Recently a friend told me that I stink at blogging. Yes, this is
true. My apologies. But I have my reasons, darn it. For one, usually if I think
of something interesting, I’ll tell someone, usually my parents on skype, and
then I’ll think the topic significantly shared, and that’s that. (So I apologize to everyone who’s not my parents and still want to know what I’m up to.) The other this is honestly that I've finally come to the point where I find myself reasonably comfortable and nested where I am. I have my routine. I know where things are in the
supermarket. And I know the supermarket is closed on Sundays. Except for the
first Sunday of each month. I know the metro system and don’t have to plant
myself in front of a map before choosing which way to go. And I know the night
bus system so I can get home safe and sound if I choose not to stay out until
6am. Which is often. Because I’m an old lady. I know which stores I can go to
in my neighborhood to look at trinkets and I know which shops to go to if I
want fresh fruits and veggies. See?? I’m kind of establishing a soft-of life
here! Of course, there are millions of things I still don’t know (My intercambio just taught me the word for "fart". He was like, "How could you not know this?" Well, it's not like I go around accusing others of farting or announcing that I've just farted myself *cough* which I never do anyway *cough* I JUST DON'T TALK ABOUT FARTING, VALE, MIGUEL?!"), but my point is that the novelty of being in a new place
has worn a bit and the oh-my-gawd-I-need-to-blog-about-this moments don’t come as often.
But I promise I’ll try to be better.
So let’s play a little catch-up. If you’re interested in mi
vida, here’s what’s been going on:
- Looks like I’ll be here in Spain for another year! Yay!!
I’ve applied to a different program where I’d have more responsibility and a
bigger role in the classroom, but if I don’t get that, then I’ll renew my position
as an auxiliar.
- I had an interview for a summer camp this past week. It
looks like they want to hire, but they’re not sure if they want me to teach
English or, get this, drama! So it looks like I’ll be here through July. But my
plan is to come home in August, so no need to miss me too much, my loves.
- I’m in the Universidad Complutense choir and we just had
our first semester concert at the end of January.
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| My friend said my roommate and I were super easy to pick out because we were blonde... and smiling. |
Most of the choir members are Spanish, but there are a few
foreigners who are either working or studying abroad. Therefore, out choir director,
Nacho, decided to choose only foreign songs for our next concert! How sweet! So
we have songs from Germany, Venezuela, Poland, Iceland, and the U.S. Speaking
of which, have you ever tried to explain “Shenendoah” to a group of Spaniards?
Good times, I tell ya.
And if you’re interested in chuckle-worthy anecdotes, well, I’ve
never been too good at conveying those, but I’ll give it a whirl:
- I had to ask my directora, or principal, for a
recommendation for my application for next year. All she had to do was fill out
a form saying I was good enough to keep around, with of course, her signature
and the date. I give it to her on Thursday, January 12, my last day at school
for the week. She apparently filled it out the following day and put it in my
mailbox where I found it the following Monday. Everything was filled out great.
Except for the date. Which is kind of important. So I asked her to fill in the
date the next time I saw her and she was like, “Oh yeah! I didn’t want to write
the date because it was Friday the 13th!” Of course!
- I went to a party with my roomies last week and we ended
up at the piso of one of my roomie’s friends. All of these kids said they were
moving out in the upcoming weeks, so we didn’t feel bad about stealing a giant
cardboard pole that they had.
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| I swear. Most of the time I try to blend in and not be a menace. This was not one of those nights. |
We finally made it to the metro and sat down ready to go
home. At one stop, an older couple got on and walked to the side of where I was
sitting and the old lady grabs onto my pole! She looked at me all confused-like
when the pole moved, thinking it should not have done that since most poles on
the metro are stationary. But then she smiled and giggled and all was well. I
love it when old ladies are cute and sweet. Not like this lady:
- I went to my first professional soccer, or shall I say
football, game! One of my friends is a huge fan of Athletic Club Bilbao, so we
went to see them play against Rayo Vallecano. We originally wanted to get the
cheap seats way up high, but they were all sold out when we went, so the
ticketman sold us the next cheapest. Which ended up being the front row!!
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| Thanks ticketman! |
We also ended up sitting right next to a very
angry man with a very colorful vocabulary. “VENGA! CON COJÓNES!” (“Come on! With balls!”) He did not smile the entire game, until
we won at the end. I snuck a shot of him.
In conclusion, life is good. Sometimes I still just stop and think, “Holy shmokes. You are so freaking lucky.”
