Shoot!

Every week I tutor two girls (ages 10 and 13) english. They are extremely sweet and I am really blessed to have a job here. The 13 yr old really likes Beyonce and she is convinced that she will be able to learn english by listening to Beyonce songs...bad idea....while Beyonce is quote on quote "Bootylicious", believe it or not, her grammar is horrific. As I was leaving yesterday, the girl said to me "You can go ahead and get gone." AH! From now on I am teaching her Sesamee Street Songs!

So here is the story of the week:

I was walking to tutoring, listening to my ipod, and zoning out to the Spanish world around me. A block ahead of me I noticed a man with a shopping cart standing in the middle of the street....which is a REALLY bad idea in Madrid, because the sidewalks aren't even pedestrian friendly (ex. motorcycles ride on the SIDEWALKS....and they call this a first world country?!). I asked myself why the man would be chillin' with a shopping cart when shopping carts don't even exist in Spain (the people use cloth baskets on wheels).

ALL OF THE SUDDEN....the man gets HIT BY A CAR!!! He continues to lie on top of the car, and somehow the shopping cart also remained on the hood of the car. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I start running to help him and I'm thinking about the ABCs (Airway, Breathing (or bowel sounds maybe), and Circulation)...no more than 10 bounding leaps later I see a Camera Crew and a big sound stick! They were filming a movie! There was no way that I was going to play off my insane reaction as suave and normal.

I noticed a man from the crew laughing at me and I went over to talk to him. He told me about a the new TV series that they were shooting. I told him that I was from the States and he said that I must be used to seeing filming because the media entertainment is so big in the States...To save whatever pride I had left, I said that I had never seen anything like it because I come from a little village.

So, if anyone asks...Milwaukee is considered one of the smallest villages in the USA.

SEVILLA + JUAN

I went to Sevilla with 5 other girls two weekends ago. It took 6 1/2 hrs to get there by bus and we stayed for two days and one night. The trip was fantastic because Sevilla is the most pure Spanish you can get. They have bull fighting (not for me), Flamenco (yes please), the third largest cathedral in the world, and a ginormous tower with ramps instead of stairs (so I was able to ride my pony Tater up it).

I apparently made this rainbow... all in a day's work.

At night we went to a Flamenco show and it was as if the dancer was dancing for the very last time and her babies' lives depended on her stomp. I was sitting next to a group of guys and I quickly discovered that one of them was part of the original creators of FACEBOOK! (So, he is a gazillionaire). After word spread about who he was, all of the girls around us were throwing themselves at him with the best flirting i've witnessed since my middle school dances. I, on the other hand, could only think to say, "What were you thinking with the mini-feed?!" (for those of you who don't know, the mini-feed is the home page of facebook that let's you see what everyone in the galaxy is currently thinking, seeing, kissing, dissing, etc.). smooth. real smooth.

Anyway, the best part of the trip was the bus ride home. Here are the higlights:

1. I sit down next to Juan, a seemingly harmless and jovial bald man.

2. I smile at Juan and say something cliche about the weather.

3. Juan opens up to me about being a sailor, getting divorced from a cheating witch, wanting to send Bush to the guillotine, and cohabilitating with an out-of-the-ordinary ugly woman. (hr 1-2)

4. Juan busts out a package of HACHISH from his pocket and explains 6 different recipes that I could back weed into (the potato omelette is particulary captivating). (hr 3)

5. the bus stops for a break

6. Juan apparently gets the munchies and buys two of everything in the convenience store and demands that I feast with him. I manage to down 2 ho-hos and a strawberry milkshake out of pure terror....but the milkshake was delicious. (hr 4)

7. The conversation turns to faith, and Juan shows me 3 tattoos of Jesus' face that are on his arms...i didn't ask to view the other 2 Jesus tattoos. He then explains a time that he was floating in the ocean for 36 hrs after his boat sunk...where he first saw the face of God. (hr 5)

8. To top it off, during hour 6 Juan sang to me....and the rest of the bus I suppose.

C***

So I was crazy blessed to go to Paris last weekend...and I've been thinking about what I want to say about the most beautiful city in the world...but something traumatic happened today that overshadows my vacation.

I had to write a 8 pg paper for philopsophy in spanish, and since I went to France I only had a day and a half to write it. shoot.

So I managed to finish it early this morning before class started...and then I had to write another paper for a different class and I only had 25 minutes. So my state was "uncalm", to put it gracefully.

I wrote about my weekend in Paris and I said that I had lunch with Quasimodo on top of Notre Dame and we talked about Esmeralda and croissants...you know, French things. And then I said that we went to the Eiffle Tower, but that the lines were too big to wait in....

Later in the day I had to say the word "line" (cola) to a Spaniard, but I actually said "ass" (culo). shoot! Then realization hit me that I had said "culo" instead of "cola" in my paper!!!!!

So, my professora is at home reading my paper about Quasimodo and I checking out the big asses by the Eiffle tower.

Monday's class should be fantastic.

Marcos

So fate has brought me together with a Spanish man. Here is the story:

Friday afternoon. enter Alex, the apartment mate, frantically saying something about Victoria, our Senora.

Alex: Katie! Oh no! Victoria just called me and told me that she is in Barcelona and that she wants me to come! I can't go to Barcelona and I think that she is mad at me!

