Spring has sprung

I just had a realization about my tendency, and that of others, to blog less and less frequently. We already know that we're busy and often too tired to want to write, but I just thought, at least for me, that as the novelty of a situation goes away there is less desire to describe your daily life to everyone else. Especially now that the bulk of my time here has passed, I think a lot about how what was so scary and exciting in the beginning is my life now. I go about my business just like any other student.

That said, I have been neglectful of posting about the trip the program took last weekend to the region Extremadura, to the west of Madrid. We went to three cities, Mérida-famous for preserved Roman ruins, Cáceres-for the maintenance of the medieval walled city and Trujillo-more really old things and the hometown of Francisco Pizarro (the leader of the conquest of the Inca empire). The scenery was beautiful in general, but especially so in Trujillo. The region was so uncharacteristically green because of the rainy winter and the hills and ruins around Trujillo remaided me of Ireland. Everyone was impressed by how well the trip went, especially given that there were around 85 of us going around. It was a very intensive adventure. Many of us had plans to go out in Cáceres on Saturday night but we were all beat after having to be at the bus at 8am and a full day of transit and sight seeing.

Last week I was feeling a little out of my element and I have come to the conclusion that I am sorely in need of a break. The weather got hot fast and the pollen started to rain down yesterday. I've probably saind this 10 times in the past few days, but I am not ready for it to be getting up to 75! Hello, still waiting for winter here! Thankfully, Semana Santa (Holy Week) vacation starts this Thursday! We leave that afternoon for a week long jaunt through Germany in which I will do my best to not worry about classes...at the very least for fear of castigation on the part of my travel companions.