I'm Back!

http://soimovedtonewyork.blogspot.com/

But I have a new blog!

When it's raining in paradise

sh


Two of my good friends from Wisconsin- Erik and Willie- made a 6 day stop in Madrid on their month-long trek through Europe. We all met each other cutting cartilage and breaking rabbit knees in the Kaplan lab, so of course, we have a lot to go on. Oh - and we also SHOULD have won the intramural softball league last year, but we all keep the trophy in our hearts.

I gave them a two day tour of Madrid - I think I've gotten to be a much better tour guide now, and it's a lot easier with two people versus eight, like when my whole family was here. We ate tapas at El tigre, little sandwiches at 100 montaditos, and all saw our first bullfight. Which we all enjoyed...but a definite guilty type of enjoyment. We had to scalp the tickets in front of the Plaza de Toros because they were sold out. Haha, never want to do that again... the boys thought that Ali and I were about to be thrown in the back of a black Ford Falcon and never to be heard of again. Yeah, it was pretty sketchy.


After Madrid, we left for San Sebastian. It's a six hour train ride north, in the top east corner next to France, sitting on cliffs overlooking the Atlantic (bigger region = Pais vasco). A huge surfer's destination, and we did meet a lot of Californian and Australian tourists there with their wetsuits and longboards. It was beautiful, but we never mustered the cajones to jump into the ocean because it was pretty cold and cloudy the whole time. At night time we discovered the Tas Tas, a sweet little bar tucked into the Old Town in San Sebastian. Roberto, a super friendly bartender poured us a few free rounds of beers and shots, which was more than enough to get us all to stay later, and come back the next night.

In that part of Spain, vasco is spoken, which is totally it's own language with no roots in Spanish, English or French or anything spoken now really. I put up a picture of a street sign to show how distinct it is. We couldn't even learn Thank you or another beer or please or anything. It all sounded like gibberish.

Well the boys left, early flight out to Rome to continue their marathon trip. And I started writing this paper for my literature class. I'm comparing the novel La verdad sobre el caso Savolta to its movie version. It's a horrible movie but a great book, and I probably wouldn't have picked this topic to write about it I knew just how terrible the film it... but it's due in a week, so too late for second guessing...I guess...haha

And I'm studying for the poetry section of the test. Luis Garcia Montero is the poet who I'm going to focus on- and all of his poems in the anthology Habitaciones separadas are themed around time, love and the city. This is the last verse of his first poem in that book, called Las razones del viajero or the "Reasons of the traveler."

Sabe que le resulta necesario
aprender a vivir en otra edad,
en otro amor,
en otro tiempo.

"He knows that it will become necessary to learn to live in another age, in another love, in another time."

I do feel like I have been living in another time (aka no dryers or dishwashers, haha) and in a whole new world. I am starting to wonder how it really will feel to go back home in July. Excited and sad at the same time.

Leave you with what I've been listening to all day... ingrid michaelson...you can find her at myspace.com. I really like "Breakable"

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=11436578

Broke in the city

This article pretty much has my life in Madrid down to a T. Unfortunately, it's also a dreary foreshadowing of my future spending habits in Manhattan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/25scrimp.html?ex=1369627200&en=211861dee949e072&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

"Allison Mooney, 27, whose first job in the city was in publishing, often skipped dinner before going out, and instead took along mixed salted nuts in her purse. When things got really tight, she occasionally sneaked a flask filled with vodka into bars. Other times, she reluctantly resorted to flirting."

I've gotten way beyond the whole "reluctance to flirting" gig. Ask Ali, we no longer have shame. The only thing is that European flirting is way different than American flirting. Or just the frequency of flirting (and perhaps intensity) needs to be adjusted when crossing the Atlantic.
O sea, que los machos espanoles no estan muy acostumbrados a recibir atencion de las chicas espanolas. Entonces, hay que tener mas cuidado en Madrid que en Manhattan diria yo.

Ok I'm off to the gym. This "done" with exams until June 17th thing is super weird. I have given myself the week off to do nothing. And I'm doing it very well.

