First Week with Host Mom

Probably don't have to actually state the fact but I have not really been keeping up with blogging this week. Can't even say that I have been particularly busy and could therefore not keep up. Just been lazy. This is kind of why I never make it very far/long with journals and blogs. I miss a day and then it is easy to miss the next day and so on and so forth. But it is Sunday which marks my one week anniversary with my host mom. Also, have not found a protestant church yet here to go to on Sundays (this is mainly for lack of researching :( ) and I did not get back until 2:30am this morning and am too groggy to do anything else beyond sit at my computer and finally update. I'm going to just go quickly through each day since tat his point I can't really remember everything that happened each day. Quickly through all but the last like 48 hours which I still remember plenty well that it :) .

Sunday/Monday
Got back from London and made my way to host mom's house through the metro. Had some issue with opening the door but eventually got in and went straight to sleep because I was quite tired. Come to find out that one of host mom's son's was actually here for the week. I found this out when I finally opened my bedroom door and they discovered that I was actually there. Introductions made and all was well. All except apparently the grocery stores were not opened so no shopping for me. It's ok though because I still had peanut butter. That night we all watched a movie. In Spanish the title is "Jardin de la alegria," but it is not a Spanish film so I don't know what the English title is. Was a good movie and pretty funny. When it was over it was already like 12:30 so I needed to get to bed since I still had one more review class to go to the next day. Not that I made it on time.... Nope got myself horribly lost trying to walk there then had to use my phone to get me to a nearby metro and eventually made it there 30 minutes late when I am usually 15 minutes early to class. Awkward. Got there after introductions had already been made. This was not necessarily a bad thing considering I was only going to be in class with the new people for one day. There were like 12 of us in all which is a really big class for there. Class went well though it was sad that Michelle was not there. And even though I probably would have not enjoyed being in class with some of the new people for an extended period of time, I was sad that it was my last day. I learned so much each day and I had until Friday for orientation to start. Got back from class and went grocery shopping. I knew I needed to apply for a transportation abono sooner rather than later because it adds up paying for the metro trip by trip or even buying the ten trip tickets. So after my siesta, darling host mom took me to a fotomaton machine to get passport size pictures taken to apply for an abono. And I was pretty sure that I had to apply for the "normal" which is for people 23-65. The joven one is better because it is 20€ cheaper each month which adds up. We get to the store or "estanco" to apply for it and the guy tells me that not only can I apply for the joven one (yay) but that I cannot do it there but rather HAVE to do it online (boo!). Let's just say that it was not easy to do. Because I had to upload pictures of my passport and one of the passport photos I had just paid for in the fotomaton to the site for the application. And of course they did not upload correctly and needed to be reformatted which I don't know how to do. At least Ramon did and took care of it. So now it's just a waiting game for the abono.

Tuesday
My birthday! No class today which was sad. So I slept in. I didn't have anything to do until lunch time. When I left my room my host mom found me and wished me a happ birthday, giving me a birthday card from herself and a box of chocolates. So happy! Also my card from my mom came in that was musical and we all enjoyed listening to that. Right about lunch time I took the metro to IH where I had been taking my review classes to meet up with Katrina. While I waited I actually found the announcement board that I had not known existed for the last two weeks. Go figure. And there among all the apartments for rent and excursions and such I saw a job ad that was perfect for me! Basically playing in English with two baby boys. Now that I can handle. Babies & English. So I took down the number to call later. Had a good lunch with Katrina followed by ice cream and she gave me an adorable little red change purse because i like hers so much. It isn't just like her because she got hers in London but the sentiment was lovely :) Returned home for a siesta and didn't do much else until I texted Mardee if she wanted to do anything. Met her at her new place which was cozy and set out to find a chinese store. I love these stores. They are basically chinese dollar generals or wal-marts. Not dollar trees mind you because there everything is a dollar. Dollar general or family dollar. You can find anything at these stores. ANYTHING. If you cant find it they know just where it is an it is all cheap. Come to find out that after getting lost a bit that Mardee was actually going to the one I had used to frequent back when I was living at the hostel. I actually knew how to get there, albeit a long way. So we searched for everything on her list and found everything but febreeze. There were air fresheners but their scent just wasn't very good. On our way back we stopped in a mini restaurant that did not even have any seating that sold hot dogs. Even vegetarian hot dogs which had caught Mardee's eye. I was all for some french fries. after chatting with the guy at the counter for a while and him letting Mardee try all of the sauces, he ended up giving us my french fry for free. Happy birthday to me!!! Got back to her place to eat the food. watched some youtube videos until nearly 10pm when i realized how late it was getting and headed home where host mom and Ramon were watching a sad movie called the White Masai. I finished watching it with them and headed off to bed. It had been a good day.

