¿Dónde Están Las Galletas?

(A statue of the Hindu god Ganesha, on display at the MNA)

Today is Wednesday, which means I was sitting in a classroom before the sun came out. I was decently awake, perhaps because I had to sit sideways at the desks which seemed to be made for midgets. Class was held in a different room than usual and I have never before seen desks like this. Both the desk's seat and table fold down, but because of the way it was built (for midgets), you have to sit before pulling down the table or else you will get stuck in an awkward position between sitting and standing. It was funny watching everyone fight the desks with their eyes sleepily half-closed, and hopefully next week, we move back to our normal classroom with human-sized desks.

The next class was an endurance effort and after 2 hours of Spanish lecture, my head was bobbing just as much as everyone else's. But then it was lunch-time, which always perks me up. I had beef stew, which was quite tasty and a pastry I bought from the cafeteria. The pastry was decent, but still not the chocolate-chip cookie I have been craving for nearly 2 months now. Spain is in a really sorry state when it comes to cookies, as what they call cookies are really crackers. I have searched Madrid high and low for a cookie to no avail, and at this point, Lisbon may be evaluated based on its cookie-availability.

After Spanish class, I met with my intercambio, Jennifer. This week was in Spanish, and I was exhausted at the end of our hour-and-a-half, but we have plans to go out to dinner next week, so I'm excited about that. I was telling her all my stories about Julia, and she told me a pretty exciting story as well. Her great-grandmother was a Spanish Countess (why are there so many of those running around over here?) who had an affair with a monk. Yes, a monk. Her grandfather was had out of wedlock and grew up in an orphanage. They told him when he was older who his parents were and if he wanted to accept them legally. He said no, but now he has an awesome story to pass on to future generations. "Once upon a time when Great-Grandma went to church. . ."

My last class of the day was economics, were we talked about our final, which the Professor has decided will be oral. Great. We have a 7 - 10 minute "chat" with the professor which will determine 50% of our final grade. That's a lot of percentage per minute. He said he likes oral exams because students can't just memorize facts. This did not please me, as I am a memorizing queen, and can spit out textbook facts like nobody's business. We'll see how this one goes.

I got back to Julia's and was waiting around for her to return for dinner. I was listening to the wind whistling outside (and through, in my opinion) the window, and shivering, as today was the really cold and rainy. Julia called my phone, but fortunately, I understood must of what she was saying, which involved my eating dinner whenever I felt like it as she was eating with her family. That was a first, and saved me a solid 45 minutes of Spanish dinner conversation.

Tomorrow I have quite a few errands to run before I leave for Lisboa on Friday morning, so I plan on waking up early and being productive. We'll see how that goes.