Song of the day:
Young folks. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=36904484

Oh one last thing... the Grey's Anatomy season finale changed my life. So cheezy and so Grey's and so what the show needed! Friggin candle outline blueprint ending. I loved it, so go ahead and judge. I like cheezy television.

Flexibility

I want to start this blog entry by showing you a series of pictures.




This is our kitchen. On drugs. Or on French. If anyone can message back with a picture of a kitchen messier than this... well I would be surprised. My favorite picture is the one of the mysterious spots on the floor, that appeared nearly hours after I mopped. But it's a close call with the picture of the Chips Ahoy cookie left on the floor of the living room. Just saving it for later I guess.

Something about living abroad that teaches a person to be flexible but I think I've learned more to be agile. Agile enough to dodge bugs in my kitchen, to avoid a punch in the face from a certain crazy ex-landlord, to sprint to catch buses, or a plane, and to jump off bunk beds in hostels where the ladders are broken, or non-existent. Part of every adventure I suppose.

Just like part of this adventure has been learning to live cheap. I mean cheap...like walking into convenient stores and making cracker and nutella sandwiches instead of paying for lunch "cheap." I never thought the day would come when I would be excited to go to Manhattan for the lower prices. But I am!

I finished the 3 finals and 3 papers for my American style classes and have but one to go - a Complutense Spanish literature final, and a paper for that same class that is due on June 17th. So a lil travel in between... a little study, enough to pass , which is harder than you would think here, and I'll be done.

Song of the day ... here we go. It's this little Irish cutie , Fionn Regan who I discovered from Damien Rice's webpage. I like his song: Blackwater Child. Check it out here:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=27759526

Oh and here's a quick shot of my friend Ali and our two lovers (or the fun bartenders at our favorite tapas spot in Arguelles!)

Pues nada, hasta manyana o cuando de nuevo tengo ganas de escribir!
Besos!

S'mores here, s'mores there

Got another shipment of marshmallows and graham crackers. I made s'mores for the new French roommates. They liked them.

Here's Sam and his friend eating my "American specialty" Haha they look quite French

So it's starting to hit me little by little that I'm going to move to New York in a few months. Like when I use my UW Credit Union card, I think to myself, this probably won't make sense in Manhattan. Or when I check my e-mail , I realize it'll change to something very cool soon. Like gausden@medcornell.com or gausden@toocoolforschool.com. Something of the sort.

Song of the day: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=43976834 Hit up "Heaven's in New York" Wyclef was really who tipped the scales for me to choose Cornell.

I'm also super stoked to finish up these classes and get my butt traveling. So far, I have trips planned to Italy, England, and Ireland. May be going to Greece and Croatia as well. Don't worry, I will pack the s'mores.

The haircut

First of all: song of the day- http://www.myspace.com/jessicasonner

Check out "Rescue me"

I took a big step yesterday. A step that was preceded with 4 months of anticipation, hesitation, and practice saying things like "thin out the back" and "just trim the ends" and "nothing weird" and "I don't want a mullet" in Spanish. After all that, I got a haircut. And this time, there it wasn't in a bar, or by a crazy cuban woman, or while drinking coffee and rum. if you need a reference for that story, check out my old Argentina blog. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=46613477

French boys are messy. At least the ones I live with . Like NEVER clean up after themselves messy. Which makes me never wanna clean up because the sink is always clogged with French boy food that's by that point soggy and gross. Sorry for the visual. I should take a picture of our kitchen and post it up here. To prove a point.

Exams are next week! And my papers are due the day of the exams. And then I have a month before I have to take my last exam on June 17th.

Can't wait to travel after that. Travel and then go home to see my dog and eat American food. WIth preservatives. And microwavable. That seriously is what Spaniards think we eat all the time. I really am craving a barbeque. Bbq chicken sounds delicious to me right now. Or buying a big burger with ketchup that doesn't come in a tiny packet that tend to cost a euro each.

And I really miss dollars. American dollars. Yum. So much cheaper than euros.

The move

Whew...A couple of weeks without a blog, but for a good reason. I moved. I was right about there being more drama to come. I won't bore you with the details (although they're not that boring, just there's a lot of them, too many to write in a blog, and too hard to explain). Maybe they'll resurface someday in the form of an epic novel, or a Spanish telenovela, or something of the sort.

