I could write a textbook

I had to wake up at 8am for tutoria Friday morning and I was not pleased about it. I had not gotten enough sleep and it was dreary outside so that was bringing me down. I also had a big day ahead of me. Nonetheless Stacey and I got ready, ran into Maruja in the kitchen who said that she'd pack us a lunch of leftovers and a hard boiled egg since she was out of bread, then walked lazily to tutoria. She also had read the note about the bird in the kitchen and asked if it was true. I said yes and we both started laughing. Maruja and I have definitely reached a really good, comfortable level. We talk, we joke, and last week she called me "hija" which is kind of like calling someone "sweetie", even though it literally means "daughter". I was honored. I love Maruja. So she asked if the bird was still there. I went to check, and lo and behold, there it was. The bathroom smelled and there was bird crap all over the tub. However, the bird was still just as docile and hadn't really moved. I was really nervous that it was hurt. Maruja told me to close the door and that she'd call up the doorman to get it out. I hoped that he wouldn't hurt it! If I could I would have saved it or done something to see if it was okay, but I didn't even know where to begin in Spain. Oh well. There was still a pajaro en la ducha. I then walked to tutoria. Despite my exhaustion, both tutoring sessions went really well. Besides, Jorge is a delicious man and I had missed staring at him for a good 2 hours. Hehe. In our Lope tutoria he invited Stacey and me to his tent at Feria. During Feria groups of people can rent out tents to hang out/party in all day...kind of like an extended tailgate. However, in order to go to them you must be invited, so people guard the entrances. Jorge's dad's fishing club would have a tent and Jorge said that he was to be "on guard" from 2-9 so we could come around 8:30 so he could let us in and then we could hang out. Yay! What an honor. We're there, man, we're there. After tutoria I did a quick email check and then headed out for a long walk to the clinica. I had decided to head over to the clinica in Triana (about a half hour walk) to get my finger checked out. I was a bit nervous because working with the language barrier at a hospital would be an experience. I felt like I was about to experience a chapter of a high school Spanish textbook, e.g. "At the doctor" or something. Ha. So I walked deep into Triana, passed this cool kiosk that was selling live snails. No joke. I wanted to take a picture because it was pretty unbelievable. Too bad I was camera-less. I got to the hospital and wasn't sure if I should go to Urgencias (emergency) or what. I don't know how the Spanish healthcare thing works. So I went to the info desk and asked and the woman there guided me to Urgencias. I talked to the receptionist there which was pretty confusing because she was a bit busy and spoke really quickly. There was confusion with payment (I guess healthcare there isn't free?) until I showed her my Sanitas card, then she made some photo copy and she pointed at a blank which asked about my condition, so I started answering it. Then she said, "No. Firma." she just wanted me to sign somewhere next to it. Everything that you have to sign in Spain, except credit card receipts, is never indicated like in the States. They literally have to point at random places on papers and say, "Firma." So it's confusing. So she had to rip up that copy, make a new one, and then point out where to sign. Then she told me to walk around the corner and ask who was next waiting for a consultation and that I would be after them. I saw a few people standing in that area so I stood behind the nearest woman and asked if she was next and she looked all flustered and said that she wasn't sure and was also confused. Then some old couple walked in front of us which baffled me, so I asked the woman if this was the line. There was a cleaning lady near us and she told me no, and to wait farther back and to my right. So I walked that way to find a waiting room. Ohhhhhh! Hehe. There was just one middle-aged man sitting in there. The waiting room was pretty standard, all white, marble floors, random books, lots of religious images on the walls. I waited about 20 minutes until an older Italian couple walked out of one of the consultation rooms. A pretty, 30-something woman asked who was next. I looked to the middle-aged man, but he told me to go before him. How kind! I sat down, and immediately the doctor asked me if I spoke Spanish. When I told her yes she looked quite relieved (I think that she had struggled with the Italian couple). She then realized that there was a mix-up in names on the papers so she told me to wait a few moments while she cleared it up. The consultation room reminded me of the ones at UHS at school. The only difference was that it had speakers with light music playing. The music was the weirdest part: some famous 80's song was playing for awhile, then suddenly a Mozart song came on. But this wasn't just any Mozart song: it was a Mozart song from the Baby Einstein movie collection. No joke, I'd know that music anywhere. You