Heee Brawl Trrr, as I'm told its pronounced.

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Crazy weekend. I want to reenact it all for you, but I have to read 'Lola the Detective' for class tomorrow.

Friday I bit the bullet and joined the gym. I knew it was a mistake the second I walked out of the office and into the gym. It reeked of sweat and the treadmill is so old that when I run, the belt grabs on the bottom and i actually take a step forward. It warms after a while though so I'll make it work. Also, a lot of the gyms around here train wrestlers so the only floor work I can do is on a matt that was like the mats for the wresters in high school, only they are taped to the ground and I'm sure rarely get cleaned. ANYWAY, its my own fault, I should have just done the run, but its so hot in the middle of the day, and by night fall the trail is sketchy.

On to the more important things, on Friday I went to my first piso party... or apartment party at Derek's. He has super cool roommates that all speak english but go to the University of Granada and speak excellent spanish. Their apartment is half the size of mine, and at one time there were probably 35 people in the tiny living room, in the even tinier kitchen (of course, where all the parties are) and on the minuscule balcony. The best thing was that everyone (except one spanish girl) were at least bilingual, Spanish being the common denominator, but there were probably 6 conversations going on in different languages at a time. And everyone was extremely friendly, if you hadn't met someone yet, they would come up to you, or you would be expected to go up to them, kiss them on both cheeks and at least make small talk. I want to remember them so I'm going to write as many as I remember...

Mikel from Denmark, Varpu from Finland, Dan from New Zealand, Colpe? from Venezuela, Dora from Greece, Malcolm from England, Eda from Norway, Esbe from Russia, Margarita from Ukraine, Gosha from Poland, Yuki and Yukika from Japan, Mina frmo Germany.... and Grahm from Texas (it should be another country). It was awesome, and altough most of them have been in Spain longer than I have, and are actually taking classes at the U, they were all wiling to listen and help me talk to them. Oh yea, and the party lasted til 7 am and not even a neighbor complained. In the states, the cops would have been there before I was.

So obviously, in our drunken stupor we decided it would be a good idea to finally make good on that trip to Gibraltar we had planned a couple weeks back and made arrangements to meet at 730 am and to find a bus and go. For those who don't know, Gibraltar is the southern most tip of Europe that points to Africa, but is an owned territory of GB. Anyway, some how, some way, 4 of us made it out the next day and found a 5 hour bus out, we got there around 2, got a sweet deal on a tour to the top of the rock that over looks Spain and Africa, walked through the caves, and played with the monkeys (thats the real reason we went... obviously.) That night, we walked to a nearby beach, (that was way more impressive at the top of the rock) and drank 2 bottles of wine and watched the sunset over the Strait. We went to dinner, i ate something that had me throwing up all night, but it was okay because there was no nightlife to be had, and we were all exhausted from the night before. Today (Sunday), suddenly, the very English (english speaking, pound using, pubs everywhere) decided to go back to the spanish schedule and didn't open anything. And it rained. We stuck it out til one of the liquor stores opened and we bought our duty free booze (i swear i'm not an alcoholic) and decided to head back to Spain, where it was incredibly warm and sunny... but only for the entire time we were on the bus back home.

Got an email from my spanish advisor today saying she would override some prereqs if I was doing advanced classes over here... which means I have to up the ante ( how does that saying go?), and either take conversation practice classes next quarter or find a spanish boyfriend.... (I hoping the latter).

Hand and Monkey Are the Same Word in Spanish,
Annie la Mano

oh yea, and then I come back and find out about Cuba! I love my president!!

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