Two more days...

On Tuesday, which is two days from today, all of my responsibilities for finals will be OVER!! I am so excited. Until then I still have to write the second half of a 10 page paper, edit it, and study for/take two exams. I will make it through, though, I know I will!

This week was pretty stressful but I feel like I have accomplished a lot. I have written a 10 page paper, a 5 page paper, a 3 page paper, read 50 short stories and written notes and summaries about them, passed an oral exam, AND I even managed to do laundry.

As it gets closer and closer to the end of my time here I am beginning to realize how much I am going to miss Spain when I leave. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about that before the time comes, though. I have 17 days left and, man, it seems like I have so much to do I couldn't possibly be ready to leave in 17 days. I will be though.

In other news, USA tied Britain last night in their first round world cup game! I have always loved watching soccer games, so the world cup is one of my favorite sporting events. One problem, I don't have a TV...major bummer. This is the only time over the past 6 months that I have really wished I had a TV. At least I will be home before its over, so hopefully I'll get to watch a few games.

And now its time for me to get back to work...

Classes = Over!

I am proud to say that the close of this week means I have officially finished my classes here at the University. I am so happy to be done! Now I just have a lot of papers to write, research to do, and a couple finals to take before I am done!!

Yesterday, to celebrate being finished and to relax a little bit in the midst of finals I went to the beach with my roomate, Lara, and our friend Kellian. We had a wonderful time and swam a ton! There's a little sea called Mar Menor about an hour from here (its way smaller than Lake Michigan,) and because it is entirely enclosed the water there is really warm. You can go to a beach called La Manga, where you can swim in both the Mediterranean and the Mar Menor, or you can go to several beaches on the interior side of the Mar Menor. We went to the least touristy of them all, and my favorite beach, Lo Pagan. It is on the side of the Mar Menor farthest away from the Mediterranean. The water was so nice! It was cool enough to be a refreshing break from the 90· air but warm enough that you could just jump right in. Wonderful. After that I made eggplant parmesan for diner, which turned out to be a huge success! It was delicious and between the two of us we ate every last drop.

I have to say, I can't believe how quickly these past couple weeks have gone by, but at the same time I am so grateful because it means that soon my mom and sister will be here and I'll be on my last international adventure before heading home. Only 24 days left until I'm back in the US. For now, I'm planning on spending the next week focusing on my last responsibilities, enjoying life, and looking forward to going to Paris.

A Very Interesting Week

Sooo...this week was stressful, interesting, sad, and happy all at the same time. I spent the first few days finishing up saying goodbye to people, which was a bummer, but at the same time I'm happy my friends are making it back safely to the US and everywhere else in the world. There have been flight strikes all over Europe which have been impeading a lot of travel plans, but I think the trans-atlantic flights have been running pretty smoothly.

On Wednesday my computer went kaput. Byebye, gone to heaven, hasta luego. It was not a good day. I spent most of it trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get through the last two weeks of classes and finals with no computer. Luckily, my wonderful father and grandparents were very helpful and now I have a rental computer coming tomorrow and my friend Erin let me borrow her's for the weekend while she's in Prague. I guess even though it was stressful I'll make it through ok.

This weekend has been all about trying to de-stress and yet get a lot done. Its amazing how much I have to do in the next three weeks. I'm sure I'll get it all done, I always do, but until then I might be freaking out a little bit. Last night Lara and I went to a great concert in front of the cathedral. It is el festival de las tres culturas here; I think the three cultures are Catholics, Islam, and Christianity but I'm really not sure at all. They have been having concerts everywhere around the city all weekend. I love it! I really enjoy having so much music surrounding me.

Other than that, not much to report. It's been getting hotter and hotter every day. I'm hoping to get to the beach next weekend. Yay beach!

Goodbyes

This week I spent a lot of time saying goodbye to people. I really didn't like it. A lot of the Americans who I met here were in a different program which ended on Friday, so they have been leaving little by little as the weekend went on. These people have become my family here, so saying goodbye was really hard. There are also other people leaving as the semester comes to a close. Erasmus students (european students who are studying abroad) don't really have to take finals, so they can leave whenever they are ready. Most will be trickling out over the next month. All of the Asian students here leave on June 1. I can't believe its coming to that time already. As for me, I have 38 days left here. I am planning on making the most of them, but I am definitely ready to go home. I still have to get through the last couple weeks of class, 4 finals, and 2 weeks of travelling with my mom and sister before I can do that, though, so I'm going to keep on enjoying Spain as much as I can.

