thursday night, i went out to nuevo cafe with my housemate and a friend of hers from UCSD to hear some live music from an english girl that goes to the centro de lenguas modernas. she played piano and sang. her own music and songs, not that great, but when she sang another person's songs while he played guitar, she was really, really good. and when she did cover songs, she was really, really good. so that was fun, except for the fact that most of the audience was comprised of the more obnoxious americans from the school, including, and i kid you not, the most stereotypical frat boy, who has the voice of a 12 year-old. as mean as it sounds, there was actually something about him and made me want to run up and kick him in the head. i don't often come across people who incite violence within me merely by their presence.

friday, i went to see the prince and me, and it was so much harder to understand because the sound quality was really bad. the theater was also tiny and there was lauren, me, some other people our age, and then like a gaggle of 12 year-old girls who were throwing popcorn at one another and giggling whenever julia stiles and the prince kissed. it was hilarious. the movie was ok, but i get the feeling that we lost the sarcasm and some of the funny/cute stuff in translation. afterwards, we went for tapas and then to the school, where they were having a party to celebrate the end of the course for some of the students in the program. there was a live band, playing some random music and that had hand motions. it was half greek wedding dancing and have that chicken dance. it was kind of confusing too. there were a ton of people in a small space and lots of smoking and beer being spilt. lauren and i were like, ok...let's go home now. her friend paul was having a party later that night, later being like 1am, and we were like...uh...no. on the way home, we ran into two of her welsh friends from university who were visiting for the weekend from extremadura. they had fabulous accents. seriously you guys, i love british people [which i have learned includes scottish, welsh, english, and irish peoples so it is necessary to differentiate.]

yesterday, i went out to walk and shop. i bought postcards, a pair of cute black flats [with a cute little butterflies, instead of the cute tacky flower that the pair i returned had...for those of you that saw...], and some trinkety things. that was how i passed the afternoon and then i went home and watched a little news. later, libby and i went to carrefour, like a wal-mart type store. i loved it. it reminded me of brasil because we went to one there too. we walked there...it was super far, ok, it was only like a 30 minute walk, but it became clear that no one actually walks there since there are few sidewalks to get there. we cabbed it home with our loot. junk food and cheap sandals. awesome.

today is beautifully sunny, and in a little bit, i'm going to go to the park and sit on the bench and enjoy the fact that it's not raining. the garcía lorca park is having a book fair/festival, and i'm hoping that there will still be events, even though it's a sunday and everything, i mean everything, is generally closed, well, except internet cafes. :)

neat vocabulary [spanish = british english = american english]

caradura [literally tough/hard face] = cheeky = nervy

los aseos/los servicios = loo = bathroom/restroom

ascensor = lift = elevator

piso = flat = apartment

cursi = naff = cheesy

anuncio = advert = commercial

vacaciones = holiday = vacation

cola = queue = line

and if you made it this far, here's what garrett calls a "cheap laugh" - lauren was trying to describe a spanish friend of hers to her friend becky, because she was sure becky had met him before. for whatever reason, she was describing him in english and then spanish, and then it turned to spanglish, and she meant to say "he's really flaco" as in really thin, and she said "he's really flaccid" instead. then it went silent, and then becky and i started cracking up and lauren totally went red. cheap laugh of the day.