Hola a todos! I am very excited as I write to you this afternoon, because in two hours I'm leaving to pick Mom up from the airport! But first here is the update I promised you.
First of all, blogging is still a little strange for me. I never know if what I'm writing is interesting or just silly. To add to that frustration, I think of funny little one-liners while I am out completing every day tasks and think "hehe I'll put that in the blog, they'll love it!" and then promptly forget whatever genius comment I had. So I apologize that my posts are never as funny in reality as I intend them to be.
Anyway, on the excursion we had last Saturday (once I had finally caught up with the group) there was a decent amount of time spent on the bus. I spent that time doing what I normally do on long road trips: reading. But I wasn't just reading any book, I was reading the book that Mom and Dad got me for Christmas, which happened to be a graphic novel from the "Trinity" series, featuring Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. So I was reading a huge comic book. The book was awesome and gripping, but it served another purpose: it outed me as the nerd I actually am. While at home I tend to wear superhero shirts often which speak to my thoughts on the issue, here in Madrid I try to dress like "normal person" on a daily basis. This means no sweats, no work out t-shirts, and more time spent getting ready in the morning. The moral of the story is that when everyone walked past me reading Trinity on the bus, my true identity was revealed (yay for extra superhero joke!). Some of the guys said it definitely earned me more points, and some of the girls looked at me like I was a total weirdo. But all in all it was funny, and the people who I enjoy spending time with were amused.
While I said I do not wear work out gear on a regular basis anymore, there is one clear exception: when I go running. It is the only time that I leave the house knowing I look completely like an American. I really don't have a choice, all of my t-shirts, sweatshirts, and shorts have either the OSU or NFHS logo on them. Here in Madrid, every single runner is outfitted in the best running gear. Everyone has very nice leggings, windbreakers, iPod armbands, everything you can imagine. No one has logos anywhere, so it is always easy to identify the other American college girls running in the park. Even though I have fallen into a routine and I like the park that I run in, I still HATE running. But joining a gym is too expensive, so I do the best I can.
Hmmm how about a few random facts to end today's post? Well something that is strange that I've been meaning to tell you guys is that when I add a new post it always shows up in California time, which makes no sense to me. So if you're curious what time something is actually posted, you have to add nine hours to whatever it says under the post.
Something we realized when we went to Paris that made us very sad was that when we travel within the EU we don't get any more stamps in our passports. We were all pumped to get France stamps, but we didn't even have to go through customs! I guess it makes our travel more efficient, but my passport will not reflect all the cool traveling I've done.
And finally a random fact from school: one of my teachers taught us something interesting. During the dictatorship of Franco (1939-1975) it was required that ever female child born be named "Maria", to give homage to Mary the Virgin Mother. As a result, the women born in that generation all have names like "Maria Luisa", "Maria Jose", "Maria de la Paz", "Maria de Pilar", etc. These multiple part names allow them to still be differentiated. For example, my politics professor, who told us about this in the first place, is named "Maria Luisa", and she goes by "Marisa". In fact, I have two professors right now named "Maria Luisa"/"Marisa".
Well I think that's enough for one day! I'll be leaving in 1.5 hours to go collect Mom from the airport and go to the apartment where she's staying for the week. I'm very excited about that, because it's in my favorite area of the city, Chueca. It is a very trendy district and very fun! I'll be staying with her a few nights this week and I'll try to update at some point to tell all of our fabulous stories! I'm especially excited/nervous for her to meet my host mom, Angelina... I will have to do 100% translating!
Oh! One more thing, my Chinese roommates left this morning! Yay! One of them didn't even say goodbye to Angelina. How rude!
Hasta luego!
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