My First Week Back

After being away for nearly three weeks, it took me a few days to adjust to my Spanish life here in Madrid and to get over that jet lag! Since my flight arrived in the morning, I promised myself that I wouldn't sleep all day so I that I could quickly get back on Spain time. I went to bed around 10pm that night and I wasn't smart and didn't set an alarm so I slept until 4pm the next day! So you can imagine how hard it was for me to fall asleep at a decent hour the following night (...5am...) Monday morning was rough to say the least, but receiving hugs from the students at school made it more than worth it!

Some other things that happened this past week:

1). I found out that I won Spain's big lottery that happened while I was in the States!!!! Yes, you read that correctly. The schools pooled some money together and I had put in ten euros before I left for Christmas. On Monday morning, I found out that I won... my ten euros back. So I technically didn't gain anything, but it's still fun to say I won part of the big lottery :)

2). I got a new roommate! Before I left for the US, a girl from Mexico temporarily moved in and apparently she moved out the morning that I got back. About four days ago, I received an email saying we were getting a new roommate. However, I still not have seen him/her but my guess is that it's a him given the fact that every time I go into the bathroom, the toilet seat is up and there are more than a few drops of pee on the seat. Also, in my fridge (that I had had to myself... we have two fridges) there are about 10 packages of hot dogs and two jars of mayonnaise on one of the shelves... and nothing else. Hmmm... boy or girl?

3. This past week I made a few decisions, both big and small, pertaining to my current life in Spain as well as to my future. I've officially decided that I'm not going to renew next year. The month of February is the month to renew and originally, I was going to renew just to keep my options open. But I'm about 95% sure that I want to come back to the US (don't ask me where quite yet) to either have my own classroom and/or start a photography business. Another change is that I put my two weeks in at the English Academy where I'm tutoring and starting in February, I will be starting up some Spanish classes instead of teaching English classes. The downside is that I will be spending money instead of earning it, but I already teach English all day long... the last thing I want to do when I come home from being at school for 7 hours is teach more English! Some days I teach English until 9pm. And if I'm teaching English all day, how is my Spanish improving?

This weekend was definitely a fun one. On Thursday night, I met up with Grace, Alex, and a few other girls for 1 euro tacos at this INCREDIBLE Mexican restaurant. I was so happy to finally find some good Mexican food here! The six of us were having so much fun together that we decided to "tapa bar hop" around the neighborhood of Chueca for a few more hours! On Friday night, I was a true Spaniard. I met up with Alex around 12:30 at her friend's apartment then a big group of us went to a big club called "Rockerz" and danced the night away. We got back around 6am, slept til noon, Alex made French toast for breakfast (maybe I should say lunch), then I had Skype dates all day with friends/family back home. Today is a rainy day here in Spain, full of cleaning, laundry, lesson planning, and figuring out how to watch the big Broncos game in a few hours!