St. Patty's Day in Spain

Although I haven't been doing anything incredibly spectacular lately, I did get the opportunity to spend St. Patty's Day in an authentic Irish pub (or at least as authentic as you can get in Spain!). I went out with some friends, just for a little celebration to relax and fellowship. The atmosphere was really cool: dark, rustic wood everywhere, very dim light inside, a mountain of beers to choose from, two stories with a balcony, exposed rafters in the ceiling, etc. It was a really cool place. I had something that my friend told me was a ¨black beer,¨ which I think was some sort of Guinness. It had a really strong flavor, but it was still pretty good. We went to another place after that, but it wasn't any good, so we decided to just go home. Overall, it was a great night with friends, a much-needed escape from the daily grind of school.

Today was a regional holiday of sort basically called ¨Día de los Padres¨ or in English Parents' Day. It's actually a day dedicated to Saint José, or Joseph the father of Jesus. So, everything closes down, I mean EVERYTHING. There wasn't a celebration or anything. I think it is more a day to relax with your family. So, I didn't have classes or anything. I was able to do a ton of reading and other homework, like work on my group project I have due next week. I'll be happy when that is over with...haha.

My parents sent me a package in the mail last week, which I received on Tuesday. The bad thing was, I wasn't home when they delivered it, so they put a slip in out mailbox and I had to go to the post office to get it. The only problem is, there is only one post office in this city (which has 400,000 inhabitants, mind you), and it was on the complete other side of the town. It took me 30 minutes to walk their ONE WAY. It was terrible. But I got my package :) It had some Skittles in it, some peanut butter (which they don't really sell here), some Bottlecaps candy, and some Cheez Whiz, which they also don't sell here. So, I was very excited when I got the package.

My classes are going well, just maintaining a pretty steady pace. I'm actually trying to get ahead as much as possible so that I relax later on in the semester. I have two 15 page papers and one 6 page paper due at the end of the semester, so I want to finish those before I have to start studying for exams, which of course are over the whole semester.

So anyway, life is becoming pretty routine here. I miss everyone, and can't wait to see you all again in July. Take care guys.