I'm a party planner, watch me go!

Woke up to banging again...earlier than expected...I hate this so much. Oh man, I was fuming this morning. Seriously, I was about to march right upstairs and tell them to shut the hell up. UUUUGGGGGHHHH. I made some toast, complained to Marta about the construction, got ready, and headed out to run a ton of errands...I had to prepare for Stacey's bday festivities! It was really warm out, however muggy and humid. Gross, my least favorite kind of weather. I walked down to calle Asuncion to stop at the homemade soap store that Stacey LOVES. She eyes it every time we pass it and comments on how she wants to buy herself some nice soap. I bought her a gift pack sampler with a new, nice sponge (when we first got to Spain she could not find a sponge and was forced to buy a crappy washcloth). I know she's going to love it. I then walked to Historia del cine where we watched a silent Russian avant-garde film called The Battleship Pomtemkin. It was pretty good, kind of disturbing at times, and surprisingly ahead of its time. It's a heart-wrenching depiction of the Russian Revolution. Whoa, do I sound like a movie blurb or what? After the movie I walked home for lunch, stopped at Vips to buy some wrapping paper and this fancy box of Swiss chocolates that are supposed to taste like mini desserts. Stacey had been eyeing this box, but it's expensive so she never went for it. I, however, did, mwa ha ha. Then I got home and had lunch; it was just Maruja, Marta, and me, and lunch was pretty good. A basic broth soup with garbanzos, potatoes, and some sort of red meat mixed in it. Then we had a seafood salad with hearts-of-palm, crabmeat, shrimp, and tuna. Quite good, I dare say. After lunch I planned to wrap Stacey's presents when she suddenly came home. Uh-oh. At least they were hidden...but when would I wrap them? Stacey then hopped in the shower. I quickly fumbled around doing the worst wrapping job of my life and finished and stashed them in time for Stacey to get back from her shower. I mean, I had just hidden them in my side of the closet just seconds before she walked in. Then she decided to blowdry her hair which requires the mirror which is on the inner side of the door to my side of the closet. Therefore she had to open my closet. I hid the gifts well enugh, but the leftover wrapping paper was sticking out a bit. Oof. When she wasn't looking I pretended to mess around with my scarves so as to conceal the evidence. At 3:40 we both left for the center because Stacey had class at 5 and I had my first art history tutoria at 4. I met my tutor who's a really nice guy, although his name has escaped me. We went over my notes and talked about the profs. This man knows the art history dept. like none other, he knew my profs and their accents and what to expect from the exams. He told me that my historia del arte exam should be easy. He also told me that my Iconografia professor would allow me to do an independent project as a final rather than take the exam. NICE!! He also told me that he knows all of the stuff that I'm studying like the back of his hand so our tutorias will run smoothly. Then he pulled out some textbooks from the center library that he said would help me out; one was a very well-done overview of History of Art and its movements with illustrations that I had seen in my hist. del arte as well as iconografia class. Sweet. He then flipped over the book to reveal that the book was written by none other than my Iconografia professor! I guess that my icon. professor is, like, the man when it comes to art history in Spain. He's published, travels and speaks, goes to conferences...basically he knows it all. Wow, I mean, I could tell that my prof. was intelligent and really knew his stuff, but I had know idea that he was a celebrity in the Spanish art history world! Craaaaaziness. All in all, this tutor is going to pay off tenfold and I am so grateful and feel much more at ease about my courses. After tutoria I had to walk to Campana because I was scheduled to pick up Stacey and Jessica's bday cake at 5:30. It was hot and humid and foggy out, blaaaah. I was sweaty and gross. I got there a bit after 5:30, the man who had helped me on Friday remembered me. He showed me the cake--which looks awesome--and then packed it up for me. It was warm out, and since it was a truffle cake I realized that I'd have to keep it in a colder place. I had originally asked to get the cake on Monday because I thought that'd we'd all go out for birthday dinner Monday night, but Jessica realized that she couldn't. Her senora was going out of town on Tuesday so we considered having a piso party there so I thought to hang onto it until then. So here was the dilemma: I couldn't carry this cake around with me all day and evening. I had class 6-7:30 and then was to meet up with Katie, Stacey, and Melissa at Starbucks at 8 to go out for a pre-bday dinner. I could just meet them at the restaurant, but I don't have a cell phone. So I considered skipping class and running the cake home, but missing class would be rough since I'm the only American in this class. So I decided that that evening would be the perfect opportunity to figure out the bus system. I planned on checking the bus schedules at the stop by the U. after class to see if a bus went by my place and quickly. If so, then I'd go for it. If not, then I'd just have to deal with the cake all night. Walking back to class with the cake was a hassle; it took me longer, and since it was wide