voyaespana

Toolish subject, I know, but I claim boredom as an excuse. :P

Work is still going well, and I'm getting a lot more to do recently. The PR guy finally figured out that I'm a writer, so he's been letting me write the one-minute speeches that Jack gives to Congress each week. Because they're so short it's a real challenge to address everything, but I'm enjoying the work. Plus, it's pretty cool to know that something I'm writing is being read in the House of Representatives. :)

Going up to CT and NY two weekends ago for Kelly's birthday was VERY fun. The drive was hellish both ways (hitting the Cross Bronx Expressway at 5pm on a Friday is a GREAT way to get used to driving a stick ::sarcasm::) and the tolls were very expensive, but it was definitely worth the time. Kelly's town in CT, Wilton, is lovely and reminded me in many ways of Cashiers. Friday we went out
to dinner with Kelly's lovely parents and her sister, Blair, at a delicious Italian restaurant and then went out in Stamford with a bunch of Kelly's friends from high school. Saturday Kelly gave me a little tour of Wilton, Charlotte arrived from Wake, I met more of Kelly's fun friends and we hung out for a while by the pool.

That afternoon we drove into the city with Mrs. Fraser, had pizza at Blair's apartment and then headed to Second Nature, a really groovy bar that Kelly's parents rented out for the night. The party was a blast and it was so wonderful to see people from Wake who I hadn't seen since December, and even some girls who'd graduated two years ago! I hadn't realized that there's be so many KDs there from all over, so it was a wonderful surprise to see them!

The next morning we had a great buffet breakfast and then took a train back to CT. Pretty much as soon as we arrived back at Kelly's house I hopped in the car and began the 6+ hour drive back to DC (should have taken 5, took over 7 on the way up).

I was sick Monday and Tuesday of last week, but with Mom's help finally found a doctor and got some medicine. Yuck, being sick away from home is not fun.

Wednesday a group of interns went over to the White House for some kind of "special" tour. I was all excited until we got inside and I realized it was the same not-so-thrilling tour I took in high school. Oh well, it was fun to get out of the office and walk around some.

Thursday Savannah and I used one of the staffer's invitation to go to a reception at the Saudi Arabian embassy. They had absolutely amazing food and everyone was very nice. Afterwards the country's PR firm (it's rare for a country to have one, but I guess Saudi Arabia knows they may need one...) took a bunch of the people there out on their expense account, which of course was a good time.

Friday was Stephan, one of the intern's, last days so we had a little party for him and then went out for a bit after work. I went home to change, then stayed at Savannah's house again after a fun night out in Georgetown with one of the other interns, Billy, and some people he lives with in the GW dorms.

The next morning we went out on the boat again and took a long ride to a restaurant called Tim's 2" with two boatloads of people. The original Tim's is closer, but we all know that more time on the boat is always preferable. :) The food was wonderful and I once again I enjoyed Savannah's family.

I didn't do much the rest of the weekend because I wasn't quite well, but it was nice to relax after the crazy trip to NY and a busy few days.

Yesterday I was at work about long enough to give a tour, then all the interns and one of the staffers, Norah, headed over to the New Zealand embassy for a reception and tour. They showed us their beautiful building (it's won several architectural awards and includes a greenhouse type room with native rain forest plants) and all the Maori artwork it contains. We met with the Ambassador, who held a Q&A session and showed us a video on the country. Afterwards they served traditional Kiwi food, which was quite good. It was 5 by then, so we all just headed home. It's amazing what a difference that extra hour makes in terms of commuting and not feeling exhausted when I get home!

Today will be a short day. Jack's out of the office due to some family problems, so we're all released whenever we want to go. But it Monya, the Staff Assistant's birthday, so we're all hanging around for a big lunch that's planned for her before heading out.

So to summarize, DC = free food, fun receptions, shortened work days and visiting embassies. I like it. :D

That's about all that's going on right now, except the awful news that Attila's leave, which was originally scheduled for June 1st, now won't be till September 1st. I'm sad that I won't be able to show him DC, but as long as he's safe over there I really can't complain.

It's time for the b-day lunch so I'm off to eat, but I'll try to update sooner next time. I love you all!

Sorry it's been so long!

I'm in Arlington now, living outside of DC and working in the Rayburn Congressional building with Congressman Jack Kingston. So far I don't have a whole lot to do, but today was just the beginning of my second week and there are a lot of interns who are leaving soon, so I'm hoping that'll change eventually. Except for one guy who has an awful attitude and will most likely be fired fairly soon, I really like all the other interns (there are 10 in all, but some only come in once a week). One of our main responsibilities is giving tours of the Capital to visiting constituents, which I really enjoy. I often thought when I was abroad that there wasn't much in the US to compare with the history and beauty of most European cities, but DC is proving me wrong.

My first weekend here was really fun. The commute is a pain (takes me a total of 3 hrs a day), so Friday I went home with the intern I've become closest to, Savannah, and we changed and then went out in Georgetown. The next morning we went out in her parent's boat (they live in Woodbridge) and then met up again later that night in Old Town, a beautiful and hip section of Alexandria. There's a really fun Irish bar there, called Murphy's, which has two great singers who get the whole place yelling traditional tunes and clapping.

Before coming up to DC I spent a few nice days at home learning how to drive my new car, un-packing for Spain and re-packing for Arlington, taking morning walks with Mom and catching up with friends from home. On my way up to DC I swung through Atlanta (to see Lauren and Cat) and Wake. In Atlanta I stayed with Cat and loved spending time with her and Lauren. Thursday night we even go to go to WE's "Single in the City" premier party because Lauren's boss was part of the show. Friday Lauren and I went shopping and then hung out in Little 5 with Cat after she got off work. It was so nice to see them!!! Saturday I drove to Wake and stayed with Ebo and Natasha. I also got to see Weitnauer, Chariest, Blythe, Jessica and Anna (who I'll hopefully get to see later this summer in DC)! Sunday I drove up to DC which, due to a long up-hill traffic jam, was great practice driving stick.

The house here is very cute and I have a nice, blue, reasonably sized room in the basement with its own interior bathroom. There's a big kitchen and common room down here, too. An older woman owns the house and lives on the 1st floor with her annoying dog. Another girl (who's been here for 5 years...odd) lives in the basement with me and two more girls live on the 2nd floor. I rarely see the girl on my floor, but the girls upstairs, Catherine and Natasha (who's from Moldavia) are really nice. We were all cooking at the same time tonight and decided to have a pizza and movie night on Thursday because we're all normally busy during the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend...this Saturday is Kelly's 21st birthday and she's renting out a club in Manhattan, so I'm driving up there Friday to go. I can't wait to see her and a bunch of other Wake people at the party! :D

Let's see, what other news do I have....well, Attila is just fine and should have his 2 weeks leave sometime this summer, hopefully in late-July or early-August. I haven't seen him since I left for Madrid in January, so I'm really looking forward to his visit! :D

I think that's about all for now, but I'll try to update again before I go to NY. I still need to write about going to Switzerland with Catherine, to Belgium with my Politics class, to Bilbao, San Sebastian and Pamplona with my parents, to Alicante and Barcelona with Nicole, Maxim and Travis (I miss you all) and to visit friends in Paris, but for now I'll just recommend looking at my pictures.

I miss everyone, please let me know if you'll be in the DC area, or even remotely nearby!

Well, I'm flying from Berlin to Paris right now, so I thought I'd take the chance to update, even though I probably won't be able to post this until Monday or even Tuesday, once I'm back in the US.

Berlin was fabulous! As planned, I went to the free Berlin tour Thursday while Niki was in class. We met up at Dunkin Donuts in Zoologischer Garten at 12:30, then took the train with the few people who were there to Pariser platz, where the Brandenburg gate is. Our guide was Dan, an actor from Northern Ireland who also led the tours the two people who'd recommended the tour to me had taken. He wore a red beret, so that he was easy to spot and also, I think, to suite a dramatic personality. We walked all over Berlin (look at pics for details) and his passionate stories and histories made it a really entertaining day. To finish the tour off he performed a 30-minute monologue in front of the Berlin Cathedral that chronicled the accidental announcement of the opening of the Berlin Wall and included enough shouting, falling down and gesturing that our tour was joined by at least 10 curious onlookers who were drawn into the drama.

Afterwards I met Niki back at Zoologischer Garten and we wandered around that area for a while. We swung by the grocery store and her apartment before taking the bus to Amanda's flat, where she made us a wonderful spaghetti dinner. Amanda began corresponding with a girl from Munich, Batina, when they were both about 11- or 12-years old. They both signed up for a pen pal in their language classes and have been good friends since then. Batina first visited Amanda in Oxford when they were 13 or so, and since then she's returned at least once a year. She finished school last year and now she's applying to take courses in English in the UK. All being slight language nerds, we spent much of the evening discussing American/English language differences and helping Batina with a new draft of the personal statement she has to submit with her application.

Today I stayed around the apartment while Niki went to class from 10 – 12, then she met me there and we went to Potsdamer Platz, where we saw the world's first stop light and they've recently build the impressive Sony Center. It's huge, very open and full of glass, and houses a movie theatre, restaurants, offices, shops and apartments. Niki and I ate lunch outside and watched some acrobatic performances. They're holding a huge convention in Berlin right now for acrobats from all over the country so there are giggly girls swarming all over the city and this was the second time I was subjected to their silly costumes, pumping music and admittedly impressive routines (a stage across town provided a soundtrack for tour guide Dan's finale). We took the train from there to a main commercial street, Friedrichstraße, then caught another train to the Berlin Wall memorial. It's probably best explained through pictures, but I'll give it a shot. From the West side the wall is along the street and you can walk right up to it. A small section has been left standing and there are panels of stainless steal that run from the Western side several hundred yards into the East. Walking around the East, you can see a shorter concrete wall with small slats where the slabs are joined. Peering through the slates you can see a large, barren area of sand and metal obstacles that's illuminated at night by large street lights. This area is the no-man's-land that kept Eastern Berliners from approaching the wall and killed the majority of the desperate individuals who tried. An observation tower across the street from the West side allows you to see into the no-man's-land and observe the city split from above. Even after walking all over the town and seeing the double-cobblestone lines that indicates where the mauer (one of my new German words) used to be, this monument hit me the hardest and really made me realize what it would be like to suddenly find yourself living in a city split in two by guards, barbed wire, concrete and angry dogs.

