“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

I havn´t felt homesick in more than a week! Things are really starting to pick up here in Spain. My friends at school still have yet to invite me out, but I am catching the drift that it isn´t that they don´t want to hang out with me, they just don´t go out. I am still going out with Maria´s friends on weekends, and that is also getting better. Her friends are all extremely welcoming and encouraging and more than willing to let me have part in their plans.

School is pretty uneventful. As usual. No surprise there. I have finished reading Frankenstein, but it was a short version, so I should probably look into finding the real version and read that. I have until december to read it and then write about it for my philosophy class, so that shouldn´t be a problem. I am currently reading, "Lazarillo de Tormes" which means "The guide for the blind of Tormes", its in spanish but I am managing. I have to read this by next week, but it is short. It actually isn´t that bad and it is quite humorous. I also have to read some book about science for my science class, but there is no deadline...so of course, me being a procrastinator...I havn´t even started it.

Yesterday I spent the day with another AFS student, Annika, the one who goes to my school. AFS frowns upon becoming good friends with other AFS students for fear that you will only hang out with them and not experience the culture and language of your host country. Annika and I are both aware of this, but of course, we have justified our friendship. 1. The kids at our school don´t go out...so thus we are resulting to each other to see the sites in Malaga ourselves. 2. Annika is only here for three months, so, it is not like I can depend on her for the whole year and 3. Annika doesn´t have as many opportunities with her host family to do things like I do (with maria´s friends, and my host parents take me places and do things) so, she can tag along with me and it isn´t even a problem. Annika is from Switzerland, however, she lived in Ohio for 8 years so she speaks fluent english with no accent. (she also speaks swiss/german, regular german, french, and now being in spain she is learning spanish. I wish I knew that many languages...)

Annika has also invited me to visit her after she goes home to Switzerland, so maybe while I am here in Spain I will get to see a little bit more than just the airport in Switzerland. (Because technically, I have been in Switzerland, but only in the airport, so it doesn´t really count) We actually planned out exactly when I could visit and aparently our plan works perfectly, I just have to see if I even can go in the first place. And of course, how much it costs.

With Annika and my host family, we went to see La Alcazaba. An old castle in Malaga right in downtown. It is beautiful, like everything else here...

Annika and me standing in la alcazaba with the port in the backround

Then, after going to la Alcazaba, Annika came to my house and she got to experience alittle of the culture of a different family in Spain. We also walked to the beach, becuase she cannot walk to the beach from her house, and has not seen the beach yet. And after I went out with Maria´s friends, Annika was invited but, she has a pretty bad cold, so she opted to go home and get some rest.

This morning I had to get up at 8 to go downtown so I could run the 10k race of Malaga! It was my first 10k, I didn´t do spectacular (55 mins give or take, I don´t know for certain, but I will know tomorrow) but I am proud. Plus it was like 90 degrees, especially in the sun. This race was also probably one of the biggest races I have ever run in. I swear the whole city of Malaga was running in this race, and then some. The whole 10 kilometers I was fighting to keep my spot, never once was there a gap of people. I wish I could have taken a picture from one of the hills looking down at the thousands of people in front of me and behind me....

This is the shirt I recieved after the race.