HI EVERYBODY!
Wow, so, I was doing really well for a while about updating this but then fell far, far behind. It's not even like I've been too busy to update. I've spent most of the past month or so painting and reading Harry Potter (not that I'm complaining... I've really learned to enjoy slow days and Harry Potter's been a marvelous adventure). But it's past due time for an update.
Greg and I leave Thursday (yes, in 2 days) for the USA and I cannot contain my excitement. One, to escape this 100+ degree heat, and more importantly, to see my family and hug my mom and dad and see my friends and hug them and hang out and re-learn the English language, of which I have awkwardly lost bits and pieces to the point that I say everything with an air of uncertainty, and end a lot of sentences with "do we say that?" ----(example: the other day, I was telling an American person how I was going to go running if I could animate myself, and then I was like, "animate.. do we say that?" and she said, "no". And I realized I made it up from "animarse" and she was like, "you mean motivate?" and I said, "yeah", and I closed my eyes and shook my head).
Work has ended and I'm not too upset about it. The only thing that stinks is this entire summer, Greg & I will be surviving on savings. I don't get another paycheck until October.. so I've got to be quite smart. Luckily, we'll be spending the entire month of August working on a farm in Asturias, northern Spain, and therefore (hopefully) not spending much. July in the USA, however, is another story... since it's Greg's first time to the land of the free we'll be doing a bit of a tourist route in NYC, DC, Philly.. it's cool though, because I don't remember the last time I went to the Empire State Building or Ellis Island or the White House (maybe a STAND rally?), and I don't know nearly enough about American monuments as I should, so this trip will force me to learn a bit so that I can spit it all out at Greg like a well-rehearsed tour guide.
Madrid lately has been been like a slow, blurry haze, as if the city was stuck inside a microwave oven. Smells of urine and dog poop only multiply under this heat, and though they've started air-conditioning the metro cars, everybody still smells like sweat. We fortunately have AC in the flat, but because we're trying to save for the summer, we only use it limitedly. I used to guilt-trip myself for spending a whole day inside, but in this heat, I can get as far as the fruteria and then I'm like "meh, I'd rather read Harry Potter".
The Eurocup's been going on, and even though I'm not a big soccer fan, it's fun to get into a bit. Also, soccer's really easy to follow (aka I know what's going on most of the time), whereas American football still confounds me. Recently, we went to the Bernabeu stadium to watch the Spain-France match. They put up big screens outside the stadium and tons of fans (9/10 Spanish, 1/10 French) gathered with flags, facepaint, and hot blood to watch the game. Why do I say hot blood? I'll tell you why---people get buckass CRAZY at these games. Maybe because the Spanish were the clear majority and being in a mass does dangerous things to people, but it turned violent and disturbing. Some guy stole Greg's France flag and almost punched him when he grabbed it back. In the metro another guy spit at him and I had to pull him away. It's really quite disgusting. Sports are a great way to bring people together and get people excited, but crazed fans can be straight idiotic. Spain won. I'm glad, because who knows what we would have endured if France did.
Anyway, that's a bit of a negative note to end on, but I can't think of anything else to talk about. This year has been very interesting, and I've learned more about what I like (and what I don't like) than I could have predicted. I'm excited for this summer and I'm excited for next year... to continue exploring and carving out a path that I've just started to break into this year.
I send my love to everybody!!
Connie
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