From the wall monument we hustled back to Niki's U-ban stop, grabbed my things and headed to the train station. I said bye to Niki – who's very lucky and still has 2 more months to play in Europe – and about 45 minutes later was outside of the massive city and in the airport. Now I'm on my way to France and so excited to explore Paris and spend time with Esme and Martin! :D

Once again, I had an amazing time in Hungary! The trip started off fairly insanely; I shared the plane to Budapest with over 20 British guys headed to Budapest to do a “Stag” weekend. Apparently they take bachelor’s parties to the extreme and do long-weekend trips involving rules and points. I guess one goal was to drink all the alcohol on the plane during the 2 ½ hour flight, a goal they accomplished about 2 hours in. They then proceeded to serenade the whole plane from the speaker system, harass the flight attendants and evoke repeated reprimands from the pilot. So that was rather entertaining.

I was so excited to see Dorottya, who met me at the airport! We drove to her friend Matya’s flat in Pest and changed there before heading out to dinner with a bunch of their friends, many of whom I’d met in March. Afterwards we returned to Soho London, which was a great time as usual.

The next morning (okay, afternoon) Dorka and I met up with her friend Esther to shop at Zara for a while, then hopped in the car and headed to Szentendre, where Attila’s family lived for most of his life. Dorka has also spent a lot of time there, because she used to spend the summers with them. The drive was gorgeous and made me really glad that I was able to return to Hungary during the summer months.

Attila has often said that Savannah reminds him in some ways of Szentendre, and when we got there I could see why. It sits just along a curve in the Danube and is a beautiful small town full of winding cobblestone streets, small artists’ shops and outdoor restaurants. We visited the restaurant and the hotel Attila’s parents used to own and a spectacular marzipan museum (look at my pictures!). After Szentendre we drove to Visegrad castle, which was wonderful! The views from the top were spectacular, much of the castle was preserved and there were great exhibits inside.

We’d driven pretty far northeast of Budapest, so it took a while to drive back to Székesfehérvár, where Dorka lives, which is southwest of Budapest. The drive was so beautiful: the green, luscious countryside rivaled Switzerland and País Vasco, in Spain. Once we arrived we did a quick turnaround and headed to a barbeque at Matya’s house. We had a great dinner and I even found someone to speak Spanish to! After the party we headed to a club and danced there for a while. The Hungarians certainly know how to make a party! That night (and the next three) we stayed at Dorka’s house in Székesfehérvár.

Sunday we slept a little later, then went to lunch at Attila’s uncle Istvan’s house, in the country a bit outside of Székesfehérvár. We picked up Attila’s grandmother on the way; it was really nice to see her again. Lunch was wonderful and of course, because this was in Hungary, there was a lot of it! We ate outside and, because Istvan is a horticulturist, were able to enjoy his lovely garden. We had a good time looking at pictures and playing with 5 kittens their cat had about a month before.

In the afternoon Dorka and I drove with Istvan’s two daughters to a nearby lake. We sat by the lake for a while, then drove up to a nice overlook. We returned to the house for a little while after that, then headed back into the city. That night we had a light dinner at Dorka’s house, then watched “50 First Dates” and ended up both crashing on the couch for the night.

Monday was a national holiday, so everyone was free from work for the day. We drove to Veszprém with Dorka’s mother and her boyfriend, where we saw another nice castle. We then drove to the Tihany peninsula on Lake Balaton, where there is an old monastery with a great museum. Then we went to another Balaton town, Balatonfured, where we walked along the water and ate tasty langos, a fried dough with sour cream, cheese and garlic on top.

When we returned to Székesfehérvár, Dorka and I went to dinner at her and Attila’s grandmother’s house. As usual, her cooking was phenomenal and we enjoyed chatting through Dorka. However, it was sad; she really misses her daughter, Attila and his brother, so it’s bittersweet for her to see me. Afterwards Dorka and I walked around the downtown. I’d been to the town both trips, so it was nice to finally see the beautiful center of the town.

The next morning was sad. :( We got up early and I caught an 8am bus to Budapest. It arrived around 9:30 and Matya met me at the bus station at 10 and drove me to the airport to catch my flight, which was a little after 1. I’m really fond of everyone there and greatly enjoy spending time with them, so it was sad to say goodbye. Dorka especially has become a good friend and I spend pretty much 100% of the time with her, so it wasn’t funny (as she’d say) to say our goodbyes. I’m hoping that despite the great distance we’ll get to see each other again soon.

Besides some turbulence my flight to Berlin was uneventful. I made my way to Niki’s apartment and met her friend Cami, who gave me her room key. I checked my email and talked to Attila, then got dinner with Cami, who’s a fairly bizarre grad student, at the diner below the apartment building.

Today I was a total bum. I was going to go on a 4 hour free tour I’d heard a lot of people raving about, but I needed to be back here around 5:30 to meet Niki, so I instead decided to sleep until I woke up, watch movies, and only ventured out to walk around for a bit, grab lunch (doner!) and get some flowers to thank Niki for letting me stay with her. Niki arrived around 6:30 and we shortly went out to dinner with her British friend, Amanda, at a great place nearby where we all had really good wienerschnitzel.

Now we’re back in her room, just looking at picture and catching up. Tomorrow I think I’m going to do the 4 hour free tour and finally see some of the town! The trip is going very well and although I’m sad to leave Europe I think this is a great way to go.

Well, I'm afraid I've really let the journal slip recently. Right now I'm in London's Luton airport, waiting for my flight to Budapest. I'm going to spend 4 nights there with Attila's family. His cousin, Dorottya, hasn't fully filled me in on what we're doing yet, but I think we're spending tonight in Budapest at her friend Matya's apartment (where Max, Kelly and I stayed in March during our Spring Break trip) and then also visiting her parents and going to Hungary's beach, which is at Lake Balaton.

Tuesday I'm flying to Berlin, where one of my friends from Wake, Niki, has been living for a year. She won't be there till Wednesday afternoon, but she's been nice enough to leave a key for me so I can stay at her apartment even the first night. After 3 nights there I'm flying to Paris, where I'll be from Friday until Monday. Monday I'm returning to Madrid. I'll spend the night there, with the family I've been living with all semester, then catch an early flight back to the US.

I'm really sad to be leaving Spain and Europe in general; besides having many wonderful memories, I've made some amazing friends here. Knowing that I may never get to spend time with them again like I have been this past semester breaks my heart. But, I know that we'll keep in touch and I will go visit everyone at SLU next year (I promise!!!).

I also have a few additional reasons to be excited about going home, besides getting to see everyone. First of all, I'll be living in DC this summer. I was hoping to work at the Washington Post and with Congressman Jack Kingston, but now it looks like only congress is going to work out. I can't complain, though; I would have loved to work at the Post but working on the Hill should be fabulous (although I have to take out my nose piercing for work, boo). Just yesterday I settled on an apartment in Arlington. It's in a nice residential neighborhood and I'll be sharing the house with the owner, Barbara, who's older and has a dog, and two female Georgetown graduate students, one of whom is visiting for the summer from the Ukraine. I'm driving up there in early June, at least by June 6th, which will be my first day in Jack's office.

Part of what will determine when I get to go will be when Attila gets leave. He's asked to come on June 1st, but there's one other guy who wants that slot, too, so he won't know till the end of next week if it's his or not. If he can come then I'll go up to DC (where he'll fly in) by the 1st and we'll hopefully be going out to LA to stay with his friend, Brian, and meet up with his parents. Then, we'd get to meet up with my parents at the cabin the next weekend and go to a Smith family reunion in Cashiers, near the cabin. So, cross your fingers that he can come then!

All this driving will be possible, despite the fact that I sold my car before coming here, because...I have a new car! Well, it's not completely bought yet, but my dad emailed just this morning to tell me that he has made a "verbal contract" on a 2004 Mazda3 in Charlotte and he and my mom are going to get it on their way up to the cabin today. It's silver, manual and only has 7,500 miles on it...whooo, I'm so excited!!!

I'm going to go check in for my flight now...because I'm flying EasyJet I had to collect my luggage and then check back in again. It's kind of ghetto but the flights are really cheap (for examples, Budapest to Berlin is 17 euros total) and the staff people are normally really nice. Today there was a British guy who kept trying to speak Spanish over the microphone and anyone who understood was just dying laughing because his Spanish was so poor but he had such a great attitude about it. At the end everyone clapped for him after he finished his 3rd or 4th announcement. I'm off! I'll update more during my next 3 solo flights and while I'm lounging around Berlin waiting for Niki to arrive. Hopefully I'll even get around to updating from the four most resent trips I've taken: Belgium, Switzerland, Northern Spain (Bilbao, San Sebastian and Pamplona) with my parents and the long, final trip to Alicante and Barcelona.

So it's been a while...apologies.

Last Friday night we celebrated my 21st birthday, which was of course a good time. Before hand Kelly, Nicole and I went down to Sol to watch one of the many religious processions. The one we saw was gorgeous (see pics) and a momentous occasion because it was the first time that women have been allowed to carry the religious float. Afterwards we grabbed dinner, went to O'Connell's for a while, then hung out at James' apartment.

Saturday I bummed around the house, planned the trip my parents and I are taking to northern Spain and did work until after dinner, when a bunch of us went to a late Easter Vigil with James' parents. It was nice and reminded me of home to go to a church service with parents. The church we went to is the largest in Madrid and is where all the members of the royal family are married. Although the service began at 11 we had to leave only half way through, around 1am, to catch the metro home.

Easter Sunday Kelly, Nicole and I went to El Rastro, Madrid's huge outdoor flea market. The vendors had pretty much everything and covered several miles of streets and plazas. We got there early, around 10am, and it wasn't too full but by the time we left the stalls were swelling with a growing sea of people. Needless to say, the market is a pick pocket's heaven; some guy had his hand in Nicole's bag but Kelly swatted him away. After the market Nicole and I walked over to Anton Martin and got doner kebap (kind of like a gyro), then walked down to Retiro park and spent a good amount of the afternoon there. Then we walked all over the city and up to Malasana (the area that's like Little 5 in ATL) because Nicole had never been before.

Monday we didn't have class till 2 because of the Easter holiday, but I went in at noon anyway to meet with Terhi, a Finnish girl who I did the Poli Sci project with. She's really sweet and is becoming a good friend. Classes and teaching English were fine as usual.

Tuesday was my birthday, which was great after I finished my Poli Sci paper and presentation that morning. In addition to lots of cards and emails from friends and family, the family I'm living with even gave me a gift and card at breakfast! At lunch my friends here had a surprise cake waiting for me and later on I got a huge bouquet of yellow tulips and a bear from Attila. That night a lot of people had work, but Nicole and I hung out at La Via Lactea, a cool little punk bar in Malasana. Needless to say, I feel very loved and blessed to have such amazing family and friends, even if I don't really feel any older. :D

Wednesday morning Nicole, Glen and I took Maxim's girlfriend, Katie, to the park before class. She's visiting for the week and didn't have anything to do because Max had class, so we said we'd entertain her. I had my laptop with me for one of my classes so we ended up watching "Family Guy" in the park. Pretty blatant American behavior, but fun anyway.

