My Horoscope for Today

I read my horoscope in the paper, mostly because it's printed on the funny pages*. I figure I might as well read it, since I already have the paper open to that page. It's like getting a fortune cookie every day, except I have to share it with everyone else who reads the Dallas Morning News and I don't get a cookie.

Today my horoscope actually managed** to reflect the very things I had planed to do today (stay out of an argument, go bake something). How's that for a crazy coincidence? The paper also said my day was a 5 out of 10, which sounds about right as I'm still unemployed and I have this nasty chest cough which makes me sound as though I'm being savaged by a dying goose***.

Also, I made a new thing today. It's sort of a mini-scarf neck warmer thing that buttons up one side. The yarn is some cheap acrylic stuff I got in Spain, but ended up not using for a Christmas present after all. I hadn't crocheted anything in a while, and that seemed as good a reason as any to start trying to clear the junk out of my stash.

Later,
Ely



*where it belongs [back]
**though the Monkeys on a Keyboard Theory of Shakespeare Composition [back]
***And no, I didn't bake anything today after all. No one wants to eat anything after I've coughed on it. [back]

The Importance of Watching the Super Bowl

My brother informs me that not watching the Super Bowl is the first step to becoming a pinko commie, so it's a good thing I watched the first half, even though my preferred sport is futbol, not football. After the half time show I got board and wandered off to make dinner, but the TV stayed on, which is alomst like watching it. I guess this is my way of saying that I resent the implication that I might be harboring any bolshivik tendencies.

In other news:
-My job search proceeds slowly. I'm told that I picked a really lousy time to join the job market.
-Rewrites on my novel are coming along well. I might have something ready to submit this summer. *crosses fingers*

Later,
Elly

5 Year Old Humor

I should clarify that this is not a joke that I have been hoarding for five years*, but rather a joke told to me by a five year old kid who has learned about synonyms and puns but does not understand them.

Q. Did you hear about the fuzzy who lost his left side?
A. He's OK now! [cue riotous laughter] Get it? Get it?**

The original telling of this joke occurred somewhere on I-35, while mom and I were taking my brother back to college station. When we finally got the joke, I very nearly fell out of my seat laughing, but I was physically restrained by my seat belt, so I settled for laughing until I cried.

Later,
Elly



*Although I do have a tendency to repeat jokes until I get the response I want. [back]
**Translated into adult-speak, the punch line of this joke is actually "He's all right now." [back]

And We're Back

I was going to make regular updates over the holidays.
I was going to update at least once a week in 2009.
I was going to write an interesting re-cap of all the things I've done in the past year, especially the things that happened since my last post, such as narrowly avoiding be squished by a tree and teaming up with Mom Lady* to build a gallon-sized graham cracker cathedral.
Unfortunately, I've been stricken with a horrible case of Mañana Fever ** So, instead of doing any of that, I'm going to make an observation about the weather: if this cold-one-day-hot-the-next pattern we've had for the last month or so keeps up, we are going to have some interesting storms this Spring.

That is all.


*her super power is Being My Mommy. This is important. [back]
**Differential Diagnosis: Procrastin-itis [back]

G.T.T.

I'm Gone To Texas.

I should be there a little over 20 hours from the time I hit post.

Zuh, What?

It finally clicked in my little head that I'm flying home this Thursday. So, I thought I would refresh my memory and look at my flight information so I could make sure I had a ride home from the airport and all of that.

Can someone please tell me what I was thinking when I booked a seat on a flight that leaves Madrid at 6 a.m.? With only an hour and a half* to change flights in Frankfurt?

Later,
Ely


*That sounds like plenty of time, but really, it's only just enough. EU arrivals are on the opposite side of the airport from international departures, and in between I have to go through two security checks (at which any liquids I may or may not have purchased in the duty free shop and subsequently forgotten will be confiscated) and passport control. I've complained about this before, and you'll probably here about it again.[back]

Lentil Soup

A staple of dinner here is lentil soup. Despite the fact that none of us actually like it, we have lentil soup at least once a week. I have nothing against lentils in principle, it's just... they're lentils, and when boiled for hours to make the stock for a soup they tend to loose all of their flavor and (paradoxically) make every other ingredient in the soup (from chorizo to carrots) taste like lentils. The end result is a dark brown mush that I have had to eat once a week ever since I got here. Back in September lentil soup was something that I was mostly indifferent to; now I want to call in sick to dinner every time I see Juan or Ana setting out soup bowls.

