Madrid

Everyone is so FAT here. It took me about 30 seconds at the Philadelphia airport to see a grossly obese fat woman standing next to me at the sink in the ladies' restroom.

And the toilet paper is so SOFT here.

The first thing I always notice when flying back into Seattle after being away for a while is the smell that hits you after you walk outside the airport. The air just smells so sweet. Maybe it's because it's the spring. That smell just reminds me of home, of summer, of great expectations, and adventures.

Being back here is approximately equal parts normal and equal parts bizarre. Everything is strangely, strangely familiar and yet somehow completely surreal at the same time. I find myself slipping back into old routines so easily, but I continue to be surprised at actually understanding people when I hear them making idle conversation behind me in line at Value Village, or that I can so easily communicate the exact, complicated drink that I want to a bartender.

I knew I was home for sure though when I turned on the radio in my car only to hear John Cougar-Mellencamp blaring through the radio. What says Americana more than a little ditty about Jack and Diane? I was a little worried about jumping behind the wheel again, but I guess driving is a lot like riding a bike. I didn't have a problem at all. I am finding myself spending more or less the same amount of time in transit as I did in Madrid, only here, instead of riding the stinky old metro with a bunch of weirdos and people trying to get me to pay them for squeezing an accordion in my face, I can ride in my little car and listen to some sweet ass tunes on my cd player. Still don't like the traffic though. Nor the fact that my mom lives half an hour away from absolutely anything interesting that could possibly be happening.

When hanging out with my friends, I am trying to resist the urge to be That Girl who comes back from living abroad or someplace strange and does nothing but says, "In SPAIN, they bla bla bla..." It's hard though, it's hard. On Friday night I introduced my friends to the glory that is red wine and coke. I don't think they were especially impressed with it, but I don't think they disliked it either. Calimocho really only becomes an asset if you're drinking shitty wine, and the stuff we had was kind of okay. Anyway, that started the evening out right, but things quickly took a turn for the strange. We somehow ended up at the house party of one of my friend's friends, some chick I'd never met. Most of the people at the party were UW kids, which was strange for two major reasons. One, I was probably older than most of the people there. Two, when I say UW kids, what I really mean is, UW FRAT kids. Yes, my first night back in the US and where do I end up? A FRAT party. Or something strikingly resembling one.

Get this. I was standing around, talking to the friends I had come with (there wasn't anyone else there worth talking to, really). I was shooting the shit, talking Spanish with my Cuban friend Nick. "Que jetipolla eres!" I would say. "No me jodas!" He would reply. Meanwhile my friend Meresa is there with us too, speaking Thai to no one in particular. We were having a real International Moment. When up hops this sorority girl, sporting a very short minifalda and a baby-tee. She bops over to Meresa and says, "HI! Is this the ITALIAN party?" Apparently her language skills weren't fine tuned enough to recognize the subtle differences between Italian and Thai...

Anyway, we actually end up staying at the party for a really long time, until the only people that are left are us, and the loser frat boys who didn't manage to score a chick to take home to the sack. So eventually we leave, me and three of my girlfriends. "Aw, don't go!" they call after us, as they reach out their ever-groping octopus arms to try for one last squeeze. Rather pathetic, really. And rather funny too. I actually kind of enjoyed the party, in this really perverse sort of way.

Last night was interesting as well. It started out with this really, REALLY awkward guy trying to hit on me in this bar. I was sitting in a booth with three of my friends and he like, basically came over, told me to scoot over, and sat himself right down and tried to join in the conversation, the attempt at which desperately, desperately failed. And then he ACTUALLY came back later again when we were playing pool to give it another go. Weird. But then my friends and I went to another bar. We were sitting, chatting, hanging out. I got a mojito, but it was totally gross. I was in the middle of a conversation with my friend Meresa, when I sense someone looking at me from outside the window. I look up, and it's none other than Agniesza Zoltowski, a girl I went to high school with, who I basically hadn't seen since then, and who I had been rather good friends with in years past. She was also with Bogdan Albu, another guy I went to high school with. It was so WEIRD. Especially since the conversation I had been having with Meresa was all about how hard it is to stay in contact with people, and how there were all these people who I wish I had stayed in better contact with, but well, you know how it goes... It's hard sometimes.

