Busqueda del Tesoro

Hola, ¿qué tal? a saying that means "How's it going?" and is said very frequently around here.  If you're asking me, it's going kind of slow.  Since we don't start classes until Monday, there has been a lot of free time this week.  Two days ago it was really cold and yesterday it was rainy, so that means that I've been in the apartment killing time.  API, my program, doesn't allow people to go over people's places, so the only place to go is out.  This is a common concept in the Spanish culture where they see the house as a place to eat and sleep.  All socializing should be done outside.  And that is why they have such a big nightlife.  So I've found various websites to watch various programs like Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother, whenever that returns.  But all in all, it's been a slow couple of days.

One highlight of our week was the scavenger hunt.  Yesterday, API offered a scavenger hunt with the prizes being chocolate con churros or chocolate with churros.  There were about 12 people attending, so we split up into 4 teams.  I was with Nico, my roommate, and his girlfriend Shaelyn.  As most of you know, scavenger hunts or busquedas de tesoro are kind of my thing.  For the past three semesters, Tory and I have held scavenger hunts with the last one having over 50 participants.  I knew I was going to win this, I just needed to figure out how.  We looked at the list, which had been organized by areas of the city and if you completed an area you received an extra punto.  We quickly saw that the area nearest to us had very few landmarks to find so we headed towards the Alhambra.  Though we found everything but one in this section, we knew we had to push further.  We quickly moved into the North section near Albaicin and rapidly took pictures of all four buildings.  This was getting close to the end of the allotted time, but I noticed that the Catedral was on the way back.  We picked up the pace and started a slow jog towards the cathedral.  We got there with 6 minutes left on the clock.  We snapped a quick photo and then high-tailed it back to the API office.  I had learned this part of the city well, so we veered left and right through back roads and we got to the office with 1 minute to spare.  There was only one other group there, however, and the two other groups came later, so we didn't have to run like crazy people.  But we did and it was fun.  Our directors tallied up the points and we came in first place with 21 points! The second place team had 10, so clearly we didn't have to go to the cathedral or book it back to the office, but as I said, scavenger hunts are my kind of thing.

Then, last night, we did karaoke at local bar.  I sang twice, but I wouldn't even call it singing because the entire pub was singing so loud that you couldn't even hear me.  That's what I get for singing I Want It That Way and Don't Stop Beleiving.  It was a lot of fun and it probably made it better that no one could hear me.  I knew I should've used that karaoke machine that Santa brought some years back.
That's all I have to say now, hopefully this weekend will be more exciting and then next week I start classes! I do love myself some order and discipline.  And congrats to Jared and his swim team for taking the Bay State Conference Meet and, I believe, the Title.  I'm pretty sure that you get a banner for that.