The rest of the this post is kind of like that soup. This is sort of a grab bag of things which are mostly innocuous on their own but -- taken in combination after four months of exposure -- are really starting to annoy me.

First, I would like to address the club hoppers who make the move from Dreams to Joy between two and three in the morning every damn day. Would you all please shut up? I'm trying to sleep. That goes double at five in the morning when the clubs all close. Whatever you do, stop singing. Your voice is not attractive, and after you've had that much to drink you don't even remember all the words. Just. Shut. Up.

Second, I would like to address whoever is responsible for the civic infrastructure on Calle Arenal. Why does the trash get picked up at 1 a.m.? Why can this not be done at some hour when I am not trying to sleep? And the guys you sent last week to use a jackhammer to remove random paving stones and replace them with un-leveled piled of sand? That wasn't funny. I starting to wonder if my randomly non-functioning knee isn't connected to that time I tripped on the place where you removed a tree and replaced it with a pile of sand. Why are you creating more obstacles?

Third: to the writers of CSI (any version). When was the last time an episode did not include a murder/manslaughter/negligent homicide? I thought the team investigated all sorts of crimes. To the Miami people: the only member of your team I liked was the ME, and she's left the show. Horatio's sunglasses are not enough to get me to keep watching. Please get off my TV. To the Las Vegas people: how is it that you can kill off Warick (who I kind of liked) but Sarah (who I hate almost as much as I hated the Sarah/Grissom relationship story arc) still isn't gone even though she technically left? To the New York people: congratulations, you're the only iteration of the show where I like all the characters. Please keep it that way. Also, the "member of the team has been taken hostage and/or seriously injured plot" has gotten old and stale. If I recall correctly, the only team members who have not been sucked into either of those plots are Sid and Adam, both of whom never leave the lab. Also, I notice that suspects try to run a lot more in New York than they do in Las Vegas. While I enjoy watching Detective Flack tackle people as much as the next fan girl, it's getting kind of old.

Fourth, to people who write knitting patterns: is there some sort of law that states that every printed knitting pattern must include at least one typo that will result in me having to frog at least two rows in order to correct? The pattern I'm working from now makes the rather blatant error of giving directions for a stockinette rib stitch instead of a seed stitch. For any readers who don't speak knitting, and have followed the post thus far, the directions to produce something like this:

V - V - V -
V - V - V -
V - V - V -

were labeled as the pattern for this:

V - V - V -
- V - V - V
V - V - V -

Speaking of knitting, I finished Juan's Christmas present. He teased me one too many times about making something for him. If I understood the Juan-ish correctly, he was asking for a gray knee length slip [translator's note: that could mean boxer shorts or it could mean slip, I'm really not sure, and either way, I'm not knitting it] with an American flag on the butt. What I made him is a basket-weave scarf. It's knit from pink acrylic (2 EUR for 200 grams), which experienced knitters will instantly recognize as really, really, cheap. The yarn was thin and the only needles I had on hand are 7mm and solid aluminum, so I doubled the yarn when I made this one. Even after I made the tassels, I still had a ball a little smaller than my fist left over. Take a look if you dare.

On the subject of knitting needles: solid aluminum is a bad choice of material for a large-gauge needle. It's just too heavy, and using these stupid things is about to kill my hands. Why can't I find another option in this city? Surely plastic or bamboo needles exist in this country, why doesn't anyone sell them?

I think I'm done complaining about things that don't really matter now. Thanks for reading.

Later,

Ely

Happy Thanksgiv-a-dring-a-dring-ling

So Thanksgiving in Spain is just another Thursday. An effort was made to celebrate here in the apartment, but two of my roommates have relatives in town, so Megan, Renee, and Emma were all out visiting, and for dinner it was just me and the three vegetarians. Dinner was pretty yummy anyway, but I'm struggling to deal with the fact that this is apparently a pie-free country.