But anyway, they came into the bar, and we talked for a while. Apparently Agnieszka just graduated from Whitman this year with a double major in Art History and French Lit, and has recently moved back in with her parents to try to find a job. Bogdan graduated from Duke last year with a major in Economics and is currently living as a ski bum in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Who'd a thought? It was good to talk to them though, and I got their emails. Who knows, maybe we'll meet up again some day. I did feel kind of cool saying, "Yea...so I just got back from SPAIN on Thursday...I'll be heading up to ALASKA for the summer on SUNday..." Does that make me a bad person? Naw, I think it's only natural.

It is very strange to circle the globe and then come back and see the same people doing the same things and acting the same way and going to the same places and hanging out with the same people. Like...I feel like I went off and did so much stuff and met so many new and interesting people and I come back and I'm like, What's WRONG with you guys? Get up and do something! Which is of course completely wrong. Not everyone wants to move around all the time. And besides, I'm sure everyone else was living completely full and interesting lives just the same as me. I'm sure they're not really the same people as when I left, just like I'm not the same.

But it is strange though. You can never quite go back. It's like the old Buddhist adage, that you can never step into the same stream twice. It won't be the same and neither will you. The water is passing by, the river's constantly changing, just like you are. Well, I think it's a Buddhist adage anyway. Whatever.

Why do I keep traveling anyway? What am I looking for? Is it so I can leave and then come back and have people tell me how much they miss me? Have them hug me and kiss me and act so excited? Maybe that's part of it. But not all.

Spain really does feel like some sort of dream. Like it could've easily never have happened. I find myself touching the walls sometimes to make sure they're actually there. Maybe NOW is when I'm dreaming and I'll wake back up soon on good old San Bernardo. Who knows. Maybe it's like the Buddhist monk with the dream about butterflies. What IS it with me and the Buddhists today. But I feel like just as soon as I start to get remotely comfortable here I'm going to be off again to Alaska, to a completely different stream with a completely different rythm. But I'm ready for it, I'm excited for it. Truth is, I feel like I'm getting too comfortable here, too fast...


So many khaki cargo pants...so may flip flops. So many Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer additions. Everyone is so white bread!


The thing that's nice about Western Washington is that on a clear day, when you look out, in every direction you can see mountains.

Dude, boys? Yea, they suck. Suck big hairy monkey balls. It´s bad..my friend Caroline here hates men too, and when we get together, we talk about how much men suck, and I think we feed off each other, and I think it´s really affecting my attitude for the worse. Heh. And I mean, we just don´t hate them because we don´t have boyfriends. We hate them because if you think about it, basically everything bad that has ever happened in the world was controlled by men. Every war, every bad political decision (more or less), the vast majority of murders, spousal abuse, sexual abuse, etc. Men. All men. Why? Because men think with their penis. The more I think about it, the more I realize this is true. They are always thinking with their penis, Mel. Always. Even when you think they´re not, even when they think they´re not, they are. They are completely controlled by the little man downstairs. It´s rather pathetic really. Caroline and I were devising the plan for our perfect world, and we decided that it would be run and controlled completely by women (of course) and we would attempt to raise all baby boys born to be gay. Gay, but of course they would still be willing to do us if we wanted them too. Anyway, we´re still working out the details, but I think it could work. I don´t know, I am just really, really tired of all the old creepy sketchballs who stare at me on the metro, scratching their sack and picking their nose while trying to look down my shirt. UGH.

But I reall shouldn´t be so cynical. Anyway. My mom is here now. My mom in Europe. What an oxymoron. I sent her toddling off to her pension a little while ago..I hope she doesn´t get lost in the metro or something when I´m not looking. It´s funny..I really feel like the parent in this situation. I´m the one who knows where everything is, I´m the one who pretends to speak Spanish to people..it´s kind of weird. But kind of cool, too.

