this is the best week EVER!

first and most importantly, I GOT INTO LAW SCHOOL!!! let me back up. so as you know, i have been working my little tail off on applications. i have submitted 26 in total and have already heard back from several schools. most exciting is my acceptance to University of Miami. I still do not know if I got the scholarship that I applied for, but will know one way or another in the next three weeks or so. I was also offered a substantial scholarship to St. Thomas, which is also in Miami. I am really excited. I didnt realize quite how homesick, stressed, discouraged and overworked I was until my friend, Ansley landed and brought a taste of home and a breath of fresh air with her. She got here on Thursday and had the day to herself while I worked. When I got off, we had dinner with my roommate here and scurried off to the airport. Ansley and I landed in the Canary Islands (Las Palmas) at midnight and our family friend picked us up.
The entire weekend was like a dream. Pilar, who I met in Rome last summer because shes a dentist with several of Dad's lasers, is like a mother to me and she really went above and beyond with her hosting duties. Thursday night, we walked along the beach and settled into her mother's apartment that's the qaintest little resort home with a huge balcony over looking the beach. That's where we had several awesome feasts. Friday, we shopped, walked all over the city, saw some awesome sights and relaxed. Saturday, we attempted to visit one of the most famous beaches in the world but the wind was pretty miserable. Wind-1, Stephanie & Ansley-0. Pilars son is 23 and her nephew is also 23 so it was really cool they hung out with us and invited some friends. It was a really awesome day, minus the realization we would not be coming back bronze beauty queens. At night, we hit up Carnaval. The night before we had gotten a taste of the madness but Saturday was the parade and it was completely insane and incredible. I have never seen or experienced anything quite like it. The costumes weren't Walmart Halloween $13 purchases. No, no. They were meticulously planned outfits with no detail overlooked. Mostly, friends were there in huge groups all dressed identical. So in the crowd, you could spot an entire crew of GI Joes or Ariels or lions or whatever. We took so many photos and just had an incredible time. Sunday's plane ride was rough because we didn't want to leave, but I was also looking forward to showing Ansley around my city. The rest of her visit, we managed to meet up with my friends here and eat more great food. We celebrated my acceptances and just celebrated being together and her vacation. It was AWESOME. I was super sad she couldn't stay longer. I also received big news my roommate from last year will be coming in April! The weekend she will be here we will go to Barcelona with Dad for a Biolase event. I don't know if I am accurately explaining how amazing the last two weeks were, so here are some pictures in hopes of doing a better job.
Wishes of an equally AWESOME week to you! And go watch Step Brothers for me because I just kept repeating "this is the best week EVER!" in Will Farrel's voice. and it really was! Looking forward to hearing more back from other schools and starting Spanish classes 4 days a week this week.

Is she normally this pale?

Every time I think I am going to get better at blogging, something absurd gets in my way. I had a lovely birthday celebration with all my friends in Madrid. It was really awesome. Literally everyone I know in this city was able to join us. Cande (my roommate) had some friends in town so the afternoon of my birthday, we took them to a traditional Spanish place and had awesome food. We headed to a literary cafe for a glass of wine and then came by the house to get dressed for dinner. 17 of us met up at this Mexican restaurant. Other than the queso being incredibly disappointing, the meal was WONDERFUL. The rest of the night was random and a lot of fun. Beatriz, one of the members of my Biolase family here, even surprised me and showed up! It was a great time.
Monday came too soon and by Tuesday I was sick as a dog and feeling like death. I barely survived the entire day of work, but somehow I managed. One of the teachers visiting the school with a group of British students, looked at me then back at my boss and said, "Is she normally this pale?" in her little British accent. That's when I knew I was really sick. Today, I was suppose to go to Segovia on a field trip with all of them but that totally didn't happen. I have the worse case of tonsillitis I've ever had and could barely swallow when I woke up this morning. After much rest, I was able to make it to the ER to ask for antibiotics. With Rx in hand and Amoxicilin in my system, I am already feeling a lot better. Not sure yet if I will try to go to work tomorrow or not, but regardless I certainly have a weekend of rest and taking it easy ahead of me. Nothing makes me miss Mom and home more than being sick. It's really awful to feel so miserable. I think the worst is over though thankfully!
I have submitted 14 law school applications and that feels really great. I still have some work ahead of me on applications but Ive got a best friend coming next week and a vacation to the Canary Islands to look forward to!!

100% completed

This will be just as short of a post as the last one. Just wanted to provide the update in a mass message that my letters of recommendation have finally come in. Two are (in theory) in the mail and the minimum number required to submit applications has been met for all the schools that I am applying to. THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS! I am particularly thankful for your prayers and faith on this matter, when it seemed I myself was incredibly discouraged. I have submitted applications to Whittier (Costa Mesa, CA), UCLA, NYU, Columbia and Pepperdine. I will be submitting the rest this week, permitting that I have the energy to do so after a long day of teaching. Please allow me to continue to beg for your prayers of patience and faith as it will probably be April before I start hearing back from schools. They will not even receive my application by mail for another several weeks, as I understand it. I promise to update as I know more and will again, enlist help with the upcoming huge decision.
As for everything else, school is a daily late/hate absurdity. Mondays are tough no matter where you are and no matter what you're doing. Stupidly, I started The Hunger Games and now I am completely immersed in the series and want to spend the free time I should be dedicating to almost anything else, reading the trilogy. They're highly recommended. I am looking forward to my vacation to The Canary Islands with Ansley in two weeks (time has passed so quickly, thank goodness!) and her fun-loving spirit to breathe some energy into my current stress and disposition. When all my apps are in, she will be here and that combination may just be better than a full head-to-toe spa day and makeover! My birthday is this weekend and I am hoping that Dad will be able to swing by before heading back to the US. He has been in Europe over three weeks and seems pretty exhausted from working nonstop. This will be the first birthday in four years I haven't celebrated with friends and a big gathering in Tuscaloosa, which seems a little strange but I know my dear friends here have something up their sleeve for me and I am excited about that too.
So, there's the update. Thanks, as always, for reading. Let me know you stopped by.

