Just some other things to get through between Barcelona and the Spring Break trip.

Chuck said he couldnīt do Aikido after all, so I registered for classes (tennis instead of Aikido). Jorge also said he would be leaving on Friday (4/4) to go to his pueblo with his girlfriend so I would not be doing English lessons for a while. Definitely got paid back for the money I have had to spend on Internet cafes since the school computers suck. Chuck did his literature presentation and said that his assigned poem had a lot to do with the Spanish Civil War. After he was done, our teacher pointed out that the author (Lorca) was killed just before the War started and it wasnīt exactly the last poem he ever wrote. I felt bad for Chuck.

Phonetics presentation went very well, about crime. I talked about pickpocketing and basically just recounted all the things that have happened to our group so it was pretty easy (though I got an A- on it for some reason). That afternoon, finished riding the eastern sections of lines 4, 5, and 7 of the Metro. Also that evening met up with Sarah Thomas, who is studying in the SMU-in-Britain program in Edinburgh. She was staying in a hostel near Puerta del Sol so we had a drink in Fontana de Oro (the place I had my tequila shots) and talked about our study abroad experiences so far. It was good to have my turn to see an SMU friend.

On Wednesday, I forgot to do my Phonetics homework so I definitely wrote a whole page of Spanish about what my life will be like in 10 years ("I hope I have a dog or a cat…or maybe fish. Weīve always had dogs…") in about 10 minutes (and got an A, woohoo!).

On Thursday, I tried to get my passport visa renewed only to be told I didnīt need to by the guy at the passport place. Donīt know if I should believe him, but today I heard the same thing happened to other people. Of course, if itīs true that it expires 90 days after you enter the country, that milestone falls right in the middle of Spring Break, so weīll see if I get back into Spain after being in the UK. Ran into another protest parade down Calle Alcalá and took pictures.

On Friday, there was no class, so Chuck, Kristin, and I worked on our 3rd big project for our culture class. We have to write a 6-10 page paper on the education system in Spain. So we walked around Chuckīs neighborhood looking for schools (they are everywhere here) to interview people. It was harder than we thought. Then we took the Metro to one of Madridīs universities and did some more interviews.

On Saturday, the others went to the zoo but I decided that it wasnīt worth it to pay 12.75€ again so I worked on line 5 of the Metro. Stopped in Carabanchel, where the childrenīs book we are reading in my lit class takes place. Walked around…itīs kind of a crappy neighborhood. But I got to try Doner Kebab for the first time (Turkish gyros or something…it was great). Afterwards hurried to see a movie for lit class about Lorca. Kinda interesting. About the time I got home, Paulencia invited me to go see Chicago with two of her church friends, so I left again for Sol and we watched it. I (and her friends, one male and one female) thought it was great, but she didnīt like how it exploited womenīs bodies. Afterwards we went to tapas where the waiter definitely accidentally brought us the more expensive version of what we ordered (lomo) and it looked pretty disgusting either way, so we sent it back.

On Sunday, I ran into Paulencia at Alcampo. She was buying food for her Spring Break trip so she wouldnīt have to eat at restaurants all the time (some unauthorized charges showed up on her credit card the week before, so they closed the account). Wondered if I should do the same…on the other hand, having haggis every day wouldnīt be so bad, would it? J Most important: it was my momīs birthday. I also decided to run for Pledge Trainer for APO.

On Monday, Jeromia remembered that he had a large bag of Skittles that his mom sent in a package at the beginning of the semester. I paid him 3€ for it. Got a haircut after lit class (same place, different barber) and talked to the barber about his training (for the education project) Nice guy, and the 4th person to tell me I speak well. Finished line 4 of the Metro on the way back to school from visiting the Ministry of Education 20 minutes before closing time and deciding not to take a number and wait with the other 50 people. Chuckīs parents sat in on our ethics class. Tonight the contestants on Pasapalabra are competing for the biggest jackpot the show has ever had. Nobody has won it since last November. After the Spanish soap opera my seņora and I watch was over, I went down to Sol and met Melissa, Kristin, Chuck, and his parents in Melissaīs favorite bar. We got to hear stories about Chuckīs dysfunctional family. He thinks itīs funny every single time I shake my head and say, "I donīt know people like you." Also, they handed me a huge bag of Skittles that they had brought for me (after Kristinīs boyfriend Justin forgot to bring me some). So now I have two massive bags of Skittles. I took a picture of them.

Tuesday: The day of endings. In lit class, we finally finished our poetry unit, thank goodness. Ended with two Pablo Neruda poems that I did not understand at all (the teacher interrupted the presenter, Ashley, for about 15 minutes and led a discussion...that wasnīt nice). In phonetics, we finished accents and started intonation. In culture, we had a debate about whether Spanish urban life or Spanish rural life was better. Our side was for urban life and it felt like we lost, but of course the outcome they wanted was for us to realize they both have their good and bad points. And then afterwards we had a guest speaker talk about religion in Spain, so I doodled in my notebook until that hour of my life ended. Thankfully it was the last out-of-class lecture of the semester. Paulencia, Lauren, and I found a smoothie place on Gran Vía and had our first ones since being here; I was excited.

Thursday I got to school early to work on our education project since I didnīt have class till 3:00 PM. When Chuck and Kristin finished class, they joined me and all the groups were scrambling to finish in the cramped computer lab. It was fun. We ended up interviewing 5 students standing in the alley next to the school just so we would have the right number of interviews for the project (we were going to just make them up, but I didnīt want to get that far into academic dishonesty territory) Found out after class that I got into Phi Beta Kappa. Chuck also sent some of us an email saying that if he died while visiting Eastern Europe, he wanted racing stripes on his coffin. Crazy. On the bus back home, I ran into Kelli, who said that her mom was coming up for spring break and they would go around together. The problem is that her mom doesnīt know she smokes, so she was hoping it would not be a big deal. (Talked to her af! ter Spring Break and it turned out she was able to hide it successfully from her all week.) I was still upset that no one else was going with me to Scotland, but she said to just have a good attitude and be outgoing to make friends on the tour. Good advice, you know?

Emails 10, 11, and 12 are all Scotland!!