Me, Laura, and Megan before going out on Laura' s last night. I will miss these girls!

We were twins! Tristan, Bret, Me, and Angie.

Going away dinner for some of the Americans. Beth, Laura, Betty, Tom, Rachel.

People who are staying in Spain for a bit longer with me! Eva, Me, Kellian, Manuel, Lara.

Venezia

Just a warning: This is a long one!

I just got back from a weekend trip to Venice, Italy with my roomate Lara. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend. I loved Venice, and I got to see so many cool things. Unfortunately it rained a lot of the weekend, but it was still nice. We flew into Treviso Airport on Thursday afternoon. This airport is in a little town about an hour away from Venice. We took the bus from there to Venice and then another bus to our hotel, which was not actually on the island of Venice but across the bridge on the mainland. I really enjoyed the bus ride because we got to see the real Italy-- the non-touristy countryside part. There were a bunch of beautiful old villas, tons of sprawling vineyards, and of course some really cute little towns. It was so romantic and a wonderful way to start the weekend. When we got to the hotel the first thing we saw was a double rainbow over a field of poppies and a canal. Stunning!

After settling in we headed back into the city to wander around and see what there was to see. We found a cute little piazza where we ate dinner, and we got the general feel of the city. It was beautiful to see everything still shiny and wet from the day's rain. Luckily it didn't rain on us too much.

Above: Piazzale Roma, the first thing anybody sees when they arrive in Venice. This is the Piazza where all public transportation goes.

Below: Random other piazza we saw.

The next day we woke up early and went back into the city to catch a water bus to the island of Murano.

On Murano they make glass. We went to a glass factory and watched a demonstration and then we spent a few hours roaming around the island. Every shop on the island was full of beautiful glass. They had everything from shandeliers to jewelry made in the traditional mili fiori style. We ate lunch on the island and then caught a water bus to Burano.

On Burano they make lace. The lace stores were beautiful and I couldn't get over the intricacy and beauty of the different pieces. We met a lady who was working on a lace placemat. Her son said she would work on it for 30 days. The placemats were on sale for 9euro, which means that she will make less than 33 cents per day. I felt so bad for her! The lace reminded me of my great grandmother, which was fun, but it wasn't my favorite part of the island.

The thing I loved most about Burano was the color! Every house on the island is painted a different beautiful, bright color. I couldn't get over how quaint it was. I took about 700 pictures, all of rows of houses like this that were every color of the rainbow. I especially liked how the flowers growing in the window pots and in front of the houses, and the door coverings were coordinated to match each house.

On the last day Lara and I walked more around the city of Venice. It was pouring rain all day, making for a pretty miserable few hours, but I still enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful architecture. This picture is of Piazza San Marco, where the main cathedral and palace of Venice are.

Of course, one of the best things about being in Italy was the food. We ate everything from pizza to pasta to bruschetta and, of course, it was all delicious. My favorite part? Gelato twice a day every day!!

I was pretty proud of Lara and myself for managing to travel in a place where neither of us knew anything about the language. We did pretty well for ourselves and manages to avoid any major mishaps.

Now its back to the real world once again. In a few weeks I'll be doing my finals and then my mom and Allie will be here! I hope these next few weeks go by quickly, I can't wait to go to Paris!

SitgesSwing

So I spent this past weekend in Sitges, Spain dancing my heart out and thoroughly enjoying myself. Sitges is like Provincetown, MA or San Fran. It is by the ocean, small, and thriving with life. There are gay men and clubs everywhere, not to mention the nude beaches and amazing restaurants. I loved every minute of it. I arrived on Thursday evening, so I decided to go walk down to the beach and around the main center of town. It was pretty cool! I even got to watch the sun set over the beach.

A store I saw called LSD- Love, Sex, and Diamonds. It seemed like the perfect example of the crazy vibe this little city has.

Beautiful sunsets are one of my favorite parts of life.