Thursday night Glen had a great party at his apartment after we all hung out at Enrique's for a while. He lives with a senora, but actually has a separate apartment that he shares with her two grown children, a guy and a girl. The girl has a studio there and the senora's husband has his doctor's office in the apartment, also. So, we had a fun little party in the waiting room. :)

Friday Nicole, James, Glen and I went to Retiro for most of the day. We ran into Maxim and Katie and Nicole and I even jumped into a rowboat for a while with some other SLU kids. After dinner James, Nicole, Kelly and I went to see a movie called "American Splendor" at the original version theater around the corner. It was a really unique film about the comic artist Harvey Pekar, who writes about life from a pessimistic perspective and is best known for his graphic novel, "Our Cancer Years," which he wrote with his wife about their battle against his cancer. I believe it was originally released in 2003. The director mixed comic media and the actual people the movie is about in well with normal shots of actors.

Saturday I got up early and went spelunking with a group from SLU! It was an amazing experience. Unlike I'd thought it would be, the cave wasn't at all icky or full of yucky crawly things; the walls were smooth and everything was rock or smooth clay. We didn't even see any bats! My knees and back took a beating, but I'm so glad I went. We squeezed through impossibly small spots and even went through one tiny, tiny passage called "Claustrophobia" without lights! I think at one point or another every person had a moment of panic when they thought they'd never work their body through a turn, but we all made it. It was kind of like playing in a huge, dark, child-sized, muddy McDonald's playplace in the middle of a mountain. So, clearly, I loved it. :D

Yesterday we wanted to go to Retiro but it was kind of rainy and gross all day. I had a take-home test to do for my Shakespeare class and also spent a good amount of time looking for apartments in the DC metro area. I won't hear about the washingtonpost.com internship till the middle of next week, but I want to know what my options are and be ready to go if the news is good. Since Retiro didn't work last night Nicole, Glen and I went to the moroccan tea place after dinner and hung out for a few hours with our friend there, Adal, whom we hadn't seen for a few weeks.

Today Retiro was yet again spoiled by bad weather so I'm just waiting around till it's time to go to school for Salami Club and class. Tonight I have English class, as usual, then I need to start studying for an Anthropology test I have Wednesday. Our second round of midterms are coming up. :(

It's going to be a short week, at least...Wednesday I'm leaving for a trip with my Poli Sci class to Belgium. We're visiting the EU capitol in Brussels, where we'll meet with the VP of the EU and several delegates, beer and chocolate factories, Gent, Bruge and one other town, which I can't remember. It should be a good time and after two weekends at home it'll be nice to be on the road (or in the air) again.

Oh, exciting news...I should be home May 24th and Attila's leave is probably going to start June 1st, just a week later!!! :D

That's all for now, I hope you're all doing well!

Well it's another lovely spring day in Madrid but alas I'm working on a Poli. Sci. paper about the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. I have to fit 10 cited sources in 750 words...what?!

Last night was fun...I was feeling better so I went out with the normal gang plus James' parents, who are in town for a week or so. As expected, James' parents were very nice and had great senses of humor. I don't know what it was called, but we went to a really cool sangria bar in Sol that was full of cubist and impressionist art. It was a few levels below the street and there were quotes written all over the arched walls. We got there before 11 and it was starting to get full. When we left around 1:00 there was a line of people waiting up the stairs and outside. Afterwards James' parents let us check out their hotel room, because both Kelly and I are on the look-out for places for our parents to stay. It was very nice, in a great location and had a HUGE balcony, so I think I'm going to get my parents to stay there.

Apparently today has been declared my official 21st b-day celebration, since Tuesday is just way too far away and we're all going to have a lot of work. Later on this afternoon I going to go down to Sol with Nicole to check out the religious processions. They were on the news last night during dinner and looked amazing. Then, after dinner we're going to Enrique's, then who knows...

Alright, my procrastination is over for the moment. :)

Well, not too much is going on here, but I'm sick so I'm kind of bored and thought updating might amuse me. I'm not sure what's wrong...my throat hurts like crazy and I feel like I've had a low-grade fever for about 24 hours, but I don't have a thermometer so I'm not sure. I hoping that it'll break tonight and I'll feel better tomorrow. Because of Holy Week (Semana Santa) I don't have class tomorrow, so I'd like to spend my free time out of bed and out of the house!

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but right now there are 2 Austrian girls living in the apartment. They're here for some kind of immersion program for a few weeks. The girls are sleeping in Teresa and Jesus' bedroom, so Teresa is sleeping in her daughter Alba's room and Jesus is staying with neighbors. The girls are about my age, maybe a little older, and have been here since the beginning of March (they arrived while Kelly and I were away for Spring Break). I don't see them much because we have opposite schedules, but we've eaten dinner together a few times and they're very nice. They don't speak barely any Spanish but they do speak a little English, so we can talk together fairly well. They're leaving early tomorrow afternoon, so I figured it'd be good to mention them before they're gone.

Despite not feeling well, three good things happened today: first of all, Kelly told me that there's a bus right at our corner that goes to school. I normally like walking, but since I'm not feeling well it was nice to take it. Secondly, Attila's cousin Dorottya and my friend Niki both emailed me back and said the dates I wanted to visit were great, so I've bought tickets for the Budapest and Berlin parts of my post-exams trip! Finally, I brought my computer to school and Glen brought the first season of "Family Guy" so he, Nicole and I (along with random people looking over our shoulders) watched that for several hours in-between classes on the couch in the snack bar. Considering I didn't really feel like being at school it was a good compromise.

This weekend should be interesting, especially since Spain is an overwhelmingly Catholic country. There are lots of processions and parades that pass through the city, so I'm going to try to track them down tomorrow and check a few out. I'd also like to visit the major art museums and I need to plan out the trip my parents and I will take to northern Spain when they visit at the end of April.

Interview tomorrow...cross your fingers for me being in DC this summer!

Since it's past midnight here...5 more days till 21!!! :D

I LOVE Amsterdam! Definitely one of my favorite cities so far, and one I could even imagine living in. There is, of course, water everywhere, the houses are gorgeous, the people are friendly, everyone rides bikes, there are lots of flowers... ::sigh:: what more could I want?

I guess the only bad part about the Amsterdam trip was that our flight out of Madrid was delayed about 45 minutes, which put us just over the edge of getting in late enough that we didn't have much energy to explore until Friday morning. Also, I'd have to say that Iberia airlines is the worst, EVER. They don't give you drinks for free, they made us store our small purses in the overhead compartment b/c we were in the emergency row and they play funky music while taxing. Not cool.

We had to take a train from the airport to town, then walk to the hostel. I managed to almost run into one of the city's many, many bikers while crossing the street, which I felt was a fitting welcome to the city. We spent all three nights at Bob's Hostel, which had a great and friendly reception room and a breakfast that included two eggs!!! For those of you who don't know, most hostels give you a roll or two. Our beds (in a shared dorm style room) were in a separate, slightly sketchier building with a key code to get in. It was alright, but not the safest or most comfortable I've felt in a hostel.

We were tired, but Thurs. night my wonderful travel buddy (and penguin enthusiast) Nicole and I did stroll around our neighborhood a little bit and also managed to grab the first of many servings of Amsterdam's famous chips and mayonnaise.

I also remembered Thurs night that a woman who used to watch me when my parents were out of town and who was amazingly fun was living in Amsterdam a few years ago. I emailed her Friday, but she wrote back and said that she's in Conn. now. I was sad I didn't get to see her, but it's fun to be back in touch. :)

Friday Nicole and I walked down to the main square (Dam square) and checked out the Palace, national monument and surrounding streets. Later in the afternoon we took a great canal ride (only 6 euros!) that took us through most of the city. One of the highlights of the day was finding a robot man, just like the one out of "Eurotrip!" (see pics). We continued to roam around town, then spent a while searching for a restaurant called Pannekoekhuis Upstairs, which was hard to find because it's just a tiny door down a small street that goes up the normal, steep Netherlands stairs to a tiny room that only seats about 10 people. There was a cute old guy in a kitchen that was open to the room and took up about half of it who just took your orders by asking across the little room. We split two pancakes, one with bacon and apples and the other with bananas and honey. Sooo good!

Nicole had heard that Amsterdam had a good music scene and we both really miss going to shows so we'd looked online in Madrid and found out that a band called Delavega was playing at the biggest venue, Paradisco. We searched for them online and saw that a band of the same name had been on Warped Tour '04 and was compared to 311 and Sublime. Sounded great, so we got tickets earlier in the day and headed over to see the concert. We were a bit surprised to see that no one was at the venue when the doors opened except about 6 or 7 older people, but didn't really think anything of it until the band (fronted by a girl) began playing. They had awful lyrics, were Dutch, think that an encore means re-playing a bad song you're already played and apparently share their name with an American group that rocks. Needless to say, not quite the show we were hoping for. Afterwards we took a tram back because we were pretty far south and headed to bed.

Saturday was the day of museums. We started out at Anne Franks' house, which was pretty near our hostel. Even at 10 am there was a line wrapped around the corner, but it was definitely worth waiting, even though it was sprinkling a little. The exhibits were great and it was very interesting to see the house, especially since I've read the book and seen the movie and play.

Afterwards we grabbed a great and cheap lunch at a neat place called Nelsons, then walked down to the Van Gogh museum, which was an awful disappointment. It was expensive (10 euros), not very large and didn't have barely any of Van Gogh's major works. It's sad that I can honestly say the only really cool part was that you could send video messages by email for free from the lobby (Nicole and I sent a message we made together to our boyfriends. :D)

The museum was south of Paradisco, so we took our time walking back north towards our part of town. It seems that every bit of the city is lovely, so it was fun to just walk from canal to canal. Along the way we even managed to track down Dampkring, a coffeeshop where they filmed a lot of scenes from Ocean's 12.

We were both pretty tired after walking so much in two days, so we stuck close to home Saturday night and hung out for a little while at a bar underneath our hostel called "The Doors" (after the band) that was full of classic rock paraphernalia and played excellent music.

Sunday our flight was at noon, so there was just time to grab breakfast before taking the train to the airport and headed home to Madrid. More funky music, no drinks and mean flight attendants. I'm so glad the rest of my flying trips are planned and I'm not going with Iberia again!

It was nice to get home fairly early in the day Sunday so I could nap before jumping into homework mood. Madrid is good, and still getting warmer. There are cherry trees blossoming on all the streets and leaves are beginning to shoot out of the dark branches. I'm excited to see the seasons change, especially after so much time in the snow over spring break.

