Baila, Baila, Baila!

Hola All!

Look at me, updating my blog on a daily basis! I'm such a good kid :).

Well not much has happened since yesterday, but one major amazing thing has happened that I HAVE to tell you about. I've started taking my dance classes! There are two different courses: one that is a fusion of Indian dance and theater and another traditional Indian dance course. I've just finished with one and am waiting for the other one to start in about an hour. EEK! I'm so excited!!! It was so amazing to finally be doing what I've wanted to do for so much of my life. The guy teaching the class, I must admit, was slightly weird. He was one of those "I'm not Eastern but I want to be Eastern so so so so sooooooooooo bad" types and we alllllllll know that those type of people are hard to understand (but usually have an amazing grasp of the concept of spirituality). Anywho, I'm super to duper excited to get back to the classical Indian dance class. I'm going to choose one of them to participate in after I've tried both.

Other than that, nothing new is going on. Today I felt that I was crowned officially as a Spaniard. "Why?" you ask...well today I officially stepped into dog poop. YUCK! It was absolutely disgusting and it took a while to clean, but according to the Spaniards, stepping in dog poop is lucky. Oh the things we must tell ourselves to make horrible things seem better :-P.

There is something interesting that came into my mind today. I was sitting in my Spanish History class, learning about the Spanish civil war and a thought crossed my mind. Is it necessary for a country to undergo some type of revolution or civil war to reach stability? It seems as though all of the countries now considered to be first world countries have histories inclusive of civil war. The reason why this interests me is because I look at Pakistan and I feel as though the country cannot be fixed until a civil war happens. The daily increasing tension in the region and the quickly growing fractions of religious extremists and moderates has pushed the country to a stage very like the stages of the United States and Spain before brothers were forced to fight brothers on their own land. At times I feel as though there is no hope for my country, but then I remember that this year is its 61st year. It is still very young and it still must endure many hardships. It frightens me that such blood shed might occur in my country, but the more I learn of the history of other nations, the more I realize that history truly does repeat itself. Signs of tension are more than obvious in the region, but it might take years for such atrocity to take place. I pray to God that nothing happens, that my nation can resolve its problems without destruction and blood shed. How heard or possible this prayer will be ...only future will tell.

On a lighter note...

My Trip to Barcelona:

The second day after we got back from Morocco, I left with a group of girls for Barcelona. Thinking about packing I kept asking myself why in the world I had thought that I would not be tired after a trip to the freaking continent of Africa. Regardless of the butt soreness from sitting on a bus for over 40 hours in the previous 5 days, I packed my stuff and was out the door for the train station.

It was at this point that something very interesting happened. I got a call from one of my travel buddies saying that everyone was going to meet outside the station at 11. The funny thing was that I was waiting for the bus to the train station at 9. "But Erin," I asked, "why in the world are you meeting at 11 when the train leaves at 9:45?" She laughed and said, "Oh silly silly Amen, the train doesn't leave until 11:45" (of course those that know Erin know that those would never be her exact words)...then there was silence...a scream on the other side...and a clicking of the phone. I called one of the other girls and the reaction was the same. They had 45 minutes to pack and get themselves over to the train station (which conveniently is located on the opposite side of town).

Good News! We all arrived, red in the face and huffing, but still we got there! In Barcelona we had a blast. We saw Gaudi's architecture, took an open bus tour, saw Picasso's museum, shopped, and just had a good time enjoying each other's company and strolling down the wet, rainy streets of Barcelona.

The city was entirely way too large for my liking, but it was still nice to visit. The life lessons of the trip: 1)I'm happy to be studying in Granada and 2) Look at your train ticket twice before you make assumptions :).

That's all for now folks! I hope you all are doing splendidly. Happy Diwali to everyone!

Much love,
An excited for my dance lesson me