Angela: "Well, Michael, whenever we're upset, you alway ask us if we're PMSing." Michael: "Well, I have to know whether you're serious or not!"

Madrid, Spain

La Casa de Santibanez

El 27 de Febrero, 2008

9:47pm (2:47pm Denton time)

It’s strange. I am literally counting down the days until Aaron gets here because I absolutely cannot wait to see him again. I miss him so much!!! BUT at the same time… it’s like I want the days to pass faster that I’m here for… which is kind of sad…

On one hand, I’m here for about another month, away from him and the rest of you awesome people…

On the other hand…I’m ONLY here another month… and about 2 weeks of that time I won’t see the family because they’ll be out of town… I’m really gonna miss these kiddos.

So… catch 22, I guess…

Anyways, I finally went exploring in the other side of town. I’d never been to that part of town before… there’s not much there…so I guess its ok that I’ve missed out on it for the forty days that I’ve been here. I found a little grocery store kind of like Albertsons, though. So I went ahead and bought a few more things that I wanted to bring back with me. Some jam and chocolate mix (the kind that you make the really think drinking chocolate for churros y chocolate) and some of that nutella-type stuff J

On the way back I missed my bus stop so I had to get off on the next one. I didn’t feel like waiting for the next bus to come that way, so I decided to trek back on foot to the house…it’s further than I thought. Haha. And walking on the side of the 6-8lane highway in Madrid is actually rather terrifying… back to the cars that are approaching… they were not really that close but I almost peed my pants the first time a bus passed so close to me… haha.

I cut my fingernails again today… seems like a ridiculous thing to write in here, but it made me realize how long I’ve been here. Long enough to need to cut my fingernails more than once… weird…

I picked some wildflowers (uh…weeds) on the side of the highway on my trek back to the house today. I was reminded of the days that I used to play outside of our house in North Carolina… so much time back then to just wander around the yard, play in the treehouse, and pick wildflower/weeds. I remember there were so many of the purple ones that grow kind of like bluebonnets, tiny white ones, and dandelions. I wanna sit in the grass making flower necklaces again. Those white flowers were perfect for that!

Anyways. memory lane was fun today. Now my purple weeds are in a glass next to my sink in the bathroom. I like them. J they’re happy flowers.

I wish Aaron were here. 15 days!!!! J

Tomorrow will be exactly two weeks until I see him. YES!!!! J please go by quickly...

Later: 11:30pm Madrid time (4:30pm denton time)

Hey. Also, if you haven’t done so already… you should congratulate Aaron. He has been interviewing with a lot of companies and he heard back from the one that he has been talking about for a while. They offered him a position and it should turn into a really great fulltime position after graduation! J I’m so proud of him! All of you should hug him for me. Maybe it’ll make up for me not being able to congratulate him myself L I’m so proud of him!! J

Oh. Speaking of Aaron… funny thing today. When the kiddos came home and were finishing up their after school snack, just before we started teaching, they started telling their mom about the videos that Aaron sends me. I let them watch them because they’re funny and great and it lets them into my world J so far they’ve “met” Aaron, Jeremy, Darrell, Ben, Mr. and Mrs. Power… I think that’s all… anyways. it’s awesome. They were almost quoting the videos and they’ve only seen them like twice! Haha. They were so animated in their telling to their mom! They were so excited and they kept telling her how funny Aaron is J I can’t wait for them to be able to meet him! I hope that his flight gets in on Thursday so that they CAN meet him! They leave that Friday to go to their beach house.

I pulled my suitcase out of storage so that I can start to pack up the things that I’m going to let Aaron take back home for me in a separate bag that he’s bringing. J I’m SO glad to be able to do that. I definitely wouldn’t have enough room with all of the souvenirs/gifts that I’m bringing back. There’s no way. I’m so excited to get back and show you guys what I’m bringing back and to cook you some authentic Spanish food! Yum! J they like tuna. And mayo. Haha. And eggs! Bigtime!