Monday I didn't have my English lesson because the kids didn't have school, so I had time to plan out travel after exams. I'm hoping to visit Dorka in Budapest, Niki in Berlin and then some family friends in Paris before heading back to the US May 24. I still need to buy tickets, etc. but it looks like it's going to work out. :)

This Thursday I'm interviewing for an internship with the Washington Post, so I'm hoping that goes well. I'd love to live in DC for the summer and it'd be a great experience.

One wonderful thing is that I've been able to talk to Attila a lot recently. They've just gotten internet in the barracks, so I can talk to him pretty much whenever I want now!!!!!! :D Also, his leave has been moved up, so he should be back in the US for two weeks starting May 31, just about a week after I get home! :D

That's about all for now...I'll be here the next two weekends and we only have class Mon - Wed this week, so I'm looking forward to catching up on sleep and school work.

I hope everyone is well and that all of you in the south aren't too hot!

PS - Only a week till my 21st birthday!!!

First of all, can I just say that it is GORGEOUS in Madrid. Finally, the city is living up to its reputation as the sunniest city in Europe! :)

Alright, spring break...Wow, where to start. Well, Kelly, Max and I flew out Saturday afternoon (the 5th) for Vienna. We flew on Alitalia which was great because it meant we got good food and flew through Milan (which I'm counting as having been to Italy, even though I'll go back and do it right later).

When we arrived in Vienna we got the stupid money wasting part of the trip over with right away by misunderstanding that a taxi into town would be 3 €, half the price of a bus. Turns out instead it was 12 €, twice the price of the bus. Ah well, live and learn...and never expect a taxi to be cheaper than a bus! (We could have gone to Bratislava f/the airport for 9 €, which was tempting, be we resisted.)

We couldn't find our hostel right away, but ran into some helpful Spaniards (they're everywhere) who pointed us in the right direction. Westend City hostel was pretty nice, which was great considering we spend 4 nights there in all. There was a good common room and the beds were REALLY comfortable. Breakfast was good and unlimited and the staff was really nice and helpful.

Sunday we'd wanted to see the Vienna Boy's Choir, but got too late of a start to make it. We basically spent the whole day walking to all the major sites in Vienna and stopping in Starbucks and McDonalds when we needed to warm up or rest (American, I know, but they're warm, welcoming places that don't require you to buy anything). As usual, cards provided indispensable to pass time while we waited for our hands to thaw. We walked for about 9 hours total, so I won't list everything we saw here...if you're interested check out my pictures.

One thing that was very neat, however, was the Vienna Ice Festival, which is held in front of the impressive Rathaus. Rathauspark had not only a huge central ice rink, but there were also paths carved all throughout the park and lots of cute kids using these clever penguin things to help them skate (see pics).

We spent the whole trip in dorm style hostel rooms, so we were often sharing with several other people. This wasn't ever a problem except Sunday night, when two of the guys in our room snored allll night. I'm not talking about normal snoring, either. This was Olympic snoring, which involved them competing to see who could be the loudest and often harmonizing on especially loud notes. Even worse, one of the guys talked in his sleep, too. This may be ethnocentric, but I've always thought German was a really ridiculous sounding language. However, when this big guy was yelling things in German in his sleep it was downright scary!

So Monday, after a great night of sleep (sarcasm), Kelly and I took a train around 8am to Salzburg, which is southwest of Vienna and only about 2 km from the German border. The ride was long (3 hours), but the country was beautiful and we enjoyed talking to the other people we were riding with. The trains in Austria were wonderful (especially compared to ones we later took in the Czech Rep. and Hungary) and everyone was very friendly.

Salzburg was an adorable little town where we were able to tour Mozart's birthplace and see where he lived later in his life. "The Sound of Music" was filmed there, but we weren't quite sure what was in the movie because it hasn't been used too much as a tourist attraction, which was refreshing.

I'd have to say the highlight of Salzburg (besides some great sausages and HUGE chocolate covered pretzels) was Festung Hohensalzburg, a fortress that overlooks the city from Mönchsberg hill. It was built between 1077 and 1681 and is the largest completely preserved castle in Europe, mostly because it's never been successfully attacked. A reasonable ticket got us a fun ride up the funicular and entrance to several different museums with audio tours.

On the way back to the train station we also visited Mirabell Palace, which an archbishop (supposedly celibate) built for his mistresses and 10 children in 1606. As you can imagine the gardens weren't so cool in the snow, but it was a lovely building that really looked like it'd been built with kids in mind. Now they've turned some of the lower rooms into a library for children and have events for them in the gardens throughout the summer.

Tuesday we walked the Shloβ Schönbrunn, the summer palace and roamed around the immense gardens for hours. It was interesting to see them in the winter because many of the fountains were partially frozen and lots of things (such as the rose garden) were covered for the winter. The gardens are so large that they even have a zoo (something we realized when I happened to glance up and spot a lion). I'd have to say despite the gorgeous and massive palace and the gardens my favorite part was making my first real snowman! :)

After the palace we returned to the hostel to warm up, then Max and I set out for the hike to Mozart's grave, far far away from the main part of town. Kelly didn't want to walk the whole way, which was wise considering we marched there and back at a quick pace and it took us about 45 mins. each way. Still, I'm glad we did it. The grave was a nice isolated, peaceful break from all the huge buildings and tourists.

Before catching our overnight train to Prague we were able to catch the first half of "La Favorite," a French opera by Donizetti about Spain, at Vienna's main opera hall, the Staatsoper. There were great standing places available for only 3.50 €. It was interesting to see the production, especially in the amazing hall, but at times it was a little tiresome when the translate of a 10 minute aria was, "What are you saying?" or "That can't be true!"

The overnight train was fine, although we were in 2nd class so the sleeping arrangements weren't ideal. Max slept on the floor and big Slovakian and Czech guys were constantly waking us up to stamp our passports as we crossed borders.

We were supposed to arrive in Prague at 5:30am, so when the train stopped for a long time around 4am we weren't sure what was going on, but we never dreamed we could be in Prague (especially since there weren't any signs outside to indicate we were). Well, about 10 minutes after we left that station a guy came to check our ticket and informed us that we'd just left Prague. Oops. Although we couldn't find a common language the man was very nice and somehow communicated to us that we'd just need to get off at the next station, Beroun (lovely this time of year, esp. around 4:30 in the morning...) and then catch a train back into Prague. We of course hadn't had a chance to change any money over into koruny, but he took our euros and it was only 5 € each. I'd have to say that the humor and drama of the situation, riding the train back into Prague with lots of commuters and seeing the city at dawn was worth 5 €.

Prague was lovely from the moment we got off the train, but we luckily were able to check into our hostel and sleep for a few more hours before exploring (part of why I love hostels...they'll let you check in at 6am). When we got up again around 10 we walked all over the town, through Staré Město (old town) where we watched a gorgeous astronomical clock strike noon. We then walked through Josefov, the oldest Jewish settlement in Central Europe (Hitler preserved it b/c he wanted it to be a "museum to an extinct race") and across the river to Prague Castle, Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and St. Vitus's Cathedral.

This side of the river, by the way, was the site of the second amazing British moment of my time abroad, neither of which actually occurred in the UK. The first, of course, was the woman in Portugal who asked her friend while climbing up the wall of the castle: "Do you remember when I got stuck at the top of St. Paul's Cathedral? ... I've never been the same...I just froze!" Prague added this lovely exchange to the collection: while overlooking the city a woman (who was not lost) commented, "Well we're in a new place now; this isn't where we were before," to which her husband responded, "Well that's just it, isn't it?"

Headed back from the castle we ran into some students from SLU who introduced us to the amazing "Euro Dog," a chain of stands around the city that offer hotdogs stuffed into a baguette with ketchup or mustard for 15 koruny (about .50 €). They also informed us that the main feature of Bratislava, where they'd just been, was a Little Caesar’s pizza. After leaving them we walked back to our side of the river on Charles Bridge (Karlův Most), Prague's most famous bridge and landmark.

After resting at the hostel for a while and talking to the other travelers there, writing postcards, eating Easter bunnies in the cool two-floor, underground grocery store across the street from Apple Hostel with Max while Kelly napped and grabbing dinner we set back out to see Prague at dusk. As the sun set the city began to glow with a cheery yellow light that make Prague without a doubt the most photogenic city we visited (see pics!). We stopped in at a very cool cellar bar called Kozička (little goat) for a little while, then turned in early.

Thursday was our first really sunny day of the trip and was especially wonderful after the wind and chill of Vienna. We walked south into Nové Město (new town) and wandered around Wenceslas Square, which has witnessed the most dramatic events in Czech history (Hitler's invasion, Velvet Revolution, etc). After wandering towards the water and seeing the Dancing House (designed by Frank Gehry, who also did the Guggenheim-Bilbao) we came back to the Square and Kelly and I checked out the Museum of Communism. It was surreal to emerge from the museum into the same streets and plazas where I'd seen people being beaten by riot control police in videos just minutes before.

Our train to Budapest wasn't until about 11:30pm, so we bummed around the town a while more, visited Charle's bridge one last time, played cards in a funky tea shop and made pizza in the oven at the hostel before we headed to the station. While we were walking back to the hostel to make dinner we stopped to listen to some talented street musicians play Bach's "Air for a G String," my all time favorite classical piece. I can't imagine how they were able to play their violins in the cold!

Budapest was wonderful. I'd been in contact with Attila's cousin Dorottya (Dorka), who's just a few years older than he and more like a sister. While in Prague I got an email from her that's subject was "HUNGARIANS ARE WAITING FOR YOU!!!" And they were...when we pulled into Keleti pu station around 8:15 Attila's step-cousin David, who'd only met him once when they were both about 9, was waiting for us with an American guy from SC, Larry, who he's studying with at the military academy. They took us back to their dorms and Larry's roommate, Sean (also an American, from VA) made us bacons and eggs for breakfast. We were able to leave our stuff there and the guys gave us a tour of Buda (until 1872 Budapest was two cities -- Buda and Pest -- on opposite sides of the Danube). We walked around the Castle Hill and saw the Military History Museum (since we were w/the military students), Matthias Church, the Royal Castle and the Fisherman's Bastion, which gave us an amazing view of the Danube, Pest and Parliament (see pics for more info).