Wednesday
I forgot to mention that I did call that job number on Tuesday. We set up an "interview" of sorts for Wednesday at 6pm in the park. I was a bit of a bum for most of this day. Left the house to figure out where I was supposed to be meeting at 6 and did some summer reading and linguistics review in Retiro Park which was lovely especially with all the kids around trying to pet squirrels. Went back home ate lunch, took a nap, fidgeted and then set off for the interview. I got there early (as usual) which would not have been so back except for this was the day after three weeks that males decided to take notice of me. Some tried to talk to me on the way in the park but I ignored them, partially because I was on a mission to get a job and partially because they were speaking English to me and that insults my intelligence and partly because I was flat out not interested. I then choose my little bench to sit on and wait at and another guy comes up to me and starts talking. At least this time it is in Spanish. He didn't really get the hint that I was not interested either.I was trying to be nice about it saying that it was not a good time I was meeting someone about a job and I didn't know what the woman even looked like so I really needed to be focused. And in the middle of this joy the originally English yelling dude comes up and informs me that I was rude to have not talked to him. So sorry. Apparently when a man is yelling at me I must automatically stop what I am doing to attend to him. Nope. Not going to happen. So Spanish speaking dude finally leaves me be. And for like 2 minutes I'm alone fidgeting and wondering when the mom is going to get there. Then English speaking dude comes back and starts chatting. I tell him the same thing. So he says well let me know if he doesn't show up and we can get to know each other. Ok. Sure. Sounds good. Please get here woman! And she does and I am so relieved. We walked around and chat, find a place and sit for a while. She shows me pics of the baby boys. After like 30 minutes she heads home since it is time for the babysitter to leave and I promised to let her know my schedule as soon as I find it out. Crossing my fingers at this point. head home and kill time until group meet up. It was arranged to meet at a bar to watch the soccer game. I detest soccer. But it wasn't like I had offered any ideas. I got lost and eneded up meeting Mardee and Niki and Mardee's place. I was wearing another new pair of shoes and had re-torn open the place on my left foot. Great. Painful. Thank, God that Mardee brought bandaids! We got there. It was dark and loud and impossible to meet anyone. When the 90 minutes of soccer agony ended some went out to club or who knows what and didn't get back til 5am. It was already almost 1am and I had no idea had to use the night bus so I just went back on the metro before it closed down at 1:30am.

Thursday/Friday
Thursday I did a dry run to campus to see how long it would take to get there. Mardee was to meet me at the school and then we would explore the area. She might have got lost and I might have wandered around and played on my phone for over an hour waiting, but hey that's life. When she arrived I took her by the school since I had walked to the metro stop she was coming out of and then we decided that food was needed. Well she needed food from not having eaten like anything that day and I just wanted to explore. It was an awkward time of day to be searching for food. Most restaurants were closed for preparing dinner in a few hours while others might be opened but did not have gazpacho and patatas bravas like she was looking for. We eventually settled on a place that met all needs. They were very nice too and flattering. I just ordered a chocolate milkshake, but they gave me some bread for free. It was nice and I decided I would find my way back there one day.
Onto Friday. Woke up jittery about the first day of orientation and tried to assemble anything I might need. The day before it had taken me 37 minutes to get to school but that included a little getting lost time. I decided to give myself an hour to get there since I would be going earlier in the morning and was not sure when morning metro rush hour might be. I got there within 30 minutes. Dang. The university people kind of looked at me like "why are you here so early?" Ok, they did not just look they actually said we aren't starting for a while maybe you want to walk down the street and get some coffee or something? Too bad I don't drink coffee. Thankfully Mardee showed up only 5 minutes later and we decided to go to a pharmacy together and get some bandaids for my still messed up foot. By the time I got back to the university a few more people were there and it was less awkward. The university actually had some coffee and juice set out along with some little food. So people mainly drank and maybe ate fairly quietly and we stayed in groups of epople that we already knew for the most part. It was an uncomfortable wait. Especially since we never went into the building until like 10:15 instead of 9:30 like we had been told. Apparently they had built in time for socializing and coffee. Wish I'd known - I would have slept in a wee bit more and gotten there closer to 9:45 instead of 9am.
There were about three different sessions in the morning though all in the same room and with 1 fifteen minute break in between. That 12:30 break was when I scarfed down some of the food I had brought as lunch not knowing what the schedule would be like. Interesting conversation during break. The last session was a program specific meeting so we split up between literature, linguistics and teaching. Then we finished up our last hour and a half. At this point I was starving. I finally knew my schedule and did not care for it but at least I knew it. Sleepy. So I headed home. Took a siesta. Received the printer I had ordered online and went searching for an electronics store to buy a printer usb cable so I could actually use it. No luck. Ended up going to a chinese store to find a cable. Found one. Got home and it didn't work. Crap. I can't return anything to those stores :( There went 5 euros. Me and Ramon spent over and hour working on it even after I had looked everything up online that verified that the cable I bought was just worthless. On the bright side, to tear me away from my computer angst, host mom and Ramon took me to the movies. That was quite an experience. Theaters are tinier and more expensive. The popcorn is not buttery. How do I know about the popcorn? Because host mom insisted on buying me some after not letting me pay my entrance into the movie. So sweet! The movie was "Your sister's sister" but in Spanish they had made it "El amigo de tu hermana." This theater plays all movies in their original language with subtitles (if original language is not Spanish). So I did not have to do any thinking at all during the movie since it was in English. I did however read the subtitles the whole time because how they choose to translate fascinates me. I should also add in that the theater assigns seats - you have no say in the matter. Strange for me since in the states getting to the theater early means picking the seats you like the best. Not here. It was still nice and I decided I would have to return the favor one day and take my host mom to the movies. We got back by 10. I'd eaten an entire medium popcorn and was full so only they ate dinner. Messed with the laptop some more and then called it a night. I got an invite to go out but at that point I was in pj's with zero desire to metro or figure out the night bus.

