Baloncesto? claro que si! [Basketball? of course!]

Que tal, chicos?  <= That has become my greeting here in Spain.  It means, "how's it going, friends?"  You can also use tios for friends.  The direct translation of that is uncle, though...so I tend not to use it as much.  (Who would have thought that by reading my blog you could learn Spanish?!) 

Sadly, I have no photos from today.  :(  But I still wanted to write an entry telling you about my fantastic Sunday.  For the past few Sundays, my roommate and I have spent the morning working on homework and stuff, and after lunch we've basically been spending all afternoon watching movies with our host mom.

Well, today I decided to change things up a bit!  This morning (well, around noon) my roommate and I walked towards the outer area of the city to find they gypsy market (they weren't all gypsies, just what people here call it), called el mercadillo.  It's only open on Sunday's so we decided to head over there and see what we could find.  It was really fun!  The people with stands are shouting prices, trying to get you to buy their things.  You could literally buy anything from bras and undies to winter jackets.  You could get some wrenches, or a vice, if you really wanted to!  My roommate and I found really cute bags, and she got some gifts for her friends and family.

After that we came back home for lunch and we hung out with our host mom while we watched the news.  Right now, Spain is having a really huge economic crisis, and about 22% of their population are without jobs.  It's really apparent in the news, and in fact, because of the crisis, one of the largest air travel companies just shut down (SpanAir).  We also get to see some of what's going on in the United States.  Today we saw that in Kentucky a boat smashed through part of a bridge, and there's always a lot on the news about the states' politics and the primary elections.

Anyway after lunch I got ready and headed to Plaza Zorilla to meet my friends (from USA and from Spain) and we played a great game of basketball!  We had 6 people interested in playing, so conveniently split up 3 from America and 3 from Spain.  So a friendly game broke out between the Spaniards and the Americans.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and to get to know their city from the viewpoint of a native Spaniard.  I always learn new vocabulary when I'm hanging out with them, too!  It makes it so much more fun to have friends here!  They have truly enriched my time over here!  I know I said that I had no pictures for you today, but here's one of me and two friends.  The guy to my right's name is Javier (we all call him Javi - pronounced Ha-vee) and the girl on my left is Sarah.  She is from UW La Crosse, studying at a different university here in Valladolid. This picture was taken one night while we were hanging out in a cafe here.  We have a lot of fun together!  We're always laughing!  

  After basketball, I met up with some girls in a different cafe to finalize and book a bus ticket to Valencia for a festival called Las Fallas.  I'm really excited to do the traveling I've all planned!  It's getting really exciting to travel and learn.  Today during lunch, we had a discussion with our host mom about how we'd rather take the money and travel, instead of purchasing a tangible thing, such as an expensive bracelet.  Traveling gives you such a unique perspective on life, and it really opens your eyes to new cultures.

Anyway, after the cafe, I came home, finished watching the movie that my host mom, her brother-in-law, and my roommate were watching.  We ate dinner, and I worked on my studies for a bit.

All in all, it might seem like just another Sunday, but this Sunday was the best one yet!  Someone gave me advice on spending a semester abroad.  They said to discover or do something new every day!  Today had 2 great discoveries: the market, and basketball!  Que suerte!

Gosh, it's the little things in life that make me so thankful and happy to be where I am right now.  Getting to play basketball in a park in Spain was definitely one of those little things. (They even said next time they'd teach me how to play soccer!)

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic start to your week!

Love you and miss you all! Besos y abrazos! 

Erin