We grabbed lunch back by the military school's dorms, and then were able to shower and change before relocating to Dorka's best friend Matyi's apartment near Parliament. Dorka and I had emailed back and forth a few times and I'd heard a lot about her and Matyi from Attila and his family (they spent two summers with them in Utah), so it was wonderfully to finally meet them both! Dorka cooked a great dinner for us and then we were shown, as promised by email, "how Hungarians make a party!" A bunch of their friends came over, along with David and Sean. We loved meeting all of them, learned some new Hungarian words and enjoyed trying different types of Hungarian wine. After a few hours at the flat we walked to a club, Soho London, where we all danced for a few hours. Definitely one of the finest nights I've had so far in Europe. :D

Saturday we left Kelly and Max to sleep and entertain themselves for a while and Dorka, Matyi, David and I drove to Szekesfehervar (about 30 mins away) to have lunch with Attila's grandmother. When I walked in the door and said "Jó napot kívánok" (a greeting, kind of like "buenas dias" in Spanish) she flipped out, so I think that made a good impression. As promised, the food was wonderful and we had lots of it! After we'd been there for a while Dorka's dad, his second wife and their other son joined us. We visited for a while and then Dorka, Matyi and I went to her mother's house. There we had even more food! It was funny because I was given about 5 things and told that each one was Attila's absolute favorite, although considering how much he eats that may be possible.

It was really, really nice to meet Attila's family, especially since I'd heard so much about them and they were all so wonderfully welcoming and sweet to me. Dorka's mom told me that having me there was like seeing a little part of Attila and his family (who most of them haven't seen for about 9 years). It was the same for me, which was both exciting and sad. I don't think that since Attila and I have been apart I'd felt closer to him, or missed him more, than when I was there with his family.

We got back around 4, met up with Kelly and Max and then walked around downtown and visited St. Stephan's Basilica and the main commercial street, Váci út. We bought tickets for the train back to Vienna, had a great dinner near the station (I finally had goulash!) and then drove to Hösök tere (Heroes square). Unfortunately, we had to catch our train back to Vienna around 8:30. It was sad (for me at least) to say bye, but Dorka and Matyi were funny at the station and waved at us till we pulled away and then ran beside the train. :)

The ride to Vienna was only about 3 hours, and we arrived and pretty much went straight to sleep. We were in a different room this time that had a really cool double bed (which we dubbed "the fortress") above the bathroom (the "dungeon"). There weren't any snoring Germans, so we slept well and headed to the airport the next morning to fly home. We went through Milan again, where I left my Nalgene in the airplane. :( Other than that we returned without any problems and had amazing views of the Alps between Vienna and Milan.

Not much has happened since then, except that spring has come to Madrid and Cat (Baker), who's studying in Venice, and I have planned to go to Switzerland together in April! I'm so excited to see her!!! Classes w/the boys Monday and today went well. I'd asked Carlos and Mateo to make comics with lots of English dialog while I was gone and they both made amazingly elaborate ones with great plots.

Also, after waiting almost 3 weeks, I finally got to talk to Attila this morning! :D He can email fairly regularly, but it was so nice to hear his voice. :D

I'm off to get papers done for next week since, of course, I'll be gone this weekend.

Oh, almost forgot my triumph of the evening...I dropped my camera in the Royal Palace in Budapest and one of the dials was forced out. I knew I could fix it if I could open it up, but I couldn't ever find a small enough screwdriver. Tonight I had a revelation and went to the glasses store near my house. A nice guy there let me use their little glasses screwdriver to fix it! :)

Okay, work time...hope you're all well! :)

Well, I'm tired and can't quite bring myself to do a full run-down of the amazing spring break trip, so I'll suggest you check out my pictures, instead. :) I guess the abbreviated account is that we had an amazing time. :D

To explain why I don't quite have time to update (and get my Dad back for saying he never knows what I'm doing till it's over), here's my traveling thus far and my plans:
Canary Islands: Jan 13-16
Toledo: Jan 22
Lisbon, Portugal: Jan 27-30
Segovia: Feb 11
Stratford and London: Feb 24-27
Vienna, Salzburg, Prague and Budapest: Mar 5-13

And upcoming...
Amsterdam: Mar 17-20
Paris: Mar 24-28 (???)
Brussels, Bruge, Gent, etc.: Apr 7-10
Switzerland: Apr 14-17 (with Cat!!!)
Bilbao, San Sebastian and Pamploma: Apr 21-24 (with parents!!!)
Barcelona and Valencia: Apr 28-May 1

Then after class I'm hoping for Berlin, Italy (or at least Rome) and Budapest again, and possibly Greece, Poland and Paris (if I don't make it over Easter).

So basically I'm here for class for four days and gone again every weekend except two till May...I love it! :D

Since it won't be part of the spring break update (before Amsterdam, I promise!) I should say that I got a package from KD today that made me so happy! It had candy, a CD, lots of cute notes and Valentines, the new lookbook and even a copy of our rush video, which of course made me miss everyone like crazy! Thanks guys! :)

Attila's good, although I haven't gotten to actually talk to him for quite a while now. Believe it or not, they're having lots of rain in Baghdad. His last email said: "The ground here is really hard and doesn't soak up the water so there are these large pond size puddles everywhere. It's an exercise in agility and logic just to make it to the chow hall without stepping in knee deep mud."

I'm off to bed, but I WILL catch up soon.

Love to everyone,
GA

Well, I’ve slacked off again...let’s catch up...

Last week was pretty standard…Tuesday I taught Darius (good as usual), then later on watching “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with Nicole. An awesome movie, and even better the second time because I actually knew what was going on.

Wednesday Nicole and I returned to our new favorite spot, the Moroccan tea place (which, anticlimactically, is simply called “Moroccan Tea”) and took Kelly, James and another SLU student, Glen, with us. We ran into some people from Georgetown there who have apartments to sublet for the summer, so if the Washington Post works out I’ll already have some housing options. :)

Thursday morning I met my English class at Barajas (the airport) around 9 for our flight to London. I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, but as soon as we arrived I was really disoriented by being in an English speaking country…how odd that that’s become foreign to me.

We took a bus to Stratford straight from Heathrow (we were entertained the whole way by this hilarious 16-yr-old guy, Jase) and spent a night there in a really cute B&B called Forget-me-not. I’m not sure if many people will get this reference, but the woman who ran it was exactly like Mrs. Beaver from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” movie. Stratford was a cute little town and we saw a great production of “Julius Caesar” at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) theatre there, “The Swan.” Because it's all about revolution and guerilla warfare they set it in fascist Italy. It was a very loud, gory production (think buckets of blood) but increadibly effective and very well acted.

Friday we saw Shakespeare's home and grave. It was interested not only because he had lived there, but also because so many other famous people and writers have visited the site. Afterwards we took a 3 hours bus into London. Amazingly, as we came into the city we passed right down Orchard street, between the Selfridge’s hotel where I stayed in 2002 and our favorite spot across the street, the Cask and Glass (sadly it’s now a nightclub). That night we all went out to an Italian restaurant, then wandered around the busy downtown areas, Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus.

Saturday we saw another RSC production, “Macbeth,” which was horrible. I sat in the front row, had slept a lot the night before and still almost feel asleep during the fight scenes! The only cool part was that before the production we went to a fighting/sword fighting workshop and learned how they stage it all. That, and the fish, chips and mushy peas made it a good morning, despite the typical London drizzle.

No one else felt brave enough, but after that I went up to Camden Town (like Atlanta's Little Five or Madrid's Malasaña) with my funny Jamaican buddy Mark to people watch and check out the 4 outdoor markets. I wanted to get another pair of the same type of sneakers I got there three years ago, but I was sad to see that they're really popular now so they cost 80 pounds, not 10. If you add on the awful exchange rate, that's about $160!

After grabbing dinner and taking a nap I met up with Claire! We went to a club called On Anon, because it goes on, and on, and on... There are 4 floors with 2 or 3 separate themed areas in each. For example, half the 3rd floor was a really swank area with columns, statues, draperies, chandeliers, etc. while the other half was an 80s themed disco club. Then, the 4th floor was a little western area with leather backed lounge chairs, large wood beam walls and even a stuffed moose head!

I think one of the most fun things on the trip was just hanging out w/the other students there. Both nights we were in London we ended up hanging out in one hotel room or another as some people (like me) were getting home and others were headed out. I'm still struck by the pleasure of meeting/knowing so many people from so many different backgrounds and cultures.

Sunday we went to the Globe Theater, which I zipped through pretty fast since I went in 2002. Afterwards I headed over to the Tate Modern museum, right next door, which has lots of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Warhol, etc. plus the far out modern art that's always interesting, even if that's about all you can say about it. It was really cool for me to see all the impressionist artists because I'm reading a book by Gertrude Stein that's about hanging out with all of them (many of the artists were her closest friends) so I know all these back stories, like how Cezanne was too poor to afford the fruit for one of the still lives there so he didn't heat his house all winter in Paris so it'd ripen slower.

I lost everyone in the huge building, so I took the "tube" (London's metro) to a really neat part of town called Covent Garden were there's a big market, lots of shops and some of the world's best street performers. It was fun to wander around by myself; I like being inconspicuous and having the freedom to explore whatever I want at whatever pace I want. I wish it were safe for me to travel more alone, but I know that’s just not possible in a lot of places, especially if I don’t speak the language. After Covent Garden I met up with everyone at the hotel to head to the airport.

Monday I didn’t do too much, except I could finally send a package to Attila. Too bad it’ll take about 30 days to get there because it has to go through the US first…

Tuesday James, Kelly, Nicole and I went to a great jazz club called Populart. The music was so good it made me really miss playing trombone and being in a band in general. We had fun talking to three older Spanish, French and Argentinean guys who were in town for a computer conference.

Wednesday night I was supposed to go to dinner with the Bordallos, but they’d gotten the dates mixed up and weren’t in. This was actually fine, because I’ve had a lot of work and it meant I could repeat the Moroccan tea Wednesday night ritual with Nicole. I was amused to realize that I’ve started to be annoyed when I run into Americans. We were talking to Abal (so only in Spanish) and having a good time when three girls from school came in and spoke really loudly about really silly things and threw off the whole ambiance of the place.

Thursday was pretty crazy…because I’ll be out of town next week for spring break I did extra lessons with both Darius and Carlos and Mateo.

Friday I planned out more of our trip and went into school to print things out. I also wanted to buy tickets to go to Paris for Easter weekend (some family friends live there and I’d really like to go then, when all their children will be in town), but they’re really expensive so France may not happen.

James’ girlfriend Emily came into town Friday morning, so we all went over to Enrique’s for a while, then took the metro down to Sol went to some Belgium bar that Max (who's originally Belgian) found. While we were walking across the Plaza Mayor Nicole and I stopped to offer to take a picture for a group of guys who were haphazardly trying to set up a delayed shot from a bench. We couldn't figure out why we couldn't understand their Spanish until we realized that they were Italian. They ended up coming with us to the bar, to the great surprise of the rest of the group, who'd proceeded us.

