Victory and Defeat

Waking up, turning on my computer and seeing OBAMA! in giant blue letters on the New York Times homepage was one of the greatest sights I have seen in a long time. I am so proud of the United States and am no longer as inclined to tell people here that I am Canadian. It seems as long as I voted for Obama, its ok for me to be an American. Plus, it wasn't a pansy win like Bush 2.0. It was a hardcore, eat my dust McCain, victory. Also, New Mexico went Dem, so I can renew my hometown pride. I was feeling very victorious, so I took a shower and went out to explore my new digs.

This is where the defeat part comes in. If any of you were around for my Belgium ATM disaster circa 2006, you recall that I do not get along with foreign ATMs very well. This trip is no exception. Here I am, all prepared with multiple debit cards to withdraw cash, the lesson I learned after traveling to Belgium a few years ago with only one source of funds. Well, thats all well and good, unless all the ATMs in Spain now require a specific type of chip in your debit card that none of mine have. Lovely.

Thank goodness for skype. I used it to call my bank, which was altogether unhelpful. Their most helpful line was, "Well, it should work. Maybe it just doesn't in Spain." Seriously. So, I resorted to calling the almighty VISA. They gave me the name of a bank in central madrid which should accept my card. Lovely. So all I have to do tomorrow is somehow use my broken spanish to communicate to the bank nearby that I need to exchange the rest of my america dollars to euros, buy a bus pass and navigate my way through a strange town where I don't speak the language. SWEEEET. wish me luck.

Oh and day 2 of mystery food was equally delicious as yesterday. I need to at least learn enough spanish so I can find out what i'm eating and recreate it when I'm home. There was definitely rice involved. The rest, ??? If I come back looking like I was stung by 1000 bees, will you all still love me?

(Dis)orientation

--> My street in Madrid!

Hola amigos! Estoy en Madrid.

I arrived this morning around 10 a.m. Madrid time, 4 a.m. east coast time. I slept on the plane, but I was still pretty out of it. It might have something to do with the 3 glasses of wine I downed before getting on the plane to calm my nerves. My host dad finally recognized me in the airport wandering around because I was the "blonde who looked lost."

We made it back to the house. I've met 5 people since arriving in Spain - my host dad, the housekeeper, and the 3 children. The only one who didn't ask me if I voted for Obama was the youngest daughter, and that's cause she's 4. My room is nice and I could fit all my clothes in the closet which was a pleasant surprise.

I took a long nap and awoke to the smell of delicious Spanish food. The housekeeper is from the DR, and I can understand her better than Spaniards, so we chatted with her for while. I have no idea what I ate for dinner, but it was delicious.

The kids are adorable, and I am going to start tutoring them tomorrow. I just got done playing an energetic game of spanish/english Go Fish with the 8 year old girl, while the 4 year old put together puzzles of Disney Princesses. Que chulo.

I am so tired i feel like I'm going to pass out on my keyboard, so I'm signing off. Hasta manana amigos.

T minus 13 days

Its almost time. Its strange to think in less than 2 weeks I will be in Spain. Anyone who knows me understands that I am not a big planner, so if you didn't even know I was going to Spain or you have spoken to me in the past month and I didn't mention it, don't be offended or alarmed. I behaved similarly when I went to college. I was so unnervingly calm about it all that my parents thought I was in severe denial. They were deathly afraid that I would wake up on the morning I was supposed to leave and say, "Actually, I don't think I'm going to college today. Or ever. Ok?"

I'm not actually that impervious. It's just that I believe if you get yourself too worked up by talking about something big, you increase the likelihood that you will freak out and not do it. And being no stranger to freaking out, I try to avoid it at all costs. So, hopefully, I will not wake up in 13 days and say, "I'm not going to Spain today. Ok?" and my next post will be from my family's home in Madrid.

See you all soon!