Christmas decorations went up on Tuesday, because we got tired of waiting. There's me and the tree on the left. It was sort of an adventure, because we were all working in a confined space, with Juan up on a ladder, and the one person (Ana) who was trying to coordinate our efforts was speaking only in Spanish. I've got a few more pictures of the decorating, in various stages of completion, which you can see if you follow this link.

If you scroll down below, you will see that I have finally finished my post about Rome, which is backdated to the end of last month (between "When in Rome" and "Juan-ish"), when I actually wrote most of it. It's actually been written for a while, I was just too lazy to type it up. My photos of Rome (which may look suspiciously similar to some that I took when I was there two years ago) are all here, although I have not managed to caption or even tag most of them.

I've got a write up of my Berlin trip written and typed, but it needs to be cleaned up (and possibly broken into pieces, I was pretty long-winded there) before it will be readable. In the meantime, you can see my photos of the trip (again, caption free at the moment) here.

London, I have neither written or typed about, but here's the link to the photos.

In the next couple of days, I mean to get captions up on all of those, even if they're just of the "this is a building" variety. In the meantime, if there is any of them catch your eye and you want to know more, either comment here or send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to answer questions.

For something more interesting than a list of things I haven't done, I now turn to Juan who recently explained to us how Obama ruined Christmas *:
-His first act as President-Elect was to free the Elves who were forced to work in Santa's North Pole Sweat Shop
-This has brought Santa's entire operation to a halt (no elves = no toys)
-Even if there were toys, they could not be delivered, as Rudolph's nose was found to be causing global warming
-Rudolph was then shot by Bruce Willis, who was quoted as saying "Yippie-ki-yay"**

Later,


*Loosely Translated from the Original Juan-ish [back]
**Explination for Mom and Other People Who Don't Watch Action Movies: this is a reference to the "Die Hard" series (starting liberal actor Bruce Willis), the first of which did take place at an office Christmas party. [back]

Ceci n'est pas un Update

Sorry for the quietness of late. I have much to tell, but it will have to come later, as I'm going to London for the weekend.

-Ely

But I Don't Want to Be a Socialist

Unfortunatly, there are fewer and fewer places in the world I can go to get away from socialism.

That's all I've got to say about that.

Juan-ish

My host father, Juan, does not speak English. He does not speak Spanish either. He speaks Juan-ish, which requires special skill to translate.

Things I've learned today:
-Juan is from Ft. Leramie, Wyoming
-Juan is the 5th Beatle
-Ringo Star is not Chinese
-"Jingle Bells" actually begins "Wrinkle birds, wrinkle birds" and is properly sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
-Pallea is made from Jackalope
-Amanda is from the North (New Hampshire), therefore all her family members are all penguins, and when they go to vote, they drop sardines in the ballot box.

Speaking of voting, don't forget to vote tomorrow. You'd be better off going earlier in the day then later if you want to avoid a line. Maya's boyfriend Nick (who is visiting us this week) voted early, and he said he stood in line for an hour, and this was in Orange Country. I voted absentee (mailed my ballot a couple of weeks ago, thanks for asking). The statistics-making-people are saying that in this election roughly a third of the voters have voted early or absentee, which I think is interesting.

Tomorrow night I'm planning on staying up for the election watching party, which really means getting up early on Wednesday. 7:00 in the central time zone in midnight here. So, even though the polls should be closing on the west coast at about 2 a.m. my time, I'll be stuck at school because the metro doesn't re-open until five or six. Watching returns means an all-nighter, but it's OK, pizza will be for sale.

-Ely

SPQR

NB: There are a ton of photos to accompany this post. They aren't linked up yet because I haven't gotten around to it yet, but you can see them for yourself by going here.

So I arrived in Rome on Friday night. I found the convent where I was staying easily enough* and wasted a large number of my minutes by calling home.

Saturday morning I set my alarm clock for a ridiculously early time (6 a.m.) and was still trying to convince myself to get out of bed when the sound of the nuns singing Lauds came echoing up from down stairs. That right there is a better alarm clock than any electronic device.