On Friday I enjoyed the built in free-time I had given myself, knowing I would definitely want to spend a day by the beach. Luckily for me, it was the only sunny day of the weekend! I spent a few hours at the beach and then decided to wander around some more to get out of the sun. Then, around 4 I headed back home and layed by the pool until it was time to get ready for the Champagne & Truffle meet and greet for the swing festival. It was in a place called the Palau Marycel which was really beautiful!

After that I spent the whole weekend dancing. I took 7 hours of classes each on Saturday and Sunday. 4 hours were lindy and 3 were solo jazz. I loved every minute of it! I got to take classes from my swing idols Skye and Frida as well as from some amazing French dancers Thomas and Alice. Thomas and I have known each other for a while, so it was nice to see him and finally get to take class from him. Of course, there were also dances on Saturday and Sunday night.
Skye and Frida showing off their stuff. Frida really helped me figure out something that has been bothering me about my swing out for a long time. I was so glad she could help me make this breakthrough!
Me and Thomas dancing. He has a great style. He does a lot of "slip slops" which is really fun for me because they give me time to throw in a lot of my tap moves. He has been a tap dancer for a long time too, so our dance styles fit together pretty well. Sorry the picture quality is bad, the lighting was crazy and no flash allowed.

On Monday I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed back to Murcia. Sitting on the train for 8 hours was so miserable considering how sore I was (and still am) but it was so worth it! I had such an amazing time dancing and I also got to practice my Spanish a lot, meet a bunch of dancers from all over Spain, and also meet my dancing idols. All in all, it was an absolutely awesome weekend!

Musclehead

So I know this is a break from my usual posting routine, but I wanted to write a little bit about Frankie Manning, who died a year ago today. "Who is Frankie Manning!?" Is probably what most of you are thinking right now, so let me tell you:

"Swing dancer extraordinaire Frankie Manning was a leading dancer at Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom where, in the mid-1930's, he revolutionized the course of the lindy hop with his innovations, including the lindy air step and synchronized ensemble lindy routine. As a featured dancer and cheif choreographer for the spectacular Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, he performed in numerous films, and entertained on stages around the world with jazz greats Ethel Waters, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cab Calloway. Upon the demise of the Swing Era, Frankie took a job in the Post Office, where we worked for thirty years until his rediscovery by a new generation of swing dance enthusiasts in the mid 1980's. Since then, he's been in constant demand and motion, teaching, choreographing, and performing globally. He won a 1989 Tony Award for his choreography in Black and Blue, and served as a consultant for and performed in Spike Lee's Malcom x. Frankie's activities have been chronicled in hundreds of articles and dozens of news programs. Considered the worl's leading authority on the lindy, he is highlighted in Ken Burns' acclaimed documentary, Jazz. His autobiography, Frankie Manning" Ambassador of Lindy Hop, co-written by Cynthia R. Millman, was published by Temple University Press in spring 2007. He passed away on April 27, 2009, one month before his 95th birthday." - frankiemanning.com

What does this have to do with me? There's the obvious, I love to lindy. Thanks to this man I have been able to find a kind of dancing which moves me in a way no other really can. I am lucky he lived because without Frankie, Lindy Hop wouldn't be what it is today. That's pretty superficial though, and its nowhere close to the reason I hold this man near and dear to my heart.

Frankie Manning loved to dance. I mean he loved it. He always described dancing as "a series of three-minute romances." Obviously, to him, a dance meant pouring out your soul, moving to the music, and working with your dance partner. Dancing, for him, was about self expression, movement, great music, and most of all just having a great time. He didn't let the end of the Swing Era get him down. A lot of people said that while working at USPS Frankie was still a really happy person, even though he wasn't dancing anymore. When he was given the chance to dance again he took it and relished in a second chance to do what he loved to do. Some of his last words were, "I'd like to tell them, if they're not dancing, get out there and dance! And do the lindy hop 'cause it'll make them feel good." For Frankie, dancing and all things involved were about making people happy.

I hope that my passion for movement and music can manifest itself in the same way that Frankie's did. I have been so blessed to be able to share my love of dancing with people throughout my life by teaching, choreographing, and performing. I can only hope that these opportunities continue, and people remember me for the way I used this passion to bring joy and happiness to others.

Frankie said:

"All dances come from the music. What the music does, thats what you try to dance."

"I'll stop dancing when my feet won't move any more. And then I might just try to sit in a chair and do it. If you want to live for a long time, lindy hop. 'Cause I'm still doin' it man."