The River Thames & the Rain in Spain (part 2)

Now for the completion of the mini London trip. Friday night it was rough to sleep. My bed was creaky so I felt guilty moving any because i might bother someone else and the lights were on til past midnight. Thankfully I had brought my eye-mask that Delta had given me in first class on the trip over to Madrid. So I put in on and did my best to sleep. I woke up promptly to my alarm. I don't know if Iphones can even have their alarms go off in just vibrate but if they do I'd like to find out how. It didn't seem to make a difference though. Everyone still seemed pretty asleep. I tried to dress and get my things ready as quickly and quietly as possible and find my way downstairs to breakfast. The tour bus would pick me up at 7:55 at the Paddington Hilton, my goal was to be there at 7:45am. Main problem: breakfast didn't start being served til 7:30am. I was there early and as soon as I was able to I got a bowl of coco-krispies and some apple juice. Figured out the toaster thing but a little late and did not know where the butter was so that was not the best moment. Did get some little cheeses, a couple of which I tucked away in my purse for the journey. By 7:40am I was on my way to pick up. Turned out really easy and got on the bus with no problems. The bus then dropped everyone off at Victoria Station to find their gates for respective tours. Got to my gate and felt a bit lonely. But no fear. Two girls from Boston noticed my ticket was the same as theirs and we started chatting. The three of us would become tour buddies. Sadly though since I was the only person on the tour who was traveling by them self my seat was chosen for me. :/ Right across from a couple with a two year old. Oh goody. The bright side was that I was just two rows in front of my new Boston friends.

Before we could get off the bus at Windsor Castle we were lectured on how much time we had and that we needed to buy lunch there and that it should be a cold lunch and blah blah blah. I immediately grouped up with Holly and Jay and we set out. We took pictures of everything. We tried to go to Queen Mary's doll house but the line was a little long and when the tour guide saw us in line for it he told us we should forget it. Sad day. At least we did get a picture with one of the guards.

Poor guards. To stand there all day in the sun perfectly still in those uniforms while thousands of tourists stand beside them and take pictures. Sounds miserable. When our time was nearly up we had top scramble to figure out the way back to the bus and make our food stop. The line was already getting big when we got in line. At least the prices were pretty good. I would have loved to have one of the meat pies and mashed potatoes but I figured I should obey and only get cold food. And back on the bus for another couple of hours with the two year old whining/laughing/screaming and his parents changing his diapers in the bus while the tour guide rambled on and on and on and on. I really have no idea how the man was able to talk so much. But he was. It did not help that I was getting cranky from lack of sleep. I tried to content myself with taking pictures outside the window which was quite picturesque. We were on our way to Bath, home of Jane Austen. That would have been amazing to go to the Jane Austen museum! But we barely had much time to get through the roman baths. We got 1 hour. And tour guide did kind of threaten to leave us in Bath if we were late. Even told us the price of a bus ticket back to London. My trio was not going to be late. Consequently we rushed through the baths snapping pictures left and right and trying to listen to some of the commentary. It was a bit of a whirlwind that ended with us having 5 minutes to buy things at the gift shop. What caught my eye and emptied my wallet? A glass bottle of "genuine" Bath Waters. Yes. I paid 4.30£ for this water which is not drinkable but can supposedly be rubbed into the skin for its "healing" affects. What I did not focus on until after was that it has over 100mL in it. I don't have checked baggage. It was me and my backpack and I had to make it through security with this souvenir. Crap. I could only say a prayer

that I wouldn't be stopped and have my pricey water taken from me. Of course, the more pressing matter after I realized this was to get myself to that bus on time. And success. Granted the bus was a few minutes late due to there not really being any parking. So much for being on time. It was about 4 at this point and there was only one stop left: Stonehenge. I'd always heard about it and was pretty excited to see it. After all, I chose the Stonehenge tour over the central London tour just to see this much talked about ruin. The bus ride went somewhat smoothly. Got there and were told we got a whole 45 minutes. This turned out to be more than enough since you cannot even touch the rocks. Nope my friends it is roped off so that for detail you have to use camera zoom. I contented myself with taking a picture from every possible angle until my camera died. Then off to the gift shop to get a couple small, non-liquid trinkets. At this point I was also pretty hungry so when I saw a food stand I went for it. I also got hot food, namely a beef pastry which was quite delicious! It would be all I had for dinner so I am glad that I got it over ice cream. The 2 hour drive home was accented by the tour guide helping each person figure out where they needed to get off whether at Victoria Station or one of the 3 other drop off points. Yes, hotel pick-up does not mean hotel drop-off as well. Dang. Thankfully Holly and Jay's hotel was close-ish to mine and we got off in the rain together and wandered back asking for directions every so often. When we parted ways I was on my own to figure out the last 10 minutes. It turned out not to be too bad, just a couple wrong turns. And I managed to get into a souvenir shop to buy some gifts for people back home. And of course because I really wanted to test security I bought one of my grandmother's a fridge magnet that was also a half snow globe. Special. For myself a Paddington bear not that I've ever read the books but I came to the conclusion that I had stayed in Paddington so I needed a corresponding trinket. New goal: read one of the books. He is a cute little thing that now sits on my desk next to my "Bath Waters."

