We left a bit too early in the morning for my liking, around 8:00, but I slept the majority of the way to our first destination; Lourdes. There is a beautiful cathedral there, which we walked around for a while. There's also a fountain which supposedly has healing water, and people in wheelchairs come to drink it and 1 in a million (or some percentage similar), are cured. My host mom joked that I could drink the water and be able to speak fluently. She even bought me a little bottle to fill up with the water (as a souvenir)... I tried some water but I still only speak proficient Spanish... It's probably a good thing though, I wouldn't want that 1 in a million miracle to be wasted on me... 
My host parents really aren't religious at all, so we left pretty quickly, probably only after about 45 minutes... On our way back to our car, we saw a memorial statue, which I guess is a normal thing in every small French town in the area we were in. On one side was a WWI memorial, with the names of all of the people from Lourdes who had died in it, and on the other side, a WWII memorial with the names of everyone who had died in WWII... It was pretty crazy to see how many people who had died, just from Lourdes! 
Next we went to Pau, which is a very old, very beautiful city. We went to lunch at the first place we saw (I was absolutely starved!) and ordered duck, which is a very typical dish in France. It was delicious! I also ate French fries in France, I feel like that's an important detail. After lunch we walked around for a while, trying to find a castle. With the help of some English speaking French people and my awesome translating skills (it was actually really difficult), we found it. It was so cool! It was Henry IV's castle! We took a tour, which of course I didn't understand a word of (French is weird), but we saw some beautiful artwork, and the whole place was just stunning, and all of the windows had beautiful views of the the French Pyrenees.
The tour took about an hour, and afterwards we walked back to our car. On our way back to Spain, we stopped by the Lindt chocolate factory, and bought lots of truffles and chocolate of all sorts. It was fun!
The week passed with nothing too exciting happening... Wednesday I went to Jaca to visit Ethan, we just walked around, and ate food. I watched him get his hair cut, but nothing too special happened.
Yesterday, my host parents took me to Zaragoza!
I had been there three times before, but only to shop. This time we went to see the touristy places. First we went to the plaza of Pilar, and to this huge cathedral.
There was really cool artwork inside, and even a mass going on! Outside, there was a protest against the use of animal fur for clothing. It was actually quite comical, we watched a woman wearing a very obviously real fur coat attempting to find a back exit from the cathedral so that she wouldn't have to walk past them. 
Afterwards, we walked around a bit, and ended up in a bar for tapas. We had this egg potato duck plate, which sounds disgusting, but was delicious (though maybe a bit salty). Afterwards, my host parents were still hungry for lunch (I wasn't really, although I'm am exchange student, I can always eat more), so we walked around looking for a restaurant. Eventually we found one, and it was very fancy (lunch here is kind of a big deal). For my first plate, I had mini bell peppers stuffed with French cheese and ham. It was delicious! For my second plate I had steak, which was served pretty much raw with a hot stone, so I got to cook it myself! It was so cool! 
For dessert, I had lemon sorbet (my host mom got a chocolate volcano, and was surprised I hadn't ordered the same, but I was too full.)
I had been there three times before, but only to shop. This time we went to see the touristy places. First we went to the plaza of Pilar, and to this huge cathedral.
After lunch, we walked around a bit more, and we saw the ruins of a roman theater which are dated from somewhere between 2 B.C-1 A.D)!! It was crazy!
On our way out of town we stopped at the huge mall there, so that my dad could buy a few new heaters for our house (it's getting pretty cold :() so I got to shop a bit too, and got a new pair of jeans and a couple jackets. We got home around 10, and I pretty much went straight to bed.
Today I stayed in, and watched a movie (in Spanish) with my host mom. It was pretty crazy, I actually understood probably 90% of it (granted she does give me Spanish subtitles since it's easier to read it than actually understand people speaking it, but still.)
Anyways, that's pretty much been my week... I'll update again when something exciting happens.
Sorry I took for ever to post this (it's been a week since I wrote it). Nothing too exciting has happened since, Saturday my host mom and I went to Huesca to visit my host grandparents, we had lunch with them, slept the siesta and then returned home. Yesterday, Ethan came over because both of us are feeling a little bit homesick with thanksgiving coming up (honestly I think that the jealousy of the fact that our friends back home don't have school this week and we do is half of the issue here),it it's definitely weird to think about what's happening in the U.S right now. Anyways, he came over, brought some American sweets his parents had sent him, and we watched one of our favorite American movies, "The Perks of Being A Wallflower". It was just a nice, relaxed American afternoon.
Today I had school which is the same thing every day, I sit through six hours of classes, understanding maybe 70% of what's going on (except for in philosophy, that's more like 30%, but still compared to my first day it's incredible progress). It gets a bit boring, and it's definitely annoying, because I know that my Spanish is getting better everyday, but I really don't notice it on a day to day basis. Occasionally I'll think about something I said and think wow I wouldn't have been able to say that before I got here, but it's not something I notice without really focusing on thinking about it. In know at the end of the year I'll be able to look back and notice all of my improvements, but I am so exhausted all the time from having to mentally work so hard to make everything make sense and put things into context and wow. It's difficult, though only getting easier.
It's supposed to snow soon (there's already some snow in the mountains), so maybe I'll get to ski soon (I've decided I'm going to learn to ski here, because no one really snowboards :(). Anyways, I'll try to update again soon.
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