Birthday!

Hey everyone,
So it was my birthday (yesterday) but I wanted to write about it today after "celebrations" and what not.

On Tuesday evening (September 23rd, the day before my birthday), we had a "meeting" with our professor to hear about letting her know when we travel outside of Madrid, what to do if someone gets ill, etc.

That meeting made me little nervous because I guess I run a risk of paying 300 euros if I'm caught being in Europe without a Visa for more than 90 days, but I'm only here for like 96 days, so I don't know what would be my best option. In the spring, off-campus studies office at Carleton told me that it's not a big deal, especially because I'm not just staying in Madrid for those last 28 days but traveling around Europe, but Palmar is making it seem a bit more serious due to newer laws and regulations. I'll have to ask my parents what I should do.

ANYWAYS, other than becoming nervous about my Visa situation, Palmar treated us to chocolate con churros (dipping churros into a really thick hot chocolate) and I ate so much that I had no room for dinner when I got home! I got a sweet Madrid calendar, a "móvil" charm (cell phone charm), and of course, a card, of course, signed by all my classmates in class when I was sick at home on Monday morning. Lol.

So I woke up early in the morning, around 7:45 AM on my to go online and talk to some friends, and of course, my super adorable mother and brother sing "Feliz Cumpleanos a ti" (Happy Birthday to you) and give me a card and a gift (which is this really cute potpurri thing to hang in closets to make it smell good, and this one is decorated with felt to make it look like a cute rabbit; the potpurri "sack" is it's belly).

After checking facebook a bit, I fell back asleep until about 11 AM. I had class at 12 PM, so I rushed over there (15 minute walk). We talked to a film director named Oskar Garcia and he was very interesting, I just wish I knew a bit more about his movies.

So afterwards, I came home just for a few minutes, thinking I was going to join some friends for lunch, but since I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, my host mother insisted that I eat some pasta and well, it's tough to say no to free food in this continent. We had a bit of a discussion about the European education system versus the American, and although she's convinced the European is just the best, I think there are elements to each that are both good and bad.

Finally, we all met up at the "congreso de diputados" and it was more or less a tour of a government building. In Spanish, of course. Then my friend Hannah and I walked around for a bit looking for a library which I totally failed to find. Then I came home and took another short nap until dinner. Dinner was delicious; homemade "french fries" and an egg (although my mother thinks it's the STRANGEST thing when I separate the yolk out and only want to eat the white of the egg). And of course, flan for dessert! After dinner, I spent a bit of time on the computer video chatting with friends and talking to my parents. Then around 10:30pm, I left the house to meet some classmates at 11:15pm, near my favorite neighborhood in Madrid, to go to a bar and celebrate my birthday. On the metro, a guy told me I was beautiful and asked me my name and tried to get my telephone number from me, even though I told him I didn't have one, twice or three times. Very. Very. Creepy.

After about 15 minutes of walking around in a group of thirteen, we ended up going to a bar that I had been to before for a friend's birthday last week. I remembered LOVING a red wine that my friend had ordered, so ended up getting...um, 4 bottles of red wine that night (it's a sweeter wine, with a great aftertaste, making it dangerously easy to drink). The bartender/waiter remembered us and when I told him it was my birthday, he bought me a rose from a street vendor who walked into the bar, it was very sweet of him! We had an awesome time reflecting and bonding with each other and finally left the bar around 1:15 AM to try to catch the metro. I finally made it home, in a very happy mode, around 2 AM and fell asleep dreaming dreams about missing the metro and getting pickpocketed...