So yes, made it back to the hostal. Paid for a towel so I could shower and paid 3£ for internet connection. After taking a shower I tried to get my things as organized as possible for the next day so that I would not be too loud in the morning. Then it was off to texting my mom through whatsapp, playing words with friends and checking facebook. Found out that the padres are getting a new dog. Mom sent me a pic of the little setter cutie who reminds me of Bandit. I christened him Charlie and everyone approved. In ten months I will meet him - by then I should be ready for a new dog :) I feel like I need a pet fish or something here. I digress. Chatted until I went to sleep and then was woken up by people coming back at 3am. 3am!!!! So chatted a little more with mom and back to sleep.

I've been working on this off and on all day and part of yesterday.....I'll finish this later but will put at least this much up.

The River Thames & the Rain in Spain (Part 1)

It has definitely been a while since I have been on here. Probably should have worked on this sometime on Sunday or yesterday but since I didn't I guess better late than never. I'll back up all the way til last Thursday. After writing frantically I lugged my suitcases most of the way down the hall and tried to get the door open, which didn't work too well. Thankfully one of the hostal employees helped me get my stuff out the door and downstairs. And there was my taxi guy all ready to go. We had a bit of fun trying to get my stuff in the back of the taxi but eventually it worked. I was so thankful for his help that I didn't bother to complain about being overcharged. You see he had put the starter fare as the fare for going to/from the airport and not just in city. Makes a difference of 3 euros. I'm just considering it a tip for getting me to my host mother's and then getting my suitcases to the door of the building. I rang the buzzer for her apartment and said a simple "Soy Kathryn" and the door downstairs was unlocked. Three elderly people who also live in the building saw me struggling with all my things and the man proceeded to help me get my stuff over the ramp and towards the elevator. One of the women with him shook her head and laughed saying that he is ever the gentleman but getting too old for such things. Somehow got all my stuff into the elevator which is pretty tiny and got to the 3rd floor. By the time I got the door open there was host mommy marveling out how I managed so much stuff. She is a very nice 80 year old woman. She showed me my room and gave me a mini tour of the apartment and even said I could start living here that very day. I thanked her but declined since I still had my backpack at the hostal and had paid for Thursday already. Nonetheless she let me unpack all of my things in my new room and showed me the router (yes wifi!!!!!) that she really doesn't know how to use. I got the code written down and hopped online after turning the router on. I will say that there is no ac. But it does not matter because I have a great window right by my bed that I leave open at all times and a nice breeze comes in. There is a fan for me to use when I want it but I haven't needed it with my window. I'm sleeping quite well now. :)

Friday I woke up kind of nervous. I knew how to use the metro but I had never taken it to/from the airport before. My flight was not until 3pm and check out was at 12pm. It wasn't too easy to kill time without my laptop, so when my phone was fully charged I grabbed my backpack and purse and went to grab a tortilla espanola next door. I'd been eating them for the last couple of days and they are good and pretty cheap at this place. It did dishearten me a bit when I found a hair in this piece. Yuck! I picked around it but had definitely lost my appetite. I would have just stopped eating it completely but I knew dinner was a long way away and that my flight was not going to be giving any on flight snacks unless one paid dearly for them.

Not even a measly cup of water. Turns out it is not too hard to get to the airport. I had to changed over a couple lines which can be like going through a maze in the big metro stations but it worked out. When I got to the airport I had to pay the supplemental airport metro fee of three euros before I could enter the airport. At this point all I knew was the terminal and the letter section of the airport I was going towards. No gate number. I also chose to do the online boarding pass on my phone because I didn't have an easily accessible printer to print out my boarding pass. It was cool to scan the image on my phone and go through security like that but at the same time a bit of a pain to continually reload it and not know how much data I might be using. So I just wandered around the somewhat confusing airport until I found H. And then as I was walking around in there wandering which gate was mine even though I still had like 2 hours I found an Iberia board that showed flights and their gates. Yes! To get to my gate I had to go through a tiny passport control. The man looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to go to my gate so early. He even told me that there was only one bathroom and coffee shop in my gate area and that once I entered I could not leave. Only one coffee shop? The horror! Good thing I don't drink coffee. And I figured if I was stuck with nothing else to do I might actually complete some more summer reading. Indeed I did. Filled up my water bottle in the bathroom. Got a lollipop for the cool machine and spent the time until boarding (and til other people from my flight entered the area) reading #3 of 4 chapters I need to have done by Friday.