I started the morning in St. Peter's (if you get to the cathedral before 8:30 you beat the crowds, any later and you spend the rest of the day standing in line). I thought that I remembered that photography isn't allowed inside the cathedral, but a review of my hard drive revealed that isn't so. Photography is allowed inside the cathedral (as it is most places in Rome), but none of my photos from two years ago where any good. This time I had a little bit better luck with the photography, but not much. Taking photos inside a space that large is tricky at best. I loitered around the cathedral for a while, went down to the tomb of the popes (no photos allowed in there, which is a change from last time), and then loitered around the piazza for a while. Piazza San Pietro is a good place for people watching. There's plenty of free seating (anywhere along the colonnade), and tonnes of people day or night.

To that end, I have formulated the following theory**:
For every four normal tourists (t) visible, there is/are also: 1 priest or monk (p) or 3 nuns (n, any order).

4t = p where p = 3n

(Buy this you can see that one tourist is only worth 3/4 of a nun, and if you really want to enjoy your trip to the Vatican City, you should bring a priest with you to act as a tour guide and read the Latin signs.)

After St. Peter's, I went to Piazza del Popolo (a large piazza in the north of the city) and started walking south, map in hand***. I did a lot of wandering, saw a few things that are on the normal tourist crawl, and a lot of odd things that aren't really. Some things were old favorites, others were things I can't believe I didn't see before, and others that had opened since I left.


Just in the churches around Piazza del Popolo I saw two Caravaggios and a 3rd century martyr. A little south and east of the Piazza, along the Tiber, there is the recently (re-)opened Altar of Peace, one of Caesar Augustus's many monuments to himself. The museum is pretty simple: there's the altar (which is about the size of my parent's living room), a model of the altar with all the people in the exterior panels neatly labeled, a row of plaster busts of Augustus and his family, a chart showing the line of succession from Julius to Augustus, and through the next few generations of his successors (which makes it all look a lot more tidy than it really was), a model showing the Campus Martus (i.e. the local area) at the time of the altar's construction, and a sign giving some back ground information. The building itself was a shiny modern glass box, which I disprove of in general, but like in this instance. It was all marble and glass, the former always looks natural in Rome and the latter is by nature transparent, and does not obstruct the view. As for the museum itself... well, there's also a gallary in the basement, so if you're interested in whatever the temporary exhibit is (I wasn't), then it's worth the price of admission (6 Euros, 4.50 for a student). If you're not interested in the exhibit, then the glass and stone architecture of the museum means that you can stand outside and see the altar for free.

Also, the church across the street from the altar was celebrating St. Rocco's day (no, I've never heard of him either), and the crowd was big enough that the festivities were being held outside. That was pretty entertaining too, but since I could only understand every fourth or fifth word of the homily, I went back to the Via del Corso (one of the longest streets in the city, built over the top of the Via Flaminia that Augustus had built) and headed south again. I paused at the column of Marcus Aurelius (the forward thinking emperor's alternative to the triumphal arch) long enough to take a photo and do a map recon before continuing to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon continues it's long tradition of being really cool looking and really crowded. It was the first pagan temple in Rome to be converted into a Christian church, but certainly not the last (and officially, it's name is St. Mary's of the Martyrs). It's home to the graves of two kings of Italy (Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I) and Raphael (the artist, not the ninja turtle). It's dome is made of concrete and features a giant hole at the center that would confound architects until the Renaissance (and it's still the largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world), which is even more impressive when you consider that the modern building was built in the time of Emperor Hadrian (c. 125 AD, you may also have heard of a wall in Scotland he had constructed) and has been in continuous use ever since. The original bronze roof tiles were taken in the 7th century (some to Constantinople, must to Castel San Angelo) and most of the exterior marble went soon afterwords, but the brick and concrete are still holding strong.

