Shin Splints

1/14/09

            We met our senora today, finally! Chessie and I bought her some potted carnations from La Rambla and brought them home because we thought she would be back this morning. She didn’t arrive before we had to go to the welcome ceremony so we left her a note and left the flowers on the table.

            The welcome ceremony was short and sweet. Refreshments, chatting with other IES students and the like. It is only my first week and today was the first time I said something in Spanish that I had meant to say in English. Weeiiird, coooool. Chessie is a good friend to have because we both want to practice so we try and speak Spanish to each other a lot of the time.

            After the ceremony we came home and, not only was our senora there, but her son, daughter, and nieces were there as well. (Her nieces are preciousness in human form, and one of them is taking English classes.) Antonia so far issss hawesome. She was very excited to see us and was just really nice and enthusiastic. We were worried originally because we figured, her mother is in the hospital, things aren’t looking good, is she really going to want to come home to three chicas with broken spanglish, asking her when dinner will be ready? Problamente no. The thing is, it is harder to be my usual charming self in Spanish. Being polite is harder, making jokes is harder. I’m sure  sometimes we come off like “Want food, can you put me dinner now?” But Antonia has had a lot of students before so I think she knows the drill. Anyway, we really didn’t get to visit with her very long before Chessie and I had to leave to get to el partido de Futbol!!

            Side note: on the way to the stadium Chessie and I befriended un Rastafarian hombre in the metro station who we always see playing the guitar and singing. His name is Jimmy and he once played with Bob Marley and the wailers. He is my new BFF.

            Talk about excitement. That futbol game was really cool to watch. Both halves are 45 minutes, but the time really flies by because it’s not so stop and go every 20 seconds like American football. And we won. Barca beat Atletico Madrid 2-1. The place we had was in them nosebleed seats and it was reallll cold because the wind was so strong up there, but the excitement overpowered the cold and it was a very good time.

            Thea said that while we were gone, Antonia took care of her and made some special concoction for her throat made with fruits and honey, cleaned up her room and took her temperature. Thea thinks it’s a little weird. I think Thea is a little weird.

            Only problem is she ALSO moved the internet hub (I don’t know if that’s what you actually call that thing…) into Thea and Chessie’s room so that she could use her computer in bed. So I suppose I will have to post this tomorrow as I will need to go in their room from now on to use the internet at home. Wireless should hopefully be working around the 19^th. I heard of a website today that my friend, Meg, uses called callingamerica.com or something similar, that allows you to call landlines in America for free. Which is essentially what Skype should be able to do but people have had problems with it on landlines, so I think I’ll try the other one out some time.

            Oh, yes, we also met our RA yesterday. Her name is Natalia, she was really cool. She showed Chessie and I (Thea was sleeping) around the barrio a little bit and we found some super markets close to our house. She said that after her exams she will be able to show us around and hang out more.  

We walk around the city so much here.

I got shin splints.