This weekend was a weekend of discussions. I had a wonderful debate about communism on Friday (in Spanish of course), on Sunday was philosophy with my American friend- about religion, morality and all that good stuff. And today was politics- from stereotypes to the Vietnam War and Palestine. Politics. In Spanish. I'm not sure how that happened.

And it was also the Medieval Festival here in Tres Cantos, which had glass blowing, ancient torture devices, chocolate pastries with little mystery dried fruits inside (?) , and incense and goat cheese.

And today marks the third week I have been here. And tomorrow is school. And right now I am going to do my "deberes" which means homework in Spanish, but really translates into "shoulds". I am glad they are called shoulds and not musts. But these shoulds are a little over my head. I wish they were called 'its okay if you can't do these because you don't speak Spanish'... but sadly they are called shoulds, so here i go, because I probably should...

MADRID! Last night I went to Madrid, and it was incredible.

Elvis Perkins in concert was fabulous, as was his opening act, Dawn Landes. Somehow my friend Eliza got our names on "the list" and we squeezed our way up to the first row in front of the stage. After the concert, we got to talk a few seconds with one of the band members, and we talked with Elvis on the street before the show, so I'd say it was a definite success.

And the Madrid metro is possibly the most sensible invention since post-its. It just makes sense. All of Madrid makes sense, like how I found out that in Starbucks in Madrid, "especial para los niños" means that if you are not a "niño" (little kid), then you cannot order off that menu. It makes sense. I don't like it, but it does makes sense.

I am starting school in... 24 minutes. So we'll see. (school to left)

In the last three days three blog-worthy things have happened:

1. I cooked my first meal in a foreign country by myself, so I had to go grocery shopping and figure out that "ajo" means garlic just as "comino" means cumin. The family did not like the meal so much, but it was a nice reminder of food from home, even though the food here is delicious.

2. I was sitting by myself in the kitchen when I spilled juice on my pants, and I reprimanded myself in Spanish, though there was no one there to hear, and for this I felt pretty proud.

3. My family and I went to a chinese restaurant (which is the closest thing to something familiar in this whole country) and for dessert, I didn't know what to order, so my host mom just ordered the same thing for me as she did for herself. So when it came out, I found out that she had ordered 2 huge bowls of whipped cream with three nuts on top. Just whipped cream in a huge crystal bowl. It was... wonderful.

ONE WEEK

Its been.. One Week. One week and fourteen hours. This past weekend I was at a Rotary retreat with about 60 Americans and a few Austrains, Germans and Canadians, but basically, the U.S took over a square mile (kilometer?) of Spain this weekend. It was nice to see that others are just as scared and excited as I am, and it definitely was nice to meet people that live in the Madrid area, so hopefully we can get together sometime soon and speak English (: Although truly, it is pretty fun practicing my Spanish and laughing at how I cannot roll my rrrrs for the life of me.

And today I took a nice long nap, and took a walk around my city, and so now I can succesfuly walk myself to the bank, the candy shop, the ¨chino¨(the Spaniards coined it, not me--a shop run by a chinese couple), the super market, the school, the park and the bread shop. Later I went with some other kids to the candy shop and guitars were played, and ipods were used and it was a nice relaxing night, like almost every night here, because people here are just very laidback and awesome.

And I learned today that ¨mini-me¨from the Austin Powers movies, in Spanish, is called ¨mini-yo¨, which for some reason, I find hilarious. And I learned the expression ¨flipa!¨which is a hardcore way of saying WOW.

But most exciting of all, I found out that I am going to Madrid on Wednesday to see a band (of friends of friends) and go to the Prado and we´ll just ¨dar una vuelta¨ which in this case means just take a walk, but it can really mean whatever you want it to, in whatever context. So I am excited for Madrid, excited to make mexican tortilla lime soup for my family for lunch tomorrow, excited to start school on Thursday, and mostly just excited to become Spanish-ish, and to have the opportunity to take a look through someone else´s eyes*.

Works cited: *Phil Collins, for writing ¨Look Through My Eyes¨for the soundtrack of Brother Bear, and for the song being on continual repeat for hours on the Bus in Baja Mexico (:

And this song, surprisingly enough, is one of my modivatonal lyrical devices that sums up what I´m intending to do here, in a very cheesy and phil collins-ey way.

Second day : I can already feel my spanish improving, but ¨como, que, repite¨ is really all i say. Everyone plays the guitar and knows American bands; I think i´ll have to learn myself. Today I went for a ride in the car to see the centro and to a neigboring city; i went to the park with Sara´s friends, and later to the icecream shop where about 30 16-17 year olds meet everyday at 6:30. And then they go to the caseta or the park or a movie, today we walked around the farms in Tres Cantos.

Well its my first day; i feel like its been a lifetime though. Everyone is nice, friendly, wonderful, but in Spanish of course. My flight was uneventful, i slept and left, but after leaving customs, i don´t think ´´uneventful´´ can be in my vocabulary for the rest of this week. Its different: pink toilet paper, dinner at 10 (full sized pizzas for each person?!) , soccer after dark, everyone plays the guitar. Its all wonderful, its all different. But thats the point, right?