I now live in La Latina, and am a much happier camper. I have been pretty busy with school, and just gave a 30 minute presentation in Spanish to a class of Spaniards today. Talk about intimidating.

Oh! And I decided I'm going to Cornell for medical school, and made it official last week. And yeah, you can visit me in NYC, and no I can't promise you a place to sleep because I'll be living in the dorms. Although I'm sure that Lindo and Mike (sister and bro-in-law) will try it.

Haha love you guys. (ps photo is of ali's birthday party)

I'm out.

Se acabo la fiesta (Party's over)

Tip #57 : Even though your Spanish roommate tells you it's ok to have friends over on your birthday, better idea - don't.

Last night I had people over (started small , got bigger, then imploded somewhat).

Anyway, I'm getting a talking to tonight. I think...ewhh I don't know.

It was fun, though. Some Spaniards from my classes came over, and two from my soccer team. The one in the picture with me is Irene, from my Cuento hispanoamericano class. I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which were quite the hit. The picture of Guzman, who is Courtney's Spanish noviamigo, truly attests to his newly acquired taste for peanut butter.

After the party ended, we went to Sol for salsa dancing in Havana Club. I got home around 4:30am. Early night for Spain. And then I wasted the day away today. It's holidays here (labor day today and national holiday for the 2 de mayo tomorrow).

Alright, I'll leave it short tonight. I may have a new shipment of drama for you tomorrow. Wait for it.

Crepes, Cocktails and Confusion- Paris

First open this up: http://www.myspace.com/natashabedingfield

and listen to pockets full of sunshine.

I love it right now.

Ok ! Wow...Paris made me wish I studied French, not Spanish. It is such an amazing city. I went with Olivier (who is French) and 2 other Americans- Heidi and Matt from my program. We stayed in the Latin Quarter, which is a student-ish neighborhood that I would def recommend. Our hostel worked out really well because there was four of us and we had our own room (for 23 euro/person/night - not too shabby for Paris).

There were crepe stands lining our street, but we mostly gravitated towards one crepe guy (who we actually called "the crepe guy." And there's a picture of Heidi and me giving him a kiss on the cheek. We loved "the crepe guy." Nutella and banana crepes, ham and cheese crepes, chicken breast crepes, the list goes on and on. Everything is better on a crepe. I promise.

I also tried escargo for the first time - delicious and had creme caramel. We ate pretty well for four college students travelling, but I think it was worth it in Paris. The food was amazing- 100% better in my opinion than Spanish food. Throughout the trip, though, it was hard for me to not speak French. . even though mostly everyone speaks English, I am used to knowing the language in the country I'm traveling in - Argentina and Spain. So having to rely on someone else's ability to speak another language was different. It was awesome going with Olivier and having someone who could totally communicate. It didn't help us get into a "private club" on Friday night though, yet Matt was able to sneak in to that one. Even slipping the bouncer 20 euros wouldn't get the rest of us in...Paris at night gets a little snottier than Madrid I'd say. But the city is so beautiful (and the people too) that I don't even mind.

This video is from the Eiffel Tower at night. I have clearly become paranoid about getting robbed. I think I say it like 15 times here. And I look really scary haha. And we sound like we have the worst midwest accents. Gotta work on that for next time.

Traveling is like....

Studying abroad is like being pregnant. Or I guess it's how I imagine pregnancy (don't worry guys...I'm not eloquently breaking news or anything). I've been having these random cravings for things that I never have craved, or even liked. I think one common, cliche item that I'd kill for is peanut butter. It's just the principle of knowing that peanut butter, more or less, is an ocean away if I did want it that makes me want it.

On a more serious note, the marshmallows my brother sent (along with s'more ingredients) were no longer fulfilling a craving, but a pure life necessity. Eating a s'more today, or rather the entire process of making the s'more on the stovetop, compiling the mountain of chocolate and smushing the roasted mallow between two graham crackers, was the most euphoric moment I've had here yet. My roommate Paco ate them with me, but his lackluster "They're ok" response to my absolute favorite food just revoked his right to future mallows.

