So so... It's Friday =)

June 6 – So-So… It’s Friday!

7:45am: Since I’m going for honesty in here (LOL), I skipped shower today. Haha. I slept in instead of waking up at 7:00am. It errrrrritates me how the meal times are setup because it feels like I don’t have time to do anything at all. OK – I wake up early in the morning to go to school. School is from 9am-1pm. I have to be home at 2:15 to eat lunch. I can’t really do much between 1:00 and 2:15 – walking alone is 30 minutes of that 75 minute window. OK, so after I eat which is about 2:50pm, everything is closed for the siesta. I can’t even go shop except for the mainstream shops that look American anyway. Almost everything is closed until 5:00pm. And then, we don’t eat dinner till 9:30pm so I can’t really leave at like 6:00pm and go out till late because dinner is smack right in the middle. I don’t know. Ugh. I hope I’ll have this figured out before this thing ends. Haha.

Anyway, I woke up at 7:45am and didn’t take a shower. I freshened up, ate breakfast and brushed my teeth. My host parents’ son and daughter-in-law were here in the a.m. They came in with their baby, Paco III, while I was quickly eating my breakfast (Magdalena and café con leche w/ my red thermos ready). So I say hello to Paco Jr. and made beso-beso with su mujer (his wife) o la nuera de Paco y Ma. Luz. Oh here in Spain, when you’re introduced to someone you make beso-beso on each cheek. Wait. I think I’ve already mentioned this. (Sorry it’s now 2:00am while I’m writing this. I’m just trying to write down as much as I can because I forget stuff easily.)

8:32am: I start my morning commute. This time I take the route that Ma. Luz showed me the day I got here. At least now I know where everything is. I don’t fret that I’ll make a wrong turn because here in Granada, if you just take streets that lead you to your general direction, you’ll always get to a point where you can readjust your bearings. You will always end up in Plazas and major streets that you’ll recognize.

9:01am: I arrive. It still takes me about 30 minutes! It was less crappy and definitely seemed easier. My books and laptop bring me down though. That’s 10 more pounds. Anyway, whatever. At least I’m perfectly capable of carrying stuff and walking.

9:05am: In Adolfo’s class, we had interrogations. He had two of our classmates act like they were suspects in a bank robbery last night. We were split into two groups. One group had to ask about what they did last night. One group had to interrogate them about what they did this morning. This is to practice our tenses. Anyway, that was a bit fun. Then, we talked about what Spaniards usually do during the weekends.

I swear every single day – every single day – I learn something new in class that totally relates to my Filipino-ness and I have no doubt in my mind that we got it from the Spaniards. Anyway, I mean I knew that before but like I said it’s very fascinating to actually live through it. Like yesterday when we were drawing faces in Ma. Luisa’s class, she described what a lunar is. Pinoys, it’s a nunal.

So back to Adolfo’s class, we described how Spaniards spend their weekends. He gave us a handout of a summary of what people in Spain do in the weekends. Their national hobby is talking. I seriously think that we got this from them. I know how Filipinos love to talk, make jokes, just sit in one place for a long time and eat. The last part of the handout gave it away. =P It says, “Para los españoles, es más importante con quién se está que dónde está.” For Spaniards, who you’re with is more important than where you are. To a good extent Americans believe this too but I Americans don’t really meet a lot and just sit in one place for a long time just to chat and eat. I’m not trying to explain anyone’s behavior or whatever. I just find it fascinating that Pinoys are definitely like that.

11:00am: Ma. Luisa is not here. She said yesterday that she had a medical appointment of some sort. So, we had a sub. She was ok but Ma. Luisa was def. tons better. =P Ssshhh. We had an activity where we looked at each other’s faces and picked two people and see how they would get along based on their faces. The sub explained that olden people or whatever thought that the shape of your face was an indicator of what kind of person you were. I guess, this is where we got the presumption that people who have big foreheads are smarter than your average person. Anyway, after that we had a matching activity that took forever. There was a list of characteristics on a middle column. On each side of that column were phrases that described the characteristics. We had to match up the descriptions with the characteristic to define it. It was quite interesting. It was then that I found out another thing. The sub told us that in Spain funerals are very serious and solemn. She explained how traditional the Catholics are and how that’s just the way it is. I could definitely relate. I don’t know if it’s changed or not but the funerals I’ve been to in the Phils., it felt obligatory to be sad and not smile. I don’t know if it’s just me or what. Hehe. She asked around too what it was like in our own countries coz there’s also a guy there that’s from Sweden and a girl from Japan.