Next I stopped for lunch. Most of the eating type places around the Pantheon (or any other landmark, for that matter) are ridiculously crowded and over priced. I would however recommend a place around on the back side of the Pantheon called Pizza Minerva. Despite being surrounded by tourist traps on all sides, this place serves good pizza at reasonable prices (pizza in Italy should be sold by weight, if it's not, you've made a bad choice in restaurants, try again), and the crowd inside is composed entirely of Italians. I discovered this place two years ago (in fact, it's the pizzeria mentioned in this story) and I was happy to see it still thriving.

My next stop was catercorner to the Pantheon: Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (St. Mary over Minerva). There are a lot of St. [pick your favorite] over [pagan god] churches in Italy, the name just means that it is a pagan temple converted into a Christian church. This particular church is home to a Michelangelo statue and the relics of St. Catherine of Sienna, both of which were new discoveries for me.

From there, I hit Largo Torre Argintina (where Julius Ceasar was assassinated, now home to a large bus stop and a lot of stray cats) and the Campadolio, as I attempted to enter the forum. I had been for warned that the forum now charges admission, but I didn't get instructions on how to enter it, so I spent some time wandering the back side of the Capitoline Hill, looking for a way in (as opposed to an exit, of which I found several).

As I was looking for the way into the forum, I found the Marmetrine Prison, something that had been around for 2 millinia, but which I still unaccountably failed to visit the last time I was here. You might recognize it from the write-up it got in the best selling book of all time. It's teeny-tiny, with a ceiling so low I felt like I had to duck. All the signage is in Italian and Latin, but as there are only tow rooms (upstairs and down in the cell), even if you don't know either, it's not hard to figure out what's what. It's not crowded (cause it's tucked into an out of the way corner) and admission is only whatever you want to give as a donation (give generously, that hand-rail needs fixing). If you go, take a moment to sit down in a quiet place out of the sun, and think about whose footsteps you've following.

I never did get into the forum, because the entrance was blocked by a political rally (It's always and election year in Italy). the signs posted all around town said that the event would be in Piazza Republica early in the afternoon and at he Circus Maximums later in the day. Italy being Italy, there was only one rally and it was sort of between those tow times, and sort of at the half way point between the two locations (sort of, I say, If I were walking from the one to the other, it's not the route I would have taken, but if you've got a mob to direct you have to stick to the main streets).

Instead, I went to Trajan's forum/markets. There's a museum explains a little of what's what, and a whole swath of Roman ruins I'd not been able to see before because they weren't open to the public the last time I was here. Unlike the forum, which is mostly official Rome -- temples, the senate, and law courts -- this area is public -- shops and public gathering places. I spent the rest of the day exploring. It's interesting to me how archeologists are able to piece so much together from so little information. For instance, they know from 'contemporary' accounts (i.e. ancient letters home, "Dear Mom, I have arrived safely in Rome. Today I went to the forum and I saw...") that there was colossus of Caesar Augustus at the site, and that copies (existent today) were made in the colonies. What have they found of it in Rome? 3 pieces of one hand, and a foot print. The original bits are on display, while replicas have been attached to a wire frame skeleton to give some idea about what the original hand would have looked like. You did read that right, one foot print. the building it was in was built around the statue, so they didn't bother paving the floor under it's feet. The statue is gone now, but the floor remains with a footprint where the colossus once stood. It's about as long as three of my paces.

I did lots of climbing, even though heights make me nervous and just because something has stood for thousands of years doesn't mean that it hasn't just been waiting to collapse when I get there. Also, the stairs were installed by Mussolini's architects in '36 and the railings are an even more recent addition. Prove to me that they are stable.

After that it was dinner time and back to the convent. the next day, I had just enough time to go to the Trevi fountain at the crack of dawn and toss in a coin before collecting my luggage and heading to the airport.


Later,
Ely



*By "easily enough" I of course mean that I did far more walking than I needed to because I got tired of waiting for a bus that only comes twice a,n hour (if the driver feels like it) and re-routed to a bus that dropped me off on the other side of the Vatican City. It wasn't that bad, except for the fact that suitcase wheels and cobblestones don't like each other. [back]
**If you, or anyone you know is heading to the Vatican City in the near future, I invite you to collect more data, so I can refine my theory. [back]
***I purchased this map at the train station on my way into town. Fully unfolded it's over a yard long, and, at a scale of 1 to 17,000 (the units arn't specified), it's appropriate for use in planning your invasion of the city.[back]

When in Rome...