It was funny because the 4 Italian guys were nice, but they were all engineers and HUGE nerds, from their dress to their voices to their hair and HUMONGOUS glasses (no offense Dad, of course you’re a cool engineer!)

Now, I’m about to head out the door to set off for the Spring Break trip with Max and Kelly! We’re flying to Vienna through Milan and then spending a few days in Vienna, Salzburg, Prague and Budapest! I called Attila’s cousin Dorottya today and she’s going to meet up with us for our two days in Hungary. I’m a little stressed because I've planned this whole thing myself so if something goes wrong it's my fault, but I think we're going to have a great time.

I’ve got to run, but I’m going to try to update once during the trip…I hope everyone else has a great break, I’m sure you’ll be much warmer than we will!

Hmm, let's see, what have I been up to...

Well, Friday a bunch of people met up down at Enrique's (actually called Casa Mundi), our cool neighborhood bar/restaurant. It's fun to talk to the old bartender, Enrique, who's worked there for 19 years and the crazy American, Foster, who's from New Orleans but has lived here for 40 years. He came to visit when he was 28, not knowing a word of Spanish, and loved it so much he never left.

The big group went to a nearby jazz bar, but Nicole and I went to a different part of town to try once again to track down the Moroccan tea bar. Once again we couldn't find the original one she'd gone to, but we passed another that looked cool so we went there, instead. It was gorgeously decorated inside (I felt like I actually was in Morocco) and they had yummy hot mint tea and baklava for tapas, so we hung out there for a while.

When they closed at 3:30 we ended up wandering around for about 2 hours looking for a coffee shop with our new friend Abal, who works there and is from Morocco but has lived in Madrid for a while. We ended up walking so long looking for a place in that area that was free and cool that we ended up back in my neighborhood all the way from Sol! It had to translate for Nicole and Abal, which I think is pretty funny considering I don't speak very well, either. Anyway, our search was in vain so Nicole and Abal dropped me off at my door and then headed home.

Despite having a late night I was up fairly early Saturday to work on reading and so I could have a hot breakfast (that ends at 11am according to Teresa's rules, which I think is funny considering she says that a late night out would mean not coming back till 8am).

Around 2 Nicole and I went to the biggest park here, Retiro, where they have a lake, cafes, people dressed as characters (Mickey, Pooh and the red Teletubbie, to mention a few) and row boats. We were going to read but got distracted when Abal called and said he could hang out before work, so we ended up renting a rowboat and cruising around the lake. Luckily we got out before a few rowdy boats started a huge, lake-wide water fight (much more fun to watch f/the shore).

After Abal left Nicole and I sat on the grass by the shore for a long time and read, people watched and played cards. The temperature still isn't too high here, but it was so sunny that it was very pleasant to be outside. Lots of people were camped out for the day and there were a huge number who'd brought guitars, flutes, bongos and other instruments along with picnics, wine, etc.

While we were sitting there we met a really nice couple who sat down next to us and talked to them most of the time. I'm sad that they were just visiting friends for the weekend and live about 4 hours away, because they were really nice and fun. The guy, Anton, even entertained us by playing a Tibetan singing bowl.

When the sun set it got REALLY cold so we came back to my neighborhood and went to a cheap doner kabap (Turkish gyro like thing) place near here with Andrew, a SLU student who's friends with Nicole and lives in my building, then came back and watched "Wet Hot American Summer."

All in all it was a gorgeous, peaceful day.

As usual, Sunday was full of reading and more reading. I also sent out an email for a possible job at the Washington Post and decided that I'm not going to work as a manager at Benson again next year. I may still work a little, but my main job is going to be as a managing for the school's telethon, where I worked Soph. year. It'll be a little more money, no working on the weekend and a lot less busy work, so I'm very excited about that! :)

I did get some really bad news Sunday, though, about one of Attila's friends Jon, who's also in Baghdad right now. I don't really know what happened, but Jon's wife ask me to try to reach Jon through Attila because she'd just found out that his 18-yr-old sister had been killed the night before. I didn't know her, but I'm very sad for Jon and his family. Please keep them in your prayers.

Monday was usual, classes were fine and I had my lesson with Carlos and Mateo at night. They're smart and really fun to work with.

Right now I'm just hanging around between class and going to work with Darius and thought I'd catch up. Tonight I have to study for an Anthropology midterm tomorrow and hopefully I'll also finally be around the computer when Attila can sign on so we can talk on skype. I've missed him about 4 times in the past few days and haven't talked to him for more than 2 weeks.

I'm off to class, but I'll try to update again before I leave for London Thursday morning!

Love to everyone, I miss you!

Happy Friday! :D

The haircut went alright yesterday...kind of nerve-racking to explain it all to the stylist with hand motions, but all's well that ends well. Before dinner I took a lil nap and watched "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," which was...interesting. The effects were amazing, but the chemistry between Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow seemed to be overshadowed by the effects. Overall I liked it, though. Reminded me in very good ways of "The Rocketeer" and "The Phantom."

A HUGE number of SLU kids went to a TINY bar, Malony's, so a bunch of us went also, which now that I think about it wasn't the best idea. They had some kind of game where you had to flip a bottle cap into a little hoop and you could win a t-shirt. I did it on my third try, but forgot it when everyone left suddenly and I couldn't find my coat (turns out Kelly had taken it instead of hers, haha).

Afterwards we spent a really long time wandering Sol in search of a Moroccan place that Nicole (who wasn't with us) had been. We eventually found it, very close to a different metro stop, but it was closed and we're not quite sure that it was the right one. So, the night was kind of a bust, but we got home fairly early so I got enough sleep to do loads of reading this morning. Yay! ::sarcasm::

The highlight of the morning was finally getting an email from Attila! He's in Baghdad now and says things are alright there and the food's better than it was in Kuwait. Apparently he’s the camp's new ping pong champion.

This afternoon three of Kelly's friends who are studying in France came into town. They're traveling around Spain for a week so we helped them figure out trips to a few towns near here, Lisbon and then Barcelona. They've headed to their hostel to nap, but we're going out with them tonight.

While they were here Nicole, who stayed with some friends who live in our apartment last night, came over before heading home and I cut her hair! I don't think I'd done that since I was about 12 and at camp, but it turned out alright. The scissors she had (our friends' kitchen scissors) didn't work so well, so I ended up using my Gerber! (Look at the Madrid folder of my pics to see.)

Now I'm back to reading some more, but I'll try to update again tomorrow!

Well, the Spanish test yesterday (and the follow-up composition this morning) weren´t too bad. My teacher´s a little crazy, so I was thinking they´d be much worse.

After my afternoon classes I got a chance to talk to Ebo on skype! Besides Lauren I hadn´t talked to friends from home, so it was nice to hear her voice, and LP´s in the background. Afterwards I went to dinner with the Bordallos again! Just like the first time I went, it was a great experience that left me feeling more at home in Madrid and afforded me the opportunity to speak more Spanish in a few hours than I normally do during the whole week. They´re going out of town again next week, but two weeks from now I´m going back for dinner and intercambios again.

Coming home I took a longer metro route so I didn´t have to change stations. For some reason I really like reading on the metro and riding by myself. I can sit quietly, observing and listening, and really pick up a much better sense of life here than is possible if I´m with a big group of Americans. I´m working on Gertrude Stein´s ¨The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas¨ for my American Writers in Paris class. The long, fluid, modern sentences she uses and the stories about her life in Paris hanging out with Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, etc. seem to be especially effective if read on a foreign metro while surrounded by people who are speaking another language. I can focus better on her words because I can tune out people talking but, when I do listen to them, I better appreciate her situation writing in English while she was living in French.

One of my favorite parts so far is when Alice describes her life in Paris; she says that ¨it was like a kaleidoscope slowly turning.¨

This morning was Spanish composition, class and a Political Science midterm that was a breeze. I finished early, so now I´m updating from school. Aah, the international keyboard is driving me CRAZY! You have to do all kinds of tricks to keep quotation from turning into accents. I´m gradually getting used to them, but it´s annoying because when I want to hit backspace I get this: ç, an annoying letter that´s not even used in Spanish! Grrr!

This afternoon David and Carolyn (see bowling pics) told me they´re trying to put together a bare-boating trip to island hop around the Canary Islands the last weekend we can travel (before exams and everyone goes home). I wasn´t planning on going back there because I´d prefer to go somewhere new, but if I´d have the chance to sail around like we used to do in the British Virgin Islands I´d definitely do it!

I´m off for the afternoon Family Guy watching in the school lounge, then I´m going to try to get a haircut. They´re really cheap here, but I´m kind of nervous about telling someone what I want in Spanish. Haha, so if I don´t put pics up for a while now you´ll know why...

Aah, I broke the update streak yet again! I'll just take it as a good sign that I have too many great things to do here besides write.

Thursday was school as usual till 3:15, then I hung around campus for a while with Nicole because they were showing "Family Guy" in English on satellite in the snack bar! Besides getting to watch an episode of one of my favorite shows, the big event of the day was that a water pipe burst in our apartment and there was about a foot of water in the bathroom! Poor Teresa spent the whole day while we were at school mopping and yelling at repair men.

That night Kelly, Nicole, James, Max and I went out and wandered around the main downtown area, Sol. While we were walking around and figuring out where we wanted to go some woman who was handing out fliers for a Mexican restaurant started talking to us. We'd been looking for a Mexican place to go another night (I miss Mi Pueblo!) and she had studied drama at a school in St. Louis, so we went in to the bar part for a while to check it out. Later we went to a place called O'Connell's and mooched free tapas (corn nuts, potatoes, chips, etc) although we never bought any drink...gotta saving money for trips!

Speaking of trips...Friday Nicole, James and I went to Segovia, which is about 2 hrs away by train. Our train left at 10 and got back at 9 so we had a good 7 hours to wander around (see pics). The ride there was beautiful and took us through some gorgeous mountains with at least a foot of snow.

Probably the neatest thing we saw was a massive aqueduct that was built about 2 centuries ago without using any kind of mortar. The stones are just stacked together so well that they don't move. Also, the castle in Segovia was used as the basis for the castles in classic Walt Disney movies and there was an amazing view from the top.

Saturday I went on a hike with the outdoors club and a bunch of people from school in Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, a national park about 45 mins. outside of Madrid, and I'd have to say it was probably one of the most interesting and beautiful hikes I've ever taken. We climbed up for a while on a normal trail, but eventually were hiking ourselves up huge rocks and scrambling to make it to the top. All told we hiked about 5 hours, 4 of which were scrambling over rocks, not walking. We even saw mountain goats! The view f/the top was gorgeous and gave us the opportunity to rest before sliding down about a mile of snow and clambering over several hours worth of slick rocks and narrow passes that required swinging, scraping and slipping through tight crevasses (the pictures should show you some of this, except for the hairiest bits).