still sends shivers down my spine

Powerful. 

long overdue

This is dangerous because i am starting off this post uninspired and yawning. i slept 14 hours today so why i am yawning is beyond me. i suppose i needed the sleep, but i also slept around 16 hours a week ago when i first landed. maybe i still needed the sleep. who knows. what i would like to tell you, my faithful readers, is a brief explanation of what went down in my whirlwind vacation home and what my first week back has been like. oh, well first, susan was here for a week. and we had a FABULOUS time. i love that girl and was SO happy that she came to visit. it just makes me that much more excited for when Ansley comes in a few weeks. i. cannot. wait.

Trip home part one

I landed on December 24th, went straight to a closed Chic-Fil-A, defeated, settled for whatever food I found in the refrigerator and was asleep by 9:30. December 25th- church, honey baked ham and other delicious food, a movie and a pleasant and perfect day. December 26th- i caught up with some long-lost dear friends for some fun and then I went to Enterprise, AL for three days to see my college roommate annnd my precious dog I miss oh so very much. I spent two days in Atlanta, had a bunch of friends over, welcomed 2012 in a familiar dive in Buckhead and then Dad and I set off on a trip looking at law schools. We were in DC for three days with dear family friends and I loved the schools I saw there. I was incredibly impressed by their programs, but I am nervous I will not get in. We left snow in DC for the sunny highways of Miami, had a nice dinner in South Beach and woke up the next morning to tour Miami and St. Thomas. We caught an early flight and were back in Atlanta in no time.

The birthday surprise

 The next day, I drove to Tuscaloosa. I ran errands, worked on Dad's surprise present and gathered preparations for the New Orleans road trip. That night, I drove to meet up with Dad in York. Since this was the last day I would be with him, we decided to celebrate his birthday that night. Barbara surprised him at dinner; I gave him two presents he liked- Alabama duct tape being the favorite and then I announced we were heading to the country club for the real surprise. He was actually quite cooperative and was more than surprised when I handed him the gift in those familiar rocking chairs. It was cold and a little difficult to see by just one street light and the full moon, but the stars were bright and there's no where else I would have rather given him that gift. It took him almost three hours to read all of them. A deep, sincere and special thank you for anyone and everyone who wrote and contributed to the gift. I enjoyed reading them all as much as he did. Almost every letter mentioned his love for music. Some were sappy and sweet and others were stories I've heard many times and others were stories I had never heard. Sometimes, he would chime in additional details or correct the details that the author "got wrong." He laughed hard at many of them. His smile was huge and it made me feel great. Should you ever decide to do such a gift, my advice is to start early. I started on this the last week of November and it was not soon enough. There were around 70 letters total with lots of pictures and certainly met the purpose, "64 years of memories." It was a great success. Thank you for helping!

New Orleans Ridiculousness

The next day, exhausted from many days of running around, I willed myself out of bed to get ready for road trippin' to New Orleans. Friends swung by York to pick me up and we were off. New Orleans was a FABULOUS time. In my Facebook album alone, there are 28 people tagged in photos. I estimate that I knew over 200 people in that town that weekend, making the entire trip even sweeter than before. In fact, I didn't realize just how bad it would have been to be there had we lost until angry, bitter LSU fans were chucking beads at my head. Thank GOD we won. #14 was a beautiful win. ROLL TIDE. I was so incredibly happy I was there. It was really great. The only thing missing from the trip was a few hours at Tulane with one of my favorite professors from Alabama, but time was short, traffic was crazy and it simply wasn't feasible. Overall, the trip was a great success.

Leaving home to go home

Next thing I knew, I was laying in the backseat of Phillip's car, still in the outfit I wore the entire day yesterday, being drug home. I was thinking about how much I love those people, about how much I love being home (wherever that may be) and how much I didn't want to come back to Spain. Strange to feel that way, when originally, I didn't particularly want to leave Spain to come home. I started this blog based on this exact idea: where is home? what is home? this is something I am still struggling to decipher. I am not so sure. What I do know is that sitting on that Delta plane, I felt like I was going to vomit. I was leaving home to go home and I hate that these two different homes do not get to meet, do not get to understand each other and that it's just up to me to have each experience distinct of the other and each group of people separate from the other. It's strange. Perhaps these emotions were still lingering too prominently on my first day back at work on Monday.
Monday was a horrible day. I mean that, a really horrible day. I found out two of my roommate's have their significant other coming to visit (I want my non-existant significant other to come visit), teaching itself was a drag, I learned the place where I eat lunch everyday is owned by a couple getting a divorce and the mother and daughter asked if I would follow them to the new restaurant they're opening, I worked a double shift at the private academy... It was just horrible. I wondered what I was doing here, I was melancholic and pensive. The rest of the week picked up quickly though. Since then, it's just been back to the grind. I will be working on finalizing my applications this weekend and submitting all of them in the next few weeks. By the first week of February, it's my hope that I can relax and wait on an answer.
One thing is for sure: I am thrilled about whatever 2012 has to offer and that whatever it is, I'm going to make the absolute best of it.

Thanks for reading 3 weeks in 1 post. I'll do a better job of regularly updating with news and stories. Promise.