know, that version that makes it sound like Mozart is coming from a baby's mobile or something. It was the exact music from Baby Einstein, I'm serious. I was in awe by this. Why? Did she know what it was? Again, why? So funny. Then Elton John's "Circle of Life" came on which I also found quite random. Oh, Spain. She soon got everything cleared up and asked what was up. I told her about what had happened to my finger, when it happened, showed her, etc., ya know, the usual. I also asked about the lack of sensation and the red dots. She told me that everything about that was normal and that the dots were due to ruptured blood vessels and that sensation would soon come back. Can you believe I was understanding this? This is how I know that my Spanish is improving. I mean, yes, she did speak very clearly, but not any slower than anybody else. It was a very smooth interaction, and talking about medical stuff would usually be pretty faulty in my second language. This was crazy! I'm really getting this whole Spanish thing. I could write a textbook and be an expert at the doctor chapter. I was proud of myself/excited about my applied skills. She then told me that she would like to do an x-ray to make sure that I hadn't fractured the finger. She told me to ask where radiologia was. So I went to information, they directed me, I couldn't figure it out, so I went to the receptionist's desk in Urgencias and asked a random nurse standing there...turns out it was right next to the desk. There was a woman sticking her head out saying that she had been waiting for me. Hehe, oops. She was super nice and super friendly. In fact, everybody who I met with at the hospital was super nice and super friendly. And patient. I was a fan, and things were running quickly and smoothly. Before going into radiologia I ran into Lizzy and Julia checking in at the reception. Julia thinks that she may have gotten a parasyte in Morocco since her stomach had been ailing her for the past week and a half since returning. Poor thing. I went into radiologia, took a seat, she told me not to put my feet under the table, she manipulated my hand and fingers, took an x-ray, then changed my hand position and took another x-ray, then I was done. I was to wait on one of the seats right outside the door as she developed them. As I waited a father and son (of about 11) sat next to me. The boy was holding his arm and his dad was touching it, having his son move it. He looked like he was in some pain as if he had broken it or something. Poor thing. In about 5 minutes or so my x-rays were ready and put in an envelope for me to head back to the waiting room. The doctor I had consulted told me that when I was done getting x-rays she would take me before anybody waiting because it wouldn't take long to glance at the x-rays and give a diagnosis. So nice. I appreciate the hospital's efficiency, I must say. I entered the waiting room once again to find Lizzy and Julia waiting. So it was us 3 UMich folk in the Spanish hospital waiting room. We talked a bit. Poor Lizzy was supposed to go to Italy for all of Feria, but her passport was stolen by her housekeeper on her housekeeper's last day working for Lizzy's host family. Her flight was supposed to leave that morning, but now she couldn't go. So she missed out on Italy, completely threw away over $300, was going nowhere for Feria, and now had no passport. She was taking it like a champ, though, I was pretty impressed. After about 5 minutes the doctor asked who was next; I told Julia that she told me to go in next quickly because I'd be super quick. So I went in, saw my pinkie bone (weird...I always find x-rays kind of strange), and turns out that everything was normal. Oh, and that Baby Einstein song was back on! She then told me that if I was in a lot of pain they could drain the accumulated blood from under my nail by poking a hole in the nail. That sounded pretty painful and weird. She also said that I could drain it myself at home if I wished. She then said that if it wasn't hurting/bothering me I could just wait for it to clear up, and if it became a nuisance just return and they'd drain it for me. I told her that I wasn't really in any pain, it was just looking weird, so she told me to just take some Ibuprofen for the pain. But I'm not in any pain so no big deal. She then let me keep an x-rays as "un recuerdo" (a memory). What a great souvenir of my trip to the Spanish hospital! I'm serious, I'm happy about it. I was proud of myself for kicking ass at Spanish that day. Language immersion rocks. I was out of there within an hour which was pretty impressive...it takes longer in the States! I'd be back with time to spare before Lope class. Nice. On the way back to the center I stopped at a fruteria (fruit stand/store) and bought myself some goodies. Got back to the center, shared my experience with the few people in the center (most people had left to go travel for Feria), then headed out to class. Lope was painfully long and boring, of course. During the hour break we headed back to the center for awhile where I ate my lunch: leftover grilled mushrooms and onions (yummy) with hard boiled egg and garlic-olive oil