Already February..??

So weird that today is February second.. Can't believe it. Now that we've settled down, trying to plan trips is a constant occupation and, still, so difficult (shout out to my mom for always planning my family's trips). Flights are cheap with RyanAir, but linking them together and getting the best price and time and everything is just wow. I've actually made a flow chart of possibilities of where we could go. Totally normal, I know. Anyway..

I just have some random thoughts and photos to share. Nothing earth-shattering. Sorry guys.

[If you don't want to hear about politics in Spain, feel free to skip right over this paragraph.] I had a really long and interesting conversation the other night with Elvira about politics in Spain. This subject in Spain is a really weird thing right now just because so much stuff is going on: lots of corruption in the government, people still very much suffering from the crisis, new party (loved by some, loathed by others) called "Podemos" (which means "we can"), and a lot of dissatisfaction with the government in general. This dissatisfaction comes from young people, who are struggling to get an education in a country where education reforms (like very big ones) have happened too often in the past ten years, and who are also struggling to find jobs after finishing their degrees (a whopping 50% unemployment rate for young Spaniards) and often have to leave the country to make any money. Dissatisfaction is also very prevalent among older generations who have lived through the crisis, lost everything they had, and seen politicians promising so much while secretly stashing millions of euros away for themselves. Elvira and I talked about all of this and compared our countries.. I never realized how far-left Spain is. Not in a radical way, but the "conservative" party is populist, which to me would normally mean a liberal party. Here, no. It seems like a lot of people are at as loss as to what to do come election time; they're tired of what they've been seeing for the past however-many years, but they aren't seeing a whole lot of promise in the rising candidates. For example, Podemos is a new party that's gotten a lot of attention in the last year or so because they're totally new and unaffiliated with the tried-and-true parties and because they promise a lot of change. They're not career politicians and they're very grass-roots based. However, they are often criticized for being idealistic: many people believe that they don't have enough experience in politics to know that what they want to do isn't what they'll actually be able to do, due to red tape and bureaucracy and the EU overseeing it all. It seems like such a perplexing and almost panic-inducing situation to me because people really are suffering, but no one really seems to be doing anything about it. I don't know. I guess we'll see come election time what happens, but for now people are kind of waiting to see where the chips fall. I think a lot of people will be watching Podemos to see where they go with their campaign, as well as the situation in Greece, which is something that could become a model for Spain in the future. We shall see.

I'm starting a project for CIEE that I was starting last semester and decided to make it into my "spring independent project" this semester. It's basically like Humans of New York (which recently raised over a MILLION dollars for a school in NY, look it up, it's amazing) but not as bold because I just don't have the courage to walk up to random people and ask for their life stories. BUT basically what I'm doing is interviewing people from Sevilla on the topic of their pace of life and how they feel about it and how it compares to what I consider to be pace of life in the States. Should be interesting. I think my intercambios going to help me out, too, so that'll be fun.

OK, pictures.

My desk in tip top shape. Thought it looked pretty.

Just finished this glorious book today, thanks to Mrs. K.

I had the chance to go see this parade with my intercambio. It was a celebration of the 200th year anniversary of the death of her school's president, a guy named Don Bosco. She goes to a Catholic school and Elvira told me later that it's one of many all over Spain and Latin America. The amount of people there was amazing, though; students, teachers, parents, former students, etc. A mini taste of Semana Santa, too.

This is the float with Don Bosco and an altar boy.

On Saturday, we got to go to a dog shelter outside the city and play with the pups. They were so cute :))

I went to watch the Super Bowl last night at an American bar and it was the strangest and coolest thing I've ever seen. For one, it was the first Super Bowl I've watched beginning to end and actually been really into it.. I'm not a football person, but it's the Pats, and it's the Super Bowl. But the bar was literally like a little America in the middle of Sevilla. 99% of the people there were Americans, and we all belted out the National Anthem and America The Beautiful at the beginning of the game, and it was just ever so American in the strangest and best of ways. We got wings and nachos that were definitely sub-par but tasted like God's gift to the human race. And it was so much fun. Definitely more Sea Hawks fans in that particular bar but a good contingent of Pats fans too. The game started at 12:30am here, so that was a deterrent for a lot of people-- some left before the game even started, and a lot left at half. But there were still a good amount of people there when all the excitement happened. WOOO my throat is so sore today from screaming. So exciting. Go Pats. Go America.

Alright that's all I've got. Hasta luego..!