Landed in Heathrow airport without any trouble and started the next adventure: finding my way onto the Heathrow express to Paddington station. In order to do this i had to make it through customs, find an atm to get some pounds and then purchase a ticket. I scrambled to get the info card filled out before I got to the desk. I failed. But the woman was nice and helped me finish it when I showed her all of my printed papers my mom had put in a nice little envelope marked "London" before I ever even left for Madrid. She might have thought me dumb because she had to repeat some questions a couple of times for me to understand. It was tiredness and the accent that kept me from comprehending but I wasn't going to tell her that. When she gave me my stamp and let me through I tried to follow people and signs to find what I needed. It ended up being me asking 3 different people for help. When I got to the atm it was right across from a Krispy Kreme which filled my heart with joy!

I didn't get a doughnut but figured on my way back to Madrid maybe. After the atm it was not too bad finding the ticket counter I needed and then the train. Though being so nervous when I got on it I did ask a girl near me if I was indeed on the Heathrow towards Paddington. She affirmed it and I relaxed a bit. Pretty short ride and then I made it to Paddington. As I left the station it was drizzling and this seemed very appropriate to me like the London in my imagination goes hand in hand with drizzle. I attempted to follow my printed out directions to the hostel. And though streets are better marked in London than in Madrid I struggled. By the grace of God I found Westbourne Terrace and consequently Equity Point hostel. Check it went pretty smoothly though he was a bit annoyed that I gave him 40£ to pay my balance of 30.60£. I said sorry but the atm does not give smaller bills than that. I think I might have actually had some pound coins from buying my train ticket but really did not want to dig through my tiny overstuffed purse to locate them and decipher which coin was worth what amount. Found the room and then spent five minutes figuring out which bed was mine - turns out it was the first top bunk I saw upon entering. There were lockers for each person which I had known about but it had never dawned on me that they wouldn't provide me with a lock for it. So back downstairs to inquire about a lock. There went 3£. I consoled myself with the rip off because I knew that now I wouldn't have to carry around my backpack when I met up with Tom. Put my things away and rearranged my purse and counted down the minutes til I would see my friend. What a wonderful site to walk outside the hostel and look to my left and see Tom walking towards me :) Great reunion! He does not know Paddington very well so we tried our hand at the "tube." First hurdle was getting a ticket.

It was 4.30£ for a one trip ticket or 7£ for a day pass. All fine and good except the machine only took a credit card. I had not brought mine with me because I figured if anything happened to me and my purse got stolen or something then I wanted my card in my locker at the hostel to be able to get more money or whatever. I'd even placed one of the tiny keys for my new lock on my locket chain as a precaution. So I just gave Tom the 7£ and he was nice enough to use his card. We went all over the most touristy part of London near Big Ben and the River Thames. He kept apologizing for not really knowing this area that well but it did not matter to me. Sp I told him that I would incorrectly pronounce River Thames every time he apologized needlessly. And I did. After a while he stopped and all was well. We ventured more on the tube to an area to find something to eat. It was already about 8pmish and we were both hungry. And lost. After walking around for a good 30 minutes we finally found a decent place. called Pizza Express. Apparently they are all over England. Decent prices too. I had canollini (sp?) while he had pizza. We also had an appetizer of dough balls which were wonderful. They came with this very garlicy butter sauce that was divine. Though we were pretty full by the end we still went for dessert. It was called Chocolate Glory and it was glorious. We were still raving about it by the time we got back on the tube towards Paddington to drop me off. It was also at this point that I realize why my left foot was hurting so much. I had worn a pair of my new shoes to London. They had been fine walking in the day before so I figured why not wear them to London? They are cute. Bad idea. It not only gave me a blister but tore it open. Good times. Looked terrible though after I got a bandaid at the hostel and washed it with some water from the sink it was not bad at all. I still like the drama of the one pic though. So being a tad morbid I am putting it on here. Lesson learned: new shoes are not good for traveling and walking around in all over a strange city before being properly broken in.

This concludes part 1 of the London adventure. A full day of touring and getting back to Madrid in part two. I've already been at this like an hour so I need a break. It is my birthday after all so I don't want to spent it sitting in my room all day writing. I'll finish up the chronicles later today or tomorrow :) Thanks for reading!

London Bound

At this point I have thirty minutes before I say adios to my laptop for 3 days. This is going to be difficult. I have gotten way too used to being able to while away the hours watching shows online and now that is just not going to happen for a while...or maybe ever again if host mother does not have wifi. I'll find that out soon I suppose. More importantly I have 30 minutes to chronicle the past couple days before I forget what happened during them. Two days ago I got to spend time with Mardee from my program again which was great. We were planning on going back to Parque del retiro which we did but we also had someone else with us. It is getting really exciting to have people showing up from the program like every day now. So I met with Niki and Mardee and they decided it was time for me to ride the metro. It wasn't bad. The DC metro is a whole lot worse and more expensive. So we got to the park and had a good time. Bought some nice and gawdy fans to keep us cooler and spent a lovely afternoon people watching. They also picked a great lace to eat dinner so I was quite the happy camper. After that got to see Niki's apartment which is quite nice - really hoping my room is as good as hers :) . At that point it was getting later and Mardee helped me metro back to the hostal. I'm excited that Niki is going to live fairly close to me.

