it happened. i got hooked on a cheesier than cheesy telenovela [soap opera]. i think it's from venezuela originally and it just finished it's run on univision in the states, but it is just starting here. two episodes, and i'm hooked. just goes to show, i can adapt to tv anywhere. and... a huge popstar here is a guy named david bisbal. he's got like long and curly hair, and to be honest, he's quite cheesy and greasy looking. he's not a bad-looking guy. but, his image, if you will, is like something we'd very much laugh at. it's almost like the look of a greasy playboy type who wears shirts and leaves the collar wide open so that chest hair can spill out. gross. [what's that? you don't see what's wrong with that? erm...i've no words then.] anyway, i totally thought this guy's music would be equally lame, but his song, "buleria" is actually quite catchy. it's almost like ricky martin's "la copa de vida" before he went all mainstream american and thus, lame. and there's this other group, chambao, and they do a style called "flamenco chill." i am quickly learning that there's a number of descriptive words that may be placed after the word "flamenco."

have i mentioned much about my class? i took the placement test and i placed into avanzado A. there are 4 levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and superior and each level has an A and B class. advanced A isn't bad, but i get the feeling i should have placed higher, given the time i spent earning an actual spanish degree. this then leads me to the conclusion that i have forgotten much, or, that i've never actually learned that much at all. how sad. oh well. but, i am happy to report that advances have been made. i am definitely starting to follow along with the newscast and also, i have answered the phone 3 times now, instead of just letting it ring until the caller hangs up. and there's this short program that is on right after the early evening news, and it's with puppets. but they look like various public figures, both locally and internationally, and they're very, very life-like, in a kind of creepy way. anywho, president bush has his own puppet counterpart and he speaks spanish, with a texas accent! it's super funny. i'm going to try and capture a segment with the video function on my digital camera.

earlier this afternoon, i decided to go walking around the city, i was about to say the streets, but that has a bit of a different connotation, doesn't it? anyway, i explored the city a little more and went window shopping. i eyed a whole bunch of shoes that i want to buy and did actually buy una falda [skirt] from a shop called zara. i guess they have a location in new york...who knew? i also found spain's version of sogo, el corte inglés. it's like huge with clothing, shoes, electronics, books, music, movies, toys, food court, grocery store, etc. you name it, and they probably have it. it was fun. sadly, the clothing for the younger peoples are brands like polo, tommy hilfiger, levi's, and lee. there are some other ones, but a lot of them are ones we have in the states and ones from which i do not buy. where's my old navy? anyway, things are kind of expensive here so i might not be shopping as much as i would've thought. boo.

oh, and the other thing that i forgot about in spanish culture, and in latin american culture too, come to think of it, is how you greet people. we americans like to shake hands and maintain and sense of personal space. they don't do that here. they're all about that whole cheek-air kiss thing on both sides of the face. and we know i'm all about personal space. :) it reminds me of being back in brasil, and how i was initially really uncomfortable. haha... i'm learning to not look so spooked when i meet new people and greet them the spanish way. actually, being here has made me miss brasil all over again. i have saudades for brasil.

thanks friends for e-mailing me with tv updates - it keeps me from getting too edgy from the withdrawal...oh goodness i'm like an addict and tv/media, my drug.

new vocab of the day: buitre = spanish for player/guy who thinks he's all that and a bowl of rice to the ladies. buitre is actually a predatory bird that feeds off of the rotting carcasses of other animals - basically, a vulture. nice visual, huh? now...where can i start using that word...