Feliz Navidad!

Been a while, hey? I knew this would start to happen with the blog. I´ve been here now for almost four months so life becomes ¨life¨....those little everyday things that I feel no need to write about. I officially live in Spain now, got my green card last week! Even though I´m pretty settled in one spot now, I´ll try to fill you in on the details. I am totally loving where I´m living. These past few weeks have been SO hard with school. I´ve had exams, tons of papers and presentations to finish, and all that ¨junk¨. I know I should be saying I´m learning from it but the truth is: not really. I TOTALLY miss the US education system. Yeah, it´s easy and they baby us...BUT I feel like classes are fun compared to here. Madrid classes are really just professors talking for 90 minutes about the agriiculture of Spain in the middle ages...imagine that in another language thinking the whole time ¨great... and in another 400 years Columbus discovered my country!¨ BOOOOOooooring. My literature class is great and very interactive but the rest...not impressed. I´m hoping it´s only because I picked bad classes this semester and next semester will be better. One can hope, right? I do know one thing, I can´t WAIT to go back to Madison!!!!

I think I learn the most when I´m with my roomies...I´ve finally reached the point where I can understand some jokes and even make my own. They have started answering the telephone ¨hello¨so that all of their friends slowly say: ¨H-o-l-a....I-R-E-N-E por favor.¨They think it´s hularious that they can pretend to be me and have their frends dumb down the Spanish thinking it´s me. No, in all seriousness, as much as I say I have not, I have improved. A lot. My roomies keep saying, ¨think of your first day, the first one...and now look, you´re speaking spanish!!!¨ Irene and I compared pictures of Paris the other night and I was trying so hard not to laugh. All of hers were gorgeous, sophisticated, artistic. I had to explain why there were multiple picture of me slapping the butts of ancient greek god statues in the Lourve and pole dances in front of the Moulin Rouge. Niceeeee. So American of me.

Super excited, tonight my friend Taryn is coming over to ¨study phonetics¨ but since we´re pretty much already done with our papers this is just an excuse to watch Christmas movies in English and eat taco dip....YAY! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel already :) Since I was pigging out a year ago today as it was my first day back in the States, I figured I will make Dec. 18th an annual ¨feast¨ day...any excuses people!

Leaving for Scotland on Dec. 20th and then off to Ireland on Dec. 22nd. I´ll spend the first two days with my friend Megan and her fiance in Glasgow and the rest with my friend Maggie from Northern Ireland and her family. Both were volunteers with me in Africa and I could think of no better way to spend my Christmas this year. Then on the 27th, my friends Andrew and Mel come to visit me from the States and let me tell ya, I´m feeling the love already! How sweet of them to come over here to celebrate the new year!!!! Will keep you posted :) Until then, God Bless and have a very Merry Christmas. If you get some time, shoot me a Christmas email at bcurtis@wisc.edu .....I´d love to hear from you all. FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

A romantic weekend

On Rou du Rivoli



On top of the Eiffel Tower

First of all, congrats to my cousins Kevin and Jenni whose wedding I missed. The pictures from Aunt Nancy looked so beautiful and it looked like everyone was having lots of fun! Wish I could have been there, but.....I was in romantic Paris instead.

So I have literally travelled around the world, but I have to say Paris is my all time favorite city....I know, I know. I rip on the French all the time, but they were actually SO much kinder than the people of Madrid! We arrived Tuesday night and stayed in a hostal right across the street from the Lourve. I got up everyday at 5:30am to go run. Imagine running in the dark with no one around for miles on the river Seine past the Lourve with the Mona Lisa, the famous concierge prison where the revolutionaries spent their last days, seeing the Eiffel Tower, etc. So incredible!
In our four days we were able to visit the Eiffel tower at night, during the day, see the Lourve and the famous Mona Lisa, the modern museum with the famous Van Goughs, the Moulin Rouge and red light district, we were able to "storm" the Bastille, drink coffee in little cafes, have a baguette and cheese, tour the famous districts, see the grave of James Morrison, the Notre Dame cathedral, and on and on and on. Just amazing. My friend Katie was a great travel buddy and we were able to see so much of the amazing city. I think I am studying the wrong language :) Everyone in that city is in love, even if it's just with the city itself...would love to go back someday.

World AIDS Day!

Hope you all are having a wonderful World AIDS Day. It's sooooo hard for me to think last year I was in the middle of Africa celebrating the day with an infected population of 33%. Now I'm in a European capital city where our education and socio-economic status doesn't allow that, but the problem is still a worldwide one. What a difference a year can make.

Hope you all are wearing your red ribbons!

This week was exam week so I am exahusted and BEAT! I'm working on my School of Ed. application today and then celebrating a friend's birthday tonight. I won't stay long, I honestly feel a little crappy celebrating on days like this one where I think of my friends in Africa who have nothing to celebrate. I called Malawi today to check in, it's always so good to talk with them to make sure everyone survived this month. I guess the volunteers decided to continue with the World AIDS Day celebration that I started last year. AWESOME! Haha, I love how I tried to change to topic to school and Spain but somehow got back to Africa. Can you guess where my heart is?

Anyways, things are good here. Leaving on Tuesday for Paris with my friend Katie. I can't wait! I am so gratful to be so blessed!!! Hope you all are doing well and remember: LOVE LIFE: KNOW YOUR HIV STATUS! Tawonga ukongwa!