First Week of Classes!

Hello again,

I always tell myself that I'm going to be good about doing things like writing daily about my life here... and/or blogging about it. But for some reason, I can always think of something I'd rather do. It's a personal resolution of sorts to stop.

Last week classes finally started. We started our 2nd week today. Thus, my life has been a little more mundane... but it is Madrid, so interesting things happen nonetheless.

Mondays and Wednesdays, I have a weird 4 hour break between classes. Today I was super tired, so I came back to the apt and had a nice 2 hour siesta. Teresa got a little worried because when she got home I hadn't eaten lunch and was sleeping... she thought my stomach was bothering me again... but as soon as I woke up I ate a hearty lunch :)

After I wasn't feeling well on my birthday, my stomach started seriously acting up because of the mixture of medicines I was taking. It sucked and Teresa got really worried about me because I wasn't really eating a lot. Thank goodness Dad was just an email away! I'm feeling more or less better now.

My morning classes on Mondays are Spanish and European Institutions followed by Spanish and European Law... these are the two classes I'm taking for Political Science credit, and so far so good. My profesora for Institutions is totally glamorous; she always has tons of jewelry and some crazy outfit, with her hair and makeup perfect - we always wonder what she'll be wearing. My profesora for Derecho (Law) has a voice like honey; she's super well-dressed too. Later, at 6 on Mondays I have Spanish Environment and Society (Medioambiente), which has some sweet field trips later in the semester. The profesor for this class is really cool - we all like him.

Last Monday, I took a siesta too, but not so long because Jaimee came over. She'd been wanting to cut her bangs and I happen to have texturizing scissors which help with that process. So we cut her bangs... but kinda messed up the original side-bang goal... instead she just went with the very Madridleno look - straight bangs. I was a little worried they weren't going to look good, because that afternoon they looked super choppy. But thank goodness the next day they looked great! Maybe I have a new calling to cut my friend's hair... not.

Tuesdays I have my other two classes: Spanish Language - I'm in the high advanced level, but that really just means I'm in the middle of intermediate and perfect - and Colloquial Spanish. Fatima is the teacher for both of them, which is really sweet because I already know her from before and she's totally cool. Colloquial is both hilarious and very useful for everyday use - plus Fatima doesn't mind swearing in Spanish or English :)

Last Tuesday, after buying some books for Institutions, I ate lunch in the cafeteria with the Emilys and California Emily invited me to go to Cadiz with her and Jaimee for Carnaval... I decided I really wanted to go, but had to ask. Later, after my siesta, I went out with Liz because I needed to return some stuff I bought on my birthday and she needed a different size. I realized I'd rather spend the 30€ on traveling than birthday clothes! We did some exploring in Sol a little too.

Wednesdays I have Derecho again in the morning, but then my break. So I decided I really wanted to go to the Retiro Park (think Central Park) since it was a really nice sunny day out. I walked around for about 2 hours, took pictures, did some people watching, marvelled at the amount of statues they could put in one park, etc. Then I went back for lunch and headed to Medioambiente. That night I watched about half of season one of Weeds since Audra was letting me borrow it for "my birthday."

Thursdays are my longest class days. I have Institutions in the morning, following by Language and then Colloquial. Liz was really excited because her host-cousin Miguel Angelo (like Michealangelo) was in town and he wanted to take us out. I was really excited because I finally got the OK to go to Cadiz and Palma Mallorca!

After dinner, I got ready and met Liz and Jaimee at El Jardin for some drinks. David told us about his new Italian roommate who doesn't speak English or Spanish, but came here to look for a job since she can't find one in Italy. Apparently the econonmic crisis is worse there than in Spain, but I'm still not sure why she thinks she has a better chance of finding a job in a country where she doesn't speak the language!
We met up with Miguel and his buddies, who wanted to head to a discoteca Joy, but it was only like 12, so we decided we were going to go to El Soberbia for a little while and meet up with them later. Emily and I shared a bottle of wine and we left around 2 to go meet up with David... I don't remember why we didn't head to Joy then. El Jardin was closing, so we headed to Sol y Sombra. Diego was there, and he gave me free drinks. We danced until it closed, and Diego said that he'd like to meet us at Joy, so his minion Amaudi was going to take us there for free.
Long story short, we didn't get into Joy for free, and the cover was 12 €, so we didn't go. Instead, Dan, Liz, Jaimee, and I sat in the San Ginez chocolateria for an hour and a half waiting for the metro. They ate chocolate con churros, but I didn't. We met Miguel and his friends when Joy closed. It was certianly an interesting night.

Friday afternoon I had to meet the girls who were organizing the Cadiz trip to pay for my fare in Sol. This was the first time that I saw prostitutes in Madrid, which surprised me since it was the middle of the afternoon. Later, I met up with Jaimee, her friends, and Liz in Retiro. We just laid in the sun for a while. It was great!! The first two weeks we were here, it was ridiculously rainy and cold, so we have been enjoying the recent sunshine!

Saturday we went to Cordoba and I didn't get back til 6am after going out on Sat, so I pretty much stayed in bed, watched the rest of Weeds, and did homework yesterday. More on Saturday later.

Food for thought:
What would I be doing if I was at Stetson right now? Probably eating dinner in the coms... lol.