update in madrid

let me just preface this with the fact that no entry will ever match the excitement or terror of eddie´s russian chain saw massacre tale. that being said there have been some interesting things happening here.

like today, right now. i went in for work to my internship and low and behold there was no one there. i waited the appropriate 30 minutes and left. however, i saw one of my bosses walking to the office (on my way away from it) and what ensued was a sluethful mission impossible game of cat and mouse where i had to avoid being seen at all costs. there was a significant amount of ducking behind people and at one point i actually hid in the bushes, however all of my charades paid off and i am now sitting at midd school with nothing but free time. on monday, when i have to go back to work, i will simply say that i was waiting for half and hour and left. my phone is conveniently out of batteries at the moment so there is no question of them calling me in. also they go easy on me: 1 because i am not paid 2 i do not speak fluent spanish and 3 i have repeatedly failed at the simplest tasks due to my cultural, linguistic, and overall ineptitude.

so holloween is approaching soon and guess who´s coming to stay with me for several days?.....................................go ahead, guess...........................................................that´s right, aki ito. apparently next thursday all of europe has off and she´s coming down to party. this has cut into my travel plans, but no matter, i would rather see good friends then try to make new ones in a strange city. i have decided to be a madrileño for holloween, that is, someone from madrid. they are exceptional people here, that is to say exceptionally strange and unfriendly. my costume will consist of capri jeans, a very tight shirt and incredibly jelled hair--and the ironic thing is that when i go out, no one will know i´m in costume becasue i´ll look like everyone else normally does.

also, i received a rather distressing text message from mother the other day. it read something like this:

PLEASE CALL, WE´RE BEING EVACUATED

i called and guess what, san diego is burning. there is not just one fire there are about 5 different fires going on all around san diego area. my house and my aunt´s house were in incredible danger but as of now i believe, are safe. however, i have talked to some friends in SD and they say that upwards of 500 homes are gone and several thousand acres of land. right now the national guard is stationed all around because of the possiblity for looting. anyway back to my mom.

so i called her and she answered the phone and said in a somewhat frantic voice (trying to be funny) guess where i am, i´m at your father´s. you have to appreciate the irony here, being that my parent´s were divorced more than 10 years ago and have not lived together since. and not only was my mom there, but her two sisters, their husbands, and all of the dogs, cats, and children. all in all my dad´s house turned into a compound with 10 cars, 14 people and 6 dogs. after 2 days there, the fire has receded slightly but the air quality is still atrocious so everyone went to disneyland to distract themselves and to breathe the nice clean air of los angeles (i jest LA has the worst air in the US). however, it appears that the fires are under control now and my parents have returned to their respective homes. also as a side note, my dad just got a new car and i really wish i was there to drive it. he won´t tell me what it is though which means its sickkkkkkk.

so we´re heading over to casa de iris tonight which is a friend of ours where her two italian roommates cook amazingness for us and we pay them next to nothing for it. i can´t wait. also, on i have just found out that every monday night james bond is on in español. i watched "una mirada de mater" (a view to a kill) the other day with shapiro. i can´t understand how the bond films made it out of the 80s, they were so bad. also, may day (the large black lady) scares the shit out of me perhaps more than even xenya from goldeneye. because at least if xenya kills you you´re most likely having sex and to die at that moment isn´t so bad, but may day just snaps you like a twig. that was also the night that i had my first true middlebury dinner (proportions wise). lizz and i made spaghetti and salad but there was a mountainous amount--like at least 2 or 3 pounds worth of food. after dinner liz changed into pants she could fit in and i unbuckled my belt. i don´t know if i´ve ever actually had to do that before, but it was both an amazing, exhilarating, and disgusting experience. i felt like that guy from "7" the gluttony guy who is forced to eat to death. luckily, i survived.

in terms of classes, all three are going well. my econ class is difficult but the teacher likes chinloy and i because we actually know econ as opposed to the rest of the class who is just interested in socialist politics and inequality of gdp per capita and such. i have decided to write my 8 page paper in my international organizations class this weekend, the purpose of this is so that i will never have to worry about that class again. it is stupid, pointless, and a waste of time, so i am not going to go to it. there are 4 people in my linguistics class at the middlebury school here being that everyone else has opted to take something else somewhere else. i don´t see a lot of some people (which does not bother me in the least). however, i do see a lot of chinly, which is not surprising or uncomfortable being that we no longer have to have conversations but can rather communicate telepathically.

oh yeah, so yesterday i was riding the metro back from school with the lizzes and a random guy came up to us and said "be careful, there are gypsies on the metro who are going to rop you." i thought gabe was just being racist before, but apparently they exist and do steal things from you. the gypsies were these 3 women who acted very shifty which means that there was probably a plant somewhere else on the metro who was actually doing the stealing. anyway, we were careful and there were no thrown babies involved. however on a similar topic, fraz chinloy and i were walking and were accosted by 2 old ladies who thrust flowers in our hands and then asked us to pay one cent for them. i thought that was a good deal, but then the 2 ladies got weird, we pretended like we didn´t understand, and walked away with the flowers. apparently what they do is when you go for your wallet to get out the one penny, they simply take your whole wallet and leave. that´s it. aaahhh. que susto los gitanos.

that´s about it, i´ve wasted enough time writing and avoiding work (not that i regret it), so i will sign off. later gaters,

miles