¡Mucho Trabajo!

(A view of the gardens at La Alhambra in Granada, Spain)

This week seems to have become alarmingly busy. I don't know where all this work came from, but I'm really hoping this is just a blip in the system until finals roll around. I have a Spanish test on Thursday, an art history paper due next Wednesday, two final papers that need to be researched (one on the economic history of Japan and the other on sustainability in Spain), internships that need to be applied for, club applications that need to be finished. . . I shan't bore you with the details.

Also, I'm officially on Facebook. After two years, I have succumbed to peer pressure and finally opened an account. My e-mail inbox has been exploding and I already feel the pulls of addiction. There are so many people and so many pictures to look at, but I refuse to become a Facebook addict and will stay strong. Unfortunately, I think this might actually become another one of those ways in which I inadvertently avoid society (similar to my phone and e-mail accounts). I read and/or listen to everyone's friendly messages, but then never seem to respond in a timely fashion. My Facebook wall posts (I believe that's what they're called) are stacking up, and I actually haven't responded to anyone yet. There must be a way to send big group messages, but that's probably not quite socially acceptable. But then again, neither is not responding. . .

I had a stomach ache all yesterday morning, which slowed down the Spanish studying. I'm not sure what caused it, (although the possibility of Julia's poisoning me crossed my mind - just kidding. . .) but I felt better by the time I left for class. We are writing fairy tales with a twist in Spanish. We each have a partner, and each group must pick a classic fairy tale, and re-write it so that it ends differently. My group's story is Cinderella (or Cenicienta, en español). Everything is the same until the day after the ball, when Cinderella wakes up with swollen feet (the fairy godmother's spell had some negative side-effects). She goes downstairs and tries to explain to the Prince that she was the girl with the glass slipper, but he dismisses her as ugly and turns out to be quite shallow (after all - he didn't even know her name after dancing with her all night). Cinderella's step-family kicks her out because she can't do the chores anymore and she moves into her own apartment. After the fairy godmother fixes Cinderella's feet, she meets her new neighbor, Carlos, who is muy guapo and not shallow at all. El Fin. It'll be a movie any day now.

Then I had Economics. Every Monday we have quizzes on the readings (which are usually upwards of 30 pages). Each week I do the reading, outline the reading, and do the reading again, but it doesn't really seem to help. He asks really random question, which sometimes have little to do with the reading and are usually hardly in English (whoever writes those quizzes could use a grammar class). The best grade I've gotten so far was on the week where I accidentally read the wrong reading. Go figure.

Today was just a lot of Spanish studying. I had two classes, neither of which were remarkable, but afterwards, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some school supplies. I got to the checkout and handed the woman my money and she said, "You can't pay with this." I gave her a blank stare (wondering if this was a further development in the conspiracy theory) but then realized I had tried to pay with Moroccan dirhams. They look quite a bit like euros and if I were the cashier, I wouldn't have noticed the difference. I must have put them in my wallet when I was fishing through my change box looking for coins because none of my cards were working. Then I couldn't remember how much she had said the bill was or how much I had already given her, so I kept handing her coins and she kept asking me for more. Of course there was a long line behind me, and I think Hayley would deem this another embarrassing story.

Francesco was over again today and Julia seems to be much nicer to him than she is to me. But he really is a cutie and doesn't scream when I'm near him, so he's okay in my book. He even has the little comb-over that all the royal babies in the movies have.

Now it's off to bed - have to get up before the sun tomorrow.