Because it'd been a long few days we decided to stay close to home Sat. night. Around 11 Kelly and I went to our favorite neighborhood restaurant/bar, after James and Max had come by to use our internet to skype their girlfriends. Another kid from SLU, Matt, met us there and we hung out for a while with the great bartender, Enrique, who's worked there for 19 years and always dishes up great free tapas such as garlic lemon french fries. Then, all 5 of us went to another neighborhood bar to play cards. It was so nice to go out right around the street so I didn't have to worry about walking back, catching a cab, etc. (especially since I had blisters from the hike!).

As we were headed out we saw on the news that a large building downtown, the Windsor, was burning. I don't now if you've seen this in the news, but it's just now being put out. Thankfully there wasn't anyone inside because it's only offices and the fire started late, but the huge blaze has paralyzed that part of the city.

Sunday I was a huge bum...walking all over Segovia Friday and then climbing all day Saturday left me exhausted and really sore. It's my second Sunday of soreness, so maybe this haphazard exercise will actually get me somewhere. Before bed I watched "Forrest Gump" and seeing downtown Savannah, the coast and marsh made me miss many of the wonderful things about home. I'm not homesick per se, it just reminded me of how much I love that part of the world and all the wonderful times I've had there.

Monday was of course Valentine's Day, which was a bit bittersweet because although I have an amazing valentine he's quite far away. Attila was finally able to get online after over a week of not being able to Monday afternoon, but it was when I was at work so I missed him. Ah well, it was still nice to hear that he's well and I'd rather miss him than not know or love him at all. :)

Monday night was my first lesson with the two Spanish boys, who I now know are both 10. It's fun, because all I really have to do is talk to them. We threw a ball around to ask questions, drew, played word games, etc. It was a big hassle to get to work because of the fire; many metro stops are closed and the metro was extra full and confusing.

Around midnight Kelly and I walked over to Vips to get coffee because we both had a paper due Tuesday morning. Even around midnight on a Monday night the restaurant was full of people of all ages eating dinner…every day I love this city and it's busy, 24-hour life more!

Tuesday I went into school early to print out my paper. After class I waited around for a while and hung out with Nicole (who got her tongue pierced yesterday!) because I only had about an hour and a half before I needed to be at work. Also, I got Kelly an interview to teach some of the families I work for’s younger children, so I wanted to show her where their apartment was on the way to teaching Darius. Nicole and I spread the word about "Family Guy" coming on at 3:30 and had a good sized crowd watching it in the lounge.

When I got home from work there was a card, a box of chocolates and a HUGE bouquet of a dozen red roses in my room! I guess Attila figured out how to order the flowers on a Madrid site, or got someone who speaks Spanish to help him, and ordered everything as soon as he got online yesterday! I've never been a girl who needed roses, chocolate, etc., but I feel so blessed to be with someone thoughtful and loving enough to figure out how to do this from the middle of the Kuwaiti desert! :D Imi, his dad, called me this afternoon to say hello and wish me happy belated Valentine's Day, so I guess I can see where he gets it from.

Tonight I've been working on planning a trip to Amsterdam the weekend after spring break. Oh, speaking of that, Brookie can't come anymore. I know it's expensive, but I'm bummed I won't get to see her. :( Wake people, we have the same spring break, so if you'd like to come see Madrid, Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam just let me know!

I have a Spanish test tomorrow and a Poli Sci test Thursday so I'd better finish up and get to studying. I hope everyone's doing well and had a great Valentine's day! :D

Yes, finally booked tickets to Vienna for spring break AND I'm updating two days in a row! I win! :)

School as usual till 6:15 today, only real excitement was that I tried to join the Salami Club for lunch (see groganjm's livejournal) but missed it because James had gone to the Prado with Nicole and Max only got a baguette. So I ate a huge baguette for lunch and sat outside on a bench with Max and talked about sailing and the spring break trip.

When I got home I tried to buy the Vienna tickets, but found out that you can only buy tickets on expedia.co.uk if you have a UK billing address. Bugger! After an hour or so of rooting around I managed to find the same Alitalia flight on another site (ha that rhymes) at the same price, so we've all bought our tickets now! I gave the info to Brookie, so hopefully she'll be on the same flight back f/Vienna soon, too.

The other wonderful part of this afternoon was that I talked to Lauren for over an hour on skype! I've been missing her so it was really nice to get to catch up. Also, I talked to Liz and Claire, and should be able to see both of them at some point while I'm here. :D

I went and saw "Closer" (in English with Spanish subtitles) down in Sol with a bunch of people tonight at 10:30. Wow, probably one of the most upsetting movies I've ever seen. It didn't make me cry or make me uncomfortable, but watching people break up for 2 hours wasn't exactly the most enjoyable or entertaining way I could have spent the evening. Still, it was nice to see Nicole, who's been sick all week...I'm glad you're still alive Nicole!

Hmm, I guess that's about it...tomorrow's Thursday, which equals Friday for me, so I'm excited about that (emocionada, not excitada -- must not confuse those!). No traveling this weekend (except maybe a day trip to Segovia) because I have a paper and 2 tests next week and 2 papers and a test the week after that. Bleh. Although, being here will hopefully finally give me a chance to go to El Rastro! :)

Oh, in case you're concerned, I was nowhere near the car bomb today and didn't even know it'd happened until Brooke IMed to ask if I was okay.

Sleep well all!


PS - Ebo, the song's for you...mmmm Taco Bell. :D

Okay, I slacked off for a few days there, gotta catch up from the weekend!

Thursday was a day of excitement...I found out a trip I was going to take to Paris with my English class had been canceled because there weren't enough people going, so now I'm going on a trip with a political science class to Brussels, where the capitol of the European Union is. Because the teacher of the class has buddies there we're going to get to tour lots of restricted areas and even meet with the VP of the EU!

Also, Kelly and I are making plans to go to Austria and the Czech Republic for Spring Break with Max. Brookie is even going to fly out half-way through the week and meet us, probably in Prague, come back here to Madrid for 4 days while I have class, and then we'll travel the next weekend, too. Hopefully we'll go to Amsterdam, or maybe even Dublin since it'll be St. Patrick’s Day weekend. :)

I also got a call about another teacher job this afternoon, and I have an interview Monday night at 7. It's two friends of Marjan's, Emi and Virginia, who each have two children. I'm going to go to Emi's house (right across the street from Marjan's) to talk to them about lessons, schedules, etc.

Thursday night Kelly, Max, James and I went to a tiny bar, Maloney's. They have beer pong on Monday nights, so if I'm really missing home I’ll have to go back for that. It was a really neat little place with lots of snacks, free drinks and nice people. Kelly was even offered a job!

Friday I didn't do much; slept in, introduced Kelly to the wonderful thing that is “Alias,” searched endlessly for cheap flights, read and then stayed in and watched “The Thomas Crowne Affair.” Lame, I know, but I needed a break after traveling a few weekends in a row and doing work and school during the week.

Oh also, Friday night was exciting because Attila made it back to the internet café, this time with his headphones! I got to talk to him for about an hour and got a rundown of what life is like there and how he is and even got to see pictures of the desert and him in the goofy desert uniform hat. Talking to him made it seem like he was much closer, but seeing pictures of him in such an alien setting also made him seem farther away. I'm not letting it keep me from enjoying life here and making the most of my experience, but I'll admit that I'm really missing my Hungarian.

Saturday was interesting…I almost overslept and missed my 11am bus to go ride near Segovia, and I kind of wished I had. When we got to the barn the horses were CRAZY! I ended up riding 3 because the leader guy didn't ask who was which level, so he put some really inexperienced girls on insane horses. They kept bolting, bucking, rearing and trying to sprint back to the barn, so every time someone was thrown (happened twice) I'd switch horses with them.

We were supposed to have two rides, divided by experience, but I was the only person who'd ridden regularly so we spent the day walking through cow fields (or sprinting, for those lucky enough to ride the crazy ones). The second horse I rode was certifiable; he bolted three times while I was on him for absolutely no reason, and seemed to be completely unaware of the barbed-wire fences and drop-offs around him. And, to make it worse, we were riding in an area with topography about as exciting as that portrayed in "Withering Heights." Needless to say, I’m not going to ride at that barn again.

Everyone survived the ride and I made it back home around 5. Kelly and I went out for dinner because we've gotten really sick of Teresa's cooking and wanted to try a little restaurant around the corner. We met up with Max and James to go to some free concert the school had told us about...it was alright, but an older crowd. Afterwards we met up with a Spanish guy who's friend w/Max's family and his ex-gf/best friend (kind of complicated). We went to a bar and then a club together, and then headed back along with Kayla (who'd joined us at the first bar) via a pizza place which made me miss Burke Street. The neighborhood they took us to, Malasaña, was very cool, kind of funky/punky like Little Five in Atlanta and there were lots of people dressed up for Carnival.

Sunday morning I woke up early because we’d planned to go to El Rastro, a huge outdoor flea market that is every week from 9 till around 2, but it was closed for the day because there was lots of rain. I was glad to go back to sleep, because fighting the crazy Spanish mustangs made me pretty sore. I read more after I woke up, and renewed the search for cheap Spring Break airfares.

I got to talk to Attila again this evening. It’s great that he’s able to get to the internet café frequently enough that we aren’t too out of touch. :D

Around midnight Kelly and I met up with James and headed to Hard Rock Café to get dessert and watch the game. Unfortunately, the crazy people there thought it’d be a great idea to charge a 10 euro cover charge, even though we wanted to buy food. Forget that.

Kelly and James knew some SLU kids who'd also wanted to watch it there, but weren't in the restaurant. We called them and luckily they'd found an Irish pub fairly close so we joined them. Kelly and I had both wanted some kind of brownie, chocolaty dessert with vanilla ice cream, so we walked down to a nearby Vips (food, books, CDs, groceries, etc...very convenient) that didn't close till 3 and got dessert. James came too once we'd found it, we didn't make it back to the pub till the half time show (amazing performance by Sir Paul McCarthy), watched the 3rd quarter, then headed home. So basically it was a pretty weak attempt to watch the game, haha. To be honest, I think I didn't care that much because the commentary and commercials were from Sky, the UK's ESPN, so I couldn't see the most important part. Luckily, I was able to find them online, here: http://dyn.ifilm.com/superbowlads/ :).

