What was today?

Today was blah. It was cloudy with a chance of rain (never did, though) so the weather just kind of reflected my mood...just blah. At least it was warm...and blah. Woke up around noon, a bit groggy from the drinking and late night and whatnot, made a piece of toast, and chilled in the TV room over the heater. I watched a cooking show with Maruja and read some HOLA! magazine. Did you know that Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong broke their engagement? Did you know that Prince William is engaged? Gotta love the education I'm gaining here. Then I watched Buffy! And then I watched "Friends" (until lunch, Maruja changed the channel to watch the news. Grrrr.)!! It's weird to watch "Friends" in Spanish b/c most of the humor comes from the actors' delivery of the lines. I don't know if you can really catch that with voice-overs...I mean, I couldn't really tell. Meh. Lunch was pretty good, it was actually almost a replica of our first lunch here: chicken broth with noodles, chick peas, boiled potatoes, some sort of red meat (I was a vegetarian, I can't tell meats apart), chorizo (mmmmm), and morcillo, then a manderina (tangerine). Quite filling, if I do say so myself. After lunch Stacey and I walked to the other bus station to buy a ticket to Cadiz. We met Jessica and Courtney there. We got a 12:15 bus there and an open ticket back, though we plan on taking the 7am...altogether 17 euros. Let me re-explain our Cadiz trip: it's a beach town an hour away, usually has a Carnivale at the end of Feb. which is very much like Mardi Gras. Although we won't be there for Carnivale, it's a good excuse to go see the ocean and just chill out. We go down at noon, stay out all night, and hop on a bus back at 7am. Yeah, it's going to be kind of crazy, and I'm a bit nervous for it, honestly. But I can do it! It'll be the perfect way to get really crazy before classes start on Monday. Then we walked to the center, I made a quick stop at OpenCor for a huge bottle of water and a ChupaChup, and then I was in the center. Stacey had class 5-6:30 and I spent the whole time putzing around online, as usual. I found a really nice hostel for Portugal and showed it to Courtney, we're probably going to book it! Woohoo! I spent forever writing my blog about yesterday...I don't know why it ended up being so long, I guess I just had a lot to say. Then Stacey and I walked back, she stopped at Libreria Beta to buy some school books, then we stopped at VIPS mostly because I had to pee pretty badly, but also to see if they had restocked the cangrejo (crabmeat) wraps. OK, quick side story. The first time that I went to VIPS, as I have told, I had a cangrejo wrap which was delicious. Since then, every subsequent time that I've returned to VIPS I've wanted that cangrejo wrap--but they've never had it since! But today, finally, they had it! I was soooo happy...and they had multiple. I considered buying them all just to stock up, haha. Well, I only bought one, and even though I wasn't too hungry, I felt the need to take advantage of my recent discovery. We walked back and starting discussing about how the entire day none of us really spoke a word of Spanish...that's a shame. When we got back Maria del Mar greeted us. She actually came in the room and hung out with us, we all had a really long, awesome talk. She told us about Cadiz, Semana Santa, we joked around, it was great. We also talked politics! We all did some Bush slamming, which is a favorite pasttime of mine. We talked about the next election and whatnot, we talked about the death penalty, and taxes (her masters' degree is in taxes...I know, weird...so she wanted to know how they work in the states). As we were talking, Stacey was snacking, of course. We got into a convo about food and the food schedule here and whatnot and how different it is and how we struggle through the six hour gaps between meals. Funny. Stacey was eating peanut butter from a spoon, and Maria del Mar was interested. She had never seen nor tasted peanut butter! She asked for a try. She got a spoon and went to town...she LOVED it! It's so weird seeing someone try pb for the first time b/c to me it's such a staple...but then again I bet it's weird for her to see me try Spanish foods for the first time. She asked us about how you eat peanut butter and with what you eat it. We told her about the art of peanut butter and jelly, which she thought sounded delicious, apples and peanut butter, and pb on celery. She couldn't believe it. Then I told her about peanut butter cups which was the kicker. That's it, she's hooked now! Gotta love the peanut butter. I then took a shower and started planning how I was going to "pack" for my Cadiz adventure (which is kind of stressful). Dinner was served a bit late tonight because Maruja got home late, we had some sort of cream soup with cheeseburgers (again). Maruja has been slacking on the comida (food) lately. I'm assuming that she may be cutting back because having 4 girls here is becoming a financial burden...who knows. Maybe we just have high expectations of her now. After dinner I watched some TV, then came back into the room to find Stacey in bed with a tummy ache. She had eaten too much! Before dinner she ate a lot of peanut butter, the rest of a bag of ruffles, and half a roll of cookies. That girl, I tell ya. Then I came here and went online. I also just found out that a high school friend of mine was recently a victim of a hate crime. He was called a fag, beaten up, and stabbed. He's OK, luckily, but that's scary as hell. I didn't think that things like this happened anymore. I am quite upset by this. What is with these tragedies happening in my world recently? It makes me realize that I, and my friends, are not as invincible as I/we thought that I/we was/were. Oh man. Well, anyways, I should go to bed, I've got a big 24 hours ahead of me. Wish me luck on my adventures in Cadiz...I'll need it...