classes, trips, and a whole lotta nothing

Hey all- good news, I so far have passed four of my five classes with fairly high marks....a miracle in my eyes. I would have easily taken a D so I was pretty much shocked to get the grades I did.

So far this new semester my classes are 10002923 times better than last semester so that is GREAT news. I am taking Spanish Literature, Ethnology (is that the word in English?) of South America, Spanish in Business, Ethnolgy of Mexico, and Spanish Grammar. I really enjoy the "etnologia" classes since they are the study of cultures and traditions in society. Super interesting to me after traveling.

Even better, I planned my first few trips of this semester! My friend Michael and I are flying up to Asturias in the north of Spain for a weekend at the start of Spring Break. I am soooo excited as Asturias is filled with mountains and our hotel in the mountain is a 1.5 hour hike from civilization!!! I am so lucky I found such a great travel buddy who is up for "small town" travel and a little hiking in the mountains and on the beaches, too, we hope! We both cannot wait!!!

Then, my friends Andy and Maeve from Ireland (met in Malawi) invited the whole "African gang" to their house in Dublin in May! It will be so odd that most of the group who planned the World Aids Day event will be back together...in the first world nonetheless! We are all really excited to see each other. Needless to say, we have fairly stong bonds after our experiences together.

Hmm, I finally bought a comforter for my bed...in the past 3 year I've never been in one spot more than 5 months so I finally ditched the sleeping bag I had been sleeping in (right now my mom is giving me that "Bailey, what the heck were ya thinking?!" voice) and bought the IKEA comforter. Not gonna lie, the all you can drink soda, sweedish meatballs, and all you can eat ice-cream is a huge draw. Ok, the ice cream isn't REALLY all you can eat but FYI, if you get a spoon you can scrape it out of the cone and fill-er-up again!

haha wow, I just wrote about my classes and my comforter....I actually just bored MYSELF. It was a good weekend, went out with some Spanish friends, went to a French bday party, and my roomie brought me back chocolate from Paris this weekend...finally catching on about how to win over an American!

Hope you are all warm and dry and not shoveling...but that's unlikely. Sorry for that. So come and visit before July 1st!!!!

good student

Well...I think this might be a good "learning" experience for me in that I may very well fail my first class ever. No joke. I know we all say "oh, I'm going to fail" but let me give you an idea of a Spanish test:

The professor arrives 20 minutes late to class. She then makes an inapropriate joke about Valentine's day and being relaxed for the test. Hands out the test. In the middle of the it, a Spaniard starts to cry it was so hard. She trys to get up and leave but the professor (who has been on her cell phone the whole time) pushes her back into her seat and tells her she cannot leave. The professor then dissapears for 5 mintues while everyone else in the room whips out their notes to cheat "muy rapido". The professor returns with a beer and a pack of cigs and hands them to the girl and tells her to relax.

Ok you might think I am kidding...heck, I barely believe it myself but it's a true story.

Then I get home to my apartment and open the door. My roomie has been waiting there to scare me as I open the door. I jump a mile and swear at her...but in Spanish so that was a good reaction! She then tells me she has been waiting for me to come home to tell me about her dream:

We are both in a bathtub. Yeah. Then suddenly it starts to fill with water and I scream that we are going to drown because I have my boot on (did I tell you I have a fracture in my foot? yeah, I'm 'booted' for a while). Anyways, Andrea, my roomie, then decides she will not allow us to die and saves us both. Then she woke up. I was laughing at how random she is until she says: "but wait, Bailey, I have some bad news....you still had your accent. But don't worry, I'm sure it's hard to lose it, even for a dream." This is the same girl who told me her full name last weekend; it took a mintue and half to get through what she could remember. The Spanish keep ALL names so she actually has like 15 last names, that she can remember, two of which are the same! So when she made fun of me for making pancakes, I just said "laugh all you want, you have two of the same last names "don Manuel, don Manuel!" Her family is coming to visit tomorrow and her sister is just back from Wisconsin so I can't wait to talk to her.