I also miss the convenience of Walgreens or having a State Street where you can choose between "un monton" de restaurants where (gasp) you know what you'll get when you order. Maybe my relationship with Spain as a country is stuck in between the phases of honeymoon bliss and the comfort zone. I bet in a week I will be blogging over Spain things again and "dejar de quejarme" and lust over pre-packaged and processed foods.

On a sidenote, our prof read us this Jorge Luis Borges (famous Argentine poet-writer) quote today. He finally fell in love for the first time in his life in his sixties. He wrote this poem for his "girl." Sometimes a line from literature stands out to you and resonates in your thoughts all day. This did it for me today:

Estar contigo o no estar contigo, es la medida de mi tiempo.

(Being with you or not being with you is how I measure time)

"Mean Girls" Spanish style

Watch this video that one of my lab friends made of his 2006 Halloween experience in Madison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pin1KMA6IeE

The pictures above are some more from Spring Break with the fam. Lindsay, my older sister with her singing "man-os" as she called them. And then one of all of us at a discoteca in Sevilla.

A new friend from one of my classes is doing a report in her English class about American style Halloween. If I could only brag about one thing about being a UW student, it might just be how we rock the face off Halloween. Anyway, I'm giving her this video for her presentation. Pretty good representation of American culture huh?

No new exciting news. I've been reading a book called "El cuarto de atras" (The back room) in my lit class. I really like it, it's all kind of stream of consciousness and goes into the author's life, starting from the Spanish Civil War and ending pretty much with Franco's death. I ordered an English copy from Amazon because I am a big cheater, but it won't get here for 3 weeks. Hopefully in time for the exam, because some parts I'm really lost by.

In other news...I've been playing futbol with an intramural team here, and I'm terrible. We had a bye today (is that how you spell bye?) and I was sad. The girls are all really fun, one is a French student studying here and I love her accent. I ate lunch with some of my teammates today. The cafeteria at the school constantly evokes high school-esque feelings of insecurity (even worse...think Mean Girls scene, only the Americans are like the Asians in that scene), so having someone non-American to sit with is a huge jump in social status. I helped one of them with a different English presentation a week ago and she promised to help me with my Spanish ---- which by the way she said is very good (unlike my favorite person in the world/roommate who told me today that I've lost a lot of fluidity over Spring Break...wow what a nice guy).

Got to go to bed now, so I can regain my "fluidity" in Spanish tomorrow. haha that sounds really bitter. I'm just joking. Here's to you for reading my blog!

Napolitanas and Gaudis

More pictures from Barcelona. The left is a Gaudi and the lower center one is his Sagrada Familia (or the front facade at least). Pretty much our whole trip was focused on seeing all of Antonio Gaudi's work in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia is his last one that is still not completed.

And at the top is my mom, Gin Gin, learning all about Spain and their different colors and shapes for things like mailboxes. Aww. I miss my mom and her cuteness. And her chocolate cravings. And I miss my dad constantly telling me "Hold on Beth, mom went into a bakery...again." My whole family acquired my weakness for napolitanas (even my dad!), which are chocolate filled croissants. It really was one of my 2 food groups for a while there.

I've been having trouble uploading my favorite procession night video. Shoot. I have another exam tomorrow (History of Islam in Spain class). Here's the low down on that:

711 - Spain invaded by Arabs. 1492 - Columbus discovers America and the Catholic Kings finally take back the last Arab stronghold which was Granada. And in between all of that...well that may or may not be on my exam tomorrow.

Landlord/roommate is back! He made a surprise 5 -6 am re-entry to our Madrileno palace this morning. With a tan and everything. There goes the bet. Well at least I'll have clean clothes.

But I thought it was TEFLON!

Here I am with the padres in a restaurant in Barcelona...the champagne is in celebration (I just had gotten in to UPenn).

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I've been studying my butt off all day for my Contemporary History of Spain test tomorrow. Basically all you need to know is that every other year from 1808 until 1875 Spain changed not only presidents, but total governing systems. And that Isabel II's children were not the king's (who was presumed homosexual according to wikipedia facts) but one of the member's of the Royal Guard. And with that knowledge I'm hoping to rock the face off an essay exam.

