¡Viviendo La Vida Loca!

Woo hoo!!! My sister Mikaela is coming from France to visit me and going to go to Morrocco with my school trip. How cool is that? And Matt may come too. What a great mix of all my different lives!

Okay, well I can't figure out how to make the pictures work within the webpage and I don't feel like taking the time to figure it out. I add captions to the pictures on Ofoto so you can go look up who is who there. I think you need to look at the slideshow view to see the captions.

So much for resolutions. I swore I wasn't staying out past two on school nights anymore. It's just too hard to go to school in the mornings. So what did I do? Stayed out until 5 and skipped my first morning class. Which is okay because it's so slow I can go every other day and be fine.

Last night was really funny. We met up with some guys my friends had met at the gym. (I haven't been once. I am so out of shape it's not even funny.) They were what I expected to encounter more in Spain. Very over the top compliments/pick up lines. "You're so beautiful. You're precious. You would make a perfect girlfriend for me. You have great lips, I want to eat your mouth. (Or something like that, I might have misunderstood.) You look like a princess. If you don't like me, I will throw myself off a bridge." Good God. It's flattering for a while but after three hours, it got a little old. So I told the guy I wasn't into guys right now and went and danced with one of my girlfriends. That's the first time I've used that excuse. It worked quite well though -- regardless of whether he believed me or not. Perhaps I would have been more amused if I had had more to drink but I was stone cold sober and was feeling rather cynical. It's amazing that made it to 5am on 3 drinks. Of course, it helped that we went to a 10:00 movie which got out at 12:30.

This was the second time I've seen Love Actually here, and the second language. This time was in Spanish and having seen it before really helped for the understanding. I think maybe I got about 60% of the dialogue. Which is an improvement over Finding Nemo where I understood about 30%. But that was the first movie I watched in Spanish. I've watched more movies here in two months than I had in the past year. Mona Lisa's Smile was so so. Calendar Girls (not sure of the exact translations of these) was really good and funny. Charlie's Angels was impossible to understand. In America was good but strange. There was some Woody Allen movie that Sam and I saw in English which was okay, but also strange. I can't remember what else. I think we're going to go try to see Lord of the Rings in Spanish one of these days but we'll see if we can fit it in. All of a sudden there seems to be to much to fit in before I leave. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing for so long, having to plan is kind of amusing.

Rather amusing story: about 7 of us went to a Morroccan restaurant the other night and went through a couple of bottles of wine. The food was okay but some of it was cold when it arrived, and mine, while hot was about 20 minutes late. Also, they ran out of the wine we were drinking and brought another one which we had to ask about because the last time, they had switched the wine to one twice as expensive. Anyway, this time, when we finished dinner, they brought out the dessert tray which had a bunch of small bite-sized baclava-type pastries. I asked for one of each which amounted to five. Then eveyone else ordered a couple, and then a couple more. For some reason, it didn't occur to any of us to ask how much they cost. We ate 30. They were €1 each. Ouch. Given that's the second time we've had a slightly sketchy thing happen there, we probably won't go back. Which is unfortunate because it's essentially straight across the street from our residence.

I am so proud of myself! I just sent back a glass of wine in Spanish. (Yes, I was drinking wine for lunch.) It was one of the worst tasting glasses of wine I have ever had, so I told the waiter that it was not good. And he acted all offended and said that it was one of the best wines in Spain. To which I responded that while the wine might be good, this particular glass was awful and maybe it was the bottle. Then I told him to try it. He went ahead and brought me a new one from a new bottle and it was great. Yay!

Yes, I know the links are broken. I'll try to fix them the next time I come back. In the meantime, use the links on the left and use your imagination. :-)

Less than two weeks left of classes. Less than three weeks until I'm in Austin again. It's still a bit surreal. I'm going to Morrocco my last weekend here with a group from school, then to Jerez at an ungodly hour of the morning for a flight to London. My friend Claudia is going with me to visit a friend there so we'll have two fun nights there and then Thursday morning I get on a plane for the US. Then to work on Friday ... which incidentally is the 13th. Followed by February 14th, which is of course Valentine's Day. How I managed such good timing I'm not sure. Pero sobreviviré. (But I will survive.)

Classes are okay -- I was going to try change levels before I left but I think I have been thoroughly convinced to take it easy my last two weeks. It's not the end of the world to be a little bored and it's not like I can't study Spanish when I get back to Austin. Speaking of which, has anyone reading this looked into Spanish classes in Austin? I'm planning to look into it when I get back.

This past weekend was a little tamer as I think I was starting to wear out. I only stayed out until 12 and 3 respectively. After staying out until 4 both Wednesday and Thursday, it seemed the better part of valor (and wisdom) to curtail the partying a little. Not to mention the fact that I need to rest up for my last weekend here. If I have a liver left by the time I return, it will be a miracle.