After my 10 am class Monday morning I spend an hour or so going around to different travel agencies looking for cheap flights to Vienna. It was a minor triumph in speaking Spanish to find that I could talk to a travel agent and plan out a trip. I know I wouldn't have been able to do that when I got here, so it makes me feel much better about things now that I can.

That evening was my interview to teach, which went really well. Emi has two children, Mateo and Bérta and so does Virginia, Iremes and Carlos. I'm gonna work with the two older boys, Mateo and Carlos, who are both about 8 or 9, from 7-8:30 on Mondays, and I think Kelly's going to work with the two younger kids, Bérta and Iremes, another day of the week, because my schedule didn't work out with theirs. Being able to find work and arrange schedules, payment, lessons plans, etc. with people solely in Spanish is also a rewarding breakthrough. I still don’t have a great vocabulary, but I’m learning how to quickly figure out the best way to use the words I do know to say what I want to.

The weather's been pretty crazy here...it rained and sleeted all Monday and it was snowing so much just north of Madrid that our family's son-in-law, who commutes into the city, has to sleep here because he couldn’t drive home.

Today’s been good, because it’s Shrove Tuesday and SLU is a Catholic school we had a big charity pancake breakfast on campus that was quite yummy. After class I came back here for a while, and then headed out at 5 for my lesson with Darius. When I was getting off the metro stop I was just thinking that I might run into Emi or Virginia’s families when a little girl latched onto my arm and yelled an enthusiastic, “¡Hola!” Bérta, who was walking with Mateo, her father and their Shar-pei, Juan, had spotted me and run over to grab me in the crowd. Although I live several metro stops away from the Sainz de Bernardo neighborhood, it’s starting to feel more like home than my Arguëlles residence – how nice to run into people I know on the streets of Madrid other than SLU students!

My second lesson with Darius went well. Since I have an interest in doing psychology/counseling work with children, it’s so nice to find that I really do like working with kids! I knew I enjoyed spending time with them, but doing a lesson for an hour and a half is a lot different than just babysitting or hanging out.

As I came into my stop, Canal, I ran into Kelly, who’d been at the doctor. She’s been sick on and off pretty much since we got here, and tonight the doctor said she needed to go to the emergency room clinic to get x-rays and medicine. She and I walked around for a while and finally found it, then sat in the waiting room for about 2 hours…eventually they sent her away with the same meds she bought for herself at the pharmacy a few days earlier!

Normal evening back at Donoso Cortes, got to talk to my parents, a little reading and now after LOTS of writing I’m off to bed. :)

Thanks for making it this far!

It is quite possible that today was my best day to date in Madrid! I made some great new friends, after midnight its Attila and my's 6 month anniversary and I finally got to talk to him! :D

I had class as usual at 10, came back here afterwards to read and do work, then went back for class from 3:30 - 6:15. Afterwards I headed straight for the metro to meet with Gloria Barcallo, Marjan's friend who invited me to dinner with her family. Apparently Marjan was telling her about me and how I wanted to meet more Spanish families and wasn't quite ecstatic about my host family, so Gloria said she'd love to have an "intercambios" (an exchange, normally used to refer to exchanges of ideas and culture) with an American and, without even talking to me, asked Marjan to tell me I was invited to dinner.

When I called yesterday to get directions, etc. she said that I was supposed to come at 6:30, which seemed early to me, especially since most Spaniards don't eat dinner till around 10, but I figured she just wanted to have more time to talk, or that they ate earlier. When I arrived at the house I realized why the time seemed so early; it was wrong. Oops. I'm not sure quite what happened, but she'd meant for me to come at 8:30!

Gloria, however, was incredibly understanding about the mix-up and just worked me into her day. When it was time for her 8 yr. old son, one of Darius' friends, to go to soccer practice I walked with them and she showed me the neighborhood and Madrid's most important bull fighting arena along the way. When their groceries were delivered a little before dinner she let me help put them away. Her daughters (10 and 13, I think) taught me words for lots of different types of food, and were a pleasure to be around. They both speak a little English, German and some French.

Gloria doesn't speak any English but is a Spanish professor so she understood my accent fairly well and could correct me in a way that really helped me to learn. She's also an artists, and has lots of paintings she's done around the apartment, which reminded me of a cross between Delia's house and Lauren's Mom's old house...cozy, warm, nicely decorated and welcoming.

Around 8 Mr. Barcallo returned from work (he's a family Dr.) and we had the best meal I've had thus far in Spain: a traditional soup with chick pees, chicken and a few other vegetables, amazing tortilla espanol with onions served with a yummy salad (yay, vegetables, at last!) and kiwis for dessert. After a rowdy family dinner I sat with the Borcallos and had mint tea after the kids went to bed.

Gloria wants to have a student from the US come live with the family, so I think I'm her test case to prove to her husband that it'd be a good experience all 'round. They're going to France next week, but have invited me to come to dinner every Wednesday night I can, and Gloria wants me to call if I'm going to any museums in Madrid because she'd like to come with me.

Finally, I feel like I have some sense of Spanish life! The family I live with here can be so gloomy and abstract that I was beginning to dread that they are representative of other Spanish families. The Barcallos, however different they are from American families, still remind me of the warmth and love that a family should have. They were all immensely interesting to talk to, very patient with my limited vocabulary and pleasantly inquisitive. I think it's safe to say that tonight I spoke more Spanish, and learned more about Spaniards, than I have during the previous 3 weeks.

I didn't get home till after 11, so I got some more work done and made plans to meet up with Rachel and another girl from Wake who's studying here, Ashleigh, at 12:30 at a bar within walking distance from me that's just a few feet down the street from Ray's (Rachel's) hotel. The plan was to catch up more and then try to see at least the tip off of the Wake vs. Duke game at 3am.

My plans were wonderfully interrupted around 12:15 when Attila signed on line! He was able to get on for $5 an hour at an internet cafe in Kuwait. Apparently the lines have been very long and it was still packed at 2am (he's 2 hrs ahead of me). He didn't have headphones with him so we typed on IM, and he didn't really have any big news, but it was so nice to "talk" to him and know that he's alright. In about 3 weeks, when he gets to Baghdad they should have internet in their rooms, so that'll be about the only good thing about leaving Kuwait for Baghdad.

Once Attila's time ran out I walked over to meet up with Ashleigh and Ray, but Chesterfields, the place we were meeting, stopped being free at 1 and it was about 1:30 by the time I made it over there. We were all pretty tired, so they just came out so I wouldn't have to pay 10 euros to get in and we talked outside for about an hour. Ray had to get up early and Ashleigh and I had work, so we headed our separate ways before 3.

A note to concerned parents: that's an early hour here; Teresa told Kelly we were like 40 yr olds because we came back before 4 one night, and said coming in "late" means around 8 or 9 in the morning!

I'd wanted to watch the Wake/Duke game, but without accomplices or a TV I've decided to resign myself to the rapidly updating scoreboard on espn.com (right now Wake's up by 2!).

I'm exhausted and need to head for bed, but I'm so happy because of all the exciting things that happened today. Also, today I signed up for a riding trip that's Saturday, so I'm also looking forward to that.

Sweet dreams all!

This morning was class as usual (Spanish 10-10:50, American Writers in Paris 11-12:15). During my break before Intro to International Political Science (2-3:15) I discovered a new cheap lunch option, some kind of tuna croissant thing at SuperSol for .77 euros! I know that really doesn't sound very exciting, but after my weekend in Lisbon I realized how important it is for me to save as much money as possible so I can get the most out of my time here and my traveling weekends.

On the way home I swung by the fruit shop closest to the apartment and got at apple from the nice fruit guy, who tells everyone the amount the same way: "Veintinueve, mi amor." Since my senora isn't the chattiest person and Kelly and I eat by ourselves, not with the family, I'm trying to make friends with random people so I can practice Spanish more. Because I speak English all day at school and when I'm with my friends I feel like I'm not making the most of immersion. Tonight Kelly and I decided to seek out more opportunities to speak Spanish, even if it just means wandering over to the neighborhood restaurant/bar and talking to the nice bartender a few times a week.

When I got back to my room I was surprised to get IMs from Ray (Rachel), my roommate from freshman year! She's in Madrid for the next few days before headed down to Seville to begin classes. I got her number and planned to meet her after dinner.

At 5:30 I went to Marjan's house for my first day of tutoring her son, Darius (I'll update earlier days and explain how I got the job, etc. as soon as I can). As soon as I got off at their metro stop I could tell I was in a family neighborhood -- parents and kids walking together were everywhere and there were several little vendors selling candy and churros.

Darius, 8, is a clever and friendly guy who I think I'm really going to enjoy working with. After I talked to him and his little brother (very hyper and probably about 4), who has an unusual name I never fully caught, for about thirty minutes we began our lesson. The family speaks English (Mom is Persian but fluent, Dad is American), but because Darius is in a Spanish school they want me to make sure he's learning English as well as he would in the states.

Darius struck me as being very sharp, and is an avid reader. Per my Mom's suggest I had him draw a picture and then write me a story about it. Afterwards we looked over what he'd written, did a few exercises in an English workbook and then read the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book out loud together. I was there for about an hour and a half. Everything went well, so I guess I'll be doing that every Tuesday afternoon from now on. It's a good way to make extra cash, and considering I'd like to work with kids it's also great experience for me.

When I first met with Marjan she asked me about my señora and I told her about wanting to meet more Spaniards who were actually interested in talking to me and with whom I could practice Spanish. She's been very helpful and has already gotten me invitations to several of her friend's houses. Tomorrow night I'm going to dinner with a family that has three small children just to chat and meet them. It's so nice to finally feel like I'm meeting outgoing, hospitable people here outside of school!

I came back to the house for dinner (Fried chicken breasts, carbonara pasta, rice and bread -- oh the carbs!) and then Kelly and I headed for Ray's hotel. It was so nice to see a familiar face in Madrid! We walked around and grabbed some coffee, wandered by the Palace (which I hadn't seen yet) and down to Sol and then dropped Ray back off at her hotel. Apparently she's sharing a room with a crazy girl who she can't talk to (if you know Ray that should explain just how weird this girl must be), so I think I'm going to go out with her again tomorrow night.

I'm still hoping to hear from Attila soon...I know he's fine but I want to hear it directly from him.

Oh, today was Jess's 21st birthday! I'm hoping she had a great night, and can't wait to see pics, although knowing that something fun like that is going on at Wake makes me sad I'm missing out.

I've got a bunch of reading to do, so that's all for now...I'm looking forward to dinner with the Spanish family tomorrow, but hope that I'll be able to answer all their questions. It's easy to talk to Teresa because she doesn't ask many questions, but dinner conversation will be a bit more demanding.

Hasta mañana!