tostadas on the side. Delicious, but my breath was horrendous. Then we had Teatro which was okay, I was really tired from the walking, the lack of sleep, the weather, so I had a hard time focusing. After class Camacho had considered screening a movie, but he moved it to after Feria, so by 5pm I was free...Spring Break week #2 was here! However I was so tired. It started raining after class. Woohoo. It soon let up a bit so Stacey and I took a wet walk all the way back to los Remedios. Ironically, once we got home, the sun came out. Whatever, I was tired and happy to be back. Maruja was home and we asked her about the bird. She said that the doorman came up and let it free out the window. I immediately asked her if the bird was hurt and she said no, that it was just scared and that's why it never left. Okay. Then Maruja asked us if we had seen Maria del Mar's traje de gitana (flamenco dress) for feria. Maria del Mar and Marta had been working on sewing flamenco dresses to wear to feria. We said no, so Maruja got all excited and took us into Maria del Mar's room to show us the dress. It's gorgeous: it's lime green with white polka dots and little ruffles at the bottom and on the 3/4 length sleeves. I'm so jealous! Maruja said that with it Maria del Mar was going to wear matching shoes, and a bright red shawl and rose and white earrings that were all gorgeous. I'm so excited. Maruja said that we should get pictures of her and Marta in their dresses. Don't worry, I'll get Maruja in there, too, so you can all see what my host family looks like. Yeah, get excited. So it was fun to bond with Maruja over the whole Feria thing. In fact, all of Sevilla is all hyped up about Feria, much more than Semana Santa. I'm psyched to see what this Feria thing is all about! As much as I just wanted to then fall asleep I forced myself to the gym since I didn't get to go on Thursday nor that morning. So I walked over and worked out for a good hour and a half. The gym is completely different in the evenings--it's all young people around my age. This 18-year-old or so couple came in, the guy was definitely a regular and the girl just came to stare at her bf working out. Ugh, Spanish couples are so gross...PDA is out of control here. She kept trying to do cardio machines in the meantime but couldn't figure anything out and her bf kept trying to help her and it was all in all a pathetic display. Then Roman finally got her on a bike and she just pedaled along watching tv and her boyfriend, while the boyfriend periodically walked over to her, grabbed her ass and gave her wet, gross kisses between sets. Ugh. I wanted to projectile vomit all over them. I want to projectile vomit all over all Spanish couples. They are terrible about PDA, I mean TERRIBLE. I don't even want to get into it. Halfway through my workout a cute hippie-type guy walked in and started working with the weights. Roman talked to him for awhile and I overheard most of the convo: this guy was an art history major considering a teaching profession. Holy crap, this was too perfect. And he was cute. I wanted to strike up a convo with him but I chickened out at every opportunity. I'm okay with the whole flirting in Spanish, but I'm terrible with initiating. It's the whole language thing. I still second guess myself, I kept thinking, what if I misheard him? What if I sound stupid? Ugh. I feel like a middle schooler with boys here. For the rest of the time we both kept exchanging glances so there was a definite little silent flirtation going on. Why am I such a loser sometimes? Okay, I need to go back and talk to this guy. I am being ridiculous. I planned to return at the same time the next week and get over my fear. Oh me. I was exhausted as I walked home. I had worked up a pretty good sweat, however, and it felt good. I came home, showered, got in my pajamas, and worked on editing and publishing my Amsterdam blogs. Those things were a bitch, let me tell you. Then I had dinner with Maruja which was delicious: I had my first homemade, authentic Spanish gazpacho experience. DELICIOUS. I love gazpacho! It so beats out Latin gazpacho. It's thicker and garlickier. Yu-mmy! We also had a lot of salad and a lot of croquetas. For dessert I had a whole kiwi which was yummy except for the aftertaste. We then cleaned up and I returned to the internet to finally finish up the Amsterdam blog and then pack for our weekend trip to Tarifa and Gibraltar the next day. Packing was stressful and took longer than expected...Stacey and I were freaking out, it was kind of silly. We were only going for a night, and we had planned to go to Tarifa to hang out on the beach, but there was a chance of showers and temperature dropping so we were unsure about what to pack and what to pack for. We also wanted it all to fit in our backpacks because the first day we were spending in Gibraltor and our hostel was in Tarifa (45 mins away) so we'd have to carry our stuff around with us for an entire day in Gibraltar. Yeah, you can understand why we stressed now. So we didn't end up getting to bed until about 2am which sucked because we had an early, long day ahead of us. Oh well. Spring Break #2, here we come!