Well I'm back from a whirlwind weekend visit to Rome. I had a lot of fun, and I'll tell you all about it once I get the photos in order (it takes longer than you'd think to write caption). For now, a couple of anecdotes.

I was riding the metro back from the Trevi Fountain this morning when, one stop before I exited, an Italian Boy Scout troop got on with all their hiking gear. Is there anywhere else in the world where one would use public transportation to go on a camp-out? One kid even had a guitar with him.

Then, I walk through the Vatican City to the bus stop, so I can go back to the guest house and check out, when a car pulls up to the curb and stops just long enough to let a bishop (wearing the official black dress and hot pink beanie) hop out. The car spreads away, and the bishop just walks down the street, talking on his cell phone and carrying a briefcase. It's strange to think that for some people, a trip to the Vatican City is just another day at the office.

Later,
Ely

Sock!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the first sock I've knitted all by myself. There's actually more photos where that one came from: I've been showing off all afternoon.
I also hit an office supply store to purchase a new notebook (as my current one is nearly full) and some colored pencils. Right now life is good, and I'm flying to Rome tomorrow for a long awaited trip.

Later,
Ely

P.S. I finally got the Columbus Day pictures up, they're linked below.

Luggage Restirictions

For your consideration I submit the following statement from a confirmation e-mail for my trip to Rome this weekend:

PLEASE NOTE THAT ONLY ONE ITEM OF CABIN BAGGAGE PER PASSENGER (excluding infants) WITH A MAXIMUM WEIGHT OF 10KG AND DIMENSIONS OF 55CM X 40CM X 20CM

Do they mean that infants don't count as baggage, or that infants don't get a bag? I'm not sure which interpretation is more disturbing.

On the subject of baggage, I was stubborned into purchasing a bag with wheels as my new backpack. It's really more of a laptop bag/roll-aboard suitcase than a backpack but it meets the "doesn't put any weight on the injured right shoulder"* requirement. It also means means that I now have the perfect size carry on bag. How I am going to get all of this home, I have no idea. Something will have to be shipped, and now I'm thinking it'll be the messenger bag just because it weighs the least.

In totally unrelated news, Ana's mom is a frequent guest in the apartment. She usually stays here on the weekends and with Ana's brother (he and his wife are both opera singers, how cool is that?). The reason mom stays with the kids is because she has Alzheimer's and really shouldn't be left on her own. She's nice, although none of us really know Spanish well enough to talk to her. Mostly we just smile and nod. Sometimes I'll get out my knitting and sit next to her while she's working. Anyway she's been getting worse the past couple of months. Today Ana and her mother left for a doctor in Andalusia (in the south) who Juan says is one of the best doctors for Alzheimer's in Spain. After this guy, the experts are all in the US. They'll be back in Madrid on Wednesday, but for right now, it's kind of quiet around here.

-Ely



*The shoulder is doing much better, thanks for asking. I still don't have my full range of movement back in my neck, and it still hurts to move my right arm too much, but it's getting a little better everyday. A weekend of sitting around playing World of Warcraft and only leaving the apartment for food (even though I really wanted to attend the Dickens conference but traveling across town seemed like a terrible idea when it still hurt to get out of bed in the mornings) seems to have helped greatly. [back]

Oww

Yesterday evening I tripped on the stairs at school. I managed to catch myself before I fell, but something in my shoulder decided that was enough and quit on me. I've got a throbbing pain from my neck and spine, across my right shoulder down to my elbow. It hurts to turn my neck, bend at the waist, or make any sudden movement with my right arm. I took some Tylenol and waited, but this morning there was no improvement. I went to the doctor the school works with (a very nice guy, and his English is perfect). He says I pulled a muscle. I've been given a cream to apply 3-4 times a day (still working on the logistics of that since its a muscle in my back and it hurts to move my arms that direction), a muscle relaxant to take at night, and Ibuprofen. The Ibuprofen is in a powder form that I'm supposed to mix with water and drink, but some fool decided that adding a mint flavor would help. It doesn't. Those of you who know me, know I don't like mint. To me, this is like trying to drink tooth paste. It's taking me all afternoon because drinking more than a sip at a time triggers my gag reflex. Other then that, I'm supposed to take it easy, and not do any work, especially not anything that requires putting any stress on my right shoulder.

