Stiff Backs and the Tourist Invasion

Woke up to my alarm at 10:30 it was kind of cool out and very cloudy...looked like rain. This was strange considering how hot and sunny it´s been. I then decided that I needed to get out of the house, so I walked to the Starbucks next to the University. I shared an elevator with Maruja which was cute, she taught me the word for light rain, "chirimiri". Hehe. It was a day of chirimiri. Despite the initial cold, the humidity caused me to get kind of hot and I ended up sweating on the walk to the Starbucks. Tuesday was also a holiday, so nobody was out on the streets except, well tourist. Yup, it´s tourist season like whoa and I´m not a fan...they´re taking over my city! I swear, everywhere I looked there were people looking at maps, groups walking together, etc. There was also not one Spanish speaker at Starbucks...I must have heard 10 different languages and dialects. Craziness. I spent the whole time there, about 3 hours, reading the introduction to the next Lope de Vega play I´m reading, "Perribañez y el Comendador de Ocaña". The intro´s not as thorough as the previous play I read, so I had a hard time following it and focusing. Oh well, at least I only need to know theory thoroughly for the exam and just basic plotlines of the plays. Anyways, I went home for lunch which turned out to be the most difficult lunch for me; we started with a heaping plate full of ensaladilla rusa which, although I enjoy that dish, is a bit too much mayonnaise for me in such a large quantity. Then we got two large, fried fish filets that were a struggle to eat. I can´t handle so much friedness/fishiness. It was fish overload and it made me nauceous...I didn´t think that I´d be able to finish it. Luckily we had a simple green salad with it which helped balance it out. I was not too pleased about the meal afterwards. For dessert we had oranges which also helped to dillute the intense fishiness in my body. After lunch I packed up my stuff and went to the Starbucks in los Remedios with Stacey where I camped out until dinner. Rachael, Julia M., and Emily were there, too. I studied/typed my notes on Islamic art for art history and spent forever reading the first half of "Perribañez..." That play is a struggle, it is written in old Spanish so it uses words that aren´t in my dictionary and weird spellings (such as a double "ss", using x´s instead of j´s, and "ç" instead of "z"...oy). Stacey had a hard time concentrating and left at around 7. I was also having concentration issues, but I knew that my concentration would complete diminish if I were to return home. Soon Melissa showed up and we ended up talking just as much as we studied. We talked about this Whitney Houston Greatest hits album we want to buy from Vips...it´s only 12.95€ for a double disc! And it´s got the best songs on it, including a duet with Jermaine Jackson...who could resist?? I finally left around 9:15, got home for a very silly dinner: tortilla española, but with potato chips in it instead of actual potatoes, and the awesome endive-raisin-walnut salad with homemade blue cheese dressing. For dessert we had flan cups! Then I got my laptop and went out to the living room to type up some more art history notes. Maruja stopped me and told me that she doesn´t like us studying in the living room and she´d prefer that we study in our bedroom because the living room is not for studying, it´s for socializing and watching TV. Ya know, just when I start to feel at home she says things like that that make me feel like a visitor. Ugh. She asked me why I would want to study out there, and I told her that I had to type up my notes and I prefer to have the TV on when I do it. She said fine and let me hang out there. Stacey told me that she had been reading out there on the couch earlier and Maruja gave her crap about it, too. Sometimes I think that that woman has O.C.D. So once Maruja went to sleep, Stacey snuck into the living room with me to read. I finally finished around midnight and we went back to the bedroom where we both suddenly got really silly. We were all just so sick of studying, make it eeeeeend! I planned on going to bed early so I could wake up early, but we were just so restless. My brain has been going crazy, I´m just so restless. And my back was so stiff from sitting in front of a computer for so long. Blech. Finally we gave up on it all and went to bed at a quarter to two. When will the torture end, people?