"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy."

I'm sorry about the photos. I only just found out that you have to have an account to view them. Not that having an account would take much more than entering in a fake email address and a username, but I guess I'll transfer the photos onto webshots later. Probably not today though because I have a lot to do. You can sign in with my username and password if you want, though I hesitate to put them on here because of the miniscule chance that someone somewhere might want to be funny and mess my album up. But here they are anyway:
username- leslehworth26@hotmail.com
password- leslie


Allright, on to an update of sorts. It's been cold in Madrid for the past few days. I now regret deciding against packing some of my winter-wear. If only I could have translated the "average temperature by month" calendar they gave us into "there is no Fall weather in Spain" I may have packed better. In my attempts not to overpack, I'm quite sure I succeeded. In fact, I feel that I underpacked. Yes, that's right. I UNDERPACKED. Mother dearest, be prepared for an email full of things for which I'd be most grateful if you brought them in October. Don't worry, I'll whittle it down. So I've been cold for about 3 days straight, on top of already feeling sick from what is most likely some kind of allergy or sinus issue that won't quit. But I will quit the complaining there before I continue onto my 4 pairs of pants that need a good washing.

Friday night, Gisella, Stacy, Kacie and I decided to teach Segundo (the 18 yr old Spaniard I know who lives in the dorm) some American drinking games. [We decided this after Kacie cut my hair, which by the way I really like and she's an amazing haircutter. I can just get out of the shower, put in my anti-split-end cream, and let it dry. No brushing! No styling! Of course, it looks really good when styled properly, but I'm incapable.] Segundo, a girl named Alejandra, and a guy named I think Jaime-- all Spaniards-- all came to Gisella's room to learn a game. Courtney was not informed of the teaching plan and, having met some Spaniards the night before, made plans for us to go to a club opening with them. So we hung around the dorm with the aformentioned until midnight and then we went to meet up with Courtney's new friends. They were extrememly nice. I didn't really catch all of their names, but there were a brother and sister (20 and 21) who I just love. The guy looks like the kid from Even Stephens, and the girl, Carmen, was just the cutest little thing ever (like most Spanish girls so I don't even know why I had to say it). We danced the night away pretty much, but had to leave around 3:30 because someone was sick, someone was tired, and someone was in mal humor. One of the Spanish girls had gotten a little too drunk and thought it would be cool to throw a cup of water on everyone else. So it pissed one or two of us off, I didn't get wet so I was unfazed.

I kind of wasted Saturday day. I went in search of a cheap second-hand guitar with a girl Sarah. She's a theater major and an amazing singer, and she wanted a guitar as a musical outlet while she's here. She doesn't know how to play but she's going to teach herself, and I offered any help I could give (which isn't much since I really do my own thing with the guitar). She wanted me to come since I know more about guitars than she does, it's not much but it's something. After coming across numerous closed music shops, we went to El Corte Inglés to buy her a Spanish CD so she could learn to sing in Spanish. The book section was next to the music section, so I bid her a temporary adieu as I could be of no help in the vocal music department. I found a few different copies of "Orgullo y prejuicio"-- "Pride and Prejudice", if you were too lazy to look it up from my last post-- and then had to decide which would be the best to buy. Naturally, I put the more expensive ones back and left the 2 cheapest. I checked out the contents of the books: one had a bunch of introductions and biographies and cultural period-related info, the other just had the translated novel. Since I don't normally read all the extra info, I compared the prices: the dumb book without the extra info was 1€ cheaper than the smart book with all the intelligent "go the extra mile" info. Not too much if I want to at least own a smart person's Castellano translation of my favorite piece of literature. I checked out the translators, would they be different or has one person done a translation and that's it: the cheaper book was translated by a José something or other, the smarter by a María. SEALED THE DEAL. Of course I'm going to buy a translation of Jane Austen by a woman over a man. Maybe it's sexist, and maybe I'm perceptively limiting the reach of Jane Austen in the world, but males don't understand it the same way! Maybe if the male is gay, he would understand it similarly, but the only difference between a gay man and straight man is that one is not attracted to women. And before I begin on the differences of sexual preference in this, my study abroad blog, there isn't even a way to verify José's. So I bought María's translation and as I can pretty much tells you what happens if you just give me a chapter number, I hope it will further my understanding of the Spanish literary world. Okay, and back to the original topic of this paragraph, Sarah found a 78€ classical guitar in El Corte and she bought it. Yesterday she brought it to my room and asked me to play a little for her. I don't know why I do this, but my first inclination is always to play Smelly Cat. I played it, and sang (this girl has taken 3 years of singing lessons) and afterwards found out she hadn't seen that episode of Friends and didn't even watch that show too much and I now looked like some sort of musically retarded weirdo. But I remedied the situation with a little Jewel and The Beatles, to both of which she sang beautifully. Classial guitars have a wider neck, and 3 of the strings are nylon, so it was very awkward for me to get used to and I messed up a lot and I didn't have a pick. It satisfied my guitar craving but I feel the whole situation could have gone better.

