hello everyone!

it's been a while since i sent out an email update so i just thought i'd say hi and let you know that i did indeed just find my ticket back home, so not to worry, but i am coming back! =) aug 8, to be exact. so no... not moving out here, although i've really enjoyed my time out here =)

i haven't been emailing as much because i've been uploading photos and writing about my trips on my online albums. =) so... if you are one of the few who are on this list and you haven't gotten an invitation to see my albums, and you would like to see the pics or read the stories, please just email me back, and let me know, and i'll send off an invite!

for those of you who would rather just read about my trips here, lemme recap. i think i'll just start at the beginning cuz i don't remember who's heard/read what story... so - i've had a bit of fun seeing different parts of spain.

• i arrived in BARCELONA july 3, and marlene and i saw a wonderful flamenco show.=) after she left, i toured the city and saw the picasso museum and a buncha other cool stuff.

• i took an overnight train out to PAMPLONA (july 12 & 13) and got there at 6 am, and then made it out to the barricades and jumped in and ran with the bulls.=) yeah, i did it both days i was there =) and i threw up the second day - did you know the run is all uphill? that's crazy! but it was alotta fun, and a really unique experience.=) i'm the only person i know who's done it (besides all the people i met there, but they don't really count. i'm talking about all y'all back home) and i would say that was one of the things i was looking forward to before this trip began.

• i did hop over to france (PERPIGNAN & CARCASSONNE) for bastille day on the july 14, but that was only a short one day trip

• MONTSERRAT, the monastery up in the mountains, was quite beautiful and made for a relaxing weekend on july 22 & 23. =) i stayed in a small hostel at the foot of the mountains and the entire pueblo was in fiesta for the weekend, so i got to see a small town celebrate all weekend long too!  that was a nice bonus i didn't know i was getting!

• and then i started trying to find my way down to granada to see the alhambra. on the way, i got stuck in VALENCIA on july 24. yeah... i slept in the plaza. =P well... not really slept, but i sat near the group of italian guys playing the guitar and singing in the plaza next to the valencia catedral (where they claim to have the holy grail), and i ended up lying down on the steps using my purse as a pillow... at 4am i took off towards the train station so that i could get to my next stop.

• there were no direct trains available to granada (how are they ALL sold out?) so i had to take a train into MADRID on july 25, and then catch a train later that afternoon into granada. i didn't have much time in madrid so i just took the tourist bus all over town and got to see the main sights, and i got off at the "palacio real" (royal palace) and i got to see all sortsa embellished walls and ceilings and stradivarius violins that were wasting away in their glass coffins. i wanted to have someone take it out and play it!

• i finally arrived in GRANADA that night and i stayed there from july 26-30 at the house of one of the guys from pamplona. it was nice to have friends to hang out with at night! =) the three of them actually went grocery shopping and came home on friday night and cooked a whole buncha food for me and we sat around just chilling and laughing... then we went to the beach which was rocky, but the mediterannean sea is beautiful! =) it is clear and refreshing - oh so nice! oh, and while i was in granada i saw the Alhambra and the Nasrid Palaces which were really cool. their decorations are amazing, and i believe that they have the entire Koran written throughout the entire palace.

i'm back in barcelona now and i feel like i've come home after all that traveling, but i will be so happy when i actually get home home. it really has been neat seeing all this stuff, but i've also just wanted to relax many times, staying at home or finding a local park to relax in, listening to people play the guitar while reading a book ('Nada' by Carmen Laforet is about a girl who moved to Barcelona, so i find it appropriate), and do a lotta introspection. i've done a lot of thinking... just about life and everything else. being all alone in a country will do that to you! but i've been glad for the quiet times i've had to myself. it's not too often that you really don't have anything on your agenda and you can just 'be', and i've enjoyed it.

like i said, though, i will be so happy to get home home. i fly in on august 8 and i'll be at my parents house that night, and then the next day i'll drive myself home... and finally get to sleep in my bed again! what a joy that will be =)

hopefully, i'll get to see most of you when i get back (and before i have to go back to work! arggh...) so if any of you are free during august, lemme know. i'd love to hang out! =)

btw, i'd welcome emails from any of you who wanna discuss life and everything else i've been thinking about... oh, and if you wanna see the pics you'll have to let me know!

love,
kimi =)


me on top of montserrat's mountain range...

and at the fortress on montjuic overlooking all of barcelona