Yea..it´s all very strange. I wonder how the vote is going to turn out over here..the numbers should be in tomorrow probably. I´ve talked to a number of people about it (the good thing about all this is it gives me a good conversation topic to discuss with my students so I don´t have to do any work, woo!) and some seem to think this whole event will lean the vote more towards the Popular Party, which is the one currently in power, and some seem to think it will lean the vote more towards the Socialist Party. So who knows how it will turn out in the end. Ugh. It´s all so retarded. I hate people sometimes. They are so illogical.

Did the US media cover at all the massive, MASSIVE demonstration I mentioned in my other email? From what I´ve heard, there were about a million and a half to two million people demonstrating in Madrid, which is about half the population of the city. And throughout the entire country there were ELEVEN MILLION PEOPLE in the streets. Eleven million. Eleven MILLION. When has that ever happened before?? And, so´s far as I´ve heard, nothing really bad happened during the entire thing, in any of the cities. That´s pretty freaking amazing. I still don´t know how I feel about the thing though. I guess I´m supposed to be happy about it. That´s what it was for, right? To show solidarity, support, etc...But I´m just not sure preCISEly what the purpose of it was..I don´t think anybody does. And that just makes me feel weird. Like I said in the other email, group consciousness never seems like a very good idea to me.

But so far, so good over here. They still haven´t moved the freaking train off the tracks. I wonder how long it will take them. This IS Spain after all. I wouldn´t be surprised if the US ends up having a bigger cow about this than even Spain does. I don´t predict any increased security over here, which I don´t really think is a bad thing. The US is so retarded. People are so retarded. UGH! I get so frustrated. I just don´t know what to think. Why are people so dumb, Angus? WHY? I shouldn´t be so jaded at such a young age.

On another, entirely unrelated note, guess what I got on Friday. A tattoo. I finally did it. It was only a matter of time really until I got poked. My friend Kyle, my friend Nicole´s boyfriend, is really, really into tattoos and has his entire right arm done, part of his left, and most of his chest. I think you guys would like each other. Nicole also has one, this bird adapted from a painting of...shit I can´t remember the painter. Oh well. Anyway, it´s on her shoulder and it´s really pretty. So I went to this tattoo convention last weekend like I told you, and that all really inspired me to get one. I´d been thinking about it for a while anyway. And Kyle was going in to get one this Friday, so I decided to go with him and get one too. So I got a bright blue star tattooed on my big toe of my right foot. And it hurt like a mother fucker!! It only took like 20 minutes, but Jesus Christ. I started feeling all hot like I was going to faint and my stomach started to hurt. What a wimp I am! I do also suspect that the toe is one of the more painful places to get a tattoo though, so I´m not THAT bad. I didn´t CRY or anything. I was also proud of myself too because the entire interchange was done en español. The guy tattooing me was named Jace (pronounced HA-thay), and he was very nice and we chatted a bit. It was all kind of fun. But it hurt like a bitch. But seriously, after doing that, I can´t IMAGINE getting a tattoo that would take like, an hour or two or THREE or however long they can take. I am pretty confident I would either faint or throw up.

Hi hi hi hi hiiiiiiiii. Today I have received a number of concerned emails following the bombings in Madrid on Thursday. But yes yes yes, I am fine, and so is everyone I know. People were pretty upset about it, but life is continuing on as usual pretty much. Thursday I found out about what happened in the morning after my first class, but after that I still went about doing everything as usual. Rode the metro a good six times. I´m not going to let them get me down! But really, everything was pretty much normal, more or less.

Yesterday, there was a MASSIVE (and I mean MASSIVE) manifestation against terrorism here in Madrid. I don´t know if they showed it in the US on TV, but it was HUGE. I wouldn´t be surprised if there were over a million people in the streets, and add to that the demonstrations in Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Zaragoza, etc. etc. I was trying to ride the metro home from a class when people were going to the manifestation, and it was PACKED. All the people couldn´t fit and they had to wait in line for another one. And then, when I got off the metro and was trying to walk home, there were SO MANY PEOPLE in the street..I´ve never seen anything like it. And I don´t even live anywhere near where the manifestation was. Add to that, it was raining pretty hard and everybody had their umbrellas, which are quite dangerous when in a crowded space. ¡Muy peligroso! I´m sure more than one person had their eye seriously poked.

