Deep breath... long post ahead!

Well yesterday was a bit frustrating… my 12:30 class had been canceled (luckily I actually knew about it beforehand this time so I didn’t make an appearance… just slept in a bit and hung out at the house helping out with Maria) so I wasn’t supposed to have a class until 5:30. The last time I tried to go to the translation class at 5:30, nobody showed up. This time was no different. After about 45min of running around asking various info desks if they knew what was going on, and nobody knew a thing, I gave up and called Merche… we were planning on meeting up to have chocolate con churros.
I made my way to Las Salezas to meet with Merche and Merce, did a little window shopping while waiting for Pedro, went to a few cross stitching stores so they could get some supplies (yes, there are entire stores devoted to cross stitch.. and entire stores devoted to buttons… and entire stores devoted to thread…) then made our way to the confeteria. The “chocolate” was like a really rich and syrupy hot chocolate, and apparently you’re supposed to dip the churros (little fried pastry thingys) into the chocolate and enjoy. I must admit, it was pretty awesome. I was so furious over the not-having-class fiasco, it was nice to just calm down and enjoy.

I emailed the professor of the translation class upon my return to ask him, what is the schedule NOW… apparently I’m not on some email list or something, I have no idea. I feel like I’m the Toby of Oviedo, you know, actually being immersed with the locals instead of hanging out with the international kids all the time… and thus, I have really nothing to do with the international student community here, and they all apparently talk a lot. I have a feeling this is how they are conveying some of these messages. I really don’t have any desire to become a part of it either, because all of the British, Scottish, and Irish students just keep on speaking English, and what good is that to me? Anyway, so I got an email back today and he tells me that on Thursdays the class is in another classroom. Seriously. Apparently even the information desk has the wrong time, place, and day marked down for the class. Sheesh. I just don’t understand how people can tolerate this. No notes on the door, nobody is informed, and no messages from anyone, despite the fact that I KNOW the professor and the international relations office have my contact information.

Today was better though, I went to film class and we watched The Cider House Rules, in Spanish of course. I actually thought it was really good, but I was angry with the chatty guys sitting next to me which made it hard to listen at times. The guy sitting directly to my left I seriously thought was a girl too. Whoops. When he had gotten up during our break, someone asked me if someone was sitting there, and I said yes. He asked who, and I said ‘I have no idea, some girl.” He was that convincing. I had no idea it was a guy until I heard him talk and then I noticed the patchy and pathetic attempt at facial hair on his chin. He was so thin and frail, he would make that woman from Ally McBeal look obese. Not to mention the very well-styled hair down to his chin, and the extremely fashionable clothing with matching belt and shoelaces. Seriously, he had me fooled.

All of the guys here seem really, really effeminate to me. Maybe I am just used to ultra turbo-testosterone men after hanging out with Jay and Cammarata for so long, but seriously… I would lose to 98% of these guys in a female beauty pageant. I mean, for you girls out there that like really well-dressed fashionable and non-threatening men, Spain is where you need to be. Me however… not so much my thing. Personally, I don’t think a guy should spend more time than me doing his hair, and certainly shouldn’t look more feminine in a tight pair of jeans than I do. Just my $0.02.

In addition, just for the record, an American emo kid could beat the crap out of a Spanish metal guy, at least, from what I’ve seen around here. Sometimes I can’t help but recall that excellent Colin Cowherd rant about UVA football. “Virginia Tech would walk up and punch you right in the neck.”

Furthermore, apparently mullets are “super metal/punk.” Yeah, seriously.

So when I returned home from film class, I walked into my room to discover a package had arrived for me from Julie and Cindy! It was full of awesome goodies, chocolates, Cadbury eggs, peeps, even some stuffed peeps which are adorable, a huge box of ringpops and pushpops (which I shared with the kids.. they were very amused by the concept.), and some Elephant-green slippers! Merce was happy to see me actually wearing bedroom slippers around the house… apparently going around barefoot is a bit of a faux pas here. Mint chocolate stuff is so hard to find around here, so I was happy to find a ton of it in my goody-box. It just isn’t that popular here.

Poor Jay is sick with bronchitis and walking pneumonia… so everybody send your good health vibes his way! Merce about died when I told her he asked the doctor if he could still lift the next day, haha… GET BETTER JAY!!!!

In other news, I was trying to finish that green scarf I had started knitting months ago but for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it… I’m continuously tempted to start new projects. So, I finally did start something new, using some maroon and orange yarn I had bought in Christiansburg before I left. Merche thinks the color combination is hideous, but we all know the truth right? Yes, that’s right, maroon and orange is the most beautiful color combination on the planet and in fact, matches EVERYTHING. I taught myself how to slip-stitch knit with two colors at the same time, so the result is really cool. The pattern I was using unfortunately seems to have some errors, so after re-doing the same part about 4 times I decided to just revise it a bit… I think it turned okay thus far anyhow, check it out:




Jay says I must be the oldest lady in the house, you know, knitting and such. Merce seems to want to teach me how to cross stitch, but honestly, while the work is impressive, it doesn't really interest me.

Well I'll leave it at that for now... I wrote most of this earlier today, but since the internet has been really flaky lately... yeah... I really miss reliable internet. I also miss 2-ply toilet paper.