I'm waiting for pictures to upload now. This might be the last chance I get before I come home, although if there's any particularly good ones from this weekend, I'll try to make it in one more time. There's a bunch of good pictures of all my friends here, mostly from the residence but some other hangers on. ;-) Living in the residence is a lot like living in a dorm in college, only a lot smaller. There's seven people in the building now, with room for six more, who are supposedly arriving this weekend. Which is why both Bridget and I have to move rooms. Bridget is off to another residence (sniff, sniff) and I'm taking her room (sorry). Bridget is the redhead in all the pictures. She's British but spent the majority of her life in France and is completely bi-lingual in those two languages. She's also studied Spanish and German so it's yet another person who makes me feel inferior for barely speaking two. Oh well. Claudia, the one with whom I am going to London is the brunette in a ton of the pictures, wearing a pink shirt in the last few. She's from Italy but has lived in Finland and London and now Seville. What a life, no? And she might come visit me when she finishes university in Sept or Oct. Woo hoo!

Sweet! I figured out how to put pictures in here (I hope) So in this picture, we have from left to right, Bridget, me, Claudia, Laurin, Fanny, and Julie. From UK, US, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, and Switzerland respectively. Everyone except Fanny lives in the residence.

This is Eric, me, Christian, and Brian. Eric, oddly enough is from Buda, TX, about 45 minutes from Austin. Christian is from Germany and lived in the residence until last week. Brian is from Denmark and is now the only guy in the residence, poor thing. He keeps asking us to change the subject from girl stuff but sometimes we always end up back on some other girl topic.

This is Brian with his harem, yet again. Me, Claudia, Katie, Katie's roommate, Brian, and Raffaella. Katie is from Arizona. We picked each other up in a bar my first night here. She is actually working here putting together the marketing and publicity plans for a new hotel in Morrocco, where she is right now. Umm, jealous much? Raffaella lived in the residence for a couple weeks and is now back in Italy and we miss her horribly. Definitively one of the best salsa dancers I've ever seen. One of the reasons she wanted to learn Spanish was to be able to understand the songs better. Impressive, no?

Well, I should get going ... more later ... at some point.

Besitos,
Melissa

Okay, this week I am really going to work. I can't believe I only have three weeks left here. It's crazy to think that in a month I will be back in Austin going to work every day instead of in Spain going to school every day. And I'll be in a place where I have to search out Spanish instead of English. But I signed up for additional classes twice a week and am hoping to be done with the bulk of the grammar by the time I return so I can focus on conversation. I bought the second Harry Potter book, a book of poems, and a children's book of prayers. Those combined with the movies, TV and newspapers should have me in pretty good shape if I can just discipline myself to spend some time with them every day.

We talked today in my class a little about violence in our countries and I am absolutely sure that the US is one of, if not the most, violent country in the western world. In Spain, you're not allowed to have a gun unless it's for your job or for hunting, and only certain guns are legal for hunting and are very closely controlled. And also in many countries here, a year's service in the military is mandatory for all males. Very interesting the differences in philosphies and policies. Also, minimum vacation days are mandated by the government and are usually around 30 days. Oh, and almost everyone has a contract for their jobs. Many of my friends here can't leave their jobs (either of their volition or their company's) for a minimum of six months. They are always shocked when I explain how it works in the US.

Anyway, I have to run to do my mountain of homework ... all that I asked for granted, but still.

Oh and I got my hair cut last week ... at a school. That was an interesting experience. Very modern and European according to my friends. Check out the new pictures and see what you think.

Hasta luego!

Last night definitely goes down as one of the more interesting/amusing ones of my life. I was exhausted from being out until 6 the night before and couldn't be bothered to exert the effort to get ready so I just wore a t-shirt and jeans with a cardigan type sweater. Really attractive. I met up with several people from school for drinks at the bar on my street and then we decided to go out for more drinks and possibly dancing, so I took 5 minutes to throw on more "decent" clothes y vamos! One of my friends is gorgeous, tall, blond, 19, from Sweden -- really what more can you ask for? The two of us ended up being the only ones who wanted to go dancing and between the two of us we managed to get in free, get all of our drinks for free and get a fair amount of "attention." Then we met the owner of the bar and he gave us free passes to get in whenever we wanted. I of course proceeded to lose mine that night. That was one of my drunker nights ... if I keep up this pattern, I may not have a liver when I return to Austin. Oh, and then when I got back to my dorm at 7am, I decided it would be a good idea to wake one of my friends up to tell him what happened. Que disastre! Perhaps it would not have been so bad if I hadn't been out so late at the salsa place. Oh well! C'est la vie, no?

Dios mio! I'm not sure where all my time goes but I have sneaking suspicion that much of it is drinking, dancing and sleeping. :-) And shopping. There are huge sales here and everything is really really cheap.

Living in the residence is a blast though. People from all over the world, although mostly Europe. We hang out and chat, do homework, and of course drink and go out. I've actually been "cooking" more now because everyone else is. My new invention is pasta with butter, tunafish and corn. It's actually quite good.

We went salsa dancing last night (pictures available to the left) and had a blast. And we actually closed the place down at 5am. Impressive, no?

Well, gotta run to start it all again ... hasta luego!

Estoy muerta. (I am dead.)