But I guess they still don´t know for sure who did the bombings. Either Al Quaida (sp?) or ETA, the Basque separtist group. Some people think that the government does know for sure but they aren´t saying yet because, I don´t know if they are mentioning this over there, but the elections are on Sunday, and they don´t want it to affect the vote. Well, of course it will, but knowing for sure what group did it would affect it more in one direction than another.

I just don´t understand this at all. I don´t understand how this bombing could help the efforts of either ETA or Al Quaida, or whoever did it. Because what is the reaction? Over a million people come together in the streets to show their solidarity and resistance to senseless violence. The demonstration didn´t exactly change anything I don´t think, but I guess it was just a show of support. And, besides, from the people I´ve talked to, it seems like, with people in a panic, MORE people are going to vote for the Popular Party, which is the current party in power, which is the conservative party which supports the Iraq war. Or people aren´t going to vote at all. So...that´s exactly the opposite result of what either terrorist group wants! WTF! Wouldn´t they be able to see this coming? Ugh. It makes no sense.

It´s all very sociological really. People in large groups or in panic situations lose absolutely any sense they may have once had. On Thursday, I came home from my Spanish class, and some of my roommates were watching the news on TV, and my Chilean roommate Keni turns to me and says, ¨Chloe, where were you?¨ ¨My Spanish class,¨ I said. And then she looked at me like it was ABSOLUTELY insane for going out. For daring to leave the house. But I mean, of course I did. I´m not going to let this change my routine if I can at all avoid it. Besides, the odds of them doing another bombing in the same day are very slim. And besides that, the odds of me actually being the one on the public transit are about 1 in 30,000. So fuck that, I´m going to class. Then later, I went out again, and once again, she looked at me like I was completely crazy. Or, completely cold. Neither of which is true. And THEN, oooh..this made me so mad. Okay, I came back home again later and I wanted to take a shower. I think I have mentioned the crappiness of my apartment building in the past, so it would come as no surprise to you (as it was no surprise to me) that the water didn´t work. This had happened before. So I go into the salon where my roommates are STILL watching the TV (the same footage of course) and say, ¨There´s no water!¨ And Kenny turns to me and says, ¨This is not a normal day, Chloe¨ Ugh! She was soooo patronizing! Like, how could I possibly believe that the WATER would WORK on a DAY like THIS when the whole WORLD is coming to a STOP. Whatever. Do you know how much our water not working and the bombing had to do with each other? Nada. Do you know how much our water not working and the building being a piece of shit have to do with each other? Todo. It made me so mad. That is the kind of blind fear which fucked up the economy after 9/11, and has all sorts of other bad effects on all sorts of things all the time.

It´s so funny too...they have the whole event packaged so perfectly and cleanly for the media. Just like in the US with 9/11. They have their flashy title: TERROR EN MADRID. They have their sad, instrumental music playing in the background. They have their footage of victims bleeding and people crying..only the footage is probably more graphic here than it would be in the US, I´m not sure. They are totally exploiting these people. How would you feel if that were you with your face all bloody being showing on national TV over, and over again? Or your brother´s dead body? It´s absolutely disgusting. I suppose..I mean, the media needs to report about it, but you know that at the same time they are upset about it as people, they are LOVING it as a television station. Their ratings are through the roof. People have their little slogans, their little flags, their little black ribbons..I don´t know. I don´t like all this at all. Group consciousness just freaks me out.

And I don´t even KNOW what they´re saying about it over there in the US. The media is probably loving it over there too no doubt. Did they show the peaceful manifestation yesterday? I wouldn´t be surprised if it broke some kind of world record. I mean, JESUS, the people just POURED out of the buildings and onto the street. Yikes. I guarantee that the manifestation wouldn´t have happened if it hadn´t been for 9/11 either. I guarantee it. Two hundred people have died, as opposed to what, 5,000? I really don´t know what exactly the manifestation means. It wasn´t really for any purpose. I guess the Spanish were just coming together as one people. But like I said, group consciousness really kind of freaks me out.