It's Sunday night (exactly 2 weeks from when Adolfo told me he was leaving--- Adolfo is the owner/roommate/guy who kicked out my friend Eduardo from the apartment putting me in an awkward situation landlord). Paco (who moved in to replace Eduardo) and I have a bet on when he will be back. Now this is complicated, possibly in the future I'll draw a visual map to guide you through it, but Adolfo basically lies to us when he leaves so that we don't have parties. And he told Paco from the beginning that he would be back in 4 days (two Thursdays ago) and told me that he'd be back today (2 weeks from take-off). Now that he's not back I give it 2 more weeks, Paco gives it 1. Which is all fun and games until I need to do my laundry (washer's door is still not fixed). Interestingly enough it's all connected because the broken washer door was part of the initial ammunition for "echando" Eduardo.

Maybe a map would be better next time? Wow, it's like more complicated then Spanish history from the 19th century.

Basically moral of the story is as follows...don't live with the owner of the apartment and don't ever pay 2 months security deposit because then you can't leave. And never put plastic in the oven (I'll explain that one next time)

sevilla catchup

The backblog continues...

This is Lindz and me in the Alcazar, a famous castle in Sevilla; we are learning interesting Spanish history facts as you can see.

Brian, my brother made it up there too for his infamous shrimp dinner at La cueva restaurant. Poor guy spent the first hour of the meal deshelling his prawns, then proceded to eat them all, and then I believe got food poisoning. Well he does look happy for the moment.

Wanted to put in one more video from the procession night in Sevilla. Learn more about the Holy Week events in Andalusia here http://www.exploreseville.com/events/semana-santa.htm.

And here's a link to a random youtube video that Brianna introduced me too. I think Lauren and I watched this three hundred times before we fell asleep on the couch the night before she left. Maybe you've seen it and it has already changed your life. Maybe your life's about to change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

So I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but I'm teaching English to a 9 and 11 year old here. Only three hours a week but at least it's something. The 9 year old girl really has no interest in learning English, so I try to do like 55% of the class discussion on things she does enjoy, aka making friendship bracelets and the other 45% actually teaching English grammar. Last week I started teaching the past tense (which is really difficult I think, because of all the irregulars). On the sheet of irregulars, I saw "drink" to "drank." And I'm doing a drill of saying a sentence in present tense and making her give me the past tense. But the first thing that comes to my mind when I see "drink" is "He drinks beer."

"ehh, como?" my 9 year old student asks. "Que es 'beeah'?"

And I'm the idiot who taught a 9 year old the word for cerveza.

o soberbia o sangria

Stay tuned, because wow is there a world of Spain drama that I've kept you from. For now, I'm off to bed...I'll leave you with a picture from Kapital (the 7 floor discoteca I took my fam to over Semana Santa, the 3 sisters and Bri on the right).

after a while

This catch-up blog will be a short one. I stopped for a while there because my family and friend Bri were here to visit me for Semana Santa. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Haha, no seriously asides from a few mishaps and moments of 7 people being lost in translation or in transit or in discotecas, it was really fun to have everyone here. And really depressing to see everyone go.

Yeah, so I cried on the metro after saying goodbye to everyone. All alone Beth in Madrid crying on the Metro. I felt pretty sorry for myself. And then I felt more sorry for myself when I was told my two Complutense classes can't be taken as PASS/FAILS. So that's awesome. I was really pissed, and still am. But eh? I'm in Spain right? So I guess it's time to dry the eyes and get to work.

(And that's why the blog is short...getting back to work and it's starting today...or tomorrow....or maybe Saturday)...

I'll include some fun pictures of the trips. Right now I only have time for to get one up there. Just wait for it...I thought I'd get up one activity at a time. SOo here is the famous procession night. Hope you enjoy the vids.

Oh and favorites were tapas in Granada, and processions in Sevilla. And the whole family tending to add -o to every word in English to get by here. At the end they were even putting "El" in front of words...so progress was made.

