"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way."

My apologies for the long interval since my last update. I just didn't feel like writing anything, there's no other excuse.

First off, Salsa dancing was amazingly fun! I can't believe how much fun I let myself have. I'm not one of the millions who enjoys dancing, let alone learning a new dance in a public place wearing high heels, very silly idea indeed. But, I won't lie, I had a few drinks and I let the self-awareness sliiiiiiiiiiide away. I mean I was still aware that I looked a little goose-ish, no soy ninguna cisne, but I didn't feel like caring that I looked goose-ish. I started out doing my own latin kind of variation of the Jitterbug, thank goodness for cotillion: I do so enjoy the Jitterbug, Foxtrot and Waltz, and they looked ever so refined when dancing at Las Tres Flamencas, but I was unable to don my white gloves as I had spilled the paté on them earlier in the evening. My attempt at a latinized Jitterbug obviously caught someone's attention, because within a few minutes my dancing partner Álvaro presented his hand and undertook the most likely arduous task of teaching me how to salsa. He must have felt really embarrassed for me, because the entire night he persevered through my lack of rhythm, balance, and good dancing shoes and genuinely wanted me to learn how to salsa. I think I learned a thing or two. He also had me doing the merengue, but I honestly couldn't tell you the difference between the two. I do know that the merengue was easier, I just don't know why or what I was doing differently. I kept dancing until about 4:30am because I knew if I stopped to sit, use the restroom, drink, or cool off, that my feet would envelope into 2 balls of fire and I would whine to my friends and be miserable. So I sat at 4:30, took my heels off and --wait for it, my smartest move ever!-- pulled out my Chinese Laundry slipper-like flats that clashed horribly with my dress. Ahhhh comfort. We set out for Barradas at around 5:15, got home around 6am, but not before stopping at RedSprint for Double Chocolate Magnums (yes, like the Milk Chocolate Magnum Baby Spice accepts as a bribe from Clifford to work the next day in Spice World).

Lucia had called me as I was on my way out for our night of salsa and said she'd meet me in front of my residencia at 1m the next day, and then we'd go to the Puerto's piso (apartment) for comida (lunch). Lucia came at 1pm and we walked to her piso, which is about a mile away. I was really really excited because I hadn't seen them in a month, and I was going to meet Ana, the middle sister. When we walked in the door, which was so cool because it was one of those huge European doors with the knob in the middle of the door but the lock is where it always is, Ana came rushing over to greet us. That made me feel special, like she couldn't wait to meet me so she hurried over as soon as she heard the door. I greeted Marta, Rafa, and Rita, and then Lucia and Ana gave me a little tour of their piso, complete with a quick review of the messy, disorganized storage area that you don't normally show people (unless you're at our house, in which case it's hard to hide it since it IS the house, maybe minus the entrance floor), I'll try to get a picture of it in the future for you Mom. Ana and Lucia share a room AND their beds fold up into the wall so that it looks like a closet or armoire!!!!! Their apartment is sort of the size of a moderate rancher house, I guess, so it's pretty nice. Then I gave them all their presents. I had to say "Ravens" about 4 times so Rafa could pronounce the name on his purple coffee mug correctly. Haha, I don't think he's too in to sports. He LOVED the Old Bay, though. Then we sat down for lunch, Rita made lasagna but without meat (thank goodness because it probably would have been with ham) and lemon chicken! Rafa told me that Lucia had made some sort of a dessert but that it was supposed to be a surprise, and Lucia went into the kitchen to "prepare" it. Marta had pulled out her camera and was taking pictures, Ana made her re-do a few of her because she wasn't happy with the result, then Lucia and Rita came into the dining room with a cake made of what I guess I'll call lady-fingers but they're galletas in Spanish and chocolate icing. The cake had candles on it. They sang Happy Birthday to me. Marta took pictures of the entrance and my face. The dessert, as it turns out, was only a surprise to me but Lucia did make it. I felt very special at that point, and it completely made up for nearly dying on my birthday (I exaggerate because I'm re-telling a story, it happens). I blew out the 8 candles but Marta didn't get it on the camera so Ana re-lit them and I did it again. It was really nice. The cake was delicious, you can never go wrong with chocolate, but I was so stuffed from the lasagne and chicken so sadly, I only ate 1 tiny piece of cake. Oh well, it was the affection behind it that made the entire day taste so good.

Ana works as "una azafata" stewardess/hostess in the VIP section at Santiago Bernabeu stadium. In case you didn't know, that's the REAL MADRID FUTBOL STADIUM!! She serves the VIPs drink and things, and stands around looking pretty... gorgeous. I think Ana's the sister that's the model. She had to eat her cake quickly and get ready for work. She came out in her little blue skirt-suit with an ascot, her hair all done in big bouncy curls, and her makeup done flawlessly. I've yet to see a Spanish girl who needs to wear makeup. But Ana looked like she was a 28 year old supermodel, and she's 21. While she was getting ready, she was playing rather loud music (Nelly Furtado, Pussycat Dolls) and Marta rolled her eyes at its volume and genre, Lucia didn't mind it at all, Rita sort of looked like "well, that's Ana," and Rafa went to his study/office. It kind of reminded me of my house. Lucia showed me her 2 huge photo albums from the month she was with us last summer, Marta was sort of looking with us but occasionally leaving to do whatever. Rita came in and out a few times, sort of like she wanted to sit and look, but didn't want to intrude, and she'd already seen them anyway. Then Marta rented "Elizabethtown" (in Spanish) from whatever their on demand tv is for Lucia and I, and once again was in and out, as was Rita. After the movie-- which was GREAT, I wanna see it in English!!-- Lucia walked me back home. I showed her my room, and introduced her to Gisella. Gisella is much more outgoing and talkative than I am, so she really livened up the conversation. It's not that Lucia and I aren't interested in each other. We're both kind of quiet people, and probably didn't know what to say to each other. Gisella asked Lucia tons of questions, which I was kicking myself for not having thought of, and got the 3 of us joking and talking. I felt bad for being so dumb, in both senses of the word. Lucia had to go home to study for her 2nd chemistry test in a month, so I walked her out and that was Sunday.

I was supposed to get a roommate on Sunday. It didn't happen. It's now Wednesday and I'm not sure of the status of my roommate. I should probably ask someone. Tons of kids have moved in and the meal times are quite full now. Sooooo, I don't really know what's going on. I also think that the laundry lady lost a few pieces of my clothing this week. I'm almost positive I has a shirt or 2 in there, and I KNOW I had a washcloth. They were not on my bed when she returned the laundry, but I can't just ask about clothes I'm not sure I even put in there. I would like the washcloth, though. Tuesday we had the API Welcome Dinner at a mexican restaurant. Once again, they just had us all meet at this place and we sat down, and not a word was said about how20 of us didn't know the other 20 and maybe we should play a meet your fellow students game. And even if I were the kind of person to walk around and introduce myself, 20 people is way too much. I did introduce myself to the people who were sitting around me, though, of they didn't get to it first. There are a lot of blonde girls in the other group, there's 1 in our group. I don't know how I feel about this other API group. We're supposed to go to Santander Saturday and Sunday, and we'll be getting assigned to hotel rooms, so I can only imagine they'll mix us up. Maybe we can meet that way. Only I wouldn't be surprised if they keep us segregated, as they seem to have no care to help us meet each other anyway.

I must go to class now. I love this class so I'm not even sad about it.
My mother and aunt, Janet, arrive in 1 week!!!

Oh and in case you're interested at all, here is a picture of (l to r) Marta, Lucia, and Ana at some fancy summer party.