Yesterday was not too bad either. Went to class and had a great time as usual though I was a bit tired. Afterwards I looked a little nuts when I went into a bank and asked them to exchange 300 euros that I had gotten from the atm into smaller bills. It had given me all 50's and those are not conducive to getting around easily. The guy was great and just did it. Yay! By the time I got back towards my hostal I was hungry and stopped into a little restaurant. The prices are a little cheaper if one eats at the bar instead of a table so I sat at the bar and ordered a tortilla espanola which was quite delicious -and it even came with a piece of bread. I was feeling cheap and didn't order anything to drink since I could go to my hostal and get water from my room. It ended up costing only 2 euros which is cheaper than the 3 euros it was supposed to cost in the menu. I questioned the price and he repeated 2 so I decided to be happy about it being less. Got a quick skype session in with Jeffery and thought I'd take a siesta when I got a text to meet up with Mardee. Of course I said yes! We started out going to a clothing store for her to see if she could find a skirt. I found two pairs of shoes that were on sale 2 for 10 euros. Score!!! When she went to try on a cute onesie we had found all went downhill. A cockroach was on it!! So nasty. To help with her traumatic experience I walked us to Corte Ingles and we found her peanut butter. Glad to know I never have to be without the stuff. Then on to the metro which was basically attached to the supermercado underground. So strange to me. Once we got to the Marriot she is staying at we were both hungry. There was a nice little place next door to her that we went to. They even have Greek food. I wanted one thing on the menu but since we were trying to eat dinner at the oh so early hour of 6pm we could only order "tapas." So I got a burger and fries and we split some hummus with the most delicious homemade bread straight out of the oven. It was lovely to hang out in the hotel for a while after that. Very nice. Her bathroom is bigger than my room in the hostal. No lie. By 9pm it was hard to leave that haven of ac and happiness but I knew it might take me a while to get back on the metro since it would be the first time I ever rode it all by myself. Thankfully Mardee has taught me well enough that I mde it back even switching lines without much trouble at all. This bodes well for me taking the metro to the airport tomorrow.

Ok it's 3:30 - taxi is supposed to be here by 3:45. Dang. That does not leave much time to finish this up and haul all my stuff downstairs including the flowers I bought my host mother as a gift. Quick recap of today. Tried to get money out of an atm this morning didn't work. Tried another worked less well. Made it to school and checked my bank account and discovered atm 1 charged me the money but never gave me the money. Crap! Ran to class and was about in tears but didn't want to miss anything. By 11:30when I got my break I felt a little better because I'd been able to text with my mom who lucky for me and not so good for her had not been bale to sleep and was therefore awake at 3am to be talking to me. Got to the bank during the 30 minute break and in my Spanish that still needs some improvement explained my issue. Well, they gave me all the info they could and even gave me a print out of the botched transaction so I could call my bank in the US. So my bank now knows what is going on but I stil need to take money out of an atm to make rent and i can't just get the money out of another atm because I have a $500 daily withdraw limit and the bank thinks I've already taken out $315. Eep. At least when the bank opened in the US I was able to call and talk to a person who is working on all of it. Hoping that it will all get taken care of soon. On a brighter note I went back to my tortilla espanola place and got two of them as take-out. Had one for lunch and will get to have the other for dinner. Yay! Wish I could keep rambling but taxi SHOULD be here in 10 minutes and me trying to lug 150 pounds of luggage is not only a comical site but quite a process for me. So farewell for a couple of days. I'm sure I will have plenty to say about meeting my host mother and my trip to London when I get back to my computer and (please please please, Lord!) wifi.

Monday Blues

Yesterday I got a tad lazy and didn't write. It was a good day though. Got to meet another classmate and go to the Rastro market. I'd read in multiple different places that it was a must-do thing as long as one is wary of possible pick pockets. Amazingly even with making a couple wrong turns my post it notes directions and slightly improving directional skill got us to the market. Most of it is like a huge flea market with clothes and souvenir stuff. I personally really want a pair of these pants that so many people are wearing that are kind of baggy and remind me of Jasmine's from Aladdin. It's a need that must be fulfilled in the upcoming weeks. The other two found things that they liked or wanted pretty early on but it wasn't until we came to a side street where it started looking more like yard sale that I found something for myself. In a box of books I found a few children's books from a series called "Las tres mellizas" (the three triplets). They are slightly juvenile but what makes them great is that each book covers a different historical legend or book like Don Quixote or the knights of the round table. The first half of the book is an adventure with the triplets and those literary characters while the second half has all kinds of facts and research about he authors and the history surrounding each work. Really neat and I figured great for my future students. So I bought the 4 that they had for 2 euros a piece which was not bad considering I can't find them on ebay - only dvd's for like $10 or so. Maybe I will get lucky and find more from the series at a good deal.