As if that wasn't enough, no one at SLU seems to know where my insurance card is, nor do they seem to be able to locate any documentation that I ever applied for insurance in Spain. I know I registered, because I had to present proof of registration in order to apply for my visa. I've got my documentation and I've requested a statement from last summer from the bank, so I'm going back in tomorrow to see if I can't get this sorted out. Today, I had to pay out of pocket for the doctor's visit and the medicine, and once I get my insurance information I'll have to present the receipts and in theory I'll be re-reimbursed. In practice, I have no idea if I'll ever see my money again.

When I got back to the apartment, Ana told me that the reason I had hurt my back was because my backpack was to heavy (probably true). I got a lecture about how "that's the only back you've got" and how I need to go to el Rastro on Sunday and buy one of those little backpacks with wheels (I good idea).

The good news is that my absentee ballot finally arrived. I should have it in the mail on Monday. Would someone who lives in Denton County send me an e-mail and tell me what's the deal with Bond Propositions No. 1 and 2? No. 1 is "The issuance of $310,000,000 general obligation bonds for constructing, improving and maintaining roads and bridges within Denton county and the levy of a tax in payment thereof". No.2 reads "The issuance of $185,000,000 general obligation bonds for constructing, improving and equipping existing county buildings and facilities to wit: county government centers, service centers, county administration facilities, detention, probation and law enforcement facilities and, related technology improvements, and the levy of a tax in payment thereof." (The punctuation mistakes in both quotes are, sadly, copied straight from the ballot.) What I want to know is exactly what are they planning on improving with this money, and what (and how much) is the tax that goes with these improvements? (Income tax? Property tax? Another sales tax hike?) I'd ask if there was any reason no to re-elect the sheriff, the tax assessor, or the constable, but since no-one's running against them it sort of a moot point.

I'm going to finish lunch and spend the rest of the day sitting very still.
-Ely

Columbus Day Parade

There are all sorts of holidays and festivals here in Spain that they don't tell Americans about. I just get up on the weekends and, because I live in the center of town, there is usually some pretty interesting street theater going on just underneath my window. A couple weeks ago there was a religious procession (it took two and a half hours to walk a statue of Mary out of the church, to the end of the block, and back), and before that there was a horde of cyclists (apparently they're a pretty regular occurrence, and ride nude in the summer*).

I've started to accept the idea that I probably will never understand why these things keep happening around me, so it was kind of a shock to find a familiar celebration this past weekend. Columbus Day is a national holiday here.

It makes sense, 1492 was a very good year for Spain: the Reconquista ended with the fall of Granada in January, and Columbus's discovery of the New World brought prosperity to Spain for the next century. At one time, Spain owned all of South America except Brazil (which was Portuguese), all of Central America, Mexico, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, and parts of the Caribbean. Then the British defeated the Spanish Armada and the Spaniards backed the wrong horse in the 30 years war, and after that things just sort of collapsed slowly for the next three hundred years or so. The country hit rock bottom either just before, during, or after the Civil War (depending on who you ask). But, to get back to where this story started, Columbus brought good times to Spain, and Columbus Day is a holiday here.**

There was a big fancy schmancy military parade in down town Madrid, with all the different units with their own uniforms. For instance the Spanish special forces wear a hat that looks like the hat an Aggie would call a bitter (What does the rest of the world call it again?) except it has a dangle-y red tassel in front. That combined with the fact that they wear the top button of their shirts unbuttoned (with no undershirt) makes them look pretty ridiculous. That and their mascot is a goat with golden tinfoil on its horns (for no reason that anyone could tell me, and I'm not even sure how to begin to Google an explanation). Remember, they're special forces and if you laugh at them they can totally kick your ass.