1:15pm: Shannon and I are at CLM1 to meet with the other people to go to the travel agency. We hiked to the travel agency. Honestly, I didn’t really feel up to that but whatever I was just trying to be cooperative. I hate it when I have to do that. Hehe. Those of you who know me know. =P So Jose led the way and we almost got lost. Good thing he asked. I knew we made the wrong turn but I didn’t wanna speak up because he was “leading.”

1:30pm: So we made it to the travel agency. The whole time we were there, I didn’t wanna be there. I just wanted to buy the tickets on my own but who was I to impose. So, I silently hoped that they would not push through with the travel agency. I had to leave because I was running late for lunch.

2:15pm: I arrived just on time for lunch. Paco was getting ready to fry some stuff. Here, they love frying stuff. For lunch, again, I had cordon bleu which I definitely don’t mind eating. Then we also had Tortilla de Patata. It’s scrambled eggs with fried thinly-sliced potatoes. It was quite good. Until I saw that the middle part of it was kinda not cooked. The end product looks like a quiche. A piece looks like a slice of cake. Anyway, that wasn’t too bad. Again, we watched Karlos’ cooking show. Oh this is funny. At the end of the program, they had okras on the table. Lots of okras. They were explaining what okras were. So, I was curious why they were doing that. I asked Paco if he knew what an okra was. He said he’s never seen it in his life. He thought they were peppers. He said they looked like peppers. LOL. I thought that was very weird.

Paco, wife, and son arrived while we were eating lunch. The wife looked very trendy and posh. I envy. LOL. Plus, she had an N95. I envy more. =P Anyway, they cooked more for their lunch.

3:15pm: I went back to my room. Thought about going out to walk around and buy some stuff. Realized it was siesta time and got errritated because I can’t shop. Then I figured, why if it’s siesta time, why not take a siesta myself?! I didn’t take a siesta. =P by Spanish standards, I went to sleeeep. LOL. Is it same in Pinas where a siesta only lasts 30 minutes tops? There goes another one. For the States, that’s just a powernap. Plus, in Spain, when you’re on your bed, it doesn’t really count as a siesta. Beds are only used for sleeping. Siesta is in a couch or seat, rocking chair, whatev. So I took a siesta este went to sleep.

4:00pm: I was supposed to meet Shannon at 4pm. Kept hitting snooze button.

5:00pm: Didn’t get to the net café till 5pm. Laura was there. I was there till 7:30pm. I updated my blog. Read and sent emails. Chatted with a few people. Checked my bank accounts. Saw Amanda and Breanna and made plans to meet at 10:15pm to try booking the flights again.

7:30pm: I went to Recogidas to buy some stuff. Oh guess who’s going to the beach tomorrow? Not you? =P Yeap we’re going to Nerja. It’s one of the program’s sponsored trips. Wooot! So I went to Recogidas (one of the major streets) to buy a beach towel. I found a bookstore – dropped by – bought an envelope for handouts – they didn’t have regular folders. Found a wall full of pens! Got very excited. We don’t have this big a selection in the States. They’re usually in packages of more than 1 too so it’s more expensive. I saw Pilot G-Tecs!!!!! Bought blue and black =) Went to Blanco and bought a towel. Dropped by a few more shops to find walking shoes. Couldn’t find any.

9:00pm: Had to hurry home for dinner. Took a shower. Had dinner – fried fish and fried thinly sliced eggplants and white wine. Yummy!

10:15pm: Went to net café to meet everyone once again to book flights. Credit card got blocked. I called the number provided in the error message. Guy says the website has higher security for American credit cards. Guy says it was a system mechanism, can’t be fixed yet. Will call back tomorrow. Everyone else who wants to go to Rome (Julie’s not going she might visit a friend in Vienna) has booked tickets except for me and Shannon. We then went to a super good ice cream place in front of where I live. I was going to go to a bar with Shannon and Julie but didn’t wanna walk by myself on the way back home. Plus, there were a lot of sketch people and I didn’t really feel like walking any more.

1:00am: We left the ice cream place. I crossed the street and got home. I cleaned up my room. I wrote 2 days worth of journals (It gets tedious). I packed for the beach. I really got into it. LOL.

3:45am: Went to bed.