Katie: uh?

Alex: She said that then I need to go to Acuna with her...did she call you?

Katie: uh?

Alex: Well, I will call her....

Katie is now thinking...who's gonna make me my dinner?! shoot!
Alex calls Victoria but her phone suddenly runs out of minutes...so Katie steps in and calls Victoria...(plot thickens)

Katie: Hola! Are you in Barcelona right now? You never said anything about leaving and we are a little confused.

Phone voice: Yes I am in Barcelona, working! I am going to Acuna and I am expecting you to come.

Katie: Uh....well, I am going to stay here this weekend because I have a class trip. I didn't know that you had a job. So....what about dinner...can we use food in the kitchen to make something?

Phone Voice: What! Where are you from, and where are you right now!

Katie: I'm at the house and I'm from the USA...awkward laugh...this isn't Victoria, is it.

Phone Voice: No!!! This is Marcos.

conversation ends in a frantic and extremely awkward apology...Katie now realizing that she asked a random man if she could eat the food in his kitchen.

Reflection:
Only I would manage to call a man and honestly believe that he was a my Spanish mother. Only my roommate and I would manage to put a random man's phone number in our phone book and label it Victoria. Really? really.

ps...I have no intention of pursuing a relationship with Marcos in the future.

pps...Victoria arrived safely at home 6 minutes later.

BaRCeLOna: Top 10 moments

I just got back from Barcelona yesterday, and I am going to sort through the hundreds of memories to pick out the winners:

1. Overnight bus ride (1am-9am)--The sleepy Asian man who sat next to me had his ringer set to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"...it went off constantly and he NEVER woke up to answer or turn it off. Isn't it ironic that a lullaby kept me awake all night? Also, an angry French man paced up and down the aisle yelling at the bus driver, and then yelling at his reflection in the window...I am almost glad that I couldn't sleep so that I could witness the tirade.

2. At 7am on the bus, we were driving through the mountains to Barcelona and the sun was rising. I could see the horizon for miles in the distance and I felt my heart be still. God was so alive and vivid to me in that moment, and it felt like my breathing was syncronized with His.

3. Mambo Tango-- Sweetest Hostal in the world. We (Natalie, Jen and I) stayed there for 3 nights and there were 10 people in our room. It was totally different living out of a backpack and having guys sleep by me...guys who snored like it was a competition to break a window via sound wave. The Hostal was owned by a family from Argentina who came to Barcelona on vacation a year ago, and then decided to stay and buy a hostal.

4. We walked to the beach when we got their and bought a box of Sangria and soaked in the sun. I have no tan to prove that this actually happened, but it was awesome to be sitting on a beach in January and stare out into the sea.

5. One night I was mesmorized by chocolate covered oranges in one of the store windows, and my nameless travel companion wanted to see how much they were worth and she smashed her forehead into the window which had been invisible to her just moments before. She ran away terrified and I had the best laugh of 2008 thus far.

6. Barcelona is the home and canvas of Gaudi...He is the master arquitect who created Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, and Casa Batallo. It was really inspiring to see someone's dreams and aspirations manifest into the breathtaking structures that he created. Looking at his creations made me want to be more daring and passionate about what I am doing in my life. for serious.

7. After a chill night of eating kebaps (cheap, fatty, life-altering), and drinking Mojitos (equally life-altering), we went back to the hostal to watch a movie and then go to sleep. However, this all changed when 6 guys from Ohio were in our room and getting ready to go out. They invited us to come with them, and the relaxing movie night got the Ki-bosh. It was super fun to be with loud Americans (the sterotypes are so true) and I enjoyed speaking english and dancing to 80s hits.

8. We climbed up the top of Montjuic...which is where the Olympics were in '92. It was beautiful and the spirit of the Olympics is still in the air. I am currently thinking of moving to some obscure country, declaring citizenship, and then getting really good at some sport so that I can go to the Olympics for free. Also, on our journey up the mountain we met a guy from Korea who was studying in England. He was super funny and awkward and he tagged along with us even though he had no intention of climbing a mountain.

9. I met awesome people from Australia, England and Poland and I learned so much them about the world. Most people were traveling on their own, which deserves major props. I am realizing what a cool time of my life I am in right now! I am also learning how to be a great sponge.

10. Realization that I am me and that I have purpose. yea, this is pretty huge.

Correr- to run

I love to run.

To my exceeding delight, I have recently discovered that running in Spain is my ticket to mastering the language. On any given run I have spoken to as few as 5 people and as many as 16. (this is due to getting completely lost and asking for help)

In Madrid, "around the block" doesn't exist. So I will be running, and fool myself into thinking that I can go one more block and then cut back and be where I had hoped...but one more block = a black hole teleporting you into the unknown. There is no Lake Michigan to anchor yourself with.

Today we went on a bus tour of Madrid...and everyone was seeing parts of Madrid for the first time. I had already seen everything and had stories about the places because I have already been lost everywhere that Madrid has to offer. In a month, my Spanish is going to decline greatly because if I'm not asking for directions, I have nothing to say!

No "Where's Waldo" in Spain...you can see me from 10.8 mi. away!

When I where this, I am the brighteset thing that Spain has seen since the sun first came into the picture.

Madrillenos wear black, dark brown, and they throw in the occassional gray sock combination.