WEEKEND!! WEEKEND!! WEEKEND!!

I feel like I might be exaggerating when I say this, but before I was a "teacher", I cannot remember looking forward to a Friday so much in my entire life. I mean I'm sure there have been moments, but this type of profound desperation I felt today, and the relief, seems new to me.

Either way it's FRIDAY!!! HIP HIP HOORAY!

I was telling Jeri that I'm so exhausted because 1/2 of my time at schools is spent laughing at all of the absurd things that happen and the other 1/2 is spent making an ass of myself trying to get the kids to talk (because that 1/2 of my classes refuse to talk because "they don't speak English"...duh, that's why I'm here!)

But I don't want to talk about teaching. Because it's the weekend!

I guess I could do a little updating on my apartment & Masters classes, since I'm officially "settled in" and all.

Well, settled in is a loose term. I still need to put up pictures in my room and unpack a few bags, haha. Let's be honest here, we're talking about Chelsea. The girl who finished packing her suitcases 3 hours before her flight left. And DAMNED proud! Haha.

So my apartment at Quijote...first of all it has a bidet, or as I like to call it "the tiny sink" or "European storage". When we were apartment searching, I insisted on having a bidet. My roommates probably thing I have some awkward fettish or a stinky hoo-ha, but really I think it's part of the European experience. As I learned last time I am here, there is no better place to store your hair dryer, towels, and extra toilet paper than the bidet. It's currently housing 15 rolls of T.P. as we speak!! :) It's truly the simple things in life that make me happy.

Another.....er......"quaint"...part of my apartment is the heating system. I don't know how to best describe our system but basically our heating for water and everything else is gas, so we have a lit pilot light at all times. Whenever we turn on hot water, the gas thingy lights up and heats our water. Except I'm not sure how old the heater actually is. Basically every time we need hot water, it sounds like a miniature explosion has occurred in the kitchen (where the water heater is). Seriously. At any given location, including the terrace, you can hear the Hiroshima fireball explosion of hot water. At first it's terrifying but now I just laugh it off. Best to roll with the punches. A nice repair man named Javier came today to clean/fix the heater, though, because a few times we found the pilot light had been blown out and left gas randomly flowing into our home (yikes, right? Oh well I'm not dead yet). He cleaned it and was very nice about it, although it did take him an hour and a half and he awkwardly grazed my boob while trying to explain the knobs to me. He also told me to call him any time we were in the shower & did not have hot water. He said that 3 times, actually. I hope the heater doesn't act up again, haha.

I also finally got mail last week! It actually caused a lot of problems, haha, as it lead to what I like to call my “Spain fail day”. Sometimes, in Spain, things don't go as planned. Like...a shop is supposed to be open until 5, but they close at 4 because they want to. Or if you go to the bank and they tell you that you can pick something up until 6, but everybody went home at 3. It's a Spain thing. Just like how we've been trying to get wi-fi for a week in our apartment, and they told us they would call in 7-10 days. They called 3 days later to tell us they got our order & would call us within 7-10 days. So they called to tell us they would call.

Spain.

Well, anyways, I went to go find the post office (because there is one post office per zone...so even though there is a post office like 3 blocks from my apartment, I have to go to a different one because they say so. Spain.) So anyways I first had to ask the bus driver if he could tell me when we were near the street I needed. He asked me, “do you know the area?” …...no, genius, if I knew the area I wouldn't need you to tell me what street to get off on. Duh. So he finally told me where to get off, & I walked up and down the same street for five minutes trying to figure out if #15 was up or down the street. I stalked a hair salon for 2 minutes trying to figure out their address, haha. So I finally figured out the numbers & started walking in the right direction. I got inside, & at the post office here you have to push a button & wait in line. So I got my number, waited 10 minutes in line (because the place was PACKED), had all of my documents ready so I could get my package (!!!! MAIL!!) and finally they called my number. So I go up, say hello, and shove all of my stuff at the guy at the counter. He looked at my mail slip for about 30 seconds confused, and then said “out the door, to the left.” Huh?? I had to ask again, because that didn't make sense (it is not even a full sentence as it lacks a verb) and he figured I asked again because I don't understand Spanish. So he said it slower. “Out...the door....to....the left.” Ah, thanks. Still confused.

So I followed...kind of. Out the door, to the right...there is another post office. In the same block. Same address, just 2 separate buildings. What the hell. So I went inside, where there was NOBODY.

Oh well, no line. So I went up to the desk, handed him my paper, and he looked at it for 30 seconds. Why was the paper so confusing?? Then he goes “ahh...they forgot to mark this box right here. You received this slip today.” (so what?) “so...this box right here says you can pick it up AFTER today.” (okay...I'm here today...so...I'm not getting it). “After today...so...tomorrow. As of tomorrow you can come get it. It's not here right now.”

Spain.

Frustrated & sad, I decided to go ahead, hop on the bus, and try to pick up my debit card because the bank had called me to tell me my Spanish debit card arrived & I could pick it up “anytime”. Last time I was at the bank, my banker lady told me I could pick up the card until 6 because I was just coming to pick it up and nothing else.

Got to the bank, tried to go inside, and got stopped by a security guard smoking outside. He asked what I wanted and I told him I was there to see Carolina. He took 3 steps inside, craned his neck to see if she was inside, and told me she had already left. I told him she told me I could pick up my debit card anytime and he was like “yeah...you can pick it up anytime before three. See, nobody's here?” Except there were at least 5 people there. Clearly. Not wanting to fight, I said thank you and headed to the bus stop to go all the way back home. 2 hours spent trying to be productive and I got nowhere. When I got home, I took a 2 hour nap to recuperate.

But for all the confusions like this that I've had in Spain, I've found other things that are equally wonderful. Such as the fact that Diet Coke here only costs 22 cents. And if you buy 5, you get one free. So I can buy a 6 pack of Diet Coke for like...$1.32. AKA...I might have a small addiction when I get back. Also the most random thing happened the other day. I went to McDonalds with Juliet before class because it's pretty much the only place you can get coffee to go before class (which is also a very American thing to do...take coffee to go...) so I ordered my cafe con leche & they put it in a bag. I went to go put my sugar in and they had put a random doughnut in my bag. I'm not sure why. I still don't know. So with my 1 euro coffee, I guess they throw in a random doughnut. I am still confused but it cracks me up all the same. I was like...seriously what am I going to do with this doughnut? I just needed caffeine.

Well, that seems like enough randomness for today. I'm off now to try to find salad dressing at the bigger supermarket. Spain does not believe in salad dressing. At all. They put oil & salt on their salads...or balsamic vinaigrette, but that's a little bit sour for my taste. I don't know exactly what I think I'll find, but I'm so sure it will be eye opening.

Next time I'll update about my Master's classes!