So that´s my take on it. I don´t think my feelings are actually very typical, but I blame majoring in sociology for that. But really, things are totally fine here now. Totally normal and fine. Well mostly. This is the largest terrorist attack to ever happen in Spain, so people are trying to process it. They will though. Life will go on. And thanks to all of you for emailing me. And to those of you who didn´t, ch! Aren´t you worried I´d been exploded? :-)

Am I happy to be leaving Spain? I don´t know, yes and no. When I first found out I had to leave a month and a half before I had been planning on, I was kind of upset. But now that I am used to the idea, I am pretty excited. I am excited to come home to Seattle for a little while and see everybody, and I´m excited to go to Alaska. It shall be interesting...

I am dissapointed though that I can´t study Spanish longer. I feel like I am just now reaching a managable level of communicability, and then I have to go! Yes I do plan on coming back next year in October, but I´m afraid I´m going to forget everything over the summer.

Did I ever find my niche? More or less I think. Now that I have moved apartments I am significantly happier. It makes me realize just how much my other roommates sucked balls. I hate them. I also do have a few really good friends here, two girls especially I would call my best friends, and that makes a big difference. You really kind of need at least one person you can really confide in, you know? Or at least I do. Next year everything will be different. I´m a little afraid. Andrea and Nicole will of course be gone, so I´ll have to start all over again from scratch. Hopefully my roommates won´t suck and perhaps even be cool and this will lead to meeting more people... I´m nervous because both Andrea and Nicole I met through my TEFL course, and next year I won´t have anything like that, some jumping off point, to meet people through. But we´ll see I suppose. My Spanish will be better so hopefully I can make some Spanish friends. A few of my students I will probably continue to hang out with too. It´ll be alright I think. And I hope that finding a job and getting set up in that department will also be easier because I will more or less sort of ¨know the ropes¨ or something like that. I won´t get the shaft again when it comes to pay. We´ll see, we´ll see.

What I plan is, okay, this: 1) Work in AK from April to September. 2) Take the GRE in Seattle at the end of September, collect grad school apps, etc. 3) Go back to Spain in the beginning of October. 4) Work in Spain for another year, studying Spanish and teaching English. 5) During this time apply for grad school from abroad. 6) Get accepted to grad school. 7) If I like Alaska this summer, maybe go back to grad school for the summer of 2005. 8) Go to grad school fall of 2005.

So that´s the immediate trajectory. I still plan to study in CA, but I don´t really know where. I need to talk to my prof. Nicole is probably going to grad school in San Diego next year. I don´t think I´ll be going that far south, but who knows. At least we´ll be in the same state.

Anyway, it´s not exactly boring. If I go back to Spain next year I´ll probably come home for Christmas this time. Being here over the holidays really blew and put me into a real funk for like two months. I´m mostly out of it now though..getting this job and stuff has made me pretty happy. The weather totally sucks right now though. It´s fucking freezing out and I´m always hauling ass somewhere and freezing my buns off. I hope the weather is nicer when my mom comes in about a month.

So. Lately I´ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off this past week trying to get everything in order for leaving. Buying plane tickets, finding a hostel for my mom who is coming to visit right before I leave, trying to find someone to take over my lease, etc. I´m quitting work at the end of March so I can hang with my mom while she´s here. I toyed with the idea of having her stay in my apartment, but I soon realized that this was probably bad news. Spending 24 hours a day with The Mom for ten days with no means of escape is probably not a good idea. So I found her a cheap but clean enough I think hostel to stay in, which I think is definitely a better idea.

Okay, I have a funny story about finding someone to take over my lease. I think I have found someone, but in the most unlikely of manners....

Last Saturday I was hanging out with Nicole. She was really depressed because she had accidentally just died her hair this truly heinous shade of red-purple, so we decided to drown her sorrows in a bottle of vodka. We drank about a third of it and then headed over to my friends Cara and Emily´s apartment, where we proceeded to finish it off. Then the four of us headed off to this guy Phil´s house who was having a party. Needless to say, by this point I was rather quite intoxicated. The party itself is kind of a blur, but somehow I ended up in a conversation with this nice English bloke. We were talking, bla dee bla, and it came out that he hates where he is living because he lives WAY out of the city and doesn´t have a car or anything and he really wants to move. ¨YOU CAN MOVE INTO MYYYYY PLACE!!¨ I say. Conveniently enough as well, he has a friend who is looking to move too, which works out perfectly, because one of my roommates is also leaving at the end of March and needs someone to take over her lease as well.

