What's possibly the biggest letdown about Spain?

The gum here sucks.

Every American realizes it. "Sticks" of gum don't exist at all. Everything comes as those fat little rectangular type pieces. They all lose their flavor really fast, none of them have real sugar in them, the flavors are mostly weird fruity combinations and the boxes come with less than ten pieces in them. The two main brands are either Trident or Orbitz, that's it. It's not even cheap for such a crappy product. I'm going to chew so much gum when I get home.

I'm starting to get exhausted from all the traveling. I really wish I'd scheduled my London trip for one weekend later. I'm not prepared to go and I'm leaving in less than a day. I have this intuition something bad might happen, like I'll either lose a lot of money, or get hurt or get stuck somewhere. Quite honestly, I'm scared. On the plus side, they speak English. However, my hostel is really far away to the point where I don't think I can walk to it and it's supposed to be kind of wild which means even if I go home early (because the Metro is going to close) I probably won't be able to sleep from all the noise. I have no idea what I'm going to do there besides go to the concert. Even the concert is far away in another part of town and I'm going to be there alone. :( I think instead of worrying I'm going to try my best to prepare what I can and then wing it from there.

Last weekend I was in Paris. It was even more beautiful than I expected. I must return one day, hopefully in some time in spring when it's a little less cloudy and rainy. I've decided that I want to go to Rome, Paris and Barcelona for my honeymoon because it's probably the next chance I'll have to take an extravagant vacation. I wouldn't even care about having a nice wedding ceremony if it meant I could travel in Europe. Rome, Paris and Barcelona are all crawling with couples...it's kind of too much.

Right before we left for Paris I went over my friend's flat because we'd made plans to have a waxing party. She waxed my armpits and my screams rang out through the rooms. There were laughs interspersed because it was so funny. Waxing is so efficient but so painful. We may have a future together anyway.

Then we took a night train to Paris, we also took one home. After the trip I'd spent three of the past eight nights sleeping in trains. In Paris I saw a couple of cemetaries, the Louvre, underground catacombs, the Eiffel Tower (too many times), Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, the banks of the Seine, Notre Dame, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge and Sacre-Coeur. I ended up getting really frustrated on Saturday because despite my attemps at planning and organizing my time I felt like I wasn't seeing and understanding anything. It's really important for me to understand the significance of things. Many things I just walked by or took pictures of. Other things ended up irritating me over the trip. The second night I was there my friend and I bought food from the local shops and markets to eat for dinner. After finishing we decided to take a two hour nap and wake up at midnight to get ready to go out. We never woke up and I ended up sleeping through all of our Saturday night in Paris. For me, it's really hard to find the energy to "party" when I'm traveling. I get too tired.

Montmartre was probably my favorite part of Paris. It's still technically part of Paris, but it's more like a village. It's less crowded and so beautiful. It's where they filmed Amélie. So close to there is the street Clichy where they have so many sex shops and sex shows and hookers (though I didn't see them). It's the street where Moulin Rouge is located. It wasn't cute at all and my eyes were burning from all the naked pictures all over the shops windows. It was raining when I went inside Notre Dame. After I came out I was trying to explore a little bit in the really old part of Paris but it started pouring. I got stuck in the storm and wasted 15 minutes standing in a little door stoop by myself with a soggy coat. The Louvre was nice, but I think I enjoyed the Met (in NYC) a little more. I've seen so much art over here. I think I'm forming an even deeper appreciation for art musuems. I regret that I didn't eat a crepe while in Paris. Everyone seemed shocked. I'd had crepes before, are they really that different in France? I guess I'll have another chance to eat French crepes in December. On our way back to Spain the French trains workers were about to go on strike. Our train arrived in Barcelona at 8AM, the same time they started striking. We were really lucky. The other API group had their trip cancelled because there aren't trains to Paris anymore. They're all really really upset, understandably. It's too late for API to book plane tickets for everyone. They're trying to reschedule but most people already had other trips planned. They're not refunding any money, which seems like a bad idea.

Three things that get on my nerves about photos:
-Flash. I hate it. I hate when people use it unnecessarily.
-When people crop other people out of pictures for profile pictures. I would be sad if I was the cropped out person, wouldn't you?
-When people don't use the rule of thirds when they're taking a picture of someone in a location. Or when the person is angled so they're facing out of the frame.

It just irks me.

A few weeks ago my host mom's dog died, while I was in Sevilla. She's been pretty sad because Nuba was like her child. Sometimes it's weird to come home without the dog here. Her daughter is asking for a cat, but Ana keeps explaining that she doesn't want any more pets right now. It makes me think of my Baby. I miss him!

I've also decided, besides the European honeymoon, that if by some chance I ever have kids...I need to raise them in Europe. I feel like they'll turn out better. I'd be able to take them on more educational vacations, they'd learn other languages, and probably have a better understanding of the world, not just America. This could all be done easily if I marry a European. I'd get dual citizenship. There are such differences between European and American guys. Basically I think European men are more chivalrous and open with their affection but less dedicated to any one person. In contrast American men treat women casually and are more closed with their emotions but they seem to devote themselves to one person more readily.

Hopefully my next update will be about my London adventure. If I make it back.