December 1, 2006

Alright folks, get ready for the low down on the last long while. I will start with right now and work backwards. Currently I am sitting in my dining room listening to the Amelie soundtrack watching Diana take a picture of Jennilee on her bike with these little paper people so that she can send the pics back to a 4th grade class in the US so they can track the progress of their little people around the world. I am in the middle of my working straight for the week and today I used some of my Christmas money to buy myself a winter coat. I am actually pretty excited about it. It is a beige North Face "Heavenly triclimate" which is a fancy way of saying "hey guys, look at me, I have a zip out liner." The week before that I was in Madrid with my friend from school, Phil, to visit another of our friends, Cole, who is living there. We went to the bull fighting place and to the Prado art museum. In between that we went to all the other sights of the city. One day we rented a paddle boat and after 30 minutes of Phil not being able to get us out of the docks, we finally set out on our expedition. We were true pirates. We even paddled to shore to steal some booty (a balloon animal from some guy dressed like Mickey mouse [which we paid for]). Cole made sure we tried certain sumptuous selections of Spanish foods: churros and chocolate, and jamon iberico. Phil and I would spend the mornings studying in the Starbucks right by our hostel and spend the days exploring. Unfortunately, on our first day there some little urchin woman stole my wallet with all my travel money and cards and EVERYTHING. FOrtunately Phil is one of the nicest people ever and he let me use his skype account to call and cancel the cards and then covered me on the money front the whole time. So, all in all, the whole little mess was a pain but more of a learning experience than a catastrophe. PHEW! Now I have one more essay to turn in and 1 more tutorial and I am done for the term! I have little to no idea what my grades will be like b/c the teachers don't give us grades on anything but I did my best and that is that. I will be done on Sunday and the on Monday Diana and I leave for Venice for a few days then we are coming back here. i am going to start to pull up sources for my thesis and hang around here for a few weeks and work. I am hoping to get the chance to hike to London (50 mile walk) but I might put that off until Andy gets here on the 14th. So that is what is going on around these parts. No wait, actually, I have one more story. So there is this park I ride trough to get in to town. the only other way to the city center is a 2 mile detour. Well, it just so happens that the trail is right in the middle of a flood plain...which decided to flood. For a few days it was a good foot of water over the trail so I would ride to work every day barefoot with my pants rolled up (very cold but very fun). The first time I encountered it it was the middle of a sunny day and it was awesome. Then, one night, on my bike ride home from work my pedal started acting funny. It was dark and cold and I was in my work clothes and half way through the lake my pedal fell off!!! I couldn't stop to get it and, somehow, rode home using only 1 foot. Later that night a group of us from the program were watching a movie and decided to go in to town to get some food. Most people wanted to go the long way but with some clever and subtle peer pressure the more adventurous folks convinced the rest to wade through the park. It was really fun and the perk was...I found my pedal AND got a Mars bar. I will post some new pictures soon. Love you all, B