Anyway, the night progresses a bit. This dude, his name is Ben, says he´s going to be spending the night and his friend´s house, also named Ben, who is the other guy who wants to move. But I say, ¨Naw, why do that? You can spend the night at MY place!¨ I think you see where this is going. Me, I was just really drunk and confused..I don´t even remember if I was consciously making a pass, but I suppose that´s what it amounts to. So later we leave the party, he comes back to my place, and inevitably, we end up making out, and he spends the night and stuff. It was, of course, really fun, but I´m not like, super into this guy at all. The next day, Sunday, I have a bit of a hangover, and so does he, and he ends up hanging around my house for a while. Some might say a little too long. We talk and stuff. He´s a nice guy. His English accent is out of control. But still, eh, not super into him.

BUT..I´m still very interested in him or his friend taking over my lease. So Ben 1 and Ben 2 come over last Wednesday to check the place out, and it seems pretty okay to them, so they call Jose the landlord and I really think it´s going to work out that these guys are going to move in. Who´d a thunk it? What a way to find subleasers. Hahahaah. So I guess, when it really counts I can make it happen. I think the key is to get completely, completely drunk. Then I´ll talk to anybody. Ah, liquid courage.

But anyway, the thing is, this guy Ben is super into me. I think he likes me a lot. On Thursday he texted me saying they had talked to Jose and it looked like everything was going to work out and oh by the way did I want to do something on Sunday maybe we could hang out or something. I didn´t reply to him right away because I was going to a class. So, about 20 minutes later, he texts me again. Just in case I didn´t get the message. Oh hi just texting again my phone is shagged so I´m not sure you got my other message but looks like everything is going to work out, oh by the way do you want to do something Sunday? I, once again, didn´t reply, and didn´t even read the message, because I was teaching. But then, I get a PHONE call, which once again I don´t answer because I don´t recognize the number and I´m in class. But then, I get ANOTHER phone call, so I´m like, UGH, and I answer it. And it´s him of course, so I talk to him for a second but tell him I´m in class and I´ll text him later. Which I do.

Why is it never the ones I really like who chase me like this? I hate men. I really do. Gonzalo today has for like the upteenth time flaked out on me. We were going to hang out but something came up, as usual. Fuck him. But the thing is I probably partially like him beCAUSE he keeps flaking out on me. What is wrong with us?? Why do we do this to ourselves?? Fucking AAAAAAA. I´m not sure what to do about this Ben kid either because well, I´m not that into him, but he totally wants to hang out, so why not I suppose...why should I turn down this opportunity for easy, care-free play? Besides, he has a real job and stuff so maybe he´d buy me dinner. God I´m such a bitch!!! Only human though... But the thing is, he´s probably going to move into Stacy´s room on the 29th of March, which means we´ll be living together for a good week and a half before I go back to the US. That could potentially be very awkward. Or..a potentially very short booty call. Augh! I don´t know what to do! Well, I´ll probably hang out with him, that´s what I´ll probably do. Eh, whatever. It´s not such a grave situation I suppose. Either way, it looks like I´ve found someone to take over my lease, and that´s cool.

Okay, so my plans over here have changed a bit. I got the job working in Alaska, which is totally awesome. For a few reasons. 1) mucho dinero. 2) I wouldn´t spend any of the dinero because there´s like, nothing to spend it on, and they pay for our housing and food. 3) Mel will be there, and we´ll probably be roommates. 4) It´ll probably be the most awesomest experience ever.

But, the thing is, I have to start working in the middle of APRIL, so I have to leave Madrid in like a month and a half! This is a lot sooner than I had mentally prepared myself for. So I´m just like..aaaughgh..woa. That´s soon. So now I´ve been scurrying around trying to find plane tickets, I need to find someone to take over my lease as well because if I don´t I´ll have to eat the deposit, not to mention piss off my landlords which I don´t want to do because I want to live in the same building next year. Besides they were so totally nice to me in helping me move and everything. And my mom is coming at the end of March and she´s going to be here until I think April 6, and I´m probably going to fly to Seattle April 10, so that´s like..not a lot of time. And I´m just trying to deal with all this stuff...

