Routine

Sorry about the delay in posting again, time is flying and I've been keeping pretty busy. Oddly enough, though, I am falling into a routine. Yes. As in, I am getting used to being in Spain, across the ocean from normal life. Now, life here is what's normal. It's a strange thing. Anyhow, let me tell you about it: Every morning I have the same thing for breakfast. Two little muffins (still don't know what flavor they're supposed to be) and a cup of coffee. Not coffee as we know it in the states, rather, a cup of hot milk with coffee powder and sugar mixed in. I like it better than real coffee...maybe because I like the milk here so much? It's box milk that doesn't need refrigeration until after it's been opened. Most of the people from the states don't like it, which I don't get. After breakfast, if it's Mon-Thurs, I go to class. I've only been to my classes at the actual University once, so too early for routine, but I'm sure it very soon will be. Anyhow, class is good. I am fond of them as much as it is possible to be "fond" of classes. We read very depressing stories in my lit and cine class, but they're thought provoking which is the point of literature, and being an English major, I'm used to depressing books, so it's all good. I go home for lunch. Sometimes it's really late (3:15) and I eat by myself because my host mom couldn't wait, but usually we eat together. The kiwi, tomato, cucumber salad has become a staple in our diet, we have it most days in some form. I like it best when it is the usual three plus sprouts and egg. I'm not as big a fan of the one with really strong cheese and some kind of meat (crab? lobster?) chunks in it. We watch the noticias (news) and commercials. I know all the commercials now and can hum along with their music or quote the punch line. My friend Jen watches all the same TV with her host mom as I do. It's a fun and frequent topic of conversation between the two of us. After lunch I go back to school to use the internet...well, alright, to talk to my fiance and sometimes do other things like homework or e-mails. Now that classes have started at the UofG, I'll only be going back to the school on M/W since I have class in the evening. By the way, I'll tell you guys more about those two classes when I know more about them. The first day was all just introduction to the course. Nothing exciting happened except that I couldn't find my classroom for the second class and was saved by one of the girls from the program finding me who had heard I was taking that class and was interested in switching into it. She got to the classroom, didn't see me there, and left but then found me in the hall frantically scanning the wall with all the classes and rooms posted on it. Phew. Anyhow, around 8:30 I stop whatever I'm doing and go home for dinner. During dinner we watch Arrayan when it's on during the week. It goes from 9:45-10:30 with 15 minutes of commercials in the middle. We usually start dinner around 9:15, eat while watching the news (often the same things we heard at lunch) and then are eating dessert by the time our show comes on. I've been sucked in. I admit it freely, I enjoy this telenovela. Part of it is because I can understand what's going on, which is a nice feeling. The other part is that, well, heh, see, I like following the characters and their stories. It's very dramatic...maybe I'll tell you about it sometime. Then again, I might want to save myself being laughed at. My job at all the meals is to "pon la mesa" which I am very protective of since my host mom won't let me do much else. As soon as I hear the silverware clinking in the kitchen, I stop what I'm doing to go put on the tablecloth, drag my chair over to the table, get out the napkins and find the remote to put it by my host mom's plate. If I don't do that, she'll sit down and get comfy and then realize she doesn't know where the remote is and we'll both get up looking for it. Once that's done, I go to the kitchen and get the plates, knives etc. By the time those are set, the food is ready and I can start taking it to the table as well. After dinner, I do the same thing in reverse. Usually after dinner I try to do homework for a while, or I read, or occasionally I go out and do something with someone. Alright, I'm going to take a nap now, well, as soon as I get the internet working again and post this, rather. I lost track of the one spot where it works while typing, have to go find it again and reconnect. I'm getting pretty good at finding the spot now, but sometimes I fail. I'll try to post something more exciting next time. It just occurred to me that my routine may not be all that interesting...huh, who'd a thunk?