¡No es justo, mamá!

Ok, so my mom told me in an e-mail that from reading my blog one would think that all I´m doing here is partying. Well, this assumption would be wrong. It´s only about half of what I´m doing here. (Just kidding, mom.... kind of...)

I mean, that´s not fair! I´ve only been here for a week and been in school for 3 days, so technically I have been only partying/hanging out for half my time here. Now, however, I am studying my ass off to comprehend this stuff. Do any of you know how difficult it is to study art history textbooks in Spanish? I stop every few words to look something up, not because I need to know the specific word to understand what the book is trying to tell me but because I want to know every word and be able to use it later. I have been keeping a little spiral index card notebook of new Spanish words with me at all times. Even when I go into the kitchen to eat dinner or hang out with Carmen and Irene I bring my little notebook with me. There are so many words/phrases in it that my brain aches just thinking about them.

I actually just left my first cooking class and I couldn´t wash the smell of fish from my hands so now I keep smelling the Paella we made. I can´t wait to get home and make it for everyone... you are all invited to my house for Paella and Pollo con la Salsa Tomate y Pimientos, my 2 favorite dishes I´ve had here so far... yes, mother, pimientos are peppers and I absolutely loved them. Cut to your stunned face, right?

I also had my first dancing class last night. It was downtown in a legitimate dance studio off the Metro stop Manuel Becerra. There are about 8 kids in the class and it was fun but a little less so than I had anticipated. The crappy part was that we had to move really slowly for some of the kids and we only ended up learning the basic steps for the Sevillanas and the Merengue. When we left, my knees were KILLING me, so I don´t know if I´m going to stay in it. Plus, it´s at the end of my long days (Tuesday/Thursday) and it would be nice to just go home in the late afternoon instead of hauling ass downtown to get there in time after my art history class. I have to think about that...

Another decision I have made while here already: I am not taking the escalators in the Metro stations. This was easier to decide than it is to do. Sometimes, at the end of a long day at class and walking around the city, it takes all my willpower to face the 3 flights of stairs at the station Pacífico to get to the last line to my apartment. A roll of the eyes and a sigh and I begin what is a tough climb. The Spaniards who watch me think I´m crazy probably, but it´s been a good workout thus far. It does contribute to my continual, unrelenting fatigue, however, but my body will get used to it eventually. I just keep thinking the whole time about 2 things: 1) the churro I ate 2 days ago filled with caramel that I bought at a street vendor because I couldn´t resist, and 2) my ass in a bathing suit next to Lauren´s ass in a bathing suit on spring break on the beach in the south of Spain. These 2 thoughts together are enough to give me the pep to sprint up each and every set of stairs. I have even taken the stairs at my building every time I come home during the day (the lights don´t work at night for some reason which I personally think is a fire hazard). Eight flights of stairs is no easy climb with a scarf, a jacket and a backpack, let me tell ya.