Yes, you correctly read the title to this blog entry. I have been granted a student visa for Australia. I will now express my excitement via the rarely-utilized color change font option:

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!

There are many colors from which to choose. I don't know why I don't use more of them. Anyway, here is the story of how it all ( Read more... )

This weekend I am finally staying home in Valencia trying to catch up on work and, of course, blogging.

Last weekend I went to Portugal with Jacky and Aaron. I didn't want to go, to be quite honest. When it came time to pack up my backpack again and hit the road straight from class to the airport, I really would have rather curled up in bed and ( Read more... )

I just returned from a truly incredible vacation to Andalucía which is the giant region in the south of Spain. Back in the beginning of this semester while I was taking the class on the geography and history of Spain, on of the most impressive things that I learned was the fact that Spain at its southern most point is only nine kilometers away from ( Read more... )

Before I launch into the next entry about the vacation I just finished which, I can tell you right now, is going to be a whopper, I need to take a few paragraphs to tell about a wonderful weekend spent in Valencia before I left. When I went to Paris, I visited Melanie who is a friend from Douglass and as we were preparing to leave France Mel said ( Read more... )

This is WAY late in coming mostly because I've been lazy, but then also partly because I've been legitimately busy. Excuses aside, this is long overdue, and I am forced to subscribe to the better-late-than-never philosophy of life. I could backdate this entry, a feature afforded to me by the magnificence of livejournal, but that would just be ( Read more... )

I just got back from my trip with Jacky to Toledo and Cuenca, but that entry will have to wait for another, not-so-far-off day because I have to back track to Thursday, April 17th. First of all, it was Dan's 21st Birthday and I got to talk to him around midnight, US time because I happened to go out Spanish style on Wednesday the 16th and did not ( Read more... )

Today is the three monthiversary of when I left the United States. I can't believe I have already whiled away half of my time in Spain!! That means that there are only three months until I leave for Australia! I just sent the medical part of the visa application to the Australian consulate in Madrid. Hopefully it will be accepted and hopefully I'll ( Read more... )

Tying my two weeks of vacation together is a daunting task that lies before me. Such a lot has happened and after having had a long plane trip complete with unexpected layover in which to think about how I would write this blog entry, the theme of family seems to be the only one that effectively encompasses all of the events that have recently ( Read more... )

Las Fallas is a festival that takes place annually in Valencia, Spain for San José. The day of San José is March 19th but Fallas itself begins officially on the 15th and unofficially on the 1st of March. Our program director, Laura, says that for her Fallas begins the day that the little boy that lives down the street throws a firecracker at her ( Read more... )

I just returned from Paris. I got a decent night's sleep last night and I'm attempting to get this weekend down before I go out this morning to enjoy my first day of Fallas...I know I have alluded to Fallas several times but I will not explain it until the next entry as I have still not experienced it enough to do it justice. Today I'm writing ( Read more... )