can't wait. After the party we watched the futbol game and later went to Plaza de Libertad. I felt so at home that night. It was the kind of night I would have in the US. I loved it, but at the same time it made me miss home so much.

The past week at school was fine. It was basically "finals week" so everyone was either studying or stressing out about studying. I took almost all of the exams but I think I failed all of them. I don't study for them because I usually just study for my Spanish class. Speaking of, my teacher loved me and Matthew's poster. Whooo. Also, I got a 10 (perfect) on my latest English exam. Other than that and PE, my grades are going stink.

Also this week, I met a group of friends from Matthew's class who I really like. I could definitely see them becoming some good friends. Making friends is turning out to be more difficult than I imagined, but it'll come. I know it will. Right now I just miss having those close friends from home who I can always go to about anything and who I can talk for hours with about nothing. Sure I have friends here, but not close ones -- yet. It'll come.

I have school all next week -- I'm not really sure why. All the finals are done, and Christmas Eve is Saturday. I can already see half my class not showing up next week, which is completely understandable. But ohmygoodness - Christmas is in a week!! It doesn't feel like Christmastime :( I'm still excited for Christmas here, but I really do miss home. All last week was good with homesickness - they wasn't any, I was feeling good, and I felt like I was beginning to make a home in Spain. Then last night it began to hit me hard that I don't have my family from Iowa here and how much I really do miss them, especially now at Christmastime. Everything is so strange and different than what I'm used to - it's not bad, it's just unfamiliar. Sometimes I miss the familiar, but I know I am going to gain so many experiences in the times to come.

Until later,
Josie

Sometimes, I don't know what I think.

Hello. The following message is brought to you by a siesta.

Really though. I had a great siesta today and it continues to energize me! Even though it's 10:30 at night -- later than my usual time to blog it up -- I HAVE THE POWER!

As usual, my sense of time is nearly non-exsistent. Some hours feel like days, but some days only feel like hours. Then there's the "I've almost been here for six weeks" fact. Say what? My friend Hannah (Oregon -->Spain) wrote something in her blog the other day about how when your mind is full of other things, you lose your sense of time perception. I don't know if that's scientifically proven, but if not, exchange students would be living proof. We're surrounded by new culture, language, people, everything - it's kind of a lot to take in. So while we're processing all those things, time somehow gets thrown out of the mix. I still have about eight and a half more months of exchange, but I don't quite know what to think of that. One one hand, I'm thinking: Only eight and half more months?!?! I've only been here for, like, a month and week, so that's like repeating what I've done . . . sevenish more times? However on the other hand, I'm thinking, I'm here for HOW LONG? I could almost have a baby in that time! I miss you so, Iowa!! I hope you're getting what I'm trying to say here. If you don't, that's fine, because I don't think I do!

Remember what I was saying about avoiding the "November Blues" last blog post? Well, they hit me. Sometimes it's homesickness, sometime it's a "there's no hope for me at school" feeling, and sometimes it's just wanting to bite everyone's head off. I have found that the root of these "blues" (sadness, frustration, irritability) is usually somehow linked to Spanish. For example, I might be at school one day and I want to tell my friends a cool story. I start to tell the story in Spanish, but I don't know an essential word.  I improvise with charades and Spanglish, and move on with the story. I end up stopping half-way through because there are too many words I can't think of and trying to share my story has turned out to be far too much work than it's worth, and my class must be thinking how random and strange Americans are. From there, my thought process usually goes something like this: I wish I knew more Spanish. If only my Spanish was as good as my English. I miss just casually talking in English with friends in the U.S. and not have to rethink every word I say. I miss my friends. I miss high school. I miss my family and Iowa and corn and why does my life stink?!?!

I know my life doesn't stink, but do you see how my thoughts led to that? I know I'm in Spain, living up the chance of a lifetime. But sometimes, it's difficult. And sometimes, all I feel like doing is curling up in a ball and drinking hot coco.

Fortunately the hot coco here, Cola Cao, is delicious.

I'm not depressed, but sometimes I have bad days. Even in beautiful Spain, people have bad days. Not all bad though :) As I told you guys last week, Evelyn invited me to her church last weekend! Apparently there is church every day, but I think most people only go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I went on Friday night, and it turned out pretty cool! We sung some praise and worship songs (in Spanish of course), then everyone introduced themselves with their name and nationality. There were about 30 people, and almost everyone was from Paraguay! After that, a message was given and then we had a meal of pizza and coke and goodness. I really enjoyed myself and I'm hoping to go back this weekend. Apparently they're doing a Christmas play, and I think it'd be really cool to get in on that! Note: Christmas is less than a month and half away! That sounds so crazy!!

Well I'm going to try and catch some Z's now. I love and miss you all!

P.S. It was great chatting with you tonight, Mom! :)