Anyways, so much has been happening I don't even know where to start so I'll leave you with that for now. Now that I have a few free mintues I'll keep posting.

Cambio

What do ya think?

Today a couple of my friends convinced me to go with them to get our hair trimmed. They were like "you should do something crazy." And so I did. I haven't really changed my hair since the 5th grade so I might as well have gotten a perm here in Spain. In Spanish, it was literally like going to the horse races...a total gamble!

After that, my friend Katie, her roomie, and I went to the park to kick around our new soccer ball when a few 70 year old men gave us a huge long speech about how "you Americans and your money come here and act crazy" or something to that extent. It was hard to understand but basically they did not seem content with girls, Americans, playing soccer in the park in their t-shirt and capris. We had a good laugh which just made them more mad.... an interesting day.

Gordita.....quizas.

Well, it's 6am and I'm getting and early start on my favorite day of the year...FAT TUESDAY/MARDI GRAS/GORDO MARTES. In whatever language, you get the idea...the one day of the year you God lets you stuff your face without feeling bad about it. Clearly this is my favorite day of the year to be a Catholic!

I already made plans to have a few girls over for "make your own pizza night". (They learned I can't realllly cook so they've been good to me on having me over for meals lately so I owe them a few) Seeing as today is Super Tuesday AND Fat Tuesday, we will be celebrating our American greatness by wearing sweatshirts, jeans, tennis shoes, and stuffing our faces all day long...to conclude our day, we will head to the polls at midnight here in Madrid to cast our votes in the primary election from abroad. Can you imagine anything more American than this day? I sure can't :)

The elections here are perhaps an even bigger deal than in the states and the candidates are lovingly refered to as "el negrito" y "la mujer" (the black and the woman) FYI- "el negrito" literally means 'the little black' and is also the word the super market uses to sell brownies....PC? I THINK NOT! haha. I giggle everytime I go by that aisle, almost as much as I giggle at the Americans who refer to blacks in Spain as "African-Americans". I'm sure somewhere there is a happy medium regarding PC but I've yet to find it! Either way...I can't believe that by my second presidential election I'm able to vote for a black man or woman....wow!!!

Hmm, not too much new besides that. Oh, I did watch the Spanish "Oscars" called the Goyas with my roomies. Well, I started to until I realized that there are really only like 2 Spanish movies made each year so it's just the same two movies winning OVER and OVER and OVER so I excused myself from that little bonding activity.

So, that is all...have a good, eat lots, and GET OUT AND VOTE!

Busy Week!

Me at Columbus' Tomb....or maybe not since they're not actually sure if he's in there but let's charge you $8 to see it anyways :)

Hey Peeps!

Well, the good news is the Euro to Dollar rate dropped to from $1.54 to 1Euro to $1.48 to 1Euro. Bad news is my plan to become a Coyote Feo dancer to pay my rent is scratched. Due to these turbulent economic times, I will however keep practicing in my room ...just in case.

Exams are this week, which is why I'm writing my blog. Anything to keep from reading about another freaking Spanish king. Seriously, if you're all named Carlos and Felipe I WILL NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT YOU! But, at least I have a 50/50 chance of getting the questions right on the exam by picking one of two names regardless of the century. I've had numerous "study groups" with my friends which usually end up with us just giving up, downing loaves of bread, red wine, and olive oil, and teaching each other all the funny Spanish words we learned that week. I think my roommates think I've become a recluse which is easier than trying to explain I'm only in my room so much because I have the reading level of a third grader and it takes me days to figure out who ACTAULLY won the Thirty Years War. I asked tonight who won a battle and when my roomie replied France, I was surprised to find France was even in the war! I didn't let her know that and represented the USA by saying "oh, of course." Go me!

