I just woke up from a 3.5 hour nap. The Spanish way of life is treating me pretttttty good. My friends and I went out last night (even though 3 of us have 8:30 am class, it just doesn’t feel right staying in for nights here, since our time here is so short!) and went to a place called vogue. It was a costume night and the 50 best costumes won a prize (unfortunately, I was not told of the costume party until after we were out for the night, so I, regretfully, was wearing no costume). I came home around 3 or 4 and got kebobs (duh) with friends. Leah came home a little bit later and we stayed up until around 5 being idiots. Waking up for class this morning was miserable, but luckily Molly has the class too, so we always somehow make it. The class is business Spanish and the teacher is SUPER nice. It’s a less than 10 person class and today we learned how to write a Spanish business letter (even my brain can comprehend that on only 3 hours of sleep).

I come home between classes on my Tuesdays and Thursdays and nap between 10 and 11:30 when I have my next class, which is history. The nap was more than necessary and since our windows have blinds on the outside (real typical of spain), they can black out all the light, and it is like sleeping in a cave. It is impossible to know what time it is when we choose to sleep this way (everyday). I met a really cool girl, Erin, in my history class, so we sit by each other and I think we may be the only 2 people in the entire class who aren’t obsessed with history/doing excessive amounts of work. It is hard to take the people seriously in some of my classes who are SO into school and feel like they need to answer EVERY question and always give their input, as if anyone really cares after the 5^th time they speak in class. I always felt like punching these people back home in classes at Minnesota, and I didn’t realize that they were everywhere, and when they speak in Spanish, it is even more of a task not to want to tell them to shutup. ..I will step down from my soap-box..let’s just say I’m glad I have found friends in my classes who can be smart, work hard, and not be a teacher’s pet/workaholic!

view from my roof, where i tan!

Today after class Leah and I went to a restaurant because we saw the menu at our residencia was “fish and potato soup” and “fried fish”…YUCK. We got conned by the owner of the restaurant into thinking they had paella. Once we sat down he got mad at us for ordering “agua del grifo” (water from the tap. They are obsessed with giving you water bottles and glasses to pour them in…and then charging you 2 euro for it..it is really annoying) and then he gave us bottled water anyways (I’m telling you, this guy was a tricky tricky old Spanish man). We ordered from the menu and he told us that paella wasn’t until later and that we basically had to order lomo, which is ham. We ordered it and it wasn’t bad at all. We each got 2 pieces of ham, fries, a salad, bread, and natilla, which is a flan basically. Once we come home we slept from about 2:30 to 6. I feel great.

My internet hasn’t been working really at all the last couple days, but I have been randomly able to skype with people! Skype is the best thing ever invented (besides highways, I have a weird obsession/curiosity about highways..but I won’t get into that here).

We finally went to a tetaria which is a hookah bar. The tea they served was INCREDIBLE. It was called Pakistan tea and it tasted a lot like chai tea but sweater and better with milk and other stuff in it. We got strawberry hookah and it was really relaxing. The place is really dark and there are drapes and pillows everywhere and it feels like you are in the Middle East. The waiters and hosts even wore turbans. We went out a different night to Babylon, where my friend Fran works, and they played the Greece medley from the movie. This was a BIG hit and incorporated a lot of molly telling me to be “danny” and her to be “sandy”…THANKS molly. We danced/karaoked to this for a long time and I think the Spaniards were pretty entertained.

friend from my residencia!

Sundays here are sweet. I haven’t had homework yet (someone is looking out for me..) so it is just a big day for doing nothing. Molly, Leah, and I decided to go eat at a café outside since it was about 65 ish outside with no clouds. EVERYONE was drinking beers on Sunday, so we decided we needed to fit in with the Spanish culture. We kept referring to it as Sunday “morning” until we realized it was actually 4 pm. Time gets skewed when you don’t go to bed until around 6 or 7 some nights. As we were sitting at the table, I decided it was the appropriate time to basically tell Molly I was cutting her out of my life. I told her that trouble is always following her, and I just didn’t think it was safe any longer to be her friend or hang around her…JUST as I’m breaking this to her, in the middle of this conversation, a GYPSY appears (literally, out of NO WHERE). She has a baby on her hip and is simply asking every table for money with her hand extended. We know we are just supposed to ignore her, but we start cracking up because she will not leave and I had just been telling molly she was bad luck. At this point, the gypsy starts CURSING us. Legitimately the lady is saying some sort of curse under her breath in Spanish. It was terrifying and something that definitely could only have happened with Molly around ( I need to figure out a way to get rid of her..). About 10 minutes after the gypsy curse, Molly dropped her entire wallet and change went flying everywhere at the restaurant. The locals laughed, I secretly cried while I snapped pics of her in her misery because I know that molly is going to be the death of me.

After lunch we got some ice cream and sat on the only bench in the park that still had sun shining on it. Molly chose “tuti-fruiti” in a chocolate dipped cone…I question her decisions each and every day. At one point, when the sun was moving and getting covered by buildings, Leah exclaimed “the sun is getting colder”. After laughing for about a minute, I realized that I finally found someone with a common sense deficit as great as my own.

:)

I joined a gym here and it is SO nice. It has an indoor and outdoor pool and I just received my one-piece, cap, goggles, and more in the mail from home (THANKS MOM and Kate! I tried to write an email, but my internet is terrible). The exercise area is super clean and huge. It is really crowded sometimes, but they have anything and everything you could ever need. I can’t wait to swim in the outdoor pool and get tan. They also have about 6 hot tubs, a spa, a sauna, free tanning, tons of classes, and just about anything else you could imagine. I will bring my camera there soon to show everyone how nice it is. The other great thing is that they have tons of showers and blow-dryers, so Leah and I go there most days simply to avoid having to shower in our ridiculous set up. It is about a 15 minute walk to the gym and it’s just right down a main road, so it is really convenient and safe.

I started volunteering yesterday and I absolutely love it. Another girl from API and I get to teach English to a class of 6 year old Spanish private school kids. They are the cutest things EVER and hearing them speak in English is even cuter. We taught them the months and seasons yesterday. I will be going every Wednsday to help at this after school program. After an hour of the little ones, we get a class of 5^th and 6^th graders who we teach a little bit, but also help with their English homework. I prefer the little ones because they are so excited to learn and are just so happy and smiley. I am really glad I chose to do this, and when I get back to the good ol’ US of A, I definitely want to find a program where I can do something similar.

just molly under the table collecting her change..

I go to Rome tomorrow with my program, and you guessed it, MOLLY. My other close friends are going to Sevilla since our program split the trips in half so there would be less people on each. We are in Rome Friday-Monday and our whole Sunday is a free day. I am really excited! I have to miss Monday classes, but the teachers are all so nice about it. Their responses were either have fun or stay safe, no mention of work= greatest school ever. I hope all is well back home, I miss everyone.

grease lighting with molly.