Now, REALLY back to reality...

Now that my last Eurotrip had ended, the time has come to buckle down. It's crunch time, exams start in a week and a half, and it's time to get cracking. The theme of Monday, May 15 was study. Study, study, study. I woke up to my alarm at 10:30 unsatisfied despite sleeping a perfect 9 hours. Still had to make up for the lack of sleep in Dublin and 9 hours just wouldn't suffice. I got out of bed, ate, got ready, made a stop at Supersol for some fruit and water, then headed to Historia del Cine in which we watched my favorite movie that we've watched all semester, La Dolce Vita. That's one hell of a movie...so intriguing...so artistic. I loved it. Unfortunately the class was being stupid and people were talking the whole time. I had to move seats once because there were 2 groups of girls sitting around me who just wouldn't shut up. So I spent the whole time sitting way in the back flashing occasional dirty looks at a stupid, talkative group of boys to my right diagonal. Ugh, the Spanish need to grow up. The film's plot is very scarce, it's mostly psychological and artistic which just does not hold the A.D.D. Spanish student's attention. Imbeciles, I tell you; imbeciles. Hehe, I'm terrible. But I was angry. After class I walked home for lunch which was just Maruja and me; everyone was supposed to come home for lunch (including Marta), but somehow things came up. When I was walking home for lunch in the swealtering heat I was thinking about how I wanted salmorejo for lunch...and lo and behold...salmorejo! I looooove Maruja's salmorejo. I've decided that it's one of my favorite Maruja dishes. Yup, for sure. I went to town on the salmorejo. For a main course we got pork chops. Big pork chops. I had to eat two and a half. The recovering vegetarian in me cannot handle big-ass portions of meat such as pork. Blech. But I survived. We also had lettuce with oil and vinegar and peaches (which weren't too ripe) for dessert. After lunch I did a little bit more studying for Iconografia before tutoria, and I sprayed my window because I think that there's either some sort of bird or a rodent living there. I hear squeaking at night and have spotted droppings on the sill. Oy. At around 3:30 I embarked on another scorching hot walk to class. The heat here is getting pretty deadly, and it's supposed to only get worse. It makes it harder to walk places which is sad because walking is my favorite thing to do here. Sigh. I guess I'll learn to get used to smelling bad. I mean, I've noticed that all Spanish people kind of smell, so I guess it's just expected. That sounded really bad; what I'm saying is that now that it's hot out everyone's got a little B.O. action going on and it's just accepted. It actually makes me feel better about sweating. Anyhoo, I went to tutoria which last a full two hours instead of the usual one! I need it, though. We spent the whole time discussing the iconography of the Passion. It's funny, I really know nothing about Catholocism nor Christianity and feel like such an idiot asking the questions that I do sometimes. Like, I had no idea who St. John and St. Peter were until tutoria on Monday. I know, I'm terrible. But I learned a lot. I'm an expert on the Passion now, peeps, I'm an honorary Catholic. What can I say, I'm Spanish now! After tutoria I headed to Historia del Arte which was a struggle because I was tired, and the heat was bringing me down even more. We learned about arte mojado (?) which is a mixture of Muslim and Gothic architecture only found on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) following the Christiain conquering of former Hispano-Muslim nations. So we studied the Royal Alcazar in Sevilla--how it transformed from an Islamic Mosque to a Christian palace whilst maintaining its Muslim influence in its artistry. Pretty interesting. Then we started our unit on Renaissance art which was very boring. Not very interesting...and I was growing restless. Finally we were out of class at 7:30 and I walked straight to Starbucks in los Remedios to study. Oh man do I need to study. I got there and bought myself a frapuccino and a pasta salad and went to town on art history. I have many chapters to get through, and now I'm only on Islamic art. Oy. After about a half an hour Katie showed up to study and we subsequently ended up chatting for an hour and I ended up getting close to nothing done because I had to walk home for dinner at 9:15. Oh well. Dinner was awesome: we had the rest of the salmorejo (yes!), tuna empanada (yesss!), and fruit for dessert (I chose an orange). After dinner I called home for a bit and then studied art history in the living room while watching "Mira quien baila" (the Spanish version of "Dancing with the Stars") with Maria del Mar. I ended up staying up pretty late studying, damn me for falling behind. I need to go to the actual library tomorrow...enough of these Starbucks distractions. At around 2 I went back to my room to check my email before bed. Then I got a Skype message from....PATRICIO! He had found me on Skype! Unfortunately I couldn't talk to him with the microphone since Stacey was asleep, but we used the chat feature. It was so good to hear from him! I told him that we missed him, and he's in London and said that it was boring without his American Girls. Oh Patricio! He asked for my Spain address so that he could send us all postcards, and then he said that he'll look into flights so that he can visit us in Michigan in October! Yay!!! We love the Patricio. So exciting. Anyhoo, at about 2:45 I finally called it a night. I got to bed much later than I should, but I couldn't help it--I had to study, and Patricio was worth the time. I miss that kid! Oy, but nevertheless, study I must. I can't believe how much studying I have to do. My first exam is in merely a week and I've gotta get cracking on that. Bahhhhhh. Now it's really back to reality.