K, "El juico" is out.

segovia and wedding crashers

It's after midnight here, but tengo ganas de escribir. It's been a pretty fun week. I went out to Star Cafe on Wednesday night with some friends and my roommate and played beer pong (how American is that?). I'm still deciding between the classes I want to take (and even signed up for an extra one with intentions of dropping it but shhh don't tell the professor). Tomorrow I have 5 classes and then teach English afterwords. Wheww. Spanish literature since 1975, Short story, Islam in Spain, Cont. Spanish history, and Spanish film. But at least in my film class we get to watch movies!

I went on a date to La vaca argentina on Friday night and had my first steak in Spain, which was really good. I kind of regret not ordering dessert though after I saw some coming out. Saturday we took a day trip to Segovia and saw los acueductos (because we are so touristy) and the Alcazar. Today (Sunday) Ali and I ran through Retiro and I studied for a few hours in el Circulo de Bellas Artes, which is this cool little cultural center in downtown Madrid. Oh and I also cleaned the apartment today because me toca a mi esta semana. We take turns cleaning. It feels good to do a little spring cleaning, you know? Especially in a place that's fairly new and easy to clean, where you can actually tell that you cleaned.

I learned the word for slippers (pantuflas) this morning, which I mention only because it's a fun word. Just say it.

Here are some classic tourist shots from Segovia:

And as far as wedding crashing...you'll have to ask me at a later date. That's a story for the ages that I just can't put into words right now.

Seven am

I took a cab home this morning a little after seven a.m. And yes I am braggin about that. That's actually really ridiculous. It's fun being here and doing that, but let's be honest, it can't be good. I went out with my sister's friend from Colorado, Ali, to Gabana and Buddha del Mar, two very "pija-esque" clubs in Madrid. I had gone shopping for a cute outfit, and found black heels and white pants to go with my black and white halter top but the shoes ended up being huge on me, and in a desperate last minute attempt to construct a replacement outfit, I ended up in a brown v-neck and the white pants with my new boots. I felt a little funny because everyone was dressed to the t in dresses and jackets, but hey, I had fun. If anything, I have another excuse to buy more clothes for the next time I hit the town like a rockstar with Ali.

The picture of me in the fro wig is actually from Friday night, where I was wearing a dress I borrowed from my other friend Ali, and actually should've worn on Saturday! The picture on the top right is of Ali, my sister's friend, me and her friend Rebeca at Gabana on Saturday. To the left of that is Ali, her boyfriend Raul, Rebeca and her boyfriend.

ALright I am pooped.

SOAR throat

I wrote that to a friend today. "i have a soar throat" and although I still suck at Spanish, my English is also collapsing. I'm going to add some more photos. We took a day trip to Avila on Sunday and it is freezing there. Pretty much it is a typical small Spanish city, with history dating back to Islamic rule. The highlight for me was seeing St. Teresa's (st. teresa was a famous nun in the 16th century who founded a bunch of convents and stood against reformation and wrote some things) home which is now converted to a museum. At the end of the museum's exhibit there was a room full of memoirs of the nun. Including her middle finger. I'm not even joking. I saw a finger preserved from the 16th century. It was brown. It was definitely different than the way the cadaver's fingers looked in Penn's anatomy lab. Well, I mean they were actually attached to bodies and not five centuries old.

Anyway that picture is of the moors put up around the city. The one on the left proves just how cold I was.

I am two glasses of wine into my night right now (it's 11pm and I'm about to eat tortilla espanola with my roommate and his friend). I'm going to get going so I can learn how it's made.

I'll add the rest of the fotos when ever I feel like it. gosh.

retrospective

I wrote these entries my first few days when I didn't have internet.

1.15.08

After my first 24 hours in Spain, I still remain in the in-between land (of space and time) so I apologize in advance for my scattered thoughts. Hopefully my discombobulation isn’t contagious. I get to make up words now in English because I’m an expert word inventor in Spanish.

I found out when I got off the plane that I am staying with another Madison student, Courtney, so we rode together to our piso in Madrid. She had a friend here, Guzmán, who she met in high school during a study abroad trip. He is so darling, picked us up from the airport, gave us a little abbreviated tour, took us to our new house, and then we left to eat lunch at his house. A few kilometers north of the city and snuggled in the mountains, his house reminded me of Californian architecture, rounded doorways and white tile. It was really charming. Guzmán made us a typical Spanish dish, gargonzola beans and chorizo. I didn’t finish my chorizo (sausageish meat) so I fed it to his golden retriever, Trufa, who knows more Spanish than I probably do. My god is it adorable to see her follow commands like “Sentado” and “Pata” (sit and shake). She even responded to gringo accented Spanish!