it was an effort to get it down the narrow sidewalks of Sevilla without bumping it into people. I got to class late, felt kind of like an idiot for it...and I was more sweaty and gross from the weather. My old prof. was back which didn't only suck because he has such a strong accent and is so boring, but also because he talks for the entire hour and a half (the sub always let us out early). I sat there listening to him ramble on and on about coliseums and ancient roman theaters praying that he'd just let us out at 7. My prayers went unanswered and we got out at 7:30. I bolted as fast as I could to the bus stop which is about 2 blocks from the U. I waited at the crosswalk at a red light which takes forever to change. I saw a bus pull up, and right as I had crossed the street it left. I caught that it was route 41. I then looked up the routes on the bus sched. and realized that the next 41 wouldn't come for 8 minutes (they have electronic signs that get signals from the buses saying when they're coming and how far they are...pretty nifty system). OK, I could still do this. The bus finally came, I paid the 1 euro fee and was on my way. Damn traffic slowing it down, though! The bus was nice, though, not crowded, modern, comfortable, and it had a tv that showed a map of where we were and where the next stop is located. Pretty high-tech. The bus dropped me off at a stop about a block from my place at about five to eight. I'd still be in good shape because they all have class until 8 so they wouldn't be at Starbucks until about 10 or 15 after. I walked as fast as I could without damaging the cake. Luckily the elevator was waiting for me right there. Got to the seventh floor, luckily got the cake to fit in the fridge, wrote Maruja a note about it, and then ran out the door down the street to another bus stop a couple blocks from my place that I know goes back to the U. I looked at the schedule and it said that the bus that I wanted was also route 41. Luckily the bus came merely a minute after I got there. I paid another euro and was off again. It was now a little past 8. I could make OK timing as long as traffic wasn't too terrible. It wasn't, we got to the U. area around 8:12, but the stop is a block down. As we turned the corner to head to the stop, we passed the Starbucks where I spotted Katie, Melissa, and Stacey standing outside looking around all confused. I knocked on the window to them but they couldn't hear me. Don't leave! Don't leave! I kept thinking. Damn me for no cell phone. I got off the bus and literally ran over to them. They asked where I had been and I told them that I was on the bus and had been in los Remedios because I forgot money. I think the excuse worked. They told me that they were starting to assume that I had gotten mixed-up and went to the Starbucks in Remedios and they were about to leave and walk there. TALK ABOUT LUCKY TIMING. We planned on going out to sushi, but everyone wanted to try this cheap Thai restaurant somebody had told us about. So we walked back towards los Remedios (oh my life is silly), stopped quickly at Melissa and Katie's place so they could get sweaters and money, then we walked down calle Betis (the restaurant is right off of it) to the restaurant. It actually turned out to be a Chinese and Thai restuarant...and it coincidentally looks just like Yummy Bowl in Highland Park. The menu is just as cheap, too. It's also so long, everything just looked so good! We all ordered noodle dishes (pad thais, glass noodles) and spring rolls. While waiting for the food we got some entertainment out of the big fish tank next to which we sat. Then our spring rolls came which actually turned out to look like overly-sized egg rolls...the biggest egg roll you could ever see. And it tasted like one. How silly. Then our food came. I got glass noodles with shrimp which was pretty good. The highlight of our meals were the sculptures that came with them carved out of carrots. Craaaazy! While eating Jenny, a girl on our program from Cornell, walked in with a group of people who I didn't recognize and they sat at a table right next to ours'. Of course the American students take over the cheap Asian restaurant. We then got the bill and a free dessert shot of some sort of honey liquor which was quite tastey. We all paid for Stacey's meal, and even with that and each of us getting an appetizer we only paid about 7 euro each...that's a 4-5 euro complete meal each...and we got so much food! Yeah, definitely coming back there. Stuffed and ready to bust we left. Stacey and I walked Melissa and Katie home and then walked home ourselves. I did some blogging and edited one of my blogs because I'm submitting it to this book called "Spain from a Backpack". We got an email about it a few weeks ago from our program director asking for stories from students studying abroad or backpacking through Spain and/or Italy. Since people have been giving me compliments on my story details and some have suggested publishing my blog (ummmm no, btw) I thought that it wouldn't hurt. So I'm submitting the entry about my first day in Granada, but I've had to do some major editing on it to make it more autonomous and whatnot. I'm pretty proud of it, I don't know. If it gets selected I'll get a hundred bucks and bragging rights for being a published author, haha. Wish me luck, I just submitted it today! So all of that ended up taking awhile. I went to sleep, finally, at a quarter to 2. It was a pretty hectic day, but all worth it for Miss Stacey Hahn.