The Beauty of Doing Nothing.

      Last night I went out with the other exchange students in Pamplona to the same Turkish restaurant (Doner Kebab) again. I love this place. It is small and homey and CHEAP! The food is great and we've all befriended the waiter, whom we call Rob. His real name is much longer than that so we Americanized it just a little bit. He is so sweet. Last night he gave us free cokes and french fries-it was great! I asked for music and he put on some great music from his home country. Maybe Turkey or Lebanon? I loved it though! After eating we headed to the park and met some pretty interesting people along the way. My favorites included a woman in a cow costume and a crazy short guy with long hair and a belly top swinging around a bottle of liquor in the streets. Nice. He was really drunk. After spending some time in the park, Natalie and I headed to my apartment and she stayed the night. This morning we met Jon, an ex-exchange student who went to Washington State last year, and headed to the mall. The mall is so great! It's just a little bigger than Belden....or a lot :) It was great! After the mall we all headed home to have lunch with our families.
        After lunch I had the rest of the day t do absolutely nothing. I need to get better at this. I have been busy for so long that I just don't really know what to do when I have no where to be, or no paper to write, or no kids to babysit. It's just crazy...all this "me time." But I will figure it out and as soon as I do I will have friends and a busy life. Just watch. I want to understand this language so that I can actually do homework. I want to learn and try and show that I am not a lazy American. It will just come in time, but I hope that is sooner than later. With all this time to think today I became pretty homesick. I bought soem skype credit and called my mom on her cell phone. That was nice. After that I called my grandparents. It was so nice to hear their voices! I can't tell you how much it meant to me. I skyped with my family after that. I said I was going to wait until Wednesday but I was pretty emotional. I needed them. Some moments are just much harder than others...and I was home alone. I needed some interaction.
        Once I wrapped up my skype session with Brandi, Merche and I ate salad and bread together for dinner. I did my last night of dishes for a couple of weeks and then started a movie with her. I didn't understand much and it made me pretty sleepy, so here I am. I'm going to end the night with reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This is Natalie's favorite book. She let me borrow it and I lent her Eat Pray Love. I'm really enjoying the book so far--I'm on page 40. I think I'll have it finished by tomorrow and then I promise it is on to Harry Potter. But since I was having a "beauty of doing nothing" day then I didn't want to have to think about every word I am reading. It just gives me a headache right now. Even movies give me a headache. Haha.
          Tomorrow I am sleeping in and reading and eating nougat pillows. After this eventful morning I am going to my host-grandparents home for someone's birthday. I think Merche's brother-in-law. That should be fun. More chances to practice my Spanish! Time to read. We had a great football weekend!! I hope everyone who is going to homecoming tonight has a great time! Missing you, Ohio. Loving you, Pamplona. Buenas noches amigos :)