Then we had orientation, and Courtney and I hadn’t slept yet, or showered. We got suckered into Apelcom cell phone contracts. Using mobile phones in Europe is extremely expensive no matter what was pretty much what I learned. It’s about $0.25/minute to call anything in Spain, but the catch is the same rate applies to calls to the US. Incoming calls are free. So the four phone calls I made yesterday cost me $1.44. And eight 1 minute calls made every day of a month would amount to a $60 bill. (Mom- you and Aunt Joan would be so screwed here!) Basically, the phone is pay as you go and I’ll try to use it only for emergencies.

Later we went out to a chic little bar downtown where I bought drinks for Guzmán, and Courtney actually because she hadn’t converted her dollars yet. So all together, our 6 drinks were 40 euros, or 60 dollars. Damn. No more dollar domestic Monday nights at the Vintage. Hopefully most nights will be the other way around…as in charming Spanish men buying drinks for me.

It’s 10:30am here already and we have quite a bit to do today (figure out how to get internet so you can read this being a serious priority!) before our orientation at 2:30 so I should get a move on it.

Going to another country right at the start of a New Year, and forgive the cliché, seems like an awesome way of keeping resolutions. Everything is so different that you have to change your habits, so you mine as well stick with things. No, don’t worry, I’m not going to give up drinking or anything drastic like that, but just little things, like making the bed every morning and turning off lights in bedrooms, you know like those little things that supposedly are markers of a maturity…Mom and Dad I’m going to make you proud… I’m living with a host family, and they will probably be less patient with me as you guys!

(Nighttime)

Ok I’m really liking the resolution thing I started this morning. I get breakfast and dinner from the family and we do lunch on our own. This means, omg, a regular meal schedule. Wow, even though Spaniards eat so much later than we do, the consistency will be quite a change for me, at least for the first month. I was hitting quite a low, or high rather, right after Christmas. You know, overdoing the whole, I should eat cheeseburgers and greasy American food ALL THE TIME because I’m going to Spain and might die without ground beef slabbed between two (buttered) buns.

AND, I’ve been keeping a log of spending. Have you ever actually done this? (shut up bri, you are nerdy too) I’ll probably do it just for the first month so I know how much money to take out weekly while I’m in Madrid. But it makes me way more conscientious while I’m spending…like eewwww I want that candy bar or that Coca Lite. When you multiply things by 30 (days/mo), spending an extra 4 euros on crap from vending machines may play a factor in how soon I dip into the red. J

The no internet is really getting to me lately. The Fray’s song “Vienna” is playing on my iPod right now, and the refrain is “There’s really no way to reach me, there’s really no way to reach me.” Well they should quit bitching cuz they probably have wireless internet. I remember feeling this way in Argentina my first days before we found a hostel with access…but I’ll live. You know, I guess there may be other things to do in Madrid than check my facebook profile and email account forty times a day.

Beatriz, our senora’s daughter, is great. She’s fluent, but any single word she says to me in English, her mom snaps at her, and says Bea, necesitan aprender español (they need to learn Spanish) to which she replies Dejáme mamá. It’s really cute.

So let’s take a group vote. Should I buy the damn wireless router here?
-cost: 80 euros (>$120) – that’s the linksys one, which is the one I’ve set up before and hopefully could do again.

-right now can use the internet anytime the daughter is not here, which is pretty much all day until 7 pm or 9 pm (then after that she does homework and we can’t use it)
-we don’t get done w/ our orientation sessions until 7:45 pm for the next three weeks
-calling the us during the morning would mean calling you guys between midnight and 5am
-could use locutorio but that costs 1.95 euro/ half hour – so $6/hr
Here’s my logic: I’ll probably use the locutorio for about a half hour/ night on average (maybe more if there’s school stuff I have to do)
$3/night x 30 nights = $90 for the month
Even if I cut that in half- do it e/o night, it’d be $45 for the month---
… I don’t know, either way I’m paying out the asshola