Ugh.i just thought about their milk again… hahah it’s so gross! J haha. The only time I eat it is when I mix in Nesquik. Yup. They have that here. Legit nesquick. Bunny and all. Kinda cool. I think Eduardo drinks about 4 glasses of it every day…haha.

Ok. I need to go to sleep now…

Aaron had a test today about an hour ago… I hope it went well. Probably did. He’s a stud. I’ve been praying for it, babe!

Ok. Goodnight, everyone!

Madrid, Spain

La Casa de Santibanez

El 28 de Febrero, 2008

7:47pm (12:47pm Denton time)

Tutoring didn’t help today. It was a pretty good day. I’ve had a pretty terrible sinus headache all day though… Caitlin still hasn’t heard from her host mom if I can live with them while I’m kicked out of the house for 9 days… so that’s neat… also Lindsey and Aaron have nowhere to stay when they come as of now because we were hoping that they’d be able to stay with her also… so that’s neat, too… I’m going to have to call our friend Christopher and see if they can for sure stay there when they’re here, since he offered it when we were there last weekend… otherwise Aaron won’t be able to come. Awesome. After I let myself get so excited and think that it was for sure… I hate this. I said I wouldn’t get stressed about it but I am. Extremely.

Katie and I booked our flights from Madrid to Rome today. We fly out Friday, March 28^th and we will spend Friday night and Saturday in Rome. Saturday evening we will go to Florence. We will spend Saturday night and Sunday in Florence. Sunday night we will go to Milan and spend Monday there. We will fly back to Madrid either Monday evening or early Tuesday morning. Right now the early Tuesday morning is looking cheaper, but when we tried to book it…it denied my card. I have to call wells fargo and make sure they didn’t put a hold on my account. They did that to Katie the other day. Even though we told them we were out of the states… irritating… oh well. Then I’ll try to book our return flight again tomorrow.

The others are going to Portugal tomorrow night. That’s cool. Maybe I’ll get pizza some time this weekend. I keep saying that… I know.

I just really wish Aaron was here. I wish I knew for sure that he was coming. Having to get a hostel will cost another 150-175 dollars that I don’t think he has to spend. That sucks. Pretty much he can’t come if we can’t find somewhere free for them to stay. I just feel really helpless right now. I wish the family wasn’t closing the freaking house. That is so ridiculous. I need a freaking place to live. And if they weren’t so ridiculous we could all just stay here. It’s a whole house that is going to be empty the whole time they’re gone. ARG!

Sorry I’m just really frustrated right now. I kind of just wish I were home already, and not having to deal with all of this. I just want Aaron and Lindsey here already. No more of this will they/won’t they crap.

I’m just hungry, I’m sorry. I hate eating dinner at 10 o’clock at night. UGH. I just want some food…that isn’t ridiculous gross meatball things that we have ALL THE TIME I feel like… yup. That’s dinner again tonight. I’ll never eat them again.

Well… fourteen days (two weeks) until Aaron may or may not be here. Neat…

p.s. also, I really miss my Lindseyfriend. She should live here right now.

Later: 11:33pm Madrid time (4:33pm Denton time)

I hate conversations when I feel like I’m fighting for someone’s attention or that they are really tired of talking to you. Whether that’s really true or I just feel like that ‘s the truth. Either way. I hate those conversations. I also hate PMS and I also hate crying.

Also I hate the the conversion rate makes is so ridiculous for people to come here and afford it.

Also I’m just in a bad mood. I’m glad I don’t have to teach tomorrow. I’m glad it’s the weekend.

I’m going to take a bath. I just am not having a good night. Wonderful…

p.s. I did get to talk to Kelley for a few minutes before my phone card cut out. That was cool… Lynn I tried calling you but it wouldn’t work for some reason… I’ll try again soon. Bye.

p.p.s. (12:35am Madrid time. 5:35pm Denton time): I’m convinced that working out is more satisfying in Europe than it is in the US. Of course that is only my opinion…