I haven't been this tired since ... last month. :-) We had a party at the residence last night and somehow managed to forget to eat dinner. Needless to say I was beyond drunk before even leaving the building. I must have had five or six glasses at the house, 2 at the next bar, and then 2 vodka/Fantas at the discotech. This morning was not pretty. Fortunately I slept through most of it. :-D Spain has done wonders for my ability to sleep in ... and live without food. Man may not be able to live on bread alone but perhaps I could manage on a couple good bottles of Rioja.

Okay ... back to bed for me. Right after I get my hair cut, which should be an interesting experience. Cross your fingers for me.

We last left off on Sunday I think, which ended around 2am after many bebidas. Monday we understandably slept rather late, went to lunch at one of my favorite places, wandered around Triana which is the neighborhood across the river but everything was closed, including all of the churches we were trying to see. But we did manage to see a couple, including the Esperanza de Triana which my Spanish host mother said was the most beloved in Sevilla. The "Vergens" here are gorgeous. They are more or less life-sized statues of Mary, dressed in incredibly elaborate clothing and jewelry. One of them has tears of diamonds. I think we had a pretty tame night at a local restaurant but my memory is having issues.

Tuesday was an early-ish day because I had to go to the mercado for a homework assignment before my class at 12. So we went to the mercado and Sam got to experience the complete lack of a concept of personal space here in the cafe there. Then class, lunch, maybe a nap and then to a fun little Italian restaurant that we found randomly which was excellent. So excellent that we proceeded to finish off two bottles of wine, at which point, we were quite happy. It was probably around 12 at that point and Sam was dancing in the streets and wanted to go to a bar. One of my favorites is Bestiario which looks a little like a NYC club and has a slightly older clientele than the student bars. Sam was very friendly and walked up to several groups, saying "Hola!" so we met quite a few people, including Fernando and Roberto who are featured in the pictures. We gave both of them my phone number too. I think I gave my number to more people last week than in the previous month. Anyway, we actually closed down a bar in Sevilla that night talking to those guys. Er, mostly talking. ;-) They said my Spanish was very good but I'm not sure how much faith to have in guys who are flirting with me in a bar. There were some other guys in that bar that were awful though -- grabbing everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Sam and I were shuddering the next day remembering it. We had to hit them to make them stop, which is apparently how it's done here. Ugh.

Needless to say, Wednesday was again a little late getting started. We were so hungover and tired that we stumbled to a restaurant where Sam fell asleep in her chair and almost fell off. I was only faring slightly better. We had been planning to go to the cathedral but the only thing we could manage after lunch was back to our rooms for a nap. Then dinner and getting ready, then Plaza Nueva (big, central square) for midnight and Plaza Alfalfa (int'l bar area) for the rest of the evening. Plaza Nueva we did ourselves with a bottle of champagne each and a packet of grapes. The Spanish customer for New Year's is to eat a grape at each gong of the clock at midnight in order to ensure good luck for the following year. Of course the grapes had seeds so we then proceeded to spit for about a couple minutes trying to get rid of the twelve we had eaten. Now we come back to the two groups we had met Sunday. Antonio, from the Sevillan group, called me and we agreed to meet at the same bar we had been at Sunday. Then as we were walking there, we ran into Melanie and Bettina who had acquired two Germans guys who had cooked them dinner and with whom they had had much vino, and were therefore very drunk. They wanted us to go to Catedral, the hip hop club that is very popular with the international students and which I have been to several times. In addition, the guys knew the owner and could get us in free. But I had to wait for Antonio, and then I was talking to him and kept asking the Germans to wait until they finally gave up on us and left. Que triste! At 3am we decided we couldn't keep going all night ... I guess the Spaniards usually keep going until about 10am. So Antonio and his friend walked us back to our hotel and there ended our New Years' Eve.

Have to go eat now ... more later ...

Oh, and there are some pictures up now ... more coming ...

Life is so random sometimes. I just took Sam to the airport :-( and when I was leaving, I decided to be a little forward and ask people to share a cab. So I walked up to the first cab I saw people getting into, and asked (in Spanish) if they were going to the center of the city. The guy looked at me as if I were speaking Greek and pointed at the cab driver. So I asked if he spoke English, and well, yes, he did. It turns out the two guys are from the States, go to Sloan and are here on a school project for a month with two other students working at a technology startup. What a small little world.

Anyway, the week with Sam here was awesome! She must have met half of Sevilla for me and made them promise to be my friends. We went out almost every night and unfortunately, were so hungover and tired New Years' Eve that we only made it until 3am. Sunday night, she got in around 5, we went to a great dinner at a place recommended by the director of my school and had one bottle of wine with dinner. Then we went to one of my favorite bars where we continued drinking. Did I mention that the wine is really cheap here? Ah, and a funny story re: the communications gap ... we ordered two glasses of wine and Sam thought the guy said €18 and just handed it to him. He looked at her a little strange and handed most of it back. It had been €.80 per glass. Oops. That night, we first met Melanie and Bettina, two German girls here on vacation over New Years. They left after a while and then we met a group from Sevilla, one of whom accused Sam of being a lesbian because she wouldn't go home with him. In trying to convince her, he told her that, yes, he had had *many* women when she asked. I don't think it had the effect he intended.

I gave my phone number to both groups ... but that's another day's story and I can't cover the whole week now. More tomorrow ...