So, the Spain adventure is basically over. In the past month, I haven´t written much for a variety of reasons. Mostly, because I found lots of things to do in Spain, and out of Spain, and didn´t have time. Also, because my access to internet has been sparse and sporadic, and so when I go to write an entry I end up spending most of my time cursing under my breath so the kids I teach won´t hear (and more importantly, repeat) all the bad things I am saying while I watch the ¨beach ball of death" spin around on my mac as it searches endlessly for the elusive internet connection.

In honor of my time here, I am starting a partial list of things I love about Spain.

1) Drinking - people in spain have a great attitude about drinking. They do it wherever, whenever, and no one gives them a look. My host parents are around 45 years old, parents to three youngsters, and one of the only framed pictures of them in the house is a photo of them looking a little tipsy at a disco, my host dad´s grey hair illuminated by the red flashing disco lights. It sits next to their formal dining table. At new years, did the Goverment use hard earned tax dollars to pay cops to check people´s bags and confiscate liquor bottles as you entered the square where the new years countdown happens? Claro que no. They used the good spanish people´s tax dollars to buy thousands of giant plastic cups (more or less 40 ounces) to hand out to people so they could pour their liquor into a less dangerous container and continue drinking. The police also recycled the empty liquor bottles subsequently. ingenious.

2) Siesta.
I don´t need to say a lot to defend my embracement of this cultural phenomenon. Its just genius. Instead of stealing a rest in the empty cubicle after a carb laden lunch, hoping your boss wont find you, or trying to master the art of sleeping while keeping your eyes open at the inevitable and inhumane after-lunch meetings, the Spanish just say, por dios, let them go home and sleep in their hard, european, tiny beds. Its amazing. (p to the s, I´m too tall for beds in spain.). Just think. If the U.S. endorsed siestas then all of those afternoons in college when I went Spanish and siesta-ed during my afternoon classes, I might have been happy, rested and in better standing with the University. Perhaps I should petition to have my grades changed citing discrimination against my adoptive culture.

more later...hasta prontisimo!