I am a little worried about experiencing some SERIOUS culture shock moving from Madrid, a city of over three million people when on any given day I probably see over a thousand faces, to a tiny-ass remote little island off the coast of Alaska that is only a few square miles around and has no permanent residence. There will only be like 20 people living and working there, so the pool of potential friends is relatively small. I will, however, definitely have Mel to hang out with, and all you REALLLY need is one good friend to be happy. Others are always welcome, but the one at least is necessary. Besides, Jacob Berg will also be on the island, so maybe we can be friends. Or..not.

I´m not sure what job I actually will have working there. Probably something retarded like doing the salmon bake, but I really don´t care a whole lot. As long as I´m busy, and that I definitely will be. In April I´ll be doing ¨maintanence work,¨ whatever that means. Probably cutting bushes and stuff.

OH, but I forgot to tell you the funniest thing about all of this. Okay, so Ron, the dude who hired me, last week before I had the job he called me and said he saw my application and wanted to call me for a phone interview. I was a little confused about the time change, so I told him to call me between 11 pm to 1 am my time over here, when I intended to tell him between 10 and 12. But anyway, he emails me and says, okay, I´ll try to call you Friday. Friday? I thought. I was planning to make dinner and get drunk with my roommates. So Friday night we´re hanging out, we make dinner, I´m drinking just a skosh but taking it easy because I know he´s going to call me. So it´s like 11, 12, 1..he hasn´t called. So I think, fuck it, he´ll call me later, and start to drink away. So then, wouldn´t you know it, he calls me at like 2 in the morning, and I´m totally drunk! I would not go so far as to say trashed, but definitely intoxicated and above the legal limit. So I saw the phone ringing and I´m like, holy shit, should I answer? Aw, what the hell. So I DO answer. And I totally had my phone interview drunk off my gord! And I got the job!! AAHAhaha. How hilarious is that. If Ron turns out to be cool, I´m going to have to tell him about this. I did however get the job due in no small part to Mel´s words of praise and also Gretchen´s, for which they have my eternal gratitude.

Oh, and I need to tell you something else hilarious. Okay, so a few months ago I was waiting for the metro, and this girl standing next to me started talking to me in Spanish, and we had a nice little conversation, at the end of which we exchanged numbers. I never intended to call her, but I was like eh, what the hell. So the other week she actually CALLS me and invites me to go out on Saturday. Her exact words (loose translation from badly understood Spanish) were, ¨My friends are having a party..you should come¨ or something like that. So I´m like hey, party, why not. She tells me to meet her and her friends at a metro stop at 5:30. What kind of party starts at 5:30? I wonder to myself, but quickly disregard. So I meet this girl, and she has a couple of friends with her, one of whom decides to hit on me aggressively throughout the rest of the evening. Unfortunately however, he was not cute.

But anyway, so I´m with this girl and her friends, and we go to this building, down into the basement into this room which is set up for like a meeting with chairs in rows and a table at the front with a boom box on it. Uhhh..where´s the vodka? I think to myself. So I´m like talking to this girl and her friends, when I notice out of the corner of my eye a book that looks suspiciously like a Bible. Is..is that a Bible? I think to myself. Naw... But then I see another one. And another. And it becomes readily apparent to me that somehow, miraculously, I had found myself in the middle of a church youth group meeting!!!!!!! Soon thereafter everyone stands up and starts singing Bible songs in Spanish, and I find myself clapping along and thinking, this is one of those moments in life where you really have to look around and wonder WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING HERE???? So, I just went along with all that was happening for the full hour and a half, at the end of which the youth group leader guy asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus (that´s hey-sus to you) into my heart, to which I responed a resounding, No. He seemed dissapointed.

Anyway, after that I hang out with this girl and her friends for a little while longer and then went home. What a weird, weird thing to happen.

Besides that though, nothing too out of the ordinary these days. I´m getting my haircut in about an hour. We´ll see how that turns out.