Wednesday Jan. 16th

It’s seven am here and I’ve been lying in bed for the last five hours trying to sleep, but totally wired. I was too cocky last night, thinking that one night of sleep would put me back on track. My body is confused. It feels kind of like when you’re in first grade and pretend to be sick, but you’re not really sick so you’re mom lets you stay at home, but you have to lay in bed all day, which your first-grade self realizes is more boring than being at school, where at least you get gym and recess. My senora made her office (despacho) into an extra bedroom for students so maybe I’m just haunted by all the books around me and the smell of leather…(I have many leather bound books and my office smells like rich mahogany…Lo- now I can legit say this) Whatever it is, I cannot sleep tonight for the life of me, which is awesome since I start a real mini-curse tomorrow. I bought sleeping pills at O’hare, but the guy I went to buy them with ended up with the remaining six pills in his backpack…otherwise right now I would really considered popping all of them.

I started really reading Eat, Love, Pray while I tried to fall asleep. I love it so far, and just finished the section where she finally allows herself to succumb to all the “pleasure” that Italy can offer. So what if I don’t sleep tonight? We stress out sooo much, us americanos, especially americanas. I can’t fall asleep, I tried, so I’ll read my book and write in my blog and who knows, maybe I’ll catch the first sunrise I’ve seen in sixteen years. Even though it’s already seven in the morning here, the city is still dark, and I think it stays dark until at least eight or nine. So I may have to just wait longer. Anyway, love the book, really timely read for me right now, and makes me want to eat pasta and pizza inmediatamente.

I have a list of things to do tomorrow, and on there is to shop for a new watch. As I lie in bed, I remember how I managed to go six weeks in Buenos Aires without buying one, and without the use of a cell phone as a time piece. I bought this little battery operated alarm clock for dirt cheap at a store on our street. And I literately threw it in my purse everyday, and on the subway, in restaurants, in shops, wherever I was, I would dig in my bag for the clock, which is tiny, but not that tiny, and check the time. Wow…what the hell was my problem? Why did I not just by a damn watch? I bring this all up now because my clock/makeshift watch is sitting on a lil table in my “office” right now, put back in use in Madrid. And we have been through quite a lot together now that I recall, and I think it deserves mention.

So I have nothing more to say. Dammit I guess I’ll try to sleep some more.

Spinning in Madrid

Finally had a quiet night to start a blog. I've been in Spain for over a month now. Moved from a family stay to my own apartment. Started classes in Madrid's largest university. And of course, had a few canas along the way.
I don't really feel like recapping the last month, but I will gradually work my way backwards.
I'm sitting on a leather couch with a leopard print blanket, that usually covers a large circular tear in the cushion. Now if that doesn't define "bachelor pad," I'm not sure what does. The television in front of my is larger than most bedrooms in the city, another sign that the piso I live in is owned by a young Spanish man. His name is Adolfo and he is 26. At the moment, he is eating a salad in the dining room to the right, wearing a robe from the Corte Ingles, which was a Valentine's day present from his girlfriend. When she gave him the gift, he realized he had nothing for her, so smoothly pointed to the bouquet of flowers that my parents sent me, slyly indicating that he had bought them for her. At least I know that wherever I go in the world, boys will be boys.
The piso is really actually quite clean and my bedroom is spacious. I like living here, and I like the roommates. The other guy is Mexican-American, Eduardo. We always speak Spanish so I've been learning a lot.
Tonight I went to a gym in Atocha to take a free trial spinning class. If you think group exercise instructors are obnoxious in your own language, just try listening to one screaming "Vamanos" and "Arriba" for forty-five minutes. But damn, it was a good workout. I've been pulling the free-pass move at different gyms around Madrid for the last two weeks, and I think I'll keep up with it for a while. It's kind of exciting.
Tomorrow I have class at 11:30 and 1:00, Intro to Social Sciences and Integration into the European Union. These classes are the ones I take with mostly Spanish students, but actually the second one is full of ERASMUS students, a European exchange program. I probably catch about 75-85% of what is said, maybe less if I'm being honest with myself, but hopefully that will get better!
Alright, computer battery about to die. I will write again soon.