Saturday night: LA NOCHE EN BLANCO. The only things I wish were different about that night was that I had stayed out longer, had some sort of idea what to do, and worn another layer of clothing. It was amazing. Baltas Naktis (Latvija), Notti Blanche (Italia), Noches Blancas (España), Nuits Blanches (Belgique), Nuits Blanches (France) is a series of night-long effusions of culture the follow the phases of the moon around Europe. Madrid got the new moon, but it most certainly was not dark in Madrid that night. The idea is that on their night, each city offers a bunch of cultural or what-have-you programs, presentations, exhibits or what-have-you all night. Places such as museums stay open all night at no charge (unless you count the seemingly endless wait in line) for the citizens of the world to visit ALL NIGHT. There were things like lectures, performances, music, art, light-shows, dances, anything in Madrid. You couldn't possibly have seen it all, and even with information we found online and Madrid's social guide, we didn't know what to go to. I was partial to seeing something requiring use of the mind, it needs a little exercise outside of classwork, but we were overwhelmed. So we, Courtney, Gisella, Kacie, Stacy, and I, decided to just meander throughout Madrid. We took the Metro to near la Puerta de Alcalá, which was built by King Carlos III in 1778 as the entrance of the city walls which were gone by the mid 1800s. At la Puerta they had some sort of light show that made it look like there were giant people climbing up the giant stone edifice. I took a few pictures, and thought I took a video, but I forgot to press record. At la Casa de América, they turned it into a seemingly haunted house with speakers blaring clips from works of literature I think. You didn't go in, you observed from the outside. I got a little scared, despite being SURROUNDED by people. Did I mention the streets were packed? I got a few pictures of the packed streets, too. We walked through the center of Madrid intending to go to the Prado because there was probably something cool there. I suggested we walk through Plaza Mayor which turned out not to be on the way to the Prado. But I'd like to add that this detour error was not my fault because we had already been going in the wrong direction (and I kind of sensed it, but tensions were high and I think I was already being bossy a little so I backed off and let us go the wrong way). It didn't matter though because there was no wrong way that night. Everything was bright and busy. We ended up near Madrid's opera house (I really want to go in there sometime). Okay, picture the size of an opera house, mostly the circumference. There was a line circling all the way around the four corners, the end of which was about 20 feet away from the front door. At some buildings there were people going in / coming out who were dressed up like they were going to a play in New York at the turn of the century. I know people still get dressed up for plays in America, but not like this. They looked like modern aristocracy. It was wonderful. We did make it to the Prado and there was a long line to go inside, but we decided to sit out front for a bit before trekking back home. It was really nice. 3am on any night and Madrid is still awake. 3am on this night and it's busier than during the day. It was just an experience of a lifetime, and I only wish we had actually found out about something and gone to it, in addition to just walking around.

Sunday I had to go see another movie for my literature class... you CANNOT just assign students to go see a movie in a movie theater!!!! And two weekends in a row is ridiculous. And if you preface the assignment with, "This movie wasn't that good, but..." you're tactless! I'm about to go spend money and precious weekend time inside a movie theater for the second weekend in a row so I can watch a MOVIE for a LITERATURE class and you tell us before we even see it that it's bad. HORRIBLE. We were apparently supposed to learn something from the movie about the history of Spain. But it was about a revolutionary during Franco's dictatorship, and guess what we've talked about in depth in 3 of my classes already: yes, Franco's dictatorship. So I don't what I was supposed to learn or be surprised about, but all I got out of it was that I reaffirm my position against the death penalty and hairstyles in 70s Spain were very similar to those of 70s America (so I'm kinda wondering where the rat tails and mullets now prevalent in Spain have come from... the Country Music Channel?)

I went back to the dorm, but not before stopping at RedSprint (essentially a 7-11) for some bread and jelly to eat with my peanut butter for dinner. In the dining area, I ate with Sarah and a Spaniard (Hug0) and I got to practice my Spanish some more. I do think it's actually getting better. I think I had to get back into the swing of conversational Spanish. I knew I used to speak conversational Spanish but I guess I lost it over the summer. I think it's back now. I don't feel quite so lost anymore. AND today, my 9am class, we got our first individual translation back and as he handed mine to me, he said "Estupenda, Leslie. Bien hecho," "good work." I was the only one he said anything to!! I got a 9,5/10 and the issue was with the part that I had reviewed and changed at home after I had already sent a copy to my email address to print out at school, and forgot to resend!! WOO! I'm gonna translate. It's pretty much exactly what the Spanish English double major is for. I know enough Spanish to be able to translate it accurately, but then to make it flow and give it a similar literary style as the original. Check plus plus.

Okay, I have to go to my next class now. I don't like this class because she lectures the entire hour and a half, and Suffolk has a rule that profs have to either give us a 10-15 break in the middle or let us out 10-15 min early. Someone should say something to her. Who can possibly do this? Certainly not me. She's the kind of person who I'm pretty sure if I pointed it out, she'd get offended and then hate me and avenge herself every day with some kind of ambiguous question that makes me look stupid. TRUST ME, I'm not being paranoid or self-concious... okay maybe a very little paranoid. Should I remedy the photo issue? Or should I just leave them as is, and you have to sign in to view them?