I kind of messed up my foot while running. Haven't run in almost three weeks now so my marathon plans might be scratched. Went to the free hospital (ghhhettttooo) and they wrapped it in a soft cast, said it might be a tendon and I need an MRI and maybe some sweet crutches. I x-ed THAT idea as soon as I remembered that they don't have crutches in Spain. They all use those little Tiny Tim sticks and hobble around throwing their sticks AND legs everywhere....right, that will NOT be happening. Worse, since no female in this country, maybe continent, is athletic, it will be assumed I fell off the bus or got my American foot caught in a McDonald's deep fat fryer since no other injury is possible in Spain....hence the sticks. I'll keep you updated on THAT situation.

Besides that, life is going great :) Can't wait for some post-exam freedom and new classes. Hope you're all doing well...it's 60 degrees here right now and it's 6am....just wanted to rub that in. Much love!

Mucho que????????

Spain's culture is weird. I tried to convince myself it was "different" and "unique" but today I have finally reached the conclusion it's just odd.

My roommates had a play today that they were all staring in so I wished them "good luck" and then quickly corrected myself to say "break a leg Turns out they are both wrong in Spain. I am supposed to say "lots of s***". Amazingly, this did not surprise me at all. I had just finished reading a magazine that listed the best erotic shops amongst the best restaurants in Madrid. Really? This got me thinking about why I think this country is weird.

-everything closes and life stops between 2pm and 5pm so people can nap.
-There are more legs of ham in stores than there are people.
-People drink more olive oil than water.
-Dog poop is never picked up; apparently it is easier to clean your shoes every night than bend over to pick it up.
- the same teacher who yelled at me for using my PDA to text in class (turned out to be my English/Spanish pocket dictionary) answered her cell phone 5 minutes later.
-50 degrees or below mandates than every Spaniard must complain about the weather and no one understands what I mean by "sunburn".
-the post office workers are NICE!
-Smoking in front of a NO SMOKING sign does not draw attention...neither does lighting up in class.
-McDonald's asked me if I wanted a beer with my Happy Meal.


I could come up with a million more but basically I have learned to go with the flow and never be surprised. Still 8 more hours left before bed...I'm sure lots won't surprise me in between then.

Lo que todos queremos es mas tiempo....

Hey All-

Well what a weekend it was :) My cousin, Jenny, and her husband, Jeff, arrived in Madrid Friday morning and did we ever get a lot done in a few days. We started off by heading the Hard Rock Cafe where Jeff added to his Hard Rock collection. It was amazing for me to have some "real" food for once. Not that I need anymore American food as Jenny and Jeff brought the wonderful goodness that is Sam's Club to Spain: giant Chex Mix, giant Honey Nut Cheerios, and giant maple syrup. We also went to Retiro park on Friday and a Flamenco Show at night.....I was more tired than they were and I wasn't even jet-lagged :) Saturday meant a trip to the Royal Palace, the city center, a wine bar for tapas, and a great day seeing all the tourist spots we could. We hit up the Prado and Reina Sofia to see some amazing art (as well the the President of Peru!) on Sunday after El Rastro (giant flea market). It was so much fun seeing my own city as a tourist and I had an even better time seeing Jenny and Jeff. They are just such great examples and I am lucky to call them my family! A highlight: I managed to learn a lot about wine from the Goforths...port wine, legs, letting it breathe, surface area, etc. Before this weekend my knowledge revolved around who sold the cheapest box :) Hopefully they're caught up on their rest by now...it was a busy weekend.

I was also glad they were here to talk to (in English mind you) as the news about my former coach/teacher surfaced. Pretty tough to handle for everyone who knew him and I hope that by the Grace of God his family can get through this. Thanks for everyone who sent a note or checked in; it really means a lot to have so much love in my life during the tough times.

With exams coming up I know I better go study so I'm off but will keep you all updated.


Lo que todos queremos es mas tiempo....
Tiempo para ponerte en pie...
Tiempo para madurar...
Tiempo para dejar pasar...
el tiempo.