I watched this parade on the TV in the living room because 1.)I didn't know about it until it came on and 2.)it's been raining all weekend. After the parade the king traditionally hosts a reception at the Palace (down the street from me on the other side of the Opera House) for the president, the cabinet ministers, any visiting heads of state who might show up, and the commanders of the military units that were in the parade. The upshot of this is that the parade came to me, as it's easier to march (or ride?) a mounted unit down pedestrian streets than ones open to cars (because you don't have to worry about stopping traffic), and the palace guard rode right under my window. [I will have pictures up as soon as my computer decides that it will read my camera's memory card.]

Fun fact: while normal troops march in parades, equestrian troops 'bailar' ('dance'), at least in Spain.

Later,
Ely




*I'm still not sure if Ana and Juan were kidding about that. It was a source of great amusement for about an hour, then we finished dinner and that was the end of that conversation. [back]
**But it fell on a Sunday this year, and that did not translate to a Monday off like it does in the States. Apparently it's felt that there are enough other holidays disrupting the calendar already.[back]

The Law of Elevator Function

The elevator in my apartment building is one of those old fashioned things with two sets of doors that open in opposite directions (one is in the stairwell, the other set is in the cage itself). You can't call it if it's already in service, you have to wait fifteen minutes for whoever is using it to finish before you can push the button. [Or you can stand there and push the button like an idiot even though the light is on, it just won't do anything.] There's no real air circulation, so if anyone smokes in there you smell it the rest of the day. Only three people can use if at a time (or four children), and even then it moves slower than cold molasses in January.

The Law of Elevator Function is this:
the more tired you are, the more frustrating your day has been, the less it is likely that the elevator will be there when you need it, or even be working at all.
More simply: elevator function is inversely proportional to the users existing level of frustration.

-Ely

Am I Real Student Now?

The graduate semester finally started!

There are a dozen or so English MA students (all in varying stages of "I just have to finish my thesis and then I´m done") here and about twice that number of Spanish MA students. My cohort in the English department is a whopping three students (including myself), although there are supposed to be two more joining us in January.

Coincidently, three is also the number of classes I'm taking. There's the graduate class which is basicly an introduction to literary research, in which we're focusing on the genera of the pastoral. It´s either going to be really good or really tedious. The jury is still out on that one. I'm also in a linguistics class taught on the undergraduate schedual. I just turned in my first paper there (not my best work, but improving it would have required starting over completly and I just didn´t have the time for that, but it will probably be good enough) and took the first partial exam (a piece of cake). Today was also the first partial exam for the Spanish class I'm taking. I think I did pretty well there too, but that one doesn't really matter since I'm just sitting in, instead of getting a grade.

The important thing is, I am learning Spanish. Yesturday at dinner (half a chicken each and curry rice, with marizipan for desert) Ana was asking us all about how our exams were going and she complemented me on my Spanish. She said out of the six of us girls I had made the most improvement. I´ve gone from practically nothing to nearly always speaking in complete sentences in one month.

My absentee balot still isn´t here. (Any day now the lady in the mail room says, they've started to arrive.) I did recieve my admission ticket for the Subject GRE test I'm going to Berlin to take in November. When I registered for the test, I thought the name of the university there sounded kind of familiar and figured that it wouldn´t be to hard for me to track it down. Now that my ticket is here I have the street address and realized that the reason it sounded kind of familiar because it's right smack dab in the center of the city, on Strasse des 17 Juni. In other words, if you start on Under den Linden Strasse and walk under the Brandenberger Tor into the Teirgarten, once you enter the park the road changes its name to Strasse des 17 Juni. Just keep walking strait down through the park, past the Victory Column and out the otherside, and the place for the test is right there.

Later,
Ely

P.S. If the wear on the keys of the computers in labs here at school are any indication, the least used letters in English and Spanish are (from least to slightly more used) ç, ñ, q, z, x, and p.

Hot Garlic-y Goodness

Ana, my host mom, made humus for the first time today. It was a great success: full of garlic. We've been promised pita bread at dinner tomorrow. Life is good.