Finally feeling at home?

I promise myself that I will blog every week - but I don't. Maybe I will have to set aside blog evening once a week to ensure I do. (But don't quote me on this!). Also thank you to everyone for their great responses to my last blog post! It is great to know it is being read (even if its only by a few) so all comments and feedback are welcome.

The week I came back I spent in the lab, and did very little practical work because the lab was still officially shut but I did finally admit defeat and remind myself I have to write a dissertation whilst I am here. Limited work has been achieved but there is a word document none the less. That is an achievement right?

I went on another walking tour last Saturday, and it was slightly different to the others I have been on. It was aimed at a younger audience, backpackers, students ect.. so it was slightly less orientated around history as the previous tours but more information about visiting the city itself but good non the less! (I wish I had done them the other way around but if you are only here for a short time I would highly recommend the runner beans tours most)

From the Parliament square in Barcelona - Not sure why I love this photo but I do! 

Then as the lab was going to be virtually empty for the next week I decided to use the time to do a 'super intensive' Spanish course last week! It was great fun. I would like to spend longer there and improve more (but I am living in Spain so I should be learning all the time yes?) but maybe I will have the chance to do something similar next summer to help me keep up the skill. I also meet some really lovely people, went out for dinner, went to the beach and had great fun all week. I want to keep in touch with some of the people I meet there for sure!


I then yesterday went to the 1st meeting for Erasmus Student on the Beach and meet more lovely people - who I am  actually meeting this afternoon to attend another Erasmus meeting! Finally I feel as though I am meeting so many people, and I have made more contacts in the last week or so than the whole month I was here to begin with. Maybe I have finally turned a corner (or Spain is finally leaving the vacation period!) Both are probably true. It's totally relevant to me here that friends aren't going to find you unless you put yourself out there.





Anyway unfortunately its back to 'normal' next week! Not that any 2 weeks are the same here - and I am determined to keep that up but it does mean I can start gym classes again (YAYYYY I have been seriously missing a stress relieving aerobics session) and can finally go to the bank ect.

So a final word of this post is that I am finally feeling much more at home here. I am finding friends, catching the night bus alone - not dangerous because I have never seen so many people on a bus here is Spain before, scrapbooking my time here, ensuring I watch my favorite TV shows on i-player and getting back to a slight routine. Maybe this summer wasn't quite as I would have planned but the next 3 months are going to be great, I am sure of it!

Also if you can't tell I ate lots of great food this week!

It's been a while

Hola.

I wrote a lovely blog a couple of weeks ago after my birthday - it was based around a cake (typical me!) and maybe one of these days I will post it here. It was a very nice cake and did deserve its own blog post. But then I received some news that kind of changed my summer plans a little, my wonderful Nan passed away the same day I turned 21. I don't want to dwell on that here at all but I just wanted to explain my absence from the blogging thing for the past few weeks - and unless you wanted to hear daily updates of my horrendous rash I received once I got home (apparently I am allergic to my own house) or the fact the allergy tablets were making me muy muy sleepy - I didn't get up to that much of interest the couple of weeks I was home. I haven't forgotten that I did get to see some of my brilliant friends whilst I was home though and this was lovely!!

BUT I did get to spend a lovely week with my mum, dad, little brother and ROSIE in a caravan park in Brittany, France. A great week. I sunbathed, ate lots, spent some quality time with my family, walked the doggy lots, swam in the very cold sea and refused (much to my brothers disappointment) to throw myself backwards down the water slide! If I am totally honest I didn't really want to leave and I did cry a fair amount at the train station. Following this was what felt like the longest journey of my life. But I made it back to my flat in Barca and even managed to drag myself to work today which was nowhere near as bad as I had expected!

This was one of the only photos I took on holiday. Opppsss. (But it was a pretty gardens and a much better sight than my dad at the pool in his speedos - unfortunately they were compulsory)

I am really going to try and make a massive effort to feel more settled for the rest of my time here. This is not forever so ENJOY IT! And it doesn't matter if I want to sit in at the weekend and watch UK TV sometimes. I am working full time which I haven't done for a year or so (also really gutted I'm not being able to take part in the accommodation hotline this year and get my annual dose of chatting/being shouted at by freshers!) and I wouldn't be sightseeing and out and about every weekend if I was still in the soton or on a work placement somewhere else in the UK! Also it's okay to feel homesick sometimes, but I wouldn't really advise a trip home to cure it...

I still haven't really met many (any) people doing the same thing as me, but I am hoping in the influx of new Erasmus and just general students will be coming soon and should give me the chance to be a bit more sociable and give me a better chance of making some more friends!

Note to self: Spain shuts down in August. Full Stop!

For the time being I apologise for this slightly self indulgent rambly post but I want to keep up the blogging so I will try and do something exciting within the next couple of weeks which will be worth your while reading. I don't know what that will be at the moment....