We had lunch at this place that looked promising but the service was horrible. I'm not sure whether service in a country that doesn't do tips is just naturally bad or if being American pin points me for extra awful service. It took ages to get the food and it wasn't even that fantastic. The best part of it was not only the leaving but that they had a bathroom (albeit nasty) that I was able to use. Sheesh! What's the point of eating out if the overall experience is going to be so bad? I'll stick to my Jif peanut butter. By 3pm we were back near my street and we decided to call it a day. I was ready for a splendid nap. It was a true long siesta for me. Then I filled the rest of my day between skyping and watching some "Hot in Cleveland." Yes, I am getting a splendid cultural experience here.

Class today almost made me want to be back with angry waitress from yesterday. They switched our teacher and put us with another one and three new students. Ugh I was miserable for the entire time. The woman is smart and nice but just paled in comparison to Paco our beloved profesor. Ok. So I didn't actually think she was that nice and I left class with questions that I now must rely on google to answer. Not amused. Grammar worksheets? Really? Add to that not having enough copies for everyone and you have a recipe for boredom. I don't like to write on my handouts in general because i always look at it as materials for my own classroom but on top of that when I do not even have my own copy of course I'm not writing on it. Teacher was not amused. Kept telling me and my classmate from last week that we needed to write it down so she could see we were getting it. Please. Imperfect subjunctive in condicional phrases? Boring. Not exactly something that's hard to grasp. Especially after drilling it. I require more real world context and conversation practice at this point in my Spanish career. Another fun fact about class? She wrote down everything we said and then had the class correct every single one of our errors. Tell me how this is conducive to getting students motivated to talk? I didn't feel comfortable asking questions. She loved the three Italian students even though she continually had to chide them to speak in Spanish and not Italian. She actually told me and my classmate that those three should catch on to the new form easily because of their linguistic background but that she would have to see me and Katrina write it down so she could make sure we could produce the form. Katrina did the exact same worksheet two weeks ago with Paco.

Oy! Needless to say we were less than impressed and want Paco back. We relayed this to the director of educational blah blah at the school. Paco saw us and smiled. I think he loves the idea of our devotion to him and his teaching style. But honestly we are paying good money to take these classes we ought to be with someone who we get a lot out of. I learned one thing today. 1! Not even something that helps me all that much either. Katrina, Tomo and I did our best to plead our case. For some reason they elected me the spokesperson for our cause. Still don't know why. The director listened to us and seemed quite displeased with our dissatisfaction because this woman is such a great teacher. Sure. She's smart but we don't click. She tried to tell us that we couldn't possibly know after one day. Yeah right. I knew after 30 minutes with Paco that I was going to be happy. I said it too. Then she tried to turn it into a life lesson about how you go out into the streets and there are the different people and blah blah blah. That's all fine and good and it is important to know that in life you must learn to deal with different people. At this point I might have gotten tastefully sassy and stated that yes that is so but that I am not paying anyone in the streets for an education. That woman probably doesn't think too highly of me at this point though my classmates seem to adore me more for it. So more blah blah blah she will see what can be done but no promises. This probably means we are stuck with Monica and not only this but that Monica is going to find out about our mini mutiny and class could be worse tomorrow. I think if it is I might just ask for a refund of my money for the rest of my unused classes. I'll use the money to buy a grammar book and study it in Parque del Retiro because grammar lessons are all I'll get with the new teacher anyways. Rawr it just upsets me. I now feel even more convicted about how I need to be for my future Spanish students.

Ok. That felt good to rant and get it all out. I'm just stressed and wanting to learn as much as possible before my grad classes start. On the bright side I will be hanging out with the new female classmate here in Madrid tomorrow. Today got a little out of whack so it didn't happen but I look forward to going out and about some tomorrow. And you know what I just need to pray and trust God that He will take care of this school situation. It's all a learning experience. So as I continue to adjust I will keep writing and keeping loved ones and readers alike informed of my triumphs and misadventures while here in the toasty city of Madrid.

