Hello again!

I´m still alive AND I have avoided arrest, so that´s cool.

Wow is TOLEDO AMAZZZING!

I´m on day....4....and I´m in love. Yes, I am all kinds of homesick. Simple things are really frustratin¨:

1)keyboards in Spain are completely different. Did you know that if you want to add an @, you can´t just shift and press 2, because then you get a ". You need to press a completely different botton. Also, everytime I try to ´backspace´I get a whole bunch of ççççççç, because that´s what is where the backspace is. Also, the coolest thing is that there is a KEY that makes the ´ñ´or ´Ñ´. SO COOL!!

Hey, let´s continue with the bus stories...

My first night, after my morning adventure to school, I got off two stops later than I was suppose to, at like 11pm. So, then I took a wrong turn and ended up way far from my house, but I made it. THen, laast night we went out for beer and tapas. The normal buses stop running at 11, but on Fridays there are Buhos, or night buses, but they run on completely different schedule. My mom explained to me which one I needed to take and how to get home, because it stop away from my normal stop. So, at 2:30am, we all hop on B2 and hope we can find home. I did, it´s super easy, but then I faced the challenge of getting into my house. Not kidding, it´s hard. You have to turn the lock two and a half times and then push, because there isn´t a handle on the outside of the door. an FYE, I only discovered how the doors worked after tryign to get in for about 5 minutes when my mom came to let me in, gave me a demonstration, and after I told her how sorry I was, said that it was fine and that she understood-that´s what cervecas (beer) does to people. MY MOM THOUGHT I WAS DRUNK. I had one beer that the nice bartender, Carlos, suggested.

Ok, now the bar. So they tell you Spanish men are friendly and that little American girls should be careful-it´s the truth. Last night I went out with a few friends and we ended up at Enebro, new la FUndacion. Pretty soon the bar was crawling with nice white girls and the bartender and his four friends. THey were quite the guys, convincing us that the bar was closing and that we had to go to a party with them. We didn´t, but we ran into them at the bus stop, and I think we might be going out with them tonight. Not going to lie, I am terrified. But, when in Spain, do as the Spaniards do, and my madre told me to come home with a Spanish boyfriend as I left the house last night, so I guess I´m off to a good start.

DON´T WORRY, I haven´t been spending all my time with tasty beverages. Yesterday we took a huge walking tour of Toledo, and let me tell you, there is alot of history in this little hill. We had walked around for almost 4 hours the day before, but this was cool too. BUT, I have to tell you, the coolest part was that the entire thing was in Spanish, the whole thing, for four hours, and I got 95% or it. Oh YEAH! Really this Spanish think rocks. I mean, we are this group of 108 American students clogging streets, but at least we can speak their language, sort of.

Oh my gosh, I have so much to right. You should all probably not even bother reading this as it seems to be more of my diary that a blog. I will be writing every minute of my life in this thing.

So, the tour....

The streets...

THey´re TINY. Like, imagen the width of a small asian car. Ok, this is the width of the streets, well some of them. Now imagine this car driving down the street. THis is how they get around. Now image me walking down the street as this asian car is trying to go up it. THis is how I have a near death expereince every day in Toledo. You get very used to hearing a car, running into a doorstep, and THEN looking to see if the car is coming your way.

My family, you probably are sick of reading, but let me tell you about them:

My family is made up of a mom and two daughters. Elena is 14, but I haven´t had much time to talk with her. She´s a busy teenager. Victoria is 20, but she´s at university until february. My mom is Maria Dolores. I don´t know how old she is or what she does, but I´m working on it.

Last night she left me a note that she was out running, so I was working on my scarf in the sala when she came home, and we started talking, and it was fantastic. We talked about my kniotting and her running, and then I asked her a few questions:
1) What do you want me to call you? Mom? Maria? Senora? And she says, "Loly" and I was very confused. Aparently her friends call her Loly because its short for Dolores, her last name. So that was cool.

She also gave me lots of travel advice, that I need to go to Salamanca, and that she doesn´t like Madrid and Barcelona as much because they are so big and modern.

I also found out that she is not from Toledo. She actually grew up in the south, and that is why she doesn´t have the central accent, the imfamous¨"th" sound for the letter C. She pointed out that I should listen to the difference between her speech and her daughter, and I have every intention of doing that.

Oh, we talked about the American students love of binge drinking, especially once in a country where it is legal. And names and how hard name like Taylor and Tyler are to say. Oh, and she had a Mexican student live with her named Mike. Which made me smile.

Yeah, so then we went out, I got home, couldn´t get it, got a "how to use a key" demo, and went to sleep.

3am, end day 3


DAY 4----Vamanos a Poligano

Today I ventured to Poligano to the mercado (flea market) and centro de comercial (mall) with a group of fabulous people.

OH, and I got asked for directions, for the second time. YEAH! Apparently I look like I know what I´m doing. First a women asked me for the Caja Madrid, which I knew nothing about, then this morning a man hanked at me from the street (I thought he wanted to give me a ride since I was heading toward the bus stop) and ask me where the soccer staium was. I knew the direction, but not how to get there. We got another woman to help, so that was a great way to start the day.

Once I got to Zocodover we all hoped on a bus and hoped we´d get where we needed to go. We did. It was great. I loved it. I couldn´t understand when the women at the store asked if I had 10 euro cents, this made me frustrated with my lack of Spanish skills. I tried some Doner Kabob. YUM! I found the store where I will be buying Miss Popp some children´s books, and got everything I need to start school on Monday.

That brings me to right now. FINALLY RIGHT?!?!

After I finish this, I´ll be running home to put on ´clu´b´clothes. Against my better judgement, and my personality, I will be attending El Circulo de Arte Toledo tonight. But wait, the place sucks until after one or two, so I get to go hang at Enebro until then. Sacrastic Yay. I think it will be fun, but it´s just not my thing. Then again, I might not be in Toledo many more weekends, so I might as well give it a try. Who knows, maybe I´ll meet the father of my future children tonight.

Oh, I forgot to share my first dos besos with hombres with you all. Yeah, we should probably start that tradition in the states. All you ladies would love it ;-) Some are creepers, but for the most part, just nice horny guys.

Thanks for tuning in. Hopefully your still awake.

Besos y abrazos,
Angela