A bit of seriosity for a change

Wasn't quite sure how to spell seriosity, as I just invented the word. I'm pretty sure I'm going to start using it, though. Seriousness just has too many s's in it- unless, of course, you're a snake. Cobra- feel free to use the word. I did imply that this was going to be a serious blog, though, didn't I? Back to that, then.

Oh, how the time does fly. It's hard to believe that I have now been living in Madrid for nearly 7 months. And I don't want to move back to the States. I'd like to go back for the summer to visit, but then return to Madrid in the fall. Unless something drastic happens, though, this is not going to happen. (Raul- that's a subtle hint for you: Go ahead and propose already) I have one year left at the UW, and I don't think I would be able to graduate next spring if I came back here in the fall. That's okay, though. I like Seattle, too. Once I get over the reverse culture shock, I'm sure I'll be glad to be back.

So, I have just over a month left in Madrid and over two months before I return to the States. I know it's going to go by ridiculously fast. Especially because of how busy I'm going to be: This weekend (April 21-23) I go to Granada. Next weekend (April 28) I go to Berlin, then to London (May 4) to meet my family. We'll all be there together for 2 days, then they come back with me to Madrid (May 6) and they're here until the 11th. The following weekend my roomate moves out and it is my last free weekend before finals. I was thinking about going to St. Petersburg, Russia that weekend, but that might have been the last straw in the coffin..er..the nail that broke the camel's back? Then I have 2 weeks of finals (May 20-30...yuck). At some point in the two days after my last final is over, I move out of my flat. On June 1st I go on a hike called the Camino de Santiago. It is a pilgrimage to the city of Santiago de Compostela, which is believed to be the burial place of James the apostle. For more information, click on the link above. The section of the hike that I will be doing covers a total of 170 miles. After which, I come back to Madrid for 3 days (May 13-15), go to the farewell dinner for my study abroad program, and get a little rest before going to Morocco for about 12 days. I'll return to Madrid on or around the 28th and head back to the States. However, on the way back, I may or may not be stopping in Munich to visit Hannah and I may or may not be stopping in New Jersey to visit Christin and my other friends out there. Right, so, that should keep me busy.

When I get back to the States I get to figure out where I'm going to live for the summer- Centralia or Seattle (not to mention with my parents or my sister). At some point during the summer I need to find a place to live in Seattle, get a job, and buy a car, not necessarily in that order. Hang on, I'll also need to take care of the bureaucracy end of studying abroad (getting all of my credits transferred and such) and register for classes for autumn quarter. So, yes. I am looking at the months ahead with a little bit of trepidation. I'm going to be going on a Transition Rampage.

I'm not really worried, though. Mildly apprehensive, maybe, but not worried. I know that God will take care of me; He always does.

The people have spoken

In response to an influx of requests for conversation-encouraging posts, I submit the following picture: Black hairy tongue 

Well, to be honest, the "influx of requests" was actually one request from my brother. But I guess that just proves how sensitive I am to the desires of my public (which is likely comprised of about 4 people). At any rate, I have enjoyed this picture immensely from the first time I saw it- that is, once I stopped gagging. It is for this reason that I took it upon myself to share this wondrous image with all 4 of you. I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as I have.

You're probably wondering what exactly causes black hairy tongue. The answer is simple. It is one of the lesser-known initial stages of transformation into a werewolf. Generally only a temporary occurrence, this often takes place when the subject is bald. The reason for this is that with the onset of baldness, hair follicles in the head close up. As I'm sure you are already aware, when a person turns into a werewolf, the amount of hair on his/her body multiplies exponentially. Because it is such a struggle for this newly-grown hair to sprout out of a bald person's head, some hair is often rerouted to the tongue. This usually only happens on the first full moon. After that, the follicles have been forcibly reopened and the way is cleared for emerging werewolf hair. So there you have it. If you ever look in the mirror and discover that you have a black hairy tongue, you'll know that you're in the first stages of becoming a werewolf.

Hannah is here!

Hooray! She's finally here! After we met up at the airport yesterday, we decided to take public transport back to my flat. As we maneuvered her bags through turnstiles, on and off escalators, on and off trains, etc., we were taken back to the Great Europe Trek of '04. Ahh, those were the days...sleeping on trains, eating gelato for dinner, taking an overnight ferry from Italy to Greece, hiking 6 miles with our backpacks in search of our hostal- it was quite the adventure. But back to the story at hand!

Once we dropped things off at my place and Hannah had a couple cups of coffee (a vital part of the process), we were ready to go out again. We went with some of my friends to Mesón de la Guitarra to hear some flamenco music and eat some tapas, then on to Mesón del Champiñon for more tapas, and much to our dismay, more music. You see, the flamenco music at the first place was awesome. It always is. At the second place, however, they were playing what sounded like bad mexican country music. To make matters worse, it was karaoke. Fortunately, only one lady actually sang, but she was completely lashed and after she finished singing she continued dancing around for a while. Oh well. We still had a lot of fun.

By the time we got home and went to bed, it was around 3 am. That's not particularly late for Spain, but Hannah had been up all day after flying here from Seattle the day before! So, she slept until about 1 pm today. She's getting ready right now, then we're off to- well, I don't know where. We'll figure that out as we go, I suppose. We're going to Casa Mingo tonight (famous for rotisserie chicken and cider), followed by Populart (live jazz). Then tomorrow, we're going to Segovia. For now, though, it looks like we're off!

Visitation or infestation?

Two days ago, I found what I thought was a large beetle in my bedroom. Now, insects are not generally something that I enjoy, but they don't cause me to run screaming from the room either. On this occasion, I decided to capture it and set it free on my balcony. But before you start to think that I 'm one of those really humane people that couldn't stand to hurt a fly, I'm not. I would kill a fly. I had two reasons for not stomping this particular bug. First of all, it was quite large- I don't mind squishing bugs, but I'm not particularly fond of hearing them crunch. Second of all, it was lying on its back unable to go anywhere, so the old glass & paper trick was a cinch (You know the one, you put a glass on top of the bug and then gradually slide the glass sideways until it and the bug are on top of a piece of paper, and presto - your bug is contained!

Once I had the little bugger trapped, I took pictures. I'm sure this does not come as a surprise to anyone, as that is typically my reaction in any situation. A few examples? I hit my head quite hard, it was bleeding and I had a mild concussion, so I felt that the logical course of action was- to take pictures. The bus doors closed on my friend Kelly's backpack and she couldn't get it free, so being the helpful friend that I am- I took pictures. At a fondue party, the fondue pot caught on fire- you guessed it- I took pictures. But I digress. Back to the story at hand.

Yet again, my fetish for taking pictures has come in handy. The next day, I showed my friend Kelly the picture of this "beetle" that I found. She told me it was a cockroach. I fainted. No not really, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt a little queasy. I realized that the chances of that being the only roach in the flat were slim to none. We don't have cockroaches where I grew up, which is why I was unable to identify it. Last summer, however, I had ants in my flat- little red ants. I had them for about a month and a half. When my landlords started receiving reports of ants on the premises, they decided to spray the perimeter- that only made things worse. Instead of being repelled from the building, they swarmed inside in an effort to get away from the sprayed area. Not fun. So then we were given ant traps. This helped a little, but they never totally went away.

At any rate, the concept of a roach infestation does not exactly warm my heart. My roommate, Elida, is convinced that it was one of our neighbor's roaches that sneaked in the front door. I hope she's right. This was the first time we'd seen a roach and it was full-grown. We're not taking any chances, though. We bought roach traps today and set them up in our flat. Hopefully we won't see any more of them.