Back in the old swing of things

Woke up at 11am feeling kind of groggy and very congested. Made toast, got ready, grabbed my lunch, and was out the door around 1ish. Made a quick stop at the center to see if my package came from the ´rents (no dice), then headed to class. As I walked through Remedios I tried to withdraw some cash since my wallet was empty, but I kept getting rejected at every ATM. This worried me a bit. Near the University I ran into Katie and her boyfriend, Brian, who is visiting. We talked a bit and made plans to meet up at Cadillac for a drink that night. I then had Teatro Lope de Vega 2-3 which was pretty empty, the only people there from our program were Alyse and me. During the hour break before Teatre hispanoamericano I tried to use an ATM at the University and it said that I didn´t have sufficient funds to withdraw 100€. So I tried 60€ and it let me. This was baaaaad news. I mean, I had well over 1,000 dollars in the bank and a 100 a week allowance, and according to my calculations I wasn´t in such bad shape. I guess that it´s those damned conversion fees. Ugh. A bit disillusioned, I went to the center, sent a fax to my dad, did some email stuff, ate my bocadillos (sans bread), then went to class 4-5 which was also pretty empty. Then during the next hour break I made an OpenCor run and got some strawberries, a water, and a Special K bar to snack on. I then went to Starbucks for some green tea so as to self-medicate a bit. Ran into Alyse again, chatted a bit. Then walked to the front of the U. and sat in the sun for awhile eating strawberries. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, 20 degs celsius (in the 60´s), the most gorgeous day I´ve had since coming here. The sun was constantly shining, so perfect. I felt all summery and happy eating my strawberries in the sun. Then I had Historia del arte 6-7 which went well. I talked to Cristina awhile (my new quasi Spanish friend) about what we did during puente and whatnot. I actually understood a good portion of what happened in class--I´m starting to understand the prof. more and more each day. He discussed ancient Greek columns. We´re really whizzing through art history...he said that this was the last day that we would study Grecian art. That´s basically a major period of art every 2-3 days! Craziness. After class I went to Starbucks since I had told Stacey that I´d meet her, her dad, and her sister there at 8:30 (we were going out to dinner). I got there pretty early, so I got a zumo de naranja (orange juice) and sat with Julia and Emily (from Cornell) for a bit and chatted. They left and I read some Harry Potter. Stacey and her fam showed up around 7:45ish and we decided to head out a tad early. Her dad is just like I imagined: the peppy friendly midwestern type. And her sister´s supersweet, a senior in high school. We walked around for a good 20 min finding a restaurant since her sister is an extremely picky eater. Whatever, it was a beautiful night so I was happy to walk. We finally settled on el Azucar de Cuba, the Cuban restaurant that I´ve been wanting to try right below the center. Dinner was great, lively conversation, good food, great service. I was particularly peppy and talkative...hope I didn´t weird them out...because I had drunk a huge green tea and taken the cold medicine that the pharmacy here gave me (remember that stuff I bought in January? Ya know, the stuff that´s fuuuullll of caffeine. Damn lack of FDA). So I was peaking on a major caffeine high, needless to say. I ordered a bacalao platter which sounded exactly like the one Maruja makes: scrambled egg, bacalao, onion, and string potatoes. It was not bad, but not as good as Maruja´s (of course). Stacey comes from a family with a sweet tooth so we all ordered dessert. I got this coconut dish which was basically 3 small lumps of shredded coconut covered in chocolate sauce. Overwhelmingly sweet, but very good...gotta love the coconut. Dinner was great, Stacey´s family is awesome and soooo cute! Hehe. We all then walked back to los Remedios, we parted at the hotel (Stacey was staying there another night until they left for the airport at 5am...then she planned to come back and sleep more at our apt.), I gave copious thank-yous and said goodbye. That´s a great family, makes sense that they´d raise such a great kid! Then I took the 10 min walk back to the apartment on my own. When I arrived only María del Mar was up and watching TV (it was about 11). We talked for a bit, then I went back into my room and received a call from Katie saying to meet her and Brian at Cadillac in about 15 min. I gathered myself and was down in 15. It was nice. Cadillac was pretty empty (no surprise there), so we just chilled, had one drink each, and just hung out basically. It was very nice and chill, and Brian reminds me of a lot of the guys from HPHS (think nice Jewish boy persona) so we got along pretty well. After an hour we parted ways. I went back upstairs, did some internetting and was asleep by 2:30.