Totally Random Observations

Sooo I've been here for about five days and I have some random thoughts that I just HAVE to put out there.

In the morning, when I eat milk and cereal, so does my host brother. Except he toasts bread and spreads butter on it...and dips it in his cereal. It's not the grossest thing, it's just different. And fun to watch.

Speaking of host brother (who speaks a lot of Spanish to me...I'm going somewhere with this, lol), I'm realizing that I've made my worst nightmare come true. When Palmar's husband came into our class to talk about the linguistics/pragmatics used in textbooks for children during the Franco dictatorship, I kept feeling like something was not right, although he says everything correctly. Suddenly I realized. He says "Gracias", instead of "Grathias", like I do!!! I've picked up the "Spanish" accent AND I think that's the way Spanish should be spoken!!! Someone send me to Latin America right now so that I can fix this!!! Pleaseee!!!

Okay lies, other than to save myself a LOT of money (because everything here is MUY CARO--REALLY expensive...curse you, you worthless US dollar$!$!$! I watch my money go away, slowly, every day...it's so sad), I wouldn't want to leave Madrid for Latin America, at least, not until I'm totally broke (...although I am getting closer to that every day). It's a really amazing city, with a lot to do, places to see, easy to get around, very clean, nice people. Oh also, they're REALLY educated here.

I'm beginning to realize my mom and dad were right; we know nothing about the world in America. What have we even learned in school?! My host brother and his friends and I all played Trivial Pursuit the other the day, and they CREAMED me. Granted, I had quite the language barrier (I don't know half their vocabulary), I don't know ANYTHING about sports, they have different names for people/places (such as Alexander the Great is Alejandro Magno...okay?), and who has any clue about Spanish literature other than the Spaniards themselves, but STILL, in certain areas, I think they know more about both Europe, and MY country, than I, or any educated person in America knows. Plus, even an average Spaniard can speak Spanish, French, sometimes Italian, and a bit of English (I guess I have all of those languages to an extent, but I also have an different passion for languages; most people in the US barely know English) I have like, 2 years on them. Dang. Although, I think they memorize more than us, and we might be better at more analytical thinking type stuff, but maybe not. I don't know how the Spaniards do in the grand scheme of the world, but then again, I don't think I know anything anymore.

Also, my mom and dad would FREAK OUT if they came to Spain in other aspects. These VERY EDUCATED PEOPLE are VERY PDA. ALL. THE. TIME. I count how many couples I see displaying affection every day (I don't want to be too descriptive because my favorite little girls that I nanny might read this, but let's just say more than just hand holding. Way more than hand holding, sometimes.) and I've never seen less than 10. And I'm not out that much. It's that intense.

Alright, well that's all I have to say for now. I'm going to take a nap before going out to dinner with my class. Hasta mañana.
Besos. And please comment on the blog! It's really easy. Sorry if I write wayyy too much, I just have a lot to say.