Miércoles - 20.45

 I wanted to hit snooze so badly when I woke up, I was so tired this morning! I definitely got my exercise in this weekend! But I didn't, I got ready and headed out for school. This is my Standard breakfast. It's skim milk (which I only recently realized) and the odd box that it comes in. I shouldn't say odd really... it's just different than what I'm used to. The wrapped package is the food part. They taste like donuts, and they have sugar sprinkled over the top. They're really delicious. I eat them every morning. Depending on the morning and whether the milk is cold, I drink one cup with each muffin. It's a nice balance. There's also cracker/cookie things I eat. I only eat about four or five of them, and always after I eat my muffins. I usually drink a glass of milk with them too. Pilar must think I go through an awful lot of milk... and I do. I feel bad, but I am paying for it in a way, so I don't feel as bad after I remember that. 

I had a little snaphoo at the metro station this morning. I needed to buy my abono joven for the month of July so that I can have unlimited use of the metro again. The problem is this: they do not accept cash to buy the pass, only cards. I have my credit card, which is what I want to buy it with. However, whenever I try to pay with the card, it asks for a security passcode. It's a credit card, so it doesn't have one. When I told the woman I asked to help me that it didn't have a number, she shrugged, said sorry, and went back to her desk. So much for customer service in Spain. I ended up buying a one way pass since I had to get to campus.

Once there, I ran into Alicia leaving the metro. We exchanged books, since she's buying my composition book and borrowing my reading book that I used, and I'm borrowing her art book that she used. We both want one of our books back, so we traded. It's nice to have friends. I'm also 15 euros richer, which is good. Then we headed to the office to see the scores we got in our respective classes. I got an "A" in my culture class, which I expected, and a "B+" in my composition class, which I did not. I was expecting more like a "C", so I was happy! Of course, me getting an "A" is the same as a "D" as far as Tech is concerned, so it's more of a personal accomplishment for me.

My first class is the Art History one. There's seven of us in the class total, and only two of us are returning students, me and Jimmy, the Delt Sig. This works out nicely for me, because I sold him my book for the culture class, but I didn't have change for the 50 he had at the end of the session, nor the 20 he had today, so I know where to find him to collect! The new students all seem really nice. We (Jimmy and I) talked to Hannah, one of the new girls, during our 20 minute break. She's really cool. She's in a home stay with the other girl from her school who she's friends with, and she says she loves it so far. The course doesn't seem too hard, and it seems interesting, since I like art, but it's so long! I'm not used to two hour long lecture classes.

After that class I headed to the USAC office. I got a little red surprise during class, but luckily Susan had something for me! I was relieved. I had just enough time to take care of all that before my next class at 11:30. It turns out I could have taken longer, because I was the only one in the classroom for a good five minutes after class (conversation skills) was supposed to start. Then another girl came in, and we talked for about another five minutes before the professor came in. Her name is Talia, and she's really cool too. I think I got lucky with my two daily classes this session. She's in advanced Spanish, which intimidates me a little bit. Then our professor came in. It's another Sara, like my culture professor last session. This Sara is also from the Basque country, which I found interesting. The thing I like most about this class, though, is that there are only three of us. The third woman came about twenty minutes late, because her other class got out late. Both her and Talia seem to be around my level of speaking skills, but have more confidence, so I think it'll be good for me. I'm really excited for this class. Since it's so small, we're all going to have to participate, which I like because I really want to make up for lost time with my speaking. We don't have to buy a book either, which I really like haha.

After this class I ran into David (the DU from the first session). He asked how the conversation class was, because he was thinking about adding it. I told him that I loved it and that he should add it, though I really want to keep it small. After that, I headed to my final class for the day: Spanish Cinema. This class only had five of us in it, but about ten minutes after it started, seven more people came in. Five of which were here for the last session, including Sima. I was looking forward to not having her in class... It started out okay, but then as it went on I realized I'm stuck with this class for a full month. There's no other class I can switch into, I checked, and I can't drop it because that would mess up all the financial stuff for the summer through Tech, and my credits for Tech.

The professor, while nice, expects us to do an entire semester's worth of work in one summer session! This includes reading all the assigned readings and doing the questions over the readings, watching movies on our own time outside of class and answering questions on them (which all have to be typed so I need to pay for them to be printed), participate in class discussions (which isn't too hard), write an essay for our mid term over a movie that we watch on our own time, prepare and give a 20 MINUTE presentation over the same movie, AND take the final exam. It's so much work!! It's only a one credit class, but it's more work than my other two combined! Thank goodness it's only twice a week. It's also a good thing I only need a D...

After that class I wasn't in a very good mood. I headed to the supermarket to buy a sandwich for lunch and ended up buying a loaf of chocolate bread and a pack of three small cartons of milk. I had a feeling I would need the comfort food. I ate my sandwiches near the metro entrance, and headed down to try and figure out my metro pass again. The same thing happened. I couldn't pay with cash because it's not allowed, and the machine wouldn't take my card because the pin number was always wrong (because it shouldn't have a pin). The woman I asked was about as nice as the one in my metro stop. She shrugged, said she couldn't do anything, and returned to her desk.

I was so upset, I didn't want to pay for another one way pass! I headed to the USAC office to explain my situation to Susan. She said she'd talk to Alvaro about it and contact the metro people. There's nothing she could do for me for today though. I sat in front of the library and started eating some of the chocolate bread/cake. I wanted to drown my sorrows. It didn't work though. Plus, I think I was too depressed to fully enjoy the chocolate. It was so sad. I did enjoy the milk, which was whole milk. It wasn't cold though, so it wasn't as good as it could have been. I ended up pulling out a map and walking home. All four and a half miles. It took me an hour and a half in near direct sunlight. Plus near to the end my phone battery was dying, so I couldn't listen to music for the last half hour. I was not a happy camper. If my mood was blue before this whole debacle, now it was straight up black. I was so frustrated and upset with the whole situation. When I finally got back to the apartment, I drank two bottles of water, one right after the other. I was so happy to get my bag off my back too, since the straps had been digging into my shoulders. I was able to Skype Brandon though.

He always manages to cheer me up. I ended up eating about half the chocolate bread/cake with Nutella for icing and milk to wash it all down. It did taste better now that I wasn't so sad. Once we said our goodbyes so he could go biking, I uploaded my photos to Facebook, which took forever since I had so many! I also added some photos to my blog posts from this weekend, so check them out! Then I updated my expenses sheet, was impressed at how under budget I was for food (I spent 20 when I had budgeted for 40), and saddened by how much more I spent on transportation than I had expected. But it all evened out in the end. This past weekend was amazing! I'm actually really glad we were split up in San Sebastian too. I like Julian, but he's kind of like an annoying little brother (Ryan you're not annoying anymore!). I think Jennifer and I have much more in common than Alicia and I too, so we agreed on things much quicker (like what to do and where to go). It worked out really well.

After doing all that, it was almost nine, so I started writing this blog post. Then, I was called to dinner. I have decided it's best when Monica or Maria Teresa eat with me. Monica was there today. We had chicken fillets, a bit of eggs (a mix between an omelet and scrambled), a lettuce salad, and french fries. It was so delicious, and a wonderful end to my night. I had my standard yogurt for dessert, and it was a nice end because it was sweet and cool. Now I'm about to brush my teeth and wash my face, then get into bed. I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open...