octubre en Madrid

Soo, it´s been 3 weeks since the last update...time goes by so fast here.

Granada was absolutely amazing, as usual. I have never met anyone who didn´t fall in love with that city, so if you ever find yourself in Spain, it´s necessary that you go there for a day or two. There is a certain charm about it, especially in the Albaicín, the Arabic quarter of the city. Even after living there for 4 months and visiting a couple of times, it never fails to impress me. I stayed with Juan´s family while I was there, and they were incredibly nice; I didn´t expect anything less. Thursday night in Granada we went to the Arabic baths, which was relaxing of course. There were 3 different pools - one with hot water, one with warm and one with cool. There were also massages involved...unbelievable I know. Friday of that weekend we were able to see Carmina, our old host mom, and she made us some of her delicious food. It was nice to be able to speak to her a lot more this time around because of my improved Spanish. Saturday we also got a home-cooked meal from Juan´s parents, who invited all 7 of us to come over and eat some of the best food we´ve eaten so far in Spain. Overall, a great weekend, and I´m pretty sure that being able to spend it with Juan had something to do with it ;) I was sad to go.

After that, we had a weekend in Madrid with our friend Kristin who finally arrived! The weekends spent here in Madrid are a balance of partying, doing touristy things to discover the city, and relaxing. The Thursday of that weekend, the 23rd, was DeAnna´s birthday, so we made cake and stuff. I was too poor to buy a present, but I did buy her some steak and potatoes and cooked it because that´s her favorite meal. DeAnna left the next day for Valencia and like I said, we spend the weekend with Kristin. She was here last year and already has a bunch of connections, and it was nice to meet some new people.

This last weekend was Halloween, and more importantly, Juan came to visit. Halloween was strange, as it should be in a country that doesn´t traditionally celebrate it. And as far as Juan´s visit, words can´t describe, so I´ll just leave it at that. That last sentence doesn´t make much sense because I already described good times with my measly words, but whatever. Sometimes I feel like blogs are better if you don´t edit the stupid things you write. So yeah, that´s that.

School is still great, so I don´t have too much to say about that. Today we started giving English classes to the teachers in the school who were interested. It went very well I think. The only other notable thing is that I am developing real relationships with the students, and that makes me feel really happy. They like me, which helps them open up to me and then I understand them better, which makes me a better teacher.

Next on the agenda is Barcelona on November 14th. I have always wanted to go there, and unfortunately I will only be there 3 days, but I know we´ll have a great time, as always! I can´t believe that trip will be 10 whole days after tomorrow´s election. I won´t blog too much about it, because everyone who knows me well knows where I stand. I will feel very disillusioned if a particular candidate wins, even though I know that all politicians are more alike than we want to admit. I just want what helps the most people; sometimes I think it´s so simple. Usually I don´t, but every once in a while...

Ok, that´s it. Peace, love and happiness.
(right Trish?)