Lazy Day

So today I am having one of those days where I really do not feel like doing anything. Almost didn't feel like bothering with a shower even but somehow it feels nicer to chill in my room all clean so I went for it anyways. I'm constantly being told that I only have a limited time in Madrid and I need to be getting out there and doing stuff everyday. Well, I understand the argument but at the same time I think it is about time I take a mental health day. Feeling drained from one hurdle after another and I'm tired. Another super hot day outside (not that I've walked out in it) and I just do not feel up to it. I'm pretty content to just stay in my room. Relax. Rejuvenate. De-stress. Yup, I only have like 10 more months here. But that does not mean that I need to completely drain myself both physically and emotionally. I would be inside probably if I were back in the states. Just not willing to feel guilty about having a whole day of just gathering my thoughts and trying to feel better (forgot to mention that I've been feeling sick the past couple of days). So here is to relaxing and knowing that tomorrow I will get back out there and walk around, sweat and explore. This isn't isolation it's introspection :)
But for something slightly more entertaining than my self affirmation of why I am not leaving my room today I did go out a bit last night. Mateo and I met up to do a tour about Madrid and Flamenco. We were the only two people in our group. At least it wasn't just me and a tour guide. We met up early so that we would be sure to get tickets - not that it ended up mattering. So we decided to search around a bit and buy some water before the tour started since the weekend heat was already kicking in and we knew we would be walking around quite a bit. Ended up having to pay 2.50 for cold water. Yikes! Can you say rip-off?! I dealt with it because I was thirsty, I don't get cold water at my hostal because of the no fridge thing, and I had gotten my under 25 discount again for the tour with a savings of .72. This would have been even better if we had not found a "Museo del Jamon" that was selling the same 1.5L bottles of cold water for 1 euro five minutes later. Oh well. At least we each got a little sandwich for a euro each which is a great price. Come to think of it I never finished mine - wonder if it is still any good? Then off to our tour. It was nice because since we were such tiny group we could ask any questions that came to us whether they dealt with flamenco or not. Found out all about the Christmas market that will start up in December and some other end of year traditions that I will most certainly want to take part in. Most of the establishments we stopped at even let us peep in and see the architecture since there were only three of us. Outside of the most popular one we even saw the dancers taking a quick smoke break before their show started. I definitely want to see one of the flamenco shows at some point. The best one will cost 45 euros (eek) but this does include a meal. Undecided as to whether I want to pay less and see another flamenco show or spend the extra amount and see what is considered the best.
Once the tour ended Mateo and I found and opened ice cream place and fulfilled our need for ice cream. I got mine in a cute little plastic bowl since they don't have cake cones and that is the only kind of cone I eat. I still have the bowl. Sure I looked special carrying it back to my hostal last night, but I wanted to keep it. My flavor was banana split and it actually did tasted like bananas covered in chocolate. My only complaint is that the one scoop was not nearly big enough :) . Also read an email while sitting and eating the ice cream in la plaza mayor from one of the other students in my program who is now here. So hopefully the two of us will be meeting up this weekend. That would make tomorrow quite nice. Granted, I could always get a message from her today to go out and I probably would still say yes. That is all I can think of that is worth noting. The rest of this day is going to be spent napping, reading, catching up on shows and being thankful that I have time to just sit and collect myself.

1 Week Anniversary

It occurred to me while I was in class this morning that I have been in Madrid for a week now. Kind of crazy to think about seeing as it seems like so much longer. It's felt more like a month to be honest yet August is still only half way over. I suppose though one grad classes start things will start flying by - I hope so at least. Well, maybe I just want time to not feel unnecessarily slowed down or sped up. No idea what I am trying to articulate at this point so I am just going to give up on this idea completely now. Today was pretty boring. Got up a little late. Didn't close my water bottle all the way before putting it in my backpack so it spilled everywhere and my hostal sheets are now stained pink from the water getting in the highlighter I had in my back pack (and I am kind of embarrassed about asking for new sheets now :/ ). Finally made it out the door to class having only eaten a kiwi, one that as delicious as it was did not satisfy my hunger. Went to class and dreamed of food while enjoying a movie and discussion. And might I say that it seriously irks me that wikipedia does not have a plot summary of "El Metodo?" I want to know now how the movie ends instead of having to wait for the movie completion tomorrow. I have an idea of how it might end but it's a trick plot so there is no telling. After class decided I wanted one of the welcome folders they give to students and that I had somehow been deprived of. It actually does have some info like the wifi password in it but I also just wanted the pretty folder since I rationalize I did pay for it. Then walked around and found a place to eat at with my classmate Michele. Oh the glory of cooked food! I tried paella for the first time and enjoyed it though I had to pick out all the seafood. And by the time I was done with the second course of over oily chicken I was pretty full but still accepted dessert since I had to ay for it anyways as part of the menu del dia. I got ice cream. It was quite nice since I've been wanting ice cream for a while now. Granted I don't really want the wrapped up cone kind I want the scooped out gellato (?) but hey it was still cold and yummy. Stopped back by my favorite chinese store and got some nail polish remover since my re-departure manicure has definitely cracked away and also got a couple other things including a spoon to make kiwi eating an easier and less sticky experience. More liters of water though this time .24€ which was even better than last time. But it was not until returning to the hostal that my day reached it's climax. For at this time as I say my good afternoon to the receptionist she informed me that my package had arrived. Hello peanut butter and kix cereal!!!! BEST early birthday present ever. I'm very content with my peanut butter and thankful to be able to make a more normal sandwich than the nutella ones I've been eating. Chocolatey sandwiches for a meal are just a bit too out there for me. And there you basically have my day.

I suppose I should add a brief commentary about last night. I did in fact meet up with Mateo. We wandered a little bit aimlessly in northern Madrid until deciding to head towards the Real Madrid soccer stadium and consequently see the building where NYU in Madrid is and we will be having orientation/classes within a couple weeks. It definitely made it more real to see the building. Of course by the time I walked back to my hostal it was like 11:30pm and my legs were killing me from walking for a total of maybe 5 hours yesterday give or take (probably only give). Can't reasonably walk there from host mother's but I'll survive :)Pics of the plaques outside the building below. Much love to those in the land of ac and peanut butter, and anyone not in the United States who reads this blog <3